This is the stuff of nightmares.". Stinnett lived with her husband, Zeb, in Skidmore, Mo., a town near the state's northwest corner with fewerthan 300 people today. Many there believe the final moments of Bobbie Jo Stinnett were so horrific, the death sentence is warranted. Judy ultimately married six times, and had multiple partners throughout Lisa's childhood. She went home with a newborn, one she acquired by murdering the babys pregnant mother. In late December, Montgomery's legal team submitted a petition to President Donald Trump that makes the case that after a lifetime of abuse - which they characterise as torture - she is too mentally ill to be executed and deserves mercy. When Floyd Gwin died last July at age 81, Mattingly was listed among the survivors in his obituary. The clemency process enables convicted criminals to request mercy and ask the nation's executive branch to step in, Henry said. The family treated Mattingly as one of their own, and gave her a sense of belonging and self-worth, she said. "The other sister stayed in that situation, and it got worse and worse and worse. It would be 34 years before the half-sisters would see each other again. She did not see her again until Montgomerys trial 34 years later. The family moved often. In December 2004, Montgomery, who was 36 at the time, strangled Bobbie Jo Stinnett before cutting the baby out of her womb and kidnapping it. As a teenager, Montgomery confided in a cousin, telling him the men would tie her up, beat her and even urinate on her afterwards. In the end, it was in prisonwhere she spent years on death row after committing a horrific crimethat she began to recover from a lifetime of nightmarish abuse. She lived at 61 addresses in the 36 years before she went to prison, court documents show. According to an interview with her father, Montgomery's mother Judy Shaughnessy drank heavily throughout her pregnancy, and their daughter was born with foetal alcohol syndrome. Tommy Kleiner and Montgomery have stayed in touch. Around age 8, she said, a man began raping her in the bedroom she shared with Montgomery, then 4, who lay in bed right next to her. Montgomery took Stinnetts baby, clamped the umbilical cord and used baby wipes to clean her. They were also physically violent. Shaughnessy also beat the girls with brooms and belts,Mattingly said. In recommending execution, the jury spelled out six aggravating factors supporting capital punishment. The baby, who was uninjured, was returned to her father. Randy Strong, who investigated the case,is unhappy that some people are asking thatMontgomerys life be spared. On her way out the door, Mattingly said, Shaughnessy leaned over and told her it was all her fault she was being taken away. The threat of losing her children, combined with the years of untreated trauma and severe mental illness, pushed Lisa over the edge. Montgomery contacted Stinnett, 23, after meeting her at a dog show earlier that year at Abilene, in north-central Kansas, where they posed with others in a photo. As Fritz patted Montgomery on the back of her hand, Strong said he noticed dried blood and tissue embedded beneath her fingernails. She was sick. Montgomery's execution, scheduled less than 60 days, will be the first of three federal executions in January before Trump leaves office. Montgomery was already vulnerable to serious mental illness, she added. Since 2008, Montgomery has been held in a federal prison in Texas for female inmates with special medical and psychological needs, where she has been receiving psychiatric care. Every time she has a birthday, it will also be the anniversary of the slaughter of her mother, Whitworth said. Dorr met Montgomery after being imprisoned for helping an inmate escape in 2006 as Dorrran a dog training program for inmates at Lansing Correctional Facility in northeast Kansas. While the court admonished her for not reporting it to authorities, they did not report it either. In Trumps final days in office, Lisa Montgomery a mentally ill victim of sex trafficking is set to be the first woman the U.S. executes in 70 years. Court records say Kleiner drank heavily, beat his wife and children, and made his daughters take off their clothes before he spanked them. She was the first woman executed by the federal government in 67 years. And to not fail her.". "But one of the things that the president can do is say - to women who have been trafficked, and who have been sexually abused - 'Your abuse matters'.". Three federal inmates - Orlando Hall, Alfred Bourgeois and Brandon Bernard - have been put to death since the 3 November presidential election. It is the only federal prison with an active death chamber. When Mattingly and Montgomery were young, Shaughnessy beat them and doled out cruel forms of punishment, like taping Montgomery's mouth shut, or pushing Mattingly out into the snow, naked. Every year. More: Lisa Montgomery's execution, delayed by attorneys' COVID-19 cases, rescheduled for Jan. 12. Part of HuffPost Crime. "She got joy out of it.". Being loved unconditionally helped me heal, find a caring husband, and raise two children who have hearts of gold. "Being psychotic, it does not mean you are not intelligent, nor that you cannot act in a planful way," she says. She was often spaced out, appearing disconnected from reality. However, the executions ordered by President Trump are continuing. Lisa Montgomery had little if any chance in life. Ramachandran said women who sufferchildhood sexual abuse and whose minds revolve around babies and pregnancy are predisposed to suffering pseudocyesis, a condition in which they show physical symptoms of pregnancy, including enlargement of the breasts and stomach, morning sickness and cravings for certain foods. DNA testing later showed they were Stinnett's. At the time, Lisa had told her new husband that she was pregnant, which her former husband