THESE are the five most chilling Diane Downs documentary details from the killer mom’s bizarre jail letters to a “scary book.”
Viewers of ABC’s 20/20’s true crime documentary about Diane Downs have gotten a deeper look into the mom’s life.
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The documentary comes as Downs — who gave birth to four children — is serving a life sentence for horrific crimes she committed against her own kids.
Downs launched a violent attack on three of her children, Danny, Cheryl Lynn, and Christie Anne in 1983.
Her fourth baby, Amy Elizabeth, was adopted and given the name Becky Babcock.
Downs was ultimately convicted of one count of murder and two counts each of attempted murder and criminal assault in 1984.
She was sentenced to life in prison and an additional 50 years after shooting her three children, killing one. And she’s not set to meet with the parole board again until 2025.
Despite her troubled past and remaining in jail, her daughter Babcock still chose to send her biological mom letters in prison.
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JAIL LETTERS
Becky Babcock, the fourth and youngest child of Downs, explained in the documentary MY MOTHER’S SINS the reasoning behind why she began writing letters to her jailed mom.
Babcock recalled being “irresponsible, partying too much, and jumping from man to man” in her teens — revealing she felt “it was difficult to accept my genetic makeup.”
She said that after “being a teenager” following the birth of her first son, she made the “hardest decision” to put her second child up for adoption.
“I wanted to know how she felt, if she loved me, if she wanted me … if she connected with me before she had given me up for adoption,” Babcock explained.
“I wanted to relate to her … not as a mother because I had a mother, but just as somebody who shared the pain and emptiness that I felt in that time.”
She said that opening up her mom’s letter in October 2006 was like “pandora’s box” as she “chose” to allowed her mom into her life.
However, after exchanging words, Babcock said the letters “kept coming and were strange, to say the least.”
Babcock said the letters “progressively got more and more insane” — something she noticed after asking about her biological father.
“She started writing back about people that want to harm me and
she told me that if I loved my little boy I would take him far away from there,” Babcock continued.
The letters eventually led her to realize her mom was crazy.
‘SCARY’ BOOK
When Babcock was a child, she tricked her babysitter into saying her biological mom’s name — leading her to search Barnes and Nobles to find a true crime book about her mom, the documentary revealed.
After finding the book, she said: “I opened it and I looked at a picture of Diane Downs sitting at a table.
“It was a face to what I had been looking for and it wasn’t a face that I wanted to see.
“The cold look in her eyes scared me and seeing her hands, that you know were just like mine, and the reality set in that … that’s who gave birth to me.”
“It was scary and I slammed the book shut and I left,” Babcock recounted after seeing her mom’s photo.
PRISON ESCAPE
On July 11, 1987, a Saturday morning, Downs escaped a woman’s prison by climbing a 12- to 15-foot-high chain-link fence around the detention center.
She successfully escaped the Oregon Women’s Correctional Center and used clothing to keep herself from getting harmed by the barbed-wire fence, according to ABC News.
Cops found her ten days later living with another inmate’s husband.
Downs was recaptured in Salem, Oregon, on July 21.
She received a five-year additional sentence for the escape.
Downs and some of her family continue to maintain her innocence and claim a convicted felon has confessed to shooting the children.
She is in jail in California after being denied parole in 2008 and 2010.
‘SURREAL’ DEMEANOR
Dr. Steven Wilhite opened up in the documentary about his interaction with Downs at the hospital.
“Her demeanor was flat. Not one tear, even though she knew that Cheryl had died,” he said.
Wilhite later added: “When I was finished taking care of Christie, then I sought out her mother. And to my complete surprise, Diane was not emotional … not a tear in her eye.
“And then she says, ‘I really ruined my new car … I got blood all over the back of it.’
“I’ve never seen a reaction like that at all.”
Former Lane County District Attorney Pat Horton explained: “Her demeanor at the hospital did not conform to a traditional grieving mother whose children had just been shot, one murdered, the other two seriously clinging to life.”
Doug Welch, a former detective for Lane County Sheriff’s Office, called Down’s demeanor “surreal.”
PAROLE HEARING
During the documentary, Babcock reacted to viewing her biological mom’s creepy 2010 parole hearing.
She said: “She doesn’t make any sense and it honestly sounds like It just she thinks that she’s smarter than the law and that she believes her own lies.
“It just makes my skin crawl, just to hear her voice and see her.
“If you do something so horrific, at some point you have to ask for forgiveness.”
In the footage from Down’s parole hearing, Babcock’s biological mom is heard talking about “milk carton kids” and boasting about her intelligence.
Babcock first went public about her mother in 2010 and has also met her in a bid to find out about her roots.
Over the years, she has told her story numerous times and has been seen on 20/20, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Kids of Killers, and the Happy Face podcast series.
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