Psycho Stepmom

Edward Hobson, known as Ed, was born in 1942, a big, strong, blonde Dutch-American and a former all-state football player who spent time in the Army between Korea and Vietnam and worked for years as a mill worker at the Ralston Purina factory. In 1964, aged 22, he married Shirley Juanita Teed, a divorced 33-year-old with two daughters, LaLona, 14, and Tani, 12. Their son, Chris, was born on 4 February 1967. The household was comfortable, but the girls carried trouble. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it She later went to the University of Missouri, where she fell in love with Gary Hollinsworth, an engineering student who was also in the Navy. On the evening of 19 February 1973 she was called to a bar to collect him because he was too drunk to drive. this part of the story is covered for now She hit him with the pickup and killed him. Two days later she shot herself with his shotgun, and her six-year-old brother Chris found the body. The night before her funeral someone broke into the funeral home and posed and defiled her body. Ed always insisted she had been murdered, not a suicide, and that the Boone County investigators had bungled the case.

Shirley was diagnosed with liver cancer and spent about two years in hospital between 1975 and 1976 before dying at the end of that year. Ed raised Chris alone, taking him every summer to a family farm in King City, Missouri, to hunt and fish. Chris loved a 12-gauge shotgun and was a good shot by the age of eleven or twelve. Ed was a difficult, contradictory man: his minister called him warm, caring and deeply religious, while others described a violent temper and said he could be vengeful. Relatives said the marriage to Shirley had been violent too, and Ed admitted that Shirley had pulled guns on people and that fights at their house sometimes needed neighbours to break them up.

details of the account remain covered until revealed She was divorced and had a daughter, Suzanne. She later said a North Kansas City psychic, Mary Jacobs, had told her two years earlier that she would meet a blonde man at work who was supporting a child and was alone. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed He was already drinking, using drugs and stealing, and did badly at school; he left for his own apartment in early 1980. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it She called him names in front of people, said he caused unrest in the family, and from 1979 talked about sending him to a mental hospital or military school. Around 1980 she said she hoped to be rid of him before Christmas so she would not have to buy him presents. this part of the story is covered for now He could not do it. In March 1980 she gave Chris a bowl of ice cream containing eight quaaludes; he slept for about fourteen hours and woke up. There were later rumours of another attempt to drug his food.

On 17 April 1980 Ed went from work to a union meeting in Kansas City and rang home about dinner. details of the account remain covered until revealed They came home at 8.30 p.m. to find Chris gone, his homework undone and a 12-gauge shotgun missing from the gun rack. Suzanne said she had seen him doing his homework before she took a shower. At about 10.30 p.m. Ed called the police. The next day Chris's wallet was found in a strip mall parking lot, and a large air and ground search began. Tattered jeans and a flannel shirt were found near Interstate 435 but the parents said they were not his. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

On 3 May 1980 two boys digging for worms near Bull Creek in the Edgerton area found a body in a grave only sixteen to eighteen inches deep. It was Chris, with three shotgun wounds, to the back of the head, the chest and arm, and the throat, from a 20-gauge and a 12-gauge. The site was in sparsely populated ground that was about to be flooded to create the Hillsdale reservoir, so the body would probably never have been found. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it His mother had come to his apartment, said something had to be done about Chris, offered to buy him a sports car, and told him, falsely, that Chris had turned him in over the stolen credit cards. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Her bond was reduced from $100,000 to $50,000 and Ed paid it. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Three defence psychiatrists said he did not know right from wrong; two for the state said he did. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Suzanne recanted her statement on the stand, was declared a hostile witness, and eventually confirmed it in tears. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it In 2020 a neighbour wrote online that the couple lived less than a block away. Two books were written about the case: Crazy Maker by Thomas O'Donnell in 1992, and Family Affairs by Andy Hoffman.