Mom Hates Little Boys, She Says, So She Murders Her Son: Georgette Brucks - 1949

FULL TEXT: Los Angeles, Jan. 26 —Mrs. Georgette Brucks, 21, wept in her jail cell today for the child she will bear next month, and whom she will never see.

The young mother, who killed her seven-month-old son because she “hated boy babies,” traded her unborn child and two other boys, Edmond. Jr., and Donald, 18 months.

~ Mother of Four ~

The pudgy brunette, already the mother of four children, pleaded guilty to manslaughter yesterday and Superior Judge Thomas L. Ambrose gave her a suspended sentence and six years’ probation on condition that she put her children up for adoption and submit to sterilization.

Mrs. Brucks agreed, alter consulting psychiatrists and psychologists. Then she returned to her jail cell and wept.

“I didn’t mean to do it,” she cried. “I have an uncontrollable temper and I beat him with my fists. I knew I should have stopped but I couldn’t.”

~ Better All Around ~

The sterilization order was believed to be the first ever given to a woman in local court history.

Mrs. Brucks is awaiting the birth next month of a child by Donald Redman, 23, a printer with whom she had lived for three years. He fathered the dead child and the other two boys. A daughter is in custody of her estranged husband, Edmond Brucks.

“I didn’t want to give up my babies, but it may be better all the way around,” she said. “I hope they will never know their background.”

She said she plans to divorce her husband and marry Redman. The court ruled she must never learn what families adopt her children.

The woman must spend two more months in jail as part of the probation.

“My attorney has assured me of a job when I get out of jail, and I’m looking forward to marriage and to picking up the pieces of my life,” she said.

~ Asked for Psychiatrist ~

“At the time Georgette was up for sentence I asked for the appointment of a psychiatrist,” said her attorney, Walter Anderson.

“Georgette came from a broken home and I believed many psychiatric and psychological factors were involved when the psychiatrists’ findings were returned, it seemed only feasible to recommend sterilization. She is only 21 and the mother of four children.”

He read from a medical report which called the woman “irresponsible.”

[“’Hate Little Boys’ – Mother to be Sterilized for Slaying – Killed Baby With Her Fists – Bargains Children Away for Freedom,” The Pittsburgh Press (Pa.), Jan. 26, 1949, p. 9]

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SEE ALSO: Gender Cleansing in 1940

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Hazel Luikart, Inspired by Feminist Theory & Eugenics Propaganda, Poisons Two Daughters For Their Own Good (and for a “Career”) - 1919

PHOTO CAPTION: Fights Poison Her Mother Gave Her – Little Michigan Girl Brought to Chicago with Her Sister, Also Given Death Capsule, in a Last Effort to Save Both Lives.

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NOTE: The Luikart case is one of the most important of all filicide cases – even though, thankfully, the children survived the attack – because of the mother, suffering from a personality disorder (Narcissistic and Histrionic), rationalized her desire to murder her girls by citing a combined influence of an extremist feminist theory and the then-popular eugenics theory being heavily promoted through the U.S. While there was no question as to whether the mother – who apparently intended to abandon her husband in order to pursue a fantasized glamorous career as an actress –  was motivated by a desire to prevent her husband the chance of raising the children on his own following her planned departure, she did nevertheless attempt to wrest legal custody from him following their recovery. First her mother and step-father threatened to kidnap the girls, then Mrs. Luikart filed for sole custody accusing Mr. Luikart of being an abuser.

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PHOTO CAPTION: Fights Poison Her Mother Gave Her – Little Michigan Girl Brought to Chicago with Her Sister, Also Given Death Capsule, in a Last Effort to Save Both Lives.

FULL TEXT: On the outcome of a double blood transfusion operation carried out late yesterday afternoon by Dr. Thomas A. Carter at Columbus hospital depend the lives of Sherley Genevera Luikart, 7, and Edna Marjorie, her 5 year old sister, both of whom are suffering from bichloride of mercury poisoning.

At 3 o’clock this morning it was stated that Edna was some better and has a fighting chance. Sherley was close to death and little hope was held out for her.

Transfusion was employed by Dr. Carter as a last resort.

“It is almost a hundred to one chance,” the surgeon said: ”Necrosis of the tissues already has set in.” Had they been given an anodyne a week ago, there is no doubt they could have been saved. As it is, I anticipate the worst.”

