Posted on 07/05/2005 2:56:08 AM PDT by Clive
ST. CATHARINES, Ont. (CP) - Rage, sorrow and grudging acceptance were expressed by residents in the lakeside hometown of Canada's most notorious female killer as Karla Homolka was freed from a Quebec prison Monday and slipped back into public life.
In St. Catharines, Ont., where all of Homolka's shocking crimes were committed, a handful of people at a laundromat stood in stunned silence as a television reported news of her release.
"Dear God, hell," Ann Pettay, 65, said as she folded blankets with her husband, Karl.
"I think it's a disgrace. I think she should have never got out and I fear for my grandchildren and all children."
No one answered the door at the Homolka family household, but her sister Lori could be seen sitting on a lawn chair in the backyard near a swimming pool, her head down.
Neighbours watched from windows and driveways to see a growing hive of media activity. One was highly protective.
"Leave them alone," a next-door neighbour said while tending to his garden, before swearing at and threatening a pair of reporters.
Some residents of this city of 130,000 on the southern shore of Lake Ontario simply shook their heads, fuming that this day should never have come.
"Frankly, I hope that someone does get her - she's a sick puppy," said Sarah Learn, a 25-year-old bartender in the city's downtown area.
"I don't usually wish death upon people, but some people deserve it."
Said retiree Mollie Lavelle: "I guess she served her sentence. Now she'll have to serve it outside, won't she?"
"I don't think it'll be easy for her, but that's what you do. If you live by the sword, you will die by it."
Others hoped the completion of Homolka's prison sentence would finally allow the community to move past the memories of her crimes.
"I think she served her time," said Kevin Clatney, sitting near a downtown library. "She served every day and she's done her penance."
"What else can she do?"
But Tom Rathbone, a 53-year-old manual labourer and St. Catharines native, said the emotional scars left by Homolka's involvement in the deaths of teenage schoolgirls Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy and her 15-year-old sister Tammy would last for decades.
"I think people will always remember that, but maybe a couple of generations down the road, that will change," Rathbone said.
Homolka's release comes thanks to a plea deal she struck with Ontario Crown lawyers in 1993, when she admitted to two counts of manslaughter in exchange for testifying against ex-husband Paul Bernardo, who was ultimately convicted of two counts of first-degree murder.
In sentencing Homolka, the court also took into consideration her role in the 1990 death of Tammy, who died on Christmas Eve after Homolka held a drug-soaked cloth over her face so Bernardo could rape her in her parents' bungalow.
St. Catharines, nicknamed the Garden City for its tree-lined streets that invite a mix of young families and retiring couples, has been acutely shaken.
"When the girls (French and Mahaffy) were found, it broke everybody up," Learn said.
"I was in seventh grade when it happened, and I remember my principal crying over the announcements . . . he was just bawling his eyes out and all of us cried about it."
Since then, the city has carried a collective sense of guilt for the killings, Learn added.
"Nobody wants to admit that it ever really happened because we just don't want it to happen again," she said.
"I think we all feel to some degree responsible that it happened, like somebody should've seen something or known something, and nobody did anything."
With Homolka now out of prison, fears of the 35-year-old convicted killer's return have heightened.
"Nobody wants to go out and suddenly come upon her," Lavelle said.
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I remember this case, the husband and wife serial killer team.
They let her out?
After what she did to her little sister?
Insane.
Unfrigginbelievable.
That she served the whole sentence is in itself unusual in the context of the Canadian correctional system.
This is what is infuriating Canadians.
This woman made a deal to turn Crown's Evidence against her husband in return for a 12 year sentence.
The NDP government of the time had an ideological stance that viewed women accomplices in crime as being victims who were perpetrators only by reason that they were acting under duress.
Bernardo's lawyer called it the "deal with the devil", a phrase that has reverberated for the past twelve years.
Only after the deal was made did a video tape become available that showed her to be an enthusiastic participant, perhaps instigator, of torture and murder.
Yet the deal was not repudiated.
