Girls Who Kill on E! Entertainment
I was interviewed for a show for an "E! Entertainment Special: When Girls Kill" that premieres tonight, Thursday at 10:00 pm Eastern. The show looks at the case of four young killers, one of them Natasha Wallen Cornett:
You can see more about the show here.
Update: You can also see the show today (Friday, January 20th) at 11:00 AM eastern and 3:00 PM eastern on E! TV.
Natasha Wallen was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder early in life and spent some time in mental hospitals. During that time Natasha developed a dark fantasy world, and attracted a crowd of like minded teenage outcasts. One April night in 1997, a tragic clash of innocence and evil lead to a violent and horrifying conclusion for Natasha and her friends. Serving a life sentence, Natasha, the alleged ring leader who was once fascinated with satanic rituals, speaks out about her horrible past and now contends that better mental health care as a youth might have prevented her unthinkable actions.
You can see more about the show here.
Update: You can also see the show today (Friday, January 20th) at 11:00 AM eastern and 3:00 PM eastern on E! TV.
Labels: media stuff
posted by Helen Smith at 6:20 AM
13 Comments:
I tend to avoid satanic rituals.
As a rule.
Trey
Thank you for contributing to an important topic, Dr. Helen. Unfortunate, isn't it, that the show is broadcast on E! Entertainment News? Human tragedy should not qualify as entertainment.
Natasha, the alleged ring leader who was once fascinated with satanic rituals, speaks out about her horrible past and now contends that better mental health care as a youth might have prevented her unthinkable actions.
She was born in 1979. The use of lithium salts to control the symptoms of bipolar disorder was readily available then. Were lithium salts not prescribed? Did she refuse to take them because she liked the manic part of the cycle?
Ern, that is the main issue for most of the bipolar people I know, medication compliance. Hypomania and the first part of a manic episode can be a subjectively fun experience for the person in the throes of the episiode.
Of course most bipolar people never kill anyone, so I am still interested in her motivation.
Trey
I tend to avoid satanic rituals.
Two rules I always keep. 1)Never tempt the Devil. 2) Never test God.
The paragraph about Natasha Wallen seems a little to sympathetic. Would they be as sympathetic to a man, or just describe him as a violent monster?
I remember the murder of Shanda Sharer by three other girls quite well. An older sister of one of the murderers lived in my area and my son went to pre-school with her daughter. A truly horrific murder.
Ern,
Lithium was prescribed but there was no follow through with the meds. The mental health professionals did not monitor the meds or make sure she took them or even followed up on her therapy. She was released from a mental hospitial after 11 days, though records showed she was dangerous to herself and others.
Helen
Brenda Anne Spencer, remember her?
January, 1979. Her father had given her a rifle for Christmas, because she had expressed an interest in guns. So, on the first day of school, she pretended to be sick, then stayed home and opened fire on the elementary school across the street. She killed two men, the principal and the janitor, and wounded eight children.
When the police finally found her, she was in her room playing with toys. The sheriff asked her, why? And she said, "I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day."
Think about that for a long time.
Girls are mean, always have been. The Daemons, ever heard of them? They were an all female cult in ancient Greece. And they were a frenzied cult.
Every year, at the festival of Bacchus, the god of wine, they would drink themselves into a frenzy, then go out and look for a male victim. They would gang rape him, then literally rip him apart with their hands and teeth, and eat him raw.
Some things never change.
In Sundiver, the first of the Uplift books, there was a solution for this problem. All criminals, and potential criminals, were segregated from society. For life.
Everyone got tested when they were young, and if you had criminal tendencies, off you went, or you were watched closley...
So, we have this situation right now, of high "unemployment". A situation which, I feel, could be more accuratley described. The real problem, is that computers, and machines, are replacing the labor of humans.
So, what are these excess people to do? Here is one thing: they could work with the mentally challenged. Labor intensive, computers can't do it...yet. One use for our excess capacity.
These people, the mentally ill, need to be identified (easy, gets easier every day) and segregated, and monitored for compliance. In time, I'm sure, cures will be found.
The real problem, of course, is the ignorance and stupidity of the generel population.
Xiaoding wrote: "These people, the mentally ill, need to be identified (easy, gets easier every day) and segregated, and monitored for compliance."
I hope you are referring to the dangerously mentally ill. Even if we just talk about the dangerously mentally ill, and many of them certainly could be identified by even current brain scan technology, are you thinking of testing everyone?
And what about false positives? There are just too many civil liberty issues with your proposal for my views.
But as a culture we certainly could do better. There are generally reliable warning signs of escalating behavior. This woman was identified, but she was not stabilized or supported or monitored after discharge. That is a huge concern for me.
Trey
In Sundiver, the first of the Uplift books, there was a solution for this problem. All criminals, and potential criminals, were segregated from society. For life.-Xiaoding
We have something like that in California. However, do-gooders have made the "solution" so costly that the once-Golden State is being bankrupted.
Somehow it seems rather too considerate to natasha. I can't remember when a guy who led a gang was shown this much consideration. Mostly, he would have been sentenced to death regardless of his circumstances(including pot smoking, abusive mom, dad, step sister/brother etc etc) and a mental evaluation would probably not even have been done and even if done, would have stated normal no matter what the evidence just because he was male.
As one who firmly believes there is something "wrong" with everyone, from minor personality quirks all the way up to people who actually don't like ME (can you believe it?) I have no answer except to pursue my convictions like a hermit in a cave.
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