Montgomerys mother, Judy Shaughnessy, who was 20 at the time of her birth in 1968, drank heavily while pregnant with her daughter. In what Mattingly described as the most lucky thing to ever happen to her, she was placed with a loving foster family who showered her with affection. The population hovers around just 250, and everyone knew Bobbie Jo Stinnett and her family. [N]ot only was it bizarre behavior, but it was very embarrassing for me as her daughter, she said. "I cried," says Strong. Her terror was well-founded, said Montgomery's attorneys, Kelley Henry and Amy Harwell. And that would be from across a courtroom, where lawyers for the US government were trying to persuade a jury to sentence Montgomery to death. She is permitted Sudoku puzzles and coloring pages andone book at a time. I didn't know what to do or how to talk to my sister about it.". "There's so many people that failed her throughout her whole life. On December 8, the federal government plans to execute her for a crime she committed in the grip of severe mental illness after a lifetime of living hell. In Montgomerys early teen years, Kleiner moved the family to an isolated trailer at the end of a dead-end road outside of Sperry, Oklahoma, a severely impoverished area north of Tulsa. She was the first woman executed by the federal government in 67 years. As an adult, Montgomerys dysfunctional life mimicked that of her childhood. "Last year, we got flowers, and gave her a $100-plus gift card and then paid her water bill," says Jena Baumli. She told Lisa she had to "earn her keep.". "I would say, 'President Trump, I want you to look at the life that Lisa had led, I want to look at all the people that have failed her, I want you to look at the rape, the torture, the mental abuse, the physical abuse that this woman had endured,'" she says. Montgomery, who confessed, was later sentenced to death for the especially heinous murder as decided by a jury who heard her trial. "The whole community over there's traumatised by this.". When children grow up in a chronic state of fear and terror, their brains adapt to survive, explained Katherine Porterfield, a clinical psychologist at the Bellevue/New York University Program for Survivors of Torture, who has evaluated Montgomery in prison. But the cousin, a sheriff's deputy, confessed to Montgomery's current legal team that he did nothing. Bobbie Jo Stinnetts hometown waits as killers execution date nears. Dorr has since been released from prison and remarried. In addition to Strong and Fritz, those investigators were FBI Special Agents Mike Miller and Scott Gentine and Topeka police officer Tom Glor. Montgomerys case is not about whether she is responsible for the crime; she is. Facebook gives people the. "She is the most broken of the broken," Mattingly said. Montgomery, 52, the only woman on federal death row,is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Jan. 12 in the U.S. Penitentiary at TerreHaute, Ind. Henry said there is no question that Montgomery has severe mental illness, noting that federal authorities have administered her antipsychotic medications since her arrest in 2004. She said Montgomery's crimes have affected the way Melvern is perceived in the same manner anti-gay picketing by Westboro Baptist Church has influenced perceptions about Topeka. Until July 2020, there had been no federal executions for 17 years. The only woman on federal death row, Montgomery is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Dec. 8 at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. They gave me unconditional love, they taught me my self-worth, she said. Montgomery claimed to live in northwest Missouri. Only 18 death sentences were handed down in 2020 and the number of executions carried out hit a 30-year low. In recommending execution, the jury spelled out six aggravating factors supporting capital punishment. She liked going down to the Nodaway River to swim, and playing Nintendo games at slumber parties. Lisa Montgomery, who endured years of sexual and physical abuse, murdered an expectant mother and took the baby. School friend Baumli says she's read the descriptions of Montgomery's abuse, but it mostly just makes her angry. When Shaughnessy eventually split from her second husband, she and Montgomery testified in divorce proceedings about the sexual assaults. They also discovered that Shaughnessy prostituted. Around this time, she repeatedly claimed to be pregnant again, although she had undergone sterilisation after her fourth baby was born. That could change in Terre Haute. I support my wife and her request for clemency, but because I am sick with COVID and am caring for my parents who are also sick with COVID, I ask the