HYBRISTOPHILIA: KILLER LOVE

Article BY MELISSA HOGLE - Art by NICOLAS CASTELAUX

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Most people have heard to those strange people who write fan letters to serial killers, who marry prison inmates, and those who pair off with killers and commit horrible crimes with them.  For the most part these women (most are female so we'll stick with that assumption in the generals of this piece) are regarded as sick and/or having mental problems, but never given a specific name to their illness even though there is one...Hybristophilia. Sometimes given the more casual name of the Bonnie & Clyde Syndrome it is, essentially, a fetish in which one is sexually aroused or attracted to those who have committed an outragous or gruesome crime.  And, like anything else, there seem to be various versions in which this "philia" can present itself...some more deadly than others.

 

The Fans

The most common and least dangerous are passive hybristophiliacs, also known as the fans. (All other forms to be discussed fall under the category of aggressive hybristophiliacs.)  They are those who write fan/love letters to convicts in prison, confess to finding serial killers attractive, or marry men imprisoned for violent crimes.  At a most basic and least in-depth reasoning these women are taking their bad-boy fascination to the next step.  

Doreen Lioy had 152 IQ, BA in English Literature, and fascination with serial killer Richard Ramirez. A freelance magazine editor, self-proclaimed virgin (which is supposedly what attracted Ramirez to her), and avid believer in his innocence she wrote approximately 75 letters to before they even met nine months after his arrest in 1985. When she finally did get a prison visit with him Doreen’s love for him only seemed to grow and deepen. On October 3, 1996 Doreen married the killer making her Mrs Richard Ramirez and claim that, in the event of his execution, she will kill herself.

Throughout Ted Bundy’s trial in Florida girls showed up with long brown hair parted in the middle to emulate his preferred victim type. Included in this crowd was Carol Ann Boone who became his girlfriend and moved from her home-state of Washington to Florida in order to be closer to her man. A man she repeatedly and continually claimed was innocent and being railroaded even after he was convicted. Then, during the penalty phase of his 1980 trial, Bundy took advantage of an old state law that allowed his proposal in the court and her joyful acceptance to be legally binding as a marriage. Sometime after that, in a way that’s still debated, Carol became pregnant with Bundy’s child. It took eight long years after her marriage to him for the woman to seemingly realize who and what Ted Bundy truly was and leave him.

There are numerous possibilities as to why these women took their bad-boy enjoyment to the next level. With Doreen and Carole it seemed to be that they were suffering from deep denial and even a delusion of sorts...they could not see Ramirez and Bundy for the killers they really were as the women had developed their own idealized fantasies about the men. In truth these women don’t truly know the men they’ve entered a relationship with; they share letters, short phone conversations, and meet with them for one to two hour jail visits, but even combined none of that allows these women to get a real glimpse behind the sociopath’s mask of normalcy. Instead these woman spend their time fantasizing about what their relationship would be like if their other half was not imprisoned, which is never going to be accurate.

Other reasons for Serial Killer Groupies, as they are also sometimes called, might be sympathy for someone who they feel (correctly or not) has had a hard life or been treated unfairly and a belief that their love can redeem the man convicted of multiple murders. A fear of rejection also likely plays a part as it’s unlikely a convict will rebuff a fan and the women may believe that only these types of men will love them for some reason. There’s also the assurance that a man in prison isn’t about to leave because he can’t.  These women, possibly for the first time in their lives, have more power in the relationship. They decide if and when their men may speak with them, see them, and the men cannot hurt them as they are behind bars.

 

The Angry Teen Girls

More prevalent than the fans they are more dangerous as well thanks as much to the immaturity of these ladies as to anything else. In the teen years hormones run wild and rebellion is common…toss in a beau that’s bad news and it can be a recipe for violence and murder.

The clearest, and possibly the most famous, example of this is Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate. After 14-year-old Caril’s parents refused to allow their daughter to date the 19-year-old Charles the young lovers decided to kick off an eight day killing spree by murdering Caril’s parents and infant sister. For five out of the eight days the young couple stayed in Caril’s home, having sex and playing house, as they made up excuses to keep relatives away. While she didn’t kill anyone herself Caril was very much an accomplice – following Charles on the road, collecting newspaper clippings about them, holding guns on hostages as her man took naps. Despite claims of being a hostage herself, of being forced to go along, it was clear to all those around them (including a jury which found her guilty and initially sentenced her to life) that Caril was a willing participant in Starkweather’s eight day crime spree.

