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monster

The girls were found dead Monday in a park in Zion, the day after they never came back from a bike ride. They had more than 30 stab wounds between them, and Laura was stabbed in each eye, prosecutors said.

Some days you wake up full of hope and eagerness. And then you read something like that and life slaps you hard in the back of the head.

and Laura was stabbed in each eye

By her father. Her father.

What do you do with a man like that? Is death good enough for him? Is being sent to death row to wait and wait for his appointed day of execution enough? Is sitting alone and naked on a cement floor in solitary confinement enough?

and Laura was stabbed in each eye

Both girls were beaten by Laura's father. They had 30 stab wounds between them. Yet I focus on that one line because above everything else done to them, more than any blow Laura's father struck, that act stands out. It speaks of a rage so deep, a monster so uncontrollable, it turns this from a sad, tragic crime into something more. It strengthens my belief that monsters and evil exist in this world. It makes me cry and it makes me angry and it turns me barbaric in some sense because the only way I can see justice meted out to this brutal man is for him to be stabbed in the eyes, to be swiped at repeatedly with a sharp knife and pummeled by strong fists - fists four or five times the size of his - until he collapses in a heap of death.

and Laura was stabbed in each eye

Even then it won't be enough because Laura's blows came at the hands of her father. An eight year old girl who looked up and saw her father, her daddy, standing over her with a knife and he brought that knife down and pushed it through each of her eyes. Not even once, like it was a wild stab. Each eye. Do you understand the barbarity of that? Do you understand the thinking, intellectual evilness behind the act of stabbing her in each eye, how it is different on a darker level than just wildly swinging the knife at his daughter's face?

and Laura was stabbed in each eye

That fragment of a sentence has awakened in me some primal need to see justice meted out; a justice that the criminal system is not capable of providing. An eye for an eye has never seemed more appropriate. And even though this man is evil and not worthy of breathing fresh air, it somehow makes me feel less than human for wishing him a violent, justified death.

I suppose that is what separates us from the monsters among us.

----

Children are to be protected. Those who harm them, eliminated.

--

A child killer will be executed tomorrow in Connecticut. Think of his victims.

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» http://sekimori.org/archives/2005/05/children_are_to.php from Sekimori.org - Photoblog
Children are to be protected. Those who harm them, eliminated.... [Read More]

» Monster, Indeed from JimSpot
Michele asks (emphasis added): A Small Victory - monster and Laura was stabbed in each eye Even then it won't be enough because Laura's blows came at the hands of her father. An eight year old girl who looked up... [Read More]

» WORDS AND PICTURES from Benedict
Yesterday Norm Pattis posted a poem on his blog (the fine, if misguided, Crime & Federalism) which he suggested "be read in the good houses of the State of Connecticut on Thursday evening", in the hours before the execution of... [Read More]

» No community is safe from Not Exactly Rocket Science
Chapel Hill is devastated after learning this weekend of the deaths of James and Alison Sapikowski, who were long-time local business owners and the "parents" of the UNC club hockey team. The couple were shot to death in their home,... [Read More]

Comments

I second

I just read the article on CNN about him...chasing people w/chainsaws? What the HELL was he doing w/custody??????? Anyone?

I tried to blog this last night and just couldn't. No matter what I wrote, I kept coming back to...I hope he gets ass fucked to death in prison, and soon.

He had previous convictions for beating the wife and other crimes (including the chainsaw thing). He had past transgressions for attacking people and was known to become violent when angered. When he went to spend time in a Texas prison, the family moved to Illinois. When he was released, he was inexplicably invited back to live with the family. The mother certainly holds some responsibility here, for allowing this man to live with the children. I know he's their father, but the courts make orders of protection for this kind of thing. That the mother chose to let this violent, abusive man back in the house makes her partly responsible for her daughter's death.

Michele, you just said with that comment what I was practically screaming at Todd this morning when we heard the news on the Today Show. (They mentioned the eye-thing on their close-up segment as well.) The mother certainly didn't hold the knife, but she might as well have handed it to him.

My oldest daughter is eight, so these kinds of stories hit me particularly hard, too. It's actually BECAUSE of what seems to be a rash of these things lately (also see Jessica Lunsford, nine, being raped, beaten, and buried alived while holding a favorite stuffed animal) that I've tried to stop reading news sites altogether. Removed the bookmarks. Do my best not to read about these horrors.

Doesn't mean that they don't happen, or that I won't try to teach my daughters to be strong, to fight back, but there's only so much my stomach can take.

Stabbed in each eye.

Un-fucking imaginable.

It made me want to vomit when I read that. I have two daughters, 8 and 5. I cannot bear to watch the evening news or read the news online anymore. Like RKB said, it hits too close to home. People laughed at me when I watch my girls very closely and don't let them wander off and play unsupervised.

They ain't laughing now.

Those poor little girls. I cannot even imagine the horror and fear that Laura must have felt when she realized her own father was going to hurt her. It makes cry just thinking about it. The very person that is supposed to make you feel safe, to protect you is hurting you.

I heard that yesterday. How the hell someone could possible do that - do their own child - it's just beyond my ability to comprehend. But, also I can't understand how the mom could have let someone like this exist with her children. This wasn't just a 'little slip" from a fit of anger.

And even though this man is evil and not worthy of breathing fresh air, it somehow makes me feel less than human for wishing him a violent, justified death.

No. We are less than human because we do not treat this genetic flotsam as it deserves to be treated. Because we keep it alive and comfortable we are both weak and weakend.

There is no punishment that fits the crime, and we shouldnt try, it would demean us to torture him.

However, he should be taken outside and shot like a mad dog--this is just common sense.

(After a trial of course.)

