Report: Yates Thought She Was Possessed

Jan. 21 -- The Texas mother accused of drowning her five children in a bathtub last June told jail doctors she was possessed by the devil and that the sign of Satan, "666," was marked on her scalp, Time magazine reported.

A grand jury indicted Andrea Yates in July on capital murder charges in the deaths of her sons Noah, 7, and John, 5, and her 6-month-old daughter, Mary. The children, along with their siblings Paul, 3, and Luke, 2, were found dead in their home after Yates called police and allegedly confessed to drowning them.

Jury selection is continuing in her trial, with eight people — five women and three men already seated. Defense lawyers are pursuing an insanity defense, and prosecutors are going to ask that Yates receive the death penalty.

According to a Time magazine investigation, Yates told police who first came to her house last June that she had just drowned her five children because "they weren't developing correctly."

Bombarded With Talk of Satan?

After her arrest, Yates reportedly told prison doctors that the death of her children was her punishment, not theirs. She said their deaths were a mother's final act of mercy, and told doctors that only her execution would rescue her from the evil inside.

Yates also said she wanted her hair shaved so she could see the number 666, the mark of the anti-Christ on her scalp.

Author Suzy Spencer, who has just written a book about the case, told Good Morning America that Yates was profoundly influenced by a conservative minister, Michael Woroniecki, and his wife, Rachel, who had been close to the Yates' for years.

The minister teaches a very conservative form of Christianity that says that women should have a very subservient position in the home, and that Satan is constantly trying to drive people wrong, Spencer said. In correspondence, the couple bombarded the troubled and isolated mother with talk of Satan, and the idea that God can see people's wickedness, Spencer said.

In one letter, Rachel Woroniecki writes, "Life is so short. It is so very cruel. It is so lonely and empty. You must accept the reality that this life is under the curse of sin and death."