media to respect our need for rest and privacy," he said. "When I squeezed her hand, she looked at me and smiled," she said. Several high-profile figures had appealed for clemency in Brandon's case but Mr Trump did not heed those calls. There are certain crimes that are universally abhorred by the public, ones that evoke a primal response of disgust and revenge from those who hear about it. This is someone who was deeply remorseful, once she became appropriately medicated and had full contact with reality, although that is a situation that waxes and wanes.. At 1:31 AM on Wednesday, Lisa Montgomery was pronounced dead. His message contained a "very heartfelt thank you. Mental health experts who examined her believe that her history of childhood trauma exacerbated a genetic predisposition to mental illness that ran in her family. "But one of the things that the president can do is say - to women who have been trafficked, and who have been sexually abused - 'Your abuse matters'.". Judy Shaughnessy and her boyfriend physical, psychological . In the cases where women are sentenced to death, prosecutors often use gender stereotypes against the defendants, she said, characterizing them as transgressive or not normal in some way. Let it be done: Bobbie Jo Stinnetts hometown waits as killers execution date nears. I was put in foster care with a wonderful family. And, in fact, blaming her for it.. Montgomery is worried that her fellow inmates will have trouble coping with her upcoming execution, said her friendToby Dorr. At least five times after she was sterilized, she told people that she was pregnant. Weddle said she moved to Melvern when she retired nine years ago because she wanted peace and quiet after more than 30 years as a Topeka police officer. The next morning, Lisa and Kevin Montgomery showed off a newborn girl dressed in a pink bonnet as they ate breakfast at the Whistle Stop Cafe in downtown Melvern. However, the executions ordered by President Trump are continuing. We cant travel to talk to witnesses or to prepare experts at this point, Harwell, Montgomerys lawyer, said. Montgomery was represented briefly after her arrest by Ron Wurtz, a now-retired attorney who has represented dozens of capital case defendants. Dr Katherine Porterfield, a clinical psychologist who evaluated Montgomery and spent about 18 hours with her, says that psychosis does not always look the way people expect it to. In closing arguments, assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Whitworth asked the jury to think about Stinnett's daughter, Victoria Jo Stinnett. When I was around eight years old, and Lisa was about four, one of Judy's male friends began coming into our room at night and regularly raping me, with Lisa in the next bedclose enough we could reach for each other and touch fingers. I am begging that somebody will finally stand up for her and say, shes been punished enough.. People confuse punishment with culpability, she went on. Henry said Montgomery was expected to be transferred by Jan. 10 to the penitentiary at TerreHaute, Ind., her designated place of execution. Montgomery's execution, scheduled less than 60 days, will be the first of three federal executions in January before Trump leaves office. Now, she called him to tell him that shed gone into labor while shopping and had given birth at a clinic. She had catfished Stinnett online under a fake name. Her lawyers say that as she lost touch with reality, she fantasised about being pregnant. Montgomery's family moved from place to place during her adult years, continuing the pattern she hadknown as a child. He married Judy Shaughnessy, who would become Montgomery's mother, in 1967 in Miami, Okla. Patterson was the second of six husbands Shaughnessy . It has been the subject of two books, multiple true crime television shows, documentaries and countless podcast episodes. "I get these images in my head of [Bobbie Jo's mother] finding her daughter that way.". ", "I live with regret for not speaking up about what happened to Lisa," Kidwell said, adding that he just didnt know what to do.. Shaughnessy forced Montgomery to have sex with men in exchange for money and services, and also punished her children by killing the family dog in front of them,smashing its head with a shovel, the attorneys said. Those records say questions were raised about her ability to function as an effective parent afterher house was found to be "filthy," her children were seen running naked in her yard and one of her daughters, then 2years old,ingested a bottle of Tylenol in 1993. While the court admonished her for not reporting it to authorities, they did not report it either. Her lawyers had argued she was a mentally