Diane Downs: 25 years after a horrific crime, people are still fascinated
earthage
Diane Downs: 25 years after a horrific crime, people are still
fascinated
By Mark Baker
The Register-Guard
Published: May 19, 2008 12:00AM
Excerpts:
Despite Diane Downs’ varying versions of what happened that night, and
her conviction on all counts, her father, former Springfield
postmaster Wes Frederickson, is still intent on proving the innocence
of his oldest child. Downs, now 52, has been lodged in the maximum-
security Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, Calif., since
1993, after stints in New Jersey and Washington state prisons that
followed her 10-day 1987 escape from the Oregon Women’s Correctional
Center.
A resident today of Denison, Texas, Frederickson has a Web site,
www.dianedowns.com, that challenges everything in the case, from trace
metal tests performed on Downs’ hands the night of the shooting to
ballistics tests, to even saying he knows exactly who the “shaggy-
haired stranger” is that his daughter initially blamed. He even
includes a photograph of the man, a lifelong Lane County criminal, on
the site.
“I thought somebody needed to say something for Diane,” said
Frederickson, 77, who hinted that more might soon be revealed. “I’m
getting ready to do something. I don’t know what it is, but I’m going
to blow some of those people out of the water,” he said of those who
prosecuted and locked up his daughter.
The prosecution said Downs’ motive was her obsession with a married
Arizona man, a fellow postal carrier who spurned her love and refused
to follow her to Oregon 25 springs ago.
Robert Knickerbocker (called Lew Lewiston in Rule’s book) took the
witness stand at Downs’ murder trial, saying, “I have nothing against
children, I just don’t want any of my own,” and claiming he saw what
police said was the murder weapon in the trunk of Downs’ car the night
before she moved to Oregon with her children.
Changed lives
Today, Downs’ sordid tale lives in infamy on the Internet. Google
“Diane Downs” and you get about 140,000 hits, about four times more
than when you enter “Kip Kinkel,” who killed four people in
Springfield 10 years ago Wednesday.
snip
Lane County Deputy District Attorney Paul Graebner recently pulled a
handful of evidence — love letters to “Knick,” photographs,
affidavits, phone records — from one of four file cabinets in the Lane
County district attorney’s office that still contains evidence from
the Downs case. Much of it is from appeals. Downs is one of the most
litigious defendants in Oregon history. She has filed at least 12
appeals since being convicted, according to a 2005 Associated Press
story.
Graebner has been the office’s keeper of the case practically since
arriving in 1987. He was on the same trial team as Hugi when Downs’
post-conviction appeals began to come through and someone else needed
to step in because Hugi now had a conflict of interest since he and
his wife, Joanne, adopted Downs’ children in 1986.
Perhaps the most intriguing thing Graebner pulled from the file
cabinets was an affidavit of his own dated March 27, 1992. Attached to
it was a copy of a little-known Nov. 7, 1984, handwritten letter from
Downs to her Eugene trial attorney, Jim Jagger, in which, Graebner
said, “she acknowledged to Jagger that she lied to the jury about many
events.” The letter was collected by the Oregon attorney general’s
office as part of Downs’ post-conviction appeal paperwork in Marion
County, Graebner said.
Jagger, who still practices law in Eugene, didn’t respond to a phone
call seeking comment about the letter.
snip
A postscript: Christie still lives in Springfield, with her husband
and toddler son. She graduated from Thurston High School before going
on to college. Dan Hugi graduated from Marist High School and, despite
his paralysis, competed on the school swim team before heading off to
college. Hugi retired from the district attorney’s office in 1997.
None of the three has ever spoken publicly about the case and did not
respond to requests for interviews.
tiny dancer
"earthage" <eartha...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:f7fe9f78-1efb-4723...@79g2000hsk.googlegroups.com...
Excerpts:
Changed lives
snip
snip
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Thanks for the update. Diane Downs has always fascinated me. Have you
seen any recent photo's of her?
td
earthage
>
> Thanks for the update. Diane Downs has always fascinated me. Have you
> seen any recent photo's of her?
