A Farm Family Suffers Brutality in Secret
(Forensic Files, “The Root of All Evil”)
Updated on June 30, 2022
From the outside, life at Fred and Charlotte Grabbe’s country mansion must have looked enviable. The couple had a cheerleading daughter who got straight A’s, a handsome football-playing son, and a prosperous 800-acre farm near Marshall, Illinois.
Acquaintances described Fred, who was 6-foot-4 and 280 pounds with blue eyes, as outgoing and friendly.
Charlotte was a foot shorter than Fred and less than half his weight. She had a simple, elegant style and a pretty face with birdlike features.
Floodgates open. But Charlotte didn’t act like a delicate flower. On the last day of her life, she was driving a tractor and cultivating soybean fields.
And Fred didn’t treat her like she was made of china either. In fact, he physically abused her up until the day he suffocated her with his meaty hands and incinerated her body.
He had four years of freedom before authorities, who never recovered Charlotte’s remains, could put together a case against him. Fortunately, a private detective tracked down Fred’s young ex-girlfriend and she spilled everything she knew about what happened to Charlotte Grabbe.
Hulking heartthrob. Vickie McCalister was mad at Fred because he jilted her and replaced her with another blond woman in her 20s. Barbara Graham was so crazy about Fred that she attempted to break him out of jail.
For this week, I searched for Fred Grabbe’s whereabouts today and any clues as to how this violent tub of lard managed to snag girlfriends despite his horrible past and why Charlotte Grabbe married him in the first place.
I also looked for an epilogue for the Grabbes’ daughter, Jennie, who guarded many of the worst family secrets until long after Forensic Files produced “The Root of All Evil” in 2001.
It started in Indiana. So let’s get going on a recap of the episode along with extra information culled from online research:
Fred Grabbe came into the world on June 2, 1939, in West Terre Haute, Indiana, the son of Inez and Chester Grabbe. Before turning to farming, Fred co-owned an agricultural implement store and worked in coal-mining and oil-drilling.
Charlotte Sue Gore was also born in Indiana, on Jan. 31, 1942, the daughter of Melvin and Margaret Gore.
Margaret died young, leaving Charlotte motherless at age 7.
‘I do’ to a sex criminal. According to Jennie, Charlotte and Fred’s marriage didn’t just end in a horror show: It began that way, too.
At age 15, Charlotte went out on a date with 19-year-old Fred and he raped her, according to an interview Jennie gave to a radio show in 2015.
Charlotte became pregnant.
It was 1957, long before anyone had heard the term “date rape” and Charlotte, with no female role model to guide her, probably didn’t know what else to do but marry the man who impregnated her.
Bucolic life. The couple had son Jeffrey Leon on Sept. 1, 1958, and daughter Jennie the following year.
Charlotte caught Fred cheating on her and divorced him in 1961. He must have turned on the charm because she gave him another chance. They did have two small kids together and he hadn’t metamorphosed into a walking sea cow yet. They remarried in 1962.
The family lived in Canada for a while and eventually moved to Clark County, Illinois, in an area rich with corn and soybean fields.
Teenage mom. Charlotte lost her father in 1974 and, thanks in part to family assets she inherited, the Grabbes were able to own and operate a successful farm.
Jennie would later say that her mother did a good job of raising her and her brother, but Charlotte was so young that sometimes she seemed more like a sister.
Father’s fury. There were some good times. The Grabbes’ daughter-in-law, Cindy Pancake, told Forensic Files that Fred could be a fun-loving and warm host.
But the unpleasant events were memorable, too.
He had fits of rage over practically nothing, usually directed at Charlotte or Jeff, and sometimes they included physical abuse, according to Jennie.
Secrets and lies. Jennie told Forensic Files that she witnessed her dad bashing her brother’s head into the fender of a pickup truck.
“My brother was hospitalized one time and we were told to make up stories…tell the doctor he fell out of the hayloft,” she recalled on the Stop Child Abuse Now internet radio show.
By 1981, Charlotte, 39, had endured enough and asked for another divorce. Fred, 42, had started cheating on her again, with 24-year-old bartender Vickie Jane McCalister.
Hard work and dedication. Fred moved out of the main house, into a cabin on the Grabbes’ property.
For Fred, a permanent split would mean freedom to continue sleeping around — but he wanted to hold onto Charlotte and not divide up the family assets.
On July 24, 1981, Charlotte left the house to do work in the soybean fields.
