red army
20th October 2001, 23:54
Husband killed by home sex-change
A TRANSSEXUAL from Pittsburgh has been arrested for the murder of her husband — her sixth — after bungling a sex-change operation on him at their caravan home.
Police were called to the trailer park in Marion, Pennsylvania, by Tammy Lynn Felbaum, born Tommy, who said that her husband had taken a drugs overdose. He died within an hour of being taken to hospital.
The doctors assumed that James Felbaum had suffocated on his vomit, although they saw a small surgical cut in his scrotum. A post-mortem examination revealed that he had died from blood loss after being castrated.
Mrs Felbaum, 42, told police that her husband had tried to castrate himself as the first step in a do-it-yourself sex-change operation. She knew that he was not doing it properly because she had undergone such an operation 20 years ago, so got her husband to write a consent note for her to perform the operation. After consulting books on anatomy and surgery, she set to work.
Mrs Felbaum is charged with homicide, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and unauthorised practise of medicine and surgery.
Timothy McCune, the Butler County District Attorney, said: “You can’t consent to a medical procedure being performed on you by someone who’s not a medical doctor.” He said that the Felbaums’ caravan was not a suitable operating theatre because it lacked heat and water and was filled with waste from their two dogs, five cats and three birds.
Mr McCune said he did not believe that Mrs Felbaum intended to kill her husband and that, if the case went to trial, he would seek a conviction for involuntary manslaughter. She might evade prosecution altogether if psychiatric reports decided that she was not fit to stand trial
A TRANSSEXUAL from Pittsburgh has been arrested for the murder of her husband — her sixth — after bungling a sex-change operation on him at their caravan home.
Police were called to the trailer park in Marion, Pennsylvania, by Tammy Lynn Felbaum, born Tommy, who said that her husband had taken a drugs overdose. He died within an hour of being taken to hospital.
The doctors assumed that James Felbaum had suffocated on his vomit, although they saw a small surgical cut in his scrotum. A post-mortem examination revealed that he had died from blood loss after being castrated.
Mrs Felbaum, 42, told police that her husband had tried to castrate himself as the first step in a do-it-yourself sex-change operation. She knew that he was not doing it properly because she had undergone such an operation 20 years ago, so got her husband to write a consent note for her to perform the operation. After consulting books on anatomy and surgery, she set to work.
Mrs Felbaum is charged with homicide, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and unauthorised practise of medicine and surgery.
Timothy McCune, the Butler County District Attorney, said: “You can’t consent to a medical procedure being performed on you by someone who’s not a medical doctor.” He said that the Felbaums’ caravan was not a suitable operating theatre because it lacked heat and water and was filled with waste from their two dogs, five cats and three birds.
Mr McCune said he did not believe that Mrs Felbaum intended to kill her husband and that, if the case went to trial, he would seek a conviction for involuntary manslaughter. She might evade prosecution altogether if psychiatric reports decided that she was not fit to stand trial