The loss of three precious children is horrifying. It deserves grief, seriousness, and a careful examination of what happened, including what their mo
The loss of three precious children is horrifying. It deserves grief, seriousness, and a careful examination of what happened, including what their mother’s medical and mental condition actually was. Instead, some of the loudest public reactions have raced straight past understanding and into extraordinary claims about women.
One suggestion is that fathers should keep newborn babies after birth until someone determines that the mother is mentally well. Think about what is being proposed. Millions of women would effectively begin motherhood under suspicion, with separation from their newborn treated as a precaution rather than an extraordinary intervention requiring evidence. If that is truly the proposal, then fathers had better clear their calendars. Mothers can go home, sleep, heal from childbirth, attend medical appointments, eat hot meals and recover while somebody else handles those 2 a.m. feedings.
Then comes the claim that “men never get away with murder,” as though that settles anything about this case. It does not. The question raised by Lindsey Clancy’s defense is not whether killing children is acceptable. Of course it is not. The claim is that she was severely mentally ill at the time of the killings. Criminal law has long distinguished between committing an act and possessing the mental capacity required for particular forms of criminal responsibility. That principle was not invented for mothers.
We can mourn three children without turning every woman who gives birth into a suspect. We can demand accountability without pretending severe mental illness does not exist. And perhaps most importantly, we can finally have the harder conversation: what would it look like to take women’s postpartum medical and psychiatric care seriously before a family is standing in the wreckage?
Earlier this year-2026- an Iowa man was found not guilty of strangling his five-year-old son after it was ruled that he was suffering from severe psychosis at the time—the exact same defense as Lindsay Clancy. The men having fits now…. where were they? Do they know these men’s cases?
More cases:
Daniel DeGuzman: killed his 3 yr old.
Matthew Schneider: killed his 5 yr old.
Lee Robin: killed his wife & infant daughter
Paul Harrington: killed wife & 2 daughters
All of these men were acquitted by reason of insanity.
Some men are murdering women and/or children and then moved to prisons with women. And what do you know? Rape. MORE harm against women. More crime is going unprevented because people continue to ignore the voices of women.
Imagine that.
Y’all might want to consider that women actually know what the hell we are talking about.
Joseph Lynch, California, 1990: Killed his wife Helen and their 14-month-old daughter Natalie. A judge expressly found Lynch legally insane, saying his mental disorder left him unable to distinguish right from wrong. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and faced potentially lifelong psychiatric hospitalization.
Los Angeles Times: “Killer of Wife, Baby Ruled Insane by Judge”Joseph Butler, Illinois: Killed his wife and attempted to kill his daughter. Following a bench trial, Butler was found not guilty by reason of insanity on both offenses and immediately committed to the Illinois Department of Mental Health.
Illinois Appellate Court: People v. ButlerMelville Henwood — Daughter and son-in-law killed; wife and grandchildren wounded
Melville Henwood killed his daughter and son-in-law and wounded his wife and three grandchildren in Michigan in 1986.
Henwood apparently believed that his family had forgotten Father’s Day, although the shooting occurred a week before Father’s Day. In October 1987, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity and ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment.
Los Angeles Times/AP: Father Found Insane in Killing of Relatives
Los Angeles Times/AP: “Father Found Insane in Killing of Relatives”George Gallagher, California, 1990: Killed his wife Barbara and later his sister. This is an unusually revealing case because the judge reached different conclusions about his mental state for the two killings. Gallagher was found not guilty by reason of insanity for killing his wife, but guilty of first-degree murder for killing his sister. He was ordered to serve time in a mental hospital before his prison sentence.
Los Angeles Times: “Man Sentenced for Killing Wife, Sister”Dr. Lee Robin — Wife and two-month-old daughter
Dr. Lee Robin killed his wife, Annette, and their two-month-old daughter, Denise, in Illinois in 1988. According to contemporary reporting, Robin killed his wife and drowned his infant daughter while experiencing a delusion that he was the devil and that killing them would save them from suffering.
Robin was found not guilty by reason of insanity. A judge subsequently committed him to state custody, with a maximum commitment calculated at 100 years. The Illinois appellate record independently confirms both the killings and the NGRI verdict.
Thomas Gergen — Pregnant wife and unborn daughter
Thomas Gergen killed his pregnant wife, Kari Osterhaug, in Washington state in 2003. She was six months pregnant with their daughter, Hazel. Gergen had sought psychiatric help before the killing and underwent three mental evaluations afterward.
Prosecutors and Gergen’s attorney agreed that he had been insane at the time. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed indefinitely to Western State Hospital. He was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. Five years later, a judge approved his conditional release after his treatment team concluded that he was ready to leave the hospital under supervision.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Man Who Killed Wife Is Sent to State Hospital
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Man Who Killed Pregnant Wife Freed
What These Cases Actually Tell Us
Here’s what some irritated and annoyed women are not saying. None of these verdicts means that killing a spouse or child was excused, approved, or treated as insignificant. Nor does an NGRI verdict ordinarily mean that a defendant simply walks out of the courthouse. Joseph Lynch was ordered into a state mental hospital; Lee Robin received an extraordinarily long potential psychiatric commitment; Thomas Gergen spent years at Western State Hospital before receiving conditional release.
But these cases establish something much narrower, and important.
Men have killed wives and children, asserted insanity, and subsequently been found not guilty by reason of insanity.
That is a matter of public record.
Therefore, when someone responds to a case involving a severely mentally ill mother by declaring that “men never get this consideration,” we do not have to speculate. We can check the record.
The record says otherwise.
Before We Lock Another Mother Away, We Need to Talk About Deasia Watkins – WE Survive Abuse
I knew Diana Alastair would have a list.
