415 replies to this topic

[Ethereal Zoe]

Investigation Discovery is coming out with a new series. This time it's about spouses of people in prison and the effect it has on them. When does it debut? Why Valentine's Day, of course! Classy, ID. Classy.

Here's the skinny.

[Suz at Large]

I Do. Not. Understand. those women.

That is just the sickest saddest situation. I mean, who wants to admit she's such a submissive easily manipulated sack of defective DNA that a guy who's in lockup can pull her strings?

Apparently enough of them for ID to make a series about. Feh.

[Myndela]

And they are starting out on V-day (or VD Day) with three- count 'em, three episodes!

I don't get it either. The fans of Scott Peterson, Richard Ramirez, or Bob Fratta. It is disgusting and vile. And Danielle Steele married a rapist who was in prison, and then a heroin-addicted criminal, and wrote books about them.

"But he didn't do it/It was an accident/He was framed/He's a different person now!" Do they want someone who is beneath them, because they have low self-esteem and want to feel like the person in the relationship that has power? Are they desperate to nest somehow? Do they think that they will never have anyone better? Do they think that they can change him? What is it that attracts these women? It makes no sense to me whatsoever.

[Ethereal Zoe]

Although to be fair, it looks like there is at least one prison husband that will profiled on the show. Based on the article, it looks like he was an airline captain who moved from WA to TN to support his incarcerated spouse.

I'm hoping he's not the only husband profiled. I'd like to think it's not just women who fall for prisoners.

Edited by Ethereal Zoe, Feb 7, 2010 @ 10:51 PM.

[Suz at Large]

BTW, I'm assuming these are not marriages that predate the criminal's imprisonment. Those marriages at least have some appearance of "normality," if there is such a thing anyway. They certainly lack the ick factor of the marriages that begin with one person locked up in prison and the other on the outside.

[Myndela]

Okay, something that really skeeves me out about the commercial for this show is that they say that they are "ordinary couples, living the most extraordinary love stories of our time." Ick.

[jalfredprufrock]

Okay, something that really skeeves me out about the commercial for this show is that they say that they are "ordinary couples, living the most extraordinary love stories of our time." Ick.

I came here to comment on that exact quote from the preview - what.the.fuck? I don't have a problem with this type of show per se, as long as it is represented for what it is - voyeurism, pure and simple. To make it out into some Romeo and Juliet timeless love story is creepy and gross.

[ScribblerGuy]

Many of the couples portrayed in the 13 episodes have posted their stories at www.prisonwivesid.com (unofficial). The main Discovery mini-site for the show is at http://investigation...v/prison-wives/ and has photos of all the non-incarcerated wives and husband, plus some videos.

BTW, I'm assuming these are not marriages that predate the criminal's imprisonment. Those marriages at least have some appearance of "normality," if there is such a thing anyway. They certainly lack the ick factor of the marriages that begin with one person locked up in prison and the other on the outside.

Based on the unofficial site, it looks like there are a few pre-incarceration couples, but the majority seem to have met while one of them were incarcerated.

[falconress]

Oh, this is going to be fun.

*goes to make popcorn*

I just looked at that wives' website and found this gem from Anika, about her husband, Anthony. Apparently, he's a great guy and a great dad who made just one little mistake... for which he's serving life without the possibility of parole.

Uh huh.

*grabs mohair throw, toss pillow, nearest cat*
*settles into La-Z-Boy*
*waits*

To be fair, there were a couple of very slightly more reasonable stories there, reasonable in the sense that the gals seemed to have a realistic grasp of where they stood in the space and time continuum. Some had been married before the husbands went off to pokey, one has a husband who was released after serving his full sentence, and the one where the wife is the prisoner may have an interesting story. The rest are as loopy in their delusions as Anika.

[Ethereal Zoe]

*grabs mohair throw, toss pillow, nearest cat*
*settles into La-Z-Boy*
*waits*

Many people have owed others keyboards on this site. Falconress, you now owe me one because I can't stop laughing over my glass of wine.

[Suz at Large]

*grabs mohair throw, toss pillow, nearest cat*
*settles into La-Z-Boy*
*waits*

Many people have owed others keyboards on this site. Falconress, you now owe me one because I can't stop laughing over my glass of wine.

You don't owe me a keyboard, but I definitely remembered that comment last night. When I was snuggling onto the love seat/ottoman setup with my down throw, hot tea and sleepy Shih Tzu. And flipping through channels with the remote.

