Erased: Missing Women, Murdered Wives (50 page)

B I B L I O G R A P H I C A L S O U R C E S

Medical Examiners Examine Suspicious Deaths
(Chicago: University

of Chicago Press, 2006). Timmermans explains every stage in the

investigation of suspicious deaths—including homicides, suicides,

staged killings, accidents, poisonings, and others— and his effort is

aimed not at showing how death investigation is supposed to happen

but at how it really does happen. Short of getting permission to

witness several hundred autopsies and eavesdrop on the medical

examiner’s discussions of suspicious deaths, Timmermans offers the

closest view anyone outside the profession is likely to get. Anyone

who has followed lengthy testimony by medical examiners in a case

where the charge is homicide will benefit enormously by reading

Stefan Timmermans’s brilliant book.

When I needed to find out the medical reasoning behind the inves-tigation of such things as arsenic poisoning or suspicious drownings

in the bathtub, I have relied on the standard reference work edited by

the esteemed forensic pathologist Dr. Werner Spitz, titled
Spitz and

Fisher’s Medicolegal Investigation of Death: Guidelines for the Applica-

tion of Pathology to Crime Investigation, Fourth Edition
(Springfield,

Ill.: Thomas, 2006). This massive tome includes contributions by

dozens of specialists—including such familiar names as Michael

Baden and Henry Lee—and is filled with hundreds of images por-traying vivid examples of the kinds of deaths and evidence with

which medical examiners are faced in their work. It’s authoritative,

exhaustive in its coverage, and, like Geberth’s
Practical Homicide

Investigation
, not intended for casual perusal.

I must emphasize that although I have drawn on a wide range

of theories and research—especially in the fields of psychopathy

and the ‘‘Dark Triad,’’ my application of these theories to a newly

identified group of domestic homicide perpetrators is entirely my

own. Whatever strength there is in the resulting thesis can be credited

to the original researchers in these fields, but any errors are mine

alone.

FOOTNOTES

Some facts and quotations in this book that relate to data, specific

studies, or the work of others deserve more formal attribution than

was necessary or elegant to include in the text:

Q

Bibliographical Sources

3 1 9

3

Usually domestic homicides are preceded by years of physical

abuse:
Campbell, J. C., and others. ‘‘Risk Factors for Femicide in

Abusive Relationships: Results from a Multisite Case Control Study.’’

American Journal of Public Health
, July 2003,
93
(7), 1089–1097.

7

His sister-in-law remembered Barton remarking one day that

Peterson got caught ‘‘because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut’’:
Rule,

A.
Too Late to Say Goodbye
. New York: Free Press, 2007.

27

Young women, and especially young pregnant women, are most

in danger from the men they love:
Shackelford, T. K. ‘‘Cohabitation,

Marriage, and Murder: Woman-Killing by Male Romantic Partners.’’

Aggressive Behavior
, 2001,
27
, 284–291. Also see Shackelford, T. K.,

Buss, D. M., and Peters, J. ‘‘Wife-Killing: Risk to Victims as a Result

of Age.’’
Violence and Victims
, Fall 2000,
15
(3), 273–282; Rennison,

C. M., and Welchans, S.
Intimate Partner Violence
, a Bureau of Justice

Statistics special report. Washington, D.C., May 2000, revised Jan.

2002.

27

More than a thousand women a year are murdered in America

by an intimate partner:
Violence Policy Center.
When Men Murder

Women: An Analysis of 2004 Homicide Data
, an annual report.

Washington, D.C., Sept. 2006.

27

Many of those women, about seven in ten, bear the scars of

male rage:
Campbell, J. C., and others. ‘‘Risk Factors for Femicide in

Abusive Relationships: Results from a Multisite Case Control Study.’’

American Journal of Public Health
, July 2003,
93
(7), 1089–1097.

