This essay stands alone. To read the essay in full, go here: The Three Faces of Evil, Part II (substack.com)
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It was over ten years ago that I sat across the table from California death row inmate Maureen “Mikki” McDermott. I did this on two occasions, traveling up from Los Angeles to Chowchilla Women’s Prison, spending a total of approximately 5 hours each time with her.
Back in June of 1990, Mikki, a registered nurse, had been sentenced to death for a particularly heinous and callous crime.
Five years earlier, Mikki had hired a hospital orderly, Jimmy Luna, to murder her roommate, Stephen Eldridge, so she could collect a $100,000 mortgage insurance policy. Stephen, co-owner of the house where they lived together, was stabbed 44 times and his penis cut off by Luna. Mikki and Stephen were both gay and this was made much of in the trial, which took place in t1985 at the height of the AIDS scare. Luna claimed Mikki had ordered him to cut off the penis so the police would think it was a crime committed by a crazed lover or a homophobe.
So why had I gone to visit a monster like Mikki?
It was 1997 that I met private investigator Casey Cohen. At that time, I was president of InsideOUT Writers, a creative writing program for incarcerated youth that I had founded with then Catholic Chaplain of Central Juvenile Hall, Sister Janet Harris. The youth I worked with were kids who were facing life sentences thanks to Biden’s draconian laws. Many of those youths I remained friends with until this day. Some, instead of spending their lives in prison, went on to be lawyers and run businesses, most just went on to live ordinary lives. Others spent the rest of their lives in prison. One fourteen-year-old girl, Erika, finally had a chance to get out a couple of years ago after having spent over 20 years behind bars. She was so afraid of being free that she committed suicide shortly before her release. Everyone’s story is different.
It was Janet who had introduced me to Casey. I used to joke when I walked through the grounds of CJH, the Catholic nun on one side of me and the atheist Jew on the other side, that I was perfectly balanced. Those were great days, but they didn’t last. Nuns can be do-gooders and have a darker side, too. But that’s a story for another day.
