Becky Harrington

The story of Becky Harrington, a 28-year-old white woman, is a tragic one, defined not only by her own violent death but by a shocking pattern of violence that unfolded over decades. In 1975, Becky was a mother to two young daughters, nine-year-old Pamela and four-year-old Cassandra. She had recently separated from her husband, Paul Harrington, a Detroit police officer and a veteran of the Vietnam War.

On December 19, 1975, just a week after the couple's separation, Paul Harrington went to the home in northwest Detroit where Becky and her daughters were staying. Armed with his police service revolver, he shot and killed Becky and both of their children. All three victims were shot in the head. Shortly after committing the triple homicide, Harrington turned himself in to the authorities and led them to the scene. He was arrested and subsequently fired from the Detroit Police Department.

Harrington was charged with three counts of first-degree murder. During the legal proceedings, his defense centered on his mental state. His attorneys argued that he was suffering from severe psychological trauma stemming from his experiences in Vietnam, where he had reportedly been involved in a raid that resulted in the deaths of a mother and her children. His sister stated that he was never the same after returning from the war. The defense also noted that Harrington had been seeing a psychiatrist for his fears that he might harm himself or his family.

After spending 17 months in a psychiatric institution awaiting trial, court experts unanimously agreed that Paul Harrington had been 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. However, under the laws at the time, he was released after only two months, having been assessed as no longer a danger to himself or others. A year and a half after killing his family, Harrington was a free man. He later sued his psychiatrist for not having him hospitalized prior to the murders and reached a settlement.

For more than two decades, Paul Harrington lived freely. He remarried in 1982 and had two more children. But the peace was shattered in October 1999, when history repeated itself in the most horrific way. Now 53, Harrington was reportedly facing financial difficulties and had been without his prescribed psychiatric medication. On October 15, he shot and killed his second wife, Wanda, and their three-year-old son, Brian, in their Detroit home. Just as he had done 24 years earlier, he called 911 to confess and waited on his porch for police to arrive.

In the trial for this second double murder, Harrington’s defense again attempted an insanity plea. This time, however, prosecutors argued the act was premeditated, pointing out that he had borrowed the gun from a neighbor the night before. A psychiatrist for the prosecution testified that he believed Harrington was faking mental illness. The jury rejected the insanity defense, and in November 2000, Paul Harrington was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to a mandatory term of life in prison without the possibility of parole, finally bringing an end to a devastating cycle of violence that claimed the lives of two of his families.