Christine Laverne Falling

Christine Falling

Christine Laverne Falling (born Christine Laverne Slaughter ; born March 12, 1963 in Perry , Taylor County , Florida ) is an American serial killer .

Life

Childhood and youth

Christine Laverne Slaughter was born as the youngest child in an unusual family situation. Her father Thomas Slaughter was already 65 years old at the time of her birth, while her mother Ann was still a minor at 16. The family lived below the poverty line , so Christine did not receive the early support she needed. As a result, she was always mentally retarded, suffered from epilepsy and was corpulent even as a child.

When her parents could no longer finance their daughter's maintenance, but also because of the ongoing arguments between the two, Christine had to spend parts of her childhood and youth in different orphanages . She compensated for her insecurity and pent-up anger by killing small animals, especially domestic cats , at an early age . In order to “test her nine lives”, as she later justified her deeds, she often let the animals fall from great heights into the depths.

In September 1977, at the request of her parents, Christine Slaughter, who was only 14 years old, had to marry a 20-year-old man named Falling. But the marriage, in which there were arguments and arguments almost daily, ended in divorce after only six weeks . After that, Falling was mentally ill. She had to be hospitalized 50 times over the next two years. She had hallucinations , complained of "red spots" appearing in front of her eyes, and had irregular menstrual bleeding . At the age of 16, she was diagnosed as unable to work on the advice of a doctor .

In order to still earn money, Falling started working as a babysitter for neighbors and friends.

Series of murders

On February 25, 1980, Cassidy Johnson, 2 years old, was admitted to a doctor's office in Blountstown . She was diagnosed with meningitis caused by traumatic brain injury . Three days later, the girl succumbed to internal injuries. Christine Falling, who was babysitting the toddler, said Cassidy fell out of the crib. The attending doctor did not believe her and recommended that the police check Christine on a note. However, the note got lost on the way to the police department.

Shortly after Cassidy Johnson's death, Falling moved to Lakeland, Florida. Two months later, in the early summer of 1980, four-year-old Jeffrey Davis died under her supervision. The autopsy was myocarditis as a cause of death; however, the doctors doubted that this alone had caused Jeffrey's death. Davis' funeral took place three days after his death. Christine Falling was called in to look after his cousin, Joseph Spring, who was just two years old. Joseph died a few hours later - of a "viral infection," as the doctors called it.

In July 1981, Falling left Lakeland and returned to her hometown of Perry in Northern Florida. As many families feared that they would not entrust their children to the care of Christine Falling, she began to work as a care assistant for the elderly. The 77-year-old William Swindle died in his kitchen on the same day Christine started working for him.

In the fall of 1981, the daughter of Christine's half-sister, eight-month-old Jennifer Daniels, died. While Christine's half-sister had gone to a supermarket for a moment, she only left Jennifer with Christine in the car for a few minutes. The girl stopped breathing. The doctors suspected " sudden infant death " as the cause of death .

The turning point in the enigmatic death streak was the death of ten-week-old baby Travis Coleman, who died on July 2, 1982 while Christine Falling was supposed to take care of the child in Blountstown. During the autopsy, the doctors found internal injuries that could only have been caused by asphyxiation. When police approached Falling, they confessed to killing three of the children. Because she heard voices telling her “Kill the baby!”, She smothered the defenseless children with pillows and blankets.

Christine Falling was sentenced to life imprisonment in December 1982. Only her confession prevented the death penalty . An application for parole was last rejected by the parole committee in November 2017. Falling is still in prison in Homestead ( Miami-Dade County , Florida).

literature

• Michael Newton: The Great Encyclopedia of Serial Killers . 5th updated and expanded edition. Verlag für Collectors , Graz 2009, ISBN 978-3-85365-240-4 , 534 pages.
• Peter Murakami, Julia Murakami: Lexicon of serial killers. 450 case studies of a pathological type of killing. Ullstein Tb, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-548-35935-3 , 639 pages.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Michael Newton: The great encyclopedia of serial killers. Leopold Stocker Verlag , Graz 2002, p. 102.
2. ↑ Mara Bovsun: The casual horror behind Christine Falling, the Florida baby-sitter from hell , November 17, 2012 article on nydailynews.com, accessed April 15, 2016