Rest "As Best You Can" Samantha and Bianca Revelus
Wednesday, April 1, 2009 at 8:33AM The Blogmother "I think if they had known something like that would have happened, they would have tried to get help," said Vonz's sister, Marie Revelus. "I don't think they knew." Aunt of Bianca and Samantha Revelus
Compassion demands that I refrain from offering my unvarnished opinions (and they are legion) about the senseless deaths of Bianca and Samantha Revelus at this time. If you don't know what happened to these 5 and 17 year-old girls, you can read the grisly details here. But you really don't need to know all the details because if you've read this blog for any length of time, these things follow a set pattern. Vulnerable children in a situation they cannot escape are slaughtered by someone the parents introduced into their orbit or failed to remove from their orbit- neighbors, family and friends SHOCKED. SHOCKED SHOCKED! that this happened-Never could have predicted that _____insert name here____ could have done this despite a trail of information to the contrary.
You can review previous posts I have written about similar cases where helpless and defenseless girls were placed in the path of danger in the name of "love." I'm so sick of writing these posts. I really am. I am so sick of writing about this. I really am. !&^%@$&%#!
When I first heard about the story about the brutal stabbing deaths of Bianca and Samantha Revelus, I knew that whoever did this had a history of violence.
Relatives said they had no warning Kerby Revelus was capable of committing the alleged violent killings.
“Kerby always laugh,” said aunt Marie Rovelus. “He always making fun, you know? He was OK.”“He was a loving child,” said relative Farah Pierre. “I didn’t know he was in all these problems. This is amazing to me; this is crazy.” SOURCE
You don't just wake up one day and decide to cut your 5 year old little sister's head off in front of a police officer. You don't hide that kind of uncontrollable rage or insanity.
So it wasn't a surprise to learn that there was a history of violent behavior directed at the girls in the family by Kerby Revelus:
As the family searched for solace, court records revealed yesterday that the son, Kerby 23, had been arrested four times in the last five years - a more extensive criminal record than had previously been reported.
On Sept. 9, 2004, he was arrested at the family home after he punched his eldest sister, Jessica, during an argument about a phone bill.
"According to Ms. Revelus, the argument got heated and her brother punched her in the face with a closed fist," Milton police wrote in report at the time. "In response, she threw a wooden spoon back at him."
Jessica Revelus had no obvious injuries and declined medical attention, police wrote. She was advised that she could get a restraining order against her brother, but told officers that "she was not in fear of her brother and had no wish to pursue the matter," police wrote.
Revelus was charged with domestic assault and battery, but the charge was dropped after Jessica Revelus decided not to pursue the case, court records show.
"No one was ever afraid of him," Jessica Revelus, 21, of Hyde Park, said in a telephone interview yesterday. Source
The Boston Globe then goes down a laundry list of violent crimes, some involving a weapon.You can read the whole thing over at the Boston Globe.The Boston Herald reveals that one of the victims may have complained about the Kerby Revelus' violent behavior and the fact that the Father was not speaking to the son.
Jessica told the Herald yesterday, “I was never afraid of him. I called the police because he thought he was so big and bad.”
She said her slain sister Samantha “would get into arguments” with Kerby over “little stuff,” but never expressed to her she was in fear. She said her father, Vonze Revelus, and her brother were not speaking.
However, Milton Police Chief Richard G. Wells Jr. told the Herald investigators believe Samantha was Kerby’s “initial target” because - after the unemployed ex-con allegedly hit a neighbor Friday - she’d “protested to her parents that she was concerned about the violence.” Boston Herald
The Boston Herald also has another story from the sister he attacked earlier saying that "Anything would set him off."
“Samantha would stay away from him,” said Jessica Revelus, 21, of her slain sister and killer brother Kerby Revelus, 23. “No one was scared of him, he just has a temper. Anything would set him off.”
Jessica, who once called police after an argument with Kerby got out of control, moved out of the Milton family’s home to raise her baby, Ariana Castillo, and be safe. Boston Herald
Rest in Peace As Best You Can
I have so many questions and observations about this case, but none of them will bring these children back. I would say "rest in peace", but the parents/aunt and uncle buried the young victims with the person that killed them.So in death as it was in life, these girls could not get away from Kerby Revelus.
