On December 19, 1975, 28-year-old Becky Harrington was shot to death in her Detroit apartment along with her two young daughters, 9-year-old Pamela and 4-year-old Cassandra. Becky had recently separated from her husband and was living with the children at the time. The estranged husband, 30-year-old Detroit police officer and Vietnam veteran Paul Harrington, used his service revolver in the killings, then turned himself in and led police to the scene. He was arrested and charged with three counts of murder.

During the proceedings, Paul Harrington’s defense presented evidence of severe depression and post-traumatic stress attributed to his Vietnam service. After spending 17 months in a psychiatric institution awaiting trial, court experts found him legally insane at the time of the killings. In 1977 a judge found him not guilty by reason of insanity and committed him to a state psychiatric hospital; under the laws then in effect he was released after two months when assessed no longer dangerous.