Clones and Kidnapped Mormons

August 8, 2008 12:13 PM

When the publicity hit that a South Korean cloning lab duplicated 5 copies of Californian Bernann McKinney's late pitbull Booger from a piece of the dog's ear tissue, people all over the UK said Bernann McKinney looks very similar [slightly NSFW] to the infamous fugitive Joyce McKinney who has been on the lam for 30 years for kidnapping and raping a Mormon.
posted by MythMaker (71 comments total)

What a fascinating story on every level. Thanks very much, MythMaker.
posted by chudmonkey at 12:20 PM on August 8, 2008

Maybe she's just a clone.
posted by Kattullus at 12:21 PM on August 8, 2008 [2 favorites]

The part that I find hardest to believe in all of this is that someone would actually name their dog Booger.
posted by R. Mutt at 12:22 PM on August 8, 2008

This is the most entertainingly oddball thing I've read yet today, and I work in the internet industry. Awesome.
posted by scrump at 12:23 PM on August 8, 2008

As a person who had a dog named Booger, I take offense to this comment. We miss you, Booger. We'll get you cloned someday, don't worry.
posted by BaxterG4 at 12:23 PM on August 8, 2008

I hate the way female perpetrators of sexual offenses are called “saucy,” or “sexy” and so on. It's idiotic—it implies that there's no way a woman could sexually assault a male, or that it's somehow acceptable for her to do so.

Hopefully this nut will get in some trouble.
posted by sonic meat machine at 12:24 PM on August 8, 2008 [4 favorites]

Beauty queen?!?
posted by DU at 12:26 PM on August 8, 2008

Is there some reason for the continued references to Anderson being a Mormon that I am missing? The article seems almost breathless with it : "the Mormon she had kidnapped"; "the Mormon affair", "bespectacled Mormon"; and so forth.

I would've thought the kidnapping and non-consensual sex would've been enough to make the story sensationalistic enough, but the continued harping on the fact the victim was a Mormon seems bizarre to me.
posted by never used baby shoes at 12:27 PM on August 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

"The part that I find hardest to believe in all of this is that someone would actually name their dog Booger."

When I was a kid, my aunt and uncle had dogs named Booger, Farty, and Pimples.

Frankly, I'm surprised I know how to put on shoes.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 12:28 PM on August 8, 2008 [4 favorites]

I had a cat named Booger. RIP fuzzy fellow...
posted by konolia at 12:28 PM on August 8, 2008

Subtle reference to garments as "some kind of Mormon chastity belt" cracks my shit up.

"alas, to no avail". Indeed.
posted by padraigin at 12:29 PM on August 8, 2008

"Beauty queen?!?"

Yeah, from Wyoming. First runner-up was probably a sheep.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 12:29 PM on August 8, 2008

Beauty queen?!?

It was the 70s. Everyone was so high, they couldn't see straight.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 12:29 PM on August 8, 2008

Now she just has to get hold of some (more) of the guy's genetic material and have him cloned...
posted by XMLicious at 12:30 PM on August 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

sonic meat machine : if you're correct about that being a trend, I'll probably share your indignation, but you could you provide some examples of that happening elsewhere? I've never seen it, to my recollection.
posted by chudmonkey at 12:30 PM on August 8, 2008

I would've thought the kidnapping and non-consensual sex would've been enough to make the story sensationalistic enough, but the continued harping on the fact the victim was a Mormon seems bizarre to me.


C'mon...Admit it , forcing a mormon to have sex has a better ring to it.

Like making a nun have a shot of tequila.
posted by Liquidwolf at 12:30 PM on August 8, 2008

This may be the best story of all time.
posted by yhbc at 12:30 PM on August 8, 2008

Oh, this is just another one of those "Beauty Queen ties up Mormon missionary and forces him to have sex with her and then changes her name and then clones her pit bull in South Korea" stories. If I've heard one, I've heard 'em all.
posted by mcstayinskool at 12:31 PM on August 8, 2008 [21 favorites]

My favourite part, upon reflection, is when she disguises herself as a deaf-mute mime to flee England. I aspire to hijinx of that calibre.
posted by chudmonkey at 12:33 PM on August 8, 2008 [4 favorites]

i HAD A HaMSTER NAMED BOOGER CUZ HE WAS THE COLOR OF BOOGERS.


true story.
posted by notsnot at 12:33 PM on August 8, 2008

This may be the best story of all time.

Featuring the "perhaps the greatest pull-quote in tabloid history":

Journalists who remember the 1970s will know it well, as: "I'd ski naked down Mt Everest with a carnation up my nose if he asked me."

posted by Knappster at 12:35 PM on August 8, 2008

Like making a nun have a shot of tequila.

