Killer Moms: True Stories

By Amanda R. Woomer

A murder at the hands of a mother is a heartbreaking deviation and a crime against nature! How can a mother commit such an appalling crime? How can she end the lives of the innocents she so recently bore and nurtured?

A mother is supposed to be loving, protective, caring, and kind. She’s supposed to nurture and guide her children from infancy into childhood and adolescence. The very thought of murdering a child—much less their own child—is not only bizarre but perhaps the most disturbing thought a parent could have! Exploring the ultimate betrayal of a mother’s duty, Killer Moms: True Stories recounts 31 harrowing tales of motherhood gone wrong, including …

Rachel David, who believed she was married to God

Andrea Yates, who systemically executed each of her five children by drowning them

Magda Goebbels, one of the most powerful women in Nazi Germany, the propaganda minister’s wife and a Hitler favorite

The ambiguous Casey Anthony case, whose acquittal shocked the public

Melissa Drexler, aka “The Prom Mom,” who hid her pregnancy from everyone

Rosemary West, one of England’s most notorious serial killers

Lindsey Nicole Blansett, whose solution to ensuring her children wouldn’t suffer in the future was to make sure they did not have a future

Nannie Doss, the “Giggling Granny,” who managed to murder four generations of her family in a killing spree that lasted 30 years

Angela Camacho, who helped her husband murder her three young children because he believed they were possessed by witches.

An unflinching look into humanity’s dark side, Killer Moms is an unnerving read that delves into the twisted paths, the chilling motives, and the devastating consequences of maternal malice!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Visible Ink Press
• Release date: Oct 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9781578598663

Amanda R. Woomer

Amanda R. Woomer is the author of nearly 20 books focused on dark history, the paranormal, women's history, and Victoriana, including Harlots & Hauntings, The Art of Grieving: The Beauty Behind Victorian Mourning Customs, and A Mortal's Guide to Cemeteries. She is a featured writer for Haunted Magazine and Troy Taylor's Morbid Curious and is also the creator of the all-female paranormal journal The Feminine Macabre. She currently resides in Buffalo, New York with her husband and son, their black cat, and her collection of Victorian mourning memorabilia.

Book preview

Introduction

For many readers, the very thought of murdering a child (much less their child) is not only a bizarre thought but perhaps the most disturbing one a parent could have. Society has unique and specific roles for parents (particularly mothers). A mother is supposed to be loving and tender as she nurtures her children from infancy into childhood and adolescence. Author Agatha Christie once wrote, A mother’s love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dates all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path. In Islam, it is said, Paradise lies at the feet of the mother. The Beatles’ iconic ballad Let It Be starts with When I find myself in times of trouble/Mother Mary comes to me/Speaking words of wisdom/Let it be. While many believe this has a religious connotation referencing the Virgin Mary, Paul McCartney revealed he wrote the song after having a dream with his mother (Mary Mohin McCartney). For much of human history, a woman’s sole purpose was to bear and raise as many children as she could. While gender roles continue to shift in the twenty-first century, nurturing, loving, and protecting one’s children has never changed, which makes killing a child the ultimate betrayal of a parent’s duty. This is particularly disturbing when the mother is the murderer, with her actions seemingly going against nature and our idea of motherly love. But that hasn’t always been the case.

The act of a parent (and in the case of this book, specifically, a mother) killing her infant is known as infanticide. This occurs within the first year of the child’s life (as opposed to neonaticide, which occurs within the first twenty-four hours). Infanticide has been used as a means of population control for millennia, with babies often abandoned in the wilderness to die of exposure (either through hypothermia, starvation, or animal attacks). It’s believed that during the Mesolithic and Neolithic Eras, anywhere between 15% to 50% of children were killed. We see examples of widely accepted infanticide in ancient Greece and Rome, among the Phoenicians, ancient China, ancient Japan, Aboriginal tribes in Australia, Native Americans, and Native Alaskans. Interestingly enough, children of both sexes were valued in ancient Egypt, and their religion forbade infanticide (there are also reports of Egyptians rescuing abandoned infants and raising them as their own). Several ancient societies, such as the Carthaginians, the Canaanites, and the Moabites, were known to sacrifice infants to their gods. Within the first millennium, infanticide was outlawed in Europe and the Near East as it was forbidden in the Bible. By the seventh century, it was banned in areas throughout the Middle East with the establishment of Islam, the Quran explicitly speaking out against the act. However, in the Middle Ages, German mothers had the right to abandon their newborns if needed. Cases of infanticide in Victorian England led to the idea that all killer mothers were insane because a woman’s role in society was based on her being a mother, and her actions went against logic and reason. Cases of infanticide and neonaticide dropped significantly in the United States after the Supreme Court deemed a woman had the right to a safe abortion with the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 (reversed in 2022 with the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 597 U.S. 215). Infanticide of female babies was common in China during the one-child policy era from 1979 to 2015. Cases of infanticide against baby girls are significantly higher worldwide, even in the twenty-first century.

