Last week, Ed Hicks was sentenced by a Virginia court to a year in jail for bigamy. He had been married seven times, with four of his marriages overlapping. The bigamy charge was for marrying wife number six, Julie Flint, while still married to wife number five, Rose Marie Sewell. He has already served four months, so he'll be locked up for approximately eight more months. Wife number seven, Sandra Phipps, originally pressed the bigamy charge—Hicks married her while still married to Julie. Her case was not prosecuted due to a loophole in Virginia law. Still, the fact that Hicks was sentenced at all is a victory for the women—most bigamists get off with a slap on the hand. Both Sandra an …
Sociopaths, children and the legal system
Robert from Illinois has sent a few e-mails to Lovefraud. He was married to a woman who he believes is a sociopath—he describes the relationship as non-emotional and loveless, with constant financial and verbal attacks. Robert is now divorced, but has a five-year-old son with the woman. Here's what Robert wrote in a recent e-mail: "Even though I told my divorce lawyer that my ex was a sociopath, he said, all you're doing is giving her a label. You still have to have evidence she is unfit to your son. I told her once that my son wants to live with me and guess what she said ?. She said, You're not getting my son. Typical sociopath response." The response of Robert's lawyer is common i …
Las Vegas blog says Haberman is not to blame
Last week the Lovefraud Blog reported that Phil Haberman, who recently received an other-than-honorable discharge from the military and failed in his quest to get a Purple Heart, is currently online looking for love. Haberman's MySpace.com profile says he was hurt in Iraq and he's still in the reserves—just a few of his bogus claims. The Las Vegas Review Journal included Haberman in a recent article about men who wear military medals that they didn't earn. Glenn Campbell, author of the Family Court Chronicles blog in Las Vegas, sees nothing wrong stolen valor. "Let the boys play," he writes. Campbell expressed his views on the Review Journal article in a commentary called Cads on P …
Phil Haberman keeps the con going
Lovefraud was contacted recently by Phil Haberman, who is profiled in True Lovefraud Stories. Haberman doesn't like his profile and said it was based on the opinions of a woman who is a proud member of the first wives club. Haberman said that for his ex-wife their short-lived marriage was all about the money. To vouch for him, Haberman had his friend, Pamela J. Sweeny, contact Lovefraud as well. Sweeny wrote, "Phil was a lonely soldier desperate for the family he never had before shipping out. He wanted someone to be waiting at home for him, and thought this woman and her daughter were exactly what he needed — unfortunately she really is a 'card chaser' looking for her latest meal t …
The Sociopath and the Easter Eggs
Why would a man who had no children and proclaimed himself an atheist buy a collection of decorative Easter eggs? This is exactly what my ex-husband, James Montgomery, who I believe is a sociopath, did while we were together. Now, these were not ordinary chocolate Easter eggs. One was a real egg, so big that it must have been laid by an ostrich, with a delicate feather attached and perched on a rustic wooden platform. Another real egg rested in a cozy, handcrafted nest of dried flowers, tied with a ribbon. Then there were two small wooden eggs from somewhere in Eastern Europe, delicately hand-painted. The eggs all came from expensive gift shops. So why did my ex buy them? Because …
How sociopaths are diagnosed
Sociopaths are difficult to identify—in part because they all behave differently, and some are worse than others. There are sociopaths who hold a job, get married, attend church—yet emotionally abuse their families, cheat on their spouses, manipulate their coworkers, steal from their employers, and never get caught. There are sociopaths who never work, torture animals, con their relatives and commit cold-blooded murder—and end up in jail. And there are plenty of sociopaths in between. The point is that sociopaths exhibit a wide range of behaviors. So it is not just the behavior that defines the sociopath—it is the personality traits as well. Dr. Robert Hare has identified the key sym …
Looks like a sociopath on the Dr. Phil Show
I happened to see the Dr. Phil Show on March 23, 2006. The topic for the day was Nasty Custody Battles. (The show originally aired on January 9, 2006.) One segment was called An Out-of-Control Father? It featured Angela and Chris, the parents of a seven-year-old girl. Chris wanted visitation rights. Angela didn't want Chris to see their daughter. She feared for the girl's safety. Why? Here's how Chris matter-of-factly described his past on the show: "As a juvenile, I was incarcerated for burning down a house. I stabbed one guy three times and it paralyzed him from the neck down. They ended up convicting me of assault causing bodily injury," he said. "I was arrested in 2001 for …
Risking death to stand up to threats
Lovefraud.com recently heard from a woman in Illinois, who we'll call Mary. Mary is trying to protect herself and her eight-year-old daughter from her ex-boyfriend, the daughter's father, who has guns and has threatened to use them. Not only is Mary fighting the ex, but she's fighting lawyers—both hers and his—and an unresponsive family court. Mary left the ex for good in 2001, when their daughter was three. The guy has an alcohol problem and a 20-year arrest record. He has five arrests for DUI (driving under the influence of alcohol) and 14 DWLR arrests (driving while license revoked). He has two arrests for domestic battery. Two different women have sought protection orders against him, …
Sociopathy–People Magazine doesn’t get it
Last year People Magazine put out a special publication called True Crime Stories—Cases that shocked America. It is a 144-page collection of headline-grabbing murders, rapes and thefts. It also suggests that when it comes to sociopaths, People Magazine just doesn't get it. The book includes 96 cases, plus celebrity mug shots. The word "sociopaths" was used once, in the introduction to the chapter called Murder for Murder's Sake. Here is what it says: "There's one group most of us don't understand: those whose motive for killing is killing itself. They don't hate their victims; often they don't even know their victims. When caught, they rarely plead, whine or cry. Frequently they're c …
Tolerance is not for sociopaths
Not long ago my husband and I saw Rob Becker's Defending the Caveman, a one-man comedy about men, women, and how we're different. It gives funny-but-true explanations of why men watch television so intently, why women shop so intently, why women talk more than men and many other characteristics of the sexes that often lead to conflict. The show starts from the premise that women tend to believe all men are jerks (the actual terminology is a bit more colorful). The actor, our modern-day caveman, uses humor and compassion to defend his sex. The message he wants to convey is that men aren't jerks, and neither are women. We're just different, and we should learn to understand and appreciate …