Life In Prison Seems Awfully Lenient To Us

By Erin in News on Jun 2, 2006 8:18PM

In a case what a Cook County Judge called "... bar none, is the worst I have ever seen or heard," a former CTA maintenance yard worker Thursday was sentence to life in prison plus 30 years for the beating death of his 12-year-old daughter.

It seems that back in 2001, Larry Slack decided that the logical response to the loss of his wife's credit card would be to torture his children, Laree and Lester, so severely that Laree later died from the beatings, which included, according to the Trib, being partially stripped naked, tied to a bed frame by four of her five siblings and whipped with a large electrical cable on her back, chest and legs. And to complete this family affair, dear ol' mom - Constance, a former nurse at La Rabida Children's Hospital - stuffed a sock into the little girl's mouth to muffle her screams.

Chicagoist hopes there is special place in hell reserved for people like the Slack parents.

Beyond the horrific manner in which this poor girl died, we're galled by all of this for several reasons. One: Slack got up in court and said that the cord he used to beat his children was much smaller than the 6-foot long cord the Cook County State's Attorney said he used. "I did go beyond what I normally do, I overreacted, but I did not kill her." Can we all just agree that "overreacted" is an understatement here, not to mention that it's never a good idea to beat your children with anything?

Two: Slack apparently beat Laree so strenuously that the dude had to take a break and watch an episode of The Sopranos. What? For inspiration, asshole? Three: His defense attorney, Denise Streff, said that her client ... knew it was bad ... but he had no idea Laree wasn't going to get up and be OK." Chicagoist knows that being a defense attorney can be a thankless and incredibly low-paying job but tell us that she didn't, at some point, feel the bottoms of her feet singe slightly as the flames from Hell shot up from below.

That may be harsh of us to say, but so was the crime.