The ‘soft side’ of murder

The murder was almost perfect. There were no witnesses, no body, and the alibi – a good one. It was a murder/mystery with all the elements of blockbuster theatre. But the plot thickened as the charred remains of a body was discovered and positively identified as that of the murder victim.

This real-life drama is the story of Mary Lynch, a once prominent St Andrew housewife, who single-handedly hacked her 54 year-old husband, Leary, divisional general manager for credit at the National Commercial Bank, to death in May of 1992. Now 57 years-old, Lynch languishes in the Fort Augusta Adult Correctional Centre for Women, where it is likely that she will be spending the rest of her life.

Evidence from the lengthy trial in 1994 revealed that Mr Lynch was chopped to death at the couple’s Cherry Gardens residence — a split level house which they occupied alone. The missing body was later found in a remote area of Smokey Vale, and based on scientific evidence, had 25 chop wounds in the skull, some inflicted before death.

Lynch was arrested and charged for the death of her husband. After initially denying that she did not “kill anybody”, and that her husband had gone abroad, she finally testified of the gruesome killing.

She said she acted in self -defence after her husband attacked her with a machete. She told the court that she struggled with him, got hold of the machete and began swinging it at his head, chopping him several times.

Lynch said he kept fighting her, and at one point she blacked out. When she regained consciousness, she eased herself from under her husband and ran.

She said she later dragged the body from the master bedroom to the carport, where she put the body into the trunk of a white Volvo motorcar, and drove around until she ended up in the hills. She backed up the car into a narrow dirt road, took out the body, poured gas oil and newspaper on the body and lit it.

According to her, the relationship between them was ‘up and down’ and she felt that the marriage was being threatened by another woman. She also said she was unhappy because her husband expected her to do all the housework, refused to hire a helper and was unkind.

In 1998, under less bizarre circumstances, Aubrey Fraser, retired head of the Norman Manley Law School, was found dead in his bed at his home in Jacks Hill. His wife, Aileen Fraser, 74 and son, 33 year-old Rowan who shared the house with him, were convicted for his murder.

The body had 22 stab wounds to the neck and the head was bashed in. His body was tucked neatly in bed with feet crossed and his hands on his chest. Scientific evidence given at the trial indicated that the body was fixed up and his clothes changed after he was killed. Post-mortem reports indicated that he was killed between 7:30 pm and 9:00 pm on the night of November 29.

Married for 38 years, the couple had five children, and according to Fraser, up to the time of his death, she and her husband were “happily married”.

In her defence she said she went into the bedroom she shared with her husband at about 1:00 o’clock in the morning and was shocked to find him lying with his face half covered. She said she could not believe that he was dead, and she made an alarm.

High profile murders such as these and indeed other forms of violent crimes involving the conviction of women are rare in Jamaica, but they do occur and when this happens many unanswered questions come to mind.

What motivated these women to kill? How did they muster the courage to do so? Were they mentally ill and were not aware of what they were doing?

According to forensic psychiatrist, Dr Carol McDaniel, who provides psycho therapy for inmates in the island’s penal institutions, violent crimes are predominantly committed by men, and the few women who get involved are usually driven by extreme circumstances.

“In our system less than 10 per cent of those incarcerated are women, and the ratio of men to women in terms of violent crimes is 5:1,” she told All Woman.

“Undoubtedly, the breakdown of family values contributes to this type of dysfunctional behaviour. I have also found that there is a very close association between poverty and crime. Women from poor, broken homes are more likely to commit crimes than those who are not,” she continued.

How then does she explain the case of Mary Lynch and Aileen Fraser who do not fit this prototype?

“Women who commit violent offences are more likely than men to do so against someone very close to them like a lover, and it is often the case of victim precipitation where the victim provoked the attacker,” the psychiatrist said.

She told All Woman that a number of theories have been posited to explain the violent nature of women, one of which is the nature and nurture theory.

“Women by their very nature suffer hormonal imbalances especially during the pre-menstrual phase of their cycles, and studies have shown that this can influence some women to become more impulsive and aggressive. Studies have also shown that some of the most violent crimes committed by women took place during the week leading up to menstruation,” says McDaniel.

Another syndrome associated with hormonal imbalance is post-partum depression, she explains, which may result in infanticide as is the recent case of the California woman, Andrea Yeates.

“I have treated women in hospitals here who had strong urges to kill their babies and themselves while in the post-partum period. The women may get depressed, then suicidal and then think that if I go, I may as well take my child with me, because no one will be able to care for him or her like me. That’s one example where the nurture theory fits in,” McDaniel shared.

One of the theories attributed to nurture is the role of socialisation. In the decade of women’s liberation in the developed countries, there was an increase in the crime rate among women. As women are liberated and assume more traditionally male social roles, they tend to become more assertive and more confident in what they think they can achieve – legally or illegally. Some women feel that whatever the men do, they can do it too and many of the traditional social roles are abandoned.

“Tradionally, women have been known to commit ‘softer’ crimes like shoplifting, abortion, domestic theft and embezzlement which have a greater level of concealment and for which they are usually given more lenient sentencing,” McDaniel said.