Did a mother’s working outside of the home lead to her son’s becoming a serial murderer?
While researching the case of the Columbus Stocking Strangler for Court TV’s Crime Library, I was struck by a number of peculiarities about the case. The man who was convicted of the rape-murders and is on Georgia’s Death Row for them is an African-American named Carlton Gary. I mention his ethnic and racial background because it is relevant to the crimes of which he was convicted which are believed to have been, in part, motivated by his anti-white racism.
Gary has always stoutly denied committing the crimes and still does. His attorneys claim to possess evidence that will exonerate him. However, strong evidence was presented against Gary at his trial and I wrote my article from the viewpoint that he is indeed the Columbus Stocking Strangler.
Gary appears to be a remarkably clever individual. As a child, he was found to have a high I.Q. score. However, if he committed the crimes of which he was convicted, he used that intelligence destructively: to commit gruesome murders for which he sometimes framed other men and to escape from custody.
It is sad when anyone turns vicious but I think there is a special sense of societal loss when it is someone whose intelligence and natural gifts could have made him or her a very productive citizen. I couldn’t help but wonder what type of a person Carlton Gary would have been (assuming he is indeed the Columbus Stocking Strangler) if he had possessed a conscience to go with his intelligence.
It also seemed to me that Carlton Gary can be seen as the product of troubling tendencies within American culture. The first strike against him may have been being born out of wedlock. Children born to happily married couples often enjoy a sense of security and stability that other children lack. Another large strike against him was that the man believed to be his biological father would have nothing to do with young Carlton, giving him neither economic nor emotional support.
Out of financial necessity, Carlton Gary’s mother worked outside of the home. As I delved into his life, I concluded that her work may have been a factor in her son’s crimes. She had worked as a housekeeper for older white women. The victims of the Columbus Stocking Strangler were older white women.
Gary’s mother made little money at her jobs. She was often unable to care for him and left him with either an aunt or a great-aunt. The aunt also worked as a housekeeper for older white women.
Often the boy was malnourished because his mother or guardians did not have the money to adequately feed him. Malnutrition is known to result in brain damage that may be linked to criminality in general and violence in particular.
Carlton Gary once stated, “I don’t have any parents.” There was an emotional truth in this statement. He grew up without a relationship with his biological father or any father figure. Not only did his mother have to work outside of the home but she often could not even make enough to adequately support both herself and the child she shuffled around among relatives. It is possible that even when she and the child were together, she was too tired and stressed from her housekeeping job to give the boy the attention that he needed.
Readers, do you believe these factors contributed to the making of a serial murderer? What do you believe other factors were? Perhaps most pertinently, what can be done to prevent other children from suffering the disadvantages that can – not necessarily do but can – lead to their growing into destructive adults?
My story about the Columbus Stocking Stranglers is at http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/carlton_gary/1.html. I am very interested in any comments, positive or negative, that readers of this column might have about it.
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July 1st, 2007 at 6:33 am
rh…did your research lead you to any conclusions or opinions?
we live a society that does not hold women accountable for having children out of wedlock. indeed, we laud it as a “thing of beauty that represents individualism, impowerment and freedom from patriarchy for women.” do you essentially agree with my assessment? if not, please help me to understand your point.
women have gotten what they want. do they still want more? where does it come from? men possess nothing else to give.
July 1st, 2007 at 6:34 am
should have been dh, not rh. weak typist.
July 1st, 2007 at 9:23 am
There are millions of women who work outside the home. Most don’t have serial killer sons. In fact barely any do. The percentage would have half a dozen or more zeros after the nought point. Most of those mothers course would not be grossly underpaid by old white women. But even then…..
Most mothers, working outside the home or not don’t have serial killer sons. Most men are not serial killers. Just how many men would be classified as a serial killer in any one year in America. 2? 3? 5? Out of a hundred million males over 18. In Oz. 1 in ten years out of 7 million. The Uk? Uganda? (Ok skip Uganda).
How many working outside the home mothers are there worldwide, do you reckon? And with sons? How many such sons are serial killers.?
I’ll repeat that. Most men aren’t serial killers. Serial killers are as rare as hen’s teeth.
I don’t think that mothers who work can carry the can all by themselves. Maybe look closer at the particular mothers, rather than whether they work or not.
