Bradbury Hospice, the first dedicated hospice in Hong Kong

Hospice is a type of care and a philosophy of care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's symptoms. These symptoms can be physical, emotional, spiritual or social in nature. Hospice care focuses on bringing comfort, self-respect, and tranquility to the dying patient.^[1] Patients’ symptoms and pain are controlled to help reach these goals; however, the focus is providing care, not curing. The concept of hospice has been evolving since the 11th century. Then, and for centuries thereafter, hospices were places of hospitality for the sick, wounded, or dying, as well as those for travelers and pilgrims. The modern concept of hospice includes palliative care for the incurably ill given in such institutions as hospitals or nursing homes, but also care provided to those who would rather die in their own homes. It began to emerge in the 17th century, but many of the foundational principles by which modern hospice services operate were pioneered in the 1950s by Dame Cicely Saunders. Hospice care also involves assistance for patients’ families to help them cope with what is happening. Although the movement has met with some resistance, hospice has rapidly expanded through the United Kingdom, the United States and elsewhere.

History[link]

Early development[link]

Linguistically, the word "hospice" derives from the Latin hospes, a word which served double-duty in referring both to guests and hosts.^[2] The first hospices are believed^{[by whom?]} to have originated in the 11th century, around 1065. The rise of the Crusading movement in the 1090s saw the incurably ill permitted into places dedicated to treatment by Crusaders.^[2][3] In the early 14th century, the order of the Knights Hospitaller of St. John of Jerusalem opened the first hospice in Rhodes, meant to provide refuge for travelers and care for the ill and dying.^[4] Hospices flourished in the Middle Ages, but languished as religious orders became dispersed.^[2] They were revived in the 17th century in France by the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul.^[4] France continued to see development in the hospice field; the hospice of L'Association des Dames du Calvaire, founded by Jeanne Garnier, opened in 1843.^[5] Six other hospices followed before 1900.^[5]

Meanwhile, hospices also developed in other areas. In the United Kingdom, attention was drawn to the needs of the terminally ill in the middle of the 19th century, with Lancet and the British Medical Journal publishing articles pointing to the need of the impoverished terminally ill for good care and sanitary conditions.^[6] Steps were taken to remedy inadequate facilities with the opening of the Friedenheim in London, which by 1892 offered 35 beds to patients dying of tuberculosis.^[6] Four more hospices were established in London by 1905.^[6] Australia, too, saw active hospice development, with notable hospices including the Home for Incurables in Adelaide (1879), the Home of Peace (1902) and the Anglican House of Peace for the Dying in Sydney (1907).^[7] In 1899, New York City saw the opening of St. Rose's Hospice by the Servants for Relief of Incurable Cancer, who soon expanded with six locations in other cities.^[5]

The more influential early developers of Hospice included the Irish Religious Sisters of Charity, who opened Our Lady's Hospice in Harold's Cross, Dublin, Ireland in 1879.^[5] It became very busy, with as many as 20,000 people—primarily suffering tuberculosis and cancer—coming to the hospice to die between 1845 and 1945.^[5] The Sisters of Charity expanded internationally, opening the Sacred Heart Hospice for the Dying in Sydney in 1890, with hospices in Melbourne and New South Wales following in the 1930s.^[8] In 1905, they opened St Joseph's Hospice in London.^[4][9] There in the 1950s Cicely Saunders developed many of the foundational principles of modern hospice care.^[4]

Rise of the modern hospice movement[link]

St Christopher's Hospice in 2005

(Dame) Cicely Saunders was a British registered nurse whose chronic health problems had forced her to pursue a career in medical social work. The relationship she developed with a dying Polish refugee helped solidify her ideas that terminally ill patients needed compassionate care to help address their fears and concerns as well as palliative comfort for physical symptoms.^[10] After the refugee's death, Saunders began volunteering at St Luke's Home for the Dying Poor, where a physician told her that she could best influence the treatment of the terminally ill as a physician.^[10] Saunders entered medical school while continuing her volunteer work at St. Joseph's. When she achieved her degree in 1957, she took a position there.^[10]

Saunders emphasized focusing on the patient rather than the disease and introduced the notion of 'total pain',^[11] which included psychological and spiritual as well as the physical aspects. She experimented with a wide range of opioids for controlling physical pain but included also the needs of the patient's family.