>
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> td
No I haven't. I wonder if she ever talks with Betty Broderick, also
housed at Chowchilla. Don't they have the same personality disorder?
tiny dancer
I don't know if they'd be classified the same. I think Betty was a bit
driven to her craziness by Dan and his actions to a certain extent. Downs,
on the other hand, simply decided to do away with her kids because her man
didn't want 'em. Sorry, my brain is tired tonight. :( I would like to
see a recent photo of Downs though. I wonder how she's aged in prison.
td
Nancy Rudins
Probably not very well.
Kind regards,
Nancy
--
E = F-flat
Musician's Theory of Relativity
Nancy Rudins nru...@ncsa.uiuc.edu
earthage
wrote:
> "earthage" <earthage2...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
I was thinking they had Borderline Personality Disorder.
tiny dancer
Probably Downs did. She never seemed to have normalcy in her life. But
Betty, on the other hand, appeared to be able to cope with life okay until
Dan met Linda. IIRC, didn't Betty work to put Dan through both Med School
and Law School? I mean granted, Linda shouldn't have killed them, no
question about that. but Dan was kind of a real prick for using her to put
him through school and then trading her in on a 20 yr. old. And doing it in
such an underhanded way, denying the affair. Telling her she was crazy,
etc. I think had Betty been borderline, she wouldn't have been able to
handle working, babies, a family, etc., for all those years while Dan was
getting his education. JMO.
td
Betsy
"tiny dancer" <tinyda...@nospamhotmail.com> wrote in message
news:%be_j.204906$Er2.1...@bignews6.bellsouth.net...
I totally agree. Betty was completely wrong to kill the two of them, but he
really drove her to it. She worked so hard to have the "perfect" family all
those years while she supported him through years and years of college.
Then, just when the money started coming in, he jettisoned her for a trophy
wife, took everything she had including the kids, then tortured her with his
passive-aggressive behavior. Of course his degrees only worked for him in
court. She didn't have a chance. She was just brought to the breaking
point and couldn't cope any longer.
Now, if *I* would have been Betty, I would have just shut up, taken a big
settlement--as I recall he *was* paying some substantial monthly
support--and become a Couger! Rraoww! ;-)
Maybe instead of trying to hold on to that "perfect family" image she so
desperately felt she needed, she could have just faced the reality that it
was gone, and she could have just readjusted her vision, and built a new
reality for herself. I think with some outside therapy, she could have
found some happiness.
JMO,
Betsy
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robbielynn
> "tiny dancer" <tinydancer...@nospamhotmail.com> wrote in message
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Read your thought on why Betty went nuts...just wondered
if you have ever read the book "Until the twelefth of Never...
by Bella Stumbo. Excellent non-fiction account of that
mess. It won the best non-fiction book that year.
i hated dan by the time I finished the book, but
Betty crossed the line over and over again with the
way she forgot about her kids and the horrible things
she said to them.
She was getting $16,000 dollars A MONTH . I believe
I'd find me a new man and live it up bigtime. Dan was
cool, super smart and good looking but he could have
been replaced; just go in a different direction from his
type. And don't marry another lawyer.
Managed Identity
"Betsy" <b.fe...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:QcednfWJwuHaP6TV...@comcast.com...
I agree, but I'm swapping the people. I don't think Downs had BPD. BPD
issues are manifested by impulsivity. I think Broderick has BPD but it
didn't *come out* until Dan started his shit. Although BPD, is normally
diagnosed at a younger age, than when Betty killed Dan, it sometimes can be
contained* until someone (pardon the pun) pulls the trigger. Which is what
Dan did to her.
Betsy says if "she could have just faced the reality that it was gone, and
she could have just readjusted her vision, and built a new reality for
herself." which is a perfect example of BPD behavior. She couldn't face
the reality that Dan was gone and kept acting like an asshole to get him
back. Sporadically and impulsively. And every time, I believe, when her
manic episode passed, she was sorry. Bipolar mania lasts days, where
borderline lasts minutes to hours.
Whereas Downs was methodical and just plain evil. This is not a symptom of
BorderlinePD.
*When I say contained, I don't mean that she was normal, just that she could
explain away her idiosyncracies or apologize after or whatever. And
remember, we never know what happens in peoples houses - Betty could have
been sporadically nuts and Dan accepted it cause he loved her (until he met
a younger version of her) People with BorderlinePD can lead ok, although
not normal, lives until something happens that drives them shitty.
MEM
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