By the end of her life Sheila was rather a pathetic figure, with no real friends to speak of, condemned to demeaning cleaning jobs at the beck and call of the owners of rich houses in the vicinity of Maida Vale. Her goal when she was lucid was to attract a wealthy benefactor, but her mental state meant she was slovenly in dress and personal hygiene, which proved she was no schemer as these were just symptoms of her illness but which had the effect of excluding her from her dream.
Ironically it was Jeremy who saw rich pickings in the properties around him and boasted to Liz Rimington among others that he had considered burglarizing them. In fact many murderers start out on the road to crime with minor offences, which escalate when they're punished with a limp slap on the wrist only.
You talk about the psychology of a murder. I've just watched a programme on youtube on the Menendez brothers and the parallels are striking. A strong father whom the children could not hope to emulate, the lack of any consistent discipline as the children were growing up and the final insult as far as the brothers were concerned in the parents threatening to change their wills.
Julie is relevant because she has not wavered in her evidence in 33 years. She believes Bamber to be guilty after all this time as she stated at the 2002 appeal, she is now a model citizen in Canada and has learned from her past mistakes, that for most of us there are no shortcuts in life. It would be churlish and vindictive in the extreme to attempt to prove an unprovable hypothesis by hammering away at this woman directly and risk the stability she has so assiduously worked for personally and professionally over those past years.
Steve,Sheila's situation would have tried the patience of a saint albeit a very sad situation to have been in but I remain adamant that there'd been no understanding of her " frustrations " which appeared frequently when she wasn't able to speak or explain to anyone how she was feeling at the time. Her only line of defence was to hit out or shout and scream.
Not once have I read about anyone sitting down on a one to one during her treatment in order to get to the root of her problem.
I know someone who'd " unknowingly " suffered PND for 17 years ! until,left untreated, manifested itself into paranoia and 3+ months in a mental health clinic. It's never a guaranteed treatment !
We know Sheila suffered the loss of babies--------but was she ever treated ?? I doubt it.
As for JB knowing the full extent of Sheila's problems-----he hadn't got a clue and that's the bottom line. At the age he was at the time,his life had been too full to bother about anyone other than himself let alone a sister who'd probably have given her right arm to have confided in her brother about their mother's behaviour towards her and the twins.
Imagine being as Sheila was,with nobody to confide in ? I firmly believe that anyone in such a situation would eventually succumb to their bottled-up frustrations in some way. People have taken their own lives for far less than the problems Sheila had ! So why wasn't her background investigated ?
The only ones who'd been interested in Wills had been the relatives. JB's possible interest was to be armed and ready for the onslaught at the thought of what his relatives would have to say when it was read out. I can imagine and also appreciate both sides at this point,that's the winners and also the losers,thoughJB did himself no favours with his own attitude at becoming " Lord and Master " of all he surveyed-------which clearly showed his immaturity.
In a way,JM has to be relevant inasmuch as should anything come about that a further appeal is granted,then we'll get to see whether her side of this sorry saga holds water. We more or less know that the silencer was a red-herring-------so what else was there ?