She disseminated her philosophy internationally in a series of tours of the United States that began in 1963.^[12][13] In 1967, Saunders opened St. Christopher's Hospice. Florence Wald, the dean of Yale School of Nursing who had heard Saunders speak in America, spent a month working with Saunders there in 1969 before bringing the principles of modern hospice care back to the United States, establishing Hospice, Inc. in 1971.^[4][14]

At about the same time that Saunders was disseminating her theories and developing her hospice, in 1965, Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross also began to consider the social responses to terminal illness, which she found inadequate at the Chicago hospital where her American physician husband was employed.^[15] Her 1969 best-seller, On Death and Dying, was influential on how the medical profession responded to the terminally ill,^[15] and along with Saunders and other thanatology pioneers helped to focus attention on the types of care available to them.^[12]

Hospice care[link]

Hospice Saint Vincent de Paul, Jerusalem

Hospice has faced resistance springing from various factors, including professional or cultural taboos against open communication about death among physicians or the wider population, discomfort with unfamiliar medical techniques, and professional callousness towards the terminally ill.^[16] Nevertheless, the movement has, with national differences in focus and application, spread throughout the world.^[17]

In 1984, Dr. Josefina Magno, who had been instrumental in forming the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and sat as first executive director of the US National Hospice Organization, founded the International Hospice Institute, which in 1996 became the International Hospice Institute and College and later the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC).^[18][19] The IAHPC, with a board of directors as of 2008 from such diverse countries as Scotland, Argentina, Hong Kong and Uganda,^[20] works from the philosophy that each country should develop a palliative care model based on its own resources and conditions, evaluating hospice experiences in other countries but adapting to their own needs.^[21] Dr. Derek Doyle, who was a founding member of IAHPC, told the British Medical Journal in 2003 that through her work the Philippine-born Magno had seen "more than 8000 hospice and palliative services established in more than 100 countries."^[19] Standards for Palliative and Hospice Care have been developed in a number of countries around the world, including Australia, Canada, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Moldova, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.^[22]

In 2006, the United States based National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) and the United Kingdom's Help the Hospices jointly commissioned an independent, international study of worldwide palliative care practices. Their survey found that 15% of the world's countries offered widespread palliative care services with integration into major health care institutions, while an additional 35% offered some form of palliative care services, though these might be localized or very limited.^[23] As of 2009, there were an estimated 10,000 programs internationally intended to provide palliative care, although the term hospice is not always employed to describe such services.^[24]

In hospice care the main guardians are the family care giver and a hospice nurse who makes periodic stops. Hospice can be administered in a nursing home, hospice building, or sometimes a hospital; however, it is most commonly practiced in the home.^[25] In order to be considered for hospice care, one has to be terminally ill or expected to die in six months.

Africa[link]

1980 saw the opening of a hospice in Harare, Zimbabwe, the first in Sub-Saharan Africa.^[26] In spite of skepticism in the medical community,^[16] the hospice movement spread, and in 1987 the Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa formed.^[27] In 1990, Nairobi Hospice opened in Nairobi, Kenya.^[27] As of 2006, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda were among the 35 countries of the world offering widespread, well-integrated palliative care.^[27] Programs there are based on the United Kingdom model, but focus less on in-patient care, emphasizing home-based assistance.^[28]

Since the foundation of hospice in Kenya in the early 1990s, palliative care has spread through the country. Representatives of Nairobi Hospice sit on the committee to develop a Health Sector Strategic Plan for the Ministry of Health and are working with the Ministry of Health to help develop specific palliative care guidelines for cervical cancer.^[27] The Government of Kenya has supported hospice by donating land to Nairobi Hospice and providing funding to several of its nurses.^[27]

In South Africa, hospice services are widespread, focusing on diverse communities (including orphans and homeless) and offered in diverse settings (including in-patient, day care and home care).^[27] Over half of hospice patients in South Africa in the 2003-2004 year were diagnosed with AIDS, with the majority of the remaining having been diagnosed with cancer.^[27] Palliative care in South Africa is supported by the Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa and by national programmes partly funded by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.^[27]

Hospice Africa Uganda (HAU) began offering services in 1993 in a two-bedroom house loaned for the purpose by Nsambya Hospital.^[27] HAU has since expanded to a base of operations at Makindye, Kampala, with hospice services also offered at roadside clinics by Mobile Hospice Mbarara since January 1998. That same year saw the opening of Little Hospice Hoima in June. Hospice care in Uganda is supported by community volunteers and professionals, as Makerere University offers a distance diploma in palliative care.^[29] The government of Uganda has a strategic plan for palliative care and permits nurses and clinical officers from HAU to prescribe morphine.

