Behavior: Home Is Where the Hurt Is

Wife beating among the well-to-do is no longer a secret

Mary never knew what would trigger her husband's rages. One evening he spotted rotting lettuce in the refrigerator. Furious, the Charlotte, N.C., bank executive threw her to the floor and jammed her head into the vegetable bin. Tami first found out about the dark side of her husband, a young California minister, when she placed a cassette into the tape player backward. Suddenly livid, he grabbed her by the hair and threw her against the wall. Recalls Sue Ellen, whose college-professor lover left her with broken bones in her face, hand and foot: "I was like a wounded animal. I crawled...

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