Toogood Baby Bashing Mom MAY NOT have Turned Over Her Daughter

Heard on Radio | 9/27/02 | AV

[antivenom]

Just heard on the top of the hour news...that the little girl turned over to the foster family MAY not be her daughter!

SO where is the little beaten up Toogood girl?

[RGSpincich]

Mom brings baggage from Irish Travelers

September 24, 2002

BY RICHARD ROEPER SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST


The woman who was captured on videotape repeatedly slapping her 4-year-old daughter in a department-store parking lot in Mishawaka, Ind., has told the world she is not a monster--but she is an Irish Traveler, and, by some accounts, that label isn't considered to be much of an upgrade from that of monster.

Madelyne Toogood--possessor of the weirdest name in the news since a man named Richard Bizarro was arrested for, well, bizarre behavior on a flight last year--and her husband, John, say they're members of the Irish Travelers, a group of families that roam the South and the Midwest doing odd jobs and, according to police, often engaging in quick-hit fraud. (Toogood says her husband is a legitimate contractor.)

There might not be a more mysterious, maligned and misunderstood clan in the United States. Are they devout Roman Catholics making an honest living by doing home-improvement and repair work as they travel the land in the tradition of their nomadic ancestors, or are they cold-blooded con artists and thieves?

No doubt there's some truth in both descriptions. In some ways, the Irish Travelers are like the anti-Amish. Both groups are tight-knit societies with a specialized dialect, but, whereas the Amish stress simplicity and modesty, many Travelers love expensive trucks and flashy clothes, and their preferred method of paying for things is a wad of $100 bills.

The question is, where does that money come from?

I'm sure there are many upstanding citizens among the estimated 10,000-plus Irish Travelers in the United States, but more than a few Travelers have been involved in some ugly escapades.

*In 1992, a brother-sister team of Irish Travelers created a rape-and-robbery scenario in a Walt Disney World hotel. Wanda Mary Normile, a k a Wanda Mary Burke, a k a Wanda Mary Cleveland, a k a Leah Ann Kelly, then 21, had consensual sex with a partner (who didn't know about the scam) in a nearby hotel, so that there would be evidence of recent sexual contact. She then got a room at the Caribbean Beach Resort on Disney property, and, with her consent, her 33-year-old brother bound her to a bed with duct tape and beat her repeatedly with a stick. Normile then contacted police and told a horrifying tale of being beaten, raped and robbed by a man "in a Dracula costume" while her 10-month-old daughter was in the room.

Several months after reporting the "rape" to police, Normile filed suit against Disney, which offered her a $200,000 settlement. She refused the money and asked for more than $1 million, but the hoax was uncovered after investigators received a tip from a disgruntled relative.

The brother died of an undisclosed illness in March 1994. Two months later, Normile pleaded guilty to grand theft and falsely reporting a crime, and was sentenced to 3-1/2 years in prison.

*In 1999, a father and two sons were sentenced to six months each in federal prison for fraudulent use of a Social Security number. Authorities said the men were Irish Travelers who had used the false identifications in an effort to buy three new pickup trucks in South Carolina.

*In 1996, a Jefferson County, Ky., judge sentenced a 47-year-old Irish Traveler to 10 years in prison for robbing and beating an elderly deaf-mute woman.

* Earlier this year, three Irish Travelers were indicted in Louisville, Ky., on charges of swindling a mentally disabled, 69-year-old man out of more than $5,000. One of those charged, 42-year-old Brenda J. Mensik, had previously been charged with conning more than $3,000 from an 80-year-old blind man.

*In August 2001, police in Franklin, Tenn., said a man accused of forging a $4,200 check belonging to an 89-year-old woman had told them he was a member of the Irish Travelers.

It's not as if one can find an official spokesman for the Irish Travelers, but Richard J. Waters, a man who claims Irish Traveler heritage and maintains a pro-Traveler Web site, has posted a response to the reports that Madelyne Toogood is an Irish Traveler.

"First, I groaned when I heard the surnames involved, knowing full well that all the old gossip ... would be trotted out to make the rounds once more," wrote Waters. "Then, I was horrified by what looked like the fierce character of the assault. If this was a Traveler woman ... doing the presumed battering, it was a Traveler child apparently being battered. Any child in trouble commands the assistance of a Traveler."

