Hard to imagine how one would feel,definitely,but I could tell you what I would do if *I* were the Mother.

This is so sad! "Is this what TV has done to certain susceptible youth"? At their age(s) they're old enough to know right from wrong. Everytime something like this happens, people try to put the blame on something or someone, other than the person commiting the wrong/crime. I can just about guarantee you there will be an "adult" there trying to do everything they can to prevent these boys from suffering the consquences of their actions!

I do feel sorry for the Mother!

I can not imagine the horror of one's children plotting something like this. It seems that every day there is a reporting of a mass shooting somewhere in the world. And I don't mean in the war. As long there are so many guns and so many kinds of them are in the world, I don't see an end to the massacres any time soon. JMO. Dottie

Insane but you can't blame tv or anyone but the ones involved....until everyone has to start taking account for their actions this will continue....Stacy

No matter how big or small the problem is, it seems like murder is becoming the favoured solution.

Sad.

Yes, I do believe tv and other media are very much to blame for our society's near-obsession with violence. (Well, that and the easy access to guns.) Kids are inculcated, in a bad way, by these constant visions of terror from an early age; does anyone really thinks it has no impact on young minds?? Yes, of course it's up to the parents to protect them from these images and stories, but it's just too easy for many to allow the kiddies to watch whatever they want. Not only that, but kids always talk with each other and exert pressure. My kids watched only pbs for the first 10-12 years of their lives, but now watch what everyone else does, as they are nearly grown. Sometimes it was so hard for them when their friends realized their tv-watching habits, but I always tell them I wouldn't do it any differently if I had it to do over again. Okay, I'll jump down off my high horse now.

This happened to a woman in my home town about 20 years ago. BOTH her daughters, plus a boyfriend, plotted (over a period of a week and a half) the stabbing death of their mother while she was asleep. Both were in high school.

The oldest girl was the one with recognized problems and had been in endless therapy sessions both alone and as a family group. The younger one was the communities 'darling' who was highly thought of and everyone was just shocked that she had participated in this killing. They were convinced the older sister had "talked her into doing something she wouldn't have ordinarily done."

I felt differently. The older girl (17) was the acting out, everyone knew that she was disturbed - the younger girl ( 15 and a half.)to me was the very definition of a pure psychopath - she fooled everyone with her "sweet nature."

Nobody 'gets talked into' such a horrible crime, I honestly believe that.

There is not a single chance in the world that a sister of mine (or anyone else for that matter) could have convinced me to stab my mother to death in her sleep. The younger girl did the stabbing, the older girl and boyfriend sat on the mother of these girls until she was stabbed to death. The woman knew what was happening to her and who was doing it.

The reason given: All because a strict curfew was being enforced during school days. The girls were livid over it and felt their mother was "trying to control their lives."

The therapist made the statement that the mother had been doing everything "right" with these girls, had been very involved with them and their activities. She was a good mother who was staying on top of the situation in that home.

The community was devistated. The girls were put in juvy until they turned 21 and then released.

I believe that although the media does have an influence on how we all think - it's only to a certain degree and it's not to the degree that a non-violent person would become violent against others. Everyone is born with choice and with a brain to make that choice.

Reminds me of a movie Heavenly Creatures starring Kate Winslet based on a true story. Horrible what some people will do.

Oh that just gives me the chills. I cannot imagine what those two families are going through. I can only hope that this is an aberration and not something that's becoming more prevalent in our society. How sad for everyone involved.

Please don't flame me. I'm feeling giddy.

...We all know this wouldn't work. He's neither an Honor Student nor an Eagle Scout. I'm surprised the media bothered running the story.

Flame you for what, Chisue?

But I can tell you this story is huge around here. This is a very rural community, and people are appropriately horrified.

A gun wasn't involved, by the way; they were planning to use a knife.

Mylab, any idea what happened to those sisters after they were released? Scary to think of them out in society.....

Given the way mothers love their own, I wonder if she was forgiving her daughters even as they were killing her.

Guns aren't the problem...we've always been able to get guns...I do, however, think television and movies aren't good. But...this sort of thing has been happening since the beginning of time...the news is just more accessible to everyone now. When I was in high school(many moons ago) a young man and his thirteen year old girlfriend killed her family and then went on a killing rampage all over the midwest. In our neighborhood a few years later, a young man killed his stepmother and then attempted to kill the rest of the family so that they wouldn't find out.....there's really nothing new to this story...it shocks us all that it can and does happen, but nothing new. What "I" think is new is the school mass killings...nothing like that went on that I remember when we were young.

When I was a teen, a local boy shot and killed both his parents and his younger sister with a shotgun. Caused quite a commotion in our quiet community. I was in the same class with him in sixth grade. Fourty years later, he is still in jail.

