The tragic case of Barbara Daly

The Socialite who was Murdered by her own son 

Barbara Daly was born on September 28, 1921 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Barbara had a normal childhood. But at the age of 11 she found her father, who committed suicide in the garage. Which left a significant trauma on Barbara. After the tragic incident Barbara and her mother moved to New York and started a new life there. 

In her early 20's Barbara became a prominent socialite in New York city. Her social charisma and beauty lead her to many elite parties and events as well as modeling contracts. She was featured in magazines like Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. In fact, she was named top 10 most beautiful girls in New York. And of course she had many wealthy admirers. 

All the glamor aside, in her private life Barbara and her mother were suffering from severe mental health issues. Now at the time mental health wasn't talked about and was considered "shameful". So Barbara secretly started seeing a psychiatrist by the name of Foster Kennedy. 

At one point Barbara became friends with an aspiring actress named Cornelia Baekeland. Later she introduced Barbara to her brother Brooks Baekeland, who was a trainee pilot. She kind of brushed him off but later she found out that they're filthy rich. Brooks grandfather was actually the man who invented plastic! 

Their relationship was very rocky from the get go. At one point when Brooks wanted to get out of the relationship, Barbara allegedly told him that she was pregnant. So they immediately got married because it was heavily frowned upon at the time(still is). 

After the marriage the couple started their lavish life of constant parties and social events. Barbara at this time had a bit of a reputation for outbursts and just being straight up rude. And Brooks had countless affairs.

Regardless, Barbara did end up actually giving birth to a son in 1946 and he was named Antony Baekeland. Antony, best believe, grew up in wealth and luxury but his parents were mostly never around and neglectful of him.

Antony, in his early 20's decided to travel around Europe. In 1967, he met a guy by the name of Jake Cooper who was a bisexual Australian man. They became very close friends and Jake introduced him to various kinds of drugs. 

Soon they engaged in a romantic relationship. somehow Barbara found out that her son was in a relationship with a man. This made her furious. Barbara even drove down to Antony's place and made him move back with them to Paris.

Barbara thought he just needed to meet the right kind of girls. So she set him up with one of her friends' daughter, Sylvie. Sylvie moved to their house and the 4 of them started living together. Imagine Barbara's surprise when, instead of Antony, Brooks started a relationship with Sylvie. 

So Brooks divorced Barbara and married Sylvie. And her son was still attracted to men. To her it seemed like her whole life was falling apart. 

She would even hire prostitutes for her son, but nothing was working. She allegedly went as far as  manipulating her son into having sexual relationships with her, because she was so confident in herself that she thought it would finally "fix" him. 

Tony was diagnosed with schizophrenia which he was unable to treat for his family's "status". And Barbara's actions were affecting his mental state even more. 

On 17th October, 1972 Antony had enough of Barbara. So that day he went into the kitchen, grabbed the kitchen knife and attacked his mother which killed her immediately. Barbara passed away at the age of 50. 

After his arrest he confessed to the murder. He stated that he just couldn't take the abuse any longer and it was driving him insane. To him killing her was the only option. 

Afterwards Antony was institutionalized at Broadmoor, a psychiatric hospital. In 1980, at 33, he was discharged from there. Later he went on to live with his maternal grandmother in New York. 

But it wasn't a happy ever after, because it only took him 6 days to attack his grandmother the way he attacked his mother. Fortunately, she survived even after being stabbed 7 times. 

This time he was sent to prison for life. But in 1981 Antony committed suicide by putting a plastic bag over his head.