Waters also defended Toogood and questioned whether the camera angle made the beating look worse than it really was. He lost me there. But the point about 4-year-old Martha Toogood being a "Traveler child" stuck with me.

Madelyne and John Toogood have three children--and apparently they're being brought up as Irish Traveler children. Perhaps those of us in the outside world can't even begin to understand what that means. But, from what we do know about the lifestyle and from what we've seen of Madelyne Toogood's parenting skills, a foster home sounds like a pretty good place for little Martha

[Deguello]

Where is the child? I would put my money on their "town" in South Carolina. I don't recall the name of the place, but it is incorporated and only Travelers live there.

[marajade]

They booked her... They have her fingerprints from prior arrests... How do you think they conduct a rap sheet? By fingerprints and SSNs...

[dennisw]

Thanks for the details on this scam. A particularly bold one inspired by what?

By (my guess) previous Traveler scamming of Disney but on a more modest scale. Maybe a few phony slip and fall lawsuits at DisneyWorld and it's Disney hotels.

[The Person]

Get real. The travelers are con artists. Anything, but ANYTHING is possible.

[socal_parrot]

I hadn't remembered the incident until you mentioned it. I searched "Irish Traveler Disney Rape" and came up with this story. It has other Traveler scams listed.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Store security cameras don't produce very clear pictures. Close relative in inbred clans can look very similar. I don't know how they'll ever ascertain the identities for sure -- of the people in the video, or of the ones police are dealing with now.

[JZoback]

Get real. The travelers are con artists. Anything, but ANYTHING is possible.

Yes, with these slugs anything is possible....

But, I would think they are smart enough to know when they are up to their necks in alligators already. I just think switching children would be a risk too great to take.

I would not be very surprised if it did happen.

[The Person]

All they need to do is DNA testing and they can find out. Take blood samples from mother, father and child. Its a simple thing.

That will tell them if they are all related, not who they are, or whether they are the ones in the tape.

[GovernmentShrinker]

I'd certainly heard of them before. There have been a number of TV shows on them in past several years, and our local police often put warnings in the local paper when they're in town (though of course they're not allowed to mention ethnicity).

[GovernmentShrinker]

She didn't pull off the switch by herself. They're all barely literate, but they are professional scam artists who always work in groups. She had plenty of help, and not all of it necessarily voluntary -- if another mother was told to give up her child for the switch, she didn't have any choice in the matter.

[ValerieUSA]

He says that it is all part of the culture.

It's not part of the "culture" -- it's part of the scam!

[GovernmentShrinker]

Your reaction was normal -- and that's exactly why these people keep getting away with their full time scammming decade after decade. They're totally audacious with the scams they pull, and normal people just can't believe they're being scammed. A little tinfoil lining in your hat isn't a bad thing.

[thathamiltonwoman]

I suspected as much. By the way, is there a birth certificate for Martha Toogood?

[The Person]

Take the kid in custody away from the con men and lock up the woman who showed up, whoever she is.

[Fester Chugabrew]

I didn't think the videotape proved she struck the child as severely as some people were saying.

I've seen the video a few times and agree with you. There is little evidence of hard contact. Of course the mother looked around before dispensing discipline to make sure it was not in front of the public. It is improper to discipline children in public.

Little did she know her actions would be captured on a surveillance camera and dutifully magnified by mass media. Now we can all enjoy instant gratification as self-congratulatory judges in the court of human opinion.

Best hope your worst fifteen seconds in life are not captured by a surveillance camera. From those fifteen seconds we'll know your whole life and judge it, too. Even your motivations. We know it all, buddy.

[Jaded]

But does she have one? We know the child's father does.

[Houmatt]

What the fork?

[Skip Ripley]

I offered the same theory on an earlier thread

I feel smarter than Jim Rockford...

[GovernmentShrinker]

I was another early adopter of this "tinfoil hat" theory. Regardless of whether it turns out to be true or not, it's VERY plausible, and I suspect that those of us who quickly saw this as a real possibility are less likely to get scammed than other folks.