Famalaro’s Mother Still in Spotlight

A bizarre portrait of the mother of convicted murderer John J. Famalaro was painted in court Tuesday, with a former girlfriend of Famalaro’s brother testifying that 71-year-old Anne Famalaro once tried to kill her during a confrontation in a Santa Ana motel room.

Mary Martin, who was engaged to the defendant’s older brother, Warren, in the early 1970s, said the incident remains the most frightening of her life and led to her having an unlisted telephone number for many years.

“I sat on the bed and she proceeded to tell me that I was going to die that night, that she had had a long life and she didn’t care whether she lived or not, but that I was not going to have her son,” Martin testified. “She said that I shouldn’t leave the room because if I left the room she had already paid somebody across the street to shoot me.”

When Martin offered to leave town that night, she said the mother told her: “It’s too late for you. You’re going out tonight, sister. There’s nothing you can do at this point, you are going to die tonight.”

Martin said the mother began choking her but the then-23-year-old managed to push her off, run to the manager’s office and call police. She said she initially pressed charges against Anne Famalaro but dropped them at the urging of Warren Famalaro.

John J. Famalaro--Anne Famalaro’s youngest child--was convicted last month of kidnapping, sexually assaulting and murdering Newport Beach resident Denise Huber and could be sentenced to death for it. But it is the mother’s behavior that has dominated the penalty phase of his trial.

Anne Famalaro’s only daughter, Marion Thobe, testified Tuesday about a mother who she considered to be mentally ill and who had a “lack of warmth, caring and understanding in how to love your children.”

Appearing calm through most of her testimony, Thobe grew emotional only as she described an incident when the defendant was 7 or 8 years old and in bed with a bad case of the flu.

“I’ll never forget the moment,” she testified tearfully. “He was throwing up and had diarrhea, lying in bed screaming for Mother and she refused to go to him and wouldn’t let me help him.”

Thobe, three years older than her 39-year-old brother, testified that she had always been protective of the defendant and tried to shield him from an “eccentric” mother who used religion “as a punishment more than as a way of life.”

The sister said that while her mother, who proclaimed herself to be a devout Catholic, continually told the children they would “go to hell” if they misbehaved and that she had to save their souls.

Thobe said that when came home from school one day, she found a “For Sale” sign out front and was told by her mother that the family was “heading toward the hills because the Russians were coming.” She said her mother stored food for when the world ended and saved silver so the family could use it when there was a “one world society.”

Thobe said the children never invited friends over because they were embarrassed by the house’s clutter, including unsightly stacks of newspapers, books and piles of laundry up to 4 feet high. She said her mother would inspect each piece of garbage the children threw away, rarely cooked for the family, would listen in on all of their telephone calls, had them bathe only weekly and would stand outside the door of her sons’ bedrooms at night, listening, to try to catch them masturbating.

Thobe said her brother, Warren, a convicted child molester, tried to “fondle” her on a few occasions but she fought him off. Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan refused to allow the jury to hear testimony that in the same month as the Huber murder, John Famalaro told his sister that the older brother had molested him.

The sister said she remained close to her brother throughout his life and described him as generous and close to her children. But under cross-examination, Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher Evans pointed out that she clearly did not know all sides of him.

“Did you know what was in his freezer?” Evans asked, referring to the freezer in which Famalaro stored victim Huber’s body for three years.

“No,” the sister replied.

Tuesday’s proceedings coincided with the sixth anniversary of Huber’s murder. The 23-year-old encountered Famalaro after the rear tire of her car blew out on the Corona del Mar Freeway.

The victim’s parents, Dennis and Ione Huber, went to the spot on the freeway Monday where her car was found and placed bouquets of flowers. The Hubers said the penalty phase of the trial has been easier for them to sit through than the criminal portion, in which Famalaro was convicted.

“It’s a long time to wait for justice,” Ione Huber said of the six years.

She added that the problems in Famalaro’s family life discussed this week do not excuse what he did to her daughter.

“He was old enough to have accepted some responsibility for himself,” she said.