Jared Loughner's Parents Get Understanding From Moms of Killers
Parents of killers often seen as accomplices to their sons' actions.
Jan. 13, 2011— -- For four nights the lights of television news camera crews and the chatter of reporters camped on their front lawn filtered through the drawn curtains and closed doors of Jared Loughner's parents' home.
His parents, Randy and Amy Loughner, stayed inside, bedridden and crying, since last Saturday, the day their son allegedly opened fire on a crowd of people, killing six and wounding 13. They are believed to have since left their Tucson, Ariz., house, sneaking out to an undisclosed location without speaking to the press or attending their son's arraignment.
There is little sympathy for the parents of people accused in mass killings, especially when the suspect smiles for his mug shot.
But there is a small circle of people who know the enormity of what Loughner's parents are coping with.
"In the weeks and months that followed the killings, I was nearly insane with sorrow for the suffering my son had caused, and with grief for the child I had lost," wrote Susan Klebold, the mother of Dylan Klebold who became notorious for shooting up Columbine High School and then killing himself.
"While I perceived myself to be a victim of the tragedy, I didn't have the comfort of being perceived that way by most of the community," she wrote in O magazine in 2009. "I was widely viewed as a perpetrator or at least an accomplice since I was the person who had raised a 'monster.' ... If I turned on the radio, I heard angry voices condemning us for Dylan's actions. Our elected officials stated publicly that bad parenting was the cause of the massacre."
Similar accusations have been made about the Loughners. Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik has said the suspect came from a "dysfunctional family," and former senator Rick Santorum questioned the parents' role in Loughner's behavior.
"Who are the people who know this man," Santorum asked the Wall Street Journal. "I would say: Where were the parents, the friends, and neighbors?"
Anne Marie Salvi is the mother of John Salvi, a 24-year-old Boston man who carried out two fatal attacks on abortion clinics in 1994 and 1996. She has some understanding of the hell the Loughners are experiencing now.
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