I have a colleague who is a former Catholic priest. He assures me that there was never any forcing going on when it came to booze consumption inside the church, regardless of gender.
posted by never used baby shoes at 12:36 PM on August 8, 2008

Reading this tabloid story is the literary equivalent of taking a hit of acid.

*spoiler alert*










(MIMES!!!???!!!!)
posted by NikitaNikita at 12:41 PM on August 8, 2008

Holy crap! Some people are just living in a whole different universe, aren't they?
posted by Naberius at 12:41 PM on August 8, 2008

I'm really surprised that after what happened in the UK, the US authorities actually let her out on bail and then dropped the charges when she didn't show up in court. I guess that was back in the era when people felt like rapists had to be male.
posted by BrotherCaine at 12:42 PM on August 8, 2008

Well, this makes up for the Mormon lynch mob in the previous thread, right?
posted by wendell at 12:43 PM on August 8, 2008

One of these days soon, I'm sure there will be a movie of her life made. I for one will watch that!
posted by TochterAusElysium at 12:46 PM on August 8, 2008

My guess is that the victim isn't really that interested in really perusing the case. It sounds like he had slept with her in the past, since she claimed she miscarried his baby.
posted by delmoi at 12:50 PM on August 8, 2008

This is the reason news exists.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:52 PM on August 8, 2008

Holy crap! Some people are just living in a whole different universe, aren't they?

Yes.

And I want to know how I can get there from here, because that universe is full of more AWESOME than mathowie's pants.

That's a lot of awesome, I am reliably informed.
posted by scrump at 12:52 PM on August 8, 2008

If they are, in fact, the same person, one would have to wonder about the cunning of someone who was wanted by the police doing something so public and high profile. Of course, it's possible that the statute of limitations has passed, but still.

Pit-bull puppies are damned cute.
posted by quin at 12:53 PM on August 8, 2008

because that universe is full of more AWESOME than mathowie's pants.

I should point out that there is a good chance that Matt's pants were once worn by movie stars in failed hit films.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:54 PM on August 8, 2008

Saucy.
posted by boo_radley at 12:56 PM on August 8, 2008

Well, this makes up for the Mormon lynch mob in the previous thread, right?

I thought it was a Pacific Islander lynch mob?
posted by mr_roboto at 12:59 PM on August 8, 2008

My new favorite headline of all time:

Is Accused 1970s LDS Missionary Raper Today's Dog Cloner?
posted by benzenedream at 1:00 PM on August 8, 2008 [2 favorites]

"It is a fact, though, that former beauty queens (and even less celebrated mortals) often reduce their ages later in life."

Yes it is a fact. Yes it is.
posted by ericb at 1:00 PM on August 8, 2008

I would've thought the kidnapping and non-consensual sex would've been enough to make the story sensationalistic enough, but the continued harping on the fact the victim was a Mormon seems bizarre to me.

never used baby shoes,

I think virtually the only pop cultural point of reference we had then (because I can actually remember that story breaking!) for Mormons in the UK was The Osmonds. And many of us were pretty dumbstruck by them too.

Also, the UK is not nearly as outwardly pious as the US. I think harping on about his Mormonism was a very crude UK tabloid way of saying" you think she's peculiar - he's whacky too...".

Just very ignorant - but not, I think, intended as offensive? (A thin excuse, I know).

(Fwiw, I remember first "understanding" the news story at the time as being about a busty lady who'd first been kidnapped by a USA religious cult & who then turned the tables on one of the cultists! The even more peculiar truth was too strange for my girlish brain).

Brilliant update, anyway!
posted by Jody Tresidder at 1:01 PM on August 8, 2008

It was the 70s. Everyone was so high, they couldn't see straight.

Beer Dope goggles.
posted by ericb at 1:03 PM on August 8, 2008

Wait until the press finds out that there have even been mormon rapists.
posted by blue_beetle at 1:05 PM on August 8, 2008

chudmonkey: the primary examples are the seemingly perennial revelations of statutory rapes by teachers. Articles reporting the Mary K. Letourneau case, for example, often referred to her as “attractive.” The Secretary of Labor famously said: “Where were teachers like her when I went to school?”
posted by sonic meat machine at 1:14 PM on August 8, 2008

The only way it could be improved:

Is Accused 1970s LSD Missionary Raper Today's Dog Cloner?
posted by benzenedream at 1:15 PM on August 8, 2008

Thanks Jody - that helps me understand. Degree of whackiness is relative to people's amount of exposure to alleged whackiness.
posted by never used baby shoes at 1:16 PM on August 8, 2008

It is a fact, though, that former beauty queens (and even less celebrated mortals) often reduce their ages later in life.

Well there you have it: a fact.

