A woman who attempted to "cure" her gay son through sick incestuous threesomes was murdered by him.
Barbara Daly Baekeland, 51, would die at the hands of her own son in a killing that shook both the high society in Britain and in America.
The socialite was stabbed to death with a kitchen knife by her son Antony at her London home, reports Daily Star.
Antony was discovered at the scene of the crime, and later confessed to and was charged with her murder in 1972.
Barbara died almost immediately but her death posed only one question: why would her son kill her?
It all began when Antony was living with his American beauty mother after his parents separated.
His father, Brooks Baekeland, grandson to the founder of Baekeland Plastics had been having an affair and had decided he'd had enough of Barbara's erratic behaviours as she became known for her unstable personality, rude outbursts and bouts of severe depression.
Shortly after the divorce, Barbara became aware that her 21-year-old son was homosexual and their relationship took a turn.
His mother allegedly pushed Antony into an incestuous relationship in an attempt to "fix" him.
It started with her hiring prostitutes to sleep with him but when this failed she began to sleep with him herself, convincing or coercing him to have sex with her.
She reportedly took part in a threesome with her son and one of his love interests at the time.
While the pair were living in Majorca in the summer of 1968, Barbara was alleged to have raped Antony.
However, throughout all of the sexual abuse, Antony displayed signs of paranoid schizophrenia but his father refused to allow him to be treated by psychiatrists, whom he believed were "professionally amoral".
His behaviour caused concern among family friends as he had several threatening arguments involving knives.
When he was eventually seen by a doctor, the medic warned Barbara that her son was capable of murder but she dismissed these warnings.
Just two weeks later, on November 17, 1972, Antony, who was aged 25 at the time, murdered his mother.
After the murder, Antony was institutionalized at Broadmoor Hospital until, after much urging by a group of his friends, he was released on July 21, 1980.
He relocated to New York City to live with his grandmother, stabbing but not killing her less than a week later.
Antony was sent to Rikers Island and was suffocated with a plastic bag on March 20, 1981.
It is not known if his death was a suicide or murder.
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