North America[link]

Canada[link]

Canadian physician Balfour Mount, who first coined the term "palliative care", was a pioneer in the Canadian hospice movement, which focuses primarily on palliative care in a hospital setting.^[30][31] Having read the work of Kubler-Ross, Mount set out to study the experiences of the terminally ill at Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal; the "abysmal inadequacy", as he termed it, that he found prompted him to spend a week with Saunders at St. Christopher's.^[32] Inspired, Mount decided to adapt Saunders' model for Canada. Given differences in medical funding in Canada, he determined that a hospital-based approach would be more affordable, creating a specialized ward at Royal Victoria in January, 1975.^[31][32] For Canada, whose official languages include English and French, Mount felt the term "palliative care ward" would be more appropriate, as the word hospice was already used in France to refer to nursing homes.^[31][32] Hundreds of palliative care programs followed throughout Canada through the 1970s and 1980s.^[33]

However, as of 2004, according to the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association (CHPCA), hospice palliative care was only available to 5-15% of Canadians, with available services having decreased with reduced government funding.^[34] At that time, Canadians were increasingly expressing a desire to die at home, but only two of Canada's ten provinces were provided medication cost coverage for care provided at home.^[34] Only four of the ten identified palliative care as a core health service.^[34] At that time, palliative care was not widely taught at nursing schools or universally certified at medical colleges; there were only 175 specialized palliative care physicians in all of Canada.^[34]

United States[link]

Hospice in the United States has grown from a volunteer-led movement to improve care for people dying alone, isolated, or in hospitals, to a significant part of the health care system. In 2008, 1.45 million individuals and their families received hospice care. Hospice is the only Medicare benefit that includes pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, twenty-four hour/seven day a week access to care and support for loved ones following a death. Hospice care is also covered by Medicaid and most private insurance plans. Most hospice care is delivered at home. Hospice care is also available to people in home-like hospice residences, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, veterans' facilities, hospitals, and prisons.

The first United States hospital-based palliative care programs began in the late 1980s at a handful of institutions such as the Cleveland Clinic and Medical College of Wisconsin. By 1995, hospices were a $2.8 billion industry in the United States, with $1.9 billion from Medicare alone funding patients in 1,857 hospice programs with Medicare certification.^[35] In that year, 72% of hospice providers were non-profit.^[35] By 1998, there were 3,200 hospices either in operation or under development throughout the United States and Puerto Rico, according to the NHPCO.^[35] According to 2007's Last Rights: Rescuing the End of Life from the Medical System, hospice sites are expanding at a national rate of about 3.5% per year.^[36] As of 2008, approximately 900,000 people in the United States were using hospice every year,^[37] with more than one-third of dying Americans using the service.^[38]

United Kingdom[link]

St Thomas Hospice, Canterbury

The hospice movement has grown dramatically in the United Kingdom since Saunders opened St. Christopher's. According to the UK's Help the Hospices in 2009, UK hospice services consisted of 220 inpatient units for adults with 3,203 beds, 39 inpatient units for children with 298 beds, 314 home care services, 106 hospice at home services, 280 day care services, and 346 hospital support services.^[39] These services together helped over 250,000 patients in 2003 & 2004. Funding varies from 100% funding by the National Health Service to almost 100% funding by charities, but the service is always free to patients.

As of 2006 about 4% of all deaths in England and Wales occurred in a hospice setting (about 20,000 patients);^[40] a further number of patients spent time in a hospice, or were helped by hospice-based support services, but died elsewhere.

Recent programs have been sought out to provide hospice care to newborn children free of cost.

Other nations[link]

Hospice care entered Poland in the middle of the 1970s.^[41] Japan opened its first hospice in 1981, officially hosting 160 by July 2006.^[42] The first hospice unit in Israel was opened in 1983.^[43] India's first hospice, Shanti Avedna Ashram, opened in Bombay in 1986.^[44] The first modern free-standing hospice in China opened in Shanghai in 1988.^[45] The first hospice unit in Taiwan, where the term for hospice translates "peaceful care", was opened in 1990.^[16][46] The first free-standing hospice in Hong Kong, where the term for hospice translates "well-ending service", opened in 1992.^[16][47] The first hospice in Russia was established in 1997.^[48]

See also[link]

• Children's hospice
• Hospice chaplain
• Life support
• Medical social work
• Pain management
• Robert Twycross

Notes[link]

Further reading[link]

• Saunders, Cicely M.; Robert Kastenbaum (1997). Hospice Care on the International Scene. Springer Pub. Co.. ISBN 0-8261-9580-6. 

