On December 19, 1975, the life of 28-year-old Becky Harrington, a white female, was tragically cut short in her Detroit, Michigan home. Having recently separated from her husband, she was living in an apartment with her two young daughters. That day, her estranged husband, Paul Harrington, a 30-year-old Detroit police officer and Vietnam veteran, used his service revolver to fatally shoot Becky and their two daughters, 9-year-old Pamela and 4-year-old Cassandra. Immediately following the horrific act, Paul Harrington turned himself in to the authorities and led them to the scene of the crime. He was subsequently arrested and charged with three counts of murder.
During the legal proceedings, the defense for Paul Harrington built a case around his deteriorating mental state. They presented evidence of severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder that was attributed to his experiences during the Vietnam War. His attorney described an incident where a ringing telephone triggered a flashback, causing Harrington to react violently as if under enemy attack. After spending 17 months in a psychiatric institution while awaiting trial, the court experts unanimously agreed that he had been legally insane at the time of the killings. In 1977, a judge found him not guilty by reason of insanity and committed him to a state psychiatric hospital. However, due to the laws at the time, he was released after only two months, having been assessed as no longer a danger to himself or others.
For over two decades, Paul Harrington lived as a free man. He remarried and had two more children. The specter of his past, however, would resurface in a devastatingly familiar way. In October 1999, history repeated itself. Now 53, Harrington, reportedly suffering from financial troubles and having run out of his medication for severe depression, committed another brutal act of violence. He shot and killed his second wife, Wanda, and their 3-year-old son, Brian, in their Detroit home. Much like the first time, he called 911 to confess and waited on his porch for the police to arrive.
In the trial for the second double murder, Harrington’s defense again attempted to use an insanity plea. This time, however, the outcome would be different. Prosecutors argued that the act was premeditated, as he had borrowed the gun from a neighbor the night before. A psychiatrist for the prosecution testified that he believed Harrington was feigning mental illness. The court rejected the insanity defense, and Paul Harrington was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, bringing a final, somber end to a tragic story that spanned decades and claimed the lives of two of his families.