"The NDP government of the time had an ideological stance that viewed women accomplices in crime as being victims who were perpetrators only by reason that they were acting under duress."
All the more reason for my Canadian friends to be mistrustful of words used by the Nouveau Parti Démocratique.
Seems to me the prosecution could have come up with additional charges against her after the video tape was uncovered.
To save her own rear end, she still would have testified against her Paul Bernardo or if she refused, their was enough evidence to prosecute both between forensic evidence, DNA matches and video tapes.
The US justice system does the same thing to this day. Look at the number of men convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death vs. the number of women who are even charged with capital murder let alone given the death penalty.
Feminists groups have done a wonderful job of keeping alive a belief that women are not responsible for their actions. Instead, when they do commit violent acts it is always the fault of a horrible man, PPD, PMS etc etc. Excuse after excuse except for the truth, women kill for the same reasons men do - as a means to achieve their desired goal.
For all the talk about treating women equal in society, feminist groups have made damn sure that women are treated as a victim of crime even when the woman is the only one to blame.
All For Love
It was all too good to be true. In 1990, Karla was engaged to a handsome, sophisticated professional accountant with money. It was going to be an incredible wedding. One that her family and friends would never forget.
She loved Paul very much. He was so unique and so very wild in bed. She would do absolutely anything to keep his love -- anything at all.
What made this situation a little different than most engagements is that for several years Paul made outrageous demands on Karla -- and Karla, just as outrageously, agreed to them.
Paul & Karla (Toronto Sun)
Paul was very annoyed that Karla was not a virgin when he met her. It was, therefore, from his point of view, her responsibility to make it possible for Paul to take the virginity of Karla's pretty younger sister Tammy without her knowledge or consent. Some people call it rape. Once Karla accepted that logic, the rest was easy, even the idea of videotaping the whole thing seemed to make sense to her. After all, videotaping was a way to remember important events.
Karla worked in a veterinary clinic so she had a rudimentary knowledge of sedatives used for animals. The trick was figuring out what and how much to use to knock out Tammy so that Paul could rape her. Eventually, she decided on using halothane, an anesthetic which animals inhale before surgery.
Stephen Williams in his book Invisible Darkness describes Karla's idea: "She had really thought this thing with Tammy through. After all, she did not want to kill her own sister; she just wanted to knock her out and give her to Paul for Christmas. They sedated animals before they put them to sleep for surgery, so it should be all right to do it to her sister. There was some risk without the proper equipment -- she would have to put the halothane on a cloth and hold it over Tammy's face -- but she would make sure Tammy had plenty of air and check her breathing regularly." A truly organized rape, as only a thoughtful sister could plan. Maybe even the most thought out and organized rape ever.
December 23, 1990, was the big day -- Tammy's deflowering. Paul used his new video camcorder to take videos of Mr. and Mrs. Homolka, their daughters, Karla, Tammy and Lori and the Christmas decorations in the house.
Tammy Homolka, victim
Paul plied Tammy with drinks, laced with the sedative Halcion. The effects of the drugs and alcohol were swift and Tammy was out cold on the couch in no time. When the other members of the household went up to bed, Karla and Paul started to work on Tammy. Paul held the camera on Tammy while he raped her, leaving Karla to keep the halothane-laden rag over her sister's face. Then he ordered Karla to make sexual advances to her sleeping sister.
Suddenly Tammy threw up. Karla wished her sister hadn't eaten before this event, but Karla knew what to do. She did what they did in the veterinary clinic. She held her sister upside down to try to clear her throat.
Only problem was that Tammy choked to death. Their amateur attempts to revive her failed so they dressed her, hid their drugs and camera and called an ambulance. The first that Tammy and Karla's parents knew of this tragedy was when they heard the ambulance pull up to the house. Everybody was led to believe that Tammy had died from accidentally choking on her vomit.
With Tammy no good to him anymore, Paul needed a replacement.
