House of Representatives Veterans Suicide Prevention Act Debate:
The House debates the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act, which directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to develop and implement a comprehensive program to reduce the incidence of suicide among veterans. The bill is named for an Iraq veteran who took his own life, and recognizes the special needs of veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and elderly veterans who are at high risk for depression and experience high rates of suicide. The bill follows hearings in the Oversight and Veterans Affairs committees seeking to address the tragic mental anguish experienced by many veterans, and is part of ongoing, comprehensive efforts by the new Congress to make veterans a top priority. Rep. Tim Walz speaks in favor. -Nancy Pelosi (October 23, 2007)
Rep. Bruce Braley speaks in favor. -Nancy Pelosi (October 23, 2007)
Rep. Tim Walz speaks in favor. -Nancy Pelosi (October 23, 2007)
Congressman Boswell’s floor statement before the final passage of the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act. (October 23, 2007)
Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act Signed Into Law:
Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, Congressman Leonard Boswell, Sen. Tom Harkin and Sen. Charles Grassley present Randy and Ellen Omvig with the red line copy of the bill signed by President George W. Bush at a Jan. 25 ceremony at the Iowa Statehouse. Joshua Omvig was an Iowa soldier who committed suicide upon returning home from Iraq. The Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act, authored by Boswell, is now national law. –
IowaPoliticsDotCom (January 25, 2008)
Part 1 -IowaPoliticsDotCom (January 25, 2008)
Part 2 -IowaPoliticsDotCom (January 25, 2008)
Part 3 -IowaPoliticsDotCom (January 25, 2008)
Rep. Boswell Asks for Increased Funding for Soldier Suicide Prevention:
In 2007, Boswell’s legislation, the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act, was the first major legislation passed and signed into law to address and prevent veteran suicide. Since enactment, the Veterans Crisis Hotline and VA Suicide Prevention Coordinators have made more than 21,000 life-saving rescues. -Rep. Leonard Boswell (July 9, 2012)
Body of War, a film by Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue. It is an intimate and transformational feature documentary about the true face of war today. -The Real News
Overview: “Tomas Young is another casualty of the war in Iraq. After less than a week on duty, a bullet wound to the back left him paralyzed. This emotional documentary follows the veteran as he returns home and undergoes a transformation, becoming one of the many voices protesting the war. Directed by Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro, BODY OF WAR features two original songs performed by Eddie Vedder.” –Booksamillion.com
The Other PTSD: Sexual Abuse of Women in the Military, NBC Nightly News (May 4, 2007)
“All the stories you hear about women not doing anything about it and crawling into their own little hole and hiding from it and not talking about it — I always thought, ‘Well, that’s ridiculous. If it happens to me, I’m gonna be out there,” Tina says. “That’s not what I did at all. I hid and I didn’t talk about it.” –NBC Nightly News
“Monroe County judge calls crime the most evil he’s seen.” -WATE.com
Robert ‘Bob’ McClancy, 47, and Martha Ann McClancy worked in the Manatee County Sheriff’s Department in Florida. Martha was a secretary and Bob was a detective. They fell in love later in life and Bob decided to take an early retirement from his job. The two decided to move away from the fast paced life in Florida and settled in Tellico Plains, Tennessee which is nestled in the Smoky Mountains. Bob suffered with severe stress after years of working as a detective and his time in the Marines. Bob was a highly decorated Vietnam veteran and Purple Heart recipient who was also diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Bob went through some very traumatic combat experiences and was on strong medications. Bob would often take the wrong dose so Martha Ann decided it was time for her to take control.
In the meantime, Bob was grateful for his friend and fellow veteran Charles Kaczmarczyk because he understood what Bob was going through. Chuck said he had seen combat as well and was also awarded the Purple Heart. The pair had a lot in common. Over the course of time, Martha Ann quickly warmed up to Chuck, the “military hero.” Their relationship blossomed beyond a friendship over time and Bob was never aware of their ongoing affair. Martha Ann and Chuck frequently got together in Bob’s home. They fell in love and soon Bob was looking increasingly like a troubled third wheel. Martha often told Chuck things would be better if Bob went away. One night, Martha claimed to find Bob barely conscious after he had taken an accidental overdose of his medications for PTSD. When she got to the hospital, she claimed Bob was always messing up his medications.