"Even though this is tragic, this is still the mother of all three," said Ernst Guerrier, a lawyer who has known the Revelus couple since they were high school students two decades ago. "She can't separate them." Boston Globe
Rest in Peace"As Best You Can" Samantha and Bianca.
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“Kerby always laugh,” said aunt Marie Rovelus. “He always making fun, you know? He was OK.”“He was a loving child,” said relative Farah Pierre. “I didn’t know he was in all these problems. This is amazing to me; this is crazy.”
The above is for the public audience. But privately, they knew this was coming. They just didn't feel it was any of the media's business to find otherwise. Of course, they managed to piece that together for themselves:
“Samantha would stay away from him,” said Jessica Revelus, 21, of her slain sister and killer brother Kerby Revelus, 23. “No one was scared of him, he just has a temper. Anything would set him off.”
They knew. But they won't admit that to the media.
. . . Buried the victims WITH their murderer. . . {insert primal scream here}
This is the logical end result of our mass refusal to make common sense judgments, and therefore "make differences" between people, including relatives. We're SUPPOSED to make differences between the victims and their killers. We're supposed to make differences between the violent and the non-violent. We're supposed to make differences AND "judge people," especially when it comes to safety issues.
We're supposed to do these things, but I see that common sense never outweighs our emotional need to pretend that the various "Ray-Rays" in our lives are safe and worthy men. Or our emotional need to allow these "Ray-Rays" to hang around our children.
I'm so sick of this. I'm sick of the irresponsible breeders...err, parents...who enable these atrocities.
Peace, blessings and solidarity.
Thanks to so called black intelligensia and so called activists black folks have learned to play arm chair psychologist and sociologist to condone the anti social behavior of a BM. 30 years ago a 23 yo man would have been kicked out of the house for acting like this.
I was extremely disappointed when I heard this news and not shocked in the least when I read the long list of crimes committed by the individual. But I am guessing it was all for the sake of "keeping the family together"...yea...
“Kerby always laugh,” said aunt Marie Rovelus. “He always making fun, you know? He was OK.”“He was a loving child,” said relative Farah Pierre. “I didn’t know he was in all these problems. This is amazing to me; this is crazy.”
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I'm not understanding what him being a "loving child" has to do with him as an adult who slaughtered his own sisters. A lot of serial killers were "loving children".
I also don't believe nobody knew he was capable of this. He punched his own sister in the face; WHY was he even allowed to remain in the house? What is wrong with people allowing such a person to REMAIN in their house? Ray Charles could see this monster had a serious anger issue and was capable of doing EXACTLY what he did.
Finally, I can't BELIEVE the mother buried this monster with the children he slaughtered. What is she thinking?! What a HUGE final slap in the face to her other children.
This whole situation makes me want to pull my hair out.
You don’t just wake up one day and decide to cut your 5 year old little sister’s head off in front of a police officer. You don’t hide that kind of uncontrollable rage or insanity.
Exactly. I will repeat a comment I left on another blog on this case:
With all due respect to the family that has suffered this horrific tragedy, it sounds like the final act of burying this brutal murderer with his sisters is a final act of denial on the part of the parents.
Considering all of the assault and battery charges against him (including one involving yet another sister) - why did his family still have him around? How many assaults were NOT reported to avoid involving the police? Why did he still have access to his sisters, especially the 5-year-old since he had already shown that he could be violent with them?
It sounds like he was coddled for a long time despite his violent record and now those poor girls had to pay the ultimate price because their own family wouldn't keep him at a distance.
I am so sick of reading about these types of cases. When are people going to wake up?! This GROWN MAN had a history of violence against other people, especially toward his sisters. No one just gets up one day and all of a sudden decides to decapitate someone. Violence usually escalates. It goes from verbal abuse to pushing, to hitting, to breaking bones and blackening eyes, to murder. That's why no one should be surprised that this happened. I understand that he was their child, but it seems to me that his needs were constantly put above those of their other children, even in death. THIS WAS A GROWN A** MAN! He should not have been allowed to stay in the home. They should have protected their other children. What would've been wrong with putting him out, if for no other reason than to keep him from verbally and physically abusing their girls. SMH.
What is mind boggling is the way in which these issues of intra-racial vicitimization and the dysfunction that causes it doesn't illicit a scintilla of concern or action from the Civil Rights Establishment.
