Marilyn Hartman, the 62-year-old woman who can't seem to stay out of airports or off of flights she hasn't purchased tickets for, now says she is suffering from chronic depression, as well as an unrecognized mental illness that she calls "whistleblower trauma syndrome." As KRON 4 reports, she "gave teary, often rambling explanations for her behavior Thursday at a Phoenix jail" following her arrest Tuesday at the Phoenix airport.
The "whistleblower" thing is something she mentioned in the header of this rambling blog from 2012 that can still be found here. Whether or not there's any truth to her claim, she alludes to being a whistleblower, possibly 23 years ago in Chicago, calling out a lawyer "who used to fix cases with the help of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office."
It's more likely that this is a case of some other variety of mental illness combined with depression, and because she's so articulate and seemingly benign, she's been left fending for herself and, it sounds like, often homeless over the last several years. The most tragic part of the blog that sounds definitively like depression is this, written after she was being kicked out of a San Diego SRO:
Like most people, I am curious about how other individuals handle situations that appear at first unfathomable, then increasingly work their way around a solution. Even curiouser are those circumstances that don't appear to have a solution. Twenty-three years ago, I proceeded with a decision that led to long-term consequences and many short-term housing arrangements. I have slipped through tight security spots in order to fly to another city without a plane ticket, and inexplicably let go after authorities discussed the matter among themselves.
In any case, Bay Area authorities, for now, have Hartman out of their hair after she spent much of the spring and summer trying their patience at SFO and getting arrested seven different times for attempting her stowaway trick.
She also had said at one point she had cancer and was trying to get to Hawaii, but that turns out to be somewhat false, though she is a cancer survivor.
Given that she is a human being who seems to have led a fairly lonely and difficult life, likely with severe depression, can we please stop making fun of her like she's some kind of cartoon character, Bold Italic? Thanks.
[KRON 4]
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