November 5, 2014

"The killing, she said, was an act of mercy toward her son, who was autistic and did not speak."

"She testified that one ex-husband had threatened to kill her, and another ex-husband — whom she suspected of sadistically abusing the boy — would then gain custody. 'I didn’t see any way out of this situation,' she testified. 'I made a decision that I was going to end my life and Jude’s life.'... She said her son first described the abuse with a few partial words and gestures, but then, in a breakthrough three months later, learned to type on a laptop and gave a detailed account, naming several other people as well. Ms. Jordan’s lawyer, Allan L. Brenner, contended the threats from her first husband, coupled with her fear her son would again be abused, caused an emotional maelstrom. She saw a murder-suicide as the only path out of their predicament, he said. 'She did it because she loved Jude,' he told jurors in his summation last week."

 Gigi Jordan was convicted of manslaughter today in New York City.

41 comments:

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

But she's alive... and her son is dead.

madAsHell said...

WTF!!
The woman had the financial resources to secure a different outcome, but chose the murder-suicide path....and then messed that up.

I don't believe the sex abuse story either. The kid was crimping her lifestyle, and she didn't want the burden.

Lydia said...

Being a multi-millionaire I guess helped -- She has employed at least 11 lawyers, including top names on the defense bar, and has had five or six lawyers in the courtroom every day of the two-month trial. She also has hired Source Communications, a public relations firm.

Big Mike said...

The option to abort is supposed to end after the baby is delivered.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

There's entirely too much sympathy for women who murder their autistic sons. What's going on here?

Jupiter said...

John Lynch said...
"But she's alive... and her son is dead."

And she's guilty as Hell. And he was innocent.

Nancy Reyes said...

I am not familiar with the case, but The part about the child who learned to type on a computer instantly caught my attention.

Bullcrappy alert.

I suspect his typing was done with his hand guided by an assistant.

And I suspect that the tales of sexual abuse by many people was written with correct spelling and grammar. Why? Because too many of these cases are actually written by the hand that guided the child's hand (often subconsciously, similar to a oiuja board).

There have been several cases where parents or caretakers even went to jail, until an expose filmed a child using a letter board while staring at the ceiling, and it was pointed out that ordinary folks couldn't do that.

Autism is a severe handicap, but usually they can speak, albeit with improper grammar and concrete thinking. I suspect the child is retarded, with autistic symptoms. Which makes the typing story even more incredible/

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

I don't really care if the abuse story is true or not.

We kill abuse victims now?

Is that like an honor killing?

Dave Schumann said...

(a) Facilitated Communication has been proven to be bunkum, over and over and over. And over. And then some more.

(b) The reason to claim you PLANNED a murder-suicide is that a murder-suicide implies a degree a desperation that a mere murder does not. Except, why would anyone give any credence to a CLAIM of murder-suicide? Just go already.

Tarrou said...

A woman's right to choose!

You judgmental bastards have no right to weigh in on what is a private medical decision. In fact, your opinions are in violation of human rights (the female right to not be inconvenienced, disagreed with or annoyed). Report yourselves to the nearest police station, confess fully and maybe we will be lenient.

Bob Ellison said...

I know a bunch of parents of special-needs kids. They go through a lot, especially financially and emotionally, to bring up their kids.

This woman did not.

Freeman Hunt said...

There's entirely too much sympathy for women who murder their autistic sons. What's going on here?

I agree. Prison 'til death.

Anonymous said...

I have an autistic son who does not talk. He was a challenge to raise and now is an adult living in a group home. He loves life and many people have told me that his enthusiasm over the smallest things brightens their day. There is no logic that justifies this killing.

Bob Ellison said...

Grundoon, my son with Down Syndrome is a favorite among his classmates at all ages. His bus driver, his bus-mates, and his classmates love him, probably mostly because he's such a nice guy, but partly because they, his friends, are nice people.

President-Mom-Jeans said...

This rotten bitch should be executed.

Instead she will become the feminist version of Mumia.

CatherineM said...

This is someone who can afford Cadillac-level 24/7 care and a Ritz Carlton level group home for him with people who actually care for him. She didn't just want her freedom she didn't even want to bothered.

She is inhuman.

On the radio on the ride home they called her the "millionaire mom who killed her autistic son and beat the murder rap."

Lydia said...

Alan Dershowitz was one of her attorneys. Guess he did a repeat of his Claus von Bulow star turn.

All very disgusting.

Quaestor said...

When I read the first few sentences of this post it felt like my head was spinning. That killing happened only a few days ago, and it's already gone to trial?! Then I realized this was another murder of an autistic boy by his mother. The incident that had been foremost in my mind was this killing in Oregon.

I hope this isn't a developing pattern. I thought this "post-birth abortion" trend was extremely overblown, but maybe not? Chilling.

themightypuck said...

The judicial system is not perfect. The guilty frequently get off easy and the innocent occasionally do not. Having a lot of money to pay for lawyers and experts frequently puts a thumb on the scales. This is the price of civilization.

n.n said...

The viability standard is equally meaningful post-birth. The current standard for elective abortions from conception to birth is arbitrary and even capricious. It's ironic that a mother would take the life of her son who lacked a voice to protest his murder. The empathy is shallow.

Fernandinande said...

boinky said...
Bullcrappy alert.


Yup.

Henry said...

naming several other people as well

Fells Acres. Vile, vile, woman.

Jane the Actuary said...