Karla was obsessed with Paul's happiness. Her greatest fear was that she would not be able to hold onto this wild and thrilling man who was to become her husband. When he would become bored or distracted, she would either do something to excite him or find another person for him to get excited about. Paul harped continually that Tammy was no longer available to him for his sexual pleasure and blamed Karla for causing her death. Karla searched for a replacement for Tammy — someone very young and virginal. Karla knew just the right person, a teenager named Jane, who looked very much like Karla's dead sister, Tammy. Jane would be Karla's wedding gift to Paul.
Much more here...
http://tinyurl.com/7mtpp
Once again, thanks for your work.
There was a media gag on this case.
But yeah -- poor Karla was manipulated and OJ is innocent. </sarcasm>
No one answered the door at the Homolka family household, but her sister Lori could be seen sitting on a lawn chair in the backyard near a swimming pool, her head down.
I guess that would be the sister that Karla didn't rape, torture and murder.
The version you Post almost makes Karla look like a victim herself. While we dont know what passed between them I do know no amount of love or coercion could make another woman allow her husband to rape her sister unless its what she wanted to see and do herself. This isnt a case of "Stand by your man" . Although this story was obviously by a person whosaw Karla as victim the reality may be that Karla was the instigator, especially since in jail she had a lesbian lover.
As for what else can she do? I dunno is Tanya Harding still fighting? She can always make porn movies.Maybe she can join NOW they are into killing the unborn and its sure Karla has no qualms about killing.
I'll bet Lori is scared to death. Last time her sister Karla was free she raped and killed their other sister Tammy.
This article gives Karla Homolka too much credit. Her rape of her own sister was "thoughtfully planned" - I'd like to know what the author of this article was smoking.
Would you want either of these sickos walking around in your neighborhood?!
******
WARNING...WARNING...WARNING - vulgar language below...DO NOT READ PAST THIS - WARNING...WARNING...WARNING...
On April 16, 1992, a very popular and attractive teenager named Kristen French was abducted from a church parking lot. Karla had lured the pretty girl over to their car on the pretense of asking directions. When Kristen stood by the car looking at Karla's map, Paul forced the girl into the backseat with his knife.
At the outset, both Paul and Karla knew that Kristen would have to die. She had clearly seen them, knew where they lived and had seen their dog. Even so, they didn't want Kristen to figure this out, particularly since she was bigger than Karla was and fairly strong despite her youth.
Kristen, who was a smart girl, did everything she could to cooperate with this depraved couple and their outrageous and humiliating demands. She believed that cooperation was her only chance for survival. The ordeal became worse and worse. The more she cooperated, the more sadistic Paul became. The following activity, found in Williams' book, was taken from the videotaped evidence.
"'I'm going to piss on you, okay? Then I'm going to shit on you.' Paul said in a whisper... Kristen did not move, even when he slapped her face with his semi-erect penis.
"'Don't make me mad. Don't make me hurt you,' he said, urging her to smile when he rubbed his groin into her face.
"'Don't worry, I won't piss in your face.'
"Finally, he stood over her and urinated. Then he moved. Turning his buttocks into her face, he squatted over her face and tried to defecate on her without success.
"'You're a f--king piece of shit. But I like you,' he told her. 'You look good covered in piss.'" Note: Stephen Williams credit removed.
The indignities went on for a day or two, all meticulously captured on video for the future enjoyment of the newlyweds. Then came the final and worst indignity of all for Kristen French, but her death was not captured on film.
On April 30, 1992, Kristen's remains were found in a ditch. Her naked body had not been dismembered like Leslie's, leading the investigators to erroneously conclude that the murders of the two teenagers were not connected.
She lied to the police during her testimony in hundreds of particulars and she failed to disclose evidence she knew existed.
According to her plea agreement, false testimony and withholding evidence were grounds for voiding her plea.
In addition to this, the incompetent local police failed to adequately search the marital home - the videotape evidence was found only after she made her plea, even though the videotapes were hidden in her basement.
If the police had searched her home thoroughly the day she was arrested they would never had any use for a plea agreement.
And again, they could easily have voided the plea agreemnt after the fact and given her life.
the Canadian justice system failed the public in various ways in this case and continues to do so.
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