I recently watched a show on Dr. Phil about a boy name Charlie Brandt who killed his pregnant mother and tried to kill his sister and dad. Charlie’s sister and dad survived. About a year later, after Charlie was released, his dad moved both Charlie and his sister to another state where no one knew them or their dark family secret.
Over time, the family made new friends. At some point, they told Jim, a close friend about their family history. At first, the Jim didn’t believe the story until he saw the father’s scars from the gun shot wounds. He remained friends with the family.
Later on, Jim introduced Teri, one of his friends to Charlie. Jim didn’t inform her of the murders Charlie had committed as a boy. Her and Charlie began a relationship.
Eventually, Charlie murdered Teri and her niece, Michelle Lynn Jones and then hung himself.
The murders are very disturbing, but what’s even more disturbing is that the results of a poll show that 78% of the people who responded would not have told Teri about Charlie’s history. My question is, “How could someone not tell her?” I agree with Teri’s family. Jim brought Charlie into Teri’s life by introducing them. He had a responsibility to inform Teri of Charlie’s history. What happened to the concept of ‘having a friend’s back’?
Of course Jim says he believes that Teri was aware of Charlie’s violent history, however Teri’s family is steadfast in believing she would have not gotten involved with Charlie had she known. We’ll probably never know the truth. Teri’s journal entries didn’t indicate she knew.
Although I appalled by the poll results, I am not totally surprised. People are putting themselves in Jim’s shoes, but what about Teri’s shoes? If you were Teri, wouldn’t you want to know? I would!! The empathy is misplaced!!
I know some people believe that just because someone is violent as a child doesn’t mean they will grow up to be violent. In some cases that may be true, but how do you really know? If Charlie had been guilty of vandalism or something like that, I don’t think it would have been such an important detail for Teri to know. Murder is a whole different situation.
What would you do? I would tell my friend. Ultimately, I would have steered clear of the family to begin with.
