Francine
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*Disclaimer - This episode deals with spousal abuse and may be triggering for some, listener discretion is advised*
In 1977, in Michigan, Francine stood outside her home, watching it go up in flames.
Earlier that night, her husband Mickey had beaten and raped her.
Her three children were safe in the car. She had 4 children but one was at a friend’s home.
Francine stood watching the fire, then walked to the car and drove herself to the police station where turned herself in.
Her nightmare began 13 years earlier when she married James who went by “Mickey”.
After a hellish marriage with constant physical, verbal and emotional abuse, , the abuse continued, even though they were divorced.
The night of the murder, Mickey beat Francine in front of their children, he ripped up textbooks from courses she was taking, and then he raped and threatened to kill her the whole time.
Francine did not know it, but she was about to become a central figure in what is now known as the battered women’s movement, which worked to draw attention to women who were brutalized by their husbands—but were rarely taken seriously by the justice system in North America at the time.
By turning the national attention received by tragic cases like Francine's into ways to help women like her, the movement created a system of life-saving shelters and laid the foundation for an awareness of domestic violence.
Francine was born on Aug. 17, 1947, in Stockbridge, Michigan and she grew up in Jackson, Michigan.
Her father, Walter, depending on the source, worked as either a farmworker or as a factory worker.
Her mother was Hazel and she was a waitress.
Walter was a heavy drinker who abused his wife and Francine grew up seeing the abuse.
The family struggled financially.
Francine dropped out of Jackson High School in the 10th grade to marry Mickey, he was a high school dropout and was three years older than Francine.
Francine said she thought he was so sophisticated, he had his own car, and most people she knew didn’t have their own car
When they married, at first they lived with Mickey’s parents.
The abuse started within weeks.
Mickey was jealous and possessive, he constantly accused his wife of dressing indecently, he would make her take off the clothes she was wearing and he would tear them to pieces.
After these incidents, Mickey seemed remorseful, at first.
The years go by and Francine had four children and a husband who spent much of their money on alcohol.
In 1971, she spoke with a local social worker and she was able to divorce Mickey but he ignored the divorce order and he would come and go to the house whenever he wanted, beating and raping Francine.
When Mickey was in a serious car accident, Francine took him back and nursed him to health, even after that, the abuse got worse.
On March 9, 1977, Mickey found out that Francine had enrolled in secretarial school with the help from her mother.
Mickey forced her to burn her books, he demanded she drop out, and threatened to destroy her vehicle.
Francine called the police but they refused to arrest Mickey because they had not witnessed the abuse themselves—even though Mickey threatened the police officers and threatened Francine in front of the officers because she had called for help.
When the officers left, Mickey continued beat and rape Francine even in front of the children. Afterward, he fell asleep.
Francine later said she stood there thinking about all the things that had happened to her…all the times he had hurt her…how he had hurt the children.
She stood still for a moment, hesitating, and she heard a voice urging her on. It whispered, ‘Do it! Do it! Do it!’
Francine acted quickly, she put her kids in the car, then poured gasoline around Mickey’s bed and lit a match.
As the house went up in flames, she drove to the police station to turn herself in.
By the time firefighters reached the house, Mickey was dead from smoke inhalation.
Francine was arrested and charged with first degree murder.
At the time, a group of feminist activists had been trying to call attention to domestic violence for years.
Since women’s suffrage, women had been trying to change things with spousal abuse.
Anti-alcohol advocates claimed that drunk men were more likely to beat and harm their wives and children, and the advocates used images and stories of women who had been attacked by their drunk husbands to gain support for their cause.
At the same time, women crusaded against the accepted policy of “chastisement,” the policy basically stated that men had the right to physically punish their legally subordinate wives.
A legal historian wrote “As master of the household, a husband could command his wife's obedience, and subject her to corporal punishment if she defied his authority,” .
Starting in the 1870s, chastisement became socially stigmatized when ideas of discipline shifted after the public became more aware of the abuse of slaves in the antebellum south.
That didn’t mean that domestic abuse stopped, though.
Even in the 1970s, police and courts turned a blind eye to men who beat and raped their wives.
In 1976, there was a case in which a bleeding, bruised woman went to a police department in the hopes of getting protection from her violent husband, only to be told, “It’s not a Police Department thing” and referred her to family court.
Judges and juries often downplayed spousal abuse,as well.
By 1977, the same year that Francine killed her husband, the FBI had reported that spousal abuse was the United States’ most under-reported crime.
In 1970, faced with a justice system reluctant to help abused women, grassroots organizers began to raise awareness and create small-scale protection for women in danger.
In 1971, the world’s first safe house for domestic violence victims was opened in Chiswick, London.
A group of American activists visited the refuge and began a network of their own shelters in the United States.
In 1972, the first rape crisis line was established.
Soon, activists began targeting the legal system itself.
It was an uphill battle: legislators, police, judges and the public were slow to understand why it was necessary to provide specific legal protection for the victims of intimate partner abuse.
Cases like Francine’s helped draw awareness to the issue.
In November 1977, a jury of 10 women and 2 men took five hours to find Francine not guilty by reason of temporary insanity.
The “burning bed syndrome” became something academics studied and used as a defense in other cases of women killing their abusers.
In 1980, a book called The Burning Bed was published and it was based on Francine’s Story.
In 1984, Farrah Fawcett starred in a made-for-TV movie based on The Burning Bed.
The number of shelters for battered women grew from a handful in 1977 to nearly 700 the year “The Burning Bed” was televised.
There also was a National Domestic Violence Awareness Week, the movement had made huge strides.
A decade later, in North America, the Violence Against Women Act was passed, it established a national domestic violence hotline, which forced all states, provinces and jurisdictions in North America to recognize and enforce victim protection orders, and provided funding for domestic violence training for law enforcement officers.
After the trial, Francine returned to Jackson, Michigan and held various low-skill jobs before marrying Robert in 1980.
They moved to Tennessee and she enrolled in nursing school earning certification as a practical nurse.
She worked in nursing homes and as a private caregiver and she ran a nursing agency with her husband.
She has been called a feminist heroine but she shied from publicity.
Francine passed away in 2017, from complications of pneumonia.
Today Domestic violence has been recognized as a worldwide issue but that doesn’t mean it’s been resolved.
Unfortunately even today, 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 9 men will be victims of severe physical abuse by an intimate partner during their lifetime.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233 or chat with a worker at https://www.thehotline.org/.
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