It is common knowledge that in a relationship there could be hardships along the way, but when two people decide to come together they enter a commitment to each other. When one person in that relationship is unfaithful, all parties are affected, and suffer some sort of loss. For example one may lose their house, lose trust, but in some cases people have lost their lives. A crime of passion occurs when a person acts on impulse to commit a crime against someone. They are not always premeditated, and are certainly not justified. In this paper, we have studied two significant love triangles, in which infidelity ecame lethal.
These criminals are Harmohinder “Mindy” Sanghera, and Amy Fisher. 23 year old Sikh, Mindy Sanghera, was described to be a highly intelligent, straight-A student at Birmingham University. She intended to become a dentist after finishing up her last year in dental school in 2007. (Britton) In the summer of 2005, she met a Muslim man named Sair Ali through a friend, and the two began a relationship. Sair was in an eight year engagement with his cousin Sana, and was soon to be married. Despite his commitment to Sana, he continued to be in a relationship with Mindy concealing his fiance.
Daily Mail [A]) Mindy’s feelings for Sair grew intensely and she wanted more commitment from him. Sair took advantage of their contrasting religious affiliations, to convince her that it was putting tension in their relationship, only to divert her suspicions of his other liaison. In December of 2006, Sair finally admitted to Mindy that he got married to his cousin when he was said to have been “going on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. ” (Britton) Sanghera tried to convince him to divorce his wife, but Ali refused. She even considered converting to Islam to become his second wife because of her attachment to him.
Bunyan) Research has stated that Sanghera decided to kill Sana after finding out that Sana was pregnant. “She knew that a baby would eliminate any chance for her and Sair to actually be together” (Daily Mail [A]) On May 10th, 2007 Mindy told her friend, Sheetal Anand, that she was going to go to the home of Sana Ali and confess to her the affair that was happening. She knew that Mr. Ali would have been attending Mosque the next day, so she took advantage of his absence to confront his wife. (Morgan) On May 11th, Mindy drove to the couple’s home in Throstle Grove, armed with a 7 inch Kitchen knife.
Before she entered the victim’s home she took off her shoes as a traditional form of respect in her culture. (Britton) According to Manchester Evening News, Mindy knew that Sana had a history of Self harming, so she planned to make her wounds look self-inflicted, however, when she entered Sana’s home, she wildly stabbed her 43 times, deliberately aiming towards the belly, and plunging the knife 19 centimeters deep into her abdomen. (Britton) She then tried to escape the crime scene through the kitchen window, but her bare foot left a print that was able to place her at the crime scene (Britton)
When police spoke to Mindy, she stated that she went to the house to tell Sana about the affair, and when she left the victim was still alive, but she was “a little upset. ” (Daily Mail [A]) Police found it hard to believe Mindy’s story, although there was ” no forensic proof that she [actually ] stabbed Mr. Ali’s wife”(Wright); she had motive, a history of compulsive behavior (her obsession with Sair Ali, and the means she was willing to go to to be with him), and she was also the last person linked to the crime scene before the victim was found dead. nevertheless, Mindy “denied he murder” and claimed to be innocent. Britton)
After a 2- week trial in court, Mindy Sanghera was found guilty of killing Sana Ali by a majority 11-1 verdict. (Linton) She was sentenced to Life in prison, and would have to serve a minimum of 14 years before she would be given parole. (Linton) Currently, Mindy 30 years old, and is still serving her sentence at Foston Hall Women’s Prison in Derbyshire, England. (Britton) She is now pending to be cleared of her charge due to a new analysis of the mobile phone, suggesting that someone had used the victim’s phone fter Sanghera had left, and other forensic evidence such as the size of the kitchen window she was said to escaped from. Wright) Her appeal is still pending. Meanwhile, Sair Ali, described as the “playboy businessman” is now living overseas.
During the trial he said, “Mindy was fun, attractive and good company.. but she was incredibly jealous and the relationship turned sour. She was obsessed and I tried to make her back off as my wedding approached, but she became more determined we should be together. I’d grown up a lot and was ready for married life, but Mindy wouldn’t let go. Linton) he also confessed that he had sinned by cheating on his wife, he admitted he had lied to Mindy, but he does not accept the guilt for Mindy’s actions leading to the loss of his wife, and 11 week old fetus, a baby boy, who would have been named Abdul. Amy Fisher, daughter of Roseann Fisher and Elliot Fisher, was a 16- year-old girl who attended John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore, New York. She worked at a local clothing store. To her parents, Amy was known to run-away after arguments with her father. Her home away from home was at her aunt’s house, an unt that had not spoken to Amy’s parents for over a year.
