Warning: This article contains details some readers may find upsetting
It's every parent's worst nightmare: Hearing your children in distress and not being able to do anything about it.
This very terror became a reality for one mom in 2001 after her estranged husband put their two daughters on the phone on loudspeaker before he murdered them in cold blood.
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John Battaglia and Mary Jean Pearle had divorced a year earlier, and they shared two daughters together: 9-year-old Faith and 6-year-old Liberty.
On May 2, 2001, Mary Jean received a phone call from ex-husband John, which would destroy her life forever.
Earlier that day, she had dropped the two little girls off with their father as he had promised to take them for dinner at the mall. Instead, Battaglia took the girls to his apartment in Adam Hats Lofts, Deep Ellum in Dallas, Texas, where he phoned Mary Jean and forced her to listen to her terrified daughters.
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He had learned earlier that there was a warrant out for his arrest for harassing his ex-wife, so he made little Faith ask her mom: "Why do you want Daddy to go to jail?".
The little girl was then heard screaming: "No, Daddy! Please don't! Don't do it!"
Mary Jane begged her daughters to run, but it was too late, and she heard Battaglia fatally shooting the girls multiple times.
He then said "Merry f**king Christmas" to Mary Jean, in just one of his many taunts to her.
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It is believed he was referencing an incident which took place at Christmas back in 1999, where he assaulted Mary Jean and she went to the police about, leading to their divorce.
A terrified Mary hung up and called 911 for help.
Battaglia then called back and left a voicemail on the answering machine, saying: "Hi, girls. I just want to tell you how very, very brave you were, and I hope you are resting in a better place now. I wish that you had nothing to do with your mother. She’s evil and vicious and stupid!"
"Goodnight, my little babies,” he went on. “You were very brave girls.”
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After murdering his daughters, Battaglia went out to a bar with his girlfriend before going to a tattoo parlour, getting two roses inked dedicated to the children he just killed.
It took jurors just 20 minutes to find him guilty, and he was sentenced to death in 2002.
The killer was eventually executed in 2018, despite several pushbacks from his legal team who questioned his sanity. His legal team submitted a new appeal the morning that he died, saying that the state's last two executions had gone wrong.
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The appeal was unsuccessful, with the U.S. Supreme Court issuing a final denial at around 9pm.
Battaglia never expressed remorse for the murders and still continued to blame his ex-wife. Even as he was facing death, he found time to torment the grieving mother.
Asked if he had any last words, Battaglia said no, the Dallas Morning News reports, but he then changed his mind, saying: “Well, hi Mary Jean,” who stood behind the glass pane watching the execution.
“See y’all later. Go ahead please,” he added.
He was then injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital 9:18 p.m. It took twenty-two minutes for him to be pronounced dead.
Topics: Crime, Gun Crime, True crime, World News, Death Row
Jen Thomas