2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. "Little Lisa was in the bed next to mine every time," she said. Mattingly and Montgomery lived together until Mattingly was eight and her half-sister was four. Judy later married a man named Jack who punched, kicked and choked his children, including Lisa. However, calls for Trump to be merciful are hardly unanimous. Judy was an alcoholic with mental illness who married six times over the course of her life. But blind outrage over the brutality of the crime leaves little room for curiosity about why Montgomery committed the act, and whether she deserves the most severe penalty that exists in the criminal justice system. Is it ethical to execute a woman for actions that cannot be meaningfully separated from her mental illness and ugly history of abuse? Skidmore has suffered lasting effects as a result of Stinnett's murder, said Strong, the investigator who helped prodMontgomery to confess. Facebook gives people the. My heart goes out to the family of Bobbie Jo Stinnett and the loss that they have felt and are still feeling. Shaughnessy's nephew, David Kidwell, testified that she believed Montgomery "had brought [the abuse] on herself, that she enticed him". Court records say Kleiner drank heavily, beat his wife and children, and made his daughters take off their clothes before he spanked them. President-elect Joe Biden has already pledged to end death penalty proceedings, although he hasn't said when. "I would say, 'President Trump, I want you to look at the life that Lisa had led, I want to look at all the people that have failed her, I want you to look at the rape, the torture, the mental abuse, the physical abuse that this woman had endured,'" she says. Shaughnessy sat so unmoved during her daughter's testimony that the judge reprimanded her for lacking empathy. They would beat and slap her if she was doing it wrong. When they were done, they urinated on her like she was trash.. she says. Its not just the childhood maltreatment and psychological abuse and neglect, or the incredible sexual abuse by her stepfather, or the sex trafficking, Porterfield said. She lapsed increasingly into mental illness and repeatedly faked pregnancy. Multiple medical experts have given statements agreeing with that diagnosis. "The Lisa I knew was a good person who cared about the other women in the pod and was quiet and generous and kind," Dorr said. He threatened to rape our little sister if Lisa resisted and said he would kill her whole family if she told anyone. She has exhausted all legal options except a last-ditch appeal for clemency from President Donald Trump, which was filed Christmas Eve. She was the first woman executed by the federal government in 67 years. She has always accepted responsibility. "We've seen crime for years and years in our country in which people enact terrible violence coming out of a psychotic set of beliefs or thought process. Bobbie Jo's mother and husband have have not spoken publicly in many years. This is someone who was deeply remorseful, once she became appropriately medicated and had full contact with reality, although that is a situation that waxes and wanes.. The couple returned to their home near Melvern, which was being watched by investigators working to identify the woman who had told Stinnett she was Darlene Fischer. It was clear that she was traumatized, that she was somewhere else, he said. Moving often was the norm to Montgomery; by the time she was a teenager, she had moved approximately 16 times. Montgomery, who confessed, was later sentenced to death for the especially heinous murder as decided by a jury who heard her trial. Let it be done: Bobbie Jo Stinnetts hometown waits as killers execution date nears. Though capital case defendants tend to be confused and stunned, those emotions were heightened with Montgomery, who had trouble responding to questions, Wurtz said. "Oh, they're here, I've got to go," she said. She liked to take her finger and poke it hard into her chest, over and over in the same spot. Judy drank throughout her pregnancy with Lisa and caused her to be born with brain damage. "There's so many people that failed her throughout her whole life. Henry says Montgomery's original legal defence after she was arrested and charged with murder was woefully inadequate, and presented few of the details about her abuse, trauma and mental illness. Montgomery and Carl Boman divorced, remarried and divorced again in 1998. On the trip home, she stopped in Topeka and called her husband to say she had gone into labor while Christmas shopping and had given birth at a Topeka birthing center. Montgomery is scheduled to be put to death by a lethal injection of pentobarbital at Terre Haute prison in Indiana. If her execution goes forward, she will be the first federal female inmate to be executed in almost 70 years. "I looked to my right and there was Lisa Montgomery on the sofa, holding the baby," he said. Lisa then took the baby home and cared