"parental alienation syndrome"

[iverglas]

It's been an undercurrent in some recent posts. I have no doubt that there are parents who actively work to undermine their children's relationship with the other parent. I have just as little doubt that this "syndrome" is a handy new tool in the kit used by some men to get their own way, by whatever means necessary. Just google it.

So I thought everyone might be interested in an extreme and early case of the "syndrome". It's the true story of JoAnn and Colin Thatcher, which can be viewed in a compelling CBC movie called "Love and Hate", first broadcast in Canada in 1989 and now available on DVD as "Love and Hate: A Marriage Made in Hell". I don't think that's quite an accurate depiction; the marriage was certainly hell for JoAnn, but it was made that way by her husband.

Colin Thatcher was a wealthy Canadian politician who is currently in prison for having his wife murdered. Yup, that'll alienate the kids from their parent all right: just have her killed.

In the interim, between the split and the murder, Thatcher used every bit of money and power at his disposal - not to mention kidnapping in violation of a custody order - to alienate his kids from his former wife. It is painful to watch in the movie - how he gets his older sons on board with his abusive campaign of terror against his wife, and eventually wins his young daughter. I don't know what the sons' situation is now, and one can only hope that as they matured they realized what had been done to them.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Thatcher
(perhaps just a slightly over-sympathetic portrayal of Thatcher)

Divorce

His marriage, however, did not fare so well, and in 1980, after nearly a year of legal battling, the couple divorced. JoAnn was awarded custody of two of their three children, plus $820,000 for her share of the marital property; the amount was one of the highest ever awarded by a Canadian divorce court. Thatcher formally contested the settlement and ignored its custody terms, at one point flying to JoAnn's new home in Brampton to kidnap the children.

JoAnn married Tony Wilson soon afterward, but she had to endure almost constant harassment from Colin. After JoAnn was shot and injured by an unidentified assailant the following year, she gave up her claim to custody of Regan, the middle child, and settled for about half of her original court award. They believed Thatcher was behind the shooting, but never pressed charges.

Again, Thatcher's political life was largely unaffected, and he won his third straight term as MLA at the 1982 election. The Saskatchewan Tories won a majority government in that election, and Thatcher was appointed to the provincial cabinet as Minister of Energy and Mines. However, following public criticism and disputes with then-premier Grant Devine, he resigned from the post the following year.

Murder

Four days later, on 21 January 1983, JoAnn was found bludgeoned and shot to death in the garage of her Regina home. Again, rumours abounded that Thatcher was in some way involved, though he was not formally charged until 7 May 1984, after a lengthy police investigation.

Good grief. I just realized, from the wiki article, that his last bid for parole was successful. I hadn't realized that. Much as I'm not generally of a vengeful bent when it comes to sentencing, this asshole should have rotted in our quite humane prison system for a little longer, if you ask me.


edit - day parole on 72-hour passes only, it seems. And apparently his children visit him. Sick? And he is born again. And apparently has exploited some loophole in the "son of sam"-type legislation prohibiting convicted criminals from profiting from writing books about their deeds ...