While infanticide was universally accepted throughout human history as a merciful way to put a child out of its misery if there was not enough food or resources to provide for it, filicide is a much more complicated act in which a parent deliberately murders their child after their first year of life. We see examples of filicide throughout history, mythology, and literature. The Greek god Cronus devoured his children—Demeter, Hestia, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon—to keep them from overthrowing him. In the Bible, we see perhaps the most famous example of attempted filicide when Abraham goes to sacrifice his son Isaac to prove his faith in God before an angel stops him. Puritans saw mothers who killed their children as unnatural and monsters. Ilya Repin depicted in his painting Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan, the first tsar of Russia, cradling his son after striking him with his scepter, killing him. Peter the Great killed his son, Alexei, after suspecting him of trying to overthrow him in 1718. R&B singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his father in Los Angeles, California, in 1984. Filicide is such a shocking occurrence that it’s even gone on to inspire works of fiction, becoming a plot point in books, television series, and films such as (spoiler alert) Twin Peaks, Ju-On: The Grudge, Carrie, and American Horror Story: Asylum.

According to professor of psychiatry Dr. Phillip Resnick, there are five types of filicide, which you’ll see represented throughout this book.

The first is altruistic filicide, where the parent believes that the world is cruel, and they kill their child to save them from a lifetime of suffering. Within these pages, you’ll meet women like the First Lady of the Third Reich, Magda Goebbels; Ted Hughes’s lover, Assia Wevill; and Rachel David, who believed she was married to God. These mothers killed their children, believing that they would only continue to suffer in this life if they didn’t. In cases of altruistic filicide, one-third of the mothers also end their own lives.

Fatal maltreatment is perhaps the most common form of infanticide today, with examples such as battered child syndrome or shaken baby syndrome. In fact, over 300 babies die in the United States each year from being shaken. In many cases with fatal maltreatment, death may not be intended. Perhaps one of the most disturbing cases of maltreatment you’ll read in this book is that of Angela Norman and her teenage daughter, Makayla.

The most common motive for neonaticide is the case of an unwanted child. The finest example of this form of filicide comes from the story of the Prom Mom and her dissociation from her teen pregnancy. Another example of an unwanted child can stem from a mother’s affair with another man who tells her he cannot be with her because she has children. You’ll meet women like Denise Labbé and Francisca Rojas, who chose to end their children’s lives to appease their lovers.

Perhaps the most tragic types of filicide are the psychotic instances in which mothers experience mood disorders that lead to hallucinations, delusions, and homicidal thoughts. It could be argued that the most (in)famous case is that of Andrea Yates, who murdered her five children in the family bathtub after suffering from postpartum psychosis. However, you’ll see that other women such as Otty Sanchez, Lindsey Nicole Blansett, and Maggie Young also battled mental illness, and many actively sought help to stop them from killing their children.

The final type of filicide (and arguably the rarest) is spousal revenge. While we don’t see this form of filicide as frequently as the other four listed, we can surmise (as you will later see) that Andrea Yates may have killed her children as a result of the deadly combination of psychosis, a belief that she was saving them, and a desire to get back at her husband for the life she was forced to live.

When I started working on this book, I thought I could keep myself safely removed from these moms and their stories. I’ll admit I might not be the best mom out there, but I enjoy motherhood, I adore my little guy, and I like to think that I am the best mom for him. I found myself ready to judge each of these women as harshly as history already has. But as I dove deep into these women’s lives, I very quickly learned that these stories are not as black and white as I first thought. In many cases, these women also loved their children. Sometimes, they were misled by a man or believed they were doing the best thing for their little one. In the most tragic cases, they even sought help, knowing that they were a threat to their children, and tried desperately to save them before it was too late. I found it hard to hate those mothers. Don’t get me wrong: I wholeheartedly believe that some of these women were monsters who committed acts of pure evil. But I was surprised to see that they were the minority. Many of these mothers struggled mentally, financially, and emotionally as they tried to raise their children. Often, they were physically and sexually abused throughout their lives, making it difficult for them to be tender and normal loving mothers. Some suffered from grief and depression, while others were addicted to drugs or conditioned to think a certain way by their faith. And while most mothers would never venture down the path to maternal infanticide or filicide, we’ve all struggled, though we rarely like to admit it.