I heard about this on the radio last night (ABC newsfeed) and they said that the knife he claimed that his daughter's friend pulled on him was a potato paring knife.

A paring knife.

There aren't any words to describe how this crime makes me feel....I'm just empty inside. Senseless. Tragic. Waste.

Like you, I cannot fathom why this man was allowed near the family again, but I'm sure we'll be finding out more as time goes on. My heart goes out especially to the family of the little girl's friend...I guess this can serve as a cautionary tale to parents that they must always, always meet the parents of any friend before they allow their children to visit the home - one look at this guy would have raised the hair on the back of my neck.

Trish, FWIW, he also claimed he was trying to defend himself with that chainsaw - a prosecutor on the case said Hobbs kept trying to show him scrapes that he had on his arm and legs to prove that he was the one who was in danger.

So, with Krystal pulling the knife on him, It's pretty obvious Hobbs was the victim here. Who could blame him for taking the knife and stabbing the girls an aggregate of 31 times. Obviously he had to defend himself. He put out his daughters eyes to keep the 60 pound, 4 ft tall 8 year olds girls from tag teaming him.

The thing that infuriates me about all these murders of little girls is that each of the perpetrators have committed previous violent or sexual offences. Are the "authorities" so optimistic as to think that someone who attacks another person with a chain-saw can be safely returned to society? Or someone who rapes a child won't do it again? I say flush these shits and protect our innocent.

As for your "eye for an eye" quote, I think you were on the right track. They need to get downright biblical with his punishment. I was thinking a good stoning.

Although no punishment would be adequate considering what he did.

Guess I should point out I think it's obvious that he came to the scene with the knife.

JakeR - He only got a break with the chainsaw deal because nobody got physically hurt in the incident, (if you don't count the shovel to the head he received from a concerned citizen.)

10 years probation, with court ordered counseling and the threat of jail if he departs from the straight and narrow seems pretty reasonable for that. And when he screwed up, he did go to prison.

I think the most shocking thing (besides the murders) has been the denial of the Mother. I don't know what she has to say now, but as of yesterday her Jerry was being railroaded.

"Laura missed her father the most when he was in prison. They loved each other, and I have the letter to prove how close they were to each
other" she told a reporter.

And of course, she took him back in spite of evertyihg, because she "loved" him.

Well, if it's any consolation, he'll probably end up knifed in prison by the other inmates. Their own peculiar moral code doesn't tolerate anyone who harms children.

He must die.

No arguments will be tolerated.

There is no excuse.

This man is evil.

Evil must be exterminated.

End of discussion.

Remember her eyes down the road, in about 12 years, the damage to which a skilled mortician will do his best to conceal, when they finally get around to executing this POS, when all the self-righteous, anti-death penalty zealots are filing 11th hour appeal after 11th hour appeal to keep him alive. Remember her eyes

I just do not understand.

How can you do such a thing to another human being, let alone your child? If a soldier did a similar thing in the heat of battle, he'd probably be pulled up in front of a court-martial for unreasonable cruelty to the enemy.

I half-heard in some news coverage or other that he claimed to have done it because the girl "misbehaved." I can't even imagine having such a bizarre and twisted sense of justice as to think this was in any way appropriate.

This is one of those times that I genuinely hope there's a Hell and that people who do this kind of stuff get sent there.

I do agree with those who say that those who show themselves unlikely to be rehabilitatable should be kept out of society, for society's protection. Whether that involves the death penalty, or lifelong imprisonment in a small dark cell, or being sent to a distant island surrounded by sharks, with no chance of getting off, I do not care. I just want these people the F away from me, the F away from the children I care about...the F away from any reasonably law abiding citizen and their children.

Yes, this is one of those cases where I wait with interest to hear the arguments put forth by the anti-death penalty types.
Them: "Innocence...blah blah...no rights...blah blah...power of government...blah blah..."
Me: "He stabbed her in the eyes and admitted it."
Them: "....."

An eye for an eye has never seemed more appropriate. And even though this man is evil and not worthy of breathing fresh air, it somehow makes me feel less than human for wishing him a violent, justified death. I suppose that is what separates us from the monsters among us.

Nah. What separates us from the monsters among us is that the monsters do these things to innocent people, while the rest of us only wish such horrors on the monsters who deserve it. It's the difference between "an eye for an eye" and "an eye because I'm bored and feel like plucking your eye out."

There's a certain logic to this guy spending a while in the Big House, being cornholed nightly, then being killed. But there's more logic to him being killed in a cruel and unusual manner. The kind that, shall we say, parents will tell their children of for a hundred years, so they learn at an early age that there are severe penalties for some social infractions.

Some people should die, but pain isn't necessarily needed. Others, well, I just wish juries had a choice between death and extreme death.

Revenge is nice, but if the death penalty is, the doctor gives you a shot and it goes black, there's not that much deterrence if you don't have anything to live for. And the point is deterring the next guy, not getting revenge on this piece of scum.

Yeah, I lean right wing sometimes, why do you ask?

Kill him. Kill him a lot.

What is even more terrifying is that this man felt justified in doing what he did. He was defiant and without remorse. I have been sickened since I read the news about it. Maybe there really isn't a God.

Did you hear his excuse? "She just wouldn't listen." I'll never tell another one of those jokes again.

Dante had the ninth circle of hell, frozen in a lake of ice, reserved for traitors. I think that betraying the deep trust between a father and daughter counts.

Not that I can condemn him to hell, but I think we should send him along the The One who can as soon as possible.

I don't know about this specific case, but in many cases, violent individuals are freed on the advice of shrinks. It's not clear what scientific validation, if any, there is for this advice. Unless outcomes can be quantified and probabilities assessed, I question why psychiatry should have any place in the courtroom or on the parole board.