They met and fell in love
They saw each other across the rink, simultaneously, they realized they had met the person they were to marry, and with whom they would have children and live out all of the wonders of life.
They married. No babies were forthcoming. Their first attempt for adoption, a baby they named Richard Lee Barteaux, was stymied when the mother, acting on her rights before the date the adoption was finalized, reclaimed her child.
Their sorrow was deep, but they persevered and tried again. This time, the mother did not intervene and, filled with joy, they took a new Richard Lee Barteaux home with them to fill the waiting cradle and warm their hearts.
That lasted until little Richard was about 3 years old, and his impulses for bad behavior became obvious.
But what were they to do? How could the child for whom they had wished, and for whom they had been willing to do anything, be brought to understand appropriate behavior when at three years of age he rapidly alienated most of the other children, and their parents, who encountered him?
It is possible that neither Walter or Betty Lou had ever heard the term coined in Europe in the first decade of the 20th Century, 'psychopath'. Certainly, they could not imagine this could apply to their small son, Richard.
Previous to the slow advances in psychiatry the word applied to individuals exhibiting this kind of behavior was, 'demon', 'satanic', and others that bring to our minds, even today, what behavior was being exhibited. But they did not know, and continued to support Richard, Jr., and also fail to consider this issue of his lack not only of conscience but his lack of intelligence. An I.Q. of 110, which they now had revealed to them, also failed to penetrate the reality of their hopes.
The tragic story of Walter Dean Barteaux and Betty Lou Stevens begins. 
