The thread on Barbara Graham and the Jodi Arias trial had me thinking:
Most of the females I can think of that have been executed have been, at best, middle aged and plain looking, or at worst, old and ugly. Think Barbara Graham, Lynda Block, Bonnie Heady, Karla Tucker, Aileen Wournos. Meanwhile Casey Anthony, and going back Lizzie Borden appear to have gotten off scott free. Susan Wright got off with ony 20 years in Texas. Alyssa Bustamante (although not DP elligible as a juvenile) was allowed to plead to murder 2 and might be paroled some day.
Have we ever executed a young white attractive female or even given one life without parole? The trial commentators on Tru TV even said Jodi was “too cute to execute”.
I think Karla Fay Tucker was kind of young and attractive when she was sentenced to death. She wasn’t executed until 14 years later when she was around 49.
I think Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkle(?) were originally sentenced to death in the Manson trials, but never executed. They were both pretty young, and somewhat attractive.
“Attractive” is a subjective criteria. There have been 10 white women executed in the US since the death penalty was reinstated. Here’s a list from the Espy database, where you can do your own searches. Only two of these women were under 40 – Karla Tucker and Christina Riggs – but given the typical length of the appeals process, that’s not unexpected. Only 119 of the 1308 men executed were under the age of 30.
For what it’s worth, there have only been two non-white women executed: Frances Newton (40) and Wanda Allen (41).
ETA: Susan Smith got life without parole. I’m sure there are thousands of other examples.
Irma Grese (aka The Beautiful Beast) was executed after WWII for war crimes. She was a fairly attractive woman but the things she did were just horrific. Her wikipedia pic isn’t particularly flattering but if you do an image search you’ll find more attractive pictures of her.
Her war crimes were so horrific that it was difficult to have any sympathy for her at all, no matter how young and pretty she was.
Toni Jo Henry was 26, and was described as “beautiful” by the press. That may have been an overstatement, but she doesn’t appear to have been unattractive:
Few young people of either gender will be executed, just because it takes so long for the appeals, so even if someone is convicted young, they won’t be by the time of execution.
Laurie “Bambi” Bembenek was attractive enough to have modeled and worked as a Playboy bunny. She was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. The conviction was later reduced to second-degree, but, still, a jury convicted her of first-degree.
There is an anecdote in Vincent Bugliosi’s book “Helter Skelter” that when Manson found out how much money a dancer in a topless place could make, he sent several girls out to get jobs. None of them did…for some reason only small-breasted women wanted to join
Manson’s family.
My intent was that “we” was the US, but the examples from other western societies are interesteing too.
I looked up pictures of the actual Barbara Graham, and while not somone I personally find “hot”, she was a lot better looking than the actor portrayal.
Toni Jo Henry was in my opinion very attractive, so was the kind of example I was looking for.
Does he not realize she’s ‘doing’ textbook abused lover act, and that he is further acting like a textbook unfeeling male pig!!?? How can he not see this ?? She’s almost bored w/how hook,line,sinker he’s losing !!! Or am I wrong?
