33. Worst Rescue, Ever?
In 1950, nineteen-year-old Pat Cogdon was living with her fifty-year-old mother, Ivy, in a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. Ivy was afflicted with a variety of nervous complaints, including night terrors. On August 11th of that year, Ivy entered Pat’s bedroom with an ax in hand, and smashed her skull, bringing about her death. When police arrived, Ivy admitted what she had done, and was duly arrested and charged with murder.
In her defense, she claimed that she was sleepwalking when she left her bedroom, and in that state, she thought North Korean soldiers had invaded her suburban home and were attacking her daughter. So she reacted by grabbing an ax and rushed to her daughter’s defense, swinging at the imaginary North Korean soldiers to fend them off, and in the process, ended up killing her daughter.