Murderer to relocate to NZ--wife met in JW chatroom

blondie

Posted on Thu, Mar. 17, 2005

At hearing, a killer's daughters relive horror

The children of Richard Greist, who slaughtered family members in '78, say he should not be released to a group home.

By Kathleen Brady Shea

Inquirer Staff Writer

The brutal horrors that befell an East Coventry Township family on May 10, 1978, were painfully relived yesterday by two witnesses to the bloodshed: the daughters of Richard Greist.

Greist, 53, was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1980 of crimes that included fatally stabbing his pregnant wife, ripping his unborn son from her womb, mutilating the fetus, gouging the eye of his 6-year-old daughter, slashing his grandmother's throat, and butchering the family cat.

Because a judge ruled that Greist could not be held responsible for his crimes, he can never be incarcerated for them.

The daughters, both of whom are married, came forward after learning that the staff at Norristown State Hospital, Greist's primary residence since his arrest, continue to seek greater freedom for their father.

Neither believes Greist should be released to a group home - as the hospital staff has recommended - and both read letters, with visible difficulty, at Greist's annual commitment hearing in Chester County Court.

Elizabeth Anna Butts, 32, who lost an eye during the attack, said she is reminded of it every day when she looks in the mirror.

"I wish my father no harm," she said. "I don't believe he intentionally harmed me; that's what's scary."

Butts said the love of God and family has helped her regain some semblance of a normal life, which would be shattered if she had to start worrying about running into her father at the grocery store.

Echoing the testimony of two experts hired by the commonwealth, psychiatrist Barbara Ziv and psychologist Steven E. Samuel, Butts said the fact that doctors do not know why the psychotic episode happened suggests that no one can be sure it will not recur.

Her younger sister, Angela Dykie, 31, said she would be forever haunted by "the sounds of hard thumps, searing slaps, deadly stabs, moans of pain, screams of terror, and wails of horror."

She said that after being thrown across the kitchen into a coal bucket, she escaped across the street where she watched her mother come out "in a body bag" and her sister come out "clinging to life, expected to die."

Dykie said her father "manipulated" her into seeing him when she was 18, and the experience made her "hit rock bottom" and consider ending her life. She said she was not surprised when Greist's second wife, Patricia, committed suicide after a year of marriage.

After her death, she said, her father pressured her "to testify for his freedom," arguing that he had no one else to support him.

"I pushed him away," said Dykie. "When I did that, my life came back to normal."

A different view was presented by Frances Greist, his third wife.

She testified that she met Greist in June on the Internet, in a chat room for Jehovah's Witnesses. She said she traveled from New Zealand to Norristown on Nov. 11 and married Greist on Nov. 29.

"He's a darling," she said, adding that the two hope to relocate to New Zealand.

Asked by Assistant District Attorney Peter Hobart about the particulars of the assault, she said Greist "was trying to save the baby in his own way" when he ripped the fetus from his wife's body.

Greist, who covered his face with his hands during his daughters' testimony, also addressed the court during the daylong hearing, describing fond parenthood memories, such as the smell of the girls' freshly shampooed hair.

"My dreams were also shattered on that horrific day," he said.

Greist said he wished he could change the past, which was destroyed by his mental illness, and wants to change the future.

"I have so much love to give my daughters," he said.

Hobart said Greist's daughters requested that the court be informed that they want no contact with their father.

"You saw chillingly, the effect he has on his daughters," said Hobart, who urged Chester County Court Judge Edward Griffith not to lift any restrictions.

Greist's attorney, Marita Malloy Hutchinson, asked Griffith to "follow the recommendation" of Greist's hospital treatment team, led by psychiatrist Sudhir Stokes, and explore "a less restrictive environment" for her client.

Before taking the case under advisement, the judge addressed Greist.

"If you really do care about [your daughters], I think it would be best if you had no contact with them," Griffith said.

Greist replied that he agreed.

Contact staff writer Kathleen Brady Shea at 610-701-7625 or [email protected].

Crumpet

Any idea which chat room?

And do you ever recover from the kind of mental illness that would drive you to gouge your little girl's eye out or to rip your unborn child from your wife's womb killing her and the baby?

Staggering!

rebel8

Blondie, good story. I'd like to pass it around. Do you have a linky?

Scully

They're giving mentally ill murderers and baby mutilators computers with chatroom access while they are incarcerated?

Disgusting.

blondie

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/11156681.htm

Sorry, rebel8.

News tip: if you go to Google News and type in "jehovah's" every day or so, you too will be a news reporter.

rebel8

LOL....I do that almost every day already...too much time on my hands. I post these stories all over the net on other forums. It's a good anti-witness.

Crumpet

Since the slayings, Greist has become a Jehovah?s Witness. He is allowed to leave the hospital for three hours every week to attend services in West Norristown.

The man also is granted one 12-hour leave every three months, which he has used to go shopping at the King of Prussia Mall, and he often travels alone using public transportation to visit physicians located off the hospital property.

Greist holds a job at the hospital as manager of the facility?s cafeteria, and on Nov. 29, he married his third wife, Frances Greist, a New Zealand woman he met on the Internet through a Jehovah?s Witness Web site.

Assistant District Attorney Peter Hobart argued against any change to Greist?s commitment status.

Hobart called upon Dr. Barbara E. Ziv, a forensic psychiatrist, and psychologist Steven E. Samuel, to testify the man still posed a risk to the community.

"Richard Greist has talked in very concerning ways about all the women in his life," Ziv said. She concluded he has demonstrated a "high degree of misogyny and anti-female resentment."

Samuel examined Greist twice during January.

"He has not developed any insight into the basis of what happened in 1978," Samuel said. "I think he is bothered by intense emotional feelings, he is frightened by them in a way. He consciously covers over his problems to minimize his weaknesses."

http://www.dailylocal.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14164496&BRD=1671&PAG=461&dept_id=17782&rfi=6