My husband was like a tape recorder that you can t turn off. His rants went on for hours, and then he would stop and start over again, as if he had rewound and replayed the tape. While this went on I wasn’t allowed to leave the room. He was a large man and blocked the doorways, pointing out that I would have to push him in order to get out and if I did he would have me arrested for assault. The longest screaming session lasted 7 hours and that is after I started timing him. Our living room had a clock on the wall. He began over a perceived slight and then said we could have avoided all this if I supported him as a wife should. I thought oh, dear God, no, he is going to start over. And he did.
The police would do nothing - not even take a teport. Once I packed to leave and he came in with a ridiculous list of things he said I owed him money for - like half the food (he kept every little piece of paper, including supermarket receipts, filed by year) and said he knew I woukdn’t oay him, but this box of music tapes was probably worth that much so he was hoing to keep them until I paid him or sell them.
I called the cops then but they said everything I owned, including my clothes was community property and he could keep anything he wanted. They said to let him have it if I wanted to leave so bad and argue in court. That gave him more ammo; he began hiding treasured possessions and secretly made an extra set of keys to my car so he could “hold” the “community property’” “until the divorce is over and the judge decides what is whose.” It was to keepme from leaving.
He had neighbors watch the house and call him if they saw me trying to losd up my car and leave while he was at work. He needed their help so he coukd “save” our marriage.
I couldn’t confide in friends because he would call them and cry, saying he was worried about me and thought I was depressed, and had I said anything to them? A friend of more than twenty years repeated everything to him, including that I was planning to leave. She looked me right in my fave and told me I “didn’t understand” and “he is worried about you.” Nobody would listen to me when I begged them not to talk to him. They thought they were “helping” us “save” our marriage. I lost friends over this.
I finally got away while he was on a business trip. His flying monkey neighbor ran over to try to stop me and called him, but he didn’t make it back in time.
I tried to get a protective order but the judge said I had no proof. He contested the divorce, crying and swearing he loved me in court. My stupid state requires a year waitbefore you can file for divorce and he harassed me constantly.
It took two years to get divorced and he only agreed because he found a new girlfriend.
She moved out after a year and he wentthrough a seriesof broken engagements. The last girl DID get a restraining order and he spent almost a year in jail and got ten years probation for violating the restraining order.. At least now everyone, including his family, believes me now. His sister keeps me informed now because she is afraid he will still hurt me someday. She says he sometimes explodes in rants out of nowhere, saying I ruined his life.
He is hiring lawyers and trying to get his time reduced. His sister and I are afraid he willget away with it. I am afraid he will kill a woman someday. He has contacted me several times, saying I was his one true love, although I am now remarried.
We live in another state but I am afraid I willnever truly be rid of him.
He wasn’t like this until the second year of our marriage. I don’t know what happened, although there is a history of mental illness on his father’s side of the family. He is totally different from the guy I met and married.
Stalking laws and restraining orders are a joke. Divorce laws that make you wait a year with an abuser are cruel.
It’s been 16 years since I left, but I am still not over the damage. Thank God for my present husband; he understands and supports me.
Women can’t win. It is our fault for getting involved with the man in the first place, our fault fornot leaving, our fault for “dwelling on it” and “not moving on and forgetting about it” if we are damaged. Nobody ever asks THEM why they do what they do.