Beyond Reason (25 page)
Authors: Ken Englade
ELIZABETH WAS NOT THE ONLY ONE JENS TOLD ABOUT his theory that she was to blame for the murders.
In addition to Dr. Hamilton, Jens also met with another psychiatrist, Dr. Henrietta Bullard from the West Berkshire Health Authority. He told her virtually the same tale he had told Hamilton. However, Jens did not meet with the psychiatrists simply to make additional confessions. He was subtly planting the idea that although he had killed the Haysoms, he was not responsible. The fault, he implied, was Elizabeth’s. She had, after all, talked him into it.
Jens told Hamilton that Elizabeth had been “psyching him up” to kill her parents for a long time, but at first, as far as he was concerned, the thought of murder was “pure fantasy.” If he had been left to his own devices, Jens said, he would have picked a gun as the murder weapon because he knew how to get one, and he also knew how to construct a silencer, apparently as a result of his avid perusal of military-adventure magazines.
Before he knew it, he said, Elizabeth had convinced him that her parents had to be murdered, and she provided him with the knife to do it.
Jens elaborated on this tale slightly when he talked to Bullard. He told her that when he went to Loose Chippings on March 30, he was “prepared for violence.”
As he had done with Hamilton, Jens denied to Bullard that he had left any cult-style symbols in the house. He also said he was at a loss to explain the widespread carnage that investigators found when they discovered Nancy’s and Derek’s bodies four days after he killed them.
Jens’s tactics worked. Both Bullard and Hamilton agreed independently that Jens was suffering from a malady called
folie à deux,
which is characterized by the victim submerging his or her personality into that of another.
folie à deux,
which is characterized by the victim submerging his or her personality into that of another.
“It is by no means rare for the close associate of a psychotic person to share his or her delusions,” Hamilton wrote. “It is possible that Jens Soering, by reason of the dependent and immature traits in his personality, believed to be true the pathological lies told to him by Elizabeth Haysom and felt compelled to act upon them.”
His opinion, he said, was that Jens was, at least at that time, mentally ill. He was, Hamilton averred, “suffering from an abnormality of mind in which the predominant feature was an impaired appreciation of reality in this circumscribed but crucial area.” In other words, he was mentally disturbed to the extent that his judgment was impaired, and he was not responsible for what happened.
Bullard said virtually the same thing. Jens “had the misfortune to meet a very powerful, persuasive and disturbed young woman whom he believed and trusted implicitly,” Bullard wrote. “He became tangled in her web of deceit and lies, and began to live with her a life of fantasy and unreality. He seemed devoid of judgment and was not only taken in by her fantastic stories, but came to agree with her as to the ultimate solution. He was flattered by Miss Haysom’s apparent emotional and sexual needs for him, and her suffering became his suffering.”
The relationship was a sick one, she said, and the most disturbed partner was Elizabeth, whom she described as bordering on the psychotic. “It is easy to see how an immature, sensitive and altruistic young man might become the prey of a woman such as Miss Haysom,” Bullard said.
“The strength and importance of this relationship cannot be over-emphasized,” she added. “Miss Haysom had a stupefying and mesmeric effect on Soering which led to an abnormal psychological state in which he became unable to think rationally or question the absurdities in Miss Haysom’s view of her life and the influence of her parents. They were not the powerful and destructive people she described,
and Soering was unable to apply ordinary principles of reasoning and logic.”
and Soering was unable to apply ordinary principles of reasoning and logic.”
It was her professional opinion, she concluded, that Jens’s mental state was such that his judgment was impaired to the extent that he was not responsible for his acts.
It was exactly what Hamilton had said, and if Jens were being tried in England, it would make a difference. Under British law, the
folie à deux
syndrome was a legally recognized form of mental illness. If Jens was tried in the United Kingdom, he could claim a psychiatric defense, known as
diminished capacity
, based on the diagnoses. If a British jury heard the case and its members agreed that he did indeed suffer from the syndrome, the charge could be reduced from murder to manslaughter.
folie à deux
syndrome was a legally recognized form of mental illness. If Jens was tried in the United Kingdom, he could claim a psychiatric defense, known as
diminished capacity
, based on the diagnoses. If a British jury heard the case and its members agreed that he did indeed suffer from the syndrome, the charge could be reduced from murder to manslaughter.
