IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE  FOR PREVENTION OF CHILD ABUSE
  I wanna kill you, I wanna kill  you, mommy, I wanna kill you!
  CHILD OF RAGE  A Story of Abuse
  Are people afraid of you, Beth?
  - Who's afraid of you, Beth?  - John.
  Your brother. And why is  your brother afraid of you?
  - Because I hurt him so much.  - Okay.
  And what... at night time, what do  your parents do to your door?
  - Lock it shut.  - Why did they lock it shut?
  Because they don't want  me to hurt John.
  Right. And they're kind of afraid of...  of hurting John.
  Are you hurting John?
  Okay. Are they afraid you  might hurt them?
  - Yup.  - Would you, Beth?
  When would you do it?
  - Night time.  - Okay. Why would you do at night time?
  Because I don't like them seeing me do it,  but they can feel me do it.
  And what would you  do to them, Beth?
  - Stab them.  - Okay. What would you stab on them?
  A knife.
  The program you are about  to see was compiled
  from the actual therapy tapes  of Dr. Ken Magid,
  a clinical psychologist specializing  in the treatment of severely abused children
  - children so traumatized  in the first years of life
  that they do not bond  with other people.
  They are children  who cannot love or accept love
  - children without conscience  who can hurt or even kill without remorse.
  This film shows the devastating effects  of abuse on a child.
  It also shows that  victims can be helped.
  It is the story of  a six-and-a-half year old girl named Beth.
  Do you ever stick  pins in people?
  - Who?  - My brother.
  - Okay. Do you do it a little bit or a lot?  - A lot.
  Okay. And what are you trying to do  to your brother?
  - Kill him.  - Why do you want your brother to die?
  Because I was hurt so bad and I don't  want to be around people.
  Okay. Who else would you like to  stick pins into?
  - Mommy and daddy. - What would you  like to have happened to them?
  Die.
  Tim is the minister of a small  Methodist church in the south.
  He and his wife Julie had been  married for twelve years.
  Unable to have children of their own,  they decided to adopt.
  In February of 1984, they received a call  from the Department of Social Services
  telling them they had two children  available for adoption.
  They were told that Beth, 19 months old,  and her brother Jonathan, 7 months old,
  were normal and healthy.
  We did not need children  to make our lives complete.
  We've got security in ourselves and  security in our relationship, but we
  wanted to share that with somebody else,  and we felt like we had a lot to pass on
  to a child, and that was what we really  wanted to do and when the phone call came,
  it was like, "At last it's here!"
  And we think like a miracle  what happened, was so quick.
  We'd heard of couples that  had to wait 5, 10 years on... on a child,
  and here we had two young children, and  it was like they answered to our dream.
  Their dream became a nightmare when they  realized that Beth and Jonathan had
  severe emotional problems.
  We had the kids with us...  Beth and her younger
  brother John for... probably a couple of  months until we began to learn something
  about their background and their past,  and when we learned it... something's
  seemed to fall into place about  her behavior and John's behavior...
  From several sources, we discovered that...  that they didn't have enough food to eat...
  that perhaps even Beth went all day  maybe with just a box of kix cereal.
  John himself was found in a bassinet  with whole patches appearing
  all over him and a dirty diaper  and a couple of bottles at his feet.
  They had curdled milk and the back  of his head was completely flat.
  The front of his head, it balds down  and he, at seven months,
  he couldn't raise his head,  he couldn't roll over.
  He was... just had no  stimulation and... we think
  perhaps that it happened to Beth  and it wasn't very long until
  she began showing some signs
  of perhaps... even some abuse.  There was a nightmare that she had.
  The nightmare was  about... a man
  who was falling on her and...  hurting her with a part of himself.
  Tell me about your birth father,  what was that nightmare like?
  - When he touched my vagina.  - Okay.
  And so it bled, hurt it a lot  and so it bled
  and... would pain me a lot,
  he'd hit on me, wouldn't be  very nice to me.
  - How old were you?  - One.
  - And, in your nightmare, what happens?  - I get real scared.
  Where are you in the nightmare and  what happens in the dream?
  - I'm in the house, upstairs.  - And then what happens there?
  When he comes upstairs  and... hurts me.