Methinks the Mormon harping is to distinguish the story from all the other sex-slave kidnapping and pajama-tearing tales involving non-Mormons that are fpp'd all too often on MeFi. I'm surprised it wasn't deleted for abusing the deaf-mute roadblock-evading mime limit.
posted by jsavimbi at 1:18 PM on August 8, 2008

I think the more important thing than Mormon is missionary-- and you can't say that without explaining what church, etc. As is the case with female rape victims, there are "good" victims and "bad" victims and the rape of a nun is more likely to be taken seriously than the rape of a prostitute. Of course, it shouldn't be that way, but it is.

Similarly, if the guy had been a frat boy rather than a Mormon missionary, I doubt the police would even have taken a report.
posted by Maias at 1:25 PM on August 8, 2008 [2 favorites]

I find the picture caption "A topless Joyce poses for the camera" to be very odd when it is quite clear that she is, in fact, nude not simply topless. Now sure, one could argue that topless is a subset of nude so anyone nude is, indeed, topless, but nonetheless, nude seems more relevant.
posted by Bovine Love at 1:29 PM on August 8, 2008 [2 favorites]

I think harping on about his Mormonism was a very crude UK tabloid way of saying" you think she's peculiar - he's whacky too...".

I read it a different way. With the Mary Kay LeTourneau case mentioned above, someone says the teacher "raped" the 14-year-old boy (or was he 13?) and the common reaction is a knowing smirk -- easily translated as "Yeah, but we all know that he was a little horndog and he wanted it."

Mention that the victim was a Mormon, and the reaction is more like "Oh, the poor pious boy! I hope he's not too scarred!"

That's my take, anyway.
posted by mudpuppie at 1:31 PM on August 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

The Daily Mail article says: This 'rape' occurred three times.

Why the quotes around the word rape? Is it not rape if you've been chloroformed, abducted, chained to a bed, and sexually assaulted against your will if you're male?

Truly deserving of the batshitinsane tag. Damn.
posted by Heretic at 1:31 PM on August 8, 2008 [3 favorites]

Why the quotes around the word rape?

Well, I would guess it is because the author doubts the story. Probably suspects it is a lie after the fact due to extreme guilt over his actions. I have no idea of the truth of the matter, but that kind of theory would have to be given consideration at least. His word is no inherently better then hers. Facts would need to be examined. Mind you, she is looking pretty batshitinsane indeed, so in hindsight....
posted by Bovine Love at 1:38 PM on August 8, 2008

Why the quotes around the word rape?

Not sure what kind of 'rapist' stocks the fridge of a fifty-quid a week honeymoon cottage, on Dartmoor no less, with all your favorite foods while you lay about in your silky blue pajamas.

What I don't understand is why was he 'spread-eagled'. Was it because he was a missionary and she was more of a doggie person? No wonder he avoids publicity.
posted by jsavimbi at 1:48 PM on August 8, 2008

Not to lower the tone unduly, but I see a bandwagon book about the case was published in 1978.
The blurb promised:

"She called herself Little Miss Perfect.
But the Mirror's shrewd investigators soon discovered how much more there was to the 'innocent' and beguiling Southern belle who first hit the headlines in the bizarre affair of the Mormon missionary who claimed she had 'kidnapped' him.
Now read the full, amazing story for the first time, including:
* How she tried - and failed - to win an Osmond. ..."

I knew there had to be an Osmond brothers angle! (Apparently it was Wayne she had hopes for...)
posted by Jody Tresidder at 1:57 PM on August 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

Bovine Love, that makes sense. It reads like mocking the victim to me. Perhaps different wording by the Daily Mirror wouldn't have raised my hackles so much. Something like "The victim claimed this act happened three times" seems less inflammatory to me, but perhaps I'm being oversensitive. I do feel bad for the guy, especially in light of the amount of batshitinsanity involved. I'm sure he wishes it would just go away.
posted by Heretic at 2:05 PM on August 8, 2008

A 'NSFW' around that second link would have been helpful... I don't know about the others, I am afraid to look...

But sounds like an extremely interesting story, anyway.
posted by gracious floor at 2:29 PM on August 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

Why the quotes around the word rape?

Heretic,
It is probably about keeping the story on an upbeat tone (or "mocking the victim" as you put it, at least to some degree.)

But the reporting of the story today seems a bit of a mess.

There were no criminal convictions, (she jumped the country, of course, before the full case was heard).

Most of her colorful statements were made during, apparently, bail hearings.
You're not meant to start giving "your side" of the whole story at a bail remand - that's when your lawyers speak, generally!

So the scare quotes around "rape" could also be, in fact, an empty attempt to protect the alleged perp - in the absence of a conviction. (Since she wasn't convicted of any sexual assault charge whatsoever).

