Evil Attracts Evil

Source: K. Ramsland

In my area recently, a trial pitted a woman and her boyfriend against each other in the rape, murder, and disposal of her adopted daughter. Their stories were essentially the same: a violent sexual fantasy that brutalized a victim. The key question became which had originated the fantasy and which had merely complied. Both pointed the finger at the other and both used the same defense: I was just doing what he/she wanted.

But one thing is clear: although the female got more chance to describe her "compliant" role, she was no mere accomplice. Her dominating manipulations predated the boyfriend and also exploited a system charged with protecting children. The victim, Grace, was 14. Social bias that reduces the woman's full culpability neglects the impact of a behavioral pattern.

A former adoption supervisor and a foster parent with a degree in psychology, Sara Packer had fostered Grace when she was three years old. In 2007, Packer and her then-husband (later convicted of sex crimes) adopted Grace and her younger brother. Altogether, this couple fostered about 30 children. In 2013, Packer got involved with Jacob Sullivan, who was looking for someone attuned to his deviant sexual fantasies (as per trial coverage). Packer responded.

Although Sullivan liked Grace, Packer testified that she “educated him” about what a difficult child Grace was (McCarthy, 2019). She said she’d groomed Sullivan the way she’d once groomed her ex-husband to assault another foster child. In 2016, Packer began to medicate Grace with sedatives to make her compliant. Then she and Sullivan took her to a rental home, where she would die. The details of her murder played out differently in each defendant's self-serving renditions.

After a failed suicide attempt, Sullivan confessed in the hospital. He and Packer were arrested in January 2017. Packer held out until she could make a deal. She would admit to her part and testify against Sullivan in exchange for no death penalty.

She claimed that Sullivan had devised the scenario: Grace would be kept a prisoner so Sullivan could rape her at will. Packer said she went along with it to please him. “I got caught up in Jake’s fantasy,” she stated during his trial. “I didn’t think I could say no without losing him.” It came out only after the deal was sealed that Packer was more fully involved.

Sullivan said they’d planned the rape and murder for months. They carried it out on July 8, 2016, when they sedated her for the last time. After he raped Grace, they bound and gagged her and left her to die in a sweltering attic. When they discovered her still alive upon their return the next day, Sullivan strangled her. (Packer said he panicked and made the decision on his own to kill Grace; she had nothing to do with that.) They packed the body in kitty litter to store until "Sullivan" got nervous about police checking on Grace. Packer purchased a saw for dismembering the body. They poured drain cleaner on the face to obscure the features and dumped the remains in the woods. Hunters came across them in October.

This is similar to another case in which Terri Lyne McClintic testified against partner-in-crime Michael Rafferty for the 2009 rape-murder of eight-year-old Tori Stafford. McClintic said she’d lured the girl for Rafferty to rape and had placed a bag over the child’s head, kicked her, and bludgeoned her with a hammer. “I savagely murdered that little girl,” she admitted. McClintic described a history of vengeful fantasies that predated Rafferty and said she’d once microwaved a dog.

Still, we’re reluctant to assign the leadership role in sexual violence to women. We tend to view males as the aggressors and females as less culpable. In some research studies, they've been labeled “compliant accomplices,” even when it’s clear they’re at least equal partners.

Janet Warren and Robert Hazelwood (2002) studied 20 middle-class female accomplices in sexual assault and murder. They identified the male as the person responsible for a process of the gradual reshaping of the females’ sexual norms. (The female would never have done these things without his influence.) The males had targeted females with low self-esteem, then isolated them and gradually reformed their thinking. The male’s fantasy had organized the subsequent criminal behavior.

Yet despite Packer’s claim to be merely an accomplice, she shows markers of the mastermind. She admitted she’d “groomed” Sullivan. She participated in the violence and purchased the cleanup supplies. She had a history of mistreating Grace and had called her a “non-entity.” Despite stating that the girl “didn’t have to die,” she also said she’d “wanted her to go.” Even when Grace had pleaded with her for help, Packer merely watched. She’d exploited the foster care system, manipulated the legal system, and fraudulently cashed adoption stipend checks after Grace was dead. Sullivan was "nervous," but she'd been confident they'd get away with the crime. She’d told people Grace had run away, she managed police queries, and she later leveraged what she knew to vilify her partner. She controlled the narrative.

Ethics and Morality Essential Reads

The Dark Legacy of Forced Sterilization: Carrie Buck's Story

How Patience Is the Virtue of Remaining in Difficulty

In many respects, Packer had dominated Sullivan, like he said (Schroeder, 2019). She'd hidden news stories from him to spare him the stress. When Sullivan confessed, she’d felt betrayed (she said). So, she’d thrown him under the bus. It’s a common tactic for female aggressors when cornered. They work social bias in their favor. It was easy to pose as a female caught up in a male's fantasy.

It helped Packer's tale that Sullivan was too bright to dupe, had a history of deviant sexual fantasies (as his defense psychologist described), and had been the rapist. He’d also admitted that Packer liked him to take control of the relationship. However, there’s a considerable gulf between sex games in a “relationship” and devising a murder plan. There’s room for Packer to have taken charge of Grace's fate. Her actions during and after the crimes support at least a co-equal role.

Packer does not fit the compliant accomplice role. She was not isolated, insecure and abused. Her abuse of Grace (as witnessed by others), her admission of manipulation, her independent criminality, and her control of the cover-up and of her deal show her dominance.

Females can be as vile and as violent as males. Although the percentage of females who participate in assault and murder is lower than that of males, we do see cases of it. Stereotypes about gender differences can facilitate deals made with devils. Before Packer ever said a word in court, her behavior had told its own tale.

Judge Diane E. Gibbons recognized it: “Evil attracts evil,” she said during sentencing. “Evil recognizes evil. This is what happens when two evil people with similar evil interests get together.”