Even masses who do n’t follow crime hump the name Andrea Yates . On June 20 , 2001 — six month after giving parturition to her fifth baby in seven years — the former nurse , who suffered from severe postpartum depression , drown each child in the family bathing tub . Then , she called 911 : “ I just killed my Thomas Kid . ”
unfeigned crime source Suzy Spencer ’s Breaking Point was initially publish just after the murders , when medium scrutiny of the Andrea Yates casing was at its most intense . In 2002 , Yates was found shamed of murder and sentenced to life in prison — though many in her place State Department of Texas called for her to get the destruction penalty . But in 2006 , she won her appeal and have a 2d tryout ; this meter , she was regain not guilty by reasonableness of insanity , and now resides ina minimum - security psychiatric facility .
Spencer pursue the case from start to finish , and with the late - released new variant of Breaking Point , she was finally able-bodied to satiate in the details she felt were missing from the book ’s first printing over a decade ago . We talk with her about the surprising complexities of the Andrea Yates case — and the ways in which it change mainstream perceptions of mental illness .
io9 : When did you become concerned in Andrea Yates , and when did you decide to drop a line a book about her case ?
Suzy Spencer : I was at the infirmary with my auntie , who ’d had a stroke , when the Andrea Yates case break on the news . I pretty much totally push aside it , because I did n’t want to hear about it ! But [ days after ] , I arrive a call from my agent asking if I would do a book on the case . I just run , “ Yikes , ” you lie with ? I peach to my family about it , and my mother suppose , “ Somebody ’s going to write this — and you will do it with more sensitiveness than anyone else . ” So I said yes .
I study afterwards on that St. Martin ’s Press , the original publisher , had go about my agent after they ’d gone through several other writers . Everybody else had said no , because — I retrieve , I ’m not positive — they were all mothers . And I was n’t . People tell me that gave me a fiddling scrap of distance . I could emotionally handle the pillowcase better . That was on a Monday evening , I believe , that I said yes . By Tuesday break of the day , the mickle was done and by Tuesday good afternoon , I was on my path to Clear Lake , [ the suburb of Houston , Texas where the Yates family live ] . The following twenty-four hour period , I was at the funeral .
So you were really there every step of the path . How long , from offset to finish , did you expend work on Breaking Point ?
I was assigned the book at the very end of June 2001 , basically July . I rick it in at the end of the following November . I in the first place had four month , and I stretch it to five . All along , the plan for that Holy Scripture was for it to fare out before [ what would later be have it off as ] the first test . All along , I wanted the Scripture to cover the entire case , but the publisher was adamant : no , it had to come out before the trial .
The acquire editor at St. Martin ’s was Charles Spicer . He ’s kind of consider the big businessman of lawful crime . But he unremarkably assign someone else to do the actual editing . The guy who did my real editing , he and I had always planned that an update variant would come out later with likely 75 extra pages ; we ’d maybe trim down the competence audience and put in the regular tribulation . It stop up that did n’t really find . St. Martin ’s eventually allowed me to do four additional pages , I reckon it was . That just was n’t ever satisfying to me .
When the book finally choke out of photographic print , I still had this fantasy , this dream , that I ’d be capable to indite the full story . Thanks to my new literary agentive role , and Diversion record , after approximately 13 years , I got to complete that dreaming by writing the total story . After that length of time , Dr. Lucy Puryear — who was the expert psychiatrical witnesser for the defence — open up up her files to me . She said , “ Sure , come down here . I ’ll lock you in my service department apartment [ express mirth ] and you’re able to go through all the files . ” At the end of three or four hours of doing that , she said , “ I do n’t really know what to do with these Indian file . I do n’t desire to throw away them out , so take what you want . ” So now , sit down in my hall right now is a big box of Dr. Puryear ’s files , and I recognize she ’s never depict another reporter her filing cabinet .
Many multitude only recall the fact that Andrea Yates drown her kids , but as Breaking Point recounts , there were serious medical egress that affected her conduct . Do you think if she ’d been right do by , the calamity would never have happened ?
Most unquestionably . If she had n’t continued to have kids , if she ’d been get hold of back to her original doctor , if her insurance policy had n’t melt out and she could have been treated longer — or treat at a different facility — this probably would not have befall . If not just [ Andrea ’s hubby ] Rusty Yates , but everyone , had had a unspoilt understanding of postpartum slump and psychosis , and what it does to you , I retrieve this never would have happened .
But one of the interesting thing that Dr. Puryear has said a few times , and it stuck in my head : Andrea Yates would have been mentally ominous no matter what . But she never would have killed her child if it had not been for the influence of [ street preacher ] Michael Woroniecki .
I was going to ask you about that , since — as your book explains — Andrea Yates think that by killing her kids , she was saving them from Satan . What impact did religion have on her illness ?
One of the thing I was tell was that when a person is psychotic , the last affair you do is blab to them about religious belief , because their psychotic thinker ca n’t work on this . I mean I even got a letter of the alphabet from someone who read the Word of God , who had gone through postpartum psychosis , and explain this to me in detail : things that are perchance emblematical [ to everyone else ] , when you ’re psychotic , you really believe it . It ’s like , if one centre is causing you to sin , pluck it out . That variety of poppycock — you remember it ’s real , and you might really endeavor to tweak out your eye . The sane Andrea Yates would have never done this , but the mad one could n’t serve all of that material .
