Dying for Justice - The Legalized Murder of Terri Schiavo - Part III

Part I of this post (April 3) can be found here
Part II of this post (April 5) can be found here

What to make of Terri Schiavo's so-called husband, Michael Schiavo? We know not much of him or his life. We do not know his true motivations for killing Terri. But we do know the actions he has taken in regards to Terri. Friends & family of Terri have stated that when Terri first went into her current condition, Michael said that he would take care of her for the rest of her life & that Terri's parents would move in with him & Terri. Michael states that there was a falling out between him & her parents because they wanted some of the insurance money - over one million dollars - from the lawsuit Terri won for malpractice. Terri's parents deny this.

As time passed, Michael seems to have changed his mind about taking care of Terri for the rest of her life, unless "the rest of her life" meant until he could get the feeding tube removed. Rather than bringing Terri home, he institutionalized her. He began living with a woman & they had 2 children together. This common law relationship has been on-going for 10 years. We imagine it would have been awkward for Michael to have Terri, his wife, around the house what with the kids & common law wife. Why Michael would prefer to commit adultery rather than divorce a wife he had zero relationship with is a mystery, unless there was money to be gained upon Terri's death. The immorality of his connubial lifestyle speaks volumes of his character. Yeah, right, he still loved Terri. Wink, wink.

His testimony in court seeking guardianship of Terri includes his claim that Terri would have wanted to die under her current circumstances. So say he. In fact, he never once in the first 7 years said anything about her wish. Zero. Seven years later, when it is convenient for him, he recalls her "wishes".There is nothing on paper to back that up & there is contradictory claims from her parents. Since he had a vested interest in her death - his 2nd family & inheritance from Terri - the court failed to investigate this claim fully. His claim of her death wishes may have a more sinister motivation which we will come to shortly.

Michael went from the "loving husband" to tyrant as her legal guardian. He refused her any rehabilitative treatment: physical therapy, speech therapy or communications therapy. He no longer permitted her to be taken outdoors into the sunshine & fresh air, thus her whole life was spent in her small room. When suffering from a urinary infection, he refused her treatment with anti-biotics, thus requiring her hospitalization. He refused to allow an MRI or PET scan, which would have provided better diagnosis of Terri's condition. He refused to allow her to be given ice chips for her lips & mouth. Some nurses who cared for Terri stated that they did give her ice chips at times secretly & at the risk to their jobs. God knows what else he denied her or how her treated her when in the room alone with her.

Michael Schiavo refused Communion for Terri as she was near death, until bad press brought him around. He refused a Catholic service & burial for Terri, who was a Catholic. Ignoring the wishes of her parents he had her cremated & then callously refused to tell her parents where her ashes were buried. He says he buried them somewhere in Pennsylvania, but he could have easily put them out with Monday's trash.

All these actions by Schiavo does not sound like a loving husband. On the contrary, they sound like a hateful man. Hateful to Terri, hateful to her family. What would motivate such a "loving husband" to do all this?

There are those who see a sinister side to Terri's death. To be succinct - he may have assault her, thus causing her initial injuries & the following "vegetative state." Having found a new life with another woman it was time to get rid of the bitch, as the theory goes. In an ironic twist, he had the force of the Courts do his killing for him. This theory is not without its points.

Friends of Terri have reported that Terri told them she was thinking of divorce. She told one friend the day before her "heart attack" that she & Michael had a bad argument that day. Contrary to the conventional reports in the media, Terri did not have a heart attack which precipitated her condition. The emergency room found no evidence of heart attack. Instead, they did not find a cause for her condition.

In February, Florida's Department of Children and Families presented Judge Greer with a 34-page document listing charges of neglect, abuse, and exploitation of Terri by her husband, with a request for 60 days to fully investigate the charges. Judge "KillHer" Greer rejected this 60 day extension. The St. Petersburg Times and the Tampa Tribune had filed suit for the release of the abuse summaries, which covered 89 reports. But state Judge George "KillHer" Greer ruled the records belong to DCF, and although Terri Schiavo's husband can have access to the abuse files, the records cannot be made public.

Further questions about abuse are revealed in a bone scan report taken one year after Terri took "ill": "There are an extensive number of focal abnormal areas. ... These include: multiple bilateral ribs ... both sacroiliac joints ... both knees and both ankles." Radiographs reveal "compression fractures" of the spine and right femur. ... "Compression fracture presumably traumatic," the report says. Dr. W. Campbell Walker completed the March 7, 1991, bone scan, which was requested to "evaluate for trauma" as the result of a suspected "closed head injury." "This patient has a history of trauma," Walker wrote. "The presumption is that the other multiple areas of abnormal activity also relate to previous trauma." Walker listed apparent injuries to the ribs, thoracic vertebrae, both sacroiliac joints, both ankles and both knees. The report was obtained by the lawyer for Terri's parents. Coincidentally, after this report was revealed Michael Schiavo then announced he would have her cremated. Terri's parents have stated that Terri never had any fractures or such injuries at any time during her life prior to her "heart attack." Michael Schiavo claims all these injuries occured while she was in the hospice ( tough nurses, huh?)


Famed New York forensic pathologist, Dr. Michael Baden, stated, "That bone scan describes her as having a head injury. That's why she's there. That's why she's getting a bone scan," Baden explained, "and a head injury can cause, lead to the 'vegetative state' that Ms. Schiavo is [allegedly] in now." He went on, "It does show evidence that there are other injuries, other bone fractures that are in a healing stage. Those apparent injuries were likely the result of "some kind of trauma. The trauma could be from an auto accident, the trauma could be from a fall, or the trauma could be from some kind of beating that she obtained from somebody somewhere. It's something that should have been investigated in 1991."

"It's extremely rare for a 20-year-old to have a cardiac arrest from low potassium who has no other diseases," Baden said. He restated that such an occurrence would be "extremely unusual unless she had certain kind of diseases, which she doesn't have. "She was in her 20s. The
reason that she's in the state she's in is because there was a period of time, maybe five minutes or eight minutes, when not enough oxygen was going to her brain," Baden explained. "That can happen because the heart stops for five or eight minutes, but she had a healthy heart from what we can see."

Since Michael Schiavo was the proverbial fox in the medical records hen house & only he had control of them, it is easy to see where he could manipulate or deny access to those records as he saw fit. For the conspiracy theorists out there, it is understable that they could see an initial aggravated assault on Terri in her home, followed by the willful death of Terri to cover that crime, using the courts as an accessory to the murder. If Michael Schiavo did not assault & cause Terri's injuries, who else was in the house that did? To the conspiracy theorists, Schiavo's story that he heard her fall is just that - a story.

Regardless of whether he caused the injuries or not, we at American Values rank him alongside Judge George "KillHer" Greer as profound shitheads. If he did assault her & cause her condition, then he has Judge George "KillHer Greer to thank for his getting away with murder.

Part IV of the legalized murder of Terri Schiavo will be posted soon.