Did anyone else think Jenny Pratt's mom said a couple of inappropriate things?
In the original segment, she said that "Jenny's life was pretty much over." I hope Jenny didn't catch wind of that, it's not exactly reassuring. Plus, in the interview follow-up, Jenny's mom sits right next to her and says she doesn't think her case will ever be solved. Not exactly comforting to hear, at least her dad had the opposite opinion.

While I'm on the subject of the Jenny Pratt case (I've got to thinking about it lately, as I tend to do with certain cases), I'm not totally convinced it wasn't a random act for two reasons: First, Jenny was obviously on the back of the motorcycle, so the assailants would have had to known that Jenny would have gotten the brunt of the attack. This does not tie in with the theories that Curtis was the intended target. Second, the assailants must have targeted either somebody on a bike or a pedestrian, as they would not have been able to get to somebody in an (enclosed) vehicle. I'm wondering if they just went after the first person/people they came across that was on a bike. Also, the intersection Jenny and Curtis was at was described as deserted, so maybe they chose that location because they figured it wasn't very heavily travelled as opposed to going after specifically Jenny and/or Curtis.

any thoughts?

^ I still feel Curtis was the intended target and Curtis and Jenny probably knew their assailants although due to the nature of the attack are unable to identify them. I think Curtis was the intended target but in the heat of the moment the assailants in the truck just took a wide swing with the board meaning to hit whomever was on the bike and Jenny Pratt tragically took the brunt of the blow. Although I think Curtis Croft might have a very good idea whom was behind the attack I think its equally possibly when Jenny's head hit into the back of Curtis' head it probably knocked him silly for a few seconds so he cannot positively identify who was in that pick-up truck.

They probably decided to use Jenny as collateral damage, to send a message to Curtis that he was next.

I havent seen this episode in awhile but I think Jenny's mom was expressing her deep sorrow for her daughters condition when she said jenny's life "was pretty much over". In other words, her "normal" life was over, not life in general. I agree however, Jenny's mom could have chosen better words.

She could have said something like, "my daughter now suffers from a permanent disability which could prevent her from achieving certain goals" (or something less hopeless than "life is pretty much over"). I also tend to believe Curtis was the intended target. The people responsible for the attack most likely expected Curtis to be riding alone that evening. When they spotted him with a passenger, they figured striking Jenny would subsequently knock Curtis off his motor bike casuing him injury too. Sort of a ripple effect. Lucky for Curtis, it didnt happen that way.

So I may not agree with everything your saying wiseguy182 but I like hearing your alternative theories. Forces me to think! (something I dont do enough of lol).

Christopher

here's something I just thought of:

Curtis and Jenny were in the left turn lane preparing to make a left turn. The assailants were in the lane to their immediate right. That means that the person that struck them with the board was to the right of Curtis and Jenny and swung with their left arm. That means we're looking for a left hander. That should narrow the list of suspects down about 85-90%. It is possible for a right hander to swing with their left arm and hit the target, but it would have far less impact than if they hit it with their right hand, and Jenny probably would have sustained injuries far less severe.

I did also think that Jenny's mother said a lot of negative things. No doubt she was just angry in seeing all the suffering her daughter had to go through but I agree its not the type of things that Jenny needs to hear. For instance when she said she sure missed the old Jenny and that she didn't really know if what Jenny was doing was living...I mean how must it feel for Jenny to hear her mother say those things. I understand her needing to vent her frustrations at the whole situation but she doesn't have to say those things when Jenny is around.

here's something I just thought of:

Curtis and Jenny were in the left turn lane preparing to make a left turn. The assailants were in the lane to their immediate right. That means that the person that struck them with the board was to the right of Curtis and Jenny and swung with their left arm. That means we're looking for a left hander. That should narrow the list of suspects down about 85-90%. It is possible for a right hander to swing with their left arm and hit the target, but it would have far less impact than if they hit it with their right hand, and Jenny probably would have sustained injuries far less severe.