Her children never saw her again.
Alleged car chase. Charlotte had told the kids to come look for her if she didn’t get back by 4:30 p.m. that day. Jennie and Jeff called the sheriff right away.
Fred explained to the law officers that he and Charlotte argued in the toolshed that day. He got in his truck, and she chased him in her green Ford LTD and eventually drove off toward the interstate, Fred claimed.
But witnesses said it was a curly haired blond woman following Fred in Charlotte’s car.
Grave words. Police found Charlotte’s purse, uneaten lunch, and migraine medicine in the toolshed.
The authorities drilled open Charlotte’s bank safe deposit box and found a handwritten note Charlotte left, with the instructions to read it upon her death.
It was a voice from the grave (Sandra Duyst, Russ Stager) accusing Fred of stealing some farm equipment and declaring that she was afraid of Fred as well as his business associate Dale Kessler.
Iffy alibi. Kessler told police that Fred was with him the night Charlotte disappeared.
But when questioned by a grand jury about his whereabouts, Fred took the Fifth Amendment.
Jennie, married by now, posted a $25,000 reward for help solving the case, but it went cold for four years.
Terror in the toolshed. In 1984, she and husband Darrel Livvix, who operated a plastics plant, hired a private investigator named Charles Pierson to look for Charlotte.
Pierson found Vickie McCalister in Indiana. She was bitter about the way Fred treated her and wanted the $25,000 reward. She spilled an absolutely revolting story about what really happened the day Charlotte disappeared on July 24, 1981.
While Vickie was hiding behind a tractor, Charlotte and Fred argued in the toolshed. He attacked her. As a sadistic exercise, he repeatedly choked her until she passed out, waited until she came to, and choked her again.
Spotlight on tree experts. Fred finally strangled her to death and severely abused her corpse. Vickie then helped Fred burn the body with diesel fuel in a trash barrel under a maple tree on the banks of the Wabash River.
He threw her remains into the water.
Vickie admitted that she was the one seen driving Charlotte’s vehicle the day she died. She had abandoned the car in Terre Haute.
Obviously, the account from a woman scorned — the holy grail for prosecutors — provided a huge break in the case. But investigators still had no trace of a body, so they had to dig deeply to find forensic evidence.
Ring of truth. Russ Carlson, a consulting arborist (a refreshing departure from the usual blood splatter expert) who Forensic Files viewers may remember from his appearance on the show, and two University of Illinois scientists cut several branches from the maple tree at the site where Vickie said she and Fred burned the body.
The experts found that the 1981 growth rings that faced the river showed a developmental slowdown consistent with exposure to diesel fuel. Further testing revealed evidence of petroleum products in the tree. And the only branches affected by the fuel were those directly above the spot where Vickie said she and Fred had placed the burn barrel.
In 1985, police finally arrested Fred Grabbe. His lawyers succeeded in getting him a change of venue to Vermilion County — after a phone survey revealed that 98 percent of Clark County residents had heard of Fred Grabbe, according to the Mattoon Journal Gazette.
Eyewitness account. Comments from the survey included, “I went to school with Fred Grabbe. Then he was real nice but now it’s another story” and “I hope they electrocute him.”
Vickie got immunity for testifying about the murder and, for the first time, Jennie and Jeff heard the story of the way their mother died.
The motive was money — most of their wealth sprang from Charlotte’s inheritance and Fred wanted to retain it. Vickie McCalister admitted she participated in the murder cover-up.
Son intimidated. McCalister testified that Charlotte wasn’t Fred’s first homicide victim. He told her that, at 14, he had murdered someone for killing his dog (hate to defend Fred Grabbe, but that’s a mitigating factor) and later had killed two women over a union dispute, according to court papers filed in 1986.
Jennie would later say that as a child, she witnessed Fred kill a man after a bar fight.
Jeff Grabbe also testified about the physical abuse Fred had inflicted upon family members and said that Fred had threatened to hurt him if he didn’t clam up about his mother’s disappearance.
But Fred Grabbe had some people on his side, too. Paulina Kessler, wife of Dale Kessler, claimed she spotted someone who looked like Charlotte Grabbe in a shopping mall a year after she disappeared, the Decatur Herald and Review reported.
Ridiculous attempt. Fred’s defense lawyer argued that Vickie McCalister made up the murder story to collect the reward.
