Imagine being a mother and receiving the phone call that your daughter and grand-daughter were deceased. Then think how shocked and numb you would feel to discover that they had been murdered at the hands of a domestic partner. Far too frequently we hear of domestic violence and the tragedies that occur as a result. I interviewed Dale Driscoll, the mother who this happened to, about the journey of trying to get legislation for a violent registry passed.
Dale Driscoll is a mother that has suffered an unimaginable tragedy — the loss of her daughter and grand daughter. Somehow through the grief process, she found the strength and courage to write a book titled “Brittany’s Law-The Quest for Justice”. That was in 2009 and the idea of the book was for the violent offender registry that Dale envisioned to become a reality. The book was co-written with Michael Pealo, a novelist and screenwriter of Canandaigua (Dale Driscoll). Dale Driscoll has been advocating for this legislation to be passed since 2009, while domestic violence remains a pervasive problem both here in the states and worldwide.
Dale told me the harrowing story of how her daughter Helen and her grand daughter Brittany were stabbed to death by then Helen’s boyfriend, John Brown. Dale said while the family knew Brown was a convicted felon who had been paroled just months prior to the murder taking place, they did not have the complete story.
In 2003, Brown was convicted of assault for causing severe injuries to his seven-week-old daughter, whom he threw into a wall. He was released early from prison in June 2006 after serving two years of a three-year sentence (Dale Driscoll). Brown had told Helen when they first met that he had been in a bar-room brawl, and the NYS Department of Corrections web-site had Brown’s crime listed as assault in the 2nd degree, which was perfectly tailored for the lie he told Helen.
Brown was so charming and kind to Helen, that no red flags went off for her in the first phase of the realtionship, and she fell deeper in love with him. He then moved in with her and her underage children. One ominous day, as Helen attempted to end the relationship with Brown, he snapped, lost all control, and took her life. As Brittany courageously tried to help her mother, he took her life too.