I don't think this is necessarily the case. Most of all, I don't think the board necessarily had to be "swung" in the sense you mean, like a baseball bat. I figure the assailant just held it out flat and more or less steady for a few seconds, until it made contact with Jenny.

I guess Jenny's mom's comments could be a little misunderstood since she was clearly devastated at what happened to her daughter. I don't think she meant any harm, just in a way, Jenny's normal life was over.

This case is more tragic to me every time I think of it. And I don't mean to sound harsh, but I always choose to fast forward over the part where Jenny is interviewed at the end because it's just too heartbreaking to watch. Looking at the pictures of her before her attack she looks like your normal pretty teenage girl with a world of oppurtunities in front of her and then she gets brutally robbed of that.

It just sickens me that these a*shole boys who did this to her have not been punished over 15 years later. These boys who wacked her with a 2x4, cheering, screaming, and laughing driving away while she is knocked out with brain damage, blood flowing everywhere clinging to life. How heartless can you be to do something like that much less cheer about it?

For the last 18 years, these boys have gone on with their normal lives, probably starting families of their own without a care of how much they destroyed this girl's life. It's just not fair and it makes me sick.

^ I have to respectfully disagree with you dynoguy. While first off I feel the same way you do about Jenny Pratt's appearance and it being really hard to look at the damage these morons inflicted to her, I think we can't just make a broad statement that "these boys have gone on with their normal lives without a care of how much they destroyed Pratt's life".

I'm sure a lot of them do care and feel a great deal of remorse but I think there are underlying factors here at work or Pratt's case would've been solved within days of the attack. Its imporant to remember that from what we know these were not hardened criminals who attacked Jenny Pratt, these were stupid kids who probably thought like most kids at that age that they were invincible and nothing bad would come of their actions that night. They probably thought they'd throw a little scare into Curtis Kroft and be done with it. Unfortunatley, something went horribly and tragically wrong that night and I think it more than likely deeply affects a lot of the individuals who participated in that attack to this day because I'm sure none of them expected for Jenny Pratt to end up brain damaged because of the attack.

I'm sure these morons didn't figure in the velocity of the truck upon the speed of impact when the board hit Jenny. I'm sure they didn't figure in a great deal of things when they came up with their "bright idea" to do what they did. But as I said this thing probably goes a lot deeper than a bunch of kids knocking a girl in the head with a board and crushing her skull.

I've always had a feeling that the kids who attacked Curtis and Jenny Pratt were the people who when Curtis was dealing cocaine were his customers or associates. I think there was a great fear among these individuals that Kroft was going to roll over on them or perhaps give more detailed involved on how they obtained the drugs in the first place or basically salt their entire operation. Its also possible that there were some older people who were involved in this operation that a lot of these youngsters were very much afraid of and they were afraid that Croft was possibly gonna roll over on these folks which is what motivated the attack on Croft and Pratt.

It makes me sick to the fact that this young girl, whom from what we know was not part of the drug scene had to pay a price for all these horrible things that she had nothing to do with. However, I think you may have hit the nail on the head without knowing it when you alluded to these boys living normal lives and having families.

I'm not saying that they probably don't think about Pratt from time to time (in fact I'd wager that a few of them who weren't really involved in the act itself but were just in the truck probably think of it a lot of the time) - However right now I'm thirty one years old which would put me around the same age as these kids give or take a few years. I have a wife and two young children. If I was involved in this situation, I would be living with an immense amount of guilt about it but honestly and frankly not enough to do twenty years of jail time for it.

To wrap this up, I don't think these kids were hardened criminals by any means, I think they did something extremely vicious and stupid without any thought of the consequences it might have had. I do think there is the possibility that someone up the chain so to speak is keeping any of the individuals who were in that pickup truck that night from identifying who threw the board that hit Jenny and Curtis. I think either these people are afraid of someone who may still be a heavyweight in the California drug trade to this day or more likely nobody wants to squeal and be the one to cause his friends to spend the rest of their life in prison for an twenty year old crime

I don't think this is necessarily the case. Most of all, I don't think the board necessarily had to be "swung" in the sense you mean, like a baseball bat. I figure the assailant just held it out flat and more or less steady for a few seconds, until it made contact with Jenny.