[dustoff]

I know two women that have married inmates. *Good Lord, what does that say about me!!!?*
Bless their hearts, they are both trailer trash idiots that think that Love Conquers all!

One is a nurse that married the guy after he was in prison. He brutally murdered someone by stealing their truck, then wrapping them in plastic, so he could slowly suffocate. If he was outside he would have nothing to do with her. He is a very handsome guy. She is the stereotypical frumpy middle-aged fat frizzy haired broad that you see on this show. I will not be surprised if she doesn't end up on the show.

The other is a big dumbass that tries to act like he isn't in prison. She had a big article in a local newspaper about how the two of them were going to start a fitness/personal training business. The picture that ran in the paper was from their marriage at the prison. Needless to say, the paper had to run another article about how he is an inmate and is in for life for two murders.

She doesn't think people know that she is married to a fucking convict. She talks about him all the time and has tattoos with his name and her email is his name with all sorts of lovey stuff. He is total scum. I have a friend that works at the prison and she said he is a total sociopath and for awhile was "married to two different women" .
All these guys want is for someone to give them money so they can buy stuff in the canteen.
They are total users, and unfortunately, there are gullible women that fall for this shit.

[d822]

Thanks, Malibu, for putting me on the right forum. Didn't know this was here. Feeling a little embarrassed for trying to start this in the wrong place.

Can't understand these women, especially one that I saw tonight that has children and moves the children everywhere. School changes, trying to make new friends all the time, and all the for a convicted murderer she met on the internet that keeps getting transferred around. This situation is just terrible.

[Myndela]

Can't understand these women, especially one that I saw tonight that has children and moves the children everywhere. School changes, trying to make new friends all the time, and all the for a convicted murderer she met on the internet that keeps getting transferred around. This situation is just terrible.

Yeah, that was pretty awful. The man brutally murdered his girlfriend's mom. Why would you expose your children to such trash, and have them call him "daddy"?

If they were so poor that they had food stamps and Section 8 housing, how were they affording those many phone calls? The mark-up on collect calls from prison is tremendous, and if they were worrying about food money, why not stop speaking to him daily? The kids can't eat phone calls, you dumb bitch.

[Edie Wharton]

My opinion is that the only one who may even possibly be innocent is LaToya's husband. She has worked her heart out for him for years, and if lhe gets out, I hope he sticks with her and it's not just not a prison thing. She has gone the extra mile for him for years.

d822, I agree. I really liked her, from the moment she was describing not caring what he looked like before they first met. She said something like, "I don't care if he's ugly and has no teeth. I can buy him teeth." She's a pistol, and I wish her well!

[d822]

I agree with you. Didn't I hear Annika (think that was her name - the one with the children) say in one of her accepted collect calls from the prison that she had put money in his prison account. We saw her trying to stretch what was left of her food stamps as far as possible to get a little food in the house for her and her 3 children, but she can accept daily calls from him. I'm disgusted. Now the grandmother has married a convict friend of her daughter's murderer husband and has started moving wherever to be near him during his various prison transfers. There seems to be no stability for the children anywhere here. Just horrible.

[catsrock71]

I see Annika can afford cigarettes...priorities, you know. Food stamps, section 8, can't pay the bills, living on $600/mo. disability, but gotta have those cigs. What was Annika's disability? It said she had a leg injury, but she seemed to be walking just fine. Surely she would be able to find some kind of J.O.B? And her "short forearms" didn't seem to impair her. WTF with her not letting lover boy take the prision job because it would interfere with their time together? And how old was grandma? She looked OLD and BAD!

[arejay]

The cigs......and the nails. That's the important stuff. But a more pressing issue for me is this: WHY is murdering husband being transfered from facility to facility so often? Is he on the Pen-of-the-Month program?

[Suz at Large]

I may have to watch this trainwreck series, just to better enjoy the snark here.

At least it's a bit of a change from some of the shows I end up selecting when channel surfing. Two weeks ago I got a nasty respiratory viral infection, and was housebound for days with a high fever, etc. I couldn't read or concentrate on much while the illness was at its worst, so I ended up with the teevee on a *lot*. As I recovered, I realized that I had just watched a TON of shows about (1) people killing other people, (2) wars, and (3) grossly fat people. A sign that I was perking up? More DIY and HGTV.

I suppose the dysfunctional folks featured on Prison Wives would be a change from the murderers and morbidly obese.