Regardless, a jury convicted Fred of first-degree murder on June 24, 1985, and he got a sentence of life without parole.
But the drama didn’t stop after the guilty verdict. While authorities were still holding Fred in the Clark County lockup, Barbara Graham — the woman Fred had dumped Vickie McCalister for — shot Deputy Mike Davidson in the leg and fired off four more bullets in an attempt to blast Fred out of jail.
It’s not clear what Barbara’s long-term plan was. Where could the towering Fred ever hide?
Hairy situation. And why did the 26-year-old Graham, whom the Chicago Tribune described as a mother of three, find Fred so alluring? And ditto with Vickie McCalister?
Well, first off, as many who knew Fred explained, when he kept his id in check, he was pleasant, lively company. His daughter said he was a classic Jekyll and Hyde who sometimes seemed like “the nicest person you could meet.”
There’s also the money factor. The Tribune story mentioned that Barbara Graham enjoyed showing off a fur coat Fred bought her prior to the first trial, so maybe she hoped for more expensive gifts in exchange for her gun moll services.
Hope it was worth it. For all we know, Fred promised each girlfriend she would someday become the lady of the household at the spacious Southfork-like main residence on the farm.
Instead, Barbara Graham got a 16-year prison sentence for her futile crime. Vicky McCalister evaded any punishment for her role in Charlotte Grabbe’s murder, but she had to change her identity and flee the area out of fear of reprisal by Fred.
Her worry was well-placed. In 1985, while Fred was securely locked in jail, a fire destroyed the Grabbes’ main house as well as a small abode that Jeff Grabbe was building on the property. Illinois police found evidence of arson but couldn’t prove that Fred, from his cell, had directed any of his associates to set the buildings aflame.
Money problems. Two years later in 1987, more bad news befell the Grabbe children. Fred won a new trial on appeal because of faulty instructions given to the jury.
In March 1988, before he had a chance to testify against his father again, Jeff Grabbe went missing.
Jennie told the Herald and Review that her brother hadn’t worked since their mother died and that he was probably evading creditors, according to a story by reporter Jeffrey Raymond, who covered the case extensively.
Another watery grave. Jeff Grabbe did have a rather dicey reputation. The Herald and Review story noted that he had allegedly been seen trying to break into a local appliance store, but the authorities never pressed charges. “He’s not what you call one of our real troublemakers,” Detective Burt Bennett of the Marshall Police Department told the Herald and Review.
According to his wife, Cindy, Jeff was a financier and had gone to California to seek a loan for a client. She and Jeff had been talking on the phone every day because their baby son had pneumonia, and Jeff suddenly stopped calling.
On March 21, 1998, a boater discovered a corpse in the Pacific Ocean 1.5 miles off Seal Beach.
Died with his boots on. Clearly, this was no accidental drowning. Someone had shot the victim three times, tied an anchor to him, and thrown him fully clothed into the Ocean.
FBI-trained forensic sculptor Marilyn Droz would later comment that she could tell the victim was “at least middle class” because of his expensive snakeskin boots.
The water had rendered the face unrecognizable, but a reconstructive clay bust and dental records enabled a positive ID of Jeffrey Grabbe on May 24, 1988. A theory sprang up that one of Fred Grabbe’s reprobate associates — perhaps the same person who torched the houses — had put out a hit on Jeff.
As John O’Brien reported in the Chicago Tribune:
“Seal Beach police say the killing appears to be drug-related… [Detectives] scoff at the notion that Fred Grabbe, safe in a cell in Downstate Illinois, had anything to do with it. On the other hand, Seal Beach police don’t know Fred Grabbe.”
The monster grieves. In addition to Cindy, who worked as an elementary school teacher, Jeff left behind sons Lucas, 5, and Nicholas, 9 months.
According to defense lawyer Frederick Cohn, Fred Grabbe cried “like a baby” in Coles County jail after hearing the news of his son’s death, the Herald and Review reported in a June 2, 1988.
His sorrow might have been real. Police concluded that Jeff was killed because he tried to double-cross some of his own business associates in a $7 million money-laundering scheme, the LA Times reported on Nov. 18, 1988.
More to the story. At Fred Grabbe’s second trial, the judge refused to allow a record of Jeff’s testimony, but his widow took the stand for the prosecution.
In April 1988, Fred was found guilty again and got 75 years in prison.
Jennie said she eventually forgave her father even though he never said he was sorry.
Fred actually had a lot more things to atone for than either of the juries ever heard.
Coping with trauma. By the time Jennie was 5, Fred had begun sexually abusing her, according to her interview on Stop Child Abuse, a show hosted by William “Bill” Murray III, who survived molestation by priests and went on to found the National Association of Adult Survivors of Childhood Abuse in California.
“I would disassociate — count tiles on the ceiling,” Jennie said. “Some things I didn’t remember until I was 30 years old.”
Jennie also said that she took comfort from playing music and having dogs and horses growing up.
Solace attained. She was popular, and the classmates who elected her to the Homecoming Queen’s court and listened to her sing “Evergreen” in a school show had no idea the upbeat girl lived in a den of depravity at home.
Today known as Jennie Woolverton, she married three times, had five children, and said she ultimately found peace and healing with the help of a Christian group.
In an unfortunate and bizarre tangential note, Jennie’s son Adam Livvix made headlines in 2014, when he allegedly plotted to bomb Muslim holy sites in Israel.
Not loving the cuisine? But that’s a lot to process and this post is already pretty long, so I’ll try to cover the Adam Livvix story in a future post.
In the meantime, let’s get to Fred. Today, he resides in Dixon Correctional Center in Illinois. He’s lost an inch of his height, standing 6’3, and some weight, at 254 pounds.
His profile also mentioned that he’s missing at least one finger from his right hand. My guess would be a farm-equipment accident — it’s hard to imagine even the toughest fellow inmate holding Fred down and slicing off body parts.
And speaking of horrors, Grabbe won parole and exited prison on July 22, 2022. (Thanks to readers RTH and Dennis L. for the tip.)
That’s all for the post. Until next time, cheers. — RR
Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube
Thanks, Rebecca – engrossing. I recall being horrified by this monster (physical and psychological) in the ep, including his potential serial murderer status and the evil influence he may have wielded beyond the prison in arranging death and destruction. It’s entirely plausible that someone like him would’ve known low-lifes per arson and murder. Strangulation is well-known to be highly ‘personal’: it’s up-close and takes time. Someone who does that to a wife and mother, then ‘abuses’ the corpse, seems capable of any atrocity…
What has poor Jennie had to endure – and how she can find it in her heart to forgive, albeit that it may be better for her? Her father a monster, her mother murdered by him, and her brother murdered – possibly by him. My heart goes out to her… Jeff Grabbe may have been up to the wrong thing, but he had appalling influence in his father.
The two girlfriends were total trash, especially McCalister. Dreadful that she got off scot-free. While I can imagine she was frightened of Grabbe, apart from her appalling taste and want of blood money, she must’ve known that had she come forward she’d have had police protection, albeit her life would’ve been disrupted. Did it ever occur to this stupid ‘ho’ that as Grabbe could kill his wife, he could at least as easily dispose of her, being a witness?
The sooner Grabbe croakes, the better. He must surely rank as one of the primest contenders the chair…
I hope that this bastard rots and does in prison. He doesn’t deserve to have freedom. He revoked his rights when he killed and sodomized his wife. I hope he burns in hell!
Fred Grabbe seems like a classic bully, except he took his bullying way too far. Based on the testimony and evidence you’d have to say that this guy got off lightly with just prison, and now a chance at parole? Hopefully he doesn’t get out because he doesn’t deserve his freedom. I hope he’s an organ donor so he could be of some use in this world.
So ridiculous that Fred Grabbe would potentially have a chance to be paroled. People like him and Richard Kraft, who was just paroled after wood-chipping his wife Hella, should never be able to earn their freedom and live among us.
Agreed: it should’ve been life without parole.
I so agree, some or the stories shown, like the ones you mentioned as well as the Earl and Ruby Morris leave me in disbelief as to how wicked these men can sink to with no regard for the children and families. They should never be released from prison.
There are such things as social phenomena. The oppression of women and the prevelance of domestic violence, provide a society where many women fall prey to the likes of Fred Grabbe. This is very much overlooked in many cases in Foresensic Files, when it comes to an analysis of why women are attracted to violent men. Domestic violence is tolerated in US society (especially at the time the Grabbes were married), and many women are either financially or socially (leaving their husband meant social ostracism) dependent on men. Most of the violence in Forensic Files has its origins in domestic violence.
Anyway, many thanks for update. Much appreciated.