Often, motherhood can feel like a thankless job. Just me having the audacity to state that within the first few pages of this book could be enough to ruffle some feathers. Throughout history, women have been expected to carry and give birth to numerous children, then feed them, clothe them, teach them not to be little barbarians, show them how to use a fork and a toilet, make sure they’re polite, play with them, read to them, let them watch a movie or TV show (but not too much, mind you), get them outside to let out some energy, help them navigate friendships, drive them to dance class or soccer practice, try to help with math, make sure they get to bed on time … and all while making sure you love them unconditionally. While most moms can stop and acknowledge that the craziness of motherhood is a privilege denied to many, it’s also vital that we admit that it might not always be filled with unconditional love.

The very thought that a mother might struggle to love her children or be overwhelmed, exhausted, or even unhappy is not a new concept, but it’s only just starting to be discussed openly.

When I was first offered the chance to write this book about mothers who kill their own family members (particularly their own children), I was nervous about what it would reveal to me about the darkest parts of motherhood. While I never experienced postpartum depression, I know many moms who did after the birth of their children. In fact, it’s estimated that one in every ten women will experience postpartum depression, making it far more common than society would have us believe. Instead, we’re told this is a joyous time, and you should be happy—you’ve just given birth to a healthy baby! Never mind that you’re sleep deprived, you’ve got spit-up dried in your hair, your breasts are engorged with milk, and you’re anxious and questioning every decision you make. Luckily for most new moms, the baby blues and postpartum depression are short-lived. However, as I came to learn by scouring newspaper articles, books, documentaries, police reports, and autopsy photos while researching this book, sometimes postpartum depression can evolve into other disorders such as postpartum psychosis, leading to hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, and in the tragic cases, death.

It’s important to note that a mother killing her child is not always linked to postpartum psychosis and other mood disorders. As you will see in this book, women kill for various reasons, from the love of a man or the desire to gain money to religious beliefs and the overwhelming, crushing hopelessness of depression. This book will be diving deep into the lives and minds of over thirty women who were driven to kill family members—including their own children—split into sections based on their motives (though keep in mind many times their motives may overlap): love, money, power, faith, depression, honor, freedom from motherhood, and even women who killed for their children.

This book is not for the faint of heart—it includes graphic violence, instances of rape, torture, incest, and even cannibalism, as well as heartbreaking and distressing stories and images of the mothers with their children—it will likely be disturbing to readers. However, I think it is an important book to read (and one that I feel humbled and honored to have been able to write) because it shines a light on women’s mental health, particularly postpartum, which is rarely discussed.

In 2001, after Andrea Yates murdered her children, Newsweek asked:

How can a mother commit such a crime against nature and all morality and end the lives she has so recently borne and nurtured?

It is my hope that this book might answer that question that still haunts us today, not just in the case of Andrea Yates but all killer mothers.

Amanda R. Woomer

Buffalo, New York

June 2024

FOR LOVE

Rosemary West

When we look at various aspects of a person’s life—personality, habits, cognitive skills, temperament, etc.—we tend to use the age-old debate of nature versus nurture. Are specific pieces of human behavior inherited through genetics (nature), or are they learned behavior one has received through years of conditioning (nurture)? While the nature/nurture debate tends to be an innocent psychological conversation, it can also be used to decipher the potential origins of serial killers: Were they conditioned to kill, or were they born with the innate urge to kill? There is no better candidate for the nature versus nurture argument than Rosemary West.

Now one of the most despised women in the United Kingdom, Rosemary West seemed destined to become one of the nation’s most notorious serial killers.

