In The News

Advocates: Watch for warning signs
By Marie Szaniszlo | Friday, April 25, 2008

After Tuesday’s killing of a 29-year-old Abington mother of two, allegedly by her husband, a shock to many who knew the couple, advocates urged people to be more vigilant about warning signs and call for help.

“People don’t walk around with signs reading, ‘I’m a batterer’ or ‘I’m being abused or controlled,’ ” said Toni Troop, a spokeswoman for Jane Doe, Inc., a coalition of advocacy groups for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. “It’s not something they want to admit. But while we shouldn’t jump to conclusions, we also shouldn’t minimize what could be a crucial red flag or a cry for help.”

Katherine Hennessy of Weymouth knew Barbara Tassinari for more than four years and her husband for nearly seven. But in all that time, Hennessy said, nothing about the couple prepared her for Tuesday’s rampage.

John Tassinari has been charged with murder, accused of pumping more than 12 bullets into his wife in the driveway of their home. That would make her the state’s 10th domestic violence homicide victim this year.
“I never saw that side of him,” Hennessy wrote in an e-mail to the Herald, “but things are different in a marriage than in a friendship.”

Less than an hour before the killing, Barbara Tassinari had confided in her sister-in-law that her husband had been drinking and accusing her of having an affair, according to a police report.

The victim’s brother, Frank Scolaro, told police that John Tassinari also was very controlling about money and always carried a handgun with him.

He owned a collection of guns, and both guns and a fasination with bondage figure prominently on his MySpace [website] page.

All of those factors - jealousy, an insistence on control and the possession of guns - are key warning signs that someone might be capable of violence, Troop said. She urged victims to call a 24-hour hotline - 1-877-785-2020 - to get help before their situation becomes dire.

On any given day, about 60 victims of domestic violence seek emergency shelter in Massachusetts, but only about 10 beds are available, Troop said.

“Programs stretch themselves as far as they can, but those numbers have remained fairly consistent,” Troop said.

This week, survivors and victims’ families met with lawmakers to ask them to increase funding for shelter and other victims’ services by $10 million, rather than cut it by $1 million, as the House of Representatives has proposed.