- Diane Downs
-
Diane Downs Born August 7, 1955
Phoenix, Arizona, USACharge(s) Murder
Attempted murder
AssaultPenalty Life imprisonment
plus 50 yearsStatus Imprisoned Children Christie, Cheryl, Stephen (Danny), Amy Elizabeth (Rebecca "Becky" Babcock) Elizabeth Diane Frederickson Downs (born August 7, 1955) is an American convicted murderer.[1] She shot her three children, killing one, and then told police a stranger had attempted to carjack her and had shot the children. After her conviction in 1984, she was sentenced to life in prison.
Downs briefly escaped in 1987 and was re-captured. She is the subject of a book by Ann Rule and a made-for-TV movie based upon it, both called Small Sacrifices. She was denied parole in December 2008 and again in December 2010.[2][3]
Contents
Early life
Elizabeth Diane Frederickson was born in Phoenix, Arizona, to Wes and Willadene Frederickson on August 7, 1955.[4] She alleges that her father molested her when she was a child.[4] She graduated from Moon Valley High School in Phoenix where she met her husband, Steve Downs.[4] After high school, she enrolled at Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College in Orange, California, but after a year, she was expelled for promiscuity and returned to her parents’ home.[4] On November 13, 1973, she married Steve Downs.[4] They were divorced in 1980, about a year after the birth of Stephen "Danny" Downs.[5]
Downs was employed as a U.S. postal worker assigned to the mail routes in the city of Cottage Grove, Oregon before her 1983 arrest and trial.
Murder
On May 19, 1983, Downs shot her three children: Stephen Daniel Downs (born 1979, age 3), Cheryl Lynn Downs (born 1976, age 7) and Christie Ann Downs (born 1974, age 8). Downs drove the children in the blood spattered car to the McKenzie-Willamette Hospital. On arrival, Cheryl was already dead. Downs herself had been shot in the left forearm. Downs claimed she had been carjacked on a rural road near Springfield, Oregon, by a strange man who shot her and her three children. Investigators, however, became suspicious when they decided her manner was too calm for that of a person who had experienced such a traumatic event.
Their suspicions heightened when Downs went to see Christie, now unable to speak since suffering a stroke, for the first time; Christie's eyes glazed over with apparent fear and her heart rate jumped dramatically. They also discovered that Downs had called a man in Arizona named Robert Knickerbocker immediately upon arriving at the hospital, a married man with whom she had been having an affair.[6] The forensic evidence did not match Downs' story; there was no blood on the driver's side of the car, nor was there any gunpowder residue on the driver's panel. Downs did not tell police she owned a .22 caliber handgun, but both Steve Downs (her ex-husband) and Knickerbocker (her boyfriend) said she did own one.
Investigators later discovered she had bought the handgun in Arizona, and found unfired casings that had been worked through the same gun that shot the children, although they were unable to find the actual weapon. Most damaging, witnesses saw Downs's car being driven very slowly toward the hospital at an estimated speed of five to seven mph—Downs had claimed that she drove there at high speed after the shooting. Based on this and other evidence, Downs was arrested nine months after the event, on February 28, 1984, and charged with murder, attempted murder, and criminal assault.[7]
Prosecution
Prosecutors argued that Downs shot her children to be free of them so that she could continue her affair with Knickerbocker, who had let it be known that he did not want children in his life. Much of the case against Downs rested on the testimony of surviving daughter Christie Downs who, once she had recovered her ability to speak, described how her mother shot all three children while parked at the side of the road, then shot herself in the arm. Christie was eight years old at the time of the murder and nine years old at the time of the trial.
Downs was found guilty on all charges on June 17, 1984, and was sentenced to life in prison plus fifty years. Psychologists diagnosed Downs with narcissistic, histrionic, and antisocial personality disorders.[8] Most of her sentence is to be served consecutively. The judge made it clear that he did not wish Downs ever to regain her freedom.[8]
Aftermath
The surviving children eventually went to live with one of the prosecutors of the case, Fred Hugi. He and his wife Joanne adopted them in 1984.[8]
Prior to her arrest and trial, Downs became pregnant again with a fourth child, and gave birth to a girl she named Amy a month after her 1984 trial. Ten days before her sentencing, the baby was seized by the State of Oregon and adopted soon after. She was renamed Rebecca "Becky" Babcock.[9]
Downs escaped from the Oregon Women's Correctional Center of the Oregon Department of Corrections on July 11, 1987, and was recaptured in Salem, Oregon on July 21.[1] She received a five-year sentence for the escape.
After her escape, she was housed in the New Jersey Department of Corrections Clinton Correctional Institution.[10] In 1994, after serving ten years, Downs was transferred to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.[11] While in prison, Downs has earned an associate's college degree in general studies.[11] As of 2010, she is located in the Valley State Prison for Women.[10]
Author Ann Rule wrote the book Small Sacrifices in 1987, detailing the life of Downs.[12] A made-for-TV movie called Small Sacrifices, starring Farrah Fawcett as Downs, was released in 1989.
