Sisters in Pain: Battered Women Fight Back

by Linda Elisabeth LaPinta, Mary Angela Shaughnessy

Overview

In 1995, Kentucky governor Brereton Jones granted parole to ten women who had been convicted of killing, conspiring to kill, or assaulting the men who had abused them for years. The media began referring to them as the "Sisters in Pain," a name they embraced. These are their stories.

Linda Elisabeth Beattie and Mary Angela Shaughnessy's interviews of seven of the Sisters in Pain detail the physical, sexual, or psychological abuse they suffered at the hands of their husbands or boyfriends, battery beyond comprehension. Anyone who has ever asked, "Why don't they just leave?" will come to understand the interconnected strands of abuse that make just living through another day a personal triumph.

Beattie and Shaughnessy address the pervasive nature of domestic violence in America and explore the legal ramifications of fighting back. Their interviews with the Sisters in Pain reveal the ways in which these women have picked up the pieces of their shattered lives and learned to face the future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813121512
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	07/20/2000
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Linda Elisabeth LaPinta is associate professor of English at Elizabethtown Community College and the editor of Conversations with Kentucky Writers.

Table of Contents

	Foreword	xi
	Preface	xiii
	Acknowledgments	xvii
	Introduction	xix
	Politics, the Prison Quit, and Parole	3
	Sherry Pollard	37
	Karen Stout	63
	Teresa Gulley Hilterbrand	85
	Sue Melton	101
	Margie Marcum	121
	Tracie English	133
	Montilla Seewright	157
	Epilogue	177
Appendix A	Issues Related to Research, Reform, and the Law	183
Appendix B	"Warning Signs for Women: Predictors of Violence in Men" and "Why She Stays, When She Leaves"	193
Appendix C	Private Artifact to Public Act: "The Quilt as Accusatory Text" and "The Nineteenth-Century Diarist and Her Quilts"	195
Appendix D	National Domestic Violence Organizations and Kentucky Spouse Abuse Centers	201
	Bibliography	211

What People are Saying About This

Judith Jennings

Sure to endure as a crucial but seldom discussed area of concern.
—(Judith Jennings, executive director, Kentucky Foundation for Women)

Editorial Reviews

Offers the hope that battered women's stories will be heard and will motivate others to stand up and take action to end domestic violence.

Bowling Green Daily News

An impressive compendium of survival.

Louisville Courier Journal

A work of advocacy.... A gripping horror show.

Lexington Herald-Leader

Sure to endure as a crucial but seldom discussed area of concern.

Juith Jennings

A book for all women and all men—an education about the horrors of abuse and chances of recovery.

Oakland Press

An unflinchingly powerful story of domestic abuse.

Kentucky Monthly

"Offers the hope that battered women's stories will be heard and will motivate others to stand up and take action to end domestic violence." -- Bowling Green Daily News

"Sure to endure as a crucial but seldom discussed area of concern." -- Juith Jennings

"An unflinchingly powerful story of domestic abuse." -- Kentucky Monthly

"A work of advocacy.... A gripping horror show." -- Lexington Herald-Leader

"An impressive compendium of survival." -- Louisville Courier Journal

"A book for all women and all men -- an education about the horrors of abuse and chances of recovery." -- Oakland Press

"A worthy book that gives pause." -- Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

This exploration of domestic abuse revolves around the stories of the "Sisters in Pain," ten women granted parole in 1995 after conviction for killing, aspiring to kill or assaulting men who had for years abused them. After a discussion of the formation of the Battered Offenders' Self-Help Group and the creation of the Prison Quilt (where battered women in Kentucky sewed together squares on which they had drawn stories of abuse), the stories of the Sisters in Pain are told in the womens' own words, in painful and humiliating detail, from the beginnings of the relationships, to the abuse, to its final resolution. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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