I say an "empty" attempt because I'm fairly sure that scare quotes are not the equivalent of "alleged"!
posted by Jody Tresidder at 2:37 PM on August 8, 2008

... Nice
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:35 PM on August 8, 2008

quotes around rape because the trial was never resolved - she absconded didn't she?
posted by A189Nut at 4:12 PM on August 8, 2008

she said in 1999: 'I loved Kirk and all I really wanted was to see his blond-haired babies running round my home.

If that is indeed a photograph of Kirk in the second link, his hair is coal black, boot polish black, blacker-than-Satan's-heart black. Was she anticipating that her blond genes would chloroform, handcuff and spread-eagle his genes into submission?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:08 PM on August 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

Truth stranger than fiction.

A different missionary position.

The original Times article about the case in 1977.

In today's Times article is the following paragraph.

After fleeing Britain in 1978, Miss McKinney spent five weeks in hiding then resurfaced at the Hilton Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, dressed as a nun. In the 1980s, she was arrested near Salt Lake City airport, where Mr Anderson worked, for allegedly harassing him. A rope and handcuffs were in her car.

She stalked this Anderson guy around the world for years. That prompts me to think this is an example of Borderline Personality Disorder stalking and erotomania. In light of her stalking, her inability to let go of her original dog, selling her house to make the $150,000 for the cloning fee seems to be another example of this disorder, which has fear of abandonment/loss at its core.
posted by nickyskye at 5:56 PM on August 8, 2008

Who goes on the lam and hides by changing their first name?!
posted by dobbs at 6:17 PM on August 8, 2008

Next up, cloning the Mormon.
posted by benzenedream at 6:18 PM on August 8, 2008

But did she know Clark Rockefeller?
posted by adamg at 6:32 PM on August 8, 2008

Why the quotes around the word rape?

Because standard British journalistic practice is to use quotes to indicate that it is a claim someone is making. The Brits do know about "scare quotes" now, but dismiss it as an Americanism.
posted by dhartung at 11:34 PM on August 8, 2008

nickyskye, would she have picked him to stalk as he is an 'impossible'* partner for her? If he succumed to her overtures would she typically become bored and disinterested with him as a result? Idle speculation.

*British quote marks not the scary American kind, which I am glad to have explained by dhartung.
posted by asok at 8:43 AM on August 9, 2008

McKinney met the similarly bailed May and the pair fled to Canada, using false passports and disguised as deaf-mute mime artistes.

Beside all the other fascinating questions this provokes, what I really wanna know is just how the frick you disguise yourself in this way. What sort of costume would create such an impression?
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 1:30 PM on August 9, 2008

I'm with nickyskye on this one.

As funny as this story is -- and it is -- I'm really sorry for the poor guy. If ever someone had a good reason to want to put an ocean between himself and the classic psycho girlfriend, this is it.

And what does he get? Kidnapped, molested, and then referred to as "the Mormon" in open court when he tries to complain.

Even her former lawyer says that she's batshit insane. And according to the Times article, she's got multiple citations for threats against people and alleged abuse to her animals: "Miss McKinney was so erratic as a client that she had been banned by at least two local vets. Police were also once called to treat her horse after a complaint of abuse but no charges were filed. A social worker, psychiatrist and others also mounted a “group intervention”."

Gibbering. Simply gibbering.
posted by jrochest at 2:59 PM on August 9, 2008

The focus on the faith of the victim? Blame it on the British tabloids. "The Manacled Mormon" is just so darn catchy a hook.
posted by Scram at 8:57 PM on August 9, 2008

At the time, she famously said of her victim: 'I loved him so much that I would ski naked down Mount Everest with a carnation up my nose if he asked me to.'

How about, "I loved him so much that I would not kidnap and sexually assault him if he asked me to" ??
posted by Saxon Kane at 10:17 AM on August 10, 2008

Turns out it is the same McKinney after all. She was hoping people would focus on the Booger story rather than the "garbage" of the past.
posted by shoesietart at 11:43 AM on August 10, 2008

"I didn't rape no 300-pound man," she said.

Double negative, honey. So, you did rape him?
posted by ericb at 11:48 AM on August 10, 2008

Yep, she admitted it. Here's the NYT story.
posted by MythMaker at 1:21 PM on August 10, 2008

Of course, there's more!

A woman who made headlines by having five pups cloned and was linked to an abduction case in England is also wanted in Tennessee on charges she tried to plan a burglary in 2004, a defense attorney and prosecutors there said...Authorities there said she instructed a 15-year-old boy to break into a house, and Crockett said she needed the money to buy a false leg for a beloved horse.

I'm at a loss for words right now. This is just...fabulous!
posted by jeanmari at 7:10 PM on August 14, 2008

Yep. Wow.

Clearly very attached to her pets, and I guess she saw the Mormon missionary in the same way. Real abandonment issues. Nuttier than a fruitcake.
posted by MythMaker at 11:29 PM on August 15, 2008