On March 8, 1954 in Waterville, Kennebeck County, Maine,
USA, Constance drowned her children Richard, 6, Daniel, 4, and Deborah, 1. Then
again on June 30, 1966; Constance drowned her children Kathleen, 6,
Michael, 4, and Nathalie, 9 months. Bringing
the number of her victims to a total of 6.
At her First Trial She was found innocent as a result of
mental illness in 1954. Committed at the Augusta State Hospital. And released
in 1959. At her Second Trial, in 1966, she was found not guilty by reason of
insanity. She was then recommitted to the State Hospital. Her diagnosis changed
over the years from paranoid schizophrenic to postpartum psychosis to
sociopathic to dissociative disorder. On
the night of Oct. 1, 1973, she slipped
off the hospital grounds and threw herself into the Kennebec River. Her body
was found nearly a week later in South Gardiner. Constance Fisher of Fairfield, Maine was
twice committed to the Augusta Mental Health Institute in Augusta, Maine, each
time after drowning three of her own children.
The first was in 1954, in Waterville when she drowned three
of her children in the bathtub. After numerous appeals from her husband Carl
Fisher and having been declared 'cured' and sent home, she repeated the performance
with three more kids in 1967, in rural Fairfield Center, Maine and was
recommitted. She was a troubled soul and deeply religious. She had been adopted
and was afraid that her children would be doomed and not go to heaven once they
grew up to be adults. Duck hunters found her body in 1973, in a stream near the
hospital, where she had drowned.
Synopsis:
Constance Fisher:
In 1954, Fisher drowned her first three children in the
bathtub. After five years at the hospital, Fisher was declared cured and
returned home. In 1967, she drowned three more of her children.
On March 8, 1954, while battling post partum depression, a
24 year old Maine housewife drowned her three children in a bathtub before
attempting suicide. After spending only 5 years at the Augusta State Hospital,
Constance Fisher was released from the institution. Her release marked the
beginnings of a new era in the treatment of the mentally ill in America, as the
nation moved to phase out the large state run mental hospitals.
On June 30, 1966, Constance Fisher again drowned her three
children in a bathtub in what has been called the most bizarre murder story in
the history of New England. The incident was foretelling of another American
tragedy; the plight of the acutely mentally ill with no facility left to
properly care for them. Found innocent as a result of mental illness, Fisher
was recommitted. In October 1973, duck hunters came across Fisher's drowned
body about seven miles downriver from the hospital.
'The Tragedy of Constance Fisher’
On March 8, 1954, Constance Fisher drowned her three
children in the bathtub of her family's second-floor apartment in Waterville. The
24-year-old Fisher, distraught and severely depressed, took the life of her
11-month old baby, then wrapped the child in a blanket in her crib. Daniel
Fisher, 4, was the second child to die before being placed on the couch in a
blanket. When the oldest child, Richard, 6, arrived home from school anxious to
see his mother, she offered to run a warm bath for him on the chilly afternoon.
After playing with him for a few minutes in the tub, she put her hand around
his neck and submerged his head under water. He struggled so hard that
Constance had to climb into the tub with him to force him under. Then she drank
part of a bottle of poisonous shampoo and crawled under the bed in an electric
blanket. The deaths became a state and national scandal as people reacted with
emotions ranging from outrage to sympathy.
But why did she do it?
Constance Fisher was found by the court to be not guilty by
reason of insanity in the deaths of her three children. She was sent to the
state hospital where she was both a curiosity among other patients and a
patient much in demand by doctors because of her highly-publicized actions.
Constance's diagnosis changed over the years from paranoid
schizophrenic to postpartum psychosis to sociopathic to dissociative disorder,
whereby she stood outside herself and watched as she killed her children. One
thing bothered her doctors. She never showed remorse for what she'd done.
Instead, she said the children were better off because she couldn't care for
them properly and now they were in heaven. A voice, a presence, kept telling
her that, she said.
Her depression and nervous spells began the winter before she
took her children's lives, right after she stopped breast-feeding her baby. She
made visits to her family doctor and to a psychiatrist. Both told the family to
move from a two-room cabin where they were living on a pond with no running
water and no toilet. In the winter, they chipped ice to draw water.
The family moved to Waterville where they would be closer to
relatives and a downtown.
Constance's moods went up and down. Some days she couldn't
get out of bed; other days she functioned through confusion, sadness and
extreme anxiety. And there were days when she was on a high, unable to sit
still. Five years after entering the state hospital, she was released, despite
some misgivings from her medical team. There was no real follow-up plan for
her, and no real regimen for continued sanity.
She was the poster child for the good work at the state
hospital and its methods, which included insulin shock therapy that nearly
killed Constance at one point. That therapy was later abandoned by the hospital
because it was ineffective. It was recommended by at least one doctor that
Constance be sterilized, a common procedure in those years. Instead, Constance
went to the new home in Fairfield her husband had built for her and immediately
became pregnant. Two years later she gave birth to a second baby, and within
three years, a third child. They were named Kathleen, Michael and Natalie.
When those children were 6 years old, 4 years old, and 9
months, their mother again filled the bathtub and drowned all three. Her husband
Carl came home and saw his beautiful older daughter face down in the tub. He
ran out of the house, never to return again. It was Father Joseph Brannigan who
went in and found not only the three children, but Constance in a coma from an
overdose of pills. The house was a shambles of rotting food, toys and clutter.
Brannigan later left the priesthood and started a halfway
house for the mentally ill in Portland. He later became a legislator and state
senator.
This time, Constance knew she was in the state hospital for
good. Her condition worsened and she spent most of her time watching television
and mumbling to herself. She didn't mingle with other patients as she had
before, and visitors - including Carl -came less and less frequently, until he finally
stopped coming altogether.
On the night of Oct. 1, 1973, she slipped off the hospital
grounds and threw herself into the Kennebec River. Her body was found nearly a
week later in South Gardiner.
Carl became even more reclusive, although he continued to
work. He eventually died from cardiac problems — or, as nurses said, a broken
heart.
As always, stay safe !
Bird
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