Posted on 06/30/2006 9:54:04 AM PDT by LouAvul
SELMER, Tennessee (CNN) -- For three months, the 4,500 souls of this God-fearing town have been left to wonder if a demure preacher's wife shot her husband in the back and ran off to the beach with their three girls.
.......
Here, third-generation preacher Matthew Winkler, a strapping 31-year-old with a booming voice and charisma to burn, was beginning to make his mark after little more than a year. He had a knack for connecting with younger members, who called him "Wink."
On March 22, four church members -- including a doctor and the town undertaker -- let themselves in to the tidy brick parsonage on Mollie Street when Winkler didn't show up for Wednesday evening services.
They found him in the master bedroom. He had been shot in the back with a shotgun.
...........
Across the street from where the Winklers lived, Sharon Everitt has no problem with Mary Winkler going free.
"She could come in here, she could sleep in my bed, live in my house," Everitt said. "She is not a danger to anybody." At the time of the slaying, Everitt recalled, the Winklers were portrayed as the perfect couple. The day he died, she said, Matthew Winkler "got elevated to sainthood."
Everitt and her husband, Dan, said they saw another side to Matthew Winkler that troubled them. After their rottweiler, Madison, wandered into the Winklers' yard, the preacher threatened to shoot the dog.
They found his behavior rude and aggressive, they said. Mary Winkler stepped back as her husband spoke, as if to signal she did not agree with his approach, Sharon Everitt recalled.
"I remember saying to myself, 'This is not new neighbor behavior. This is not preacher behavior. What is this aggression?' Boy, I betcha he's fun to live with," she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
LOL That pretty well sums it up.
Actually it is believed that the wife was previously married to a convict in Florida. He was just about to be released when she shot the pastor and headed off to Florida.
The woman is a murderer and there is absolutely no evidence of abuse, although there is evidence that she did maintain contact with the felon in Florida. Why is it that people automatically assume that if a wife kills her husband its because he deserved it? He and his children are the victims here.
If the woman killed her husband it was one of two things--self defense or murder.
It is being dropped/leaked that she was abused. So once again according to this information the implication is--either the guy was about to kill her or her children and she killed him (self defense) or she murdered him.
If she says it was an abusive relationship, she is implying this makes the killing OK. Being in an abusive relationship does not make killing OK. One thing does not naturally follow the other.
What is really true, is she is either saying "he was about to kill me or my children" (so I had a legitimate reason for killing him--self defense) or "he was not about ready to kill me or my children and I killed him." (murder).
In the latter she is saying, "I wanted away from him" (then get a divorce--pro bono if she didn't have the money) "because he was abusing me" (then go to a safe house with the children, immediately they will protect you and give you food, clothing, shelter, assistance, point you toward legal resources) "so I killed him, because I was self centered and decided it was time his life was over and I don't care about the impact this action has on my children."
Also by shooting him because she wants out, she basically wants immediate gratification and results, instead of doing the hard work of finding legal counsel, moving to a safe house, doing the emotional, personal and spiritual work to get through the long road ahead of her.
No leap. If she didn't kill him in self defense, she was too lazy to get a divorce and self centered in the fact that she killed the children's father and wanted retribution, playing God--plain and simple. It isn't that complicated. She had many other resources.
I was thinking I might find myself saying the same thing, especially if I had warned them before. Who is to know if he really said it, in what tone and circumstance he said it, if so?
I know the neighbor did not like hearing the preacher say that about their dog, if he said it, so now the neighbor trashes the pastor's reputation and puts some doubts on other people's mind about what kind of man this preacher was.
She just was arrested, so we should wait until credible facts surface.
An abused spouse does have a totally different mindset. It is a dangerous myth that an abused spouse has a safe place to go. Beds are full, boys over a certain age cannot be housed with parent and female siblings.
Here's another thing to consider. The victim was a popular preacher. If she and/or the children were being abused by him, what's to say anyone would believe her? High profile abusers get away with more abuse for longer periods of time. They make sure their victims are led to believe that people will think they're crazy.