I can't....
I think it was Debra Dickerson who made the comment ‘Blacks now raise their daughters, but just “love” their sons’.
That isn’t to be incendiary. Just something I read that connected to these common occurrences you are regularly blogging about.
It starts from youth. *sigh* What I find freakin' irritating about all these stories about crazed family members going off and killing other family members and innocent people is the fact that there were CLUES!!!! CLUES!!! And they ignored them.
Like I said before, if there is something wrong with your child, something bothering them, etc. FIX it.
Parents take it personally and give up or they assume it will correct itself. Even if you did screw up, if you fix it, there is still time.
My sons are SCREWED in the sense that I read people like books and I will be all up in their business until my casket drops and even after that. Missing college class? I'll walk you there. Someone say something to hurt your feelings? let's sit at the table and talk about it or go jog together and work it off. Girlfriend problems? Let me tell you what she might be thinking. I realize my responsibilities as a parent don't end when they are 18 and out of the house. It's neverending.
So what Kerby was 23 or 24! They should've made it clear to him, like the old adage goes, get your s&*T right or I will dispatch you out of this world just as quickly as I delivered you.
What's sad is Kerby may have been reaching out for attention for sometime, and seeing the violence against his sisters, I wonder if he felt worthless as the only boy. It just doesn't make sense that he would kill them if he didn't feel that way.
Remember why Cain slew Abel.
Black folks (in general) are allergic to psychiatrists and other mental help officials.
He needed help a long time ago..the fact he lashed out against his sisters suggests there was some long built up issues there regarding them and my guess women in general.
You can't save people if you don't acknowledge there is a problem. Now there are three dead people when there didn't have to be one.
When are we going to wake up and understand that the excuses we make and the "protecting" we do of black men/males is irrevocably destroying any potential they have of being healthy, loving human beings?? We go to our graves while they continue an unending march straight to prison...Who does ANY of this ultimately serve?? And why do those who claim positions of leadership in our communities continue to miss this big picture? OUR sons, brothers, fathers, lovers, cousins, and husbands are not EXPECTED to be better by us or anyone else…WE and THEY are TOO good for this tragic wastefulness. We toss our precious, beautiful, potential-filled lives away like rubbish in the streets. We are too GOOD for this, but are too lost, self-hating and mentally ill to know it…
I am sad...
That this occured.
That no one did enough about the behaviors they saw.
That backwards views/fears keep people from getting mental health.
That people with 'problem' children always have another one.
That recent police stories may have crossed that officers' mind- planting fear, and hesitation.
That too many people belong in prison. And that rehabilitation works for few.
That black women/youth continue to die by the hands of their own people and family.
I am sad because I don't know how to make it better outside my immediate world.
I am sad that some people are released from prison; that rehab rarely works; that people have more children when they are already burdened by the ones they have; that the value of human life especially Black females is less than other animals; that ignorant and often backwards cultural beliefs dictate to much; and that our society is so messed up.
He was a sociopath and menace to society. The one sister tried to keep her distance because she instinctively KNEW he would harm her. She probably second guessed herself because everyone else in her family was hell bent on denying it. This is why women must leave these areas and the criminally minded/psychotic people that remain in them and run for their lives. We have a biological family we may be born into but we have every right to cut ties and create a "real" family of people who have our best interests at heart IF we can't find them amongst our gene pools.
it feels like the mother just threw them all in the trash.
Greeting to all, when you get a moment, go the the Washington Post, to a search, "Erica Peters." She and her two sons were stabbed to death by her boyfriend. The Homegoing Service was today. They had been together for three years, had a two year old daughter and according to family members, there had been a history of violence for most of those three years. She was also Deaf.
This is the Lenten season; the teacher of the youngest son tearfully shared how he gave a book report on the Friday before he was murdered. His book report was not on sports, video games or even Pres. Obama, it was on the Book of Genesis. I'm a Domestic Violence Advocate here in this city; clearly we have much more work to do. :(
@RevMamaAfrika I made it a post. Thanks for the information.