Well, in this case Charlotte was the one with the means, more than the appalling husband. The reason women stick with violent male partners – married or not – is doubtless psychologically complex where they’re not economically dependent (probably a minority). Children are the obvious factor. Charlotte did make a break… but sadly made what proved mistaken decision in returning (though the husband may have ‘reached out’ to harm her wherever she’d gone… and perhaps he threatened to do just that if she didn’t return – when she should then have involved police.)
Of your general point, however difficult it is, women with violent partners MUST leave. Should they choose to stay/return, they must accept some of the potential consequence (which is not in any degree to deny his total culpability for violence).
There is, though, the ‘hidden’ problem of women-on-men domestic violence, in part caused by women’s greater propensity today to abuse booze and drugs and ‘act like men.’ As a former police chaplain I can attest to the inclination and ability of women to be every bit as violent as men… But men are, of course, much more likely to murder their partner than women.
All good thoughts. (And I’m always pleasantly surprised when someone spells ‘chaplain’ the right way.)
I am replying to your statement, about- involving the police, when there is threats or domestic violence. YES, I agree with that. However, when an abused victim, final take the scary and sometimes, dangerous measure to involve the police….MORE times than not, the victim isn’t protected, by anything other than, a piece of paper, especially in rural and small towns! Sad but true
Nicole: I appreciate your point: a document can’t guarantee protection. But it’s better than nothing, and if the woman decides to return to the abusive man and he repeats the abuse (every possibility), her claim is then consolidated and further action can be taken. She has to weigh up whether, having ‘made the break’, or taken the watershed step of involving police, she risks returning. Here in UK many women who contact police about abusive partners fail to press charges and/or recant statements. While we understand why they do this, in many cases it was – and will prove – foolish ‘cos the whole episode is soon repeated. Some people prefer abusive relationships to nothing, it seems, and jails and prisons have their share of men (and some women) who went too far, hurting or killing their partner when the warning signs of dysfunction had long existed and someone should’ve walked out…
I don’t for a moment suggest the choice to walk out on a spouse – most especially when children apply – is easy. Sometimes it is – and needs to be done. No-one deserves the cruelty of physical or psychological abuse.
The percent of women abusing men is still a small percent comparably. And what people don’t know is the most dangerous time for a women is when they leave. I worked at CODA for years. I could go deeper but it never seems to mattter.
Your comments don’t make sense. “Oppression of women…women fall prey to the likes of …Grabbe.” This does not make sense. And just what is “this’ that is “overlooked”? “Most of the violence in Forensic Files has its origin in domestic violence.” What are you saying?
Your lack of antecedents, run-on sentences, etc. make your writing very difficult to understand.
He will unfortunately be paroled on his parole date in Illinois. That’s how it works in Illinois. There is no decision when his release date comes, he gets out…
Let’s hope he fails to make it out, being in his 80s. He may be old but could still pull dangerous strings, never mind the thorough wickedness that should’ve entailed LWOP.
Admission Date: 08/03/1988
Projected Parole Date: 10/17/2022
Last Paroled Date:
Projected Discharge Date: 10/17/2025
Illinois is a crime syndicate.
And the former governor who was sent to prison also dropped the death penalty to make himself look better!
The debris from Jeff Grabbe`s house has been bulldozed away,leaving no trace of its existence.
Both houses, the two-story and the tudor.
The chaplain should know that Fred Grabbe can still be saved by tuning his life over to JESUS. just like the thief on the cross.
Bob: Indeed he can (and perhaps he has) though that’s a matter for the Lord’s discerning, not ours, and need not concern us, not least because forgiveness can only come from those he so horribly hurt. A start would be public acknowledgment of guilt, and repentance – but don’t hold your breath…
Marcus, agree. Even if he has gotten right with God, there are still consequences to what we do. Sometimes those consequences end up being life long. He should stay in prison.
Although raised in this immediate area, I had moved away to college and on by the time this happened. My Dad knew Fred. Fred drove a pickup with bullet holes in the tailgate, and he was proud of that. This story does not tell all the gruesome details, but he was (is) a beast. You do not want to know what he did to make his wife’s body burn better. I believe the insurance had ran out when his house burned so no one would get any money. His son was building a home on Route 1 South of Marshall (Frazier’s Curve) and it too mysteriously burned to the ground. His son came looking for his dad once, and his dad boxed his son’s pickup in with farm equipment, so the son could not move his truck. The next day the truck was burned. The kids knew their dad had killed their mom. There are all types of stories on this man. The feeling at the time was in prison he would either kill someone or be killed. I believe he took a very severe beating in prison at one time, just not severe enough. This is a small farming community, but this is a very evil man. A lot of things can disappear in the river bottoms south of Terre Haute. Between West Terre Haute and Terre Haute is another little “village” called Toad Hop. I just remember a hog slaughter house (Valentine’s) and a bunch of bars there. This was a rough area back in the 1960’s.