~ Father Clings to Hope. ~

Despite this view of the situation, Roy Luikart, the little girls; father, expressed faith the victims of an “insane mother,” as he termed her, will recover.

“I am certain they will get well,” he said at the hospital.

The fate of the two pretty children has aroused national interest. A crowd of women waited at the Illinois Central station for the Wolverine Special of the Michigan Central railroad, which brought the poison victims to Chicago.

“O, the sweet little things!” one said. “How could any mother ever have done such a dreadful thing?”

Passengers on the train had learned of the case, and bushels of forbidden dainties were brought to the chair car, where a bed had been made up for the children.

~ A Race Against Death. ~

Details of the mother’s act in giving the children poison constituted the sole subject of conversation, and when the train arrived at Battle Creek the crew of a new engine was told the trip to Chicago was able to be a race against death. The train was already an hour and twenty minutes behind schedule.

“I’ll make up part of that time, or blow up the boiler,” the fireman said. True to his promise, twenty minutes had been made up when the train reached Chicago.

Although they suffered no pain during the trip, it was evident Sherley and Edna bother were very ill, the older child especially so.

~ Calls for Her Mama. ~

During moments of consciousness Sherley called out:

“Daddy, where is mamma?”

Her father kissed the drawn forehead, smoothed back the tumbled golden hair, and soothed hair. He did not dare tell her that her mother is a prisoner in the Pontiac county jail.

Neither of the children knows the reason for so much excitement or of the poisoning. They only know they are very ill.

Edna sat up during most of the journey and played with “Snoodles,” her rag doll. The father rode with Sherley, who spoke but little.

The father, after the children had been attended at the hospital, sat in a wicker rocking chair on the porch and told the drab details leading up to the poisoning.

~ Husband Forgives All. ~

“I am partly to blame,” he said. “Terrible as her act is, I forgive her, because I know she was insane when she poisoned her babies.

“Although Hazel has told me she no longer loves me, I am going to stand by her until the end. The law cannot punish her more than she has punished herself. I know she is suffering and I pity her.

“Had I been temperamentally more suited to her she might have been happy. I am serious and quiet, and not a large money maker. She craved a career on the stage and suffered because of her thwarted dreams.

“Perhaps if I had been more watchful this terrible thing would never have happened. I often feared she might harm the girls, but I could not make myself believe she really would act.

~ “Girls Better Off Dead.” ~

“She said to me only a few months ago that Sherley and Edna were only child women and that they would be better off dead than grown to womanhood

“Hazel confessed to me she had given the children poison five days after she had committed the crime. She had told our family doctor the next day and he had done everything possible, but they did not tell me. Finally she was arrested and I learned the truth.

“She told me had not though of poisoning the children until she had seen a motion picture which suggested the idea. [After extensive research it is determined that the only likely possibility is the eugenics propaganda film titled “The Black Stork” (re-edited and re-released as “Are You Fit to Marry?”) * see below for more information.] First she gave them tablets, which they threw up. Then she put the poison into capsules.”

Suggesting a possible motive for the mother’s act, he said Mrs. Luikart suffered frequently from melancholia.

“She often told me women had no chance in the world and are never anything but household drudges.”

In an interview at the Pontiac county jail last night, Mrs. Luikart added support to this theory.

“I desired boy babies,” she said. “Girls have no chance in the world.”

~ Reporter Gives Blood. ~

Thomas J. Wren, a reporter for an afternoon newspaper, offered his blood to the attending surgeon, and after a test he was accepted.

Before her marriage eight years ago Mrs. Luikart was Miss Haxel Harrison of Herrick, S. D., The husband last night telegraphed to her mother, Mrs. A. Zorba, who is expected to come to Chicago tomorrow.

It was after Detroit physicians had given up hope of saving the Luikart children that they were brought to Chicago for treatment by Dr. Carter, who, through a formula of his own, which he has given to the medical profession, has been especially successful in saving bichloride victims.

[“Fight Here To Save Children Wife Poisoned – Blood Transfused to Two Little Girls as Last Resort.” The Chicago Daily Tribune (Il.), Oct. 10, 1919, pp. 1 & 10]

ADDITIONAL NOTE:

“The Black Stork” was a propaganda film promoting eugenics. Based on a true story, and featuring eugenics advocate Dr. Harry J. Haiselden, tells of  a Chicago physician who refused to perform a life-saving operation on an infant who was born with a crippling deformity.