ill victim of abuse who. All the while, Lisa's mother was being paid to let strange men rape Lisa. He continued the cycle of abuse, rapes and beatings, which he sadistically videotaped. Montgomerys father, John Patterson, a 25-year-old in the military, was also an alcoholic. I was thinking, shes still back there. Mattingly and Montgomery lived together until Mattingly was eight and her half-sister was four. After five hours of deliberation, the jury found Montgomery guilty. Every year. One of the lead investigators in the case, Randy Strong, wants Montgomery executed. This is the stuff of nightmares.". Today there is a single restaurant and few of the streets are paved. She had this ability to find what hurt you the most and use that against you, Mattingly said. He testified that Montgomery had been in a dissociative state, or "mental fog," at the time. Patterson and Shaughnessy divorced in 1971, and Shaughnessy took custody of the girls. After she strangled Stinnett, Montgomery is alleged to have cut her open and stolen her unborn child Victoria, who survived the attack and is now living with her father. He said she stood out to the extentthere appeared to be something wrong" with her. She has writtenopinion piecespublished in Elle and Newsweek. His physical abuse of the children had sexual undercurrents: He would make the girls strip naked before whipping them. Back home, the couple announced the birth of their daughter to their friends and relatives. It is hard to know if Montgomery understands that she is close to being executed; her mental state does not allow for much lucidity. Read about our approach to external linking. "We knew we were walking into the killer's house.". As Fritz patted Montgomery on the back of her hand, Strong said he noticed dried blood and tissue embedded beneath her fingernails. And to not fail her.". In her interviews with Montgomery, Porterfield said, the woman showed symptoms of dissociation, including confused thinking, major gaps in memory, and an inability to recognize the reality of certain events. Lisa Montgomery - the only female inmate on federal death row in the US - has been executed for murder in the state of Indiana. Since 2008, Montgomery has been held in a federal prison in Texas for female inmates with special medical and psychological needs, where she has been receiving psychiatric care. Montgomery was sentenced for the murder of a 23-year-old woman who was eight months pregnant. Lisa then took the baby home and cared for her as though she was her own. Another case with Missouri ties. She struggles to maintain her own hygiene, loses focus during conversations with others and has trouble planning simple tasks.". Two days before the crime, her former husband (and stepbrother) sought custody of two of her children. She has always accepted responsibility. However, calls for Trump to be merciful are hardly unanimous. Part of HuffPost Crime. He threatened to expose the imagined pregnancy and use it against her in the custody battle. In response to traumatic events, children may dissociate from their feelings and their bodies to protect themselves from experiencing what is happening. Montgomerys entire life was marked by people who failed to protect her, Babcock said. A home videoshowsCarl Boman raping and beating Montgomery, said her half-brother, Teddy Kleiner, who gave a sworn statementsaying he had seen it. "Little Lisa was in the bed next to mine every time," she said. As the oldest, I was the protector of Lisa and our baby sister. The threat of losing her children, combined with the years of untreated trauma and severe mental illness, pushed Lisa over the edge. According to Gallup, while support for the death penalty in the US is at its lowest level in more than 50 years, 55% of Americans still believe it is an appropriate punishment for murder. In an interview with HuffPost her first ever Diane Mattingly, now 57 and a longtime state government employee living in Kentucky, described what it was like growing up in a home without love or affection. Montgomery's number of crayons and pieces of paper hassince been increased to 10 each. A clemency petition asking Trump to reduce Montgomerys sentence to life without parole is expected to be filed in the coming weeks. The six-man, six-woman jury in October 2007 found Montgomery guilty and recommended she be executed. She lapsed increasingly into mental illness and repeatedly faked pregnancy. According to her lawyers and witnesses, Montgomery suffered years of childhood abuse so severe it was akin to torture. The baby was returned to her father, after being recovered from Montgomery. Montgomery took Stinnetts baby, clamped the umbilical cord and used baby wipes