Born Rosemary Letts in Northam, Devon, England, on November 29, 1953, Rose was the fifth child born to Daisy Fuller and William Bill Letts, who served in the Navy during World War II. Bill hid the fact that he was a paranoid schizophrenic from everyone in his life. Instead, he was known in the family for his obsession with keeping the house clean and for his violent outbursts. His abuse toward the children and Daisy sent the young wife and mother into a deep depression while pregnant with Rose, and her treatment was electroconvulsive therapy. During these sessions, 70 to 120 volts of electricity coursed through Daisy, inducing seizures—her final session occurred just a few days before Rose was born. Some have argued that this treatment may have caused developmental issues in little Rose.

A contemporary image of electroconvulsive therapy from England. This is the same procedure Rosemary’s mother underwent while pregnant.

With both her parents battling mental illness and the electroconvulsive therapy she experienced in the womb, perhaps Rose was doomed from the start.

The abuse continued in the Letts household, hidden behind closed doors. Bill physically abused Daisy and Rose’s siblings, but according to reports, he never hit Rose. She was slower than the other children in the neighborhood, and eventually her siblings and classmates nicknamed her Dozy Rosie. Some researchers have suggested that Bill didn’t beat Rose like he did his other children because of her slower nature, while others have come to a far darker conclusion, adding to the nature-versus-nurture debate surrounding Rose’s eventual sexually sadistic ways.

It’s believed that at some point during their childhood, Bill Letts began sexually assaulting both Rose and her older sister, Patricia. This sexual abuse would continue into their teens and possibly even adulthood.

As Rose grew up and began to develop into a young woman, she was fascinated with her body. Supposedly, she would proudly march around the family’s house naked, particularly around her younger brother, Graham. By 13 years old, she would crawl into Graham’s bed and molest him and their youngest brother, Gordon. Sex abuse was simply part of Rose’s life … something she would continue to carry with her as she started a family of her own.

Rose first crossed paths with Frederick West at a bus stop in December 1968, shortly after turning 15. The 27-year-old man was unkempt and smelly with green teeth, and Rose immediately didn’t like him. However, Fred appeared at the same bus stop every day, purposefully sitting beside Rose, showering the teenager with compliments and attention. After he asked her out on a date for the second time, Rose finally allowed him to walk her home, and eventually she agreed to go on a date with him.

Despite the 12-year age difference between them and the fact that she was only 15 years old, Rose began a relationship with Fred West. She would visit Fred at his home—a trailer in the local trailer park—where he lived with his two children from his previous marriage: his daughter, Anne Marie, and his stepdaughter, Charmaine. Rose immediately noted that the two girls were neglected and started caring for them—for the first (and perhaps only) time in her life, she showed the girls genuine affection.

Several months into their relationship, Rose introduced Fred to her parents. Immediately, both were vehemently against their daughter dating a 27-year-old man. Daisy was convinced (rightfully so) that Fred was a pathological liar, and Bill threatened to call social services.

The 27-year-old man was unkempt and smelly with green teeth, and Rose immediately didn’t like him.

Despite her parents’ disapproval, she continued sleeping with Fred and started feeding her sexual hunger by becoming a prostitute, working out of Fred’s trailer.

In August 1969, Rose was placed in a home for troubled teens, only permitted to leave on scheduled outings. However, whenever she was home to visit her parents, she found a way to see Fred.

When Rose turned 16, she returned home and patiently waited while Fred served a 30-day jail sentence for petty theft. The moment Fred was released, she moved in with him, and together they brought Charmaine and Anne Marie home from where they’d been placed with social services during Fred’s incarceration.

In February 1970, Bill took Rose to the police for a physical exam. It was revealed that the 16-year-old girl was pregnant. She was released under the agreement that she would terminate the pregnancy and move in with her parents. Rose agreed but immediately returned to Fred, and the couple decided to keep the baby. That day, Bill Letts disowned his daughter.

By June 1970, the growing family moved out of the trailer park and into the ground-floor apartment at Midland Road in Gloucester, England. On October 17, Rose welcomed her firstborn daughter, Heather (there is some speculation that Heather was the product of incest, sired by Rose’s father, though there is no evidence to back up this claim). Unfortunately, just two months after Heather was born, Fred West was once again arrested for theft and sentenced to six months in jail. It was during this time that Rose’s violent streak first appeared.

