This violence can be "functional, intentional and patterned."
In fact, Wood and Parente, if they could speak to us, might defend their actions by saying their wives and children couldn't cope without them, that killing them was a mercy.
I asked Gelles if the root of Wood's and Parente's actions might be found in the lingering legacy of English law in which a man's wife and children become his property. He agreed.
"There is a long cultural history there," said Gelles. "... The cultural DNA that makes women and children the property of the man is still in the gene pool."
What happened to these two families is a tragedy. But it is not simply the result of economic strain or mental illness. And it wasn't random craziness or a lightning strike.
Beneath the exterior of these model fathers were men who believe they had the right and the obligation to make all the family decisions, including those of life and death.
It might never have occurred to William Parente to ask his daughter Stephanie, a much-loved Loyola College student, if she would rather live with the shame and financial devastation he was about to bring upon the family, or if she would rather die.