You're right about that. It's kind of hard to tell what happened. In one part of the UM segment, they show the kid holding the board still, and in another part they show him swinging it. So it could be either way. Some have speculated that they did this to scare Curtis, which is believable to me, so if that was their intent, holding the board still would fit in better with that theory because swinging the board would have likely caused greater impact, and would have been done by somebody who was extremely angry/trying to kill them.

dynoguy, I can certainly understand Jenny's mom being bitter about the situation, I just said what I said in my first post on this thread because I think Jenny has been enough as it is and didn't need to hear that from her mom. The mom definitely has grounds to be angry, but I think she just needs to choose her words a little more carefully.

I agree that these were probably amatuerish criminals, which makes the fact that all of them have gotten away with it so far that much more harder to believe. A fair number of criminals get caught, particulalry amatuerish ones, so for not just one but several to get away with it is very rare. There's no doubt they formed a "don't tell anyone" pact, kind of like what was in "I know what you did last summer".

This was probably their first, and possibly last, offense. I always wondered what goes through criminals minds when they do their first offense. They probably feel like it won't affect them much, but then when they see the human aspect of it, it has a tremendous impact. Sorry to bring up another movie reference, but it's relevant. I think of "Death Wish" with Charles Bronson. When Charles commits his first murder as vigilante, he shows no remorse or emotion at all, then goes to the bathroom in his home and pukes his guts out.

I agree that it is possible that the houligans didn't realize how much of an impact the board would have had. 10 mph is not alot in most instances, so they might have figured it wouldn't have amounted to more than a headache for the couple. And I believe it was 10 mph and not "50" like Curtis claimed, because 50 mph would have decapitated them both.

Did anyone else think Jenny Pratt's mom said a couple of inappropriate things?
In the original segment, she said that "Jenny's life was pretty much over." I hope Jenny didn't catch wind of that, it's not exactly reassuring. Plus, in the interview follow-up, Jenny's mom sits right next to her and says she doesn't think her case will ever be solved. Not exactly comforting to hear, at least her dad had the opposite opinion.

WOWSERS, I just watched the Robert Stack interview with Jenny Pratt on crystaldawn's DVDs volume 9, and if you thought her mother was inappropriate in the original segment, you have got to see this. First, Stack asks Jenny how she is doing, and after giving a short answer, her mother cuts her off. Then, he asks her father if he believes the case will be solved, and he says yes, and then he asks her mother, and she gives an emphatic no. Then Stack asks her if any new leads have come as a result of the show, and she says no again... at this point, you can tell Stack is really kind of struggling, because Pratt's mother bascially just declared the program he's hosting live useless. So, he goes for the money question and asks JENNY what her plans are; she says she wants to get her high school diploma, starts to say something about college, and is IMMEDIATELY cut off by her mother again, who instead informs Stack about Jennys plans to "help people with 'brain damage.'"

Off the hook. I wonder how much longer that marriage lasted.

yeah, Jenny's mom definitely had a reason to be upset, especially since it appears a lot of people knew what happened and won't talk, but Jenny needed comfort and reassurance at that time and possibly now, and sadly I don't think she found that in her mother. She probably had to turn to her father. You're right, that was an awkward interview, Stack is trying to talk to Jenny gently, and her mother's harshness creates a whole different tone.

It's so irritating, because there seem to be so many people that know what happened, but won't talk. If one of them did talk, and are feared for their lives, how would the assailants know which one talked?

