Dateline interviews Mary Winkler

Submitted by Matt on Sun, 2010-11-07 17:39

Article here. For those new to the case, read some about it on Wikipedia here. She has consistently claimed she was a battered woman and that she didn't mean to kill her husband. The Dateline site story has comments, one from user shatteredmen which follows in part, with minor edits:

'Mary said the shot gun went off "accidentally". Did the phone get unplugged accidentally? Did the reservations for her get away get made accidentally too? Did she accidentally write 17 THOUSAND dollars of hot checks for which she and Matt were to meet the authorities at the bank the day he was shot to talk about paying it back? (The last I knew, writing checks for money you knew you did not have was a crime but she got away with that too.) What would YOU do if you accidentally shot someone? Would you watch them bleed to death or would you call 911? Also, there was NO EVIDENCE of abuse and I contend there is a good chance Matt did not even know about the high heels that were used to prove his abuse. He is no longer here to defend himself as she trashes his name more and more.

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Comments

I saw part of the interview, in which basically she claimed he'd been abusive for many years, wanting sex every night, even if she said no. The story was very sympathetic to her.

On the stand, she said the gun just "went off"--it's interesting how inanimate objects can suddenly become animated when a woman's around. Maybe there's something to witchcraft after all. Women don't do things--they just happen. At any rate, I've seen the same claim made by other women--and the press just eats it up. And apparently, so do juries.

I also saw part of a story on Phil Hartman, who was killed by his wife. The reporter described it as a "tragedy." When women are killed by their husbands, does anyone ever refer to it as a "tragedy"? When Scott Petersen supposedly killed his wife, did anyone call it the "tragic"? Or wasn't he portrayed as the quintessential villain?

Our cultural need to see women as sympathetic or tragic figures is amazing. Once you see the sympathetic portrayal of these killers, it's hard not to believe they deserve more pity than censure. And for most people, all they see are the sympathetic portrayals--so nothing seems amiss.

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Submitted by el cid on Mon, 2010-11-08 23:37

The husband abuser/murderer bloody Mary Winkler is in my opinion what is wrong with this society when it comes to relations between men and women. Due to the preconceived image put in the general public mindset of women as always good/victim and men as always bad/predator it is now a formula for killing men with impunity and getting away with it. Since the male murder victim is always portrayed by the defense as a brut who deserved to die for the years of abuse he regularly visited on the poor, weak and defenseless female. Actual solid proof of any wrongdoing by the murdered male victim is not necessary since the jury, both male and female has been preprogrammed to always believe the female murderer. It is a social exercise like saying the Pledge of Allegiance to repeat the hypnotic mental chant that women never lie about rape and domestic abuse they have suffered and therefore must be believed regardless of any contradictory evidence. Get used to it. This society is SCREWED!

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Submitted by Luek on Tue, 2010-11-09 07:58