Savage Grace - Natalie Robins (49 page)
Robert Orenstein
I was the assistant director of the Fellowship and the name Baekeland vaguely rings a bell, but more familiar to me is the circumstance—that this person coming from England had killed his mother. We very rarely got referrals of people who had committed homicides. We might have gotten an application from him, but the likelihood of our accepting someone with that kind of violent history would be very, very unusual.
Inge Mahn
I have no way of knowing what correspondence may have occurred, but in the little file cards we have here of applications received, I don’t see Antony Baekeland’s name listed.
Letter from Antony Baekeland to Miwa Svinka-Zielinski, February 5, 1980
Broadmoor
Dear Miwa,
Michael Alexander is trying to speed things up for me and now it looks as if I may be in New York within a few weeks! As you may imagine, I am delighted. Life will be entirely new and fresh for me and I think I will enjoy it immensely. I imagine myself on the plane, having a
coup de vin
and knowing that seven years of confinement is receding into the distance. It will be pure heaven and the best of it is that I will not have to be accompanied by guards or go to a hospital when I arrive. I so look forward to seeing you.
Love,
Tony
Michael Alexander
I had long discussions with Tony about his father toward the end of his stay at Broadmoor. I’m fond of Brooks, although I did rather feel that he wasn’t playing his role in this whole affair. The reason I suppose was it was just too…He couldn’t take it himself, really. You see, he felt that Tony was a disaster area and he couldn’t absorb it. He wasn’t big enough, or he had his own psychological problems. Anyway, he just couldn’t do it. And what’s more, he didn’t!
I tried to persuade him to actually go down and meet Tony when he got out and possibly have him to stay and all that. But Brooks wouldn’t play along—at the time he was rather unhappy because Sylvie had taken up with this younger man.
There was a definite rumor going around about the family trying to see that Tony was kept inside so they could have control over his inheritance.
Brooks Baekeland
There was a story that was spread by the members of the Bleeding Hearts Club and/or others that I was “keeping Tony in Broadmoor to get his money.” Ha! There is no limit to meanness. There was no
possible
way that I could ever profit materially from my son’s health, illness, or death.
Miwa Svinka-Zielinski
Brooks was more or less absent from the picture at this point, but his brother, Fred, the psychiatrist, sometime around the middle of March wrote a very strong letter to Dr. Maguire saying that he wanted to correct a number of pieces of misinformation, so that Maguire should have no illusions about what exactly would face Tony on his return. He mentioned that, as far as he knew, Tony had few friends his own age in New York and that what older friends there were might rally round at first but that none was in a position to house or care for him. Fred also told Maguire that Broadmoor was relying too much on Nini, who was old and needed a live-in nurse herself, which meant that there would really be no room for Tony in her small apartment. He also said that there was no other family member who could put him up except on the most temporary basis—his own mother, Mrs. Hallowell, Tony’s other grandmother, was also in her eighties at this point; she was sympathetic but had never been as close to Tony as Nini.
Fred also told Maguire that Broadmoor was very wrong to say Tony would not be a financial burden to anyone. He spelled out in no uncertain words that after 1981 no more capital would be coming to Tony from his trust.
Letter from Dr. Thomas Maguire to Miwa Svinka-Zielinski, March 27
,
1980
Broadmoor
Dear Mrs. Svinka-Zielinski,
Thank you for your recent letter concerning the above patient. I have also had correspondence from Tony’s father, from Dr. Frederick Baekeland, from Mrs. Daly, from Michael Alexander, and from others—all in the recent past. So it is against this background that I write to you.
Although members of his family express concern over Tony’s welfare, none is prepared to offer him the shelter of a home environment or indeed personal supervision of any kind. Those friends who retain an interest in him, and they are quite numerous, do not seem to realise that he will need supportive help of an immediate nature when he returns to New York.
Your enquiry about his need for medical care follows from our conversation in November 1979. However, since that time Tony has been quite symptom-free although without medication over many months. Prior to November I had been thinking in terms of hospitalisation in New York for a few months following his repatriation. But some five months have now passed since we spoke and his continued well-being indicates that there is now no need for in-patient treatment. Interested, sympathetic social supervision would now be adequate to secure his smooth integration into the open community once more. This means that someone would meet him at the airport to escort him to living quarters already secured for him and this agency or person should also be prepared to help him in the various day-to-day issues that will inevitably crop up for someone who has spent so long in a sheltered environment.
Dr. Frederick Baekeland has pointed out how feckless Tony is about financial affairs and he fears that Tony’s capital would be quickly dissipated. This of course is very well known by me, and indeed long ago I placed the overall control of his financial affairs in the hands of the Official Solicitors Office which exercises fairly rigorous control over his expenditure. I believe that similar control should be exercised over his income from the capital invested in the USA—if that can be properly arranged.
Can you help in providing information about the availability of social aid for Tony when he arrives in New York? Once I am assured that such adequate back-up is ready to help him I can proceed with the arrangements for his repatriation.
Many thanks for your help.
Yours sincerely,
Thomas Maguire
Telegram from Cyrus R. Vance, Secretary of State, Washington, D.C., to American Embassy, London, March 30, 1980
DEPT. RECEIVED TELEPHONE CALL 3/24 FROM DR. FREDERICK BAEKELAND SUBJECT’S UNCLE WHO INFORMED THAT HE HAD BEEN NOTIFIED BY DR. MAGUIRE CONSULTANT PSYCHIATRIST AT BROADMOOR HOSPITAL THAT ANTONY BAEKELAND WOULD BE RELEASED AND DEPORTED IN APPROXIMATELY TWO WEEKS.