knew wasn't possible because of the forced sterilization. However, calls for Trump to be merciful are hardly unanimous. Violent acts against pregnant women and their fetuses fall into that category. Facebook gives people the. School friend Baumli says she's read the descriptions of Montgomery's abuse, but it mostly just makes her angry. Montgomery clearly should spend the rest of her life in prison, but she is not among the "worst of the worst" for whom the death penalty is intended, Mattingly told The Topeka Capital-Journal. The judge in the case scolded Shaughnessy for not reporting the abuse - but did not report the abuse himself. Stinnett wasn't breathing and was cold. He stressed that the juryheard testimony about her mental illness and her history of being abused, yet still unanimously recommended her execution. Montgomery wasn't allowed eyeglasses, though she is far-sighted and near-sighted, or a CPAP machine, which has been prescribed since 2015 for her sleep apnea, Henry said. That was ultimately dropped in favour of an insanity defence, but Henry believes the damage to Montgomery's credibility was already done. He had a daughter from a previous relationship, Diane, who was four years older than Montgomery. Nobody has said that Lisa should never have been punished. A social worker found Lisa's allegations of abuse credible and turned the file. She told Lisa she had to "earn her keep.". But the psychological abuse targeted at her was even more damaging. Her mother, Judy Shaughnessy, beat and tormented all of her children, proudly telling an investigator that her daughter's first sentence was "Don't spank me, it hurts." Montgomery's first stepfather . The only woman on federal death row, Montgomery is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Dec. 8 at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. Weddle said she moved to Melvern when she retired nine years ago because she wanted peace and quiet after more than 30 years as a Topeka police officer. And that would be from across a courtroom, where lawyers for the US government were trying to persuade a jury to sentence Montgomery to death. My sister is on death row, Kleiner wrote in the lawsuit petition. Montgomery, who confessed, was later sentenced to death for the especially heinous murder as decided by a jury who heard her trial. I didn't know what to do or how to talk to my sister about it.". Just the details: What you need to know about Montgomery and her victim, Bobbie Jo Stinnett. "I felt sick watching the video. She said Montgomery's crimes have affected the way Melvern is perceived in the same manner anti-gay picketing by Westboro Baptist Church has influenced perceptions about Topeka. Lisa Montgomery's half-sister Diane Mattingly, who was separated from her in 1972 has taken a more high-profile role in trying to save her life. They gave me unconditional love, they taught me my self-worth, she said. Lisa Montgomery - the only female inmate on federal death row in the US - has been executed for murder in the state of Indiana. According to sworn statements from her family, her mental health declined rapidly after that. She says it's not as if all the other people of Skidmore lead idyllic lives free from abuse, poverty and other destructive tragedies. Shaughnessy was cruel and violent to both girls, according to a sworn statement from Patterson, who reported feeling ashamed that he did not step in to stop the abuse. He was being held in the Shawnee County Jail in 2018 when he filed a federal lawsuit contending the county was violating his constitutional rights by preventing him from sending letters to Montgomery. Prosecutors shared records showing Montgomery had visited a website featuring a video of a live C-section birth, described as lasting from first cut to last stitch, and had made a practice run by driving the roughly 350 miles from Melvern to Skidmore and back the day before the killing. When they came to take me, I thought they were coming to take all of us. Because of Stinnett's easy-going reputation, Morrow remembers instantly dismissing the initial reports of her murder. Her children were disturbed by it. President Donald Trump can "break the chain of evil" experienced by Montgomery and other members of her family by granting clemency and commuting her sentence to life imprisonment, Mattingly said. Thats happened since Montgomery's childhood, when theterror she experienced while being raped forced her to retreat emotionally into an imaginary house,where everything is fine, Henry said. We cant travel to talk to witnesses or to prepare experts at this point, Harwell, Montgomerys lawyer, said. Her death is scheduled a little over a month before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, who has pledged to end the federal death penalty. Maybe you should focus your efforts on the fact that Lisa's mother, Judy Shaughnessy, was granted custody of a grandson the year prior to Lisa's crime. A lifelong opponent of the death penalty, Dorr said she wants the world to know about Lisa Montgomery the person. "I get these images in my head of [Bobbie Jo's mother] finding her daughter that way.". That is exactly what Lisa Montgomery developed into, which is a person who had profound disconnection from her body, from her mind, from her experience, Porterfield said. Lisa was anally, orally, and vaginally raped by several men, one after the other for several hours at a time. In Montgomerys early childhood, her older sister, Diane, suffered the worst of the violence. He married Judy Shaughnessy, who would become Montgomery's mother, in 1967 in Miami, Okla. Patterson was the second of six husbands Shaughnessy . In response to traumatic events, children may dissociate from their feelings and their bodies to protect themselves from experiencing what is happening. Jack also raped Lisa for years. More: Who was the last woman executed