While They Slept: An Inquiry Into the Murder of a Family (24 page)
Read While They Slept: An Inquiry Into the Murder of a Family Online
Authors: Kathryn Harrison
Tags: #True Crime, #General, #Nonfiction
F
OR A LONG TIME I UNDERSTAND MY PURSUIT OF THE
Gilleys’ tragedy as driven by my identification with the two older of the family’s children: with Jody, in whom I saw an outline of my better self, intelligent and capable, with the integrity and force of will to survive the wreck of her family; then with Billy, whom I allowed to represent the wounded and murderously angry child that I was, a child who masked her internal derangement with good grades and obedience. If I recognize a symbiosis between the two siblings, I also see their reflection of my own split self.
To identify with Jody or Billy is easy for me. It takes longer to understand that I find myself in Becky as well. Her silence is useful here. Becky is dead; she can’t, like Jody and Billy, assert her own personality and show me the ways we differ. Confined to the dimensions, only two, of a photograph or a Xeroxed homework assignment, she offers me a surface that her living siblings don’t, upon which my projections go unchallenged.
A child who refuses to accept his parents’ cruelty and who takes revenge.
A child who escapes into books and academic achievement.
An innocent child sacrificed in the family destruction that the angry child demands.
I’ve lived as all three of these children. In my unconscious life, timeless, not linear, I remain these three selves. For the part of me I identify with Jody, the self I think of as the high-functioning survivor, the story of the Gilleys is less a tragedy than a blood-soaked fairy tale. In the end, the cruel parents have been dispatched. In the end, though the innocent child had to die, the murderous one was locked away forever and the one with the talent to survive was given her chance.
FOOTNOTES
*1
The account Billy gives me in person is nearly identical to that in his affidavit, prepared twelve years after the murders. Unless otherwise attributed, Billy’s quoted dialogue is taken directly from his affidavit.
Return to text.
*2
As defined by the National Institutes of Health.
Return to text.
*3
Oregon Blue Book,
“Oregon Youth Authority: Agency History,” written 1997 (
http://bluebook.state.or.us/state/executive/Youth_Authority/youth_ authority_history.htm
, accessed October 15, 2007).
Return to text.
*4
All names followed by asterisks have been changed.
Return to text.
*5
All names followed by asterisks have been changed.
Return to text.
*6
All names followed by asterisks have been changed.
Return to text.
*7
Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Return to text.
*8
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, a standard instrument for psychological profiling.
Return to text.
†9
Benedict Carey, “Living on Impulse,”
The New York Times,
April 4, 2006.
Return to text.
*10
Carey, “Living on Impulse.”
Return to text.
†11
Ibid.
Return to text.
*12
Kathy’s father’s surname was Ackerson. Her mother had remarried a man named Bob Livingston.
Return to text.
*13
Kathleen M. Heide,
Why Kids Kill Parents: Child Abuse and Adolescent Homicide
(Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1992), pp. 14, 17.
Return to text.
†14
From Mones’s declaration, dated January 10, 2003.
Return to text.
*15
Alan Prendergast, “The Killer and Mrs. Johnson,”
Westword,
March 19, 1998.
Return to text.
†16
Jennifer James, “Turning the Tables: Redefining Self-defense Theory,”
American Journal of Psychiatry,
1985.
Return to text.
*17
Greggory Morris,
The Kids Next Door: Sons and Daughters Who Kill Their Parents
(New York: William Morrow, 1985), p. 151.
Return to text.
†18
Appellant’s Reply Brief, November 2006.
Return to text.
*19
Mark Howard, “Gilley Found Guilty,”
Mail Tribune,
November 16, 1984.
Return to text.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author wishes to thank Jody Arlington, Alisyn Camerota, Rachelle Cox, Billy Gilley, Thad Guyer, Chris Quigley, Connie Skillman, and Valerie Smith for their willingness to be interviewed for
While They Slept.
Jody, in particular, endured what I consider was a series of “forced marches” through her past. It is testimony to her commitment to this project that by the time the book was completed, she no longer considered the term a hyperbole.
Thanks to Dylan Brock for his research assistance; to Janet Gibbs for all she has taught me; to Joan Gould and Gila Sand for reading; to my husband, Colin Harrison, and to our children, Sarah, Walker, and Julia, for their patience with untimely dinners, unfolded laundry, and forgotten errands. Thank you, too, Julia, for the hundreds of quiet hours of drawing and reading on the floor of my study.
I’m grateful, as always, to Kate Medina, for her thoughtful (tenacious!) editing, and to Amanda Urban, for her guidance and support. Thanks also to Beth Pearson, Abigail Plesser, Robin Rolewicz, Jennifer Smith, and Evan Stone.
A NOTE FROM JODY ARLINGTON
Several organizations that help victims and prevent violence are mentioned in
While They Slept
. Had any such resource been able to connect with my family, the deaths of my parents and sister might have been prevented. A portion of the proceeds of this book will go toward these groups, which do great work and are worthy of your support. I have included Head Start, because it is where I learned to read, among my most cherished early memories.
CHILDREN’S DEFENSE FUND
25 E Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
800-233-1200
FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS
1212 New York Avenue NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20005
202-776-0027
NATIONAL CRIME PREVENTION COUNCIL (NCPC)
2345 Crystal Drive, Fifth Floor
Arlington, VA 22202
202-466-6272
NATIONAL HEAD START ASSOCIATION (NHSA)
1651 Prince Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
703-739-0875
NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR VICTIM ASSISTANCE (NOVA)
Courthouse Square
510 King Street, Suite 424
Alexandria, VA 22314
703-535-NOVA
RAPE, ABUSE & INCEST NATIONAL NETWORK (RAINN)
2000 L Street NW, Suite 406
Washington, DC 20036
800-656-HOPE
SASHA BRUCE YOUTHWORK
741 Eighth Street SE
Washington, DC 20003
202-547-7777
WITNESS JUSTICE
PO Box 475
Frederick, MD 21705-0475
800-4WJ-HELP
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
K
ATHRYN
H
ARRISON
has written the novels
Thicker Than Water, Exposure, Poison, The Binding Chair, The Seal Wife,
and
Envy.
Her autobiographical work includes
The Kiss, Seeking Rapture, The Road to Santiago,
and
The Mother Knot.
She has also written a biography,
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.
She lives in New York with her husband, the novelist Colin Harrison, and their three children.
While They Slept
is her twelfth book.
A
LSO BY
K
ATHRYN
H
ARRISON
FICTION
Envy
The Seal Wife
The Binding Chair
Poison
Exposure
Thicker Than Water
NONFICTION
The Mother Knot
The Road to Santiago
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux
Seeking Rapture
The Kiss
While They Slept
is a work of nonfiction.
Some names and identifying details have been changed.
Copyright © 2008 by Kathryn Harrison
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
R
ANDOM
H
OUSE
and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Harrison, Kathryn.
While they slept: an inquiry into the murder of a family / Kathryn Harrison.
p. cm.
1. Murder—Oregon—Medford—Case studies. 2. Parricide—Oregon—Medford—Case studies. 3. Abusive parents—Oregon—Medford—Case studies. 4. Problem families—Oregon—Medford—Case studies. 5. Gilley, Billy. 6. Gilley, Jody. I. Title.
HV6542.H37 2008
364.152'30979527—dc22 2007033519
eISBN: 978-1-58836-715-0
v3.0