WOWSERS, I just watched the Robert Stack interview with Jenny Pratt on crystaldawn's DVDs volume 9, and if you thought her mother was inappropriate in the original segment, you have got to see this. First, Stack asks Jenny how she is doing, and after giving a short answer, her mother cuts her off. Then, he asks her father if he believes the case will be solved, and he says yes, and then he asks her mother, and she gives an emphatic no. Then Stack asks her if any new leads have come as a result of the show, and she says no again... at this point, you can tell Stack is really kind of struggling, because Pratt's mother bascially just declared the program he's hosting live useless. So, he goes for the money question and asks JENNY what her plans are; she says she wants to get her high school diploma, starts to say something about college, and is IMMEDIATELY cut off by her mother again, who instead informs Stack about Jennys plans to "help people with 'brain damage.'"

Off the hook. I wonder how much longer that marriage lasted.

Did you notice how Jenny gave her mother a justifiably annoyed look when she said her case was unsolvable? I was really hoping the Robert Stack would just tell Mrs. Pratt to shut up and let Jenny talk for herself!

No, I didn't notice that. I'll have to take another look.

Off the hook. I wonder how much longer that marriage lasted.

LOL! I haven't heard that expression in quite a while. I'm going to have to start peppering the vocab with it again. Thanks, Mozart! :)

I JUST got Vol. 8 in the mail today... I'm going to have to check this one out NOW. It sounds insane!

You know I'm kinda surprised a lot of you are being so harsh of Diane Strom (Jenny's mother) here. I would suspect it having to do with from what I can tell (and granted this is a rather broad assumption) that none of you happen to be parents yet.

Being a parent I can totally understand where she is coming from in this situation. Jenny Pratt might be more willing to have a more optimistic outlook towards the future and want to move beyond the incident but believe me as a parent you never forgive nor forget people who have done harm to your child. So I'm not surprised in the least that Diane Strom hadn't gotten past the event and was still seemingly bitter about the whole thing.

While it could appear to the viewer that Diane is a bit cold in some of the things she says especially with her daughter present, its important to remember these are very much public statements and may not be indicative of their relationship in private. In fact I remember in the segment during some of the footage of Jenny's rehabilitation that Diane was very encouraging when it came to her daughter. I just think that she was/is justifiably pissed off at the events that befell her daughter and wanted when she had the opportunity to talk about the events and express her feelings in public to be as adamant as possible in her outrage at the situation.

I thought Diane came across as being geniune. Sure her comments could be taken a bit "cold" but I'm sure there was no malice intended. Wasn't it fresh for someone to come out and say what they think rather than go through all the old cliches?

I JUST got Vol. 8 in the mail today... I'm going to have to check this one out NOW. It sounds insane!

I'm afraid I have bad news for you Ricci, it's on vol 9

Did you notice how Jenny gave her mother a justifiably annoyed look when she said her case was unsolvable? I was really hoping the Robert Stack would just tell Mrs. Pratt to shut up and let Jenny talk for herself!

I rewatched it, and you are right. Not only that, but Jenny says "mother!" when she does it. As if to say " mother, stop it."

I don't dislike Jenny's mom at all, and I don't think we're being harsh on her, I just think she needs to watch what she says at times. That's all, nothing more.

I wrote in a earlier post on this case. Why were the 2 of them not wearing helmets? Was it not the law to wear helmets. Also looking back at Jennys mother, one can make the presumption she is a self centred lady who was trying possibley to use Jennys aspiring modeling career to show off to her people that my daughter was the best. Now shes a poster child for brain damage. Had they worn a helmet, Jenny might still be a model.

I wrote in a earlier post on this case. Why were the 2 of them not wearing helmets? Was it not the law to wear helmets. Also looking back at Jennys mother, one can make the presumption she is a self centred lady who was trying possibley to use Jennys aspiring modeling career to show off to her people that my daughter was the best. Now shes a poster child for brain damage. Had they worn a helmet, Jenny might still be a model.

I totally agree that Jenny's future may have turned out much different had she been wearing a helmet. Truth is I don't even know if it was the law to wear a helmet on a motorcycle in California back then. Do you know in Illinois it still isn't a law that you have to wear a motorcycle helmet? Seems ridiculous that they have been so admanant about everyone wearing seatbelts (and rightly so) yet not make us wear motorcycle helmets. :rolleyes: