Francine Moran, later Hughes, was born in Lansing, Michigan on August 17th, 1947, her mother naming her after a French Musician. Her childhood consisted of an alcoholic father. As many kids do when coming from an abusive home, Francine left home when she was just 16 years old to marry James "Mickey" Hughes in 1964. In the beginning, the marriage was not quite bad. However, as the years went by, Mickey began to physically abuse Francine in front of the kids and even his parents on occasion. Just like in other abuse cases, Mickey was very controlling and had major anger management issues that were aggravated and made worse by his alcoholism. Francine, after a few years, tired of the abuse and separated from Mickey. The abuse ranged from not allowing Francine to feed their 4 children by slapping food out of her hands and off the table. He would then smash her face into the mess and make her clean it up. Then for fun, he would knock the trashcan over and make her clean that up. Real piece of shit here. He would punch her. Francine had decided after she left and filed for divorce that she wanted to take courses on being a secretary. Then Mickey was involved in a bad car accident and when he was released from the hospital, Francine allowed him to come back to her house to recover. After he got well, the abuse started and got worse. At one point, he even killed their daughter's kitten.
On the day of the fire, March 9, 1977, Francine returned from her secretarial course in the afternoon and found Mickey drunk and irate. He refused to allow her to make food for their four children, and berated her for some time about quitting school, which she refused to agree, even after Mickey forced her to burn her schoolbooks. He began to physically assault her. The police came and spoke to the couple but left after refusing to arrest Mickey as he had not assaulted her in front of them. You see back in the day (70s-80s) the police had to WITNESS an assault, WITNESS, to be able press charges. How stupid that was. Remember, in this time frame, police considered domestic violence to be a "home" issue. In other words, what is done behind closed doors is not spoken about. There was very little help for women of domestic violence and most women were scared to even admit what they were going through. However, a police officer would later testify that Hughes had warned her that "it was all over" for her because she had called the police. She knew that he was going to kill her for calling them. And this is the reason why when a non-abused person says, " Why don't you just leave?" they will never understand why you can't just up and leave. There will be consequences.
Francine again attempted to make dinner for herself and the children, but Mickey swept the food onto the floor. He forced Francine to the floor by bending her arm behind her back and made her clean the mess with her hands. When she was finished, he dumped out the trash can on the floor and forced her to clean it again. Finally, he forced her to agree to quit secretarial school and burn her textbooks.
After he forced Francine to cook his dinner, he raped her. She suffered through this last assault until he finally fell into a drunken stupor. She decided to wait for her youngest child, Dana, to return home. When he did not return after some time, Francine decided to burn the house down to prevent her from returning to her life with Mickey again.
She told the three children to put on their coats and wait in the car. She then poured gas around Mickey's bed and lit the bed. The resulting fire consumed the home. In the meantime, with her children in the car, Francine drove to the police station so she could confess to the killing. She walked right in and told the officer on duty that she had killed her husband. Did she deserve to be charged and arrested? NOPE. It's funny how the police were quick to lock her up for killing him after years of rape and abuse, but never helped her because they didn't "see" her get abused. How screwed up was that?
After a trial in Lansing, MIchigan, Francine was found NOT GUILTY BY REASON OF INSANITY. Women in Michigan and all over the world began to come out about the abuse they have endured, and it gave them strength to speak out. Both the prosecution and the defense agreed that Francine's plight was sympathetic. However, no jurors have ever confirmed publicly whether that was a factor in their decision.
Her mother later said, "you did what was best for your husband."
The made for tv movie starring Farrah Fawcett "The Burning Bed", was based on Francine's story and shed an incredible light on domestic violence. Francine spoke out after her experience and helped to change laws all over the country. She is the pioneer, the leader, and an angel to all of us that have experienced relationship violence.
Please know that you are never alone. Please know that if you are experiencing any type of abuse, including but not limited to, physical abuse, emotional and verbal abuse, sexual abuse, financial abuse, there is HELP! Please reach out to The Domestic Violence hotline via internet @ Domestic Violence Support | National Domestic Violence Hotline (thehotline.org) or by calling 1-800-799-SAFE or by texting START to 88788.
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