MORE REPLIES:
I have continued to look at the feedback and, although, I can't remember every comment, I can address some of the more interesting ones. A comment I saw more than once was that I was probably off base when I said that Darlie Routier had a miserable childhood. Well, I am willing to live and learn, and I suppose that I have to concede that maybe her childhood was not as miserable as I thought. I did not think it was very happy and I got the distinct impression that she was running away from it. I had to adjust my thinking that maybe it was merely the poverty of it, rather than general misery of it, that was causing her problems. I think the bottom line is this: there was something regarding that childhood that she absolutely did not want to return to. She engaged in the extreme behavior at that party when she was 16-years-old where she made up the phony attempted sexual assault story to get Darin's attention. Too, approximately one month before the murders, she apparently addresses her sons and writes in her diary, "I hope that one day you will forgive me for what I am about to do. My life has been such a hard fight for a long time, and I just can't find the strength to keep fighting anymore." (Quoted from Skip Hollandsworth, " Maybe Darlie Didn't Do It, Texas Monthly, July 2002). That entry occurred when the couple's money problems must have been very evident and indicates to me that she has spent a long time trying to escape from something and now she is afraid that whatever she was trying to escape is catching up with her again.
I am also willing to back off my claim that Darlie suddenly snapped after having her argument with Darin, and then went and stabbed the two children. That certainly was my initial feeling, but I agree with Jeana who said that it is more likely that Darlie fought with Darin, became angry for a little while well contemplating her argument with Darin, and then went and stabbed the boys. I agree that there was premeditation and also that it was not very lengthy.
One claim that I am not willing to back off, which was challenged by Beesy and Goody, is that she is a garden-variety sociopath because it is quite clear that she is one. I think there is some misunderstanding in this regard. Goody essentially asked whether I thought the incident at the party when she was 16 made her a sociopath or whether I thought all murderers are sociopaths (in other words, whether the act of murder makes a person a sociopath.) My response is that being a sociopath is more of a process. I indicated that I thought that Darlie was developing into one in her high school years; no later than that party did she start acquiring the one and only skill she had before she graduated from high school, the skill of manipulating people. She then ran off and married Darin, and continued to manipulate him by "pushing his buttons" every time she needed money and he wouldn't come across with it ("I think we need a separation, I'm going to go stay with my friend so-and-so.") After the murders, when her defense attorney, Doug Mulder, tells her not to take the stand and what will happen if she does, she ignores his sage advice and takes the stand because she knows that she will be able to manipulate her way past the jurors. (Too bad it didn't work.) She is still manipulating people today (Anne Good is one prime example) because I have seen her do interviews where she says things to the effect of, "I think some day I am going to wake up from this terrible dream" (translation: this could happen to you, too, folks) and "Why can't people see the truth?" (sorry Darlie, but too many of them can and that is why you are where you are at.) In her own mind, she is a world-class manipulator. I think both Goody and the State of Texas misunderstand sociopaths because the State of Texas said after the Randall Dale Adams "Thin Blue Line" case (prosecuted by Doug Mulder) that Adams was a violent sociopath. The problem is that people don't kill solely because they are sociopaths and not all killers are sociopaths; they kill because they are sociopaths and life spins horribly out of control, as it did in Darlie's case. One of my favorite books, Plain Speaking, by Merle Miller, is a biography of Harry Truman. Truman was discussing his relationship with General Douglas MacArthur, but he could have been talking about Darlie as well: "The American people always see through a counterfeit. It sometimes takes a little time, but eventually they can always spot one."
Darlie simply can't relate to another human being without manipulating that person to her own benefit. This pattern of behavior has been going on for at least 20 years. Feel free to conclude that she is not one, but I believe that she is and that the question is not close. I do acknowledge that it would be nice to get a psychological evaluation done of her, but I don't see that it will happen.
