The view of an observer.
Maginn’ s book should be required reading for anyone who sits on this jury or even has an interest in this case. It’s not only absolute verification of Molly’s mental health struggles with her bipolar disease...it is a guidebook to her “modus operandi.” The similarities between Molly’s relationship with Maginn and with Jason are striking. Both men were in a very vulnerable state when she met them. In my opinion, she appeared to present herself in each case, at a time when her mental issues were temporarily under control, probably with medication. In time, both men found themselves dealing instead with a very troubled woman suffering from wide and excruciating mood swings. Both men found themselves acceding to Molly’s every wish in an attempt to quell these mood swings....an impossible task. In both relationships, Molly had ‘explanations’ for her bouts of misery...and she convinced her partners, first Keith Maginn, then Jason...that they could accomplish a cure by simply...marrying her, moving her, giving her children...the responsibility for managing her mental illness was transferred onto them. Molly felt that these manipulations, not medications were her “cure.” In my opinion, these men were given the responsibility for not just her happiness, but her complete mental health. In particular, Molly believed that becoming a Mother held some magic to stabilize her life. Her pregnancy with Keith failed, and as Keith details in the book, she proceeded to spiral into such a deteriorated state that she needed hospitalization. But when she met Jason...she found a relationship with him that included two very young children...and the chance that those babies would provide the ‘cure’ for her misery. In time, when the mood swings continued, she convinced Jason that he could stop them...by selling his home, by marrying her, by moving to NC, by buying a beautiful home, furniture, clothes....expensive trips. The responsibility for managing a serious mental health issue was , once again, loaded onto a partner instead of receiving the intense professional help she needed. All these wishes were granted by Jason, a man desperate to just have a peaceful home life and a loving marriage, as he once had with his first wife. But Molly’s issues are serious psychological issues...and must be dealt with by professionals, by medications. In time, in my opinion, every downswing in her bipolar existence was blamed on him...called “abuse.” Most of the media reports of this horrific murder...strangely glide over the details of Maginn’s book. Molly has been allowed to play the “blonde teary-eyed victim card.” But what if Molly has been the emotional victimizer in her relationships? A man’s skull was shattered, his body beaten, broken, bloody...and she sustained not a scratch or bruise. Surely, a review of the heinous autopsy results can easily determine that Jason was the victim of her rage...then can’t the media entertain that he may have been a long time victim of her mentally unstable manipulations? In my opinion, the full picture of this crime cannot be understood without a full read of “Turning This Thing Around.” Maginn’s book successfully bookends the factual account the children will be able to give...the before and after...the real truth of life with Molly Martens. The very similarities between a portrait of Molly written years before her notoriety...will completely validate the testimony of the children. That book needs to be a center point of the new trial...or justice will not be served.
Turning This Thing Around : Sample Chapter
What the hell did we do to deserve this? That question has popped into my head a few dozen times in the past several months. I’m in a shit-hole motel somewhere in Atlanta, but it might as well be a five-star hotel compared to my fiancée’s situation: Mary is in a psych ward being treated for severe bipolar/manic depression. I just got off the phone with her. She was hysterical, begging me to sneak her Coca-Cola and muscle-relaxers. I have no idea what to do or how much longer I can take this. Tears are streaming down my face and I am asking God, once again, for help. My life has fallen apart and I see no daylight ahead.
Mary is still furious with me about check-in night at the “rehabilitation center,” as they delicately call it. She is enraged at me because I refused to give her muscle-relaxers despite strict orders to the contrary. Weaning her off the plethora of medications she was on was the whole idea of bringing her here: sixteen prescribed meds daily and another ten to be used “as needed.” Up to twenty-six different medications a day for one person (and she weighed less than 120 lbs.)! And they were not helping; quite the opposite, actually.I stood firm on that first night, refusing to “help her pain” by disobeying facility commands. Mary cried and told me to leave; she said I must not really love her. I stalled for a few minutes, waiting for her to change her mind. She did not.Hadn’t I proven time after time I would always be there, that I truly loved her and would do anything I could for her? Hadn’t I talked her out of suicide multiple times, holding her on the bathroom floor or in bed as she cried uncontrollably night after night? Didn’t I lay with her in the hospital telling her things would be better someday? And now she’s saying I don’t care and she doesn’t want me around? So I left the building. I went to my car to think for a few minutes. I decided to go back to Mary’s room. I asked her if she really wanted me to go. She said if I wouldn’t give her the muscle-relaxers, then I should. I left again.
A man who was in a relationship with convicted killer Molly Martens-Corbett has revealed how she messaged him on Facebook after he went public about their time together, saying: “How could you do this to me… don’t you know how good a mother I was?” Her ex-fiancé, Mr Maginn, told Independent.ie about how she had a habit of “squirming out of lies”, claimed she got “pregnant on purpose” while they were together and said Thomas Martens, a retired FBI agent, had a “very high opinion of himself and looked down on everybody else”. Mr Maginn, who works as a flight attendant in the United States, decided to speak out about their relationship as he is “shocked” that the father and daughter are still trying to maintain they are innocent. “She was extremely free-spirited, I had never met someone like her before. She was just really fun and carefree and seemed special, there was something about her,” he said. “Early on she told me she was bipolar. I hadn’t experienced it firsthand so I didn’t think much of it because she was so fun and happy. But that was only because she was balanced by her medications at that point. And when it wasn’t balanced, she was a completely different person.”
He said she never showed violence towards him, but they did have “explosive” arguments.
“If we were having a conversation and it started to get heated, I would say I’m going to go for a walk and clear my head, but she wouldn’t let me leave. Other than some yelling and door slamming, there was no violence or anything like that. He revealed how she suffered a miscarriage while they were together, and how that brought her to a “whole new level of sadness”. At the time, he said they were struggling financially and mentally, and he didn’t believe it was fair for them to bring a baby into the world.
Extra.ie
‘I’m so grateful that I am still alive’: Says Molly Martens’ ex-fiancé
After meeting on a dating website, Mr Maginn said that the couple fell madly in love and moved in together after just six weeks ‘Early on she told me she was bipolar. I hadn’t experienced it firsthand so I didn’t think much of it because she was so fun and happy. But that was only because she was balanced by her medications at that point. And when it wasn’t balanced, she was a completely different person.’ However, he said that they had explosive arguments, and he felt for Jason’s family, telling The Star: ‘I feel so bad for Jason’s family and his kids but I feel so grateful to be alive.’ Revealing his thoughts on the brutal killing of the father of two, he said: ‘I feel the whole reason why Jason was killed was that Jason wanted to take the kids back to Ireland and she wasn’t having it.’ Sharing how she suffered a miscarriage while they were together, he said that she was desperate to be a mum. Mr Maginn also criticised Martens and her father Thomas for giving an interview to news channel ABC for their 20/20 programme, and for playing a recording of Jason yelling. ‘I’ve been there and I am not a monster. I’ve been angry and yelled at her too. It was exhausting being around her and her lies. ‘Molly spoke out in the programme but she didn’t testify in the trial,’ he said.
https://extra.ie/2017/08/10/news/world-news/who-was-molly-martens
Keith, originally from Cinncinati in Ohio, had moved to Knoxville several years before and was working for non-profit organisation Habitat for Humanity. According to him, they hit it off immediately and were ‘inseparable’ after their first date. She had a unique ‘zest for life’, he recalls, and was happy and fun to be around. ‘We fell in love fast and hard,’ he said. ‘She was happy, fun, beautiful and free-spirited. Molly had a zest for life I hadn’t encountered before. She was unique, special.’ A serious relationship quickly developed, with Keith moving into Molly’s apartment a month after they met. Soon afterwards, she confided in him about her mental health struggles. At the time Keith was himself suffering from chronic fatigue and depression, which he says provided a common understanding for them as a couple. I didn’t think much about it because medications had her stabilised and everything was blissful and bright. A month or two into our relationship, she got a staph infection. The infection medications she was given overrode her bipolar medications and knocked everything out of balance. Like someone flipped a light switch. Molly was the saddest person I had ever been around. She would cry in bed for hours. Seeing the person I loved suffering so much was a very trying situation. I did everything I could, but nothing seemed to help.’ Unable to continue her job as a nanny, Molly stayed at home while Keith earned rent money for them both. ‘It was paid to her parents just like you would pay rent to any landlord,’ he says. ‘Molly couldn’t work any more so it was down to me. I was supporting us both. We were paying rent to her parents. I think if she was on her own they would have helped her more [financially]. ‘But knowing that she was in a relationship they were kind of like, “You guys need to make this happen.” They would have paid for anything major that came up, but for the most part she was financially dependent on me. I paid the rent, bought groceries, paid the bills. You don’t make much money working for a non-profit. We were scraping by on my salary.’ ‘Once her depression took over, things were stressful,’ he says. ‘Heartbreaking, actually. I never knew what mood Molly would be in when I got home from work. I walked on eggshells much of the time, trying my best to keep things stable. But things were usually tense. As the relationship came under increasing strain, Keith became concerned by the ‘plethora’ of drugs Molly was taking. At one point, he claims, she was taking 16 prescribed medications a day and another ten to be used ‘as needed’. ‘Most of the stuff she was taking was for bipolar or manic depression,’ the self-help author says. ‘So she was taking some serious drugs. They were prescribed, it wasn’t like she was doing it on her own. She was insomniac, so she sometimes would be up all night. She was taking stuff for that. She had a tremendous amount of stuff on her plate.’ Against this turbulent background, Molly’s relationship with her parents, Thomas and Sharon, became tense, according to Keith. After years spent trying to deal with Molly’s many problems, he says they too had become ‘exasperated’ by her behaviour. Her parents were very much aware of her mental health issues,’ he says. ‘They are well aware of the many doctors, the medications she was taking. They knew about it all. They did try to help. They lived relatively close and they would come over. I don’t know how much they actually helped but they tried to. I felt that they were at times overwhelmed and frustrated about the whole thing.’ In a bid to preserve his girlfriend’s delicate state, Keith surrendered to Molly’s ‘pleas’ to get engaged. On her birthday, he arranged for the couple to return to Pelancho’s, the Mexican restaurant in downtown Knoxville where they had spent their first date. In his book he says he couldn’t afford a decent ring, so picked out a ‘for now’ ring on Overstock.com for less than $150. ‘It was completely her idea to get engaged,’ he told Extra.ie. ‘She really thought being engaged would make her happy. She thought that was going to be the cure. I knew it was not but I thought it would help for a while. It worked for like one day. ‘The next day she was back. She was super happy for a day and then the next day she was crying. I had no intention of marrying her until she got better but I was okay with being engaged just because I thought it might help. She was always saying that kids would make her happy,’ says Keith. ‘She ended up getting pregnant. I was terrified because I knew how many medications. I was terrified.’ On September 16, 2007, Molly suffered a miscarriage. ‘She woke up one day and said she’d had a dream that she miscarried,’ says Keith. ‘She wasn’t feeling good so we went to the hospital. Her parents came. They said that she had miscarried very early on in the pregnancy. She was heartbroken. I honestly was relieved. ‘I thought it was better for everybody that it did not work out.’ Five months later, in February 2008, with no improvement in her condition, Molly checked in to a ‘medical rehabilitation centre’ in Atlanta, Georgia. The hospital fees for her stay in the one-hall monitored ward of Emory Hospital were paid for by her parents. ‘The psych ward in Atlanta was a last-ditch attempt to try and get her medications right,’ Keith told Extra.ie. ‘It was to try to get her off all the stuff she was on and get her on the one or two things that could make her stable. It was very heartwrenching. The people that were in there… It was hard to recognise them as human sometimes. The sounds they were making, just staring at the walls. ‘Having the person you love in that situation was terrible. I believe her doctor suggested she go there. It was very expensive and her parents paid for it. That’s what I believe happened.’ After spending four days receiving treatment, Molly returned to Knoxville with Keith and the couple tried to continue their relationship. Then one night, ‘out of the blue’, according to Keith, Molly said that she wanted to go to Ireland to nanny. It was very odd,’ said Keith. ‘She literally turned to me one night and said, “I want to go nanny somewhere in Europe.” I was, like, “Oh, here we go.” She sometimes came up with these ideas and I was always like, “This is not the fix.” So she was like, “I want to go to Europe,” and I was like, “Okay, Molly… whatever.” ‘I went to bed, she stayed up, which was pretty normal.’ One morning soon after, Molly told Keith she had found a nannying position in Ireland. ‘I was like, “How did this happen so fast?” She said, “I’m going to go very soon.” So I was quite taken aback. I was used to her not following through on things that she was planning, so I didn’t think it would happen.’ He felt if she wasn’t well enough to go to the store to get groceries, how is she going to Ireland and nanny for a family? According to Keith, his fiancée initially told him she was going for a week, then she said she would be away for ‘several’ weeks. ‘I literally thought she was going to be gone for a few weeks,’ he said. ‘I heard her on the phone right in front of me talking to a friend and she told her friend and said she was going to be gone for a month. ‘Later she was on the phone to someone else saying two or three months, literally two or three months. When she got off the phone I was like, “What’s going on? You told me you were going for a few weeks.” She was like, “I am, I’m just…”.
Ultimately, she would squirm out of giving a definite answer, he said. After she left to go to Ireland, Keith never saw Molly again.
Back in Limerick, Jason Corbett, who was 30 at the time, had been widowed by the death of his first wife Mags after she died suddenly from an asthma attack in 2006. Sarah Corbett was two and her brother Jack was just 11 weeks old at the time of their mother’s death.
At the time Mr Corbett was working for packaging company Chesapeake and was also part-owner of a crèche run by Lynn Shanahan, also from Limerick.
‘After Mags died, we had the two children with us in the creche every day and got to know them so well,’ said Ms Shanahan. Molly Martens came to Limerick in March 2008 to work as an au pair looking after Jack and Sarah.