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Show Page 36 - THE HERALD, Provo, Utah, Sunday, February 23, 1986 No Insurance to Killers Dear Ann Landers: Enclosed is a Houston Chronicle newspaper article about a man who was convicted of killing his adoptive mother to collect insurance money. Prosecutors claim that this young man killed three other relatives for the same reason. He received almost a half million dollars by killing the four people. Hardly a week goes by that you don't read in the newspapers of others who have committed murder in order to inherit money or collect insurance. Several years ago in Houston a father killed his son for the insurance by feeding him poison candy. (That father was sentenced to death for that crime.) Every time I read of such a tragedy, I wonder why there isn't a law against a person inheriting money from someone they have murdered. It seems insane to let a person collect money on the death of. someone he killed Ashamed Of Mankind (San Antonio). Dear San: Allowing a murderer to collect insurance on the death of the person he (or she) murderered is the height of injustice and lunacy. According to my consultant, Jack Pfeilsticker, assistant counsel with Prudential Life Insurance in Minneapolis, the common law says that one who intentionally and feloniously takes the life of another cannot receive the benefits resulting from that crime. The problem is that state laws vary. f Ann Landers Another complication: A person is not ordinarily considered a murderer until convicted. That is the crux of our justice system. Often there is a delay in the courts and the money may come through before the trial begins or before the perpetrator is caught. Still another complication: The insurance policy is a contract with the policy holder and not with the beneficiary. Mr. Pfeilsticker says most insurance companies, if they are aware of the situation, would turn the money over to the court Influence of Mind on Illness and iet the court decide who is the proper recipient. Whoever said, "The love of money is the root of all evil," knew what he was talking about. Dear Ann Landers: This is for "Awaiting Your Reply in California," the woman who wanted to know if she would ever get over her lover who was a married man. Stop fooling yourself. Time has a way of filtering out things you don't wish to remember. You recall only the fun and pleasure of your escape from the real world. You never had to live with the guy day in and day out. In other words, your time together was mostly storybook stuff. You remember the excitement of your clandestine meetings, the thrill of anticipation and the passion of stolen sex. You never shared the problems of kids, overdue bills, troubles at work and inlaw garbage. What you remember is not a real-lif- e relationship, but fantasy. Why don't you face the fact that your lover needed to run away from a life he found difficult to handle? Like most married men. he used you as an escape valve from the pressures. You were the little bit of heaven when things at home were rough. As Ann Landers would say, "It's time you woke up and Learned In smelled the coffee." Pebble Beach Dear P.G.: You've shared a lot of wisdom today. Thanks for laying it on the line, Editor's Note: First part of A Hearst Magazine Scientists are finding increasing evidence that the mind plays a role in preventing illness and in helping to cure it. It is too early to recommend specific treatment based on psychological factors, according to an article in the March issue of Science Digest, but that is the direction in which much research is aimed. "No one questions that emotions and health are related," said Bar-ri- e Cassileth, psychologist and medical sociologist at the Universi ,,.", ilf if ty of Pennsylvania Cancer Center. is no debate. However, conclusions must be based on data, and we have very little data on how psychosocial factors affect "There two. By SCIENCE DIGEST disease." There are dangers in this approach as Marcia Angell, editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, pointed out in an editorial last June in which she questioned the link between mental and physical health and warned that an emphasis on psychological factors could lead to a feeling of failure on the part of patients who blamed themselves for their illness. But proponents of the psychological-physiological connection point Capture the most important event of your life on video tape YOUR WEDDING! 