“The Black Stork” was given its national premiere in Ithaka, New York on Oct. 16, 1916, and its New York City debut was Nov. 24, 1916. It public premiere in Chicago in 1917.  There were numerous demands in various cities for censorship. The film was re-edited and released as Are You Fit To Marry? In 1919.

An important and well-written study of the film and its influence, “The Black Stork: Eugenics and the Death of ‘Defective’ Babies in American Medicine and Motion Pictures since 1915,” written by historian Martin S. Pernick was published in 1996 by Oxford University Press.

Gender Cleansing in 1940 - Mary Orban, Pennsylvania

FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 2): Wilkes-Barre, Pa.— A two-year-old boy died in a hospital early today from the effects of a pint of caustic laundering solution which his mother is charged with forcing down his throat so he wouldn’t "grow up and attack girls.”

Mrs. Mary Orban, 34, whom District Attorney Leon Schwartz described as “sort of a hex doctor,” was jailed on an attempted murder charge; several hours before the child’s death, Schwartz said she would be examined by a sanity commission.

At; a brief hearing the woman, mother of three other children – all girls – testified she called her son to the basement of their Newport township home yesterday and forced him to swallow, the fluid because “he wouldn’t be any good anyway when he grew up.”

“I killed four other people with my charm,” she added, “but that was nine years ago. I just wished them dead. I don’t do that any more.”

The “charm,” she explained, was a black bead tied in a handkerchief, over which she mumbled strange “gypsy” words.

Mrs. Orban told Schwartz and Judge John J. Aponick that she regarded male children as “no good” because they impose on girls when they grow up.

[“Vents Wrath On Males On 2-Year-Old - Mother Forces Boy To Shallow Caustic Potion Which Kills,” syndicated (AP), The Hutchinson News (Ka.), Mar. 27, 1940, p. 1]

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FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 2): Wilkes-Barre, Pa., March 29. – Mrs. Mary Orban, 34, purported “hex doctor” who killed her two-year-old son with a dose of ammonia because she thought he “wouldn’t be any good when he grew up,” was committed today to the Retreat mental hospital.

A prison lunacy commission composed of Drs. George Baskett and Stanley Freman reported to the court yesterday that the woman was “hopelessly unbalanced” and likely could not be cured. Neighbors testified that they had seen strange actions by the woman.

Judge John Aponiek pronounced her insane and ordered her committed to the hospital.

The district attorney’s office announced that a formal murder charge would be preferred and an indictment obtained at the next grand jury session as a legal formality.

[“Woman Is Sent To Mental Hospital,” The Daily News (Huntington, Pa.), Mar. 29, 1940, p. 1]

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FULL TEXT (Mar. 27, 1940, Wilkes-Barre Record): Two-year-old Frank Orban died early today in Nanticoke General Hospital from the effects of a pint of washing ammonia poured down his tiny throat by Mrs. Mary Orban, 34, his mother, described by police as a “hex doctor.”

The mother whose home is at 84 Prospect Hill, Alden, Newport Township, was committed to Women’s Detention Prison without bail at 4 yesterday afternoon after she told Judge John P. Aponick and District Attorney Leon Swartz, “he wouldn’t be any good anyway when he grew up.”

Mrs. Orban, mother of three daughters and the critically ill son., was questioned at length by the court and the district attornety and said “before I stopped nine years ago I killed four persons.” She explained that she “killed” the persons “by wishing them dead” and used a black bead in a white handkerchief as a deadly weapon. Questioning developed that the mother did not touch these persons. She said “I just wished and they died.”

Reluctant to talk about the attempt to murder, the formal charge placed against her, Mrs. Orban said that to her was of thinking male children are “no good” because they grow up and impose on girls.

District Attorney Schwartz, through persuasive methods, learned that the mother poured the ammonia down the child’s throat after she called him down to the cellar.

“Why did you use ammonia?” the judge asked.

“It was a poison and all I had,” the mother answered.

~ Husband Good Provider ~

District Attorney Schwartz learned from the mother that her husband, Frank Orban, is regularly employed and is a good provider for the family. The mother said she had plenty of food for the children.

“Was the child a cripple, was it crying or in ill health?” the prosecutor asked.

“No,” was the answer.

