by Ray Black
After work, once Susan had collected her two boys from the care they attended during the day, she drove on to Hickory Nuts, the only bar in Union. Before she got there she bumped into Sue Brown, Conso’s marketing manager, at the bar’s car park. Instead of going in, Susan persuaded Sue to go back to work with her so that she could apologise to Tom for the fictional story she had concocted about her sleeping with his father. She had wanted to see his reaction, but when they got there Tom was not at all happy to see Susan. Sue was left waiting in the car to watch over the two children. When Susan got back to the car she appeared upset and spoke of ‘just ending it’. Sue was dropped back at the Hickory Nuts bar and then Susan drove on home with the children. The time was approximately 6.00 p.m.
Later on at Hickory Nuts, where Tom also joined Sue Brown and other friends for dinner, there was a phone call for Sue. The waiter brought the phone over to the table and Sue found Susan on the other end of the line calling to see if Tom had been asking about her. Sue replied discreetly that he had not, ended the call promptly, and handed the telephone back to the waiter, going back to her meal.
DESPERATE MEASURES
A more stable woman would have recovered from the rejection, but Susan’s life had not been stable right from the beginning. Now Susan started plotting in her head ways of getting her attractive boyfriend back. She could have given her children to their father to look after, for he certainly adored them. However, she knew that would have gone against what society expects, and she was always desperately seeking approval. To the outside world she was a devoted mother. So she came up with another, far more dramatic, solution.
At home, Susan dressed her two boys at around 8.00 p.m., put them into the car, strapped them in their car seats and began driving around Union. She had never felt so lonely and sad and it was all due to Tom’s rejection. While she drove along highway 49 she became overwhelmed by a consuming desire to commit suicide. She thought of driving to her mother’s house so she could look after the children, but she felt so bad that she did not think even her mother would be able to help the way she felt.
In the end, Susan drove off the highway and onto a road which led to John D. Long Lake. Horrific thoughts entered her mind, and she decided that rather than leave her children motherless and alone, they would be better off with their mother and God. The plan was that they would all die together. By putting the car into neutral and then letting it roll down the boat ramp was to be the solution, but Susan could not do it. After rolling a little way she pulled the handbrake on and stopped the car. This happened three times. She got out of the car and looked around, it was very dark, no-one was about, just blackness. While standing outside of the car, overwhelmed with loneliness, grief and pain, Susan reached into the car and released the brake. The two boys, Michael who had celebrated his third birthday only a few weeks before, and Alex, just fourteen months old, were asleep and still securely strapped in child safety seats at the back of the car. The car rolled down the gravelled boat ramp and into John D. Long Lake.
Susan watched as the car floated into the lake, filled up with water and then finally sunk. It was all over in minutes. Susan had not wanted her sons to suffer and she had planned to take her own life as well but in the end she could not do it.
Once the car and her children has disappeared, Susan ran to a nearby house. She was in a state of great distress and screamed that she had been attacked at the traffic lights by a black man. This man had proceeded to steal her car and the two sleeping children within it.
Nine days later, after many intensive and lengthy interrogations Susan was confronted by Sheriff Wells in a small room in the Baptist Church. He told Susan that she was lying and finally Susan broke down and admitted that her plan was that the three of them were supposed to have all died together, she loved her sons very much.
In a study of missing, exploited and murdered children in the United States during the 1990s, it found that mothers who murdered their children did so in a clear and noticeably womb-like manner, some submerged in water and others wrapped in plastic, and all the bodies of the victims were found to be within ten miles of the family home.
A more stable woman than Susan Smith would have found alternative ways to end their feeling of isolation that didn’t involve the killing of their young. But these infant killers tend to fit into a borderline psychological category. They haven’t received enough love and attention during their own childhood and so become desperate to latch their attentions onto someone else. They usually have a huge desire to have children themselves in an effort to give them the love that they so lacked. These type of women tend to overdramatize a situation and consequently act on impulse. They can superficially look like loving, caring mothers, but in truth they seem to save most of their feeling for themselves, even if only in self-pity. Just like a doll, they tire of the child that is in effect in the way of progress, and the baby becomes ultimately expendable, especially if a new man comes into their life.
Perhaps in an effort to lessen the figures of infanticide, society should stop romanticizing about motherhood and give out the message instead that perhaps having babies is not right for every individual. Many women cry for help after they have a baby, saying that they are unable to cope, perhaps we need to start listening.
Genene Anne Jones
Accused of two murders and charges of injury to six other children, her own two children were cared for by her adoptive mother – this was a woman who declared that she’d wanted children all her life.
Genene Anne Jones was born on July 13, 1950, but was immediately given up for adoption to Dick and Gladys Jones. This couple lived in a four-bedroomed, two-storey mansion just outside of San Antonio. They also adopted three other children, two older and one younger than Genene. Dick Jones worked in the entertainment business being an entrepreneur and professional gambler and, although a generous man, his lifestyle would have repercussions on the rest of the family. Jones also tried his hand at running a restaurant but this did not do well and so he sought after other work.