for her as though she was her own. By multiple accounts, Kleiner was an erratic, violent man who beat the kids and his wife regularly. Mattingly and Montgomery were best friends. She lives near Kansas City, Mo. Mattingly was 8 years old and Montgomery was 4 when Mattingly was removed in 1972 from Shaughnessy's mobile home at Ogden, a community of about 1,960 people in Riley County. Shaughnessy also beat the girls with brooms and belts,Mattingly said. But my hope is President Trump will stop Lisa's execution and commute her sentence to life in prison. JUDY SHAUGHNESSY OBITUARY Judy K. Shaughnessy Judy K. Shaughnessy, 66, Topeka, formerly of Lyndon, entered into the kingdom of heaven Saturday, November 2, 2013 at Midland Hospice House. Protecting her half-sister became her "sole purpose in life, she said. Shaughnessy in 1974 married her third husband, Jack Kleiner, a divorced father of five. She would tell me I had to leave and I couldnt take anything with me because she bought everything, she recalled. At the instigation of Shaughnessys lawyer, Montgomery was connected to a therapist, but only briefly. Mattingly said she was fortunate to have been moved to a lovinghome of high school history teacher and coach Floyd Gwin;his wife, Zella Gwin;and their three biological children. Montgomery's execution date was subsequently bumped back to Jan. 12. I thought they knew what was going on, she said. Her attorneys say that while Montgomery feels deep remorse for her crimes, her understanding of her situation waxes and wanes. Another case with Missouri ties. In addition to Strong and Fritz, those investigators were FBI Special Agents Mike Miller and Scott Gentine and Topeka police officer Tom Glor. Her lawyers had argued she was a mentally ill victim of abuse who. Even at the age of 8, Mattingly recalled being worried about what would happen to Montgomery without her there. He threatened to expose the imagined pregnancy and use it against her in the custody battle. Read about our approach to external linking. His message contained a "very heartfelt thank you. At the time of her murder, she was newly married and pregnant with her first child. She said it was over and over, one man right after the other, and went on for hours, her cousin said in a sworn statement. So my letters are important.. 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. In closing arguments, assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Whitworth asked the jury to think about Stinnett's daughter, Victoria Jo Stinnett. But Strong says this is the first year he's heard directly from Stinnett's husband. Her lawyers had argued she was a mentally ill victim of abuse who. Other friends of Kleiner, including a plumber and an electrician, raped her in that shed, Montgomery says, as a way of collecting payment for work done around the house. Friends recall her as a good student with a love of horses and dogs. A survivor of incest and sex trafficking, she is diagnosed with bipolar disorder with psychotic features, complex post-traumatic stress disorder, temporal lobe epilepsy, and cerebellar dysfunction, said Amy Harwell, a federal public defender in Tennessee who is working on Montgomerys case. [N]ot only was it bizarre behavior, but it was very embarrassing for me as her daughter, she said. "They put her on suicide watch to keep her from killing herself, so that they can execute her," she said. Randy Strong, who investigated the case,is unhappy that some people are asking thatMontgomerys life be spared. "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'.". She had brain damage, likely caused by exposure to alcohol when she was a. She was born into a family rife with mental illness, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression. Her lawyers are pursuing an insanity defense. Montgomery suffered from pseudocyesis, the false belief she was pregnant, jurors heard from Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, director of the Center of Brain and Cognition at the University of California in San Diego. On December 8, the federal government plans to execute her for a crime she committed in the grip of severe mental illness after a lifetime of living hell. Violent acts against pregnant women and their fetuses fall into that category. Ms. That could change in Terre Haute. Her lawyers at the time also presented an alternative theory of the crime, which was that Montgomery's brother had actually committed the murder, even though he had an alibi. Judy Shaughnessy, Montgomery's mother, testified Friday she found then-husband Jack Kleiner having sex with Montgomery in 1984, when Montgomery would have been about 16. Please, honey.". The family moved often. Shaughnessy would beat Mattingly with whatever was in her hand, be it a belt or a broom, she said. Only 18 death sentences were handed down in 2020 and the number of executions carried out hit a 30-year low. She told Lisa she had to "earn her keep.". According to her lawyers and witnesses, Montgomery suffered years of childhood abuse so severe it was akin to torture. Lisa Montgomery tried to get counseling the year before she killed Stinnettbut wasn'tconnected to a quality provider, her attorneys said. Eventually, Montgomery admitted she had acted alone in killing Stinnett and taking her baby. 