Dr Laura's Mother Apparently Murdered in L.A.

Reuters ^ | 12/20/02 | DAN WHITCOMB

[Minutemen]

Posted on Fri, Dec. 20, 2002 Dr Laura's Mother Apparently Murdered in L.A. BY DAN WHITCOMB Reuters

LOS ANGELES - The badly decomposed body of a murdered woman, identified as the mother of popular radio talk-show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger, has been found at a Beverly Hills home, police said on Friday.

Though police said they had not yet confirmed that the elderly woman found on Monday was Yolanda Schlessinger, the talk-show host issued a statement addressing the death of her mother and alluding to their bitter estrangement.

"I am horrified by the tragic circumstances of my mother's death and so sad to learn that she died as she chose to live -- alone and isolated," Laura Schlessinger said in the statement.

"My mother shut all her family out of her life over the years, though we made several futile attempts to stay connected," she said. "May God rest her soul."

The body believed to be that of Yolanda Schlessinger was found by police after concerned neighbors said they had not seen her in several weeks. An autopsy revealed that she had been murdered, said Beverly Hills Police Lt. Gary Gilmond.

"I cannot confirm that it is in fact (Schlessinger's) mother but we are operating on that assumption," Gilmond said.

Although the body was found in Yolanda Schlessinger's home, it was so badly decomposed that identification was not yet possible, he said. Gilmond said the state of the body and home suggested that the woman had been dead for a "substantial period of time," possibly several months.

Gilmond said coroner's officials were working to positively identify the murder victim.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner's office said further tests were required to determine the cause of death and that medical examiners had not yet issued a report.

Schlessinger hosts one of the country's most popular syndicated radio programs, which according to her Web site is heard by 12 million listeners on 315 stations across the U.S.

Schlessinger, who has a doctorate in physiology from Columbia University, dispenses advice to her listeners and is known for her brusque persona and emphasis on personal responsibility.

According to a Vanity Fair profile in 1998 and other press reports, Schlessinger was estranged from her mother, and had not seen her in 14 years. Schlessinger had told People magazine four years earlier that her mother was "filled with negativity."

The former Yolanda Ceccovini was an Italian war bride who was divorced from her husband, Monty, who died in 1990. Their other daughter, Cyndi, was also estranged from Laura, according to Vanity Fair.

[John Lenin]

Just because you are used to death doesn't excuse jokes about people who were murdered.

[strela]

I myself like to sneak in commas wherever I can. I'm a regular comma chameleon.

[Bluntpoint]

Yeah. I am sure you never resort to "black humor."

Is there anything else off limits, sir?

God knows I don't to offend you.

[Bluntpoint]

Comma, comma, comma chameleon. Is that you Boy George?

[John Lenin]

You should quit while you are only a little behind.

Black humor ? Is that code words for racism ?

[Bluntpoint]

You are joking, right?

[John Lenin]

You gave your motivations away with that Boy George comment. Go find a a bathhouse and clean the shame off your face.

LOL

[Bluntpoint]

Having a bad day?

Is your life suitable for an entire novel of black humor?

The novels of such writers as Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, Joseph Heller, and Philip Roth contain elements of black humor.

Too bad they had not encountered you.

What a rich resourse you would be?

[Hank Rearden]

YO' MUMMY! <|:)~

I didn't think posting #3 could be topped.

I was wrong.

That's really funny.

[John Lenin]

I'm not into black humor and I'm not into reading novels. Black humor is for darkside people, I'm on the lightside and prefer to look at the 'good' in life.

[Bluntpoint]

Me too. That is why i try to find humor in everything I possible can.

I am not a hand wringer.

I would like to think God has a great sense of humor. In fact, humor could only be a gift from God.

[Artist]

Here's an excerpt about her relationship with her mother from the Vanity Fair article about Dr. Laura:

Schlessinger's official life story is studded with odd conflicts and critical omissions. She grew up in Brooklyn and on Long Island, the daughter of Monroe Schlessinger, a Jewish civil engineer, and his Italian war bride, Yolanda Ceccovini. Laura's hostility toward mixed relationships has primal roots; when her parents married, her father's family reacted poisonously because Yolanda wasn't Jewish. "Every member of his family cut him off and would have nothing further to do with him from 1945 on," says Ballance, who knew both Yolanda and Monty. Laura and her sister, Cyndi, were raised in a home where there seemed to be little love. "She was brought up in a quarrelsome family, so her idea of human communications is shouting, screaming, bellowing, and screeching," says Ballance. The Schlessingers eventually divorced, and Monty died of stomach cancer in 1990.

Some of Laura's intimates didn't even know that she had a sister. "She always told me she was an only child," says Shelly Herman.

Schlessinger has been estranged from her sister, who is a marriage and family counselor, apparently since the 1970s. Her friends don't know why. When Ballance, who actually met Cyndi before the rift, asked Laura about it, she just said, "Oh, she's so much prettier than I am!" Laura's own attractiveness has always been an extremely sore subject. "Her daddy told her she was ugly when she was little," explains Herman. Laura, who had brown hair and big glasses back then, remembers this assessment as totally devastating.

Although Schlessinger admonishes her callers to mend family rifts, she hasn't seen her own mother in 14 years. The rupture amazed her friends, who say that Laura's mother was devoted to her. "Laura is a very needy person, and her mother was instrumental in helping her function on a daily basis," explains Herman. "Her mother lived for Laura and would have done anything for her."

Schlessinger claims that her mother walked out on her job as her secretary after Laura suggested she learn to type. "She just evaporated." Laura told People magazine four years ago, in an interview in which she also described her mother as "filled with negativity.....She blamed everyone for her unhappiness." But back in 1984, Schlessinger explained the breach somewhat differently: "I retired my mother from my office," she said in a letter to Ballance. These days Schlessinger refuses to talk about her family at all, insisting that gossip is against her religion.

[Pagey]

I still don't comprehend why this is big news.(other than the name)She cut everyone off and died alone.People die alone regularly on this planet.

[ican'tbelieveit]

Oh... and I suppose teaching a child in the way that it should go is the same as two adults who have went different ways in life is a MEANINGFUL COMPARISON??? WHAT WORLD DO YOU LIVE IN... I am grateful I am not part of it.

[ican'tbelieveit]

And still, I want to know how you feel that Dr. Laura has personally passed judgment on you?

[Notforprophet]

had a guy who must have been a mooderator put my thread in such a mode that only I and he and three of his buddies could see it recently. I figure he was a moderator because he cracked my password, showed me he'd done it and then threatened to make "real trouble" for me if I didn''t give up the thread. Despite the laugh I got from the "real trouble" remark, it cast a very sour shadow over the entire board here, in my opinion.

Ha ha, ahahaha ha HA HA HA! You sir, are a complete moron.

[is_is]

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