I am so thankful that the witness to the tossing of the keys/bag had the nerve/wisdom to tell an adult. AND am even more impressed with the authorities for taking the proper steps to prevent the actual killing. From a lot of the cases we hear about, people come out of the woodwork AFTER the fact saying they'd heard/seen things but thought nothing of it, and that includes the adults!!

Shirley

It seems to me that, while extreme self-centredness is the main culprit here ... there`s a great deal of it abroad throughout our society, as well.

It sees to me that our recently developed even heavier than earlier emphasis on doing what I please ... without giving a shi! about its effect on others ... bears some of the responsibility, as well.

Or is, at least, related: a difference of degree, rather than of kind.

If the U.S. economy becomes heavily devastated, to the point of not being able to recover to anything like its former level, (maybe even largely destroyed) as a result of the recent depradations of the big shot financial guys ... they may not have killed people directly ... but we hear of people who`ve lost work in their 50s and, unable to find other adequate employment have considered suicide ... with some of them carrying it out.

The financial guys got $10.00 - and got to keep their bonuses.

GM gets one single peanut ... and their head guy ... gets fired.

These scenarios are totally unrelated (question - my keyboard`s misbehaving)

I think not.

This being Black (rather than `Good`) Friday ... let`s not forget ... there`s some Judas in all of us.

For those of us who claim to be Christian - which of us can claim that all of our thoughts and actions are Christlike (question) That we have never let Jesus down ... betrayed Him ... given Him a Judas` kiss (question)

I dare not make any claim to being anything near perfect.

ole joyful

Alisande, I don't know the story behind either of these girls after release - we moved about a year after this took place. I think about this and those girls so often that it surprises me. The whole story was extremely disturbing to me.

I guess I too missed how the perceived proliferation of guns, even removed would prevent a knifing. As I said in another thread there's not a "single" solution. I'm curious on this situation as to the life growing up. What, if any, discipline?What was the home life? I have strong beliefs on this and many other things but won't go into it now.

Media has its involvement in responsibility of course, albeit unintentional. Certainly many of the school tragedies and foiled plans are based on copycat of Columbine or other. Remember the parachuting hijacker never captured? How many tried to duplicate it shortly afterward?

Our much more mobile society where so many people have cars to transport them to and from distances most wouldn't walk makes for a larger target area for crime. Plus the cars can kill people along the way. The "look the other way" attitude of people whether it's shoplifting, gas station drive-off, a suspicious person in the neighborhood or otherwise makes it easier for perps. Face it, burglers don't have to skulk around the back of a house at night anymore. Kick in the front door and walk in like you own the place. Use a baseball bat on anyone who happens to be home. And of course if you DO get caught, what will happen? We'll blame judges and defense attorneys but nobody will lay blame at the feet of the juries who acquit. In the "good old days" we were far more likely to shoot someone entering a home, rustling cattle or raping our children. Today, it's excused as a mental illness.

40+ years ago, before cable TV, the internet, video games and all the other "causes" of crime our community had a teenager stabbed to death. How many deaths we could have prevented if we just got rid of the knives then when we saw the problem. Many drownings and suffocations would be prevented if we got rid of bathtubs, water and pillows.

I won't repeat everything from the other thread but suffice to say there's a lot of problems in the world and a lot of causes to the problems but until we start looking in the mirror and around us in our own homes and quit ignoring what stares us in the face, things will continue as they are.

Kudos to the one who chose to GET INVOLVED and headed off this near-tragedy, though it's still a tragedy I guess. We all could take a lesson there about getting involved. Open our eyes instead of close them. Though we don't want false alarms to tie up 911 lines for the actual needs, far better to call when you're not sure than to say, gee, maybe I should have..

Which brings up a question... when's the last time you chose to get involved?

Which brings up a question... when's the last time you chose to get involved?

I assume you posed this question to everyone, but I'll start.

It is not in my nature to avoid getting involved. I'm known as a militant breastfeeder (back in the day) and an animal rights activist (forever). However, I have not, to the best of my knowledge, foiled any murders.

Nor I.

But ... in helping a few refugees in their effort to get back on their feet, who knows whether some of those refugees may have been able to get ahead enough that they were able to avoid doing someone harm, whether lashing out blindly at just anyone that happened to be in the way, through frustration and anger at having been left behind in society ... or in attempted robbery, etc.

Or ... being so frustrated at being unable to make it in life ... that they might have, even many years later, harmed themselves or their loved ones.

Who knows when a simple gift that we make now may bring important results, even many years later. And help avoid some disaster in someone else's life.

Try to be kind and helpful, when you can - our hurting society (and many other people in various places in the world) are in greater need of it now that earlier.

ole joyful