Better still, look at the men themselves (and the women serial killers, too. There are women serial killers you know)
July 1st, 2007 at 9:59 am
amfortas said,
There are millions of women who work outside the home. Most don’t have serial killer sons. In fact barely any do. The percentage would have half a dozen or more zeros after the nought point. Most of those mothers course would not be grossly underpaid by old white women. But even then…..>>
(Denise) Hi amfortas. I’m not among those who say mothers shouldn’t work outside of the home. I don’t criticize mothers for working outside of the home or for making homemaking their fulltime jobs. I’m well aware that serial murderers are a small group.
However, it seems to me that at least in the case of Carlton Gary, convicted as the Columbus Stocking Strangler, his mother’s job outside of the home may have been a factor in his crimes. After all, both his mother and aunt were housekeepers for elderly white women. The victims raped and murdered by the Columbus Stocking Strangler were elderly white women. Amfortas, do you believe this was a coincidence? I tend to believe there was a connection.
amfortas: Most mothers, working outside the home or not don’t have serial killer sons. Most men are not serial killers. Just how many men would be classified as a serial killer in any one year in America. 2? 3? 5? Out of a hundred million males over 18. In Oz. 1 in ten years out of 7 million. The Uk? Uganda? (Ok skip Uganda).
How many working outside the home mothers are there worldwide, do you reckon? And with sons? How many such sons are serial killers.?>>
(Denise) Worldwide, I’m sure there are millions of mothers who work outside the home. I don’t condemn or criticize any of them.
amfortas: I’ll repeat that. Most men aren’t serial killers. Serial killers are as rare as hen’s teeth.
I don’t think that mothers who work can carry the can all by themselves. Maybe look closer at the particular mothers, rather than whether they work or not.
(Denise) Did you read my Crime Library piece on the Columbus Stocking Strangler? I don’t believe Carlton Gary became a serial murderer simply because his mother worked outside of the home. However, it seems to me that there was probably a link between the sorts of jobs she held and her son’s turning into the person he did. Her jobs did not pay well so there was financial deprivation as well. It also seems likely to me, as I noted in the essay, that his mother may have been tired and stressed from being a housekeeper.
amfortas: Better still, look at the men themselves (and the women serial killers, too. There are women serial killers you know)
(Denise) I wrote a Crime Library story about serial poisoner Velma Barfield. She did not become a serial murderer because her mother worked outside of the home — her mother was a fulltime homemaker.
I still think there is probably a link between Carlton Gary’s mother’s jobs and his offenses.
July 1st, 2007 at 10:16 am
Denise, if you “still think there is probably a link between Carlton Gary’s mother’s jobs and his offenses”, then show it. You didn’t make any causitive connection.
What you did in your article was ask if we agreed. “Readers, do you believe these factors contributed to the making of a serial murderer? ”
I said ‘No’ (in a round about way). I didn’t impute anything to you. I simply answered your queston and posed a few queries. Perhaps you misinterpreted my rambling.
July 1st, 2007 at 10:37 am
amfortas said,
Denise, if you “still think there is probably a link between Carlton Gary’s mother’s jobs and his offenses”, then show it. You didn’t make any causitive connection.
What you did in your article was ask if we agreed. “Readers, do you believe these factors contributed to the making of a serial murderer? ”
I said ‘No’ (in a round about way). I didn’t impute anything to you. I simply answered your queston and posed a few queries. Perhaps you misinterpreted my rambling.
(Denise) Sorry, amfortas. I really wasn’t trying to make the case but to direct people to my article and ask what readers think. You believe there was no connection between his mother’s working outside the home and his crimes. Fine. I wanted your opinion and you gave it to me.
Did you read my Crime Library article?
If so, do you have an opinion as to why he went after the victims that he did?
July 1st, 2007 at 10:57 am
The book “Guilty by Reason of Insanity” makes a very strong link between serial killers and both child abuse and brain damage. The woman who wrote it is a medical doc who went to experts who told her she was wrong.
She challenged her students to find a serial killer who didn’t have both brain damage and child abuse (there must be some) offering a reward. A student suggestetd an exectutioner in Texas because he did kill more than one person. She interviewed him and found both child abuse and some brain damage.
