In 1807, Napoleon invaded Portugal. Tradition and perhaps her heart may have won the battle. Chulalongkorn quickly established himself as a fair-minded, reforming monarch who sought to modernize his country. Around this time, Barbara fell head over heels for the debonair Brooks Baekeland, a man people in the know called the intellectual Errol Flynn. Brooks was the grandson of Leo Baekeland, the inventor of Bakelite plastic, and his family was stinking rich. King Leonides of Sparta is known for his doomed but heroic standoff against the Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae. It couldnt have come at a worse time. She was the ex-wife of Brooks Baekeland, who was the grandson of Leo Baekeland, inventor of Bakelite plastic. This is the savage, tragic story of Barbara Baekeland. Childhood & Early Life. Anthony had apparently been experimenting with boys from around the age of fourteen. She was the ex-wife of Brooks Baekeland, who was the grandson of Leo Baekeland, inventor of Bakelite plastic. So why did the match occur? Tony and I spent the entire morning lying in bed reading the papers. While Tony only smirked at this bizarre over-share, the rest of the guests got very uncomfortable, very fast. Although some of the details are necessarily hazy, it was in Majorca that Barbara and Antony likely began a physical, incestuous relationship after a series of intimate, candle-lit dinners. Her response was blood chilling. I felt she was controlling my mind. Tony threatened to murder Brooks' second wife Sylvie. This would prove to be a fatal error. Some reports even say that Astor wanted to marry her. Their subject matter? He believed psychiatrists were a waste of time and described his son as evil particularly after Tony had sent his young stepbrother in the US macabre gifts he had made himself while at Broadmoor. Instead of taking Tony to therapy, Barbara insisted on pretending everything was fine. But Barbara had her sights set on a different mark. Barbara wasnt just pretty, she was incredibly ambitious. He took a kitchen knife, charged toward his mother, and stabbed her directly in the heart. Thanks for your help! Her mother had experienced a nervous breakdown just a few years prior to her birth. Thats right, Brooks started cheating on his wife with his sons girlfriend. Mother of Anthony Baekeland, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Daly_Baekeland. She began to satirized George, likening him to a pig. Whether Brooks had ever taken to Tony in the past he now thought of his first son, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, as strange and peculiar. Reportedly, she started hiring female sex workers to come in and try to seduce her son over to the straight side. She also drank heavily, and both parties had many affairs. Luckily, Barbaras friend rescued her, but the incident was serious enough that officers actually arrested Tony for attempted murder. The royal family, complete with all the wealth they could carry and the mad queen fled to Brazil. Google Images. This tradition meant brother-sister marriages. He was also clearly mentally ill; while locked up before trial, he would often ask visitors how his mother was. In 1933, Barbara lost her father Frank in one of the most horrific ways imaginable. After Brooks requested a divorce and Barbara subsequently tried to commit suicide, Brooks terminated the affair. He was closing in on his goal of visiting all 193 countries (as defined by the United Nations), and planned to visit his final targetSerbiaalong with his mother, Lady Violette Baekeland, in October 2017 for an elite extreme traveler conference where they were set to become the first mother-son team to have visited every country in the world. Alex Katz : An Exhibition Featuring Works from the Collection of Paul J. Schupf by Skira, Sylvie; Alex Katz and Paul J. Schupf and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at AbeBooks.com. Nini refused him permission enraging her disturbed grandson. So believe me when I say she stopped at nothing to get him. By 1972, Barbara and Tony still hadnt managed to extricate themselves from each other, and were living together in London, England. Arrested by the New York City Police Department, he was charged with attempted murder. Not only did the two begin a steamy affair, Cooper also convinced his upper-class beau to travel to Morocco with him, buy hallucinogenics, and have a grand old time rebelling against mommy and daddy. These women came from a variety of backgrounds- but Chulalongkorns queens had to be of royal blood: in other words, family members. We want our readers to trust us. By all accounts, the marriage was a happy one. William never mentioned the incident, and, in any case, his credibility among elite travelers couldnt have been higher. This motive aside, Leonides was marrying a canny woman and one well able to manage Sparta while he was at war. Also Known As: "Brooks Baekeland". Born and raised in Boston, her mother Nini had had a mental breakdown a few years before Barbara was born. Brooks had also received abusive letters from Tony, some threatening to murder his . A combination of misguided trust by his grandmother Nini and a lack of responsibility by authorities on both sides of the Atlantic saw the disturbed, schizophrenic Tony now living with the elderly woman in New Yorks Upper East Side. A baby didnt fix those issues. Only six days after his release, on July 27, he attacked her with a kitchen knife, stabbing her eight times and breaking several bones. See what Sylvie Baekelandt (sylviebaekeland) has discovered on Pinterest, the world's biggest collection of ideas. However, at the French border, Anthony was found not to have his passport. I had heard a lot about the brainy and daring young billionaire explorer from other prolific travelers I had profiled, most for a BBC series called Travel Pioneers. At a dinner event that Barbara attended with Tony in Paris, the socialite apparently swanned in, sat down, and tittered to her companions, Oh, what a wonderful day it has been. Whew, that was a close one, right? She knew that Leonides was going off to inevitable death when he set off for Thermopylae. In 1969, just months after her taboo tryst with her own son began, Barbara met and struck up a dalliance with the trendy New York art curator Samuel Adams Green, who was nearly two decades her junior. But once communication lines opened, and