Having just turned 17, Rose became the sole caregiver for the three little girls and almost immediately began to physically and emotionally abuse the two older girls. Anne Marie (who was seven years old at the time) was a quiet, subdued child, and she reacted to Rose’s abuse—no doubt bringing the sadistic teenager pleasure. However, unlike her younger sister, Charmaine (who was eight) refused to give in to Rose’s abuse and showed no emotion. She antagonized Rose, claiming, My real mummy wouldn’t swear or shout at us. One day, Tracy Giles, a friend of the West girls who lived upstairs, entered Rose’s apartment unannounced only to find Charmaine naked, gagged, and bound, standing on a chair, as Rose beat her with a wooden spoon.

No one knows for sure what happened to Charmaine West.

On June 15, 1971, Rose took Charmaine, Anne Marie, and Heather to visit Fred in prison. By the time Fred came home on June 24, the eight-year-old girl was dead and hidden in the basement.

Rose and Fred West moved to Gloucester in 1970.

It didn’t take long for people to begin asking about Charmaine. When a neighbor asked where the little girl was, Rose replied, She’s gone to live with her mother and bloody good riddance! Rose and Fred told Anne Marie and others that Charmaine had gone to live in Scotland with her birth mother, Catherine Rena Costello. However, when Rena showed up several months later to check on the girls, she, too, disappeared.

On January 29, 1972, Fred and Rose finally married and soon moved into 25 Cromwell Street … what would soon become their house of horrors.

To help pay the mortgage, the upper floor rooms were rented to lodgers, and after her second daughter, Mae, was born, Rose took up prostitution again, working out of a room in the family’s house. Aside from prostitution, Rose also engaged in casual sex with male and female lodgers, with Fred usually watching through a peephole or listening on a baby monitor. During this time, she realized she found sexual pleasure in causing pain—most notably suffocating her partners or inserting large dildos into their bodies.

By 1983, Rose had given birth to eight children (three fathered by her clients), and abuse—both physical and sexual—ran rampant at 25 Cromwell Street.

On January 29, 1972, Fred and Rose finally married and soon moved into 25 Cromwell Street … what would soon become their house of horrors.

Beginning in September 1972, Anne Marie (not yet 9) was stripped by Rose, who then held her down while Fred raped her. Afterward, and in the ensuing years as the abuse continued, Rose explained to her stepdaughter, Everybody does it to every girl. It’s a father’s job. Anne Marie was also forced into prostitution by both Fred and Rose at 13.

Between 1985 and 1986, when she was only 14 or 15 years old, Heather was forced to have sex with Fred.

Fred informed Stephen West (his eldest son) that he’d be forced to have sex with his mother by the time he was 17.

One of the younger siblings, Tara, was the child of Rose and one of her clients. Interestingly enough, Tara has revealed that she never experienced abuse of any kind from either Rose or Fred. She believes Fred was only interested in his natural-born daughters because they were his own, and he saw them as his property to do with whatever he wanted. Because she was another man’s daughter, he didn’t feel entitled to her.

From 1972 to 1992, the West children were brought to the hospital over 30 times to be treated for things like thrush, gonorrhea, broken fingers, welts, cuts between their toes, scratches, vaginal injuries (particularly on Anne Marie, which was blamed on a bicycle accident), and Anne Marie’s ectopic pregnancy (a result of Fred’s raping her). Shockingly, despite all the physical and sexual abuse, no reports seemed to have been made to social services until 1992.

On August 6, 1992, Rose was arrested for child cruelty, and Fred was arrested for raping and sodomizing his then-13-year-old daughter, Louise (though the sexual abuse had started when she was 11).

On August 6, 1992, Rose was arrested for child cruelty, and Fred was arrested for raping and sodomizing his then-13-year-old daughter, Louise (though the sexual abuse had started when she was 11). Both Louise and Anne Marie had come forward with their gruesome tales of years of rape and sexual assault. However, neither girl was willing to testify against their parents in court, and the case collapsed on June 7, 1993. It would seem that Rose and Fred West had been able to walk away with ease … until authorities began to question where Heather West was.

It was revealed that Heather had not been seen since 1987, and while the five younger children were in foster homes, they revealed a family joke—Fred liked to threaten the children who misbehaved that they would end up under the patio like Heather.