How about culturally , like the Yates ’ notion that Andrea should not only keep having children , but that she should stay home with them rather than returning to her vocation ?
One of the things that I let out about Rusty Yates is that when I was with him one - on - one , the matter he would say would make full gumption . Then I would walk by from him and go , “ What ? ” What I realized from that is Andrea was never capable to get away and think for herself . She was isolate from her Quaker and her family , and if something did n’t make sense , she never had that chance to go away and guess about it . It was sort of like the craze syndrome , where they insulate you from everyone so that all you hear is what they believe — and so you start trust it too .
Growing up , Andrea Yates was hushed and diffident — but she was also a hard worker . She was a person who move for things , whether it was swimming or being a stark nurse . She was challenging . And all of a sudden , that ’s all guide away from her .
Do you think Rusty Yates should have been nurse more accountable for his role in Andrea ’s crime ?
I always tell people that there are generally Rusty lover and Rusty haters . There ’s not too much in between . And Rusty is not as perfect as the Rusty lover intend , but he ’s not as horrible as the Rusty haters think . He is a guy who kind of has tunnel vision , and from what I translate , to wreak at NASA this is kind of the way you have to be . He set his head on a finish , and nothing ’s lead to get in the agency of that , whether it ’s a ill wife or whatever . Does that signify he ’s a bad person ? If you have a matte tire on the side of the road , he ’s going to be there to assist you .
Just about every dependable law-breaking book I pen has some aspect of mental malady in it , and [ what I ’ve found ] is that when you ’re administer with that , with a love one , you do n’t always get laid what to do . The bottom line , also , is that the gentleman’s gentleman suffer his wife and five kids , and I ’m not belong to parachute on and slam him . Do I think he did everything right ? No . Do I recollect he did everything incorrect ? The main affair was dismiss the MD on say “ Do n’t have any more kids . ” I believe he say he took that more as a mesmerism rather than a serious order .
One night , we were have dinner with a bunch of other people . He tell when they were talk about having another babe , he thought of it like , somebody saying , “ We will give you this mark - new Mercedes . But if you take it , you might get the influenza . ” And he said , “ Would you take it or not ? Sure , because all you do is take the medicament and you get over the grippe , and then you still have the Mercedes . ”
He thought of that as the same means with experience another infant and postpartum depressive disorder . I do n’t think he understood , or had it explained , or maybe he just denied , that commonly each case of postpartum impression and psychosis is worse than the previous .
Wow . So he just had no frame of reference .
I think a stack of us did n’t . But now , because of the Andrea Yates case , we do . When the book first came out , I did interview on radio call - in shows , and the great unwashed would say , “ This could never happen in my family . My wife would never do that . ” Well , any female who has a baby can get postpartum depression , which can uprise into postpartum psychosis . It ’s mentioned in the book of account that Rusty Yates did n’t believe in genial malady .
One prison term , I was doing a radiocommunication interview out of Las Vegas , and they had Ann Coulter on with me . She was adamant that mental sickness does not be . It stuns me because here is a prime example of a atrocious , ugly tragedy that could have been prevented if someone had believe in genial malady and acquire the right supporter and that there are options out there . One reasonableness I fought so much for Breaking Point to be reissue was because of breeding — please , lease ’s learn , let ’s keep our eyes capable , and if we do n’t have sex what to do , call a help line or call your doctor . Just get some help .
And there is more cognisance about postpartum depression — even celebrities will admit to have it . How much did the Andrea Yates type have to do with that ?
The defending team attorneys say that ’s one reason the 2d run was successful in getting a not guilty by reason of insanity finding of fact : the public is intimately educated this meter , and knew about it .
You cite earlier that your truthful offense books often include themes of mental illness . Are you specifically cast to these case of cases ?
Initially , it ’s subconsciously what I was drawn to . When I was an undergraduate at Baylor , I really wanted to be a psychological science major . But it was required that you did a stinkpot science laboratory , and I ’m terrorize of rodent . I could n’t do it ! [ Laughs ] So I ’ve always been very interested in psychology and sociology , and you get to cut into into that in true offense .
My first book was Wasted . When I first met the killer [ in that type ] , I think he had a prospect of being rehabilitate if he get the right counseling . Then , after interview him again 10 years later , I see how he had change after a ten of solitary labor . He seemed like a crazed person who had no helper of reclamation , and I thought , “ Oh my gosh , if this guy gets out , he ’s emphatically going to pour down again . ” His genial wellness state had changed that much .
Do you recollect Andrea Yates will ever be released ?
Absolutely not . I do n’t think the judge would go for it , and base on the public ’s reaction to when she just requested to be able-bodied to go to church building — at that tip , her attorney , George Parnham , told me that they will never make another petition like that again .
Besides that , Andrea feel secure where she is , in Kerrville State Hospital . That has become her kin ; the nurses and the patients there are phratry , and that ’s where she feel secure and secure . But even if she want out , I do n’t recollect that would ever , ever happen . Not in Texas .
From top : Andrea Yates is escort after a court appearing Monday , Jan. 9 , 2006 , in Houston . ( AP Photo / David J. Phillip , Pool )
Yates family photo ( taken before Mary Yates was born ) and Andrea Yates booking photo good manners of Diversion Books .
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