Diane Downs's last child, born shortly after her trial concluded, appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show on October 22, 2010 and '20/20 July 1, 2011.[13]
Parole hearing
Downs's sentence makes her eligible for parole consideration after serving 25 years, and under Oregon law as a dangerous offender, she will be eligible for a parole consideration hearing every two years until she is released or dies in prison.[14]
In her first application for parole in 2008, Downs reaffirmed her innocence: "Over the years, I have told you and the rest of the world that a man shot me and my children. I have never changed my story."[15] Downs' first parole hearing was on December 9, 2008.[15] Lane County District Attorney Douglas Harcleroad wrote to the parole board: "Downs continues to fail to demonstrate any honest insight into her criminal behavior ... Even after her convictions, she continues to fabricate new versions of events under which the crimes occurred."[15] She alternately refers to her assailants as a "bushy-haired stranger", two men wearing ski masks, or drug dealers and corrupt law enforcement officials.[15]
Downs participated in the hearing from the Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, California.[15] She was not permitted a statement, but answered questions from the parole board.[15] After three hours of interviews and thirty minutes of deliberation, Diane Downs was denied parole.[15] Downs was eligible to reapply for parole in 2010.[15]
Downs faced her second parole hearing on December 10, 2010.[16][17] She was denied parole, and, under a new law, will not be eligible for parole for another ten years; thus, she will have to wait until 2020 before she can apply for parole, when she will be sixty-five.[3]
Further reading
- Rule, Ann. Small Sacrifices. New York: Signet, 1987. ISBN-0-451-166660-4
References
- ^ a b Painter, John Jr. "The 1980s". The Sunday Oregonian. December 31, 1989.
- ^ "Downs is denied parole"
- ^ a b "Parole board keeps Diane Downs locked up | KATU.com - Portland News, Sports, Traffic Weather and Breaking News - Portland, Oregon - Portland, Oregon | Local & Regional". KATU.com. http://www.katu.com/news/local/111673384.html. Retrieved 2010-12-10.
- ^ a b c d e Geringer, Joseph. Diane Downs: Her Children Got in the Way of Her Love. truTV. Retrieved on March 5, 2009.
- ^ "Diane Downs: Her Children Got in the Way of Her Love". The Crime Library. p. 3. http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/downs/3c.html. Retrieved 2009-11-30.
- ^ Baker, Mark (2008-05-19). "Diane Downs". The Register-Guard: p. A1.
- ^ "Diane Downs: Her Children Got in the Way of Her Love". The Crime Library. p. 1. http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/downs/index_1.html. Retrieved 2009-11-30.
- ^ a b c "Ann Rules Newsletter". p. 3. http://www.annrules.com/news3.htm.
- ^ "Becky Babcock: My Mother Was a Murderer - ABC News". Abcnews.go.com. http://abcnews.go.com/2020/becky-babcock-mother-murderer/story?id=10635586. Retrieved 2010-12-10.
- ^ a b Geringer, Joseph. "Guilty as Sin." Diane Downs: Her Children Got in the Way of Her Love. Crime Library. Retrieved on November 14, 2010.
- ^ a b "Diane Downs maintains innocence as parole hearing looms". KGW-TV. 2008-12-03. http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_120208_news_diane_downs_parole.2513dd69.html. Retrieved 2008-12-03.[dead link]
- ^ Tims, Dana. "Murderer’s libel suit dismissed". The Oregonian. January 18, 1988.
- ^ "The Daughter of Diane Downs". Oprah.com. http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/The-Daughter-of-Diane-Downs. Retrieved 2010-12-10.
- ^ DIANE DOWNS PAROLE ELIGIBILITY
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Diane Downs Denied by Oregon Parole Board". Salem-News.Com. http://salem-news.com/articles/december102008/downs_denial_12-10-08.php. Retrieved 2010-12-10.
- ^ "Diane Downs is up for parole again | KATU.com - Portland News, Sports, Traffic Weather and Breaking News - Portland, Oregon - Portland, Oregon | Local & Regional". KATU.com. 2010-11-09. http://www.katu.com/news/local/107014714.html. Retrieved 2010-12-10.
- ^ Willamette Week (2010-11-09). "Diane Downs' Latest Parole Hearing is Next Month | Willamette Week | Friday, December 10th, 2010". Blogs.wweek.com. http://blogs.wweek.com/news/2010/11/09/diane-downs-latest-parole-hearing-is-next-month/. Retrieved 2010-12-10.
Categories:- 1955 births
- Living people
- American people convicted of murder
- American people convicted of attempted murder
- American people convicted of assault
- People from Oregon
- Filicides
- American female murderers
- American murderers of children
- People convicted of murder by Oregon
- American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
- Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Oregon
- American escapees
- Escapees from Oregon detention
- United States Postal Service people
- People from Phoenix, Arizona
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