27

eighteen hundred women in the United States were murdered by

men, more than half of those by a current or former husband or boyfriend:

Violence Policy Center.
When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of

2004 Homicide Data
, an annual report. Washington, D.C., Sept. 2006.

The figures cited here are based on homicide data submitted annually

from police departments across the nation to the FBI. Although this

is the most accurate ‘‘official’’ figure we have, it excludes killings

involving multiple victims, such as a wife or girlfriend and one or

more of her children, murders for hire planned and arranged by an

intimate partner but carried out by someone else, as well as cases in

which the perpetrator has not been identified or charged at the time

that the reports are filed with the FBI. See also U.S. Department of

Justice.
A Study of Homicide in Eight U.S. Cities
, a National Institute

of Justice intramural research project, Nov. 1997. This in-depth

study of homicide in eight large American cities—Atlanta; Detroit;

Indianapolis; Miami; New Orleans; Richmond, Virginia; Tampa; and

3 2 0

B I B L I O G R A P H I C A L S O U R C E S

Washington, D.C.— from 1985 to 1984 also found that about half of

female homicide victims were killed by an intimate partner. Other

researchers estimate that from 40 to 70 percent of female murder

victims are killed by a husband or boyfriend. See Bailey, J. E., and

others. ‘‘Risk Factors for Violent Death of Women in the Home.’’

Archives of Internal Medicine
, April 14, 1997,
157
(7), 777–782.

27

less than 5 percent of male murder victims are killed by their

wife or girlfriend:
Campbell, J. C., and others. ‘‘Risk Factors for

Femicide in Abusive Relationships: Results from a Multisite Case

Control Study.’’
American Journal of Public Health
, July 2003,
93
(7),

1089–1097. That figure has remained consistent. In 1998, only

4 percent of murdered men were killed by an intimate partner. See

Rennison, C. M., and Welchans, S.
Intimate Partner Violence
, a

Bureau of Justice Statistics special report. Washington, D.C., May

2000, revised Jan. 2002. A CDC study from 1991 to 1998 found that

just 5 percent of male murder victims were killed by an intimate

partner. See Centers for Disease Control. ‘‘Surveillance for Homicide

Among Intimate Partners—United States, 1981–1998.’’
Morbidity

and Mortality Weekly Report
, Oct. 12, 2001.

28

An analysis of five years of death records in Maryland revealed

that a pregnant or recently pregnant woman is more likely to die from

homicide than any other cause whatsoever:
Horon, I. L., and Cheng, D.

‘‘Enhanced Surveillance for Pregnancy-Associated Mortality: Mary-land 1993–1998.’’
Journal of the American Medical Association
, 2001,

285
, 1455–1459.

28

Homicide was discovered to be the single biggest cause of

injury-related death among pregnant and postpartum women in New

York City and Cook County, Illinois, and among women up to a year

after giving birth in the state of Georgia:
Dannenberg, A. L., and others.

‘‘Homicide and Other Injuries as Causes of Maternal Deaths in New

York City, 1987–1991.’’
American Journal of Obstetrics
, May 1995,

172
, 1557–1564; Fildes J., and others. ‘‘Trauma: The Leading Cause

of Maternal Death.’’
Journal of Trauma
, 1992,
32
, 643–645; Dietz,

P. M., and others. ‘‘Differences in the Risk of Homicide and Other

Fatal Injuries Between Postpartum Women and Other Women of

Childbearing Age: Implications of Prevention.’’
American Journal of

Public Health
, 1998,
88
, 641–643.

28

A 2005 study that attempted to look at the problem nationally

found homicide to be the second leading cause of injury death in

pregnant and postpartum women:
Chang, J., Berg, C. J., Saltzmann, L.,

Bibliographical Sources

3 2 1

and Herndon, J. ‘‘Homicide: A Leading Cause of Death Among

Pregnant and Postpartum Women in the United States, 1991–1999.’’

American Journal of Public Health
, Mar. 2005,
95
(3), 471–477.