Shortly before the judge committed the mother to the prison to await the appointment of a commission, she softened her tone of  voice and after repeated questioning as to whether he would like to see her son live she said:

“I guess I am sorry I did it. I hope he lived.”

District Attorney Schwartz unfolded the entire story given to him by Sergt. J. W. Rule and Patrolman Matt Forgach of Newport Police and County Detective Henry Jones.

He said at 10:30 yesterday morning neighbors heard “blood-chilling” screams from within the Orban home. When they investigated they found the child writhing in pain. A physician was summoned and ordered the child to the hospital.

Sergt. Rule and Forgach received a call at 11 a. m. from the hospital went to the home for further investigation. They believed at first that the child had been given the ammonia by mistake.

Sergt. Rule said the mother made it clear to him that she meant to poison the child.

He said the mother, in a rambling conversation, said that female children are all right, but that male children grow up to impose upon girls.

Sergt. Rule said the mother repeated “He (the son) wouldn’t have been any good when he grew up.”

~ Offers Gilty Plea ~

Mrs. Orban wasw taken before Justice of the Press Louis Kutz at Newport and she pleaded guilty to a charge of attempt to murder (infanticide).

The mother was then brought before Judge Aponick by District Attorney Schwartz, who said “because of unusual nature of the case he wanted the court to get a clear picture of the circumstances.”

Questioning in the judge’s chambers caused Mrs. Orban to tell of her strange beliefs.

She said at one point during the hearing “I wasn’t born to be married and have children.”

The mother said she loved her daughters. “They are all right,” she declared.

Asked if she would demonstrate how she poured the ammonia down her son’s throat, the mother took one of Judge Aponick’s law books. She cuddled the book in her left arm and with her right hand demonstrated how she tilted the bottle and poured the liquid. “Some of it went over his neck,” she said.

Mrs. Orban steadfastly asserted that the child was not misbehaving, crying or “making a fuss” when she decided to call him into the cellar and pour the ammonia down his throat.

“Have you had any desires recently to wish any persons to their death?” Prosecutor Schwartz asked the mother.

“No, I stopped that nine years ago,” she said.

~ Laughed at Woman ~

“And the used to laugh at me when I showed them my black bead in the white handkerchief,” Mrs. Orban said in relating that relatives and friends did not take her “wishing deaths” seriously.

At no time during the hearing did the mother cry or show signs of emotion. She answered questions point blank and when told several times by First Assistant Prosecutor Mitchell Jenkins that the son was “serious” she merely said “Yes?”

Court officials commented about the appearance of the mother, who was dressed in black.

[“Boy, 2, Dies While Mother Is Held in Jail Charged With Giving Infant Poison – Glen Lyon ‘Hex Doctor,’ Who Says She ‘Killed’ Persons by ‘Wishing Them Dead,’ Admits She Wanted to Get Rid of Boy,” Wilkes-Barre Record (Pa.), Mar. 27, 1940, Sec. 2, p. 1]

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FULL TEXT (Mar. 28, 1940, Wilkes-Barre Record): Not until she is arraigned before Judge John J. Aponick at 2 this afternoon on a charge of murder will Mrs. Mary Orban, 34, of Prospect Hill, Alden, know that her two-year-old son Frank died yesterday morning from the effects of ammonia she admits having poured down his throat Tuesday morning. Bench warrant charging the Newport Township woman with infanticide was issued yesterday by Judge Aponick at the instance of the District Attorney who said that at today’s hearing the mother will not be permitted to enter a plea of guilty.

A few hours after the child died in Nanticoke Hospital yesterday morning, machinery of the court was set in motion to arraign the mother, who told Judge Aponick and District Attorney Leon Schwartz Tuesday afternoon that she had purposely given the boy ammonia “because he wouldn’t be any good when he grow up, anyway.”

Dr. Lewis S. Reese, county coroner, performed a post mortem examination of the baby’s body yesterday. His written report will be given to the court this afternoon. The child’s stomach was almost completely destroyed by the ammonia, his lips had been burned and his face partially disfigured.

A sanity commission composed of Dr. George T. Baskett, superintendent of Retreat Hospital, and Dr. Stanley Freeman, city, was assigned by the court yesterday to examine the woman. Their report also will be given to Judge Aponick this afternoon.

Warden William B. Healey reported that Mrs. Orban was apparently calm and collected yesterday at the women’s detention prison on North River Street but officials decided not to tell her that the boy had died during the early morning hours in the hospital.

