And thus, it was posited that Shirley stopped looking outside for help and focused from within. Though Shirley sought help, she was so young, she had no advantage over her parents.
Cornelia Wilbur who discovered these atrocities during her therapy sessions with Shirley. It was also alleged that Mattie would force a flashlight, a small bottle, or a silver knife into Shirley. Shirley also alleged that Mattie would give her enemas, forcing the catheter tip into her urethra and would fill her bladder full of ice water. Shirley reported that Mattie would separate Shirley’s legs with a long wooden spoon, tie her feet to the spoon with dishtowels, and then string her to the end of a light bulb cord hanging from the ceiling. According to Shirley, her mother would not always do the same things to her, though they were all usually terrible. Mattie would proceed to lock the kitchen door, pull the shades for the door and windows, and then placed Shirley atop the kitchen table. “We don’t want anyone looking in, spying on us,” the words of Mattie, Shirley’s mother. Schreiber’s book would highlight many instances of abuse one of those detailing Mattie’s alleged break from reality. The Boston Globe, Boston, Massachusetts, 14 June 1973.įrom a young age, it was alleged that Shirley Mason had suffered extensive physical and sexual abuse at the hands of her parents. Later, Shirley became a substitute teacher in the 1950s and even attended Columbia University. Shirley would go on to graduate from Dodge Center High School in the early 1940s and then attended Mankato State College. Additionally, it was reported that Mattie had been diagnosed as a schizophrenic, though it remains unclear if this entirely true. Her neighbors would remark on her bizarre laugh and they (the neighbors) would report that Mattie would walk at night and look into windows. Mattie was often referred to as being strange or weird when she lived in Minnesota. Martha was better known as Mattie but, in Schreiber’s book, she was simply referred to as “Hattie.” For the sake of brevity, Martha will be referred to as “Mattie” through this post. So who was Sybil? Sybil, born Shirley Ardell Mason, was born in 1923 in Dodge Center, Minnesota. The case of young Sybil resulted in a book, written by Flora Rheta Schreiber, and a TV movie simply titled Sybil. Wilbur, a medical doctor, and psychiatrist, previously on staff at the University of Kentucky Medical Center, presented the case of Sybil Isabel Dorsett to the nation. It was a case that entranced the entire nation and, arguably, the world during the 1960s and 1970s. Photo from the Star Tribune, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 6 June 1999
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