WEBVTT
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Hi, I'm Tina and I'm rich. And if there's one
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thing we've learned in over twenty years of marriage, it's.
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That some days you'll feel like killing.
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Your wife and some days you'll feel like killing your husband.
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Welcome to Love, Mary kill Good, I'm eight, good day.
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How are you?
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How bad was that Australian accent? Oh? Is that that
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we're going to Australia today?
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Excellent?
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I'm going to tell you a truly horrible story.
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Okay.
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When you think of Australians, what do you think of?
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I think of really like fun people, just like kind
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of easygoing.
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Down to earth, kind, hardworking people who love the outdoors.
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Right yeah.
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And you know some Australians.
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Ye, I've worked with quite a few Australians.
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And they're great people, right yeah.
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I have not known any Australians that I really dislike.
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Well, today, I'm going to tell you a story of
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an Australian who might make you question everything you know
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about the wonderful people of Australia. Boy, Okay, but I
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believe that she's an outlier. Yeah, this is the most
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requested case that we've ever had. Really, I think it's
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all of our Australian friends who ever quested it, and
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boy it's a doozy really about twelve percent of our
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downloads come from Australia. They're just the nicest people that
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I've ever come across. I love when I get to
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talk to our Australian listeners, especially Chanel. Chanelle is the
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one that tells me a lot about Australia, what they eat,
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how they talk. And there's one word in particular that
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they say in Australia that here in the States we
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really don't say. Yeah, we might say to see you
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next Tuesday, but in Australia they just blurt it out. Yeah,
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it's just kind of a.
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It's not like such a horrible word.
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No, it's not, and you know, it's all context and
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here we just don't say, but they're they do.
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Before we get into the case, can I just say
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that you have an uncanny ability to pick our recording
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time that always corresponds exactly to a Tiger's game starting.
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If there's a Tigers game starting at four o'clock, I
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can almost predict that you're going to want to record
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at four o'clock.
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Well, that is definitely a coincidence. There is no conspiracy
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here with I don't care of you with baseball day long.
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Who encouraged you to go to the baseball game last weekend?
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By the way you did that was me?
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That was okay, fair enough.
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Well, I have something I need to talk to you
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about that the listeners are curious to know. They would
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like prove that you are in the top one percent
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of the intelligence of the world's population. You can't just
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you know, say that fact without offering some sort of backup.
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So I've had several listeners reach out and say that
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we'd really like some proof that that your husband is
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as smart as he says he is. I couldn't give
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him anything.
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No, you can't go.
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No, so you'll be producing improved sure. Well, before we
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get to Catherine Knight, I have a snack for you,
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and of course it is an Australian Nope, it is
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not vegemite. It is a sausage sizzle with tomato sauce.
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Wow, that looks like much more than a snack.
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Yeah, it's well just what it sounds like. Really, it's
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a sausage what we would call a broughtwurst. I grilled
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some onions for you and I put ketchup on it
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and it has to be served on white bread. You
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can't use a button. Excellent, looks good, all right, why
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don't you give it a try. So we just had
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snags and bread, snags and bread. You can call it
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a sausage sizzle or a snack. What did you think?
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I thought it was really good. I mean nothing not
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to like there.
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Yeah. Chanelle told me that it was recently an election
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day in Australia and when you wait in line to vote,
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you will get a sausage that's.
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Like provided to you by the government.
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They just give well, I'm not sure if it's just
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like you know, the voting the polling place will have them.
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That would be good motivation to go vote.
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Absolutely well, I think you have to vote there.
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Oh interesting.
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So what would you rate the sausage sizzle?
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I mean I'd give it a ten out of ten?
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Would you really? Okay? So that was a Johnsonville brought
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on a piece of white bread.
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But it was actually went really on the white bread.
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It really worked well. I think it was a good
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bread that you chose to.
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I did get like a nicer bread and the onions
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were pretty good.
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Yeah.
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Fun fact, I hate raw onions like I can't tolerate
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raw onions at all, but I like when they're grilled.
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Well, that is a super fun fact.
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Shut up, it's the truth and you know it. Thank
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you to Tara, Rhianna and Renee and the many other
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people that have recommended this case. I think it's been
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recommended for a couple of years and I've finally got
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to it. There is a content warning for today's episode.
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This episode contains discussion of domestic violence, mental illness, suicide,
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and graphic violence that may be disturbing to some listeners.
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Listener discretion is strongly advised. The case of Catherine Knight
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is one you won't soon forget. It's a gruesome tale
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of a woman ruled saying by the legal system, but
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her actions are clearly those of a mad woman. Everyone
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in the town of one thousand, seven hundred and fifty
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knew her and feared her. It's not to say that
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she was always a tyrant. She could be sweet, generous
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and a good friend, but many of her instincts were primal.
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In nineteen forty nine, Catherine's mother, Barbara Ruffin, ran away
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from her difficult life in rural Aberdeen, New South Wales
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with a man named ken Knight, hoping for a fresh start. Aberdeen,
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about three hours north of Sydney, then had a population
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of about fifteen hundred. Up to that point, her life
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had been marked by hardship and pain. Born Barbara Thoroley,
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she was raised in deep poverty, neglected and unloved. Her
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father left when she was young, leaving her mother to
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feed and care for the children. Barbara was sent to
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live in a home for wayward girls for a time.
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Do you know what a wayward girl is? We hear
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the termal live.
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I do hear that term now that I think about it,
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And I guess it's somebody who doesn't really have a home.
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Or is troubled child who is difficult to manage due
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to their unpredictable or rebellious behavior. They might be wilful, disobedient,
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or prone to making bad choices.
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So today, do we have homes for wayward children today?