County detectives investigating the case reported yesterday that Mrs. Orban, who has three other children, all girls and aged 7, 9 and 10, had suffered a nervous breakdown last September. Neighbors and relatives told the detectives that she had “acted queer” before and after the breakdown. Her husband, the court was informed by the District Attorney’s staff,  is a steady worker and a good provider.

At the courthouse yesterday officials and detectives accustomed to checking to checking details of brutal crimes showed obvious shock at the statements of Mrs. Orban during her investigation on Tuesday before Judge Aponick. Several times during the examination, the woman said she had deliberately poured about a pint of ammonia down the child’s throat, explaining that in her opinion “male children are no good because they grow up to impose on girls.” The woman also claimed to have “killed” four persons. She told the court that she had “wished them dead” and used a black bead in a white handkerchief as a deadly charm, although she insisted she did not touch the persons with her “hex charm.” She told the District Attorney “I just wished and they died” but insisted she had “stopped all that nine years ago.”

[“Mrs. Mary Orban Will Learn Of Child’s Death When She Is Arraigned In Court Today – Alden Woman Does Not Know 2-Year-Old Son Died from Effects of Ammonia She Admits Having Poured Down His Throat,” Wilkes-Barre Record (Pa.), Mar. 27, 1940, Sec. 2, p. 1]

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FULL TEXT (Mar. 29, 1940, Wilkes-Barre Record): Mrs. Mary Orban, 34, of 84 Prospect Hill, Alden, thought that by killing her two-year-old son, Frank, Jr., with poison she was benefitting the world at large, Dr. Stanley Freeman, prison physician for 25 years, told Judge John J. Aponick yesterday afternoon at the preliminary arraignment of the mother, who was committed to Retreat Mental Hospital without bail on a charge of murder. District Attorney Leon Schwartz pleaded “not guilty” for the murder.

Although not told that her son died in Nanticoke State Hospital Wednesday morning at 1, Mrs. Orban said “Yes” when asked by District Attorney Leon C. Schwartz if she knew that the child had died.

Dr. Freeman and Dr. George T. Baskett, superintendent of Retreat and a specialist in mental work since 1908, submitted to Judge Aponick a report stating that the mother is insane and irresponsible. The mother was called to testify.

Mrs. Orban was arrested Tuesday morning at 10:30, an hour after, police say, she poured nearly a pint of washing amonia down the throat of her son.

~ Few Hear Testimony ~

Approximately 400 persons jammed Judge Aponick’s courtroom for the preliminary arraignment, but the testimony was taken in chambers, with only authorities and members of the press permitted to attend.

Dr. Beskett testified that the mother probably committed the crime in response to hallucinations and delusions. He said she hears voices talking to her and firmly holds in her mind false beliefs. Dr. Baskett said the mother has the dementia praecox type of insanity in his opinion.

Asked by District Attorney Leon Schwartz, was presided for the Commonwealth at the araignment, whether the mother knew right from wrong, Dr. Baskett said it was not likely in respect to the poisoning of her son and that if she did she couldn’t control herself.

District Attorney Schwartz questioned Dr. Freeman, who said that the mother should be committed to an “insane institution permanently” and that her recovery is very questionable. He said that the urge of the mother to murder the son probably overcame her sense of right and wrong.

~ Neighbor Describes Incident ~

Mrs. Sophia Rokosz, who lives on the other side of the double dwelling, said she rushed into the Orban cellar Tuesday morning at 9:30 after she heard screams. Mrs. Rokosz said she said she saw the baby in Mrs. Orban’s arms moaning and closing its eyes and she said Mary, what did you do?” The witness said Mrs. Orban answered “I did not do anything, I want baby to die.” Testifying that she smelled a strong odor, Mrs. Rokosz said she told her daughter to get help and that the baby had been poisoned.

Mrs. Josephine Keller, another neighbor was called by District Attorney Schwartz and testified that she went to the home in response to shouts of Mrs. Rokosz’s daughter. She said she opened the cellar door of the Orban home cautiously because she did not know whether the mother would do something to her. She asked the mother, she said, what was the matter and Mrs. Orban said “Don’t be afraid. I want baby to die.”

