Passion Pulls the Trigger

by Susan Murphy-Milano

On July 4, 1995, Pam Munson welcomed her second child into the world. Her 2 year-old son, Zak, was with Grandma Linda Fitze waiting for his mommy and daddy to bring his new baby sister home from the hospital. However, instead of celebrating the birth of the new baby, Pam was greeted by a horrifying crime scene 2 days later. Her mother's body lay lifeless in a pool of blood near the dining room table. She was shot once in the shoulder, and again in the head, at close range with a 38-caliber revolver. Pam's little boy, Zak, was hiding in the closet after discovering Grandma with half her head blown off.

Within a few months of the murder, Pam Munson contacted me by phone looking for support and answers to questions that haunted her from the day she found her mother's body. "Does it ever stop? You know the pictures in my head and the nightmares." We spoke for an hour, but I doubt I was much comfort other than we were members of the same "Private Murder Club."

As with so many of these cases we watch or read about, during the trial of the Linda Fitze murder, the defense called the crime one of passion. But, Pam remembers how her father threatened her mother throughout their marriage, and especially six months prior to her murder--while they were separated. "It was not a crime of passion, it was premeditated, cold-blooded, murder. He killed her because he did not want my mother to get any of his money," recalled Pam.

In 1997, Russell Marvin Munson stood trial for his wife's murder. The defense played the "crime of passion" card. A key part of the prosecuting attorney's case for life without parole was the detailed journal the Texas mother kept that chronicled the abuse during her marriage to Munson; but it was not admissable in court. The judge allowed the graphic crime scene photos-- a victory for the prosecution in which to build their case.

The eight day trial led to the jury's decision to find the 59-year old guilty of murder. Munson was sentenced to 20 years in prison. At the time, the trial brought some closure, but the scope of any murder is difficult for anyone to comprehend. Especially when "your own father pulls the trigger and shows no remorse."

In 1999, Munson filed with the appellate court asking for a new trial citing four issues to consider that were either not allowed, or improperly carried out, by the trial judge. The most revolting issue cited in the filing--and common among abusers, is to shift the blame. In this document Munson accused the decendent of "prior sexual abuse."

A few weeks ago, on my facebook page, Pam re-connected with me. "You probably don't remember me, but I contacted you in 1995, a few months after my mom was killed. The following week we spoke on the phone. "It doesn't go away, even after all these years, the depression, anger, and the feeling that we are incomplete as if we are the owners of our fathers actions. It is felt every day of my life."

The topic of children forced to continue with a "normal" productive life after living with years of abuse, resulting in murder, is not a subject covered by the media. We often forget about the kids left behind. On June 10, 2009 at 3:00PM Central time, on The Susan Murphy Milano show, Pam Munson and I will discuss the topic of children whose fathers have killed their mothers. It is an important subject: as the lives of the children witnessing violence and terror in their homes, if they survive, live the remainder of their days on earth often in darkness and without hope.

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