  How do you feel  when you talk about this?
  - Scared.  - Where is your birth... where is your
  birth father? What's he doing?  - He's right there and there's his hand,
  his hand's right there. - Where?  - Right there. He can't hold it to you
  because it's green.  - What's it touching? - My vaginas.
  - And what is your birth father doing?  - Hurtin' it.
  Your face looks... sad. Can you  you tell me about that?
  Beth's crying, that's... that's...  that's all the tears.
  Beth had endured severe neglect  and abuse as a child.
  Her birth mother died  when she was one.
  Because of this early  childhood experiences,
  Beth never developed  the sense of conscience,
  love, or trust for anyone.
  The earliest sexual abuse  by her birth father
  would cause her to exhibit  inappropriate sexual behavior
  especially toward her brother.
  Does your brother have  private parts?
  Yeah.
  - Yeah, what are his private parts?  - Penis and butt.
  And what do you do with your  brother? With his private parts, Beth.
  - I hurt it.  - Tell me about it, what do you do?
  Well... I pinch it...
  Squeeze it... kick it.
  When you do things to your brother's  private parts, what does he say?
  - Stop.  - Can you tell me about that?
  - Well, he says stop but I don't stop.  - Do you hurt him?
  A lot.
  Okay. And, would you like  to do that to other boys?
  When I caught her with Jonathan  one morning she was molesting him,
  He was crying and his pants were down  and I said, "Beth, what's happening?",
  and she said, "I pulled his penis and  put my finger up his anus",
  and I said, "Didn't he say to stop?",  and she said, "Yeah, he did".
  And I said, "Did you?",  she said, "No".
  Have you ever rubbed  your private parts?
  - Do you do it a lot?  - A lot.
  How much do you do that?
  Not every single day... and I did...
  I did it every single day  until it got real bad and
  I stopped and I had to get to the  doctor and I did not like it.
  What do you mean by real bad?
  Well, it looked real raw...  got all kinds of bruises on it
  germs, dirty stuff from my hand...  - And it bled?
  She started to masturbate  in inappropriate times.
  I remember  one time perfectly,
  when we were at the hospital waiting  for Tim to come out, he was there visiting
  and Beth and John were in the backseat  not turned around and she had her
  legs spread and was masturbating  in a public parking lot,
  and I had tried to explain to her numerous  times before that that's private area,
  you don't do it  in public places, and...
  gone over that with her and  it never seemed to face her.
  And...
  Julie, how often would your  daughter masturbate?
  Daily. Constantly.
  - Do you have animals, Beth?  - Four of them.
  Can you tell me their names?
  Clyde, Chucky, Tarsi and Annie.
  And daddy said... a day ago,
  that... there's also a stray cat.
  He did not have a home so daddy is...  was taking care of it
  and took it to the vet when  he can start running and like to get
  - And, what do you do to the animals, Beth?  - Stick them with pins.
  - Do you stick 'em a little bit or a lot?  - A lot.
  What are you trying to do to  the animals, Beth?
  - Kill them. - What do they do  when you stick them with the pins?
  Well, Annie cries...  she's a dog.
  She got baby birds  down out of the nest.
  We thought maybe  she was just curious.
  So we explained that she could hurt  them... put them back.
  And went through a whole sitting down and  talking to her about the problem of it.
  And the next day we went out to  check the baby birds and they were
  on the ground dead  with their necks broken.
  Let's talk about what happened  once when you were smaller,
  when you... when you  found some baby birds in a... in a tree.
  - What did you do to them?  - I took them out.
  And what did mom say to you?
  That the mother  would not come back
  if somebody touches her babies.
  Are the baby birds kind of small?
  Can you describe them for me?
  Well, they don't have  their eyes open
  but they can hear... hear me  and they would go up.
  Are they kinda helpless,  little baby birds?
  - Can they fly?  - No.
  Can they run away?
  - Yes. - They can? Are they easy  to catch or hard to catch?
  - Hard.  - Yeah, well it's hard to remember.
  - With the baby birds, what did you do?  - Took them out of the tree.
  - And what did you do?  - Played around too rough.