To her peers at school, she was known for her choice in wardrobe, which consisted of tight, slimming, form-fitted clothing. Amy never had a sturdy relationship with her father, and everyone knew that. He would often yell at Amy in public, while his wife causally went along with it. She rarely stood up for her daughter, she was reserved and often kept her opinion to herself. (Frost Snow, Oprah, The Amy Fisher Story) For Amy’s 16th birthday her parents gave her a car as a gift but in May of 1991 she had an accident.
Her father takes the car to their local auto shop, which is where Amy meets the infamous 36- year old, Joseph “Joey” Buttafuoco, who was the owner of the shop. After meeting Joey, Amy had a tendency to get into “accidents” that frequently required the attention of a mechanic, but not just any mechanic, solely Joey. Buttafuoco and Fisher knew each other casually for a year. He knew that there was tension between Amy and her father; and Amy knew that Joey was married to his high school sweetheart, Mary Jo, with whom he had 2 children.
One afternoon, Amy asked Joey for a ride home, upon their rrival, he notices no one was there. Taking advantage of this opportunity, he begins to tell her that he loves her, in order to seduce her; which began their romantic affair. (Frost Snow, lethal lolita, CBS News) In August of 1991, Amy quit her job and told Joey that she needed money, so he advised her to work for an escort agency. She took his advice and began prostitution, but she still desired to be with Joey, so she asked Joey to leave his wife to be with her, but he refused.
Several people knew about Amy and Joey’s affair,such as Amy’s aunt and 3 of her ther friends, they tried to counsel her, and make her understand that Joey was just using her, but she was so blinded by what she believed to be “love” that she wouldn’t listen. (Lethal Lolita, The Amy Fisher story, Bio. , ny daily news) On May 19th, 1992, Amy Fisher went to the Buttafuoco’s home to confront Mary Jo and confess to her that she was having an affair with her husband. Mary Jo was reluctant to believe that her husband would engage in such an act, so she dismissed the teenager’s words for senseless allegations.
Amy became so infuriated with Mary Jo’s dismissive disposition, that she pulled ut a gun from her jacket, and shot Mary Jo on the right side of her face. Amy then fled the scene of the crime with a friend in the driver seat. (Lethal Lolita, Bio. ) Mary Jo Buttafuoco survived the shot to the head, making her able to identify her attacker by the logo for her husband’s auto shop that was on the t-shirt Amy had. Once Amy was arrested, the Fisher family was offered $80,000 for the rights of the story which they accepted in order to post bail.
At her trial on September 24,1992, Amy pled guilty to the count of aggravated assault and was sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. But after 7 years at the Albion Correctional Facility, Amy Fisher was released under a new plea agreements derived from the wishes of Mary Jo. (Great American Trials) Mary Jo forgave Amy for what she did to her. Once released Amy became a columnist for the Long Island Press (Left in late December of 2005. ) In 2004 she won a media award from the Society of Professional Journalist in Column/News. She is an advocate for prisoner’s rights and wrote a book entitled If I Knew Then that was published in 2004.
In 2007 Amy Fisher began her porngraphic career with the release of a sex tape nvolving her husband, Louis Bellera, which lasted until 2010. (bio, frost snow) Since then she has had two children, a son age 6, and a daughter, age 3, and she has appeared on reality television. In both cases we can see many similarities of the series of events that took place. Both women insisted on being in a relationship with men who were married. They both tried to convince the men in their lives to leave their wives, but were angered when things did not turn out their way. Both individuals committed heartless acts that ended in tragedy for both families.
Mindy’s parents would have never thought that they would have lost their little girl to the prison system, for taking the lives of 2 innocent people, No one would have ever imagined that a beautiful young lady such as Amy Fisher, would commit such harsh and vulgar crimes; and certainly the men who engaged in these love triangles, never would have thought that their “player ways” would result in the loss of their wives, and for Sair Ali his child. Take caution in your relationships, and guard your temper, because it is easy to end up in a Lethal Love Triangle.
