The mailing list didn’t tell me anything about their religious affiliations. They had to be Catholics, you see. I mean, if a woman was a Protestant or whatever, she could be supporting a pro-life group and using a diaphragm at the same time, do you understand what I mean. I mean, the idea was to make them pregnant. If I went out after a Baptist or whatever, a Hindu, you know what I mean, I’d be spending all my time and energy for nothing if she happened to be on the pill or had an I.U.D. in there, it would just be a waste of time. So I followed them around — I didn’t bother with anybody who had a name like Kaplowitz or Cohen, I knew right off they were Jewish — and I found out pretty fast who was going to a Catholic church on Sunday morning and who wasn’t. I singled out the Catholics. I singled out all the Catholics who’d made contributions to A.I.M. The Catholics were my targets. I wanted to show them first that you could take the rhythm method and shove it, and I wanted to show them next that they were dead wrong when it came to abortion, if they had to get an abortion they’d go get it, all right, and in a hurry.
It was just coincidence that the first was named Lois.
I mean, my wife’s name happens to be Lois, but that wasn’t why I chose Lois Carmody. I mean, that was just coincidental. Lois Carmody — that just happened to be her name. She lived pretty close by, the first few times out, I didn’t want to be away from home too long, I didn’t want to have to make a hundred explanations. I mean, I refined it after a while, not everybody on the list lived a half-hour away, I had to find plausible excuses for being away, do you understand? I refined it. So I wouldn’t have trouble at home. I got enough flak as it was, believe me, but she never really knew what I was doing, my wife — she accused me of having an affair once, can you imagine? That’s pretty funny don’t you think? An affair? I mean, if you wanted to get technical, I was having a lot of affairs. Well, when she accused me that time, there weren’t as many then, this was before the summer vacation. I get July and August off, we usually go up to Maine to spend the summer months with her parents up there. I hate it, but what other kind of vacation can I afford? Anyway, this was in June when she accused me of having an affair. I didn’t do Mary and then Janet until the school term started again.
I nailed one of them the first time out.
She isn’t on your list of names, I guess you were just looking for repeaters, huh? I mean, women who were raped more than once. It’s amazing how you got to me. Really amazing! You people must work very hard. Anyway, I got this woman — her name was Joanna Little, she’s on the mailing list, but not on the list you read to me — I got her for the first time, the only time as it turned out, in March, she was one of the early ones. I was planning on getting her again — it doesn’t work unless you watch the calendar and get to them on a regular basis — but next thing I knew, I was following her around and she’s on the street big as a house! I caught her the first time out! That can happen, you know. And then I know she had an abortion because I followed her to the clinic one Saturday, and goodbye belly, all gone. I’d done what I wanted to do, do you see? It worked. I’d made her pregnant and forced her to have an abortion. Big Catholic! Big pro-life supporter! Got rid of that baby the way she would an old pair of socks. I went out to get drunk that night. Came home stinking drunk, Lois took a fit, well, the hell with Lois, popping out babies as if she’s an assembly line. But that was just luck, getting Joanna the first time around. I knew that was just luck.
What you have to do, you see, is you make out this calendar, and you keep careful track of each time you get them. I mean, you lay it all out in advance. You have to get them according to the cycle, you see. Listen, I know all about the rhythm method, I’m an expert on the rhythm method. A women’s menstrual cycle — I don’t care if it’s twenty-eight days or thirty days or whatever — the woman usually starts ovulating on the twelfth day of her cycle. Those are the crucial days, the twelfth, the thirteenth, and the fourteenth day. You can expand that a bit, you can say the eleventh day to the fifteenth day, or even the sixteenth day in some cases. But I figured the eleventh to the fifteenth were the outer limits. The egg lasts about twelve hours, and the sperm about twenty-four — though some doctors say the sperm can last as long as seventy-two. Still, if you didn’t want to take any chances, you had to figure the best time was the eleventh to the fifteenth day of their menstrual cycles. That was when they had the best chance of getting pregnant — when they were ovulating, you see.
Well, I couldn’t just go up to these women and ask them when they had their last period, could I? I mean, that was out of the question. These were strangers, I didn’t know them. It wasn’t the same as with a wife or a girlfriend, where you’re living with them and sleeping with them, and you know when they’re about to get their period, it wasn’t the same thing at all. These were total strangers, do you understand? So I had to figure out for myself when they’d be ripe, and what I did — well, look at the calendar.
Let’s take — well, let’s take August, for example, which is an easy one because the first happened to fall on a Monday. I was away in August, I was up in Maine. I’m only using this as an example. But... well here. In August, the first is a Monday. Let’s also say, to make it simple, that this also happens to be the first day of this particular woman’s menstrual cycle. Okay, I rape her that Monday night. The next Monday night is the eighth, which is the eighth day of her cycle, I’m making this easy for you so you can follow it. The Monday after that is the fifteenth. See? I caught her on the fifteenth day, which is one of the days she’s ovulating. Good. In a case like that, I wouldn’t even have to try getting her a fourth or fifth time. But if you carry it out on the calendar, I mean, it has to work out that sooner or later you’ll catch her.
In August, for example, the twenty-second would have been the twenty-second day of her cycle. The next Monday is the twenty-ninth, which with some women could be the start of a new cycle, it varies. So let’s say the cycle starts all over again on Monday, August twenty-ninth. If we move into September... well, here the next Monday is the fifth. This, now is the eighth day of her cycle. The next Monday is the twelfth, which happens to be the fifteenth day of her cycle, so there we are again — bingo! I figured it was foolproof. I mean, if you got them on a carefully thought-out schedule, they had to get pregnant sooner or later. And unless they wanted to be carrying a rapist’s baby, they also had to get an abortion.
It was as simple as that.
I was doing this to show these people how wrong they are.
To show them that they cannot simply impose their will upon others.
To drive home to them the fact that this is a democracy, and in a democracy there is freedom of choice for one and for all.