by the US government? Her daughter remembered her acting like a young child in public, twirling and skipping with her arms swinging with abandon. She helped him escape in a dog crate and went to prison after a vehicle chase 12 days later ended with their capture. Protecting her half-sister became her "sole purpose in life, she said. Stinnett's husband was at work, andStinnett was on the phone with her mother, Becky Harper, when Montgomery's dirty red Toyota pulled upon the afternoon of Dec. 16. View the profiles of people named Judy Shaughnessy. We lived in a house of horrors. She would be the first woman executed by the federal government in 67. "As a result, Lisa has trouble processing information and navigating social relationships. And it's never about what my friend went through," she adds. Montgomery and Stinnett participated inthe "Ratter Chatter" online message board for rat terrier dog enthusiasts. Montgomery said she was seeking a dog for a Christmas gift. "Judy was manipulative and - I hate to use this word, but - evil. Mrs. She told Lisa she had to "earn her keep." Judy later. Ive always said that I am bruised, but not broken, Mattingly said, her voice choked with tears. She gives herself as an example - when Stinnett was murdered, Baumli was in rehab for a drug addiction. Stinnett bled to death. A longtime death penalty opponent, Wurtz said he considers it "idiotic" that Montgomery is to be executed. The six-man, six-woman jury in October 2007 found Montgomery guilty and recommended she be executed. Now, she called him to tell him that shed gone into labor while shopping and had given birth at a clinic. . "It was pretty awful.". Montgomery often read her Bible or did things with her hands, including writing, quilting, and making placemats and bookmarks, Dorr said. However, in the tiny town of Skidmore, Missouri, where the crime was committed, there is little sympathy for that argument. Montgomerys legal team is fighting against the clock to gather the information needed for her clemency petition, which has been complicated by the coronavirus crisis. Those were disconnections that were tragic in their consequences. She has writtenopinion piecespublished in Elle and Newsweek. Mattingly said her heart sank when she realized Montgomery wasn't coming with her. The judge reached no conclusion aboutwhether sexual activity occurred but said he considered it "inexcusable" that Shaughnessy didn't report the situation to authorities and get counseling for Montgomery. A clemency petition asking Trump to reduce Montgomerys sentence to life without parole is expected to be filed in the coming weeks. Montgomery claimed to live in northwest Missouri. I didn't know what to do or how to talk to my sister about it.". It was a terrifying household, she says, where physical, psychological and sexual abuse at the hands of Judy Shaughnessy, Montgomery's mother, and her boyfriends was routine. "The people that are defending [Montgomery], I wish I could take them back in time, and put them in that room," he says. Judy was an alcoholic with mental illness who married six times over the course of her life. But Strong says this is the first year he's heard directly from Stinnett's husband. A few years after Mattingly was removed from the home, when Montgomery was in kindergarten, her mother remarried a man named Jack Kleiner. Kleiner built a makeshift shed on the side of the trailer for Montgomery, where he began molesting, and then raping, her. And I am just asking for somebody - once - not to fail her.". "I'm sick of hearing about Lisa Montgomery and what she went through. And, in fact, blaming her for it.. The Trump administration announced it was reinstating executions last summer after an almost 20-year hiatus. If you were to meet her, it would be inconceivable to you that she committed this crime, Harwell said. After she strangled Stinnett, Montgomery is alleged to have cut her open and stolen her unborn child Victoria, who survived the attack and is now living with her father. In fact, he drove her back home and dropped her off in the hands of her abusers. At least five times after she was sterilized, she told people that she was pregnant. Montgomerys entire life was marked by people who failed to protect her, Babcock said. They slept in twin beds in a small bedroomand fell asleep most nights holding hands, Mattingly said. And then go, 'Stand there and listen to the 911 call of [Stinnett's mother]. "We knew we were walking into the killer's house.". The population hovers around just 250, and everyone knew Bobbie Jo Stinnett and her family. A newspaper article quoted him as saying he had been convinced his wife was pregnant and had given birth. Her attorneys say that while Montgomery feels deep remorse for her crimes, her understanding of her situation waxes and wanes. All the while, Lisa's mother was being paid to let strange men rape Lisa. She faulted Montgomerys defense team at the time of the initial trial for failing to connect the dots between Montgomerys childhood trauma and her later behavior. Montgomery achieved considerable emotional growth once she was put in a stable environment where she felt safe and was receiving psychiatric medications for the first time, Dorrsaid. , court documents show judy shaughnessy lisa montgomery, rescheduled for Jan. 12 mercy and ask the nation 's branch! Her keep. & quot ; judy later prison after a vehicle chase days. Arms swinging with abandon branch to step in, Henry said used wipes! Mattingly said her heart sank when she realized Montgomery was n't coming her. Helped me heal, find a caring husband, and gave her a sense of belonging and self-worth she... Quot ; judy later situation waxes and wanes more damaging who have hearts of gold Stinnetts,! Admonished her for it through, '' she adds, Bobbie Jo Stinnett were so,... 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