The Constance Fisher Tragedy

by Bob Briggs

On March 8, 1954, while battling post partum depression, a 24 year old Maine housewife drowned her three children in a bathtub before attempting suicide. After spending only 5 years at the Augusta State Hospital, Constance Fisher was released from the institution. Her release marked the beginnings of a new era in the treatment of the mentally ill in America, as the nation moved to phase out the large state run mental hospitals. On June 30, 1966, Constance Fisher again drowned her three children in a bathtub in what has been called the most bizarre murder story in the history of New England. The incident was foretelling of another American tragedy; the plight of the acutely mentally ill with no facility left to properly care for them.

Genres: True Crime, Biography

284 pages, Paperback

First published July 11, 2011

Reviews

[Freya Gordon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book covers the story of Constance Fisher who drowned 6 of her children in two separate incidents. There’s letters written by Constance to her family during her time in psychiatric hospitals, there’s an interview with foster sister (which should have been a much bigger portion of the book), some good details about psychiatric care at the time and research into who her family were. It’s striking how Constance’s family were so supportive of her even after she killed her children and how she was accepted back into their lives. Everyone seemed to be in agreement that she had been failed by the mental health professions and that she was not to blame - which was a very modern attitude considering this all took place in the 1950’s. People don’t typically manage to be that enlightened in 2018. She may have been accepted a little too easily though - the Drs seem appalled by how detached Constance AND her husband were from her crimes. She was petitioning for release as soon as it was possible and considered herself free of any moral as well as legal responsibility when she was declared not guilty by reason of her insanity at the time. Her husband is so determined to get her out of hospital that he is consulting lawyers to get her out and telling the Dr that women are getting off ‘scott free’ for much worse in other states.
However you do have to treat the book with a certain amount of skepticism as the writer himself takes some very strange turns. About 100 pages into the book the writer, completely without any prompting, puts forward the theory that Constance Fisher was possessed by a demon. A whole chapter where he tells us that the ‘voice’ Constance heard was not her mental illness but a demon. I nearly put this away and didn’t finish after that. He also seems to think that a conspiracy theory to protect staff was the reason he found it so difficult to obtain the medical records of someone he was not connected to that had been in storage for a couple of decades. He seems to read something sinister into the existence of Dr/patient confidentiality and him not being given a private tour of a building he has no business in. This somehow cedes into a little rant about lobbyists which seems quite out of place in this book. The structure in general seems a little all over the place - we jump from Constance Fisher and the writer’s modern day conspiracy theories to background information on mental health care in the 19th century to
This book was also obviously produced on a tight budget - there are many typos and mistakes in dates etc that would have been picked up by a professional editor or proof reader. The little survey that was included was illustrative but unscientific and there is rather a lot of opinion on politics and history that either doesn’t include sources or includes a source from Yahoo Answers. Some things do not completely add up and are not sufficiently challenged. For instance Constance repeatedly claimed she had a hard childhood - but everywhere else her childhood sounds quite happy - was she presenting herself as a victim of circumstance? Was there some issues in her childhood that are never revealed? She is more than once described as being so alike her foster sisters that they were mistaken for triplets - however a picture included of the three shows them to be wildly different with Constance a foot taller than either! She is described as unsociable but also a leader always in the centre of whatever was happening, moral but happy to let others take the blame for things she had done, intelligent but didn’t apply herself, clean and well groomed but unable to take care of a small house, a seriously mentally ill victim of circumstance and also an egocentric sociopath. Everyone who knew her seems to have seen a different face and this book doesn’t really acknowledge that or build an especially clear picture of who Constance Fisher was.

[Valerie Sherman · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fascinating true crime story, sad to read about how the mental health and criminal system let down this woman, her family, and society in this case. I don't appreciate the insinuation that the literal devil may have told this woman to murder her children, which is a strange idea to raise when so much of the book focuses on the treatment of mental illnesses. As a last note, I have never read a book with so many typos. I truly will copy edit the next edition of this thing for free if the authors or publishers read this. It hurt.

[Kathy Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a tragedy

As a large number of Americans are following the Lindsay Clancy trial, where a Massachusetts mother took the life of her three young children, I ran across a recommendation for this book, a foreshadowing of another tragedy that began in the1950's. A Massachusetts mother, while suffering from postpartum psychosis, drowned her three children in the family bathtub. She was sent to a mental hospital for treatment, and after several years was deemed fit to return to her life, her home and her husband. They went on to have three more children, whom she also killed.
This book was well researched and well written. It also has many photos of Mrs. Fisher, case file info from Mrs. Fisher's psychologists, psychiatrists, clergy, etc.

[Joshua Aiken · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found the book to be captivating. During one on my criminal classes at UMA the professor spoke about Constance Fisher. I was baffled by how a mother could do that to her children not once but twice! Knowing her family history, how she was raised, how mental illness was viewed back then, treatment of mental illness, and the stigma resulting from being labeled as having a mental illness, helped me to understanding why

[Melissa Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such tragedy. This book gives a glimpse of the life of Constance while providing first hand artifacts of letters she wrote as well as reports from doctors. It details the medical and judicial involvement, initiatives and failures as it pertains to those with mental illness. It’s unfortunate that after all these years we have made little to no progress and data showing that the population with mental illness is increasing.

[Roxanne Cyr]

Being brought up in the Augusta community, I never was aware of the story of Constance Fisher. Extremely sad and shocking story of one woman’s struggle with mental illness.
Bob Briggs gives many unbelievable facts of the history of this disease. I found this fascinating but deeply disturbing. It was definitely a good read.
Thanks, Bob!

[Sarah Rockwell-Kinney Walton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful

Good read if you can get past the spelling and grammatical errors. Speaks volumes about the mental health system and it's pitfalls

[Meghan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really tried to like this book... but I couldn't I hated it

[Laura (Book Scrounger) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to read, but thorough and well written.