Inside Their Minds by Rochelle Jackson

Author:Rochelle Jackson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: True Crime
Publisher: Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd
Published: 2011-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

I wrote to Kathleen Folbigg in Silverwater Women’s Correctional Centre in Sydney’s west during 2006. She was in maximum security. Kathleen is Australia’s first convicted female serial killer and is serving 30 years for the murder of three of her children and the manslaughter of her fourth. I was trying to understand what would drive a mother to kill her own children.

I asked Kathleen Folbigg if she wanted to tell me her side of the story. Her letters were written on lined foolscap pages. Her writing was large, even and childlike.

To Rochelle,

Received your letter today. Interesting. But, no thank you. I did consider your request for all of 30 seconds, once I read a sentence. ‘This is an opportunity for you to have a say about what you’ve done’. That one sentence showed me where your bias lies.

No offense intended, but any story, chapter etc. on my life or experiences will be written by the only person that knows about them—me! My silence is not confessional, avoidance or anything else descriptive that could be used. I’m simply waiting for the truth to be seen or uncovered or proven etc. That day I shall not gloat, or say, ‘I told you so’ I’ll simply cry and keep crying all the tears that are due to me.

But her second letter was different. She thanked me, saying she’d discuss her decision with her ‘guardian angels’, former Salvation Army Chaplain Major Joyce Harmer, and her husband:

They continually prove to me that thare are still genuine people in this world. Saving me from becoming bitter and nasty. Something of which I fight everyday. Understandable really, considering the immense betrayal and devastating effect this has had on my emotional, etc. states. Let alone future of any kind for my life. Of course, I also realise my old boring quiet life no longer exists and I shall adapt as well as I can to that.

She wanted more information about me, ‘as I now have learnt that info is required for correct decisions if there is such a thing?’; and wrote, ‘P.S. If you continue to contact me, please use Kathy, not Kathleen. I prefer it.’ I wrote back, but ‘Kathy’ didn’t write to me again. When I contacted Kathleen Folbigg’s guardian angel, Joyce Harmer was happy to speak to me. But, after organising a meeting, Major Harmer cancelled because of ‘legal advice’.

With no interview in sight, I fell to Folbigg’s diaries to give me an insight into her mind and motivations. These journals were a secret place where she could express herself and give voice to her thoughts and maelstrom of feelings and emotions. It was just like talking to her best friend. But unbeknownst to Folbigg, her confidante would eventually lead to her undoing.

The first diary extract was written on 3 June 1990, a special day for 23-year-old Kathleen because it marked the birth of her second child.

This was the day that Patrick Allan David Folbigg was born. I had mixed feelings this day.

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