Opinion ID: 788211
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The diary entries

Text: 21 Mary's diary contained entries from October 3, October 8, October 16, and an undated entry between the 16th and 23rd, October 23, October 25, October 28, a November entry with no specific date, and a final entry on November 25, about three weeks before her death. 3 22 Many of the entries portray Mary and petitioner's violent relationship. The October 3 entry concerns a tumultuous weekend of fighting, both verbal and physical, between Mary and petitioner. The fight started after Mary decided to go snooping through petitioner's belongings. Among other things, she found several pieces of women's lingerie, dirty books, and receipts from pornography stores. Mary devised a plan to provoke petitioner deliberately by laying these items out on the coffee table so he could see them when he returned home from work. She then poured two glasses of champagne. Petitioner, returning home to this spectacle, accosted Mary and began to choke her. When they were done fighting, Mary told petitioner to go to the store to get some drink and some smokes. When he returned, she cooked him dinner. 23 The weekend continued in similar fashion. Mary took petitioner's guns and provoked his anger. Mary rifled through his belongings and confronted him about other things. He abused her, and she abused him back. At one point, Mary took a letter opener and stabbed petitioner several times in the arm. She described him as bleeding like a stuck pig. On Saturday, petitioner refused to eat the dinner Mary had prepared. Mary became upset. She writes that she hit and hit and ... slapped him once good across the face. 24 Other entries describe physical and verbal abuse by petitioner. An October 16 entry details how petitioner complained about Mary's physical appearance. The final entry of November 25 gives an account of a particularly intense confrontation between petitioner and Mary. The ensuing fight proceeded along much the same lines as the fight described in the first entry. Petitioner and Mary both hit each other. The fight lasted an hour. Mary describes the beating she took as particularly harsh. Petitioner kneed her in the stomach, twisted her arm, and at one point pulled out his gun and jabbed it into her stomach. 25 Physical abuse does not appear in many of Mary's other entries. An October 15 entry recounts how petitioner is finally letting her get things she has needed for some time. The entry also admits to her own lying during the October 3 argument—despite her denials at the time, she had bought some of the lingerie that provoked their violent argument. Another entry reads as a love letter to petitioner. Other entries speak of her love for petitioner and her desire to work things out. Several entries confess to sexual problems that she and petitioner are having. 26 Most of the diary concerns aspects of Mary's life unrelated to her marriage. Much of it is simply about mundane details of Mary's life. For example, she writes about a conversation with the water-man about plumbing problems and explains how she planned to redecorate her house. Several of Mary's entries deal with her father's health problems and Christopher's medication regime for his ADHD. 27 Some entries are cryptic. An entry on October 25 reads, lots to relate about Sat. 23rd but not now later. On October 28, Mary writes, 28 I've been in a weird state of body and mind today. ... I have not been taking my Prozac right, haven't been eating right and smoking too much—all combined maybe the problem but there is also something; something else bothering me. 29 The most powerful entry is probably the last one. In several emotion-filled pages, Mary expresses a desperate desire to leave her relationship with petitioner. She worries that he is going to put her in jail or an institution, as he had before. Petitioner could then get custody of their son and put him in a home somewhere.... [K]illing us wouldn't work, it would jeopardize his freedom so he feels he can force us to leave.... [H]e can never make up how he makes me feel about myself ... I have to get away from him ... to heal myself, to loose weight, to get control of my sanity, to keep from being a punching ball anymore.... It wasn't the booze that was allowing him to hit me + take his frustration and anger out on me—it just gave him a good excuse. His warped mind + screwed up morals makes him be the beast that he is. 30 The diary ends: What! What! What!!