Whatever Mother Says... Read Online Free PDF

obviously they were paranoid delusions. And that goes along with somebody that’s having a nervous breakdown.”
    Sometime after this, Theresa Knorr stopped getting out of bed and getting dressed. She never took a shower, and refused to go outside for weeks at a time. But she still managed to wield the hand of discipline if required.
    Theresa Knorr stopped punishing her son Howard when he was a strapping fourteen-year-old—six feet and 190 pounds—and highly likely to retaliate against his overweight, overbearing mom. The last time he was beaten by her, she wielded her favorite weapon—a two-by-four with the words “Board of Education” written across it. 1 He cannot remember the reasons for the punishment, but the words exchanged between mother and son provide a cold insight into their relationship.
    After his mother’s final painful smack on his backside with the two-by-four, Howard turned around to her and said:
    “You done now?”
    “Yes. I guess you’re too big to whip anymore.”
    Howard’s worst legacy from those beatings was his vicious temper. Life at that house really screwed him up.
    “I had a real problem with my anger, you know, real problem with my anger. That’s what led me into a bad marriage, and I ended up going to jail for it and that wasn’t the first time I ever got in trouble about violence. So yeah, it screwed me up pretty good. I had a lot of demons to work out,” he told investigators years later.
    But while Theresa Knorr might have decided not to beat her eldest son anymore, there was no such reprieve for her daughters.
    She was convinced they were going to go out and be promiscuous. She wanted to keep control of the girls so they would never be involved with boys. That meant clamping down on them—not even letting them go out and socialize with other teenagers.
    Theresa also passed on the mantle of responsibility to her boys, especially Howard at that time, because he was the eldest. It put the teenager under immense pressure. He was already working part-time as a cook at a local restaurant called Joe and Dotty’s, on Auburn Boulevard, to help the family survive. He had learned how to cook by preparing meals for his brothers and sisters. But now he was going to have to be the father as well.
    The other children accepted Howard as a father figure for the period he remained at home. He was respected, even feared. Basically, he took the place of a husband. That also meant frequently being the disciplinarian of the family.
    There were numerous occasions when Theresa Knorr would let Howard do her spanking for her with that familiar piece of two-by-four. She was proud of having trained him in the art of inflicting punishment.
    Sometimes Howard would make the children hold their ankles as he smashed the board on their bottoms or lay them on the floor before spanking them.
    These spankings were such vicious beatings that none of the children ever forgot them.
    Bruises were commonplace, especially when Howard used that two-by-four piece of wood—the Board of Education.
    Theresa Knorr still got involved in the really serious punishments. On many occasions the children being punished would end up with bruises all over their bodies.
    Theresa Knorr even introduced a switch-style riding crop just to inflict extra pain on her flock of children.
    When she used the switch, the injuries were so serious that the other children would dab peroxide on the cuts all over the back of whoever had been punished.
    As the oldest and the biggest, no one dared argue with Howard. He even devised rules and regulations that the other children had to obey, or face dire consequences.
    Howard’s career as main male enforcer in the Knorr household continued until he retired, at sixteen, after starting to work full-time as a chef. Howard was the sort of guy who, if the front door was slammed, went around to the back door; and if the back door was locked, he tried the windows; and if the windows were barred, he would