Suzanne Basso
Last week, 59-year-old Suzanne Basso was executed through lethal injection by the state of Texas for the 1998 murder of Louis “Buddy” Musso. She was only the 14th woman to suffer capital punishment since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
And that, in itself, makes hers an interesting case.
Whatever your views of capital punishment, it is difficult to make a case that Ms. Basso didn’t deserve it. She was convicted of leading a group of thugs in the torture killing of Mr. Musso, 59, a mentally challenged man whom she had lured to Texas with the promise of marriage, so she could cash in his life insurance policy and assume his Social Security benefits.
The medical examiner’s report detailed at least 17 cuts to Musso’s head, skull and neck fractures, 14 broken ribs, two dislocated vertebrae, 28 cuts and cigarette burns on his back and bruises covering his body, which was found in a ditch by a passing jogger.
According to the Crime Classification Manual, we would categorize this as a “Criminal Enterprise Murder.” Women commit only a small fraction of all violent crimes, and when we do see a female offender, it is usually either a criminal enterprise – i.e., a crime for money or profit – or self defense against abuse.
But what makes this unusual, and chilling, is the enlistment of others and the torture, which leads us to further refine our classification into Criminal Enterprise with subcategories of Group Cause and Sadistic Murder.
Women don’t tend to be sadistic like certain types of male offenders. If they have such predilections, they are likely to be more self-abusive, punishing themselves through prostitution, illicit drugs, or involving themselves with brutal partners. What Basso did to Musso went beyond a scheme to get his money. She tortured him because it gave her satisfaction and a sense of domination and control.
During the trial and prior to her execution, Basso’s lawyers tried to show that she was mentally incompetent and therefore not culpable for the murder. But her planning and carrying out a complex scheme on a man who was himself mentally incompetent – she met him at a church carnival in New Jersey and then got him to move in with her in Jacinto City, just east of Houston – clearly demonstrates her intelligence and criminal sophistication.
So do the reports of her pretending to be blind and paralyzed, and speaking in the little girl voice of an alternate personality. A state judge ruled that Basso had a history of fabricating details of her life and manipulating psychological tests.
And she used bleach, pine cleaner and a wire brush on the body to remove any evidence linking her and her accomplices to the crime.
We don’t see many women like this, but when we do, they are just as dangerous as if they were men.
And last week, she finally got what was coming to her.
Contrary to a common belief, there are no “happy hookers.” Of course, there are women (and men, they do it too) who claim that they are prostitutes for the great money, that they are perfectly happy, that they have not had abusive lives, etc. To which I would unceremoniously retort: bullshit. There is no way that any human being can so debase themselves and reduce themselves to being so objectified, so sexually violated and abused on a regular basis, and have a healthy life and a non-abusive background. It just does not happen. Prostitutes are broken people, they are victims who get caught up in an endless cycle of abuse and self loathing and drugs to forget both. Of course they are going to deny that they are victims, to give themselves a false sense of control via cognitive dissonance or plain old delusion. Otherwise, they wouldn’t last as long as they do. And no hooker lasts long. Prostitutes don’t lead happy lives and they usually have very ugly deaths, either as the result of violence, as the result of overdose (because you are not going to find a hooker who doesn’t do drugs), or as the result of rampant sexually transmitted diseases. Prostitutes are not call girls or escorts or companions, they are hookers, plain and simple. It is not a glamorous life and no one does it by choice, but because they are twisted and cant seem to find there way out of an endless dark abyss. It is an ugly, sordid, dirty, horrifying existence and anyone who says any different is just a liar. Its really that simple.
I’ve been in a couple of threads that went on for days and got quite volatile. In the end, some woman will come forward and swear she knew 4 perfectly normal college girls who had plenty of money and just did it for fun, servicing, for example, shy virgins. Sigh. As if having money stops them from having had an unhealthy childhood. Then since that’s what the pro-hooker men want to believe, that’s what they think is the truth. Of course, there’s plenty of prostitutes with a story similar to that. There’s even been songs written about “the story” they give to make men feel like they’re just the girl next door in a bit of a bind. But people believe what they want to believe, the convenient truth.
I hold a special ire for those criminals out to take advantage of the elderly for money. There are so many of them that it is really just commonplace. I have more respect for vultures, because they must eat.
Your comments about sadistic females usually turn it back on themselves was interesting. I’ve gotten in a lot of internet squabbles about whether women who prostitute themselves mostly had issues from childhood. A lot of people insist they do it because they like it. I know there are studies saying about 85% of them have prior abuse (and I always add it could just be boundary issues with someone growing up), but those who want to believe they’re just having fun so it’s okay to use them can find whatever other “studies” they want on the internet to support their side as well. I’d love to see a column about it here sometime.
You’re right, Cornerstone, it is a good idea for a column. As far as our empirical law enforcement research goes, I think the large majority of prostitutes are “working” rather than having fun. They do it because they have to to get by, or because none of their other skills provide a decent wage. I think you’d find few independent, non-drug-addicted women who enjoy prostituting themselves.