*[http://www.hospicehelpandcare.com/ care for dying: spiritual and grief]==External links==

• Hospice San Camilo, Argentina
• National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
• ANTEA - Italian Palliative Care Unit and Hospice Centre
• Foundation for Hospices in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Palliative Care Australia
• Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association
• Canadian Virtual Hospice
• Federazione Cure Palliative (Italy)
• Resources for those undergoing Hospice care
• Norsk forening for palliativ medisin (Norway)
• Fundacja Warszawskie Hospicjum dla Dzieci (Poland)
• Romanian hospice standards
• The Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care
• Scottish National Care Standards: Hospice Care
• Estrategia Nacional de Cuidados Paliativos (Spain)
• Standards (Switzerland)

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Lawrencia "Bambi" Bembenek (August 15, 1958 – November 20, 2010), known as Laurie Bembenek, was convicted of murdering her husband's ex-wife, Christine Schultz, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on May 28, 1981. Her story garnered national attention after she escaped from Taycheedah Correctional Institution and was recaptured in Canada, an episode which inspired books, movies and the slogan "Run, Bambi, Run". Upon winning a new trial, she pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and was sentenced to time served and ten years probation. For years after, she sought to have the sentence overturned.^[1]

Bembenek was a former Milwaukee police officer who had been fired and had gone on to sue the department, claiming that it engaged in sexual discrimination and other illegal activities. She worked briefly as a waitress at a Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, Playboy Club. At the time of her arrest, she was working for Marquette University's Public Safety Department in downtown Milwaukee.

On November 20, 2010, Bembenek died at a hospice facility in Portland, Oregon, at the age of 52.^[2]

Biography[link]

Bembenek was born on August 15, 1958. In March 1980, she joined the Milwaukee Police Department as a trainee. There she met and became close with a fellow trainee named Judy Zess. At a rock concert in May 1980, Zess was arrested for smoking marijuana. Bembenek's subsequent dismissal from the police department on August 25 stemmed from her involvement in filing a false report on Zess' arrest.^[3]

Murder of Christine Schultz[link]

On May 28, 1981, at approximately 2:15am, 30-year-old Christine Schultz was murdered by a single .38 caliber pistol shot fired point-blank into her back and through her heart. She had been gagged and blindfolded and her hands were tied in front of her with rope. Her two sons, then 7 and 11 years old, found her face down on her bed and bleeding.^[4] The older boy, Sean, had seen the assailant and described him as a masked male figure in a green army jacket and black shoes. He also said the man had a long (approx. 6" or 15 cm) reddish-colored ponytail.^[5]

Christine Schultz was the ex-wife of Laurie Bembenek's then-husband, Elfred "Fred" Schultz, a Milwaukee Police Department detective. They had been divorced six months at the time of the murder. Fred Schultz initially stated he was on duty investigating a burglary with his partner, Michael Durfee, at the time of the murder, but years later he admitted they were actually drinking at a local bar. When ballistics testing revealed it was his off-duty revolver that had been the murder weapon, suspicion shifted to Laurie Bembenek, as she had been alone in the apartment she shared with Schultz and had access to both the gun and a key to Christine's house that Fred Schultz had secretly copied from his oldest son's house key.^[4]

Fred Schultz had previously been exonerated in the fatal shooting of a Glendale, Wisconsin, police officer on July 23, 1975. The Glendale officer, George Robert Sassan, had arrested a subject in a bar while off-duty. Milwaukee police officers, including Schultz, responded to the call in suburban Glendale (outside their jurisdiction), reportedly mistook Sassan for a suspect and shot him to death when he turned toward them, holding a gun. Schultz and his partner were cleared by the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office in the shooting.^[6]

Trial[link]

Bembenek's trial generated tremendous publicity, and newspapers began referring to her as "Bambi" Bembenek (a nickname she disliked). The prosecution portrayed her as a loose woman addicted to expensive living who wanted Christine Schultz dead so that her new husband would no longer have to pay alimony. The prosecution pointed out that Bembenek also had financial problems. The prosecution claimed that Bembenek was the only person with the motive, means and opportunity to carry out the crime. The strongest evidence was two human hairs found at the crime scene, which matched ones taken from the hairbrush of the defendant. The gun used to kill Christine Schultz turned out to be Bembenek's husband's off-duty revolver. The prosecution claimed that Bembenek was the only person besides Fred Schultz who had access to this weapon. Blood was found on the gun. Bembenek supposedly also had access to a key to Christine Schultz's home. There were no signs of a break-in and no valuables taken. Schultz's eldest son, however, stated that Bembenek was not the person who had held up their house and shot his mother.^[7]

