Terrible, terrible story. And true.
Francine Hughes, after fourteen years of spousal abuse at the hands of her husband, sets a gas accelerated fire around the bed of her sleeping, drunk husband who had spent the day drinking and abusing her.
When you read the story the words are written as if a reasonable and innocent woman, who might otherwise have never experienced violence, was caught in a situation so horrible that the only way out was to murder her husband. Actually he was her ex-husband but he refused to leave.
I had mixed feelings about the acquittal, jury handed down a decision of temporary insanity. It was pretty clear that if she didn't kill him he was going to kill her. But the self-defense excuse was not going to fly because he had been asleep when she killed him. I think it was self-defense and not temporary insanity, but the lawyer chose well in his decisions on how to best save Francine from a life in jail. The book also makes it seem like she was close to her kids and all they needed was the father out of the picture.
So the story ends on a positive note with Francine walking free.
But go ahead and read about her life after this book. She was partying and doing drugs, her kids were already traumatized by the abuse they had witnessed, and the horrible way their father died. A few years after the trial Francine marries a man who becomes a, well I guess you could say hard-line strict, step-father, physically abusive and, if the youngest child Nicole is telling the truth, sexually abusive. I think it might have been better for everyone if Francine had served her life sentence and I don't know if the kids could have been rescued or not, but it would have been nice if someone had tried.
http://www.people.com/people/archive/...
Probably the most important thing about this book, and all the publicity around the case, is that it helped to change perception about spousal abuse. When Francine was growing up spousal abuse was the business of the family and nobody else's business. Her father abused her mother. She grew up seeing it, and to a large degree it was part of the culture of male dominance in which she lived. We understand a lot more now about the psychology of abuse, its causes and effects. It doesn't mean we have things under control though. From what I read, the third son Dana also became an abusive husband. We have more social services to help battered women and children, but it is far from a sure thing that these victims can get the help they need, that they can recover and not become the next generation of abusers.
Also, I am not sure about the accuracy of what I have said here; I read a book and read some on line articles and comments. Her granddaughter says her grandmother did not marry another abusive man and that we should stop acting like we know her family when we don't. She has a point.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Discuss:Wha...

Not selected in the non-fic VBB. I plan to wild release it.

In Seattle, on 65th and 33rd NE in front of Bryant Bakery.