Christian B. Seaborn
The True Story Behind the Story...
Identical twins Ben (left)
and John (Jack) Seaborn
Born on April 11, 1914 in Seattle, Washington, identical twins Benjamin Charles and John Henry Seaborn were both tragically born with a rare form of epilepsy. This would not be figured out for fifty-four years, by which time Ben Seaborn would kill both his wife and himself due to this illness.
Psychomotor epilepsy virtually creates a living Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde out of the patient. As John's wife (Nora Seaborn) would later explain to the news program 60 Minutes, "the unpredictable (levels) of violence are nearly impossible to describe".
Impacting the situation, at the age of five Jack (John) sustained a head injury to the frontal lobe of his brain. Over the decades this childhood injury to Jack's brain would completely destroy the frontal lobe of his brain - that portion of the brain that deals with making judgements and critical thinking.
Along with their older sister (who was a dwarf, never growing out of toddler-sized clothes), the twins were born into a prominent sailing and boat building family. Their father, Charles Nelson Seaborn, owned his own Seaborn Shipyards in Tacoma, Washington, amazing a small fortune building ships during World War I.
With the war over, Charlie's income diminished quickly. Confronted with depression, on a late night on Washington's massive Puget Sound, thirty-three-year-old Charlie committed suicide, throwing himself over board off the yacht the Pandora. The twins were just ten-years-old when their father killed himself.
Mary Helen (Mimi) Seaborn
The Pandora from which Charles Nelson Seaborn committed suicide in 1924
There was only one way to describe Mary Helen Seaborn (the twins’ mother): pure evil.
She continually reminded her sons (from when they were ten year olds) that their father had committed suicide. She intentionally let her second husband, Ray Cooke, die from a heart attack because she wanted to inherit the 62’ sailing vessel, Circe. When her dwarf fourteen year old grandson, Christian, called her she told him that the best thing he could do for the family would be to commit suicide.
Benjamin Charles Seaborn
Ben Seaborn would grow up to be a brilliant engineer. At the age of seventeen (while still a senior in high school) he designed his first racing sailing yacht, the 62’ Circe.
In 1942, Ben married his wife, Katherine. Together, they had a daughter, Patricia. Seventeen years later (while in a psychomotor epileptic seizure), Ben killed his wife. Three weeks later, he committed suicide.
Ben Seaborn and his
wife, Katherine
In 1952, John married his wife, Nora, an attorney. Together, they had two sons, Charles and Christian.
If John was not being a loving husband and father then it was the flip side of him. The psychomotor epilepsy would, without warning, make him violent, equally capable (as his brother had done) of lethal violence, going after his wife and sons.
For several years, Nora initially hired around the clock Pinkerton Detective guards to protect the family. When this was no longer financially viable, she resorted to other means to protect herself, their sons and her husband (from himself).
Often Nora and her sons would go into hiding at local motels in order to stay alive.
In late October of 1968, John (in yet another psychomotor seizure) chased after his wife with a 12” carving knife through the halls of the Bel-Air Apartments, the family’s home and business. Later that night, John set fire to the Bel-Air.
The three-story historic Bel-Air completely destroyed, Nora (having had to abandon her law practice) went into the wedding and reception business.
Bel-Air fire
The wedding business
Nora operates the business
For the thirty-nine years that Nora was married to John (until her death from emphysema in 1992), she used all of her wits as well as her political connections with the Police Commissioner, the Sheriff and politicians to keep the family alive at the hands of a severely mentally ill man. A man who, on one hand, could show great love for his family and then – without notice – turn into a monster, determined to kill his family.
Attorney Nora H. Seaborn
(when she ran for the Oregon State Legislature in 1962)
