Although I often try to avoid the truly serious topics when I think about posts to put on this blog (the moderators over at The Ranter's Row have allowed me to have an outlet for serious frustration on their blog), but I read an article in Wednesday's The Washington Post that I knew I both needed to post something about and the post needed to go on this forum first.
I feel I must warn readers that this post is quite long. I've added a break below to minimize the space it occupies on the blog home page. Just click the link at the break to expand the rest of the post.
The article in question, by Keith L. Alexander, was titled "Washington lawyer's widow: 'Not a day goes by when I don't think about him'". It's an interview with Kathy Wone, whose husband was brutally murdered in August of 2006, in the Dupont Circle townhouse owned by three men who were considered to be friends of Robert and Kathy Wone. The three men were charged, two years after the murder, with obstruction of justice, because it was believed that they knew the identity of the individual who drugged Robert Wone into a "paralytic-like state" and then proceeded to sexually assault him and stab him to death.
These three men, who are named in the article linked above and will not be named here, denied the allegations, but then proceeded to invoke their Fifth Amendment right not to testify any time a question about the night of the murder was posed to them throughout the trial. They refused to look at Kathy Wone and Robert Wone's family as they came and went during the trial. Ms. Wone said in the interview, "I sensed they had a lot of disdain for us." And, in the end, the men were acquitted due to a lack of evidence against them.
For my part, their refusal to answer any questions about the murder to keep from incriminating themselves is evidence enough. If they didn't kill Robert Wone themselves, they know who did, and they helped to cover up that person's heinous act. That thought sickens me.
Let me say first that the article explained that the three men in question were engaged in a three-way, sadomasochistic relationship, of which Robert Wone was not a part. I have nothing personal against individuals who engage in sexual practices that are considered outside the norm, nor (obviously) against men involved in a homosexual relationship. I believe that as long as all parties involved are consenting adults of sound mind and as long as those practices do not harm any of the individuals engaged in them, it is their right to do as they are want. I feel I cannot hold prejudice against consenting adults.
My anger toward the three defendents involved in this case does not stem from any allegation about the nature of their relationship. However, I am also a firm believer that sadomasochistic activities should never, under any circumstances, pull in unwilling participants, such as I believe may have happened to Robert Wone.
Instead, my anger stems from the fact that these men were once thought of by Robert Wone and his family as friends. These friends denied that they killed him, denied that they know who killed him, and claimed that the act was committed by a stranger who broke into their home that night.
I question how it is possible for these friends of the Wone family to make such a ridiculous claim when no money, credit cards, or other valuables were stolen by the supposed intruder, other than Mr. Wone's life. I want to know how it happens that someone breaks into a multi-million dollar townhouse in Dupont Circle, without any alarms going off, on a night when Robert Wone just happened to be staying overnight in the house, in order to save himself the long trip home after working late into the night, something I would guess he had done at least once or twice before at the owners' invitation. After all, Mr. Wone and the owners were friends, right?
Please tell me how this stranger just happened to bring a substance with which to drug Mr. Wone so that he couldn't fight back, and tell me how this stranger decided on the spur of the moment to then rape Mr. Wone, before stabbing him to death. No, it seems to me that this act was just too personal to be committed by a coincidental stranger.
And, please don't tell me that Mr. Wone was somehow "asking" for what happened to him, just because he stayed at the townhouse owned by his friends that night. Such intimations are sickening and vile.
It took me these four days since reading the article before I felt able to write this post. It took that long for me to find a reasoned response to it. When I read about the absolute failure of the justice system for this murdered and degraded man, and the wife, family, and friends that were left behind, I felt rage, for what is possibly only the second or third time in my life.
Rage should not be confused with anger in any way. Anger and frustration are easy to feel, but rage is a monster of a different species that should not be entertained for too long, or it will sweep aside everything in its path. No good ever came from acts persued from rage.
And so, after I read this article, I didn't talk about it. I let it sink in, and I let the rage run its course. I wasn't an avid reader of The Washington Post in 2006, so Robert Wone's murder was fresh news for me. When Daisy came home, I told her I'd read an article that had bothered me deeply, and I told her about the rage I had felt, but I didn't talk about what was in the article. I let her read it for herself. When she did, she said she understood why I felt the way I did, and I could see in her face the profound sadness that the article produced in her.
Daisy and I have been married for almost two years now, and together for even longer than that. I'm finding that the longer I'm with her, and the longer I've been married, the less tolerance I have for acts of unkindness and downright harm that people in this world commit. I didn't like seeing the sadness that the article caused Daisy, but I knew that she needed to read it for herself to understand it best. I believe that anyone reading this post needs to read the article themselves to best understand it. I can't tell you about what I read in the article and make you fully understand what's in it.
I can't put you in Kathy Wone's shoes - hearing that her husband with whom she was supposed to spend 50 years or better had been drugged, raped, and stabbed to death while she slept - as I put myself in her shoes when I read the article. You have to do that yourself.
I decided not to put the names of the three men in this post, even though they are named in the Washington Post article, because I won't bring their evil into my blog. And, I know quite clearly that they are evil. No one can either commit the murder or cover up the murder of a supposed friend and then behave as though the victims left behind in the wake of the heinous act don't exist, especially when they're right in front of you, unless you are evil. (I believe Ms. Wone when she says she felt their disdain, because anyone who has been the object of disdain knows it without a doubt when they feel it.)
I do take comfort that Ms. Wone has been able to find some small amount of accountability in civil court against the three men who took or helped take her husband from her in the most degrading manner possible. I am also glad for her that these men have taken their evil out of Dupont Circle and far away from her. I feel fear, however, for those in Florida where the three have relocated, because I don't think they feel remorse or that true accountability was leveled on them. And, more than likely, they'll do this again to someone else.
So, please beware, Floridians. This evil that touched the lives of the Wones and others now walks amongst you, your children, your family, your friends. Take notice. Don't be caught blind to it.
--Penn
PS - To Kathy Wone, you and your family are in our thoughts and prayers. We hope that peace will be bestowed upon you with time. And for Robert, we hope that justice will still happen for you someday.
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