The Burning Bed

This was good. But, hard to read at times. The cruelty of the husband is astounding. As a mother, I felt so bad for the children. I couldn't imagine dealing and living with her situation. I also wish some of the family and the system would pay for what happened.

Being a survivor of two abusive marriages, I can totally relate to Francine. I think the bastard got what was coming to him. Okay, you may say that no-one deserves to die that way. No one deserves to be beaten, degraded and tormented either. Thank God I found a wonderful man who treats me with respect and love. She snapped; and I can't blame her. The police did nothing(as they did in my case, asking my ex-husband to leave for one night, nothing more). This book is very graphic but hits home, as I am sure it will to a lot of women who live this kind of hell every day. It isn't so easy to leave either, especially if you have small kids. Society is male oriented, including the courts. All I can say is, good for her. She only sped up his fate-going straight to hell.

I can not honestly say that What Francine did was right, but I can say I can definitely see how in her pressured and stressed predicatment that she felt so trapped and let down by the system that she felt her only sure option was to burn her husband alive. I think this is a good definition of what intense and prolonged trauma can do to a human. Even the best of us can snap in a situation like that. Lenore Walker used the idea of learned helplessness and the battered woman syndrome to explain such behavior and Francine, unfortunately, demonstrated it. I can praise the spirit of survival of Francine, but we must continue to work hard to elimate the climate that would entrap victims into seeking their own solutions because the system did not provide them. Francine did the only thing she could rationally believe would work at that time. I hope and I do feel today, we all have more options. The book should be used as a continous tool as a warning of what extreme relentless trauma can do to a rational person. Torn From the Inside Out is a memoir that is similar in many ways.

The 1984 NBC telepic with Farrah Fawcett probably got more attention than Faith McNulty's book on which it was inspired. In the realm of "Men, Women and Rape," still regarded as the definitive study of rape as an act of violence, "The Burning Bed" does likewise on the subject of domestic violence. Based on the 1970's trial of a battered wife and mother who doused her passed out, drunken husband with gasoline before sending him off in flames, McNulty calls attention to the shame and silence with which the subject of spousal abuse was given, even in that era. The author does a masterful job in detailing the victim's years of physical and mental abuse, so much and so many that triggered what we now call post-traumatic stress or battered wife syndromes. But without those clinical identifications and before it become vogue not to have to be beaten, the wife and mother here is charged with premediated murder, and her only legal defense then was a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. That that was the only plea victims of violence had, in modern history, is shameful unto itself, and McNulty's book doesn't pooh-pooh the subject and confronts it openly and critically. In many respects, the success of the TV adaptation overshadowed the actual book, and that's a shame. Even more than in the dramatization, the book delves into the deepest and darkest pits of domestic violence, brings it to light and commands the judicial system and private citizenry to demand that the matter become a public policy issue. Obviously, McNulty's position paid off. Now, unlike then, the victims of domestic crimes really do have a choice, and that choice no longer is solely physical retaliation against the perpetrator.

I first learned about Francine Hughes's story in People Magazine during the summer of 1984. It was the first real-life story and movie I discovered about spousal abuse. I was proud of Francine for her bravery to escape from the drunken,physical,verbal,and abusive Mickey. (May he burn in hell!) I don't know why certain people, including the very inept police didn't do something about what Mickey had done to Francine, and why they all made it look like it was all her fault. Maybe they should all join Mickey in hell. What Francine did was quick thinking to be rid of him once and for all.I also praised Farrah Fawcett for her role as Francine in "The Burning Bed". In a way, Paul LeMat did a good/bad role of Mickey.I always wondered during the time that Francine set the fire to Mickey's bed, then escaped in time, if Mickey woke up suddenly, and tried to escape too, or if he was too deep asleep in a very drunken stuper to know what was going on, and just died instantly? Either way, he deserves to be dead.I also wonder how Francine is doing now. Is she still married to her second husband Robert Wilson? Are her kids married? (She actually has four of them.) All in all, I hope she's doing okay.I praise the movie and book with a good review.

I got this book for a dollar at a used book store because I had heard so much about the movie, and I wanted to see what woman could kill her husband this way. Francine Hughes has a lot of courage, inner strength, and (it seemed to me) and faith in the Lord. I am appalled, however, that all these people -- her in-laws, friends, neighbors, the police -- knew what Mickey was doing and they either ignored the situation or blamed Francine. How sad that the laws back then were so lax and in favor of the perpetrator. But it really doesn't seem that we've come much further than twenty five years ago.If your partner has ever abused you, then there's no question. This book is a must read for you.