  I saw one at the end,  I picked it up,
  and I thought it was dead  and I came to say
  "Mommy, is this bird dead?"
  and she said...  she called daddy
  and said "Tim", and...
  and daddy came and...
  I think I remember  that they said yes.
  And so... so did  the little baby birds die?
  I don't know.
  - You don't remember?  - I just remember, the last thing
  I remember that mommy and daddy said  the last bird we got was dead.
  Do you know what mom said to me?  She said that all of them were dead.
  Did you squeeze 'em? Did baby  Beth squeeze them?
  You're doing a good job, honey, go  ahead and tell me what happened.
  - I squeezed them.  - And what happened?
  They died.
  And this kind of aggression in our animals  and even at her brother Jonathan
  was beginning to grow  to such an excess
  that our life was  miserable at home;
  we had, John would cry  in the mornings
  and said his stomach hurt,  we, for the longest time, we thought
  maybe this child has... has some  problem with his intestinal area
  or maybe has allergies and so we'd  try to get all of that checked out.
  Come to find out Beth was coming out  of her room and hitting him in the stomach.
  And so as a last resort, just to  protect him, we had to tie her door shut.
  So I guess for, what...  the last three or four months now,
  we've had to tie her in at night,  sort of barricade her.
  The repercussions of  Beth's tragic childhood
  led to uncontrollable rage,
  despite the love and nurturing  of her adoptive parents,
  she took this rage out on herself,  on her brother and on them.
  Her acts of violence became  more and more cruel and frightening.
  Well, I noticed several like pair of knives  in the kitchen missing,
  and my first thought was Beth
  and I felt a little guilty  about it at first,
  but... I really didn't  even mention it to her
  and it'd been gone several weeks.
  She was sitting at the table, drawing  and mentioned to me,
  "What are those knives look like,  that are gone, mom?".
  And I said, "What knives,  Beth?", and uhm,
  she said, "Weren't they kind of silver  and about this big?".
  And... I knew the end,  and this little smile,
  that's not a sweet smile  but a malicious type of smile,
  and I knew then,  I thought she's got them.
  Tell me about the knives,  where did you get them?
  From the drawer.
  And, where else?
  Do you remember?  Tell me about it.
  - I got them from the dishwasher.  - What kind of knives?
  - Big, sharp ones. - And what do you  wanna do with those knives?
  Kill John and mommy  with them, and daddy.
  And when mommy asks you about  where the knives are, what do you say?
  I don't know where they are.
  What did you think  she might do with the knives?
  My first thought was Jonathan.
  And the reason we thought  that was that... she had,
  by this time, she had tried to kill  Jonathan on several occasions
  and openly admitted that.
  In the basement, she was hitting  his head against the cement floor,
  I heard screams and ran down
  and had to literally pull her hands  off and she looked wide-eyed.
  Did you get real mad at him?  Did you hit his head real hard?
  Tell me about it. How many times  did you do it? A lot?
  What was the floor like?
  - Cement. - And what happened  to your brother, tell me about it.
  His head hurt real bad,
  but his chin, he had to  have stitches in it.
  Could you stop?
  - Use your words Beth.  - No.
  Okay. What was your brother doing  when you were doing this?
  Playing with the toys.
  Okay. Was he asking you to stop  when you... when you were doing it?
  What was he saying?
  He said, "Beth, stop!"
  And what did you do?
  I didn't stop.  I just kept on hurting him.
  What were you thinking  when you were doing that?
  Thinking of killing him.
  How did you stop?
  What made you stop?
  When I heard people walking  across the kitchen.
  That made me stop because I thought  mommy and daddy would come.
  Okay. Did mommy come?  What did she do?
  - She sent me to my room.  - Okay.
  And what if mommy didn't stop you,  what would you have done?
  Kept on doing it.
  After evaluating the status  of Beth's psychological problems,
  Dr. Magid felt that for the well  being of the family,
  Beth needed to be temporarily  separated from them.
  In April of 1989,  her parents brought her
  to a special home with  an expert at raising children
  with early attachment disorders,
  especially children who were dangerous  to themselves and others.
  I have children that  have killed numerous times.
  Cold blooded family members,  neighbor, children, killed them.
  And they can do it.
  Makes my blood run cold just to  think about it! 9 years old.
