Wensley Clarkson - The Mother From Hell: She Murdered Her Daughters and Turned Her Sons into Murderers

I t would be reassuring to believe that murder was a gross abnormality, a dramatic departure from respected ethical standards that restrain civilised man from surrendering to his basic instincts. Once, murder was considered to be beyond the pale, irreconcilable with the rest of mankind. But now, advances made in our knowledge of ethnology, evolution, and human psychology present challenges to such banal assumptions which cannot be ignored. Unfortunately, as man has become more civilized, intelligent, creative, and dominant, he has also become more murderous.

Statistically, murder is still rare in proportion to the population. So the type of crimes committed by Theresa Jimmie Knorr are even more baffling, as they fall into three categories: domestic, episodic, but seemingly random (although this later turned out not to be the case).

Murder is a purposeful deed which often makes the killer despicable to the rest of us, but perversely renders him healthy and admirable in his or her own eyes.

Criminologist Brian Masters studied in great depth the motivation of many notorious killers, and he concluded: It is hardly surprising that the murderer is reluctant to show remorse for his (or her) acts. It would be a retrograde step, a kind of psychological suicide

As an author and former crime reporter, I have written about many of the most notorious criminals of modern times, from the appalling killings committed by Charles Manson and his flock of disciples to the ultimate crime of passion that made American serial killer Aileen Wuornos one of the most infamous murderesses of modern times.

However, I can never forget my response as a parent when I first became aware of the murders committed by the mother featured in this book. How could a mother kill her own flesh and blood? Even worse, how could a woman break that special bond which is supposed to exist between mother and daughter?

But then mother love can take many forms: hatred, derision, sympathy, inspiration, devotion, self-sacrifice, companionship; destruction, jealousy, admiration, affection, desolation, and, it now seems, even murder.

Mother love is supposed to mean love of a mother for her children. It is a two-way process, which means that the child gradually rises until she is in the ascendent the succourer, not the succoured. Your mother is your mother for always. Your one and only mother. Your mother for all time. You cannot divorce your mother, and if you happen to be her daughter, you are the same sex as her, out of the same mould. It is like a series of those Russian wooden dolls, the sort that fit inside each other, painted with different floral dresses, but shaped the same and becoming smaller and smaller.

Men may still rule the genealogical tree, but it is the female side of the family that has a truer inheritance. When a woman has a baby, it is her mother, not her father, she turns to, and if that baby is a girl, in due time she will turn to her mother. That is a real family tree. The family tree of women.

It may be significant that the mother described in this book lost her own mother at a young age. She had no one to turn to at the start of parenthood. No one to guide her. No one to tell her how to cope.

As I began to investigate the circumstances behind the crimes featured in this book, I uncovered such a vast catalogue of hidden abuse that I could not help asking the same question over and over again: Why? The blatant violence committed in the name of the family cannot all have been thoughtless. What hidden factors contributed to this tragedy? Why did authorities ignore the pleas for help by one sister and force her back into that house of horrors and in effect sentence her to death? Why did so many not believe the only surviving daughter when she told authorities what had happened inside that household?

I take no specific stance in presenting the facts in this book as they have been revealed to me through painstaking research and extraordinary access to tape-recorded statements made to investigators during the course of their inquiries, as well as dozens of interviews. I have simply recalled events as they were told by everyone involved.

But, if ever a case needed to be read about, then this is it. The very fabric of the modern day family unit is already under enough severe pressure. The story of the Knorrs is a warning of just how bad things can get and why all of us, as responsible adults, have a duty to our children to do something to arrest the decline before it is too late.

It is hardly as if the warnings have not been made in the past. For years, so-called experts have been telling us about childhood abuse and its terrifying aftermath.

The battered child syndrome has been described as unrecognised trauma by radiologists, orthopedists, paediatricians, and social workers. It is a significant cause of childhood disability and death.

Unfortunately, it is frequently not recognised, or, if diagnosed, is inadequately handled by physicians because of hesitation in bringing cases to the proper authorities.

Yet, incredibly, not so long ago in Western society, unbridled parental domination was an enduring tradition whose roots can be traced to the Old Testament.

Later generations took this biblical command quite literally. Under the Old English common law, children were regarded as the property of their fathers. Parents could require their children to work for them, or place them in indentured servitude in return for payment. Absolute obedience was not an issue, for children who attempted to rebel were whipped and beaten or placed in workhouses.

The harsh treatment of children went hand in hand with prevailing moral and religious beliefs that childhood was an inherently evil state. This tradition carried over to American shores where, in 1646 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, newly arrived citizens (ironically, escaping oppression) enacted the Massachusetts Stubborn Child Law. Parents who claimed that their children were stubborn and rebellious and disobedient of voice could seek one of several state reprimands including execution. Obviously, democracy and due process were not things the Pilgrims wanted in their homes.

Children universally attach themselves to their carers. This is a survival mechanism necessary to provide the needs that a child is unable to satisfy alone. Certainty of the presence of a safe base allows for normal emotional and cognitive development In the absence of such a safe base, as in cases of child abuse and neglect, a child goes through a variety of psychological manoeuvers to preserve maximum protection. Abused and neglected children often become fearfully and hungrily attached to their carers, with timid obedience and an apparent preoccupation with the anticipation and avoidance of abandonment.