the founder of one of the leading clubs for top travelers started digging into Baekelands story, some began to doubt him. However, brothers and sisters with different mothers but the same father could marry- and so could uncles and nieces. However, on May 25, 1786, Pedro died suddenly, and grief sent his widow (and niece) into a spiral of depression that drove her mad. But he didnt stop there. In 1946, Barbara got pregnant for real this time, giving birth to a baby boy she named Antony. Welljust wait. In 1932 when she was aged 10, her father Frank committed suicide from carbon monoxide poisoning from the exhaust of his car in the garage. After experiencing yet another rejection, Barbara went off the deep end. The Truth Always Comes Out: Dark Family Secrets Exposed, Entrancing Facts About Madame de Pompadour, France's Most Powerful Mistress, Show-Stopping Facts About Judy Garland, The Tragic Hollywood Icon, Contradictory Facts About Jon Voight, Hollywoods Reformed Hippie, Classic Facts About Grace Kelly, Hollywood's Lost Princess, Reckless Facts About Lady Diana Manners, The High Society Wild Child. Disturbingly, throughout all these warnings, Barbara still refused to believe there was anything fundamentally wrong with her son. In early 2018, I became obsessed with untangling this question. Despite admitting the brutal slaying of his mother Tony showed little grasp of reality. He kept traveling, and, in February 2017, while on a trip to Antarctica, Baekelands father died, and he couldnt get to the funeral. He continued: To get there, you have to find your own way there. It was heartbreaking, but it was also effective: Brooks quickly ended his affair and all his thoughts of separation. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window), Mad Travelers: A Tale of Wanderlust, Greed, and the Quest to Reach the Ends of the Earth, John McPhee on Wrestling with a First Draft, When a Year in the Life of Your Last-Chance Debut Novel Coincides with a Global Pandemic, What Should You Read Next? One mother who most certainly seduced her son was Barbara Daly Baekeland. He attended elementary school from the age of five and joined government high school 'Atheneum' afterwards. Daughter of Frank James Daly and Nina Lillian Daly But worse that she had also purposely instigated a sexual relationship between herself and Tony as a twisted reaction to control a gay son she couldnt bear to lose. Perhaps most unsettling of all is the fact that although Tony was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia and paranoid tendencies, this diagnosis didnt do him any good. I doubled back to my network of extreme travelers in search of younger, more demographically interesting country collectors, and several made the same recommendation: William S. Baekeland. Sent to Rikers Island prison, after eight months of assessment by the psychiatric team there, he was expecting to be bailed at a court hearing on March 20, 1981. Baekeland oozed sincerity and people of all nationalities found him to be personable and good company. When we do, we depend on our loyal, helpful readers to point out how we can do better. Maria, I of Portugal was born on December 17, 1734, the daughter of King Joseph I. These events had a profound effect on Woolf. It was her tall, thin 25-year-old son Tony, the only child of Barbara and Bakelite heir Brooks Baekeland who hours after she returned home to their exclusive Cadogan Square apartment viciously murdered her in the kitchen. After one intense session with the boy, the doctor gave Barbara some disturbing news. Then he really twisted the knife. In 1967, the Baekelands were still bouncing around the continent when their son Tony, now 20 years old, met a bisexual Australian bad boy by the name of Jake Cooper. Back in Britain Tonys Broadmoor consultant admitted his patients release was a faux pas and was perhaps only too aware that a lack of appropriate psychiatric care and supervision would lead to disaster. The twenty-one year old Tony, like his like his mother was now of no interest to his father who lived with a new partner (3rd marriage) and a young child. Copyright 2023 by Factinate.com. In early 2018, I became obsessed with untangling this question. However, there were certain customs he did not do away with- including marriage to his sisters. It was the kind of suffocating devotion borne out of possessiveness and controlling behaviour that may have led to such tragic events and ruining several lives of one of the most privileged wealthy American families. Jason met Amanda, daughter of singer Paul Anka, when they . warned Barbara that her son was going to kill her. Could a young man who barely needed to shave dupe a collection of the worlds best-traveled people? At the time of the marriage, Barbara listed her profession as painter, while Brooks listed his as a writer. When the police arrived at the apartment to discover the carnage Tony complained to the officers that she wont die despite the multiple stabs wounds and broken bones he had inflicted on the frail still alive screaming woman. Anthony was subsequently admitted to The Priory private psychiatric hospital, but was released soon afterwards. Not that he had much support. In short, her life was spiralling toward a tragic climax. Soon enough, though, she went from bombshell to scandal-maker. ]]> Google Images. Barbara Daly Baekeland, . She didnt believe him. This time there was no rich influential people in the US defending Tonys right to freedom and he was incarcerated for life at Rikers Island, New Yorks main prison where his access to family money provided a merry-go-round of sexual partners, protectors and possible enemies in the top security prison. This time, though, it had the opposite effect: Brooks filed for divorce once and for all, even stonily weathering another suicide attempt right after he served Barbara the papers. When Mrs. Baekeland was informed of this by her friend Barbara Curteis, she travelled by car to Spain to bring her son back to Switzerland. In his Christmas card, Baekeland described 2016 as an indescribably bad and difficult year. In August, his sister Muguette died in New York. People do not usually associate the Greeks with incestuous unions. It wasnt long after the power couples marriage in California that the relationship started to show cracks. The first American missionaries began to arrive on the islands- and Keopuolani converted.