I'm not an avid Oprah viewer, in fact hardly ever...except once in a while she has a topical guest on such as today's interview with Mary Winkler, "the Wife who killed her Pastor husband".
And I wanted to hear her side of the story...but I'm having a problem trying to stay with her short and undefining sentences.
I'm only about half-way through the show but...what's wrong with this woman, Mary Winkler?
What was her level of education? She sounds like she can hardly communicate her feelings or explain exactly what went on and I find myself getting slightly irritated trying to understand where she's coming from.
Did she get off "too easy"?
Just what is the deal with Mary Winkler?
2007-09-12 14:41:25 · 8 answers · asked by GeneL 7 in Entertainment & Music ➔ Television ➔ Talk Shows
Mary Winkler was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and then released on 8/14/07 from a mental health facility where she received treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression after being sentenced to 210 days in prison but only served 67 days for the shooting death of her husband, Matthew.
2007-09-12 14:58:57 · update #1
i agree with you! she was sooo evasive. Hopefully that is because of her "mental illness?" otherwise she needs to start reading or go back to school. It seemed like Oprah had such a hard time getting answers and then it was just "yeah" uh-huh like oprah would initiate the response and mary would say "yeah"
2007-09-12 19:24:10 · answer #1 · answered by KEL 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I did not see the trail. I think it was on court tv, but I don't have that on my dish. Judging just from what I saw on Oprah today, I would say that she got away with murder. She either needs to be in prison or a mental hospital. I really couldn't tell which from the interview. If she has a mental problem, she should not have been allowed to give the interview. This must be very hard for her husband's family. I can't understand how she got a jury to believe any thing she said, unless she said it a lot better than she said it on Oprah.
2007-09-12 17:06:25 · answer #2 · answered by pattypat999 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I think her husband probably was abusive towards her completely. Putting on a face for the world and another one, his true one, at home. She said that her husband at one point put his hand over his baby daughter's mouth and closed her nose because she woke them up. Now that's definately pushing it. But then he stopped, went back to bed, and then she shot him.
I can understand defending your kid, but he had already stopped and actually went back to sleep. Since he did that, I'm not so sure if it was manslaughter, I would think defending someone. But that's the way the jury went. I think that you should only get that amount of time, 280 some days, if it was self-defense or you were defending a loved one. But since it's a manslaughter charge, she should've gotten a bigger sentence.
It seems to me like this: John is playing with a gun (he's 20, I don't know why he is) and accidentally shoots his friend. It's manslaughter because he didn't mean to so he only gets 280 days (it probably would be more since he's a guy). John, realizing if he pleads guilty *and* says it was an accident, he could pretty much get away with murder. And people are going to realize they can do that now and only get a slap on the wrist.
2007-09-12 16:19:29 · answer #3 · answered by Forcewon 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Yes she did. I know a couple of women who were in abusive relationships. They don't act like that. Even on Snapped, a woman who killed because of abuse cry or have some kind of emotion. Mary looked like she was talking about tieing her shoe. I think they both had issues, and I think she knew what she was doing. That money scam she was involved in I bet had something to do with it. She isn't telling the truth, and she don't need to raise a dog let alone a kid. In some relationships the women are crazy and the husbands snap too. Do you think the men get off that easy with crazy wives? If the shoe were on the other foot, he would be under the jail.
2007-09-12 16:22:10 · answer #4 · answered by Snowflake 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I think the husband was a whackjob religious nutjob hypocrite, and maybe he did get what he had coming but you can't just go around killing people. She wasn't in imminent danger, but I could see how the way he abused her could have caused her to snap...however...
What did she serve? I think she should at least still be in a mental facility. You don't just snap, murder a person and then return to a normal person back in society.
2007-09-12 14:51:51 · answer #5 · answered by Peace 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
personally I feel if he was the horrid man that she says he was and was as violent and she really feared for her and her girls lives she should have left a long time ago; there are places that help women that are running from hubby's like that. I don't know if I buy the " I didn't know I had the gun in my hands" thing. They were saying the home phone was unplugged and so were the hotel phones so no one could call 911. I don't know, I wasn't there, I truly feel sorry for those girls.
2007-09-13 03:00:41 · answer #6 · answered by Kitikat 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Some would say she had "battered woman syndrome" and just snapped.
Some would say that what she did was premeditated murder.
I tend to believe that it was premeditated murder and that she at least needs to be in a mental facility.
She shouldn't get custody of her kids, only supervised visitation.
2007-09-12 15:10:09 · answer #7 · answered by nowyouknow 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
I thought the interview was ridiculous. Your husband was "mean" to you so you just shoot him and now you dont remember? WTF. Oprah let her off way too easy.
2007-09-13 00:16:44 · answer #8 · answered by Brian H 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