Your True Tales
April 2004 – Page 13

Stopped from Murdering
by Shirley Russell

I was married to a horrible man who was abusive to me in many ways. I had come to hate him in such fashion that I actually sat and thought of ways to kill him and get away with it. But I couldn't think how to do it. Be careful what you ask for, because sometimes you get it.

My husband, son and I sat at the table for supper. He asked for his son to pass the salt, and when my son put the salt in front of him, he jumped up and said that he had passed it wrong and he was going to kill him. He went to get a rifle. I ran and got a pistol and as we went down the hallway, I was yelling at him, if he raised that rifle I was going to shoot him in the back. The three of us ran out the front door. We lived on his parents' farm, and they must have heard the feet pounding, because they met us running through the field. (They knew what their son was like and what went on and was coming to my aid).

My son decided that he would spend the night with his grandparents, and my husband and I went back to the house. He held the door open for me like a gentleman, and as I started to go through the door, he hit me with his fist and cut my lip open. I know for sure, the desire to kill another human and I wanted to kill him with all my heart. This was my opportunity, the answer to my former prayers. He had just told his mom and dad he was going to kill me for this, and I believed that no jury would put me in prison because of self-defense. I had the bloody face to prove attack.

I was a very good shot with a pistol, and I raised it to shoot him. I could have shot him in the heart at 40 feet, and this was less than 12 feet. But then something strange happened. It felt exactly like "something" pushed the pistol downward and I shot at his feet. I tried four times to kill him, and four times the gun was pushed downward, so I finally told him to get out of the house before I actually shot him. I think my Guardian Angel kept me from shooting him that day, and saving me a lot of guilt feelings for the rest of my life.

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