The seeds of inspiration behind "Defiance: A Survivor Fighting for Justice Through Poetry" starts with the arrest of Marybeth Tinning, my grandparent's next-door neighbor and family friend, who spent decades in jail for murdering her infant daughter Tammy Lynn.
Being forced, as a child, into silence about my personal connection to an alleged child serial killer continues to haunt me.
In addition, the children of several Schenectady Police Officers involved in the Tinning Case attended Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons (ND-BG), where I went to school from grades 7-12 (1992-1998 ages 12 to 18).
Former Schenectady Police Chief Greg Kaczmarek, who helped inspire the movie "The Place Beyond the Pines" staring Ryan Gosling, was one of those Officers.
Subsequently, at age fifteen, my life and credibility were destroyed by Police Officers involved in the Tinning investigation when they covered up my boyfriend's murder.
On December 6th, 1995, an early morning blaze was meant to cover up the homicide of fifteen-year-old Andrew James McMahon.
At the time of Andrew's murder, Greg Kaczmarek's son Anthony (a fellow classmate from 1992 to 1998) bullied and abused me.
I made multiple attempts to bring criminal charges against Anthony, but his father Greg, stopped me. Those crimes include but are not limited to indecent exposure, sexual assault, battery, and attempt of rape.
Since my mom had been a secretary for the NYSPD BCI Unit years prior, the ONLY Law Enforcement agency that lacked a conflict of interest, in this "storm," was the FBI.
The Agent I spoke with, in 1996, felt that the murder of a fifteen-year-old boy was the direct result of a domestic dispute; ergo, not a federal case.
Even so, I continued to fight.
In 2019, I got Andrew's Cold Case reopened. Those loyal to Kaczmarek shut it down and revisited their 90s scare tactics of silencing me, about Andrew's decades old homicide.
It turns out: Andrew's case and my testimony can be used in pending lawsuits against the Catholic Church and ND-BG.
Andrew's cold case can also be used to unseal documents that lawyers are being blocked from getting unsealed. It's also possible that Andrew's case can be used as leverage to reopen the Look Behind Window as I am one of the people who was unable to obtain an attorney because no attorney wanted to touch a sex abuse case that has a homicide attached to it.
During his reign of terror, Greg Kaczmarek threatened to destroy all I cared about if I talked about Andrew.
Direct threats were made against the College of Saint Rose (1920-2024) and before he was famous Jimmy Fallon.
Our Alma mater has fallen. My life has been destroyed. Kaczmarek's cohorts have recycled the same intimidation tactics from the 1990s. Documents that prove my story have been purged from the internet; some are on microfilm. Politics blocked involvement, and Schenectady PD has screwed up a case my cats can solve.
The aforementioned mishandling of Justice has forced me to go public this way.
May you enjoy my defiance poems!
**This book contains some strong language, macabre, horror, descriptions of acts of violence, and a few other things that may not be suitable for everyone.**
Portion of all sales will be donated to non-profits in memory of Andrew James McMahon (1980-1995).
These include but are not limited to the Museum of the Cherokee People
animal rescues
food pantries
programs for at risk youths
Veterans groups
volunteer fire departments
suicide prevention awareness groups
places that assist persons with serious medical issues and places that assist those with disabilities
