What the FBI Can Do With Their Little "Theory", or, Those Are All My Thoughts On Colleen Stan

On May 19, 1977, 20-year-old Colleen Stan was hitchhiking in California and accepted a ride from a young couple with a baby; Janice and Cameron Hooker had come to an agreement that if Janice could have a child, Cameron could find a woman to whip and torture, as long as he promised never to have intercourse with her.

Back at the Hooker’s home, Cameron put Colleen in a three-foot square, cubed box and for the next seven years the Hookers and Colleen lived in a single-wide house trailer in Red Bluff, California. Eventually Cameron Hooker moved the box under the bed he shared with Janice, and later, after signing a slave contract, Colleen was allowed to roam about, go into town and shop, and visit her family, unescorted, in another state.

Convinced that she had to be with the Hookers, Colleen would return to their home and even babysit their children, regardless of the freedom she was given.  After seven years of Ms. Stan's presence in her home as sex slave, babysitter and companion, and months after Colleen had returned to her family, Janice Hooker got religion, (or depending on which version you believe, got fed up with it all after she discovered her husband having intimate phone conversations with Ms. Stan), and blew the whistle.  Both she and Cameron were arrested on November 18, 1984; Janice became the key witness in the case against her husband, and although clearly an accomplice, she was never prosecuted for her role in Colleen Stan’s seven-year enslavement. At Cameron Hooker’s trial two psychological theories were offered to explain Colleen Stan’s seeming reluctance to leave her captor, and Janice Hooker’s apparent resolve not to challenge her husband’s wishes.

Stockholm Syndrome is a response sometimes seen in cases of abduction in which the hostage shows signs of loyalty to the hostage-taker, in spite of the apparent danger in which they have been placed. The Compliant Victim theory was introduced into law enforcement lingo through a FBI study of the female partners of practicing sexual sadists. The authors of this study, FBI profiler Roy Hazelwood and forensic psychiatrist Dr. Park Dietz, concluded that these women acted criminally in concert with violent men because they were psychologically predisposed to submission. 

The most notable, and most questionable application of the compliant victim theory was the 1993 Canadian rape and murder case involving Karla Homolka, whom Hazelwood determined was an unwilling partner-in-crime to her serial rapist husband Paul Bernardo. Previously the findings of this study, and the concept of Stockholm Syndrome, had been used at trial in reference to Janice Hooker; this material was also deemed applicable to Colleen Stan, who returned to Cameron Hooker’s torture box despite repeated excursions of freedom given as reward by her captor.

Gender is far more likely to determine the penalty one pays for breaking the law than age or race:  Cameron Hooker was sentenced to a total of 100 years in prison for sexual assault, kidnapping and various weapons charges; having been declared a “Dangerous Offender” Paul Bernardo will in all likelihood remain in solitary isolation for the term of his natural life.  Janice Hooker and Karla Homolka lessened their culpability by testifying against their respective spouses, and the following narrative is my humble attempt to explain precisely why this dynamic of gender disparity is at best, illogical.                                              

By the time I was 18, I had been living on my own for almost two years;  I was also raped when I was 18, but that’s another story.  The night that happened though, I called the police, and when they didn’t show up, I went downtown to the police station, where Memphis’ Finest told me to come back in the morning to make a report. (Just stick in here whatever you think I told them as it’s probably a good fucking guess.)

I was pissed at the rapist and  I was pissed at the police, and back then I was pissed enough I started thinking I’d be better off with women.  It was fun while it lasted; I'm a big believer in sampling a little of everything off Life's menu, so, after I graduated I met this girl named Lee,   a month or so went by, and I moved in with her.  And most nights we hit the bars, drank our asses off, crawled home around 2 or so, fucked each other silly and passed out.  Then we got up, went to work and did the same thing all over again.

One night me and Lee were walking home from the bars, stumbling eastward up Madison Avenue, and we saw one of those Yellow taxi-cabs going the wrong fucking way on the wrong side of the street. Now we were drunk so that was funny, and we didn't think too much about it when the taxicab turned and headed back in our direction. Then this big, black guy (it's relevant, just wait a minute fer cryin' out loud),  stops the cab next to where we're standing and laughing our asses off. And he got out of the cab, and told us to "Get in."   

--I should mention here that Memphis streets, even large busy ones, are generally not that busy after about 11 or 12 at night, even on weekends, and this was Tuesday.  People really should get out more.--

So the guy says, Get in, and we doubled up laughing at that, and collected ourselves only long enough to say “No”; then we stopped laughing when the guy pulled out a pistol and said “I think you will."   We could see his point of course, so we got in, and by the way, our new friend there was not a real taxicab driver--he'd stolen this cab, and as if that weren't enough, he was funny-fucking-farm nuts, to boot.   I know, you’re wondering what the hell this has to do with Colleen Stan, just hold your damn horses. 

