Jane Carson, 48, tells of her loving father who once became a serial killer after meeting his abusive second wife.
Jane was eight years old when she learned her father, Michael Bear Carson, had brutally murdered at least three people in California with his second wife, Susan Barnes. The husband-and-wife killers were dubbed the “San Francisco Witch Killers” because they claimed their victims were “witches.”
In a new interview, Jane reflects on her relatively happy childhood with her father, whose real name is James Clifford Carson, saying he used to read to her and braid her poetry. When Jane learned of her father’s crimes, she began having nightmares about his victims. She worried that she had inherited the “monster genes” and suffered from suicidal thoughts and severe depression. “At nine years old, I looked at every adult as a potential killer. The whole world terrified me. I was also afraid of growing up and killing people,” she said.
Gina credits her mother and stepfather, Michael Gonzalez, with helping her overcome the trauma.