Wendy Gardner was a A and B-earning, flute-playing, 13-year-old girl when she met bike-stealing, cat-killing, 15-year-old James Evans. Despite the seeming differences the two hit it off by finding a connection in violence - Wendy’s mother was a drug-addict, her father boasted how his own father dropped dead during an argument between them, and Wendy herself wrote in a diary about the desire to tear the flesh off an ex of hers. By Christmas 1994 Wendy was virtually living with James and his mother, but then her grandmother and legal guardian, Betty Gardner, ordered her home and the violent fantasies the two shared took a very serious turn. The two decided to kill Wendy’s grandmother so that they would be free of her and Wendy would no longer be subjected to Betty’s corporal punishment and emotional abuse (such as Betty telling Wendy she’d end up just like her mother and making the girl watch as she knelt in prayer to curse God for leaving Wendy with her). On December 28, 1994, the two put their plans into action and, with a kite string, James strangled the woman as he declared, “Remember this, bitch, you’re never going to be able to hit her again” while Wendy ran and hid upstairs. Later the two teens had sex in the same room that Betty was murdered in, stuffed her body in the trunk of her car, and spent the next few days hanging out, having sex, and taking the occasional trip in the car (body still in the trunk) to spend Grandma’s money on video games, candy, sneakers, lingerie, and bowling. It was Wendy’s 11-year-old sister, Kathy, who turned them in...either tied up in the house or dragged along with the young couple throughout the ordeal she finally escaped to a neighbor’s house three days after her grandmother was murdered.

In some cases it would seem these young women are simply seeking out a hero of sorts to save them from unhappy, sometimes abusive, homes. Other cases involve girls that are looking not just for a savior, but a violent avenger as well. In both those cases these angry teen girls feel the need to find someone bigger, badder, and more violent than their current guardians in order to accomplish their goals. Those already freed from the misery of their home life may take a while longer to seek out their violent lover, but when they find them they are no less attracted to what their men are capable of, no less turned on by the terrors committed on the unfortunate victims they and their men come across.

 

The Compliant Victims

Sadly these women, these compliant victims are not as rare as one would hope and, while the heinousness of their crimes depend greatly on their significant other, they tend to end up with pretty horrific, sadistic, men as their partners.

After approximately four years of subjecting his wife, Janice, to his sadistic desires Cameron Hooker convinced her to help him kidnap a woman to be his own personal bondage slave in March 1977. The couple picked up 20-year-old hitchhiker Colleen Stan and held her prisoner for the next seven years. During the first eight months of her captivity Colleen was held in a series of coffin-like boxes 23 hours a day, taken out only to be tortured by Cameron. When finally released from the boxes Colleen was forced to a sign a contract of servitude to “The Company” - a fictional group pulled from a porn magazine that Cameron claimed was composed of rich, omnipotent, sex-slave traders that were everywhere and knew everything - after which the sexual assaults began.

For the rest of her time as the Hooker’s prisoner Colleen was forced to be Cameron’s sex slave and general servant for the family as a whole, including nanny for the couple’s two children. It wasn’t until Janice felt jealous at the perceived closeness her husband had with their captive and Cameron’s mentioned the desire to make Colleen a second wife then get more sex slaves for himself that the woman finally spoke up. She confessed to Colleen that Cameron was not part of “The Company” and that the girl was free to leave and then, three months later, called the police on her husband for a separate crime (the murder of a missing girl from 1976) that he was never to be charged with. However, in November 1984, he was arrested, charged, and convicted of all crimes concerning Colleen Stan. He is currently serving 104 years. And Janice? She was granted full immunity for testimony given against her husband, left the man for good, and got herself a new name so that she could live in relative anonymity as she worked on repairing her own self-esteem.

Still the question remains...what kind of women are these? At first glance it would seem these women are poor-unfortunates overpowered by the man in their life and helpless to stop what is happening around them. However these women engage in these relationships willingly to start; they don’t leave after their mates confess their dark fantasies or the first act of aggression from these men and they agree to aid in the kidnapping and torture of others rather than refuse. On the surface they aren’t evil or aggressive themselves, but they allow the men in their lives to do truly terrible things to other women without complaint. Even when given opportunities to do the right thing, to help those desperately in need of it, they tend not to until it somehow effects them. (Such as Janice only acting to help free Colleen once she began to grow jealous of her husband’s affection for the young woman.) This suggests that, on a level they themselves might not even be conscious of, these women are accomplices and okay with the way their partners treat others. It would appear to be a “better them than me” scenario as well as a way for these compliant victims to feel powerful themselves - something they may have the need for even more after spending years with their naturally sadistic counterparts. These types of hybrisotphiliacs may start off loving their men despite the terrible things they do, but they end up loving them for it...as long as it’s done to someone else.

 

The Superman’s Girl

Some ladies just think they’re rare and special, which is the case with those in The Superman’s Girl category. They aren’t, unfortunately, and while they prefer to work with a male counterpart these women are pretty terrible in their own right. Unlike Janice Hooker who would never have considered committing a crime had she not met her husband, Cameron, The Superman’s Girl has an egotistic, criminal, mind all its own.