Learning of antidotes when a neighbor child had taken poison several years previous, Mrs. Keller said she started to give the baby milk when she determined that it had been poisoned because its face was blue and the lips very red. Milk did no good, according to Mrs. Keller, and whites of eggs were used. Mrs. Keller said Mrs. Orban got the eggs for her from a cupboard.

While the neighbor women were administering antidotes, Mrs. Keller said, the mother told them “He (the son) would impose on me and I would have to go out with him.” Later starch was used. Mrs. Keller said, “but nothing came up.” This was before the arrival of a physician.

Mrs. Keller said she turned to Mrs. Orban and said “What did you give the child?” The mother went into the cellar and returned with a bottle of ammonia, nearly empty.

~ Has Two Nervous Breakdowns ~

At this point District Attorney Schwartz presented the bottle as evidence and asked Mrs. Keller if she had read the antidotes suggested lemons or oranges and I sent to my home for lemons.” [sic; the error is copied as printed]

When a physician arrived he ordered the child to Nanicoke State Hospital, Mrs. Keller said.

Mrs. Anna Armstrong, sister of the defendant, testified that her sister had a nervous breakdown nine years ago and suffered another in October. At that time a physician recommended she be committed to an institution, but relatives opposed it, the sister said.

The sister sternly testified that Frank Orban, husband of the defendant, who did not appear at the arraignment, beat his wife and on one occasion dragged her by the head of the hair from the kitchen to the parlor. The sister said the defendant suffered a breakdown at that time.

Chief County Detective Richard Powell and Deputy Chief Joseph Miller, who handled the investigation were not called to testify. Only police authority called was County Detective Henry Jones, who the crime and readily admitted that she poisoned her son.

Asked by the district attorney as to the motive expressed by the mother, Detective Jones said she merely stated  that “boys are no good” and expressed the opinion that when her son grew up he would “do things to her and other girls.”

[“Mrs. Orban Is Committed To Retreat Hospital on Charge of Murdering Son – Psychiatrists Inform Court Alden Woman Has Dementia Praecox Type of Insanity; Not Guilty Plea Is Entered for Mother,” Wilkes-Barre Record (Pa.), Mar. 29, 1940, Sec. 2, p. 1]

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SEE ALSO: Mom Hates Little Boys, She Says, So She Murders Her Son: Georgette Brucks - 1949

SEE: Maternal Filicide: Spousal Revenge Motive for similar cases

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The 2011 disclosure by men’s rights activists of misandric writings on Pamela O’Shaughnessy’s progressive website RedFemHub included a post by Australian child care provider whose cultural Marxism causes her to view the little boys she is paid to look after as dangerous beings, using such terms as “Mr. Rape Threat” to describe the children who belong to the hated sex. A child of the preferred sex is – in the mind of this utopian cultural Marxist –  to be conceived of as “Ms. Harassment Victim.”

See: Robert O’Hara, “Radfem Hub: the underbelly of a hate movement,” A Voice for Men, Dec. 16, 2011

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For more cases of misandric fixation see: What Is Misandric Fixation?

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[1467-1.20/17]
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Motive for Murder: Misandry: The Death of Engin Aydin (Richardson & Pfender, Killers) - 1984

Date of crime: Aug 7, 1984.

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FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 1): Pittsburgh – Two women, dubbed by police as “men haters” and brought back from Virginia in handcuffs have been charged with homicide in connection with the shooting death of a Turkish student, police said.

Charmaine Pfender, 18, of Pittsburgh and Sara Mae Richardson, 20, of Imperial were charged late Sunday with one count each of criminal homicide, according to Allegheny County Deputy Coroner Jim Bodack.

They were arraigned before Deputy Coroner Fred F. Bell shortly before midnight after being flown back to Pittsburgh from Virginia Beach, Va., earlier in the evening.

“There were no problems,” Bodack said. “The arraignment has taken place and they’re off to the (Allegheny) county jail.”

Ms. Pfender and Ms. Richardson are charged with killing Turkish student Engin Aydin, 24, while on a double date and burying him in a shallow grave in a remote wooded area near the Greater Pittsburgh International Airport, according to authorities.

The two also allegedly shot and tried to kill a second Turkish student, 25-year-old Suat Erdogan, police said.

Floyd Nevling, the Allegheny County homicide inspector leading the investigation, has termed the two women “vicious men-haters” and said the killing was apparently motivated by “anti-male feelings.”