I live not far from where this atrocity occurred and I said why is the family having the services for all three together??? They are that in denial, coddling these grown ass men and letting the daughters catch hell. I think he was jealous of them and their success where as he was a loser! I went through a situation with my brother another grown ass momma's boy, he could do no wrong in her eyes even when he put his hands on me. I got a restraining order and ended up spending the holidays in a shelter with my young child while my mother still made excuses for my brother and lied on me. Today he is still messed the hell up and I am living my life like its golden. Black folks wake the hell up mental illness is nothing for amateurs to deal with! This lack of concern over black female lives cannot continue!
My comment is not too diminish the seriousness of true mental illness in any way, but some behaviors are the result of a lack of good old fashioned discipline and structure within the home...it has nothing to do with mental illness.
As a community, I feel we have gotten away from providing a structured environment for our children that includes love AND discipline. And an understanding that loving your child INCLUDES providing them with the appropriate form of correction and instruction for the situation.
I don't know exactly what went on in the Revelus household but I wonder what type of discipline the son received growing up that the FIRST time he was violent towards one of his sisters, he father or mother put a stop to it and taught him that there ARE consequences to your actions.
Again, I'm not diminishing the importance of mental health, but I think as a community we need to take a serious, honest look at ourselves and not be so quick to place the blame on forces that we think are "out of our control".
How can we possibly tell, or know, which evil deeds that are being caused by both lack of discipline within the home and lack of love and those deeds that are being committed by individuals with mental illnesses?
You can't, because those evil and abusive predators live in the same communities, attend the same schools, and play in the same parks, as those children who grew up without parental love and consistent discipline -and at this point, does it matter?
Whatever his "problem" was, it was up to his parents to check. Once they failed at that job, it was up to any other sane, intelligent person to keep his sisters away from harms way. Once that failed, I, as an individual have every right to put him in the same boat as the rest of these low life AA males.
BTW, Hope, as a community, we have gotten away from a whole lot of other things.
Well this will continue to happen if seeking professional help is not encouraged. People tend to brush it off and say "ain't nothing wrong with that boy", "he just needs Jesus and a good ole fashion butt whoopin", as if people can't have faith and get professional help at the same time.
Someone knew his potential, someone didn't cry loud enough or tell the right resources. May his parents continue p suffer from their lack of parenting.
Just a reminder, in some parts of the country, PCP is making a comeback. Three to four weeks ago, a young 25 year old man shot his mother in the chest in their home.
He called the police, "I think I just did something stupid, I think I shot my mother." :( :(
@DeStouet: You have them evaluated.
Sigh (A heavy and labored one).
And the parents stood by, and did nothing. I always wonder why God allows certain people to have children, and become parents. But, He gives us as human beings free will, no matter how misguided that will is.
I wonder what the father is saying now. Perhaps he should have talked to his son, instead of ignoring him.
Just discovered this blog. Must comment on this story.
I grew up in a home with a brother that became a tyrant as soon as my parents left the home. He was the "life of the party" to the neighborhood kids but was mean as hell to his sisters. My parents knew the truth and did their best never to leave us alone with him. He was spanked often and denied priveldges but this did not change his behavior. My parents were not equipped to handle his behavior. He needed counseling to figure out why he would go into a rage for no apparent reason. Generally, black folks don't seek mental health services.
Yes, this kid had problems and he should have been removed from the home. But I'm not sure anything indicated that he would do anything this extreme and insane. It's a long way from a punch in the face to cutting off somebody's head. I suspect the toxicology reports will reveal that he was on drugs.
However, there may be more information that the family just won't tell us. The oldest daughter sounds like she moved out because she was afraid of him. They clearly valued their son more than their daughters as he should have been removed from the home after he struck the oldest daughter.
The larger issue is that this young man DID display mental health problems. We need to take mental health MUCH more seriously. If he had been properly diagnosed, a psychologist might have learned of the problem sooner. His behavior is incomprehensible without there being either a mental illness or drugs.
I do think the Grandma is lying. I think she was hiding downstairs. She saved herself and let her grandbabies die. I'm sure they were screaming. She must have heard something and known that he would have killed her as well.
Oh, and Hope, beating our children is NOT the solution. All of the research says it just creates more violence and more crime and even worsens school performance.
OF COURSE HIS PARENTS BEAT HIM, WHERE DO YOU THINK HE LEARNED THAT VIOLENCE WAS A SOLUTION TO HIS PROBLEMS?
PLEASE, MY BLACK PEOPLE, STOP RECOMMENDING MORE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE