No, We Are Not All Lindsay Clancy

Some of us feel more like Patrick: helpless in the presence of unstable women

Janice Fiamengo, Sep 04, 2026

The only thing more striking than the adulation that has erupted in response to Lindsay Clancy’s admitted killing of her three children has been the torrent of anger and suspicion poured out against then-husband Patrick Clancy.

I can’t think of a single example, recent or historical, in which a bereaved mother, her children dead at her ex-husband’s hand, has been subject to anything other than profound sympathy.

It’s not uncommon for such mothers to become revered public figures, campaigning for changes in law or public opinion, and applauded for their “courage” in picking up the pieces of their lives.

One such is Claire Throssell, a British mother whose ex-husband killed their two sons and himself in 2014 by setting their house afire. No one has publicly speculated that Throssell drove her ex-husband to the deed. No one alleged that police should have more closely investigated her actions on the days leading up to the crime.

Throssell, in fact, was centrally involved in a successful feminist campaign to rewrite UK custody law in order to change the presumption that it is generally good for children to have contact with both parents after divorce. The new legislation, not yet formalized, will mean that even fewer divorced fathers will be able to maintain close contact with their children.

Read the rest HERE . . .

Is it a watershed moment in the relations between men and women? Is it a sign that men have absolutely had enough of women and their emotional instability? This is the first of a series of comments I will post in answer to those questions.

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Lindsay Clancy and the Perennial Innocence of Killer-Mothers

Western criminal law has been soft on violent mothers for at least the past 250 years

Janice Fiamengo, Aug 25, 2026

The headlines are standard: “Women in pink rally in support of Lindsay Clancy who is on trial for killing 3 children,’” “America’s saddest murder trial: mental health in focus in Lindsay Clancy case,” “Lindsay Clancy’s trial shows how badly the system fails mothers,” and “Everyone Failed Lindsay Clancy.”

The headlines look away from the actual victims in the case: the three helpless children who were strangled to death in early 2023. All the sympathetic emphasis is on their mother, portrayed as a tragic figure allegedly “failed” by others and not morally responsible for her horrific act.

As in many cases of mothers who murder their children (I discuss other recent cases here), Lindsay Clancy has defenders aplenty eager to cry for her and proclaim their solidarity (for one compilation, see here). Some are even willing to say that they have felt as she allegedly felt—eager to dispatch their children. Her grisly act has provoked masses of donations to a GoFundMe account (reportedly at one million dollars) as well as enthusiastic rallies of (mostly) women proclaiming her innocence.

Many pink-themed supporters insist on asserting, without logical or evidentiary foundation, that it was Patrick Clancy, Lindsay’s then-husband, who deserves the lion’s share of the blame, whether for failing to support his wife adequately during her post-partum depression or even, as some allege, for killing the children himself and then convincing his mentally fragile wife to take the blame.

Read the rest HERE . . .