On May 15, 2006, Chuck said he discovered Bob dead after another accidental overdose on his medications. Chuck found his friend dead in his chair with an empty pill bottle in one hand and a 38 revolver in the other hand. Chuck appeared distraught after finding his friend as did the sobbing Martha Ann after she found out. Everything pointed to a tragic suicide and Martha Ann leaned harder on her friend Chuck. Five months later, Martha and Chuck got married and embarked on a new life with a whole new look. They didn’t even look like the same people when they started their new careers as fraudsters. Martha Ann took on the role of a veteran pretending to be a Purple Heart recipient and claimed she earned it after the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon. And Chuck doesn’t have PTSD, he was faking it for the veteran benefits. Chuck had been in the military but he never saw a day of combat.
Martha Ann and Chuck both faked permanent injuries and had this whole scam going at the Department of Veterans Affairs. They used a wheelchair or a cane to make it appear they had physical injuries as well. Over six years, the two defrauded the federal government of nearly $800,000 dollars until Chuck told one war story too many. Other veterans came forward and said he was lying because what he was describing was not what happened as they were there. Martha Ann and Charles both ended up behind bars and their criminal history was over. And then one day, Martha Ann’s son made a surprise discovery on her computer. Martha Ann’s son found pictures of his step-father, Bob, dead in a chair. In each picture, Bob was in a different position. There were pictures of Bob with the gun in his hand, then there were pictures of Bob without the gun in his hand.
Martha Ann’s son knew the photos would implicate his mother in the murder of his step-father Bob but he loved Bob and didn’t hesitate to contact authorities. Martha Ann’s son cooperated with the police fully in a sting operation to nail his mother. Martha Ann asked him to get rid of all the photos. The police knew where to find the person who took the pictures because Chuck was spending 30 months in jail for his part in the disability fraud. Chuck immediately wanted to know what was in it for him so the police agreed to tell the district attorney that Chuck cooperated with them in the investigation. Chuck confessed that Martha Ann had crushed up Bob’s pills and put them in his drink and then confessed to the entire twisted tail. Martha called the crushed pills her “magic dust.”
The police would learn that Martha Ann crushed up the medication and put it in Bob’s drinks in an effort to slowly kill him. And on May 15, 2006, Martha gave Bob a lethal dose of “magic dust” and then went to work to create her alibi. Chuck was supposed to check in on Bob later that afternoon and it was his job to pretend to find him dead. Martha Ann was sure Bob would be dead by then. But when Chuck arrived to check in on Bob, he was laying on the floor and wasn’t dead yet. So Chuck lifted him up, placed him in the chair, and fed him more of the crushed pills. Then Chuck sat there and waited until he died. Martha Ann told Chuck to keep it simple and make it look like a suicide. But Chuck went overboard, placed a gun in his hand, and took pictures of Bob in various positions. Martha wanted to see the pictures.
Despite Chuck’s confession, Martha Ann claimed Bob took the wrong medication and she had nothing to do with it. She never admitted to any involvement whatsoever. The detectives said she was one of the coldest people they had ever interviewed. In 2013, Charles Kaczmarczyk pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit first degree murder and was sentenced to twenty-five (25) years in federal prison. Nine years after her husband’s death, Martha Ann McClancy was convicted of attempted first degree murder and conspiracy to commit first degree murder. She was sentenced to the maximum of fifty years in prison and is eligible for parole in 2028. Those involved with the investigation claimed Martha Ann never showed an ounce of regret or remorse or guilt for what she did to her husband.
Dateline:
Preview: The death of a beloved Tennessee man is believed to be a suicide. But when a son questions his mother, he uncovers a dark family conspiracy. -Secrets in the Smoky Mountains, Dateline NBC (October 24, 2016)
Oxygen:
Preview: Robert McClancy was found dead in his home, but was it suicide triggered from his PTSD, did his best friend who found him turn out to be the one who killed him, or was it his seemingly loving wife behind it all? -Martha Ann McClancy, Snapped (S21, E2)
Investigation Discovery:
Two can keep a secret, if one of them is dead. These Deadly Women think they’ve committed the perfect murders when they “Hit and Run.” -Hit and Run, Deadly Women (S11, E6)
Editor’s note: With a cable subscription, you can download the free ID Go app and watch Investigation Discovery programming at your convenience. And for those who do not have cable, you can watch “unlocked” episodes on the ID Go app including the latest premieres. For those who prefer commercial free programming during your binge session, Prime Video has an ID channel: ‘True Crime Files by Investigation Discovery” available for $3.99 a month. It’s a compilation of older seasons but totally worth the cost if you are a true crime addict. Download the ID Go app or purchase ID True Crime Files & binge away.