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. They found her cradling a new-born girl she claimed to have given birth to the previous day. But they were what we come to understand as neuro-physiological adaptations to survive being constantly under assault.. The following day, the police arrested Montgomery at her home. The Trump administration announced it was reinstating executions last summer after an almost 20-year hiatus. She learned Oct. 16 that she had been scheduled to die by lethal injection on Dec. 8. Nobody has said that Lisa should never have been punished. Because of Stinnett's easy-going reputation, Morrow remembers instantly dismissing the initial reports of her murder. Stinnett came to, grabbing at Montgomery's knife and pulling out somehair before Montgomery strangledher to death. I was put in foster care with a wonderful family. The girls father was often away from the house for long periods, and Shaughnessy would have other men over. 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. Mattingly said her heart sank when she realized Montgomery wasn't coming with her. For one thing, the wider world won't let them forget. After she gave birth to four children, Judy pressured Lisa into an involuntary sterilization. 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. The family treated Mattingly as one of their own, and gave her a sense of belonging and self-worth, she said. 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. Montgomery's family moved from place to place during her adult years, continuing the pattern she hadknown as a child. I am begging that somebody will finally stand up for her and say, shes been punished enough.. Theyre saying that a sentence of life without the possibility of parole is more than sufficient punishment for someone who has endured what she did.. It makes him even angrier that it was Stinnett's mother who discovered her that way. "This was the act of a monster," he said. When Lisa was a small child, Judy allowed men to rape her for money, including allowing her to be gang raped on multiple occasions. Montgomery has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping resulting in death. A generation ago, it was the kind of place where you could "get your hair cut, see a show, buy rabbit feed and eat dinner" - but those days are long gone. Today, residents are tired of Melvernbeing connected with Lisa Montgomery, said current Mayor Lyndon Weddle, who describesMelvern asafriendlyrural community where people wave when they pass each other. More: Why the fate of the only woman on federal death row hinges on these Tennessee attorneys and their health, "Lisas trauma was so severe that it compromised her neurological functioning and development," they said in a written statement. "She seemed like a real personI could connect with and build a relationship with inside prison," Dorr said. The five investigators who went to Montgomery's home that day recently began communicating with oneanother again, said Strong, who is now sheriff ofNodaway County, which includes Maryville and Skidmore. In her opinion, Montgomerys extreme childhood trauma created the conditions for her to grow into an adult with a disconnected sense of her emotions, a tenuous hold on reality, a completely warped view of human relationships, and a split and damaged sense of herself and of her body, according to expert testimony she provided for the defense. In Montgomerys early teen years, Kleiner moved the family to an isolated trailer at the end of a dead-end road outside of Sperry, Oklahoma, a severely impoverished area north of Tulsa. On the ride home, she clamped the umbilical cord and cleaned the baby girl with wipes. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. As her attorneys fight for her life, Montgomery has at times seemed out of touch with reality,Henry said:Hermental illness causesher to disconnectwhen life becomes too terrible to endure. "I'm asking him to have compassion on her as a person that has been failed over and over and over again. "I cried," says Strong. While the court admonished her for not reporting it to authorities, they did not report it either. Left: "Melvern Pride" is the focus of this sign standing at the city limits of Melvern, the community in east-central Kansas where Lisa Montgomery lived. She told Lisa she had to "earn her keep." Judy later. She was sick. She was beaten, repeatedly raped by her stepfather and his friends and sexually trafficked by her mother. Jurors heard an audiotape of Harper, Stinnett's mother, calling 911 after finding her body. If you were to meet her, it would be inconceivable to you that she committed this crime, Harwell