Unfortunately for Jens, this was not the case in Virginia, where there was no such defense as diminished capacity. A Virginia jury hearing Jens’s case would not be able to reduce the charges against him on grounds of insanity, based on those diagnoses, even if his psychiatrists were persuasive. In Virginia he wasn’t going to be able to dodge the electric chair on those grounds no matter how many psychiatrists he got to agree that he had been bewitched by Elizabeth Haysom. With Updike refusing to consider any charge other than capital murder, punishable by electrocution upon conviction, Jens flew into a panic. It was imperative, he decided, that he not be extradited to Virginia.
RICKY GARDNER FOUND ELIZABETH IN THE HALLWAY OF the Bedford County Jail. She was sitting in a straight-backed chair with one leg tucked under her, looking somewhat disheveled. Her white blouse was wrinkled, her hair was uncombed, and she wore no makeup. But her physical condition was not indicative of her mental one. Despite nineteen-plus hours on the road, she was running hard on adrenalin and was quite alert.
She had left Holloway at dawn that morning, British time, flying to Washington and then to Roanoke, where Sheriff Wells was waiting to pick her up for the final thirtyfive-mile leg of the journey. The first thing she told the sheriff when they got to Bedford was that she wanted to talk to Gardner. It was after ten o’clock on May 8, a Friday night. Gardner had gone for the day, but Wells called him back.
Gardner was only slightly surprised and not at all unhappy about the summons. It had been eleven months almost to the day since he had last talked to her. But he had not stopped thinking about the case. He had read the transcripts of her interrogations with Beever and Wright, and he wanted to ask her a number of questions in addition to what he had already queried her about.
After a greeting that was not as cold as he expected, Gardner led her into a small, quiet room and fetched her a cup of black coffee. Settling down with his omnipresent tape recorder on the desk, he invited her to say what was on her mind.
Elizabeth had done a lot of thinking since her last meeting with investigators. Over the months she had had time to consider the things she had said and, more importantly, the things she now
wanted
to say. She still professed a desire to
expiate her guilt, but she didn’t want to be
too
guilty. She was ready to accept punishment for the role she had played in the murder of her parents, but she didn’t want the prosecutors and the public to think that Jens was a saint and she totally evil.
wanted
to say. She still professed a desire to
expiate her guilt, but she didn’t want to be
too
guilty. She was ready to accept punishment for the role she had played in the murder of her parents, but she didn’t want the prosecutors and the public to think that Jens was a saint and she totally evil.
By then she had been given a copy of Bullard’s and Hamilton’s reports on Jens’s psychiatric state, and these made her seethe. If she was going to be called to account for her actions, she was going to try her best to make sure Jens was, too. After all, he had been the one who had done the killing. Also, she now had the benefit of Jens’s correspondence, so she knew, at least in rough form, what his strategy was going to be. His first priority was to be extradited to Germany. If that didn’t work, his fall-back position was to blame it all on her. In actuality the latter served a dual purpose because he also could use claims of her pervasive influence as part of his defense in a German court, where the potential punishment was fifteen years at the maximum as compared with a possible death sentence in Virginia.
Elizabeth had decided that she would accept her punishment, and she wanted Jens to do the same, especially after the way he had treated her following the murders. Or at least the way she
wanted
everyone to think she was treated. One of the possible reasons she asked to talk to Gardner could have been to start laying the groundwork for a story that would mitigate her behavior. She knew she could not excuse it, but if she could explain
why
she ended up in the position she did, she would seem a more sympathetic figure. Sitting stiffly in the tiny office with a cup of lukewarm coffee in her fist, she launched into Version 3 of what happened in March 1985 and in the months that followed.
wanted
everyone to think she was treated. One of the possible reasons she asked to talk to Gardner could have been to start laying the groundwork for a story that would mitigate her behavior. She knew she could not excuse it, but if she could explain
why
she ended up in the position she did, she would seem a more sympathetic figure. Sitting stiffly in the tiny office with a cup of lukewarm coffee in her fist, she launched into Version 3 of what happened in March 1985 and in the months that followed.
Since he was not present when she made her admissions to Beever and Wright, Gardner had not heard her stories directly. So he guided her through a reiteration of events leading up to the night her parents were murdered. She told him, as she had the British detectives, that they had planned the murders for a month and then gone to Washington to set
up an alibi. On that Saturday morning, they had shopped for a knife.
up an alibi. On that Saturday morning, they had shopped for a knife.
“Now, for the sake of asking, why did you want to buy a knife?” Gardner inquired.
