That time “a crime of passion”: now branded as domestic violence.
Lisa Hullinger from Ohio was murdered by her ex-boyfriend in Germany on September 25, 1978. So 45 years ago. Her grieving parents founded the self-help organisation Parents of Murdered Children. In 2007, the U.S. Congress designated September 25 as the National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims.
The story of Lisa as told on the POMC website (courtesy of CEO Beverly Warnock):
“Parents Of Murdered Children, Inc. was founded by Robert and Charlotte Hullinger in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1978 after the murder of their 19-year-old daughter, Lisa, by a former boyfriend, Bill Coday. Bill and Lisa met in Germany as part of an American Field Service program during Lisa’s senior year of high school. After their return to the U.S., she to Cincinnati, and he to St. Louis, they began dating, and this continued for approximately a year and a half. During this time, both were accepted by the University of Cincinnati for a work-study program the following year in Hamburg, Germany.
But through letters, phone calls, and visits, Lisa began seeing that this relationship would never work, and she broke it off. When she next saw Bill 6 months later in Hamburg, he begged her to take him back. When she again refused to continue their relationship, Coday lured her to the house where he lived and beat her repeatedly with a sledgehammer. Although given medical care, she never regained consciousness, and she died 13 days later in a Hamburg hospital.
Bill Coday was released after serving only 16 months in jail, returning to the United States with NO criminal record. He went back to college, obtained several degrees, married and settled in New York.
Just two months after Lisa’s death, Charlotte contacted Father Ken Czillinger, a Roman Catholic priest, who had been working in the field of bereavement. He was able to put the Hullingers in touch with three other parents in the Greater Cincinnati area whose children had been murdered. In December 1978, just three months after Lisa’s death, the Hullingers opened their home to meet with these parents. From this humble beginning of five parents, including themselves, the Hullingers determination to survive and help others grew into the national organization known as Parents Of Murdered Children, Inc.
Sadly, in 1997, the Hullingers relived some of their devastation when they learned that Bill Coday had moved to Florida and had again murdered a woman who was breaking up with him. This time, he was found guilty of murder, and on July 26, 2002, he was sentenced to death.” Before it came to that, he committed suicide.
Music: “We are the Survivors” was adopted as the National theme song for Parents Of Murdered Children. Listen to it here.
Listen also to my podcast in English with Beverly Warnock, executive director of Parents of Murdered Children, here on my website.