28

Researchers reviewing eight years of autopsy records of

reproductive-age women in the District of Columbia found murder

to be the second most common cause of death among pregnant women,

just one death behind medical complications related to pregnancy:

Krulewitch, C. J., and others. ‘‘Hidden from View: Violent Deaths

Among Pregnant Women in the District of Columbia, 1988–1996.’’

Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health
, Jan./Feb. 2001,
46
(1),

4–10.

28

But Isabelle Horon and Diana Cheng, authors of the Maryland

study, believe that the national study seriously undercounted the num-

ber of pregnancy-associated homicides:
Horon, I. L., and Cheng, D.

‘‘Underreporting of Pregnancy-Associated Deaths.’’ Letter to the

editor of
American Journal of Public Health
, Nov. 2005,
95
(11),

1879.

29

an estimated two to four million American women are phys-

ically assaulted by their partner every year:
The low-end figure, two

million, was derived from the first National Family Violence Survey,

conducted in 1976 by prominent researchers Richard Gelles, Murray

Strauss, and Suzanne Steinmetz, published most notably in Straus,

M. A., Gelles, R. J., and Steinmetz, S. K.
Behind Closed Doors: Violence

in the American Family
. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1980.

The survey asked respondents if they had been physically abused by

their husband in the previous year. But because of the huge number

of respondents not willing to disclose abuse and because the survey

did not ask about violence from an ex-husband or ex-boyfriend,

the three authors estimated that the true number of victims of inti-mate partner violence was as high as four million a year. A 1993

national survey on women’s health by the Commonwealth Fund

estimated that 4.4 million women a year are assaulted by an intimate

partner. See Commonwealth Fund.
Violence Against Women in the

United States: A Comprehensive Background Paper
. Commission on

Women’s Health, Columbia University, New York, 1994; and Plichta,

S. B. ‘‘Violence and Abuse: Implications for Women’s Health.’’
The

Commonwealth Fund Survey
, 1996, 237–270. A 2003 study by the

CDC put the figure as high as 5.3 million intimate partner victimiza-tions per year: Centers for Disease Control.
Costs of Intimate Partner

Violence Against Women in the United States
, March 2003.

3 2 2

B I B L I O G R A P H I C A L S O U R C E S

29

the rate of homicide just within families in this country is higher

than the total homicide rates in most other Western industrialized

nations:
Saunders, D. G., and Browne, A. ‘‘Intimate Partner Homi-cide.’’ In R. Ammerman (ed.),
Case Studies in Family Violence
. (2nd

ed.) New York: Plenum Press, 2000; Browne, A., Williams, K. R., and

Dutton, D. G. ‘‘Homicide Between Intimate Partners: A Twenty-Year

Review.’’ In M. D. Smith and M. A. Zahn (eds.),
Homicide: A Source-

book of Social Research
. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1999.

29

A recent Canadian study found that half of men who had killed

their intimate partners contemplated killing themselves afterward, and

up to 40 percent of the men claim they tried to kill themselves
. . .
.

[This figure is] validated by numerous studies both in the United

States and Canada:
Kerry, G. P. ‘‘Understanding and Predicting

Intimate Femicide: An Analysis of Men Who Kill Their Intimate

Female Partners.’’ Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Carleton Uni-versity, Ottawa, Ontario, Department of Psychology, 2001. See also

Lewandowski, L. A., McFarlane, J., Campbell, J. C., Gary, F., and

Barenski, C. ‘‘ ‘He Killed My Mommy!’: Murder or Attempted Mur-der of a Child’s Mother.’’
Journal of Family Violence
, Aug. 2004,

19
(4), 211–220; Frye, V., and others. ‘‘Femicide in New York City:

1990 to 1999.’’
Homicide Studies
, 2005,
9
(3), 204–228; Lund, L. E.,

and Smorodinsky, S. ‘‘Violent Death Among Intimate Partners: A

Comparison of Homicide and Homicide Followed by Suicide.’’
Sui-

cide and Life-Threatening Behavior
, 2001,
31
, 451–459; Dawson, M.