Witnesses testified that Bembenek had spoken often of killing Christine Schultz. The prosecution produced a witness who said Bembenek offered to pay him to carry out the murder. According to witnesses for the prosecution, Bembenek owned a green jogging suit similar to the one described by Schultz's son. It was pointed out that Bembenek owned a clothes line and a blue bandanna similar to what was used to bind and gag the victim. A wig found in the plumbing system of Bembenek's apartment matched fibers found at the murder scene. A boutique employee testified that Bembenek purchased such a wig shortly before the murder.^[8]

Conviction[link]

She was found guilty of first-degree murder in March 1982 and sentenced to life in prison in Taycheedah Correctional Institution.

Post-trial publicity[link]

Shortly after Bembenek's conviction, Fred Schultz filed for divorce and began saying publicly that he now believed Bembenek was guilty. Bembenek filed three unsuccessful appeals of her conviction, citing police errors in handling of key evidence and the fact that one of the prosecution's witnesses, Judy Zess, had recanted her testimony, stating it was made under duress. Bembenek and her supporters also alleged that Milwaukee police may have singled her out for prosecution because of her role as a key witness in a federal investigation into police corruption. Bembenek's supporters suggested that Fred Schultz may have arranged to have someone else murder his ex-wife. One possible candidate was Frederick Horenberger, a career criminal who briefly worked with Schultz on a remodeling project and was a former boyfriend of Judy Zess.^[4] A disguised Horenberger had robbed and beaten Judy Zess several weeks prior to Christine Schultz's murder and would later serve a ten-year sentence for that crime.^[9]

According to a number of affidavits which emerged following Bembenek's conviction, Horenberger boasted of killing Schultz to other inmates while he was in jail. Yet publicly, Horenberger vehemently denied any involvement in the Schultz murder up until his suicide in November 1991, following a robbery and hostage-taking stand-off in which he had been involved.^[10]

There were questions raised as to the accuracy of the information and the evidence used in the trial. Dr. Elaine Samuels, the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy, had originally concluded that hairs recovered from the body were consistent with that of the victim; after Dr. Samuels had come to that conclusion, the hair evidence was examined by Diane Hanson, a hair analyst from a crime lab in Madison, Wisconsin. Hanson stated that two of the hairs were consistent with samples taken from Laurie Bembenek's hairbrush. Dr. Samuels refuted that claim, stating in a 1983 letter, quoted in the Toronto Star in 1991, that "I recovered no blonde or red hairs of any length or texture ... [A]ll of the hairs I recovered from the body were brown and were grossly identical to the hair of the victim ... [I] do not like to suggest that evidence was altered in any way, but I can find no logical explanation for what amounted to the mysterious appearance of blonde hair in an envelope that contained no such hair at the time it was sealed by me."^[11]

The apartment where Laurie and Fred lived shared drainage with another apartment. In the shared drainpipe was found a brownish-red wig which matched some of the hairs found on the victim's body. The woman who occupied the other apartment testified that Judy Zess had knocked on her door and asked to use her bathroom; after Zess used the woman's bathroom, the plumbing was mysteriously clogged. Also, Zess had admitted to owning a brownish-red wig.^[12]

In prison, Bembenek became a model inmate who was highly respected by her fellow prisoners. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin–Parkside and helped found a prisoners' newspaper.^[13] She also met and became engaged to Dominic Gugliatto, who had been visiting another inmate. On July 15, 1990, she escaped from prison with Gugliatto's help.^[14] Her escape reignited publicity surrounding her case, and she became something of a folk hero. A song was written about her, and T-shirts were sold with the slogan "Run, Bambi, Run".^[15]

