Murderous Women In The News

Women commit far fewer violent crimes than men, and if third wave feminism is to be credited, anytime one does, either the victim deserved it or the perpetrator is still a victim in some sense.

Three heinous cases have been in the news recently: Lori Vallow has been convicted and sentenced; Taylor Schabusiness has been convicted and is yet to be sentenced; Lauren Dickason has yet to be convicted although she has admitted the actus reus.

If one of these crimes is less heinous it is the Schabusiness murder because there was only one victim, an adult male. The Vallow and Dickason crimes are unspeakable.

Lori Vallow or Lori Vallow Daybell is the oldest of the three women, and easily the weirdest. She is now fifty years old and has been married five times. In October 2018, she met Chad Daybell, a religious crank and author. In his 2007 novel The Great Gathering, Daybell thanks his then wife Tammy “always the first person to read my books”. In April next year he will stand trial for her murder and two others; unlike Lori’s his is a capital case. No one has been executed in Idaho since 2012, so if convicted he is likely to die in prison.

The other two victims are Lori’s teenage daughter Tylee and her seven year old stepson. They were murdered shortly before she and Chad married. Chad was some 22 years older than his first wife, who appeared to have died from natural causes, but after her body was exhumed it was determined she had been murdered.

It is likely that neither he nor Lori was the mastermind; this case has all  the hallmarks of a folie à deux. On May 5, 2021 they were both charged with two murders but 22 days later she was found unfit to stand trial. Fortunately, this bout of insanity or whatever it was didn’t last, but you can judge for yourself if you can bear to watch what she said after her conviction. The case was covered by the Law&Crime Network.

The Taylor Schabusiness trial was nowhere near as insane, and neither is she. In February last year, she strangled a man to death with a dog collar while they were having sex, continued having sex with his dead body, then hacked off his head. The murder was described as drug-fuelled; she certainly had a serious drug problem. Wisconsin abolished the death penalty in 1853 (after an horrific public hanging) so the worst Schabusiness was facing was a life sentence although she was hoping to work her ticket with an insanity defense, but fortunately for society if not for her, the jury didn’t buy it. She was convicted last month and will be sentenced next month. Her character witness couldn’t have helped; her father was brought to court shackled, he is currently serving a 12 year sentence for sexually assaulting a child.

The Lauren Dickason case has attracted relatively little attention because it is playing out in New Zealand. Dickason was a mother of three who had emigrated from South Africa. Like her husband, she is a doctor. They had been in the country about a month when Graham Dickason found their three daughters: 2 year old twins and 6 year old had all been smothered to death. He has returned to South Africa, and testified by video-link. There has been limited coverage of the trial on YouTube. Unsurprisingly it has been reduced to competing opinions between so-called experts on her sanity (read culpability) for this heinous crime. A verdict is expected soon.