Besides the general story of course, something is nagging at me. Women generally prefer poison or knives, rather than shotgunning someone in the back. Or am I wrong?
Let's just chill out and wait.
Really? Interesting bit of info. I wonder if the woman also has an arrest record, and what her ex was in prison for?
As for her being a murderer, or that there wasn't any abuse, I'll wait for more facts. I jumped the gun big time when I first heard about the Duke LaCrosse case. I will try not to do that again.
On the other hand, it may be much more interesting when the truth comes out.
A woman moved to kill her husband most likely didn't choose murder because she was lazy or self-centered however because, in the end, a divorce is much easier than a murder trial and she would fare much better as a divorcee than as a convicted murderer.
There was obviously considerable duress and, if it were due to abuse by the husband, it will be interesting to find out the form and the degree and its impact on the family. And by the way, it isn't uncommon at all for women who kill abusive husbands to believe that is the only solution (in which case, the defense will most likely use the insanity defense).
As an objective bystander, I don't feel compelled to choose sides and attribute blame. Most likely, there is plenty of blame to go around. I have seldom seen a trial wherein only one person bears all the guilt.
That said, I look forward to the trial because this is most likely an interesting case and the trial will uncover an unusual family dynamic.
Wow, where did you hear this being reported or discussed? Do you have a link?
"Obviously you've never worked with abused women or children. Your lack of understanding is telling"
Give me a break, this cannonizing of "abused women" is getting really, really old.
More men are abused by their wives, but they don't shoot them.
And IN THE BACK to boot!
Can't claim self defense here!!
Another county in TN is just as bad. My Dad's bestfriend's daughter-in-law was murdered in a Holiday Inn. Her fiance' was put on trial and acquitted by a jury because he had family connections in the town and she was from Nashville and an "outsider."
This cretin is still walking the earth while her son is an orphan. Her first husband died of cancer at the age of 31.
Reports are saying that she overspent, wrote hot checks and after an evening of arguing over finances, claims she "snapped" and shot him in the back.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/06/30/pastor.slain.ap/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/06/30/pastor.slain.ap/index.html
Agreed. But until that time there is certainly a lot of excuse making/deception here in some posts that needs to be addressed.
An abused spouse does have a totally different mindset.
Everyone has a different mindset. We are not clones/robots and we also aren't living in the middle east. We live in America. Abused women have resources galore. Get over the women are victims' mindset. That is dangerous thinking/myth.
Which is it--are women empowered people who can think for themselves, run companies, go to war, buy their own homes and vote and get PH.Ds and become presidents? OR are women poor, nimble, helpless victims? I am confused.
You disempower women when you make excuses for them. PERIOD.
Compassion is not babying women. This makes women weak. Women need to own their own actions. DOUBLE PERIOD.
that's it? She has no defense than, needs to settle. She's going to jail!
"He had really been on me lately criticizing me for things -- the way I walk, I eat, everything. It was just building up to a point. I was tired of it. I guess I got to a point and snapped," Booth read to the court.
Who doesn't get frustrated with their spouse at times? As a good friend of mine says about her husband, "sometimes he gets on my last nerve." NEWSFLASH . . . these people we marry are HUMAN, as are we. Definatly this woman murdered her husband. No question. No excuse.
"Can't claim self defense here!!"
Reread post #45 and chill.
Unless of course you want to share your source of inside knowledge on the case.
"counselor and client"
Uh huh.
I thought I was keeping my reply as gender neutral as possible. As for the word "victim", I prefer "target".
I was led to believe that abused people had resources, which may be actually true in some locales, but not everywhere. We had to provide our own transportation(no car-fast dog-no money for bus fare) to the next county, and they could not guarantee when we got there that there would be room for us. My kids were the ones who voted on going to a shelter. I sat the 17 yr old and told her the news. When the sugary, heartwarming "we can help" commercial came on TV, I was afraid they were going to break the darn thing.
I'm confused about the whole tone of your posts, frankly. I personally am not making any excuses for this woman. I will wait and see credible evidence, rather than innuendo.
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