“I believe this was a premeditated murder and I am standing by that,” Nevling told The Pittsburgh Press.

“Anti-male feelings is what we got from an informant, and that’s all we’ve got so far.”

Police launched a search for the two women Wednesday, when Erdogan staggered out of the woods, bleeding from a bullet wound in his shoulder and told police officers of a date that “went sour.”

Erdogan led police and bloodhounds back to the site of the shooting, where officers found Aydin buried under leaves, sticks and clay.

Authorities say Erdogan was being held in seclusion over the weekend, and had requested to return to Turkey.

“He’s still very emotionally disturbed,” said Malik Tunador, president of the Pittsburgh Turkish-American Association. “They’re giving him sleeping pills and tranquilizers to keep him calm. He continues to have nightmares and flashbacks.” Tunador said Erdogan, who along with Aydin was studying English at Pittsburgh’s Point Park College, would remain in the city at least until the coroner’s preliminary inquest, set for Aug. 17.

After the shooting, the two women fled to Virginia Beach, where they turned themselves in to authorities and waived extradition rights, authorities said.

Ms. Pfender’s mother, Donna, said her daughter told her in a telephone conversation from the Virginia Beach jail that she acted in self-defense.

“She was crying on the phone,” Mrs. Pfender said. “She said the story is not as it appears. She said it was self-defense.”

In a Virginia interview with television station WVEC-TV, Ms. Pfender said: “It’s going to be a hard, sad, a long traumatic thing to go to court and everything and whatever may happen to us, jail, whatever may happen to us, that’s the price we’re going to have to pay for something we did.”

The owner of a sporting goods store in Imperial, near Pittsburgh, said Ms. Richardson attempted to purchase a box of 50 shells for a .357 Magnum handgun from his store on the day of the shooting.

Edward Sarachine told the Pittsburgh Press he refused to sell the shells because Ms. Richardson, whom he knew, was under age.

“She asked about the shells, but I turned her down,” said Sarachine. State law prohibits the sale of that caliber of ammunition to people under 21.

The Press reported that Erdogan told police he and Aydin drove to the woods with the two women after one suggested the group visit her relatives.

After reaching the rural area, one woman asked the men to turn their heads.

As they did, Erdogan said, Ms. Richardson pulled out a knife and Ms. Pfender pointed a handgun at them.

The women took out ropes to tie them up, Erdogan said, but Aydin slapped Ms. Pfender when she tried to tie him and Ms. Pfender shot them, the Press reported.

Nevling said the two men were not robbed. “The survivor doesn’t know why he was attacked,” he said.

[“‘Men Haters’ Lodged in Pittsburgh Jail,” syndicated (AP), The Indiana Gazette (Pa.), Aug. 13, 1984, p. 2]

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FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 3): As Turkish student Suat Erdogan spoke with a heavy accent, he was able to draw a picture for a Common Pleas jury of the moonlight night in a desolate area of a foreign land when his friend was killed and he was wounded.

Charmaine Pfender, 18, and Sara Mae Richardson, 20, both of Imperial, are on trial in the Aug. 7 death of Engin Aydin, 24, another Turkish student at Point Park College, and the wounding of Erdogan, 25.

Erdogan’s story unfolded yesterday, obscured at times by his limited understanding of English. When the words eluded him, he Turned to a Turkish interpreter for help in explaining how Aydin was killed in a remote area of Findlay, near the Greater Pittsburgh International Airport.

The taste of terror emerged from Erdogan’s testimony – his flight into a dark woods with his hands bound behind him, the pain of a bullet striking his back and the .357 Magnum revolver fired next to his temple as he lay in a ditch.

He told of surprise and bewilderment when Ms. Pfender pointed a gun at them as they sat in the back seat of a car.

Erdogan said his friend asked Ms. Pfender, “Why do you do this? What did we do wrong?” He was told, “Don’t move. Don’t say anything.”

After Ms. Richardson tied his hands, Erdogan said, she pulled him from the car by his hair.

Aydin tried to escape. Erdogan heard a gunshot and his friend’s cry in Turkish “Oh mother, I’m burning (or) … I’m hurt.”

Deputy District Attorney Chris Conrad took Erdogan through the events leading to Aug. 7, from the time two days earlier when he and Aydin met the defendants in Point State Park.

Erdogan told how the two men went walking with the women, had drinks and agreed to meet again.