to clean her. Harper told a dispatcher her daughter's womb appeared to have "exploded" and that blood was "everywhere." Lisa Montgomery's friend, Toby Dorr, provided this photo she took of a letter Montgomery wrote to her in November using black crayon. Is it ethical to execute a woman for actions that cannot be meaningfully separated from her mental illness and ugly history of abuse? Its also people hearing it, knowing it and doing nothing about it. The views expressed in this article are the author's own. Her lawyers had argued she was a mentally ill victim of abuse who. Randy Strong, one of the investigators who would later get Montgomery to confess, said she apparently used part of a clotheslineto create a garrote, slipping it over Stinnett's head from behind, probably as she was on her knees putting a puppy into a dog carrier. The infant found later that day to weigh 5 pounds, 11 ounces was "very still" and didn't cry, which concerned Strong. Often the woman, now 52 and a grandmother of 12, is knitting or doing needlepoint. Babies born naturally tend to have misshapen heads initially because of the pressure experienced as they go through the birth canal, he said. Prosecutors, in their closing argument, said that she had a filthy home, that she didnt cook and that she didnt clean, Babcock said. She went home with a newborn, one she acquired by murdering the babys pregnant mother. Judy later married a man named Jack who punched, kicked and choked his children, including Lisa. Mattingly, 57, recalled the day her half-sister was brought home in a pink bundle after being born Feb. 27, 1968, in Pierce County, Washington. For Montgomery, her lawyers argue, it began before she was born. When Lisa was a small child, Judy allowed men to rape her for money, including allowing her to be gang raped on multiple occasions. In 1986, when Montgomery was 18, she married her stepbrother, Carl Boman. Mrs. My heart goes out to the family of Bobbie Jo Stinnett and the loss that they have felt and are still feeling. In fact, he drove her back home and dropped her off in the hands of her abusers. Her attorneys say that while Montgomery feels deep remorse for her crimes, her understanding of her situation waxes and wanes. Because of Stinnett's easy-going reputation, Morrow remembers instantly dismissing the initial reports of her murder. President Donald Trump can "break the chain of evil" experienced by Montgomery and other members of her family by granting clemency and commuting her sentence to life imprisonment, Mattingly said. He stressed that the juryheard testimony about her mental illness and her history of being abused, yet still unanimously recommended her execution. Multiple medical experts have given statements agreeing with that diagnosis. She was often spaced out, appearing disconnected from reality. "While my path to healing was very hard, the difference between Lisa and me is that no one ever intervened to rescue Lisa from a lifetime of abuse.". Montgomery was already vulnerable to serious mental illness, she added. Moving often was the norm to Montgomery; by the time she was a teenager, she had moved approximately 16 times. Investigators quickly realised that "Darlene Fischer" did not exist, and tracked Montgomery down the next day using her emails and computer IP address. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. She has exhausted all legal options except a last-ditch appeal for clemency from President Donald Trump, which was filed Christmas Eve. Shaughnessy in 1974 married her third husband, Jack Kleiner, a divorced father of five. Lisa Montgomery strangle one pregnant woman for Missouri before cutting and kidnapping her baby in 2004. . She would tell me I had to leave and I couldnt take anything with me because she bought everything, she recalled. At the same time, she blames it for the fate of her younger half-sister, Lisa Montgomery. Im not a psychiatrist, so I cant go any further than that.. She became involved with Kevin Montgomery, a divorced electrician with children of his own, and theymarried the following year. But it wasn't Montgomery that Stinnett was expecting, it was a woman who went by the name of Darlene Fischer. "There were so many opportunities where people could have intervened and prevented this," says Henry. Carl Boman wasn't the father of one of the girls, according to court records, which say Montgomery was sterilized after the last birth in 1990. Lawyer Kelley Henry says one of the things that disturbs her most is that adults in positions of authority were told about what was going on but did nothing. One was the presence of substantial planning and premeditation. 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