HBO’s I’m Not a Monster: The Lois Riess Murders Explores What Drove a Woman to Kill Her Husband

As a movie critic who has spent years immersed in the complexities of human nature through the lens of cinema, I can confidently say that Lois Riess: I’m Not a Monster is a gripping and thought-provoking documentary. The tale of a seemingly ordinary woman spiraling into a life of crime and violence is as captivating as it is tragic.

What drives a wife to murder her husband, flee, and then murder another woman along the way?

The primary focus of the two-part HBO documentary titled “I’m Not a Monster: The Lois Riess Murders,” which will air on Oct. 15 and Oct. 16, revolves around Lois Riess, a woman from Minnesota who is currently serving two life sentences for the murders she committed in 2018. The victims were her husband David Riess in Blooming Prairie, Minnesota, and Pam Hutchinson, whom she encountered while on the run at a bar in Fort Myers Beach.

In April 2018, Riess was apprehended following a recognition by George Higginbotham, who was then in charge of Dirty Al’s restaurant on South Padre Island, Texas. He had spotted her on CBS This Morning and subsequently reported her to the U.S. Marshals. Subsequently, she admitted guilt for both murders.

To gather insights for the documentary, director Erin Lee Carr spoke with Riess while she was in prison, aiming to understand her thoughts and motivations behind the heinous crimes she had perpetrated.

Exploring what drove Lois Riess to murder

The documentary doesn’t provide straightforward explanations as to why Riess committed the murders of Hutchinson or her husband. However, it offers insights into Riess’ troubled marriage, providing a glimpse into her mental state prior to the killings. In the film, she confesses that her husband, who owned a prosperous business supplying wax worms to fishermen, was both physically and verbally abusive towards her and their children.

According to Riess, he’d destroy valuable items, such as photos, that held significant meaning for me. She goes on to explain that his behavior escalated, becoming increasingly aggressive with pushing and hitting. Riess felt trapped without an escape route and endured a great deal of verbal abuse, which she believes is more harmful than physical abuse.

Kari Schirber, a friend of Lois Riess, supports her statement in the series by stating, “He had a short temper.

To put it simply, most of her family members were unaware of the true nature of her marriage. As Carr explained to TIME, she never discussed her marriage at all, making her husband’s murder a surprise to everyone who knew her or followed the story. Carr speculates that people might have thought she had a gambling problem and killed him because he stopped giving her money or something like that.

According to multiple confidential sources, Carr asserts that Lois’ marriage was characterized by a harmful and abusive dynamic. During the course of their union, Riess was admitted to a mental health institution following an attempt at self-harm, with her husband visiting her only once. Carr suggests that something potentially catastrophic might have occurred for Lois around this period.

Lois Riess and a history of mental health issues

The film delves into how a compulsive gambling habit possibly influenced her hasty choices, with a gambling addiction expert discussing the inner workings of a gambler’s mind being included in the discussion. Riess ultimately lost all her inherited money through gambling. While evading authorities, she resorted to casinos after depleting both her husband’s personal and business bank accounts. “The only thing that gave me a sense of euphoria was gambling,” Riess admits. “Gambling is the most insidious drug; it gives you a high that feels like a special privilege.

In the course of the documentary, Riess repeatedly shows regret for committing both murders and attributes her actions to mental illness without explicitly mentioning any particular diagnosis. Notably, several close relatives of hers had struggles with mental health, and tragically, her mother passed away in a psychiatric facility.

On April 9, 2018, when police discovered Hutchinson’s body in her condo with identification and credit cards missing, they considered Riess a top suspect, believing that Riess might have killed Hutchinson because the two resembled each other. When questioned about her transition from socializing at the bar with Hutchinson to taking her life, Riess expressed bewilderment, stating, “When I say it’s a puzzle, it really is a puzzle because I don’t recall all the details and answers for that.” She further explained, “Mental illness—the mind can be unpredictable. All I know is it occurred.” Regarding Hutchinson, Riess admitted, “she was unfortunately caught up in my mental health crisis.

It’s rare for a murderer to appear on camera, but Carr told Riess that addiction and mental health issues run in her own family too. She is the daughter of the former New York Times columnist David Carr, whose memoir The Night of the Gun is a harrowing account of his struggles with drug addiction. And she herself has been sober for 9 years. She made the case that she could approach the interview with a certain level of understanding—though she still can’t fully understand what drove Riess to murder twice.

“I found that she wasn’t able to take full ownership over what she did,” says Carr.

2024-10-15 21:06