Eraser Killers - Men Who Make Women Disappear

It's always interesting to check the blog stats and see how people are getting here. Today, I found a couple of message boards (on different kinds of subject matters) where people were talking about how people in Kerrville and Waco felt about Matt Baker.

I also found this case referred to on lemondrop.com where they are talking about Marilee Strong's book, "Erased: Missing Women, Murdered Wives." Marilee Strong (among others) puts Matt Baker in the company of Scott Peterson, Mark Hacking, Ira Einhorn, Tim Boczkowski, Barton Corbin and Drew Peterson for starters. If you go to this page on lemondrop.com and then click on the arrows to view the various photos/stories, Matt Baker is right after Scott Peterson and Mark Hacking.

Here is the blip about this case:

"Something Not Right But some women had a feeling something would happen, and in many cases told friends or relatives, 'If something happens, check out my husband.'

In one recent case, a Baptist minister named Matt Baker claimed to have found his wife Kari dead in bed with a bottle of over-the-counter sleeping pills. They later discovered on his computer that he's researched death by overdose of sleeping pills. She also told a counselor who came forward after her death that she had found a bag of crushed pills in her husband's briefcase. Eraser crimes often involve months of preparation."

You can read more about What Makes an Eraser Killer on that website or in Strong's book. But I wanted to point out a few quotes from Marilee for you to think about:

"There are three aspects to their psychological profile. First, they have psychopathic traits and no empathy. If they can take their wife's body and chop it up and put it through a woodchipper or anchor their wife and child to the bottom of the bay -- what person could do that if they had human emotion at that level?

Yet these people aren't out-of-control, pure predators like Charles Manson or Ted Bundy. The violence is limited to their wives or girlfriends, sometimes their children or fetuses. They're so narcissistic, and they want to be the center of the world. They reach a point where they see these women and children as a burden, as an inconvenience. They're not motivated by jealousy, rage or revenge. Those things may be secondary, but what they want to do is wipe the slate clean and erase the person as if it never happened.

The third aspect of their psychology is Machiavellianism – the ability to manipulate others and strategize and plan in very dark ways. They often have an image they portray to the world as warm, generous, charming, a perfect husband or boyfriend. Ira Einhorn, a world-renowned peace expert, killed his girlfriend Holly Maddux and
kept her, like a trophy, in a trunk in his home for 18 months. These men are so cold-hearted they're perfectly happy to lie to the media, police and loved ones. Part of the narcissism is that they think they're smarter than everyone and can pull off the perfect murder -- they enjoy the battle of wits."

AND

"Easier Than Divorce Because of their unusual psychology, eraser killers believe it is easier, quicker and more emotionally satisfying to kill than to get a divorce. They're so selfish, they don't want to share anything or have to support a wife or a child -- they just want to start over. And some just can't handle the idea of potentially looking bad by getting a divorce. If you could ever get Scott Peterson to honestly answer this question, he would probably say that he didn't divorce Laci because that would hurt her. Yet somehow, in his mind, killing her wasn't hurting her."

AND one more thought from Marilee Strong about District Attorney's and why they may take a while to take the case to trial:

"I sympathize with DAs because you only get one try. If he's exonerated because there's no evidence, even if the body shows up in his backyard after that he can't be retried."

Definately don't want to go too soon! Better to wait until you have all you need right in place. I do believe that's about where we are now.