IDAHO

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=060901&ID=s975348

McGuckin lived in fear, ex-wife

says

She tells of husband's paranoia beginning as early as

1978

Related stories

Thomas Clouse and Benjamin Shors - Staff writers

SANDPOINT -- Michael McGuckin

believed as early as 1978 that someone

was tapping his phones and following him

home, his ex-wife said Friday.

Randy Sue Latimer, 58, told The Spokesman-Review

that McGuckin became paranoid before he met his

second wife, JoAnn Dunn, who authorities have

characterized as mentally ill.

Latimer, who divorced McGuckin in 1981 after 16

years of marriage, "absolutely" believes that any

mental illness JoAnn may be suffering came as a

result of merging with McGuckin's fears.

"I know JoAnn has been made out to be the villain,"

she said from her home in St. Paul, Minn. "I don't

know about (JoAnn's) paranoia, but the last year I

was there, he was becoming increasingly paranoid."

McGuckin, who was trained as an Army intelligence

officer, never expressed any fear of the government

before moving to Idaho in 1976, Latimer said.

McGuckin, Latimer and their son, William, lived

from 1976 to 1980 in the same one-story farmhouse

that was the focus of international attention last week.

Purchasing the farm fulfilled a lifetime dream for the

couple. But McGuckin struggled to adjust to the rural

lifestyle after a successful career as a contractor in

California, Latimer said.

"I think somebody may be listening in," he told her

during a telephone conversation in 1978. "He'd say,

`I thought a car followed me home today. Keep an

eye out for a Chevrolet.'

"It did make me nervous because it was so unlike

him."

McGuckin, 61, died May 12 after a lengthy battle

with multiple sclerosis. Three weeks later, authorities

arrested JoAnn McGuckin for felony injury to a child.

A deputy returned to the farmhouse to collect the

children but they then loosed the family dogs on a

deputy and retreated into the home. They refused to

come out, sparking a five-day standoff that ended

peacefully last Saturday.

As McGuckin's health worsened during the last five

years, the family had become increasingly withdrawn,

disconnecting their phone, taking down their mailbox

and avoiding neighbors.

Bonner County Prosecutor Phil Robinson said Friday

that investigators are compiling an inventory from a

search of the McGuckin home.

JoAnn McGuckin, 45, will appear Wednesday for her

preliminary hearing. Authorities say she and her six

children were living in a house filled with dog feces,

rotting food, dead mice and garbage.

McGuckin's court-appointed attorney, Bryce Powell,

has said those conditions resulted, in part, from the

five-day standoff.

Latimer remembers a modular home with two

bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and dining room.

"It was a roomy little house," Latimer said. "What I

cannot imagine is nine people living in that house."

She moved to St. Paul in February 1980, and they

were divorced in 1981. She hadn't seen him or been

to the farmhouse for more 20 years, and lost contact

with McGuckin.

She received his obituary in the mail, but chose not to

attend the May 25 funeral.

"I grieved for the man I loved a long time ago,"

Latimer said as she wept. "It took me 10 or 12 years

to give up that sadness."

The paranoia ended a relationship with a man

Latimer described as an "extremely bright, very

talented, handsome and lovely man."

McGuckin attended a prestigious prep school in

Groton, Mass., and the University of North Carolina.

He met Latimer in 1962 when both lived in San

Francisco. The couple married in 1965 and had one

son.

McGuckin left a successful business as a contractor

in Marin County, Calif., to pursue a rural lifestyle

near Sagle.

But Latimer -- a playwright who founded the Unicorn

Theatre in Sandpoint -- said her ex-husband lost his

focus.

"He just never found his way," she said. "I think he

was doubting his capacity to live a productive life."

The couple talked about converting the 350 acres

they purchased along Garfield Bay Cut Off Road into

a tree farm, meadows or perhaps a gentleman's farm.

"He spent his life doing jobs where the rules were

clear," Latimer said. "He was just lost."

Latimer met JoAnn in Sandpoint where both served

on the local arts council. Michael and JoAnn married

in the fall of 1981.

Latimer believes JoAnn eventually began to share her

husband's fears as his health deteriorated.

"When I knew JoAnn, she seemed like a pleasant

young woman -- outgoing, interested in people,"

Latimer said. "As far as I'm concerned, it began with

Michael."

Staff writer Susan Drumheller contributed to this

report.