There was a thread in the CourtTV.com Karla Homolka section called Question for D.V survivors. The vitriol in that thread really shocked me. This topic might be kind of sensitive for some people, so I’m going to hide part of this post.

I was really surprised to see how the possibility of domestic violence was so completely discounted by all of them. I suspect none of the posters were survivors of DV and have no knowledge of the BDSM lifestyle. I absolutely do not condone what Karla did, but I don’t think she was capable of killing on her own. If she had never met Paul, none of this would have happened. The reason it did happen is as simple as this: brainwashing. It’s similar to Stockholm Syndrome but also with elements of Dominance/submission (which is usually seen as part of BDSM). Before she met Paul, Karla was not an evil person and she was not a killer. It was her love for Paul, and her complete devotion to him, that led her to do what she did.

I’m not saying she was forced into it. Yes, she could have left at any time, she could have called the police, and so forth. But she didn’t want to because she was brainwashed by Paul. She was so dependent on him that she believed she needed to stay with him in order to survive, and she did what seemed to be necessary to stay with him. I’m not even saying she didn’t enjoy it. When someone has been so completely enslaved, their own desires and personality can become perverted. Paul wanted to kill, so Karla wanted to do it too because it would keep her near to Paul. Yes, I do think she wanted to, but not because she was cold-blooded or psychopathic by nature. For Karla, killing was her only path to self-preservation. It seems possible that she would have inured herself to the killing. She felt that killing was necessary, so the only way to continue doing it was to convince herself that it was enjoyable. Eventually she had herself convinced so well that she did enjoy it. That’s why she comes across as having enjoyed what she did…she enjoyed it, but not because she was psychopathic.

In the thread, Suzee10 makes reference to DV victims killing their abuser. There is actually a case that is very close to this. Susan Anton (also known as Delia Day) was a consensual slave to Travis Anton, but she shot him dead in late 2003. She used to be very public online about her life, but she disappeared after her acquittal. The jury decided that her consensual BDSM relationship was abusive, and so it was decided that she had killed him in self-defense. Because Delia Day has vanished we will never know what really happened, but the case is similar to what Suzee10 describes.

So yes, Karla enjoyed the killing. She did not have faith in her ability to survive alone, and that is why she never left Paul. She absolutely deserved to serve jail time for her crimes, in fact I probably would have given her a life sentence. But is she EVIL? No, I don’t think she is. I think she’s a victim of circumstances - she is impressionable, Paul is domineering (and probably sociopathic), and unfortunately they met and fell in love. But Karla isn’t evil by herself.

By the way, Karla’s sister was the first to die, but it was an accident. Karla did not set out to kill her sister. Yes, she gave her sister to a rapist and abuser, and that is reprehensible. But it is not the same thing as deliberately murdering her sister.

I feel sorry for her now. She doesn’t want to leave prison, and I can’t say that I blame her. Especially with threads like that one…they are all proposing violence as if that will solve something. What good would hurting Karla do for them? For whom would you be getting revenge? Violence is never the answer.