This strange statement from Fred West, along with the fact that Heather had confided in a friend that her mother thought she was a little bitch who deserved to be beaten, made the local police search for Heather. According to her siblings, Heather tried to escape 25 Cromwell Street on a number of occasions, the last time in June 1987. She had applied to work in a seaside town far from her parents, but her application had been rejected. On June 19, the older children went to school; when they returned, Heather was gone. Rose quickly told the children that the girl had left for her new job, only to change her story shortly after that, telling them that Heather was a lesbian and had run off with her lover (Fred would eventually add to this story, claiming that Heather had traveled to Bahrain while working for a drug cartel). The couple even faked phone calls from their daughter to lessen the other children’s suspicions.

As police searched for evidence of Heather’s existence, they quickly discovered that there had been no documentation or records—rent payments, tax records, pay stubs—indicating she was still alive.

On February 23, 1994, the Gloucester police were granted a warrant to search the Wests’ home, specifically to find Heather’s remains, and they would find far more than they bargained for.

Police knocked on the door of Rose and Fred West on February 24. Rose answered the door; reports claim that she grew pale at the sight of the search warrant before lashing out at her children and the officers.

That night, as police began digging near the family’s patio, Mae and her younger brother, Stephen, witnessed their parents whispering while nervously glancing toward the garden. The following morning, Fred turned himself in to the police for the murder of his daughter, Heather, insisting that Rose had no knowledge of Heather’s murder.

It took two days for the police to unearth the teenager’s remains. Around 4:00 P.M. on February 26, 1994, a thigh bone was discovered under the patio. The remains were dismembered, tied with a rope, and bundled in a trash bag. The kneecap and finger and toe bones (phalanges) were missing, and a pile of fingernails was discovered nearby (most likely removed as a form of torture). Dental records identified the remains as Heather West.

But the strangest thing found under the patio was a third thigh bone.

Investigators quickly realized they were excavating not a single grave but multiple bodies. Fred and Rose West hadn’t just killed their own daughter—together, they had killed at least a dozen times.

From February 26 to March 8, police excavated the patio, garden, bathroom, and cellar of 25 Cromwell Street. In the process, they found evidence of extreme sexual abuse, torture, possible necrophilia, and murder. In total, three bodies were found in the backyard—Heather West (killed in 1987 at 16), Alison Chambers (killed in 1979, also at 16), and Shirley Robinson (killed in 1978 at 18). In the house, the bodies of Juanita Mott (killed in 1975 at 18), Shirley Hubbard (killed in 1974 at 15), Thérèse Siegenthaler (also killed in 1974 at 21), Lucy Partington (killed in 1973, also at 21), and Carol Ann Cooper (killed in 1973 at 15) were found buried in the cellar. Lynda Gough (killed in 1973 at 19) was buried under the bathroom floor where the Wests would dismember their victims. In every case, phalanges were missing … just like they were with Heather West. The missing bones have never been recovered. It’s believed most of the victims were hitchhikers and possible tenants of the Wests.

Not one, not two, but three femurs were found buried under the patio in the West’s backyard, leading police to suspect that Heather West wasn’t the only girl buried there.

Fred was adamant that, despite nine young women being brutally tortured, assaulted, and murdered in her house, Rose knew nothing of these heinous crimes. However, police still suspected her—several of the girls had been hitchhikers, and they likely would not have gotten in the van unless Rose was with Fred. Rose West was arrested on April 20, 1994; on April 25, she was officially charged with the murder of Lynda Gough. Each time Rose was charged with a new murder, she repeated, I’m innocent, maintaining that she, herself, was a victim of a sex-crazed sadist who had murdered her daughter.

On June 30, 1994, Fred and Rose West were brought before a magistrate’s court in Gloucester. Fred was charged with 12 murders (the nine women discovered at Cromwell Street as well as Charmaine, Rena, and a previous lover), and Rose was charged with nine. This was the first time the couple had seen each other since February. While Fred tried to catch Rose’s eye and lean in close to her, Rose shied away from his touch and not once acknowledged his presence—she had already begun to play the role of a grieving mother who could no longer love her husband after the atrocities he committed.

As time passed, Rose continued to avoid Fred—refusing to write to him or answer any of his letters. Eventually, Fred rescinded his confessions of acting alone and accused Rose of playing an equal role in each of the murders. It was revealed that one of the victims, Shirley Robinson, had been eight months pregnant with Fred’s baby. Rose became too bloody vicious with her, leading to her death, and Fred claimed that Rose cut Shirley’s unborn child from her womb herself. Brokenhearted that his wife had turned her back on him, Fred asphyxiated himself in his prison cell with a blanket on January 1, 1995, before he