‘‘Intimate Femicide Followed by Suicide: Examining the Role of Pre-meditation.’’
Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior
, 2005,
35
, 76–90;

Cooper, M.
Wasted Lives: The Tragedy of Homicide in the Family
.

Vancouver, B.C.: Institute on Family Violence, 1994.

35

‘‘
The
real
Scott Peterson
. . .
can be appreciated’’:
Babiak, P.,

and Hare R. D.
Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work
. New

York: HarperCollins, 2006, p. 65.

39

‘‘I lie like I breathe, one as much as the other’’:
Hare, R. D.

Without Conscience
. New York: Guilford Press, 1993, p. 40.

39

‘‘rework the facts so that they appear to be consistent with the

lie’’:
Hare,
Without Conscience
, p. 46.

39

‘‘
[W]e are dealing here not with a complete man at all’’:

Cleckley, C.
The Mask of Sanity
. New York: Mosby, 1982, p. 228.

45

‘‘psychopaths are more concerned with the inner workings of

their cars than with the inner worlds of their ‘loved’ ones’’:
Hare,

Without Conscience
, p. 45.

Bibliographical Sources

3 2 3

48

‘‘by what their beloved does for them’’:
Fox, J. A. ‘‘Murderers

Not Like the Rest of Us.’’
Boston Globe
, Feb. 22, 2006.

48

‘‘Never underestimate the overconfidence of a narcissist’’:
Fox,

‘‘Murderers Like the Rest of Us.’’

60

‘‘Dreiser wants us to believe that Clyde didn’t mean to kill

Roberta’’:
Gordon, M.
Good Boys and Dead Girls
. New York: Viking,

1991, p. 11.

60

Dreiser himself later reflected on the novel and the real-life

murder:
Dreiser, T. ‘‘I Find the Real American Tragedy.’’
Mystery

Magazine
, Feb. 1935. Reprinted in Dreiser, T.
Theodore Dreiser: A

Selection of Uncollected Prose
. Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University

Press, 1977.

60

‘‘the young ambitious lover of some poorer girl’’:
Dreiser, ‘‘I

Find the Real American Tragedy.’’

61

‘‘who cannot master his fate’’:
Gordon,
Good Boys and Dead

Girls
.

65

stated his personal belief that Gillette really was just planning to

take Grace Brown to some kind of home for unwed mothers:
Brandon,

C.
Murder in the Adirondacks
. Utica, N.Y.: North Country Books,

1986.

83

Scott confessed to Diane Wagner, a journalist who was writing

a book on the case:
Wagner, D.
Corpus Delicti
. New York: Mar-tins/Marek, 1986. Given the vagueness of Scott’s claim and the long

lapse in time, there is no way of confirming his claim, but Wagner

did find it credible.

104

Elizabeth Rapaport refers to this phenomenon as the domestic

discount:
Rapaport, E. ‘‘Capital Murder and the Domestic Discount:

A Study of Capital Domestic Murder in the Post-Furman Era.’’

Southern Methodist University Law Review
, July-Aug. 1996.

104

In a study she conducted of all men sentenced to death in six

states:
Rapaport, ‘‘Capital Murder and the Domestic Discount.’’

110

they have difficulty learning from or adapting to changes in

the complex world outside themselves:
Patrick, C. J. (ed.),
Handbook of

Psychopathy
. New York: Guilford Press, 2006.

137

psychopaths see children as an inconvenience:
Hare,
Without

Conscience
, p. 63.

138

the unborn baby may be perceived as a direct threat and

as a rival:
Bacchus, L., Mezey, G., and Bewley, S. ‘‘A Qualitative

Exploration of the Nature of Domestic Violence in Pregnancy.’’

Violence Against Women
, 2006,
12
(6), 588–604.

3 2 4