Facilitated communication is nothing but quackery. But there are autistic kids who truly do type independently. I don't know how they figure it out -- maybe enough of their therapy takes the form of trying to teach reading and it sinks in? -- but the older brother of one of my son's friends does so, though I don't know the details, and here's a website of a similar girl: http://carlysvoice.com/home/

William said...

I don't know anything about this case and don't want to know. I did know one woman who was the mother of a severely involved autistic son. She was a first rate human being with vast reserves of endurance and decency. Even so she was pushed to the edge and a little over it by her son's behavior. And she used to wonder about what would happen to her son after she died. It was a twisted knot of anger, love, regret, frazzled nerves and weariness with no way of solving the puzzle and no possibility of a happy ending.......I don't know the details of this case, but the gentle rain of mercy should wash away some oft his woman's sins.

Anthony said...

Most murder-suicides have the decency to actually commit suicide, and save society the trouble of disposing of them. Unlike this one.

Revenant said...

Only four attempts at clever remarks about abortion? Truly the local conservatives are feeling magnanimous in the aftermath of yesterday's wave election.

theo said...

She murdered her child.

She may not be evil but she will always know she killed her child.

Her earthly sentence may seem minimal but her Karmic sentence will be ever lasting.

tim maguire said...

Sometimes murder-suicides are successful and both are dead. Sometimes they are only partly successful and the murder victim is dead.

How often are they only partly successful and the suicide is dead?

Larry J said...

themightypuck said...
The judicial system is not perfect. The guilty frequently get off easy and the innocent occasionally do not. Having a lot of money to pay for lawyers and experts frequently puts a thumb on the scales. This is the price of civilization.


Which is why our nation's claim of "equal justice under the law" has always been a sick joke.

Big Mike said...

@Revenant, "post partum abortion" seems to be the latest meme in the never-ending culture wars. You can forget about finding some soothing name for it -- "post partum abortion," "abortion past nine months," Althouse's "euthanasia," whatever. Count it as a bridge too far and back off.

Shanna said...

Being a multi-millionaire I guess helped

Wait, what? If she has that kind of money, I do not buy her being pushed over the edge. Not that I bought it anyway, because what she did is heinous, but if you have that kind of money, you have enough to get professional help. Send her to prison. Evil.

Peter said...

"I made a decision that I was going to end my life and Jude’s life."

Perhaps we need PSAs to urge those considering murder-suicide that if they're truly determined to proceed, do themselves first?

Big Mike said...

Which is why our nation's claim of "equal justice under the law" has always been a sick joke.

Let me know when you find a better system of justice.

William said...

I didn't read the story. It doesn't sound like the feel good story of the year. I would say in the woman's defense that her wealth should probably be considered a mitigating rather than an aggravating factor. There are some problems that money can't buy your way out of. Wealthy people find such problems more not less overwhelming when they encounter them--if, in fact, they ever encounter them......I'm as judgmental as the next person, and I don't mean to sound too judgmental on the judgmental people here, but this is a case that calls for charity and mercy.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

William-

It's not merciful to all the disabled children out there when we let their killers escape justice.

The message is that their lives aren't worth as much as everyone else's. That's what you're saying, isn't it? It's understandable for a disabled child to be killed under the right circumstances?

Why the sympathy for someone who isn't the victim? Who is, in fact, the cause of the "tragedy."

I'm fine with being judgmental about murder being wrong, especially when committed against the weak and helpless by the person whom they trust the most.

William said...

Parents with severely disabled children have a weary burden. I knew one woman with an autistic child. He was frequently in an agitated state and needed relentless attention. His mother was smart, sane, and good. She had a supportive husband with a good income. She confided that she was on many days at her wit's end and, on other days, in a state of despair......I knew her from before she got married. She expected to have one kind of life, but got a vastly more difficult one instead. She never broke, but the problems associated with raising a severely disabled child defined and circumscribed every activity of her life. It was a tough fate,.......Paul Fussell, speaking of the experience of combat, said that it drives you crazy. Some men endure more than others but, if you live in a state of chronic mortal terror, you will go crazy. The question was not if but when........I don't know and don't want to know the circumstances of this particular woman's case, but she was under a lot of stress, and, perhaps for the first time, was facing a problem that was not money soluble and that would only get worse with the passage of time. She screwed up, but I've heard of worse sins.

Larry J said...

Big Mike said...
Which is why our nation's claim of "equal justice under the law" has always been a sick joke.

Let me know when you find a better system of justice.


We have the finest justice system that money can buy. For those without sufficent money, not so much.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

William, my son is autistic.

Think I got the life I thought I'd get? Nope. No one expected me to spend most of my time being a stay at home parent. Or for my son to be anything other than a smart, precocious child with unlimited horizons.

Fortunately, my previous life experience wasn't easy and I wasn't wedded to the idea that everything would always come up roses.

Murder is still murder. It's insulting to everyone who takes care of a disabled person, day in and day out, to excuse murder.

Judgmental? Sure. Unsympathetic? No, I reserve sympathy for people who deserve it. For the people who aren't in the news for doing something awful.

My son isn't an affliction, he's not a disease, and he's not an accessory to a tragic story starring me. If anything, I'm part of his story. I'm not sorry about it, either.

William said...

John

You know more about this than I do. I admire your decency and kindness and hope everything works out for the best. The strength of the back is sometimes more defining than the weight of the burden.

Revenant said...

@Revenant, "post partum abortion" seems to be the latest meme in the never-ending culture wars.

Yes, that's why I'm making fun of you people for using it.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

18 years.