TW: spouse abuse, extreme violence, victim blaming

I’m sure that doesn’t need to be said. I often slip on my sepia colored glasses and basks in memories that I don’t have about the courthouse, the post office, the porches, the Sunday visits.

And then, by happenstance, I read something that makes me rip off those glasses and remember that things were not good for most people. To wit, this article in the Signal of Liberty, reprinted from a paper in New York.

A “brute” by the name of Thomas Toppen killed his “long abused” wife. He beat and stabbed her for six hours, including breaking a broom over her head, stabbing her with the broken end of the broom, hitting her over the head with a MOTHERFUCKING HAMMER (emphasis mine) and then…

….

….

stop reading if you are squeamish…

he gouged out her eyes with a knife and a fork.

Their 14 year old son came into the room to wish his parents a happy new year and saw this horror. A female border at the house likewise bore witness.

Now is this all horrendous but the article ends by saying that “the murderer and the murdered wife were addicted to drunkenness, as might be guessed.”

Why, no, 1842 newspaper. No, I hadn’t guessed. It had not even entered my mind, in fact. It was too busy, you know, concentrating on the horrific end of this woman’s life. Six hours of abuse and torture, and then having your eyes….

The past sucked. I’ve been googling about, hoping to find an article that says this guy got drawn and quartered for this shit but so far no dice.

The past isn’t over, as they say.