Myra Hindley was of average intelligence and spoiled by her grandmother, but she was also troubled and aggressive before she ever met her mate. With violence in her home and being rewarded outside (her father once threatened to beat her if she didn’t knock out a boy who’d picked on her when she was eight) Myra was primed to seek out and enjoy violence from an early age. It was hardly surprise when she was attracted to Ian Brady, who had a criminal record and interest in Nazism, upon meeting him in 1961. Together they would picnic at Saddleworth Moor in England as they discussed the Marquis de Sade, their Nazi idols, and how to commit the perfect murder before putting their ideas and plans into action in 1968. Throughout the murder of five teens and children Hindley was an active participant, not a bystander. It was Myra who got the van they used during their crimes, it was she who lured their victims into the van, and it was her photographing and audio-taping the brutalization of them.

Also to be included in this group is Charlene Gallego who, while highly intelligent and having great potential as a child, grew to seek out a sexually sadistic man with whom she could share fantasies about having young, virginal, sex slaves with. Once she found her seeming equal in longtime sex offender, Gerald, the two raped and murdered ten girls together. Charlene participated with equal, if not sometimes greater, fervor in the violent sexual assaults on the girls...once she even grew angry and took a shot at her husband when he began to rape two victims without her.

These women already feel superior to everyone around them so, naturally, their man has to be the same. He has to be the Übermensch, Nietzche’s The Superman, a man above all others she’s ever met or will meet in order to even interest her. After they’re caught these women will paint themselves as a compliant victim, they will say their men owned them and ruled over everything they did, but that’s never the case. Like male serial killers these woman believe they are entitled to rape, torture, and murder others. With their men being kings, they are queens deserving of the right to rule over the life and death of others.

 

Brides of Chucky

Overall they’re likely the most rare, but they’re also the most extreme in violent aggression. Often they present as sociopaths all on their own and their predatory nature is as aggressive and constant as their male counterparts. They don’t so much seek out a bad man as instinctually find that connection of the predator within from the men they pair up with. Once partnered these women create a folie a deux with their men in which they fuel one another’s sadistic fantasies and tendencies.

Carol Bundy’s man, Douglas Clark, liked to shoot his female victims in the head while they gave him oral sex and she seemed to have no problems with that. When he first confessed to killing Carol called the cops only to get details from them that might confirm Douglas’ claims of responsibility. In one instance Carol even dolled up (did the hair and put on fresh make-up) the severed head of a victim so that her boyfriend could better enjoy having sex with it. But Carol’s true nature became most clear when, in desperate attempts to regain Douglas’ presumed lost interest in her, she found her own victim to decapitate in the form of a former lover named John “Jack” Robert Murray.

 

A Thin Line

Even with these hybristophiliacs being categorized the groupings are not solid since, often times, the issues and circumstances that cause a woman to be one kind of killer-lover can also cause her to be another. Many, most, will stay fans adoring and fantasizing from afar or just through letters. They will not grow violent themselves and, once they accept the truth and gravity of what their imprisoned men have done, many will also eventually cuts ties with the prisoners. This is not always the case though; sometimes these fans become accomplices to the dangerous men they love.

Jennifer Forsyth Taylor was working as a nurse in a prison when she met prisoner George Hyatte, a longtime criminal with a history of escapes throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. The two began their romance when George was asked to watch over and protect Jennifer from other inmates who were making aggressive sexual overtures in May 2004...by August 2004 she was fired for sneaking food in and having an inappropriate relationship with Hyatte. Nine months after her firing the two were married in a visitor room at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution where George was housed after Jennifer’s firing and, after that, they were not allowed to see each afterwards due to visitor policy at the prison. Aside from the first few months of face-to-face contact this beginning, along with Jennifer’s history of non-violence and clean criminal record, would settle her into the passive hybristophiliac category, but what she did next switched her to the aggressive kind.

Upon pressing from her new husband Jennifer agreed to help him escape from the Roance County Court House after a hearing he was to attend in August 2005. With an illegally obtained gun Jennifer waited outside the courthouse for her husband to intercept him and his guards as he was escorted back to prison. She approached with gun in hand and opened fire hitting both transport officers and killing one, Wayne “Cotton” Morgan, before she fled with her husband. The day after the shooting the couple was caught and arrested for first-degree murder; both pleaded guilty and were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Sadly hybristophilia, despite its prevalence and potential dangers in the aggressive form, is a vastly understudied condition. It is hard to say exactly what factors contribute to creating which kind of hybristophiliac for certain, or what might make one kind develop into another, though in all likelihood it’s a combination of several nature and nurture based aspects working together. Someone with this disorder generally doesn’t seek treatment unless required by law and even then it is far more likely that the hybristophilia is being treated as a secondary issue to other mental problems - mood disorders, personality disorders, and other possible issues - that a fair number of these women have in addition to the philia.