Sounds too simple but the book is worth reading and sharing with those experts who claim that such men were just the quiet type next door, as if ANY man could go off and start killing. One man had been sexually abused at age 6 by his mother who forced him to have sex with his siblings and oral sex with her. He was also beaten and in a car wreck as a teenager where he never seemed to feel fear after. He didn’t recall the abuse when she interviewed him but she found out from his siblings. It was obvious looking at his face that something was wrong, like a stroke, but his public defender missed that and the child abuse. If a female client had that same attorney with such violence the attorney would look for reasons for a woman being so violent. With men we just want to punish them and not either undestand or prevent such damage.
In “East of Eden” Steinbeck has an Asian man speak of crime and criminals where he discusses rejection leading to an angry adult harming a child who kicks the cat.
I don’t excuse adults who harm others but I also think it’s asinine to treat tens of thousands of boys as badly as our culture does and then to act as if our culture doesn’t contribute to the violence of some boys who grow up NOT acting like men but who act like animals.
July 1st, 2007 at 11:12 am
Hmmm…Why do Eagles and Bears eat fish? Because they are predators and as predators they prey on those who aren’t strong enough to offer up enough resistance to fight em off…
It is the same with men and women who become serial killers and intentionally prey
on others who they see as weaker then themselves…Which is why women usually prey on children and the elderly…Of course it is the males that usually end up being punished more harshly then the females…
A better question to ask is: Now then why are so many women becoming serial financial rapists these days?
Because they can get away with it and until women are stopped in their tracks from financially raping the men in their lives please don’t ask me to shed any tears for those females who are the victims of a male serial killer…Quite frankly I don’t have any tears left nor the compassion to spare…
July 1st, 2007 at 11:41 am
I wonder what would happen if we held women to the same standards of conduct as we do men. We jail men who don’t pay child support, no matter what the circumstances as to why. What would happen if we jailed women who had children they couldn’t afford to support at the same levels of support we expect of men.
And would we be better off if we automatically gave custody of our children after a divorce to both parents or the one who can afford to raise the children… and do away with child support.
We have plenty of standards for men to be “real men”. What standards are there for a woman to be a “real woman”?
July 1st, 2007 at 11:46 am
Women serial killes. When Wornos (is that how you spell her name) killed men she was called “The First Woman Serial Killer!” by some journalists. She wasn’t, of course.
Clinton (H.) was posing with a woman years ago regarding SIDS and later it turned out that the woman she was posing with had been killing her children.
IF you don’t think women do such things: abuse men, sex with children, sexual harassment or even poison the gold fish of a friend, then you don’t look for it.
Man drops dead, must be a heart attack or stroke, move on. A man who cared for children, if more than two died, would be closely investigated. Some women have killed a few and many more have gotten away with it. Women have killed men – more than one – and been caught but for some reason the press doesn’t notice when they write about the next “First known female serial killer.”
Later
SD
Oh, PS Wernos after being treated as if she was a woman battered and abused, molested as a child, as an excuse or justification – while in prison she told a women in the prison that she had always wanted to see what it was like to kill someone.
July 2nd, 2007 at 3:47 am
amfortas said,
Denise, if you “still think there is probably a link between Carlton Gary’s mother’s jobs and his offenses”, then show it. You didn’t make any causitive connection.
What you did in your article was ask if we agreed. “Readers, do you believe these factors contributed to the making of a serial murderer? ”
I said ‘No’ (in a round about way). I didn’t impute anything to you. I simply answered your queston and posed a few queries. Perhaps you misinterpreted my rambling.
(Denise) While it seems at least possible to me that hearing complaints from his mother and aunt about the elderly women for whom they worked influenced Carlton Gary’s choice of victims, there is an alternate explanation. I talked with a male friend of mine about rapists and rape-murderers who target elderly victims and asked him his opinion as to why the elderly would be targeted. He said, “Because they’re easy to subdue.”
July 2nd, 2007 at 2:14 pm
I once tripped across a bulletin board-style forum on the FDA website. I don’t know if it was due to some mandate linked to them going online or what, but it was a webpage where anybody with a grievance with the FDA could post a comments of 500 words.
On there was a parole officer who said that he was able to reduce recidivism of teens convicted of vandalism-type crimes by 50% with mega doses of vitamin C and removing artificial sweeteners and colorings from the kids diet, and he couldn’t get any FDA goons to listen.
Could the FDA (and other government agencies) be suprressing alternatives to ritalin?