Joshua Omvig, U.S. Army Reserve Veteran (Photo: The Courier)
“On December 22, 2005, Joshua Omvig, a 22-year-old reservist from Davenport, Iowa, committed suicide with a gun in his pickup truck, after returning from a tour of duty in Iraq a year earlier. He suffered [from] post traumatic stress disorder, a common problem with soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Omvig’s parents, Randy and Ellen, began lobbying for comprehensive PTSD care for all veterans.” Read more from The American Prospecthere.
Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act Signed Into Law:
[Former] Rep. Bruce Braley speaks in favor. -Nancy Pelosi (October 23, 2007)
Congressman Boswell’s floor statement before the final passage of the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act. (October 23, 2007)
Xatavia Hughes, an Iraqi war vet is looking for a safer neighborhood for herself and two sons. She is in her current home in the Englewood neighborhood on Nov. 6, 2013. -Chicago Tribune (December 2, 2013)
“One woman saw the military as a stop along the path of higher education. The other saw service as a road out of poverty. They enlisted in what’s typically thought of as a man’s world, and they both died in it. When Pfc. Nichole Frye’s convoy was attacked with a roadside bomb in Baqouba, Iraq, in February, she became the 15th servicewoman to die in the Iraq war, equaling the official number of female soldiers killed in the 1991 Persian Gulf war. When Capt. Gussie Jones, 41, died Sunday of a heart attack in the Baghdad hospital where she served as an Army surgical nurse, that gulf war total was officially surpassed. The conflict in Iraq now has the designation of claiming the lives of more U.S. servicewomen than any hostile theater since World War II, according to Department of Defense statistics. The stories of women like Frye and Jones–what drew them to the military and how they died in that service–reveal much about the role of American military women in Iraq.” -Chicago Tribune (March 11, 2004)
Read more ‘In War Without Front Lines, Women GIs Caught in Chaos’ from the Chicago Tribunehere.
Date: February 29, 2004 Victim: Kimberly O’Neal, U.S. Marine Corps Spouse Offender: Archie O’Neil, Jr., U.S. Marine Corps Location: Deer Park, Camp Pendleton, California Circumstances: Archie O’Neil and Kimberly O’Neal engaged in a forbidden affair for a couple of years, before Archie was suppose to deploy to Iraq, they had one more tryst, Kimberly got angry when she learned Archie wasn’t going to leave his wife, Archie shot Kimberly O’Neal multiple times, during the investigation, Archie’s wife claimed Kimberly tried to run her down with her car but didn’t report it because no proof, Archie said he had severe headaches and shot Kimberly because she threatened to kill his family (most likely not true), Archie confessed to Kimberly’s murder but showed no remorse, charged with 1st degree premeditated murder, used PTSD defense to mitigate his crimes, defense claimed Archie had an abnormal startle response Disposition: O’Neil sentenced to life in prison, no parole
Investigation Discovery:
ID Go: A decorated marine faces war at home when he falls for a married woman. Suspicion and jealousy plague their affair as they battle to keep their secret from their spouses but with the stakes so high it’s a truth they’ll stop at nothing to hide. -Love is War, Forbidden: Dying for Love (S4,E8)
Editor’s note: With a cable subscription, you can download the free ID Go app and watch all of the Investigation Discovery programming at your convenience. And for those who do not have cable, you can watch “unlocked” episodes on the ID Go app including the latest premieres. Download the ID Go app and binge away. For those who prefer commercial free programming during your binge session, Prime Video has an ID channel: ‘True Crime Files by Investigation Discovery” available for $2.99 a month. It’s a compilation of older seasons but totally worth the cost if you are a true crime addict.
MILITARY JUSTICE FOR ALL 