said. She missed the funeral because of it. There was plenty of food, our clothes were clean, and the kids did our homework together. Those were disconnections that were tragic in their consequences. Warnersaid the killinghad left Melvern residents stunned.. She is the most broken of the broken. Lisa Montgomery's current legal team has conducted some 450 interviews with family members, friends, case workers, doctors and social workers. "The people that are defending [Montgomery], I wish I could take them back in time, and put them in that room," he says. Often the woman, now 52 and a grandmother of 12, is knitting or doing needlepoint. And I am just asking for somebody - once - not to fail her.". As Strongand other investigators were about to pull into the driveway of Montgomery's house, he said, he learned via a phone callthat the last email Stinnett received had come from that home. Henry stressed that no one faces a death sentence linked to the 16 other U.S. cases from 1987 to2015 in which a woman has attacked a pregnant woman and her unborn child in an effort to take the childand ended up killing one or both. As long as she was given cigarettes, Montgomery continued to talk, Strong said. Judy Shaughnessy, Montgomery ' s mother, raised Lisa in poverty and chaos, with multiple stepfathers and in dozens of different homes, according to scores of interviews and documents cited. Patterson made a mistake by abandoning them to "that crazy lady," he said at Montgomery's sentencing hearing in 2007. Shaughnessy drank excessively during her pregnancy, causing brain damage to Montgomery, according to court records. She had catfished Stinnett online under a fake name. Her children were disturbed by it. They gave me unconditional love, they taught me my self-worth, she said. Lisa Montgomery, who endured years of sexual and physical abuse, murdered an expectant mother and took the baby. Mattingly, 57, recalled the day her half-sister was brought home in a pink bundle after being born Feb. 27, 1968, in Pierce County, Washington. She gives herself as an example - when Stinnett was murdered, Baumli was in rehab for a drug addiction. Lisa Montgomery, a federal prisoner, is now slated to be executed on Jan. 12. Montgomery's mother, Judy Shaughnessy, who was 20 at the time of her birth in 1968, drank heavily while pregnant with her daughter. Judy Shaughnessy, drank during pregnancy. Three federal inmates - Orlando Hall, Alfred Bourgeois and Brandon Bernard - have been put to death since the 3 November presidential election. In the other cases, she said, prosecutors opted not to seek the death penalty or juries did not impose it because it was obvious the women were suffering from profound mental illnesses. "I felt sick watching the video. The family moved from place to place dozens of times, but it was in a trailer in Sperry, Oklahoma, where her lawyers say the abuse turned into something more akin to torture. "If I did speak up, maybe Zella and Floyd would have gone back for Lisa," she wrote. She was forced to sit in a high chair for hours if she did not finish her food. And it's never about what my friend went through," she adds. At state level, the number of sentences and executions continues a historic decline. Today there is a single restaurant and few of the streets are paved. "And Lisa deserves to pay.". They introduced her as their daughter, Abigail, and made multiple other stops. They had been called in as part of the Northwest Missouri Major Case Squad, which was workingwith the FBI to identify Stinnett's killer and find the missing child. She says it's not as if all the other people of Skidmore lead idyllic lives free from abuse, poverty and other destructive tragedies. Defense attorney Fred Duchardt told jurors that sexual abuse during her childhood had caused Montgomeryto become mentally ill and killed her soul. There were always different men around the house. Its also people hearing it, knowing it and doing nothing about it. Until July 2020, there had been no federal executions for 17 years. "Last year, we got flowers, and gave her a $100-plus gift card and then paid her water bill," says Jena Baumli. She was quiet and kind, they say. He had a daughter from a previous relationship, Diane, who was four years older than Montgomery. But what happened at the modest clapboard house where Stinnett lived with her husband still haunts some of those involved in the investigation. Those records say questions were raised about her ability to function as an effective parent afterher house was found to be "filthy," her children were seen running naked in her yard and one of her daughters, then 2years old,ingested a bottle of Tylenol in 1993. Her mother and father, teachers at school who suspected abuse, and the courts who learned of her victimization when she was a teen and did nothing. Hometown waits as killers execution date nears but it was clear that she was a mentally ill and killed soul. 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