If: Interesting confirmation of the impression FF and Rebecca’s (blogmistress) piece give of Grabbe as a horrible piece of work. If paroled – and therefore out soon – it seems as if he’ll have no family waiting for him, having justly alienated (and murdered!) them.
Thanks for writing in — I love hearing from people with first-hand knowledge! Forensic Files actually provided more details about the murder than I put in the recap, because yikes, they were especially horrible.
Jabba the Grabbe…huge, intimidating, self-entitled and clearly a danger to all. Release into society at your own risk.
Burn in Hell – and you will, monster – because God is just. You will suffer for all eternity, devil.
I see contributions that were made by the law enforcement officials in Clark County and Marshall PD. I have to scoff at all these comments. Sherriff Dan Crumrin was about as dishonest as you can get, and put himself on a pedestal at all costs. It wouldn’t surprise me if he put a barrel of fuel under the tree and burned it, we have a pic of him standing in that exact spot.. He always padded his wallet by giving the inmates the least amount of food as possible. The States Attorney, David Lewis, had a brother that was a drug dealer that was never arrested, and every one knew it. The Marshall PD officer, Burt Bennett, was a child molester who took an 11-year-old girl on weekly boat trips without any other adults, remember that, Jenny, his uncle was a county judge, no charges. I only lived in this shithole area for ten years, but everyone knew what was going on with the appointed or elected officials, and no one would do anything to stop it. Then again, when the system is dirty from the top to the bottom, who can risk challenging it. And people think Fred Grabbe is the awful person, he was the one that got prosecuted. BTW, I did know Jeff Grabbe, and it was hard to take when I found out he was murdered.
According to FB he will be released in a month and two weeks as of June 1st. I am a local of Robinson and have never heard of this situation but what a read about a horrible man.
Thanks for writing in with the scoop, RTH. Indeed, the Illinois Department of Corrections lists his “projected parole date” as July 15, 2022. On the other hand, DOC shorthand can be misleading. Hope he never gets out.
This is great article! Thank you 🙂
Grabbe was released from prison Jul ’22 aged 83, having served some 37 yrs (half) of a 75 yr sentence:
Worst news ever!
The US — world — is considerably different since he was ‘banged-up’ in the 80s, though of course he’s had tv, radio, newspapers, and perhaps limited internet access. I don’t imagine his and his wife’s (RIP) family welcomes his release — the assumption likely being he’d die in prison.
I am Barbara Graham who tried to rescue Fred Grabbe. I never received a fur coat from Fredd Grabbe. That’s a blatant lie. When I met Fred, Charlotte had been missing for 4 yrs. Fred never drank. Vickie Macalister was not fearful of Fred. We had a double date with her one night.There are always two sides to every story. I am not a materialistic person. My life was rough from 2 x husbands and in-laws. Fred helped me and my children. He was my hero. Once a man threw his drink on a female bartenders face. Fred lifted the man off the floor and him out. I am cordial with his daughter to this day.
Barbara: You’re a strange lady: as if whether or not you got a fur coat from Grabbe matters more than the fact you cruelly shot someone to aid his escape and defend someone who was monstrous to many, if not you? But that you had bad marriages (you imply) does explain why — psychologically — you sought someone else bad and could regard him as a catch. Some women go from one bad man to another, unable to help themselves… At fear of going beyond the evidence, their (your) lack of self-esteem is reflected in the poor choices of relationship they (you) make. Just reflect on what you say: Grabbe has moral fibre because he floored a man who was nasty to a woman… when this same man horribly murdered his wife and incinerated her body! What moral planet are you on?
I doubt any here will regard Grabbe as anything other than utterly appalling. Perhaps you refuse to accept his guilt. But I’m glad for your sake he was incarcerated, for you might contemplate what could’ve happened to you had you remained in relationship with someone you subsequently upset or who tired of you. I shudder to think. So should you…
I hope your life has been better since your release and wish you well.