NCJ Number
95935
Date Published
1983
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This videocassette uses interviews, photos, newspaper headlines, sketches, and television news footage to dramatize the impact on the surviving victim and a small-town community of the murders of four young men in their family home in the early morning hours of February 14, 1977. The surviving victim (mother of the four victims) describes the emotional trauma of her own wounding and the loss of her sons as well as the need for society and the State to be attentive to victim needs.
Abstract
The horror and shock of the murders of the young men -well known in Hollandsburg, Ind. -- is expressed in an interview with a family friend, who speaks of the boys' contributions to the community and the impact of their death on the community's sense of security. Television news footage and shots of newspaper clippings of the immediate aftermath of the crime and the trial of the four killers dramatize public reaction to the crime and the offenders. Interviews are conducted with a principle investigating police officer, the presiding judge, the prosecuting attorney, a defense attorney, a jury member, and a newspaper reporter who covered the trial. The extended interview with Betty Jane Spencer, the mother of the murdered boys and the surviving victim, highlights the financial cost ($23,000) and continuing emotional pain of her victimization. The policy implication drawn is the need for victim compensation and other victim services to be mandated in State legislation.