When Genene was ten years old her father was arrested for burglary, but the charges were later dropped as it turned out to be a practical joke. Dick then opened a bill-board business and took Genene around in the truck with him. This was one of the happiest times in her life as she felt involved, while the rest of the time she felt ignored and that her parents did not like her much – the ‘black sheep’ of the family.
Not popular at school, Genene was accused of lying, manipulating and being aggressive. Then at the age of sixteen, Travis, her youngest brother and closest companion, accidentally killed himself after a pipe bomb he was building accidentally blew up in his face. He had only been fourteen years old and Genene, who was sixteen at the time, cried and fainted during the funeral. During the following months her father became quite ill and a year later died of cancer. Genene was devastated and it is possible her sadistic nature stemmed from these two close deaths in her family.
Even though she still attended school, Genene thought it best to get married as soon as she could to fill the void in her life. Although she was described as short and overweight, once graduated, she married James Harvey Delany Jr. He was also overweight, a high school dropout, whose only interest seemed to be hot rods. After seven months James joined the Navy, and as soon as he had gone, Genene started to sleep around. She had an insatiable appetite for sex and with her husband away at sea she needed to fulfil her desires. She also started to spread rumours around that she had been abused as a child.
Genene was still dependent on her mother, Gladys, for money, and she convinced her daughter that she should think about getting a career and earning herself some money. Genene enrolled into beauty school and when James returned from the Navy, she fell pregnant and they had their first child. Four years later Genene left him and filed for divorce, stating in the papers that he had been violent with her during their marriage.
A little while later Genene suffered another loss – her older
brother died from cancer. She decided to change jobs after being concerned that the hair dyes she was using in the beauty salon could possibly cause cancer. She also found herself pregnant for a second time and was worried that she would now have two children to care for.
Genene had already worked in a hospital beauty salon and found the idea of becoming a nurse most appealing. She started her training and left her children with Gladys to take care of. Genene was in awe of the doctors, she loved to be around them as she saw them as both powerful and mysterious. After just one year of training she had become a licenced vocational nurse, and was good at it, but also started an obsession with diagnosing people.
Her first job at San Antonio’s Methodist Hospital lasted only eight months before she was fired. This was partly due to the fact that she tried to make decisions in areas where she had no authority and partly because she had made rude demands of a patient who had subsequently issued a complaint. Although she did not find any problems in getting another job, this did not last for very long either. Eventually she was employed by Bexar Medical Center Hospital to work in the intensive care section of their pediatric unit.
The first child that Genene had contact with had a fatal intestinal condition. When the child died shortly after surgery Genene became hysterical. She sat staring at the lifeless body even though she hardly new him, and the other nurses became disturbed by her strange behaviour.
Genene would skip important lessons on how to handle certain drugs, in favour of spending a long time on the ward with certain patients. She thoroughly enjoyed the feeling of being needed. Because of the missed lessons she made eight separate nursing errors in her first year. While insisting that ‘she’ wanted to do what was ‘best for the child’, Genene would go against certain orders. Lucky for her that she was liked by the head nurse, Pat Belko, for there was certainly enough evidence to have her dismissed. This gave Genene Jones the feeling that she was invincible and had certain powers. But she used this power in the wrong way, and before long her bossy manner forced new nurses to transfer to other departments.
Genene gradually became more arrogant, bossy and loud-mouthed, bragging constantly about her sexual conquests. She was not very popular with her fellow workers, and upset them on many an occasion by predicting which baby she felt was going to die next.
A NEW DOCTOR
James Robotham was hired as the medical director of the pediatric intensive care unit. He was prepared to take far more responsibility for his own patients, which meant that he gradually filtered out the nurses he no longer needed. He also said that they all had to be accountable to him, which did not go down well with the rest of the nurses, that is except Genene. She seemed to thrive on the fact that she could now bring more problems to someone’s attention which would ultimately mean more attention for herself. Another way Genene tried to gain sympathy and attention was to keep attending outpatients with minor complaints. Although she was never officially diagnosed with any one specific problem, it is said that she visited there as many times as thirty in just under two years. It is possible that she was suffering from a form of Munchausen Syndrome – a complaint whereby someone with factitious disorders will feign, exaggerate, or actually self-induce illnesses. Their aim is to assume the status of ‘patient’ and thereby to win attention that they feel unable to obtain in any other way.
In 1981 Genene Jones asked if she could be put in charge of the terminally ill patients. This meant that she could be nearest to the patients who would ultimately die. For some perverse reason she seemed to thrive on some form of excitement when a child failed to survive some emergency treatment. While she prepared the body she could be heard singing and talking to the corpse, and was always the one that wanted to take it down to the morgue.