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Probably a foster home?
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Yeah, I guess so. But it can't you can't just
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like as a parent. You can't just be like you're
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being difficult, I'm sending you to the home for wayward children.
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Probably not. She suffered sexual abuse as a child, and
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tragically the abuse didn't end when she married. Known for
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her tough exterior and sharp tongue, Robara also battled serious
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mental health challenges, including several nervous breakdowns that required hospitalization.
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She often feared that madness ran in the women of
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her family. At the time she left, Barbara was the
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mother of four sons, Patrick, Martin, Neville, and Barry, the
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youngest less than a year old. Her husband, Jack Ruffin,
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managed a pig farm, but was known to drink and
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gamble away the family's money. Barbara's grandmother was believed to
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be an indigenous woman from the More region who had
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married an irishman. Barbara took pride in this heritage and
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liked to view her family as having Aboriginal roots. However,
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due to the strong racial prejudices in the area during
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this this time, this part of her background was kept
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hidden and became a source of inner conflict for the children.
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Ken Knight had worked at various slaughter houses or abbatoars
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since he'd left school at age fourteen. He was in
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high demand due to his expert knife skills and work
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ethic among the bountiful farms in the area. Farming, raising, livestock,
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and mining were the main industries in the area. Much
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of the housing in Aberdeen was provided by the mines
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or the abbatoir in the form of barracks or small cottages.
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Ken was well liked among his peers. Even Jack Ruffin
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was known to enjoy an occasional pint with him. The
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Knight family had deep roots in Aberdeen and were well
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known rough riders. Some nights, Barbara dragged Jack from the
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pub to come home for dinner. This was how Ken
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was first introduced to Barbara. He flirted with her and
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she enjoyed it. Her husband hadn't noticed her in years.
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Soon Barbara and Jack began meeting in his one bedroom
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apartment for sex. She was blind to his excessive drinking.
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Excited to have a distraction from her mundane life, she
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began refusing sex with her husband, and he became irate,
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and their already tense marriage grew worse. Jack saw a
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bruise on her thigh that appeared to be in the
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shape of a man's hand. Furious, he beat Barbara badly
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and threw her out of the house. Gossip traveled fast
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in the small town, and Barbara became a town pariah.
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Even her own sons spat on her when they encountered
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her in town. With nowhere to go, she moved in
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with Ken, Confirming Jack's suspicions. He sent their two youngest
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sons to live with his sister in Sydney. Barbara and
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Kenn absconded to the town of Morie, where he again
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found work in an abattoir. Barbara quietly divorced her first
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husband and married Ken. It's not clear if her pregnancy
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prompted the hasty marriage, but Barbara began showing soon after
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a fifth son was born to her, and then quickly
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after a sixth. She wearied realized that this marriage would
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fare no better than the first. When she discovered that
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Ken was a raging alcoholic. She really should have caught
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onto this sooner, but having lost her first four sons
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in the divorce, she clung to her two newest sons,
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afraid she would lose them if she complained too loudly.
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Ken's voracious sexual appetite as many as ten times a
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day exhausted Barbara. If she refused, she would be beaten
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or even worse, raped ten times a day, that's wild.
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How do you find the time? The young sons? She
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once adored, soon began to mimic their father's behavior, demanding
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rather than asking, and treating their mother more like a
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servant than a parent. Barbara was left feeling trapped and miserable,
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with no relief in sight. In nineteen fifty five, she
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discovered that she was pregnant again, with twins. She was
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sure she'd have two more ungrateful, demanding sons, but to
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her great surprise and delight, on October twenty fourth, nineteen
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fifty five, twin girls were born, her praternal but both
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with red hair like her. First enter the world was
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Joy Gwendolen, and half an hour later, Catherine Mary made
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her entrance. In five years, Barbara had had six children.
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A lot of kids for five years.
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Robert knew the twins would have to be tough to
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survive in a house full of unruly males. They lived
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in a ramshackle house pieced together with spit and gum,
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not nearly big enough for all of its inhabitants. Joy
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gravitated towards the boys with their raucous games and sports,
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but Catherine preferred to spend time by her mother's side,
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playing with dolls and learning to cook. Despite their differences,
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Joy and cath remained lifelong best friends. All of the
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children were beaten by their father, whether for misbehaving or
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for some perceived slight or minor misstep. His weapon of
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joys was either a dog leash or an extension cord.
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The night house was not a happy one. The parents
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constantly fought and didn't care who heard. When Ken forced
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himself on to Barbara, he didn't bother to even close
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the door. Ken was a tyrant, but had a soft
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spot for Catherine. She learned faster than the rest of
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the children, and he preferred her feminine nature. Kathy loved animals.
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If she found one that was injured, she would take
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it home, nurse it back to health, and then release
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it back to the wild. She had a strong affinity
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for domestic work, particularly cooking, and she gradually took over
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many of the household responsibilities from her mother. Barbara confided
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in her young daughter that men were pigs. She hated them.
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In nineteen fifty seven, when the twins were just two
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years old, Jack, Barbara's first husband, suddenly died, likely from
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the effects of alcoholism and heart disease, but also possibly
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from frequent consumption of bex Powders ex Powders bex Powders
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were a popular Australian over the counter painkiller, widely used
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from the nineteen thirties to the nineteen seventies. Marketed mainly
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to women with the slogan A cup of tea, a
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bex and a good lie doown, bex Powders contained a
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compound of aspirin, fanac t and caffeine. Though initially seen
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as a harmless remedy for everyday ailments, habitual use led
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to serious health consequences. Medical research in the nineteen sixties
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linked X to kidney failure and cancer, prompting the removal