Reason First: Was Lawrencia Bembenek the ‘Proto-Karen’?- The Christine Schultz Murder

The way that Lawrencia “Bambi” Bembenek’s life twisted and turned warranted books, movies, and television specials. Accused of murdering her ex-husband’s wife on Thursday May 28, 1981 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the jury found her guilty and the judge sentenced her to life in prison. She would serve ten years of that sentence. Why? Because she broke out and escaped to Canada.

Upon her capture, the judge ruled, after she plead no contest to the murder, that she had already had a decade worth of time served and that she would be on probation.

Is this an example of a killer “Karen” being let off the hook without serving her full stint behind bars? Bembenek’s life worsened upon assimilating back into society. Alcohol invaded her liver and she also contracted hepatitis C. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder developed in her psyche. She fought the pain with more alcohol, feeling that potent potables would quell the raging storm in her mind. She had a scheduled appearance on a talk show and wanted out of it. She had been staying on one of the upper levels of a hotel and leapt to the ground. In the process, she shattered her leg below the knee and required amputation.

In 2010, almost thirty years after the murder of Mrs. Schultz, Bembenek succumbed to liver and kidney failure.

What rings true more so than anything is that this was not an example of a “Karen” or whatever the hell that term means. Bembenek had been falsely accused of the murder and was not let off because of the color of her skin. She was granted freedom from a life sentence because she committed no crime. Mrs. Schultz’ own two sons reported having seen the slayer and the black shoes and army jacket along with a thick build of a man that did not match Bembenek’s profile.

The viciousness of the “Karen” phenomenon in retrospect shows how lives can be damaged and destroyed based on the idea that some white woman is alway ready to call the manager or use her looks to get away with murder.

Most people would scream, “If she were black, brown, red or yellow, she’d still by scrubbing toilets in a maximum security prison.” This case has nothing to do with racism but justice. Bembenek combatted her way out of jail based on her own truth. She summoned every virtue she had to break out of prison to show that she was not running away from the sentence perse, but from the treatment as an inmate in Taycheedah Correctional Institution.

Had she not fled, got caught, and put before a judge again, she may have served a longer stint than she had already put time in as a prisoner. The “Karen” nonsense saying that she was the classic standard of beauty (white with blue eyes) whitewashes the faults in the claim that white people, especially women, usually get off on any charge. This fallacy extends from 1981 to 2020.

People still believe that there is no justice for people who lack a certain amount of melanin in their gene pool.

What ought to be done is a reexamination of the carceral code. The scales of justice should not hinder or help anyone based on skin pigment. Justice should protect everyone that is brought before the law. Questions concerning whether a black woman or Latina woman could have done everything that Bembenek did might stimulate debates in the halls of colleges and universities that cover the case. However, it all remains pure conjecture. Bembenek attempted to do everything to further her life.

Sadly, she only ruined it. The social justice warriors (SJW) would say that it was what she deserved. The believers would say that the unknown and unknowable punished her. In reality, she tried everything that she could to live the American Dream. Even if the price is heavy, one must never lose sight of finding flourishing.