And the woman who pays for daily collect calls from her killer hubby, with money she could use to feed her kids? I figure the kids may be safer with the guy locked up. That woman is probably the kind we read about all the time, sadly, in those stories in the local newspaper where a guy is jailed for killing his girlfriend's infant or toddler. Like, so needy and submissive to the guy that if she had any natural protective mothering instincts to protect her child(ren), she denies them and lets him smack the kid(s) around.

I may be going straight to hell for saying this, but I think those women should be sterilized. And I am only exaggerating a little.

[Ahoskie59]

Can't understand these women, especially one that I saw tonight that has children and moves the children everywhere. School changes, trying to make new friends all the time, and all the for a convicted murderer she met on the internet that keeps getting transferred around. This situation is just terrible.

I don't have a problem with women who want to marry men who are in prison, because to each his or her own. My issue with Annika was that she had children. Annika kept saying that her children loved him, called him "daddy", used his last name. What Annika doesn't get is that her children are just children, minors who are dependent on her. Their biological father didn't seem to care about them, so all they have is their mother and whatever she does they're going to agree with. I wondered how many schools they've attended in one school year. I also wondered why the guy kept getting transferred.

I also thought it was strange that Annika's mom wound up going with another inmate, a friend of Annika's husband.

I can see how Annika got sucked in though. The guy was good looking, the kind of guy who probably would never look at a woman like Annika, he said he liked blondes with big boobs or something. Also he was in prison for killing his mother-in-law, because he and his wife (who was 20 years older than him) were stealing from her mom so they could buy heroin. He probably told Annika that he would never have done something like that had he not been on dope.

Like I said I don't have any problem with women who want to do this as long as it's just them (I once dated a guy who'd been to prison for drugs in 1970, he served his time and is totally different now), my issue with Annika was that she had kids.

[TinkyWinkyBinky]

I was thinking exactly this when I was watching:

I can see how Annika got sucked in though. The guy was good looking, the kind of guy who probably would never look at a woman like Annika

. I also thought the same thing about Mom. She wasn't an unattractive woman, but looked way older than her hubby.

Also, when she was crying about how she wanted more visitation unsupervised so she could 'just be normal', I was thinking to myself, you totally could be, why make things so hard on yourself? She could date online and surely find someone in real life who she could be normal with. Her standards were so low that I doubt she would have a hard time.

I'm not sure that it's really that impressive that someone in prison has changed, because essentially, they are forced to. I'd think I'd be more impressed with someone who has been released from prison and not gone back to his/her old ways.

I too loved LaToya. I'd think that there must not be any additional evidence that her husband committed those crimes he confessed to other than his confessions or they wouldn't be considering dropping them, no?

Ellie's story was kind of boring.

I agree Major Misfit that she knew he was going to kill her since as soon as they realized he was alone in the house with her they started freaking out and calling 911. I guess I just got bored of it because once they revealed what had happened, that was kind of it. I mean, technically she is a prison wife but they were together before and it just got kind of zzzz for me.

Maybe Annika didn't want Anthony to take the job because he wouldn't be so dependent on her?

Edited by TinkyWinkyBinky, Feb 15, 2010 @ 2:30 PM.

[Major Misfit]

I can see how Annika got sucked in though. The guy was good looking, the kind of guy who probably would never look at a woman like Annika

I also thought the same thing about Mom. She wasn't an unattractive woman, but looked way older than her hubby.

Yup. And guaranteed that once Annika's mom prisoner/hubby is released from jail, she'll be served with divorce papers in about three days. And if Annika's husband ever gets out (which is not likely), the same thing will happen to her. That, or he'll kill her, too. The man reeked of psychopath.

It also seems Annika's eldest daughter had the same "short arm" syndrome -- whatever that means. At least the daughter didn't have all those prison tattoos.

ETA: Annika bitching that Anthony shouldn't take that prison job was bullshit. At least taking that job, he'd have SOME sort of income as opposed to the nothing he's making now. And whatever that income was, it would help alleviate some financial burden on Annika. But god forbid she would only "see" her husband on the weekend! What an idiot.

Ellie's story was kind of boring.

I thought it was pretty interesting -- considering there was the Jerry Springer Show angle in there. And here I was all these years thinking Springer rigged his shows. Guess not! I also thought Ellie had foreknowledge of her husband's crime.

Edited by Major Misfit, Feb 15, 2010 @ 2:04 PM.

[Ahoskie59]

Also, when she was crying about how she wanted more visitation unsupervised so she could 'just be normal', I was thinking to myself, you totally could be, why make things so hard on yourself? She could date online and surely find someone in real life who she could be normal with. Her standards were so low that I doubt she would have a hard time.

