Killer Women With Piers Morgan. A real life horror story that defies belief

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Killer Women With Piers Morgan. A real life horror story that defies belief

May 11, 2016 - 10:32
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Average: 2.8 (11 votes)
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A potential award winner, ITV’s chilling documentary Killer Women With Piers Morgan began with a masterstroke. Getting a brutal mass murderer to sing an angelic version of Amazing Grace. Haunting, strange, mesmerising.

Killer Women With Piers Morgan

A potential award winner, ITV’s chilling documentary Killer Women With Piers Morgan began with a masterstroke. Getting a brutal mass murderer to sing an angelic version of Amazing Grace. Haunting, strange, mesmerising.

An all American Texan blonde, Erin Caffey was 16 when she masterminded the slaughter of her family. Her mother and two younger brothers were shot and hacked to death. Then Ms Caffey’s three crazed accomplices razed the house to the ground. By a miracle, although riddled with bullets, her father Terry survived.

After the calamity, Erin had sex with her boyfriend Charlie. As if to thank him for killing her nearest and dearest.

Eight years into her life sentence, she still insists she was little more than a bystander lured into evil by a sociopathic lover who led her on.

Presumably, by allowing Piers to interview her at the Texas State Prison, she was hoping to prove she isn’t cold and calculating. Mission not accomplished.

Pausing to carefully ponder every straightforward question, never once did she give a straightforward answer…

Why did you do it? Why did you have sex afterwards? “The best way I can explain it is if you make a bad choice… it’s like when you tell a lie and you cover it up with another lie.” No one’s doubting her expertise on lying, but really? That’s it?

In a moving return to the scene of the crime, Piers also spoke at length to Erin’s devastated dad. Wandering through the remains of his former home, Terry revealed that, incredibly, he has forgiven his daughter.

Despite a wealth of evidence to the contrary, he refuses to believe that she was the driving force behind the annihilation. A defence mechanism? Probably. But she’s all that he has left and he visits her regularly.

“Holy sh*t!” whooped Erin as she drove away from her burning relatives. “That was awesome.” A monster with a screw loose. She even blamed the media for giving her a bad name.

Clearly incapable of comprehending the enormity of her dreadful deeds, this weird woman summoned up a few crocodile tears but, at best, she seemed like she wasn’t all there. At worst, she seemed like she just didn’t care. I suspect the latter is nearer the truth.

Excellent film-making by Morgan and his crew as they meticulously pieced together a real life horror story that defies belief. A pitch perfect hour of television it will be hard to forget.

There are 10 Comments

mansellmum's picture

Really enjoyed (if that is the right word) this programme. It was a fascinating interview by Piers (who I actually enjoy watching btw) trying to get through to this cold, cold woman, trying to get her to explain why she did this and to ask why she didn't stop it from happening. She didn't give any proper answers to explain her actions and she had no remorse whatsoever, I actually think I was looking at pure evil.

Feel so sorry for her Father who is obviously trying to cling to the remaining family that he has left, trying to convince himself that it is right to forgive her. I found very chilling the fact that the first thing she wants to do when she is freed, is to go and visit the graves of her Mum and two younger brothers, I personally wouldn't want her anywhere near them or me.

I really feel that at the end of the interview when Piers mentioned the word Monster, it was very apt, scary stuff, really got us all thinking and talking about it. Look forward to next week.

NancyD's picture

Members of the American gun lobby might rejoice that Piers Morgan is behind bars, but it was only for an hour long interview with one of the most notorious women murderers.
In 2008, 16-year-old Erin Caffey masterminded the slaughter of her mother and her two younger brothers. Only her father survived the attack which was carried out by Erin's boyfriend Charlie, friends Bobbi and Charles.
The story is even more macabre because the Caffeys were a church going family and she was doing well at school.
The extraordinary documentary opens with Morgan asking the pretty petite 4 foot 2 inch blonde to sing Amazing Grace. She has an eerily haunting voice, which makes the scene even more poignant and creepy.
As she sings, her therapist reveals: "I've never come across someone as dangerous as Erin and I hope I never do."
Morgan's interviewing technique is tip top. He asks her loads of difficult questions, but Erin rarely gives a straight answer. She has had years of psychotherapy and is well versed in how to avoid the truth.
She claims that she was an innocent bystander, but after the brutal killings she went back to Charlie's trailer for celebratory sex.
Morgan also interviews her dad on the site where the murders happened and the house once stood before it was set on fire.
He explains how he has forgiven his daughter and still visits her in jail. He is very forthcoming about how he escaped and his feelings towards his steely-eyed girl. He blames her boyfriend, but it was his disapproval of Charlie that lead to the murder plot in the first place.
A riveting hour of television!

joanne☆'s picture

I really enjoyed watching this and thought Piers was very good. Erin is evil and she definitely should be behind bars. The singing didn't convince me to change my mind! No straight answers given to any questions. She was so vacant all the way through the programme. How her father can forgive her is beyond me. He has lost absolutely everything. Poor soul. Looking forward to next week's show.