15 NEA Staff Writers Most people were outraged when a woman was raped by four men on a tavern pool table in New Bedford, Mass., three years ago. We were further revolted to learn that customers in the bar. in the mood of a spectator sport, simply ordered up more beer, watched, and even cheered while the woman was sexually abused for more than two hours. That was a freak occurrence, we assured ourselves. Not necessarily so, it turns out. We are learning that gang rape is not an unknown event on college ! And worse: Whereas the New Bedford woman did not know the men, in college gang rapes the men and women often know one another. The brutality usually takes place in an allegedly safe place (a campus fraternity house) in a "fun" atmosphere of beer, music and dancing. Drugs and alcohol lower the men's inhibitions and weaken ;the women's ability to recognize a threatening situation andor project themselves. The seriousness of the situation comes to light in a publication of the Washington-base- d Project on ;the Status and Education of Women, of the Association of American ; Colleges. The report. "Campus Rapes: Party Games," was writ- ten by executive director Bernice Sandler and staff associate Julie !Ehrhart. and is based on 50 documented incidences at various cam- and private. Ivy Euses andpublic Midwestern, large and ! small. ; Here's one account from the "It was her first fraternity party and she had much more to ; drink than she had planned. It was ;hot and crowded and the party 'spread out all over the house, so that when three men asked her to go upstairs, she went with them. They took her into a bedroom, locked the door and began to undress her. Groggy with alcohol, her feeble protests were ignored as the three men raped her. When they finished, they put her in the hallway, naked, locking her clothes in the bedroom." In a similar incident at a large t: ternity brother who told her not to feel bad. "because another woman had also been 'upstairs' earlier that night." Some fraternities, according to the report, have actually planned a "gang bang" as part of a weekend's activities. All too often, the same pattern evolves in the aftermath: The episode goes unreported. The victim blames herself and devleaves school, her astated. The psychological damage is even greater than if she had been raped by a stranger: her trust in friends is destroyed. The school, even if it hears of the incident via the grapevine, fails to take any action, fearing bad publicity, legal entanglements, or simply because the institution does not know how to deal with the situation. The rapists receive no punishment, despite having committed criminal acts. Furthermore, the group nature of the attack often diminishes feelings of guilt or individual responsibility. The project report lists a number of actions schools might take: Conduct a full investigation: provide free counseling, medical and legal services to the victim: discipline the fraternity: expel or suspend the offenders; and place an account in their permanent files. Other recommendations include restricting and or better supervising fraternity parties, asking fraternities to take a public stand against acquaintance rape, and involving students (men and women) . . ANY VIDEO PACKAGE BOOKED IN THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY WHEN YOU PRESENT THIS AD I UTT We alto do family reunions, anni-vertari- et and other event. 227-309- 7 2696 N. University Avenue ZCMI University Mall nr o in CO" campus-wid- n K 1 Large sizes and wide widths for comfort. Classic styling puts you the footlights. ..all leather for performance. long-runnin- g Black, Navy, Red , i 1 V An tt" Concord ft08 6 u .riAiJiliilS) in HURRY IN AND ENJOY THE BEST SELECTION OF FIRST QUALITY, BRAND-NAM- E FABRICS AT 13 OFF OUR REGULAR LOW PRICES. lx 373-754- W n e EMNAJETTICKS. 29 V. Center, Provo 06 ll l f programs. Those who study the psychological dynamics of gang rape say men rape for other men as a way to confirm their sexual adequacy. Maybe so. but gang rape has as much to do with proof of masculinity as lighting a match has to do with knowing how to cook. We have a long way to go if women on campus are considered prey instead of respected equals in search of an equal education. I think colleges must show the same degree of outrage at gang rape as there was after the depl spectacle at New Bedford. Of STARS 3h mniiiumilii'MM prat 24th TAWT FIE IB. self-estee- KCflYfllCflDE 1 OL . state university, the victim was driven home afterward by a fra- By RUSTY BROWN either. '( ZCMI VIDEO MEMORIES "' Crime Is Not Diffused By Numbers Involved campuses, to the fact that patients given inert substances that . placebos look like drugs sometimes show the physiological response expected from real drugs. Animal studies indicate a link beiween the brain and the immune system. Steven Schleifer, a psychi-- ' atrist at Mount Sinai Medical Cen- - ' ter in New York City, said of research on guinea pigs that sup- -' pressed disease after being given specific brain lesions: "That was strong evidence that ' the brain was involved in at least . modulating immune function, and that you could alter immunity by I doing something in the brain." ) (Tomorrow: I AOHIC SIORI WilHSTYll As.DM;ao3$ (Dff fffflMcns PHOYO 9U U Open s Outer. H.one .'17 l ri. 9:.M-- 7 Sill. 9:.'KM (JnM'd Sunday Mon.-- OHKM l nivi rsily Mull. I'hone 22 Singer Dept. 225-139- 1 Open Duilv 9:30-9- . Sal. t IO-- (, |