I agree but here's the problem. If Annika had dated online (and I have a feeling she was which was why that other woman sent her an email asking if she'd like to communicate with a guy in prison), she probably would not have met a man who looked like Anthony. Dating online isn't easy, especially for a woman with three chidlren. I believe Annika liked/likes the idea of Anthony being her husband because he is handsome, she likes the fantasy of having a good looking husband. He'll never get out so the relationship will be mostly in Annika's mind.

[always edina]

I more or less watched ALL these shows because my husband was trying to unjam our dvd player I broke. Some Valentines Day, hmm...

I found I was getting REALLY pissed with Annika for the following reasons:

Her kids. They looked unkempt, unhealthy and depressed. According to her, she moved them around to wherever her husband had be shipped. I am sure they have no friends and very little family interaction with anyone other than their grandmother who seemed to be just as oblivious as her daughter.How healthy is it for them to spend their weekends and after school visiting a PRISON? Money is tight? Well then, cancel your cell phone {you CAN live without one}, get a smaller car, stop smoking {I nearly passed out when I heard from my husband how expensive a carton of ciggies is}. Also, I saw the kids walking around with bottles of water. Bottled water is expensive, ever hear of tap? Honestly, I wanted to slap the shit out of that woman AND her mother. The boy, especially, seemed SO SAD.

My BFF was involved in a similar situation. I'm only going to say he was Irish and let you infer what you will. But she also had a full life while she was waiting for him.

I think this show is going to annoy the piss out of me.

Edited by always edina, Feb 15, 2010 @ 5:40 PM.

[Malibu65]

There is nothing I can add that hasn't already been mentioned that I agree with.

With the exception of LaToya, don't these women think of the slight possibility their "man" is communicating with other women on the outside? What makes them think they are the only stupid ones?

As for that woman whose arms are too short to box with God, she should have her children taken away from her.

[Major Misfit]

I believe Annika liked/likes the idea of Anthony being her husband because he is handsome, she likes the fantasy of having a good looking husband. He'll never get out so the relationship will be mostly in Annika's mind.

Oh, I totally agree. Annika can build up whatever fantasy she has about Anthony because the messiness of day-to-day relationship reality will never interfere. I'm sure she imagines her life as a Harlequin-style romance novel. Which is fine—but it's delusional.

Her ridiculous "we're a family" thing doesn't wash with me either. He is NOT the children's father and none of them knew him while he was on the outside. Those kids have no relationship with him AT ALL except as a voice on the phone or as the creep their mothers goes to jail to obsess over every day. It killed me that the one daughter knows what "in the hole" means.

She also struck me as a woman who has—or had—substance abuse issues of her own.

With the exception of LaToya, don't these women think of the slight possibility their "man" is communicating with other women on the outside? What makes them think they are the only stupid ones?

I totally agree! When I saw those pictures of Anthony, who really is quite good looking, I kept thinking he's GOT to have other pen pal "girlfriends" on the side.

Edited by Major Misfit, Feb 15, 2010 @ 6:38 PM.

[TinkyWinkyBinky]

I totally agree! When I saw those pictures of Anthony, who really is quite good looking, I kept thinking he's GOT to have other pen pal "girlfriends" on the side.

Maybe that's another reason she wants to use up all his visitation time every single day.

She was very delusional. At one point the interviewer must have asked her what she thought of people thinking her husband is evil. And she said something like 'Well, that's not the Anthony I know, but I'd like to know more about why they think that'. As though the fact that he murdered his MIL wasn't enough for them to form that opinion.

[Ahoskie59]

As I said before, I don't care if these women want to marry men who are in prison for life. Annika was the only person who bothered me because of her three children. But it seems that her ex husband doesn't care what happens to the kids either.

[Malibu65]

The thought of women spending the state's dime on prison inmates when it should go to their kids' welfare? Sick and sad. The women can do whatever the hell they like but don't involve children who have no say so.

I totally agree! When I saw those pictures of Anthony, who really is quite good looking, I kept thinking he's GOT to have other pen pal "girlfriends" on the side.

Yep.

[lola zee]

Annika appears to love her children, but sadly her priority does not seem to be their well being, but rather her fantasy world with Anthony. At the end she said at times she's mad at him for being in jail, but he was there when she first got involved with him and never would have met him otherwise. I'm wondering how long she'll really stick with him, with all the moves and no conjugal visits on the horizon.