Notable jailhouse romances & marriages
Posted July 3, 2014 3:53 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
One of Canada’s most notorious serial killers, Paul Bernardo, is reportedly engaged to a 30-year-old woman from London, Ont.
According to a report in QMI Agency, Sun Media’s national newswire, the woman has been corresponding with Bernardo since last fall.
Bernardo, now 50, is serving a life sentence for the Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy murders and was declared a dangerous offender after pleading guilty to 32 sex-related crimes in 1995.
However, this is not the only case of a jailhouse romance in Canada or even in North America.
Below are some of the well-known ones:
Karla Homolka
Karla Homolka, 44, was convicted of manslaughter in 1993 for her role in the murders of Mahaffy and French in the early 1990s. She testified against her then husband Bernardo after entering a plea bargain.
She was released from prison in 2005 after serving 12 years.
According to reports, Homolka was in a same-sex relationship with inmate Lynda Véronneau.
Menendez brothers
Erik and Lyle Menendez, now 43 and 46, respectively, who were convicted in 1994 and sentenced to life in prison for the gruesome murders of their parents in 1989, both married in California prisons.
Lyle married former model Anna Eriksson, who was frequently corresponded with him, in July 1996, but divorced in April 2001 after she reportedly found out he was cheating on her by writing to another woman. He then married married Rebecca Sneed, a magazine editor, in November 2003, at Mule Creek State Prison. They two had reportedly known each other for 10 years.
According to reports, his brother, Erik, married Tammi Ruth Saccoman, who is nine years his senior at the time, via a telephone ceremony in 1997 and then at Folsom State Prison in June 1999.
People magazine reported the relationship began in 1993, at the height of the trial. Saccoman told the magazine Erik was misunderstood.
“I just came to the conclusion that I never wanted to be without Erik,” she told People magazine. She wrote a book about their life together entitled They Said We’d Never Make It. “I know that is hard for people to understand.”
Ted Bundy
Serial killer and rapist Ted Bundy died by electric chair in January 1989 at Raiford Prison in Florida after being convicted for numerous murders he committed during the 1970s. Prior to his death, he confessed to 30 murders across seven U.S. states.
According to reports, Carole Boone married Bundy in 1979 and had one child with him. However, the romance began before Bundy was arrested in August 1975. Boone often visited him in prison and later moved from Washington State to Florida to be closer to him.
She also served as a character witness on his behalf during the trial. He then asked her to marry him. Boone gave birth to a daughter in 1982.
