Kelly Silk

 VICTIMS: 3

Well I keep getting requests for women murderers, so here's a family massacre that was carried out by the wife. I hope this serves as a warning to all those guys out there who think that this is their territory.

Kelly Silk was a woman in need of help. At the age of 32, this woman who had previously battled post-partum depression, was struggling with it again.

How do I know that she had struggled with it earlier? Police reports state that in May 1998, Mrs. Silk overdosed on the antidepressant Prozac.

Police also said that Kelly Silk had been treated for mental problems, and I guess that they weren't really cured.

So on Thursday, June 10, in their East Hartford, Conneticut home Kelly Silk felt the need to cure herself of her problems.

Kelly Silk stabbed her husband, Charles Silk, 39, to death. I don't know exactly how this happened but I would imagine that he was asleep at the time of the initial attack from Kelly. She then took it upon herself to make sure that their children wouldn't grow up not knowing their father. She tried to stab their 8-year-old daughter, Jessica, but didn't succeed in killing her. Little Jessica fled out of the house. Kelly then panicked. She realised that there probably wasn't enough time to kill each child individually so she decided to take the lot out in one go.

To make sure of this she set fire to the house. According to police Kelly went up in the initial blaze (that was started with a chemical of some kind). Young Jessica made it next door and was able to use the phone to call the police, although it was already too late to stop Kelly starting the fire. ''She was obviously in a state of trauma and shock. It was marvellous she had the presence of mind to call,'' said an officer.

By the time police and fire crews arrived it was almost too late. They found the three remaining children in the house. According to a source in the following days newspaper one of the children, Jennifer, 3, died in an officers arms. Another, Jonah, 2, was already dead. A third child, 6-month-old Joshua, was found inside the house with severe burns.

In the last news report that I read Joshua Silk was in serious condition in the burn centre at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Jessica was taken to the Connecticut Children's Medical Centre, where she was listed in serious condition. I have seen no update since then, but I assume that they both survived the ordeal.

A Coroner later found that Charles Silk died of stab wounds. The two children died of smoke inhalation and burns. Their deaths were all ruled homicides and Kelly's death was ruled a suicide. Since that makes three deaths Kelly Silk must be regarded as a mass murderer.
 

MY OPINION

It's not often that it's the mother who kills all the family, so this case has that on it's side. Unfortunately that's about the only thing of any real interest here. I think it's just got to the point now that in the USA there is one of these massacres every single day. And this is really killing the genre of 'family massacre'. What we need is someone to show some real originality in one of these cases, something so shocking that it will once again make the 'family massacre' interesting again.