“To kill my parents,” she said.
AT FIRST, HER STORY WAS IDENTICAL TO THE ONE SHE had told earlier. Then, unexpectedly, it took a sharp turn. When it got to the part where she said she had gone to two movies after Jens dropped her off, she made a major modification. She told Gardner she didn’t go to the movies that afternoon at all. In reality, she said, she had gone to a bar.
That caught Gardner by surprise. With a puzzled frown, he asked her why she had done that.
She must have anticipated—hoped for—the question. Elizabeth replied that she had gone looking for drugs.
Oh-oh, Gardner thought, we have a whole new element here. But his curiosity was piqued. What was she looking for? Coke? Pot? Hash?
No, she said, she was after the really hard stuff: heroin. Furthermore, she added, she was successful. At least, she was successful in getting what she was looking for, but it turned out to be so diluted that it failed to transport her on the expected high.
Gardner wasn’t sure he was hearing what she was telling him. While her boyfriend was on the way to kill her parents, Elizabeth’s only interest had been in getting high: Is that what she was saying? Didn’t she even give a minute’s worth of thought to trying to warn her parents?
Elizabeth looked slightly contrite. “Oh, yes,” she said. “During that afternoon I’d come very close to phoning somebody. I was going to phone my parents, but then the more I drank, especially after my hit, it just seemed silly. How could I call them and say Jens was on his way to Loose Chippings to kill them?”
From there, her story converged temporarily with the one she had told Beever and Wright. But if she were trying to make excuses for herself, she could not have found a better
one than drugs. Her mention of her excursion into the Georgetown bar was just a teaser, though. She would later discourse extensively on the subject. By the time she was through, she would paint herself as a full-fledged addict.
one than drugs. Her mention of her excursion into the Georgetown bar was just a teaser, though. She would later discourse extensively on the subject. By the time she was through, she would paint herself as a full-fledged addict.
It wasn’t long, though, before she added another wrinkle to her tale. When she got to the part where Jens picked her up and the two returned to the Marriott, she appended a fascinating detail. Jens had already mentioned it, but she elaborated. When they got to the hotel, she said, Jens jumped in the shower without much more than a few grunts and curses. When he had washed and dried himself, he had added more particulars about what had happened. That’s when he told her about something that really seemed to be troubling him: that he had run over and apparently killed a dog. Elizabeth was aghast. He had just finished butchering her parents, but he wasn’t worried about them; he was worried about killing a dog.
He also was worried about her doing her part. Before he climbed into bed, he ordered her to return to the parking garage and take care of the car. “Clean the seat,” he told her. And while she was at it, she should also clean the pedals, the steering wheel, and all the attachments, the radio, the dashboard, the rearview mirror, and the front of the car where he had hit the dog. He was emphatic, she said, about her making sure that the dog remains were removed from the front of the car.
Gardner was amazed. As well as he thought he knew the case, as well as he thought he knew Elizabeth, her capacity for continually surprising him knew no bounds.
“When you went back upstairs, was Jens asleep or awake?” he asked.
“He was asleep,” she said.
And what about her, Gardner wanted to know. Did she climb into the bed next to him and go to sleep as well?
No, she said. She got into the bed, but she couldn’t sleep. She lay awake all night. Just before dawn, she got up, went back to the garage, and double-checked her cleaning job on the car. She didn’t want to raise Jens’s wrath.
“Were you relieved at this point that your parents were dead?” He asked.
“No,” she replied. “At no point was I relieved that they were dead. Afterwards, I should have been relieved, but I wasn’t. My first thought was that Jens was alive. And my next thought was to save our skins.”
GARDNER, WHO HAD HEARD JENS’S VERSION OF THE killing, was curious about what Jens had told Elizabeth. When Jens awoke the next morning, he asked, was he more forthcoming about what had happened at Loose Chippings?
Elizabeth chewed her lip. Yes and no, she replied. He told her more, but his description was not very lucid. He told her that he had claimed he was undecided during the entire drive about whether he actually was going to kill them.
“But you and he had purchased a knife,” Gardner said.
“Yes, but he didn’t know whether he had the—whatever was necessary—to do it.”
“Well,” Gardner inquired, “what did he tell you?”
Jens told her, she said, that he went into the house and spent about forty-five minutes talking to her parents. Despite his best efforts, he had been unsuccessful in convincing them to give the two of them more freedom. So, during a lull in the conversation, he said he “decided to go for it.”
