Talk:Janie Lou Gibbs

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The Crime Library article states Gibbs was convicted of murder and sentenced to prison. I was unable to confirm this and my research showed that she was found to be legally insane in 1968. I was unable to find any subsequent sanity hearing or trial.

In addition, I was not able to confirm that she was released from the institution in 1999, but I left this in as it was part of the original article. Marklemagne 20:25, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

I can confirm that Ms. Janie left the prison in April of 1999, as I was there and saw her before she left. User: Luvcamo7. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Luvcamo7 (talk • contribs) 04:06, 3 April 2010 (UTC)

One of the sons (wish I had paid more attention) had a living former significant other who was interviewed for Season 1, episode 2, of the Investigation Discovery show, "Deadly Women," entitled "Greed," which had an original air date of 15 Feb 2005. Apparently, if this woman's account is to be believed (not saying I don't, just that we have to go with "alleged" facts here), Janie tricked this young woman into unknowingly giving this young man his final, fatal dose of arsenic. The episode is available via YouTube TV.

Also in that episode, Janie's defense lawyer is interviewed and has an interesting take on why he felt she had a less selfish reason for killing her entire family, which I call b.s. on. He stated that, before killing her husband, she was allegedly diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis. Now, here's where he goes off the rails. He continues by calling MG, "Lou Gehrig's Disease." This was not true in 1965 and still is not true. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, ALS, is Lou Gehrig's Disease. While MG is similar, when I was diagnosed with MG, I actually asked my neurologist what the difference is between MG, ALS, MS, and Parkinson's Disease (the latter of which Janie was eventually diagnosed with). He used an analogy of a malfunctioning lamp, and how each condition is associated with a problem in different parts of the electrical system of that lamp. MG was a lack of connection between the plug and the outlet. In any event, MG is NOT a progressive disorder - unlike the other neurological disorders I've mentioned, especially ALS - and the standard treatment for MG is a medication called Mestinon, which came to the U.S. market in the 1950s. By the time Janie was supposedly diagnosed with MG (in the episode, they go on to say she was misdiagnosed, something I would have in common with her if true), Mestinon was readily available and fairly inexpensive. To this day, it's the frontline treatment for Myasthenia Gravis, so it should have been prescribed for her as soon as she was allegedly diagnosed. A great deal was known about MG even in the 1960s, so there's no excuse for her lawyer's misstatements, and especially not in 2005.

Moving on, her lawyer opined that this *dire* diagnosis caused zealously religious Janie to want her family to join her in the heavenly afterlife, so she sent them there first, so she could join them when this dread disease ravaged her. Again, I call b.s. on several levels, but let's stick with religiosity, which he's arguing. If someone is truly a follower of any branch of Christianity, they believe in the 10 Commandments, among which is the admonishment, "Though shalt not kill." That's self-explanatory. Not giving loved ones the ability to atone for their sins, and not trusting in the Lord's plan for your family, are not the acts of [sane] people of faith. If this is what she told her lawyer, she's full of something.

Lastly, though, to address the above comment about not finding information on her trial or incarceration: have you tried Lexis/Nexis? Or written court files? I don't know if everything that has its basis in a 1960's case would be digitized. My first professional jobs were in law libraries in the 1980s, just as the internet was getting started, but case law goes back in our law books to the 18th century. Not sure how much has been digitized. We historians still find all kinds of important sources in handwritten records in libraries, file rooms, and archives. Sometimes the money just isn't there to digitize all the files. That's just a suggestion. Kelelain (talk) 02:20, 8 January 2023 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:JanieLouGibbscrop.JPG
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BetacommandBot 03:40, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

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