The drugs on the ward were kept in an unlocked cabinet and were freely available. No one seemed at all concerned about this – at least not until later on. No one had ever followed up why Genene had been dismissed from her last hospital job and consequently she was placed in a position of authority. Her speciality was to place intravenous tubes into veins and her thirst for knowledge on handling drugs impressed her superiors.
UNNECESSARY DEATH
Over a two-week period on the intensive care unit seven children died from problems that should have been easily cured. The need for resuscitation seemed constant, but apparently it was only when Genene was around. Those in the most critical condition came under her care and there was no doubt that she loved the excitement that an emergency situation brought about. It all seemed to happen on her shift – one child had three seizures in a row one particular night.
One day she jokingly said, ‘They’re going to start thinking I’m the Death Nurse’, and in fact she was very close to the truth. They had started calling her on-duty hours the Death Shift, purely based on the numbers of resuscitations and deaths that seemed to occur while she was there. Rumours started spreading around the ward that she was actually doing something to these children to speed up their deaths, but her old friend Pat Belko wouldn’t hear any of it, and just said they were jealous because she was such a compassionate nurse.
Then one night a six-month-old baby called Jose Antonio Flores came into the ward with a common childhood ailment – fever, vomiting and diarrhoea. However, while he was under Genene’s care he suddenly developed unexplained seizures and went into cardiac arrest. The doctors fought for almost an hour to save his life and at last the worst was over. However, they noticed he was bleeding badly and that his blood wouldn’t clot. Soon the problem seemed to subside, that is until Genene’s shift the following day. Once again Jose started having seizures and bleeding profusely. They were unable to save him this time and Jose’s father was told about the death of his son. On hearing the devastating news, Mr. Flores suffered a heart attack and had to be taken to the emergency room. Genene meanwhile was allowing Jose’s older brother to carry the baby’s body down to the morgue. Suddenly, and without any apparent reason, she grabbed the body from the boy and started to run down the corridor towards the morgue. Members of the family ran after her, but not knowing the complicated corridor system they lost her. When the baby’s blood was tested it indicated an overdose of a drug called heparin, which is an anticoagulant – no one had ordered it and for once her superiors became suspicious.
A short while later a three-month-old boy named Albert Garza was being treated by two resident physicians, when they discovered he had been given an overdose of heparin. They confronted Genene who became angry and stormed out of the room, luckily this time the child survived. They decided that they would tighten up the control on the use of heparin by nurses, and also made them make far more accurate records so that these could be checked regularly. They were determined that if someone was trying to harm the children in their unit they would soon find out who it was.
Genene’s health started to deteriorate around this time. She refused drugs to help her condition, complained continually, and yet the doctors could find no evidence of any ailment. Once more it seems as though Genene was trying to get the attention she craved for. Her previous ally, Dr. Robotham, now started to lose his patience with his nurse. He put his suspicions to the hospital administration who were rather reluctant to start any form of internal investigation. They felt it would do the hospital no good to bring the matter to the attention of the public. So Robotham, himself, continued to watch the shift that Genene was on very carefully.
The use of heparin was now very carefully monitored on his ward, but all of a sudden another drug showed up when the test the blood of eleven-month-old Joshua Sawyer, who had recently died. He had been brought in suffering from the effects of smoke inhalation and had suffered a cardiac arrest. The doctors ordered that he be given dilantin, but he remained in a coma. Doctors were surprised that he was not responding to the drug, while Genene told his parents that it would be kinder if they allowed him to die. All of a sudden Joshua had two violent heart attacks and died. When they tested his blood it was
clear that someone in the hospital had blundered, for there was a toxic amount of dilantin in his body.
As soon as Genene became aware that her previous allies were started to get suspicious of her actions, she turned to blackmail. She said that she had kept precise records of every child that had died and she knew exactly who had administered the drugs. Robotham immediately requested that she should be fired, but unfortunately no one listened to him. Neither did they listen to a nurse who kept reporting that supplies of toxic drugs were going missing.
Several more incidents happened on the ward over the next couple of weeks which just added to the suspicions that Genene Jones was actually killing the children under her care. A doctor also found a manual amongst Genene’s possessions that gave precise details of how to inject heparin subcutaneously without leaving a mark on the skin. Once more the hospital administration refused to take any action.
When another child died suspiciously after undergoing open-heart surgery, more doctors complained and finally a committee was formed to look into the problem. A series of internal inquiries were held but they did not come up with any positive recommendations, so a panel of experts was called in from hospitals in the USA and Canada to look into the unusual number of deaths on the pediatric ward. This panel interviewed all of Bexar’s staff and seemed quite shocked when one of Genene’s colleagues bluntly accused her of the infants’ deaths. The panel failed to reach any firm conclusions after their investigation other than to suggest that they replace the LVNs with RNs on the unit, which meant that Genene would be transferred away from the babies. As a result of this Genene resigned and the administrators felt relieved that she was no longer their problem.