She fled with Gugliatto to Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, while sensational stories about their relationship swirled through American tabloids.^[16] The couple spent three months as fugitives before being apprehended. Gugliatto was sentenced to one year in prison for his role in the escape.^[16] Bembenek, however, sought refugee status in Canada, claiming that she was being persecuted by a conspiracy between the police department and the judicial system in Wisconsin. The Canadian government showed some sympathy for her case, and before returning her to Wisconsin, obtained a commitment that Milwaukee officials would conduct a judicial review of her case. The review did not find evidence of crimes by police or prosecutors, but detailed seven major police blunders which had occurred during the Christine Schultz murder investigation, and she won the right to a new trial. Rather than risk a second conviction, however, Bembenek pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and received a reduced sentence which was commuted to time served. She was released from prison in November 1992, having served a little over ten years.^[17]

Life after prison[link]

Bembenek wrote a book about her experience, titled Woman on Trial.^[18]After her release, she had various legal and personal problems. She was arrested again on marijuana possession charges and filed for bankruptcy, as well as developing hepatitis C and other health problems. She also admitted to being an alcoholic. She legally changed her name to Laurie Bembenek in 1994.

In 1996, she moved to Washington state^[2] to be near her retired parents in Vancouver.^[13] There she met a local resident, U.S. Forest Service employee Marty Carson, whom she eventually married.^[13]

Bembenek was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, complicated by a growing addiction to alcohol.^[13] As a form of therapy, Carson encouraged her to devote time to her passion of painting. Bembenek had made paintings since childhood, and her early work had been the subject of an exhibition at UW–Milwaukee in 1992.^[13] Carson constructed a studio for her, and she eagerly returned to her art. She had a fragile recovery, and after several years she had amassed about thirty paintings which she put on display at a local art gallery. This potentially transformative return to public life was wrecked when the gallery burned down in a freak fire and all the paintings were destroyed.^[13]

In 2002, Bembenek either fell or jumped from a second-story window, breaking her leg so badly that it had to be amputated below the knee. Bembenek claimed that she had been confined in an apartment by handlers for the Dr. Phil television show and was injured while attempting to escape.^[19]

Bembenek continued to insist she was innocent, but the Wisconsin Supreme Court refused to overturn her no contest plea, saying such a plea cannot be withdrawn. In April 2008, Bembenek filed a petition with the United States Supreme Court, seeking a reversal of the second murder conviction. Bembenek's attorney pointed to evidence not heard in the original trial, including ballistics tests matching the murder bullets to the gun owned by Fred Schultz, male DNA found on the victim, evidence the victim had been sexually assaulted and the eyewitness testimony of the two young sons who said they had seen a heavyset, masked man. Bembenek's petition argued the court needed to clarify whether defendants who plead guilty or no contest have an opportunity to review evidence comparable to the rights of those who plead not guilty. Her appeal was denied in June 2008.^[20]

Her case was the inspiration for two television movies and various books and articles portraying her as the victim of a miscarriage of justice. In 2004, MSNBC produced and aired a biography of Laurie Bembenek on their Headliners and Legends television show. Bembenek did not take part in the show. She was interviewed by WTMJ-TV anchor Mike Jacobs for a two-part sweeps interview that aired on that station's 10pm newscast on October 28 and 29, 2010.^[21]

Death[link]

On November 16, 2010, WTMJ reported that Bembenek was slipping in and out of consciousness and was near death in a hospice care center, suffering from liver and kidney failure.^[22] On November 20, 2010, she died at a hospice facility in Portland, Oregon, aged 52.^[2]

Television movies about Bembenek[link]

• Calendar Girl, Cop, Killer? The Bambi Bembenek Story (1992) starring Lindsay Frost.^[23]

• Woman on Trial: The Lawrencia Bembenek Story (1993) starring Tatum O'Neal.^[24]

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Bembenek, Lawrencia (1992). Woman on Trial. Harper Collins Publishers Ltd.  ISBN 0-00-215746-2
• Douglas, John; Mark Olshaker (2001). The Cases That Haunt Us: From Jack the Ripper to Jon Benet Ramsey, The FBI's Legendary Mindhunter Sheds New Light on the Mysteries That Won't Go Away. Simon and Schuster.  ISBN 0-7432-1239-8
• Horenberger, Francine (2002). Mistresses of Mayhem. Alpha Books.  ISBN 0-7394-2867-5
• Radish, Kris (1992). Run, Bambi, Run. Birch Lane Press.  ISBN 1-55972-103-0

External links[link]

• American Justice, Episode 99 - Hunting Bambi: The Laurie Bembenek Story
• "Bambi" Bembenek story on Court TV's Crime Library
• Article from Fox News about her 2002 fall and leg amputation
• WTMJ Channel 4 News interview with Laurie Bembenek, broadcast October 29, 2010