He told her he attacked Nancy first and that he had a “hell of a fight” with her father. As Jens mentioned to Hamilton and Bullard, he had lost his glasses during the fight and everything had gone hazy so he was not able to give precise details on what had happened. He had also temporarily lost control of the knife, but he had wrenched it back and continued to slash and stab at Derek.
“He said that my father just wouldn’t die,” Elizabeth explained. “He kept saying that over and over again.”
When Gardner asked what Jens had said about the attack on Nancy, Elizabeth shrugged. He did not go into a lot of detail about that, she said, except to say that he tried to slit her throat and that it was not as easy as it looked in the movies.
While they were talking about what happened at Loose Chippings, Elizabeth added one more thing. She said Jens told her that he had left, then he had come back. He did not explain why he had done this, she said, except that he had felt compelled to. “He just kept saying that he thought somebody was watching him or he hadn’t done something and he went back. I think he said he went back to make sure they were dead.”
UP UNTIL THEN ELIZABETH HAD NOT REALLY HAD A chance to give her view of Jens’s role, to suggest that he was not the innocent he wanted everyone to think he was. She had her chance when Gardner began asking about a story that appeared in a London tabloid.
Elizabeth said the reporter had been a friend of her cousin. When the journalist came to see her, Elizabeth said she naively thought she was speaking friend to friend, not subject to reporter. But the writer betrayed her and published what she had said. When Elizabeth heard about the story, she was furious.
What she had
told
the reporter, in contrast to what had been published, she claimed, was that she thought the public would be quick to accuse her of maneuvering Jens into murdering her parents but that wasn’t the whole story. It was natural for people to think badly of her, she said, because she was older and more experienced while Jens appeared so innocent and he could be so charming. He also had an unblemished past, while hers was filled with hints of drug use, parental defiance, and homosexuality. “People see me as the manipulator,” she said.
told
the reporter, in contrast to what had been published, she claimed, was that she thought the public would be quick to accuse her of maneuvering Jens into murdering her parents but that wasn’t the whole story. It was natural for people to think badly of her, she said, because she was older and more experienced while Jens appeared so innocent and he could be so charming. He also had an unblemished past, while hers was filled with hints of drug use, parental defiance, and homosexuality. “People see me as the manipulator,” she said.
“You don’t think you were?” Gardner asked.
Elizabeth nodded. “That was quite possibly true at one stage, but the roles very quickly reversed.” After the murders, she said, Jens decided that killing people was “quite a nice occupation.” He had, in fact, drawn up a hitlist of people he wanted to get rid of. Among those on the list were her half-brother, Howard, Jens’s grandmother, and his parents. Elizabeth looked pensive. “His parents wouldn’t
be giving me such a hard time if they knew that I prevented him from doing them as he had done my parents,” she said.
be giving me such a hard time if they knew that I prevented him from doing them as he had done my parents,” she said.
Why did he want to kill Howard? Gardner asked.
“He just didn’t like him,” Elizabeth said matter-of-factly.
Why his parents?
“He didn’t like them either. I think he found them too difficult.”
Jens threatened her at one time, too, she added. Plus, there was one other person on his list: Ricky Gardner.
The investigator was taken aback. “Me?” he asked.
Elizabeth nodded. “This was a drastic change in his personality,” Elizabeth said. “I remember saying to him, ‘You know, you can’t just go around killing people when you don’t like them.’ I tried once to explain to him that what he had done was really wrong, but he wouldn’t have any of that. He had to justify it. So did I. It got worse.”
After they had left Virginia, she said, Jens took firm control of their relationship. He became increasingly interested in violence, especially violent pornography. That was particularly intriguing to him, she said, because for most of the early days of their relationship Jens had been impotent. Later, he had found his potency, but only if violence was involved. He could get an erection, she said, by just thinking violent thoughts.
“Did he ever try any violence with you?” Gardner asked.
He had suggested it, she said, but she had refused to go along.
“Do you think he got sexually aroused during the murders?”
“I have no idea,” she said. “But I can tell you that he attacked me the night of the funeral. We were staying at the house of some friends of my parents. Jens was sleeping in a different room. He came into my room and said he was really frightened and could I come share his bed with him. And up to that point he had been completely impotent. So I got in bed with him. I was on sedatives at the time, and I kept throwing up. I woke up, and he was all over me.”
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