Jane Staiano's picture

Absolutely chilling documentary. Carefully interviewed by Piers Morgan.
It was uncomfortably engaging, mainly because here we had a grieving father full of forgiveness towards his daughter (and eventually also the other murderers), juxtaposed against Erin Caffey - who showed not an ounce of remorse, or even knowledge of the gravity of what she had participated in.
Another gruesome example of why there should be tighter gun control in the US!

Steve Day's picture

I am never quite sure which way to take Piers Morgan. He seems to think he is a lot funnier than he actually is and I struggle to watch him on Good Morning Britain when he is presenting with Susanna Reid (who I find even more annoying). But when Morgan does serious stuff like this he is actually very good. Allowing his subject to speak without interrupting her too much he skillfully extracted her twisted perception of the murders which was riveting viewing. TBH I would have preferred it if the documentary had been about British Killers but I imagine access to the killers in our prison system would be more difficult. I am however very much looking forward to the next episode of this and I would mark it 8/10.

SCARFMAN_'s picture

FORGIVENESS AND UNCONDITIONAL LOVE!

In a similar style and vein to the ITV1 Sir Trevor McDonald documentaries of recent years, here we saw Piers Morgan look at the grave but intriguing subject of 'killer women'. Piers unquestionably is a hugely polarizing figure(being so opinionated is partly how he makes a living). Nevertheless, if you just allow yourself to ignore his somewhat controversial articles and Twitter ramblings and just judge him solely on being a serious broadcaster as I did here in this programme, then in my opinion he is an excellent broadcaster. He is not as skilled a performer as say Louis Theroux is and nor does he hold the same current affairs gravitas of Sir Trevor McDonald, however I thought in this first part of two documentaries that he has done on this subject he came across very well.

In this first episode Piers found himself in Texas where he examined the case of Erin Caffey. In 2008 Erin was arrested along with three accomplices for the murder of her mum Penny, as well as her two younger brothers Matthew and Tyler. Now twenty-four years old, Piers went to visit Erin in Hilltop Prison Unit Texas. As well as visiting Erin, Piers also met up with her father Terry who was the only one to have survived the horrific attack. Terry had not been back to the site of the burned down house for many years, it was there where he and Piers emotionally discussed what had happened on that fateful night.

"When you look at the totality of all the circumstances, it really was the most disturbing thing I had ever seen"(State Prosecutor).

These damning words from the State Prosecutor were greatly juxtaposed against Erin being so respectful and demure when Piers met her. She seemed like such a polite young lady who would you never have thought could have been involved in such an awful crime. I thought Piers handled his interview with her just about right. He never lectured her and was polite without ever being too polite. He probed her with some uncomfortable questioning at times when he needed too without going over the top. I thought the tone of his interaction with her was near enough spot on and so he needs commending for this.

"So it has been a struggle to finally get to that place where I could finally forgive myself"(Terry Caffey).

With this quote in mind, the most moving part of the documentary for me was when forgiveness and unconditional love were talked about. Erin emotively revealed how her Dad(Terry) had offered her unconditional love despite what had happened. Terry stated how at first he had wanted her two male accomplices to serve the death penalty. However, due primarily to his strong faith he told Piers how he had now forgiven them(they are now currently serving life sentences instead). He blamed himself for not protecting his family that night. His tale about him reading Penny's words in a notebook where she called him her hero, was a particularly poignant watch.

From a documentary standpoint, then I thought it was impressive how police interviews and media footage from the time of the event were combined with the present day stuff. The 2008 police interviews of the four suspects were crucial in helping us gain a further insight into the events that had taken place back then.

There was not a lot wrong with this documentary in my view. Nevertheless, I would have liked it explaining though by Piers at some stage as to why he chose to look at Erin's case in particular above all the other ones out there? I was also not quite sure what the primary purpose of this programme was? Was it purely just to inform us of this historical criminal case or was there a bigger agenda at play here? Was it to challenge the misconception that some have about murderers,i.e not just men commit murder in society but women do too? You could also make the argument that it was about forgiveness as well as there being an anti-capital punishment message in it.

Overall, a well made documentary by all those concerned and one that encourages me to watch part two. My overriding emotion at the end of it was one of great sadness. Sadness for the victims that are no longer with us and yet also sadness for Erin herself, such an unnecessary waste of a life. I leave you with a really moving line that was shown on a piece of furniture about a third of the way into this programme. I think it beautifully encapsulates the heart rendering and very emotive tone that was present throughout this documentary,

"Because someone we love is in heaven.......there's a little bit of HEAVEN in our home".

4/5.

Hazeleyes's picture

Wow a great start to the series, informative, and quiet scary the first one totally enthralled , I was amazed how the father of the killer forgave what she did, and how he is standing by her, a good dad or bad judgement.

She had no remorse for what she had done, it seemed she was in denial all the way through interview. Piers did an exceptional job, impartial, informative, and heart wrenching . The series could be a good one, maybe up there with Louis Theroux, or Stacey Dooley all good reporters.

Looking forward to next ones .