Now I talk big but I’ll tell you the truth, with that wackjob holding a pistol on us with one hand and driving with the other, there was a moment in that cab, I froze.  I fucking froze, and that’s part of what this story has to do with Colleen Stan—see I understand how she got in that damn box, and even why she stayed, for a little while, anyway.  This guy had turned the cab around and was heading for the river, and I was sure he was gonna rape us and kill us and throw our pretty little asses into the Mighty Mississippi, and if I’d had to guess right then I would have figured it was all just fucking over.

Obviously, it was not all fucking over, and there was Lee, talking to this guy (while he was driving with one hand and holding the pistol on us with the other, remember) saying things like: “I like black men. I have lots of black friends…” and I'm thinking Lee, you are seriously blowing any chance we’ve got here…(see, I told you it was relevant.)  I looked up ahead at the street, and Lee was still talking, “…is it true what they say, that black men have…” and I'm thinking, oh, christ, well that's it, thanks Lee, and finally we saw some flashy-blue lights up ahead.  And I'm not sure if  our friend here noticed them or not--he stopped at a traffic light, fer crissakes, guy steals a taxicab but obeys traffic laws--I know, you think I sort of sailed over the Colleen Stan part.

Anyhoo, when he stopped, those flashy-blue lights unfroze me, and the point is, Lee and I saw that was our opportunity; we jumped out of that cab and hit the street, and  we ran every fucking mile back to our apartment.  I don’t mean to sound all boo-hooey, but I think I understand what being a hostage, and what being confined, is like--I was confined when that guy raped me, and I was confined inside that crazy taxicab that night. And I may have sat there frozen, and sure that was the end, but the point is—

When I saw the opportunity I thawed out quick and took it; when we see an opportunity we always take it, and if we don’t, it’s because we made a choice not to see it—you following me ? This is that Colleen Stan crap you’ve been bugging me about. When those flashy-blue lights unfroze me I saw my opportunity and I made a choice to hit the street and run for my fucking life.  They can talk about Stockholm Syndrome and trot out all that victimology crap and tell me that guy only had me in that cab for 30 minutes, tops, so it’s not at all the same thing as Colleen-fucking-Stan, and it doesn’t change the fact—

That if you’re gonna run, you run. You run when you see the opportunity, and we choose what we see and what we don’t. Even if your choice is to freeze for a moment in a crazy taxicab or you’re a girl-in-a-box who stays frozen for seven friggin’ years, if that’s the choice Colleen Stan made, then say what you will, but everything can’t be Cameron Hooker’s fault.

Now I know there are women who have been truly victimized; I used to work in counseling, I've seen them.  But I also know there are women like Janice Hooker and Karla Homolka, who have no problem telling anyone who’ll listen how powerless they were, and right now FBI profiler Roy Hazelwood is touring the country on the college lecture circuit, explaining to a whole new generation of law enforcement how these women were both Compliant Victims and essentially unable to make choices for themselves.  And it's interesting to note that of the thousands of offender classifications the FBI has for men, the lone FBI offender classification for us ladies is as, you guessed it, the compliant victim of a sexual sadist.  

But whether you think they did it out of love or fear or because as children they were dropped on their head one too many times,  no matter what Janice Hooker and Karla Homolka, and even Colleen Stan endured they all made a choice not to run away because they saw some opportunity in being where they were. The Compliant Victim theory is, after all, only a theory, and Stockholm Syndrome can only explain so much; you can’t make a choice and then say you didn't choose.

So, thanks just the same, Agent Hazelwood and Dr. Dietz, but coming up with a theory that makes women less accountable for their actions than men is about as helpful as placing us on a pedestal by putting your hand up our skirt. Colleen Stan had many chances to free herself from the Hooker's clutches, and toward the end had apparently become quite smitten with Cameron Hooker; Karla Homolka and Janice Hooker swore in court their spouses had beaten them into submission , yet both found the strength to abandon their husbands when it was suspiciously and legally convenient.

And for anyone who says shame on me for not standing in solidarity with my sisters, simply because they are my sisters?  Gee, I'd like to be compliant, but there's one tweeny-weeny little problem:  ya see, just like me and Lee that night-

all them bitches had ample fucking opportunity to run if they fucking chose to run...

and those are all my thoughts on Colleen Stan.