A Rage To Kill And Other True Cases

Eric wasted no time in remarrying; he and Mariel married just days after his divorce was final. He claimed to be euphorically happy in this new marriage, and he and Mariel lived in a $50,000 house and had an income of almost $1,400 each month from veterans’ benefits and Social Security. Today, in Seattle, that would mean living in a $250,000 house and having close to $5,000 a month, tax-free.
    But even while he lived with Mariel, Eric Shaw could not forget Amy. He let her know often that he would never forgive her for whatever sins he imagined she had committed. He was a man obsessed. He carried his .38 with him all the time and he made sure Amy knew it.
    Amy Shaw was trying to make a new life for herself and the children. She enrolled in a library science course at Highline Community College in Des Moines, Washington, so that she could support them. The small girl and boy would continue to receive the Social Security allotted to the children of those disabled in the service of their country. But those benefits were only $260 a month, and not enough to keep a household going.
    Amy had gone hungry before when Eric failed to list her as a dependent, but she would not allow her children to be deprived. She tried to get the court-ordered support that Eric was supposed to pay, but he withheld it. On one occasion, she went so far as to have him jailed for non-support and he spent a week in the King County Jail. This only enraged him.
    Amy tried to honor the visitation rights Eric had with the children, but he devised new ways to torment her. She always sent the youngsters to visit wearing clean clothes and she sent extra clothes along. Eric began to keep that clothing, forcing her to buy them new outfits all the time. On her limited budget, she couldn’t afford that. She begged him to bring their things back, but he kept the clothes until they were outgrown.
    In desperation, Amy asked her attorney to write to Eric and say that he would either have to bring the clothing back or provide clothing for them himself.
    It was an age-old dilemma in divorce where children were concerned. The children still loved their father, and Amy didn’t want to deprive them of his company. On the other hand, she became afraid to have him come to pick them up. His hatred of her was almost palpable and she didn’t know what he might do when he saw her. Finally, she asked a friend to walk the children out to Eric’s car on visitation weekends.
    It worked for a while, and then Eric backed his vehicle into Amy’s girlfriend one day. He claimed that his grip had slipped off the hand controls, but it was frightening. When he pulled his .38 from the holster and pointed it at the woman on the next visit, there was no way to explain that away. As much as she wanted to help Amy, her friend was now too afraid of Eric.
    Things got worse; Amy was living a scary “Gaslight” existence, wondering what Eric would do next. Rather than forgetting about her and turning to his new wife, he seemed to grow more obsessed. He began a subtle war of nerves. When she unpacked the children’s bag, she would find that Eric had pulled up flowers and sent the dead vegetation home to her.
    “Daddy said those were a present for you,” her seven-year-old daughter said, innocently.
    Even worse, he frightened the children by telling them, “I wish your mother was dead; I wish she was never even alive.”
    She tried to tell him that he was doing damage to their children, and he only smiled.
    When she picked up the mail, she found pictures of herself—only Eric had cut off her head in all the photographs.

    At some point, Amy Shaw faced an awful truth. She lived with the sure knowledge that Eric meant to kill her. She couldn’t have him arrested; she learned that the police couldn’t arrest a man for something he
intended
to do. And he had a legal permit to carry a gun.
    In the end, even though she had friends, Amy was all alone with two small children, the oldest only seven. Her son was barely past toddler stage. Without realizing it, she had begun to expect less and less of life. Her world had grown incredibly small. She no longer dreamed of marrying again or of having a career. She could not remember a time when she could walk outside free of fear. All she wanted, hoped for, and prayed for now was the opportunity to take care of her children.
    She considered moving far away where Eric couldn’t find her. But her family, her friends, her college, her entire