Francine Moran Hughes (later Wilson; August 17, 1947 – March 22, 2017) was an American woman who, after thirteen years of

domestic abuse Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner v ...

, set fire to the bed in which her live-in ex-husband Mickey Hughes was sleeping, on March 9, 1977, in Dansville,

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. Mickey was killed and the house destroyed in the resulting fire. At trial, Hughes was found not guilty by reason of

temporary insanity The insanity defense, also known as the mental disorder defense, is an affirmative defense by excuse in a criminal case, arguing that the defendant is not responsible for their actions due to an episodic psychiatric disease at the time of the ...

in one of the first cases involving " battered-woman syndrome" as a defense.

Early life

Francine Hughes was born in Stockbridge, Michigan. Her mother named her Francine after a French musician. Her father, a farmworker, was an abusive alcoholic. At age 16, Francine left high school to marry James "Mickey" Hughes. They had four children together: Christie, James “Jimmy” Berlin Jr, Nicole and Dana. In the movie about Hughes' story ''

The Burning Bed ''The Burning Bed'' is both a 1980 non-fiction book by Faith McNulty about battered housewife Francine Hughes, and a 1984 TV-movie adaptation written by Rose Leiman Goldemberg. The plot follows Hughes' trial for the murder of her husband, James B ...

'' there are only the first 3 children.

Abuse

Although she had moved out after their divorce was finalized in April 1971, Mickey had moved back in with her after he was involved in a serious car accident that summer. Francine later testified in court that although she was reluctant to have him return to the home, she felt she could not refuse as she did not want to "hurt him more...than he already had been", referring to the severity of his injuries from the accident. The abuse persisted and escalated in the years after Mickey's recovery, and he regularly beat her, destroyed furniture and killed his daughter's kitten. Francine felt that she could not remove Mickey from the home or move out herself, fearing that he would make good on his constant threats to kill her. She obtained her GED and, in 1976, enrolled in a secretarial course in an effort to obtain some independence.

Crime and trial

On the day of the fire, March 9, 1977, Francine returned from her secretarial course in the afternoon and found Mickey intoxicated and irate. He refused to allow her to make food for their four children, and berated her for some time about quitting school, which she refused to agree to, even after Mickey forced her to burn her schoolbooks. He began to physically assault her. The police came and spoke to the pair, but left after refusing to arrest Mickey as he had not assaulted her in front of them. However, a police officer would later testify that Hughes had warned her that "it was all over" for her because she had called the police. Francine again attempted to make dinner for herself and the children, but Mickey swept the food onto the floor. He forced Francine to the floor by bending her arm behind her back and made her clean the mess with her hands. When she was finished, he dumped out the trash can on the floor and forced her to clean it again. Finally, he forced her to agree to quit secretarial school and burn her textbooks. After he forced Francine to cook his dinner, he raped her. She suffered through this last assault until he finally fell into a drunken slumber. She decided to wait for her youngest child, Dana, to return home. When he did not return after some time, Francine decided to burn the house down to prevent her from returning to her life with Mickey again. She told the three children to put on their coats and wait in the car. She then poured

gasoline Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...

around Mickey's bed and lit the gasoline. The resulting fire consumed the home. In the meantime, with her children in the car, Francine drove to the police station so she could confess to the killing. After a trial in

Lansing, Michigan Lansing () is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is mostly in Ingham County, although portions of the city extend west into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. The 2020 census placed the city's population at 112,644, making ...

, Francine was found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. Both the prosecution and the defense agreed that Francine's plight was sympathetic. However, no jurors have ever confirmed publicly whether that was a factor in their decision. Her mother later said "you did what was best for your husband."

Later years

In 1980, Hughes married Robert Wilson, a country musician, and became a nurse. She was an

LPN A licensed practical nurse (LPN), in much of the United States and Canada, is a nurse who cares for people who are sick, injured, convalescent, or disabled. In the United States, LPNs work under the direction of physicians, mid-level practitio ...

and worked at several nursing homes. After retiring, she sat with the elderly and taught a nursing class. She died in

Leighton, Alabama Leighton is a town in Colbert County, Alabama, United States. It is part of the Florence - Muscle Shoals Metropolitan Statistical Area known as "The Shoals". At the 2020 census, the population was 665. Leighton has been hit by several tornadoes ...

, on March 22, 2017, from complications of pneumonia that she developed in late 2016. She was 69.

Cultural impact

Hughes was the subject of a book titled ''

'', which was the basis of a 1984 made-for-television movie with the same name, starring

Farrah Fawcett Farrah Leni Fawcett (born Ferrah Leni Fawcett; February 2, 1947 – June 25, 2009) was an American actress. A four-time Primetime Emmy Award nominee and six-time Golden Globe Award nominee, Fawcett rose to international fame when she playe ...

. According to

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

as broadcast on April 3, 2017, the song "

Independence Day An independence day is an annual event commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or statehood, usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state, or more rarely after the end of a military occupation. Man ...

" written by

Gretchen Peters Gretchen Peters (born November 14, 1957) is an American singer and songwriter. She was born in New York, where she wrote her first song with her sister at the age of 5. In 1970, her parents broke up, and Peters moved with her mother to Boulder, ...

and made popular by

Martina McBride Martina Mariea McBride (née Schiff, born July 29, 1966) is an American country music singer-songwriter and record producer. She is known for her soprano singing range and her country pop material. McBride was born in Sharon, Kansas, and relocat ...

is about this event. Folk singer Lyn Hardy also created a song about these events entitled "The Ballad of Francine Hughes".Nalepa, Laurie; Pfefferman, Richard (February 7, 2013)
''The Murder Mystique: Female Killers and Popular Culture''
Praeger, pp. 10-11, Archived at Google Books. Retrieved February 13, 2016.

References

External links

*Monji, Jana (September 22, 2014)
"Why I Left "
rogerebert.com. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Francine 1947 births 2017 deaths 1977 crimes in the United States American victims of crime Crimes in Michigan Incidents of domestic violence People acquitted of murder People acquitted by reason of insanity People from Ingham County, Michigan American arsonists Deaths from pneumonia in Alabama Jury nullification Violence against women in the United States