DR. BAEKELAND IS CONCERNED BECAUSE HE WISHES TO MAKE SOME ARRANGEMENTS FOR ANTONY’S ADMITTANCE INTO A HOSPITAL WITHIN THE UNITED STATES AND BECAUSE THERE IS NO ONE IN THE U.S. WHO COULD POSSIBLY TAKE ANTONY INTO HIS OR HER PERSONAL CARE BRITISH MEDICAL REPORTS HAVE INDICATED THAT SUBJECT IS NOT STABLE ENOUGH TO MANAGE IN A NORMAL AND UNSUPERVISED ATMOSPHERE
HOSPITAL OFFICIALS ADVISED DR. BAEKELAND THAT ANTONY WOULD REQUIRE TWO MEDICAL ESCORTS TO ACCOMPANY HIM ON THE RETURN FLIGHT TO NEW YORK VANCE
Miwa Svinka-Zielinski
Some woman emerged who later took him back to New York. She said she was a friend of the family but I had never heard of this woman all these years. I didn’t know
who
she was. She had come over to England to visit him that April.
Heather Cohane
We knew absolutely nothing about her, and when she just turned up like that, you know, Michael Alexander and I said to each other, “What the hell? Who
is
she?” We called her “Mystery Woman.”
Official Visitors File, Broadmoor Special Hospital, April 29
,
1980
Visitor’s Name:
Mrs. Cecelia Brebner
Relationship to Patient:
Friend of family.
Summary:
Knows background of patient in greatest detail. Is fully aware of eccentricities of Baekeland family and of its attitude toward any of their own participation in Tony’s rehabilitation. She discussed Tony’s return to N.Y., his initial reintegration into family social life again. She appears to be the most sensible member of the large group of relatives and friends fussily engaged in Tony’s discharge.
Cecelia Brebner
I was, and still am, very friendly with Tony’s grandmother, Cornelia Hallowell, and shortly after the murder of Barbara, she said to me, because she knew I had a daughter who lived very close to Broadmoor, “If you’re going to England, could you take something to Tony for me?” And this is how it all began.
That first time, my daughter drove me there, and I said to her, “Here I am about to meet a man who has murdered his mother and I don’t know how I’m going to react.” And she said, “Would you like me to come in with you, Mummy?” I said yes.
Anyway, when I was in London in 1980, Cornelia said to me, “They’re releasing Tony, they may have already released him.” I telephoned Broadmoor and they said no, they had not. Then I had a mysterious telegram from a woman called Heather Cohane—I’m always having mysterious telegrams!—saying that the Home Office had recommended Tony’s release and could
I
possibly escort him back. I said, well, I didn’t think so, because although I was leaving London, I was going to Toronto, you see, and not New York. However, I was pressured. And later I was interviewed for four hours by Dr. Thomas Maguire. I asked him, “In the event of my doing this, what are the implications?” And he said, “He’s a schizophrenic, but with love and care he will probably be able to resume a more or less normal life.” He said that he had arranged for Tony to go to a halfway house in New York. I said, “Why can’t his own father take him?” And Maguire answered, “He’s having marital problems.” Well, of course! He married Tony’s girlfriend and it was all very complicated.
I got together with a man called Michael Alexander, an author I believe, who said, “He’s been in Broadmoor for
eight years
—he should be repatriated
now!”
And I had a feeling that this should happen as well, and so I agreed to take him. Tony was positively euphoric when he found out I was going to bring him home.
I was staying at the time with Lady Mary Clayton at Kensington Palace, and
she
said, “Celia, I don’t think it’s the right thing to do, but we’ll ask Prince George of Denmark,” and
he
thought it was a very altruistic thing to do, so I embarked upon it.
Postcard from Ethel Woodward de Croisset to Antony Baekeland, April 9
,
1980
Paris
Dear Tony—
Had a telegram from M. Alexander saying that you are well and can return to New York & to your grandmother soon. Send me her address, which I have lost.
I do hope that you will get on all right in NYC and can find a quiet cozy nest and a happy life in the country perhaps.
Abrazos,
Ethel
Heather Cohane
Just before Tony was released, I took Simone and Aschwin Lippe to see him in Broadmoor, because they had known Barbara so well, and Brooks so well, for many many many years. You know, I would have really put every penny I had on the table and said, “I
know
that this is a one-time thing with his killing Barbara. He’ll never do it again.” But as we were driving back to London in the car, Simone said that she thought there was a great sort of look of madness in his eyes. She kept saying that, and I kept saying, “No, I don’t think so, I think you’ll see he’s all right.”
Letter from Antony Baekeland to Dr. Frederick Baekeland, April 17
,
1980
Broadmoor
Dear Fred,
I appreciate your efforts to help me. Saw Dr. Maguire yesterday: he told me that he had been in touch with you. He also said that you had asked him a number of questions regarding my case which he declined to answer. To tell you the truth, Fred, I resent a bit this morbid curiosity on your part when you were not even polite enough to write me a note after my Mother’s death; it doesn’t read true, does it?
I am in constant touch with my father, who plans to help me. Our letters are a source of inspiration and pleasure to both of us. He seems to be hard at work on a book—I too plan to make one. I may call it “The Shakespearean Continuum.”
I have re-made myself. The experience at Broadmoor has been most valuable to me; I have had to live with all kinds of people who I would never have met in normal life, and accept them for what they are and what they are not. I have learned a certain discipline which will help me later on. As things stand now, I may be in N.Y. in a couple of weeks.
Yrs. truly,
Tony
Official Visitors File, Broadmoor Special Hospital, May 7
,
1980