When Ms. Richardson arrived that night in front of the college, her clothes were covered with dirt; she told the two men she had been playing softball.

Aydin and Erdogan ran to Ms. Richardson’s auto and found Ms. Pfender also with dirt on her clothes.

Ms. Richardson drove out the Parkway West, saying they would go to Ms. Pfender’s grandmother’s home to take a shower.

Erdogan said Ms. Richardson drove on a rough road with many potholes. She stopped the car and Ms. Pfender got out to urinate.

When Ms. Pfender got back into the car, she suddenly turned, holding a gun on both of them.

He said Ms. Richardson cut sections of rope with a knife, and Ms. Pfender fired a shot into the air from the car window. Ms. Richardson tied Erdogan’s hand behind him.

As he faced away from the car, Erdogan said, he saw Ms. Pfender run past him toward Aydin.

Erdogan started to run, then heard another shot and felt a pain in his upper back.

He fell to the ground and lay very still on his left side as two forms approached through the darkness.

Erdogan said Ms. Pfender held the gun and he felt the barrel against his temple. He turned his head suddenly when the gun fired. The shot missed.

“I didn’t move. I didn’t do anything,” he said.

He heard noise, some talking and the outline of the women in the moonlight. It had begun to rain.

“While rain was starting, they couldn’t hear any noise, so I changed my place,” he said.

Erdogan said he wandered in the woods until he passed out. In the morning, he walked to a road and finally got a motorcyclist to take him to the police.

Detective Robert Payne of the county homicide squad said he accompanied Ertogen to the area in search for Aydin.

When a folding-knife was found off Clinton-Enlow Road, Erdogan “looked at the knife and became shaken and began sobbing,” Payne said.

Aydin’s body was found Aug. 9 in a grave 18 inches deep, concealed by brush, near where Erdogan said the attack occurred.

The women surrendered later to authorities in Virginia Beach, Va.

[Robert Baird, “Turkish Student Tells of Friend’s Killing,” The Pittsburgh Press (Pa.), Mar. 20, 1985, p. B4]

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FULL TEXT (Article 3 of 3): Pittsburgh – Two women have been sentenced to life in prison in the murder of a Turkish student and the wounding of his friend during a double date in 1984. Charmaine Pfender, 19, of Pittsburgh, and Sara Mae Richardson, 21, of nearby Imperial, were sentenced Friday in the fatal shooting of Engin Aydin, 24, of Bozagac, Turkey.

Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge George H. Ross also sentenced the women .to consecutive prison terms for related convictions, making the pair ineligible for parole within the usual 15 to 20 years, a court official said.

Prosecutors did not seek a death sentence.

The women were convicted on March 27 of killing Aydin and wounding his friend, Suat Erdogan, 25, of Karabuk, Turkey, in August 1984. Both men were students at Point Park College in Pittsburgh and had been living in the United States only a few months.

Erdogan, who was shot in the neck when he tried to flee from the women, helped authorities find Aydin’s body in a shallow grave Aug. 7,1984, in a rural area near Greater Pittsburgh International Airport.

Miss Pfender’s sister, Gloria, said shortly after the women’s arrest that the two defendants were lesbian lovers who had harassed men and “gone violent.” The remark was excluded from the trial.

Miss Pfender’s attorney, William Brennan, admitted to the jury that his client was “the shooter.” But he said she acted in self-defense after Aydin made unwelcome sexual advances.

Miss Richardson said she did not participate in the shooting, but only helped Miss Pfender bury Aydin’s body, then escape to Virginia Beach, Va.

Miss Pfender also was sentenced to five top 10 years in prison for aggravated assault, 2 ½  to five years for criminal conspiracy, two to four years for unlawful restraint and one to five years for a violation of firearms laws.

Brennan called three character, witnesses to testify on Miss Pfender’s behalf before sentencing. Miss Richardson also was sentenced to 2 ½  to five years in prison for aggravated assault, 1 ½ to three I years for unlawful restraint and 2 ½   to five years for criminal conspiracy. Ross suspended sentence on a charge of hindering apprehension. The two were sent to the State Correctional Institution at Muncy.

[“Women sentenced for murder of date,” syndicated (AP), Indiana Gazette (Pa.), Oct. 26, 1985, p. 26]

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For more cases of misandric fixation see: What Is Misandric Fixation?

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[3502-8/4/21]

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