  People don't think a 9-year-old is capable  of cold-blooded murder but they are.
  That attachment break  that severe damaged to the heart,
  the ability to care  and the ability to love.
  They don't care and they don't love,  their capable of anything.
  We're very strict,  very strict about everything.
  Everything is completely monitored.  We take complete control,
  because a child who's  unattached does not trust.
  And because they don't trust, they don't  allow anybody to be boss of them.
  So we take complete control,  they are not boss of anything.
  They have to ask to get  a drink of water,
  they have to ask to  go to the bathroom,
  they have to ask  to leave our sight.
  Part of that is because  we cannot trust them,
  because of the damage  that they've done before.
  Beth, would you like  to say grace, please?
  Heavenly Father, thank You  for this good day and
  everybody doing good.  In Jesus name, Amen.
  They believe that they are evil.  They believe they're from the devil.
  They believe that they are not a person  of value. We have to change that.
  We have to build that  from a child who's nothing,
  who's a bad kid  in their own mind,
  to a child who's  valuable and loving
  and they see themselves as that.
  When they do it sure well,  we can say,
  "You did a good job!  You're a good worker",
  and then, it just builds  a self-esteem little by little
  so that they change the way  that they see themselves.
  Several months into treatment in  this controlled environment,
  Beth had made progress
  and her therapist decided  to loosen some of the controls.
  Anybody wants some more?
  Beth continued to show  signs of improvement.
  She began to develop a  sense of right and wrong.
  She seemed to respond to affection,  she's more outgoing.
  She went to public school.
  Made friends of a local church, and  even sang in the choir.
  - Are you gonna go into  summer school next month? - Yeah.
  That's Elijah?
  Yeah. That's a beard, see his beard,  and his nose, that is.
  - Quite big. - Yeah. See his beard,  it's kinda floating in the wind...
  Elijah's taken up in the heaven  with the fiery chariot.
  who that's...  that's where that's Elisha,
  that's the other prophet took  Elijah's place. He was left there's Elijah.
  You know, you learned about sheep,  "the Lord is my shepherd."
  March third you just  got that yesterday.
  In the beginning, we couldn't  trust her with anything.
  She was locked up at night.  We had alarms on the door at night,
  so she wasn't sneaking around doing  things with the other children.
  We don't worry about that anymore.  There is no alarm on her door at night now.
  She sleeps in the same room with my  own daughter and I trust her that much.
  She brushes the dogs and  I trust her that much.
  Because she has  earned that trust,
  she's learned that she has a heart  and she has a loving side
  and she feels bad when  she does something now.
  In the past, because  she didn't have a conscience,
  she didn't feel anything  when she did something bad.
  There was just no feeling there.
  And now she does feel bad,  and it shows in her face.
  I believe that Beth can make it.
  She's got a really bright mind.
  She's got a good heart now,  which has done a lot of healing.
  She's got a really  super set of parents.
  They're powerful, they're  knowledgeable, they're motivated.
  She's done a lot of good work with you  in therapy, with Kennel and with myself,
  she wants to heal.
  And that's the number one key
  and she wants to heal because she  has a family that really cares about her,
  and she wants to be with them.
  Do you know where  that anger came from?
  That's when my birth dad...  hurt me and
  I had it all inside and I remembered  it and I started doing it.
  And, what did that do?  That what's inside.
  It made me want to hurt  people really bad.
  And, who did you hurt?
  My brother, my mom and  daddy, and the animals.
  - And the animals.  - Who did you hurt the most?
  - My brother.  - Who did it hurt the most? - Me.
  Why don't you tell me that?
  - It hurt me the most.  - Why did it hurt you the most?
  Because when I hurt  other people...
  I'm hurting my... good self.
  How do you feel  right now, Beth?
  Sad...
  - It's kinda tough to talk  about it, isn't it... - Yes...
  Beth gave her last interview  for this film in December of 1989.
  Although she had made progress,  she would still need extensive therapy.
  Not all abused children are  as deeply scarred as Beth,
  but all abused children
  suffer a profound hurt  for the rest of their lives.
  The road to recovery is long  and hard for the abused child.
  There are more than one million  new victims of child abuse
  in America every year.
     
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