This is 28-year-old Matthew George.
A newlywed, Matthew George had just married the love of his life, 26-year-old Mary Swihart, in a Las Vegas ceremony sometime in the first part of April, 2008 before returning to the land of domestic tranquility - Canton, Ohio.
Matthew George has a lengthy criminal record, having been convicted of drug abuse, possession of drugs, and theft. He has also been charged with domestic violence after an incident in 2007 with Mary Swihart, but that charge was reduced to disorderly conduct.
Exactly why these two lovebirds would choose to get married at this point in their relationship, only they know. Perhaps Matthew George and Mary Swihart finally decided to give their 20-month son a chance at a normal family environment.
You know. With parents who fight all the time. With a mom who has little-to-no self-esteem and a dad who enjoys abusing mom on a regular basis.
Yes, the relationship skills of Matthew George and Mary Swihart are slightly past the point where a quick trip to Dr. Phil would help them out.
According to their neighbors, Matthew George and Mary Swihart fought all the time, yelling obscenities at each other at all hours of the day and night. Often, the arguments happened in plain view outside the house in the driveway.
Matthew George has two dogs, a pit bull and a pit bull mix. The dogs sleep in a standard-sized 4 foot by 4 foot kennel, like many dogs do, in the dining room. Kennels are good for dogs. It gives them a secure place to sleep and is a good place to keep dogs when you’ll be away for a few hours. It keeps them from tearing up the house.
At times, according to Mary Swihart, Matthew George would make her sleep in the kennel as well.
Kennels are not a good place to keep full-grown women. The optimal sleeping habitat for human females seems to be a large, luxurious bed with soft sheets, fluffy blankets and far, far too many pillows.
When you are gone from the house for a few hours, a human female, left to her devices, will typically make the house cleaner than it was when you left it. The only risk you assume when allowing a human female freedom to move about the house when you’re gone is their tendency to snoop into your computer history, your closet and under your bed.
And, while there is nothing wrong with two adults who both come to a consensus that one of them staying in a 4-foot-by-4-foot kennel would add a little spice to their sex life, there is certainly something wrong with one adult keeping another in a kennel against his or her will. This is especially true when there is a toddler around, watching his mommy being beaten, handcuffed, stuffed into the kennel and kept there for several hours while both the boy and his mother look at each other and cry.
In the afternoon on the 12th of April, 2008, Matthew George and his new wife had a really bad argument that could only be settled with one of them being handcuffed, put into the kennel, and shot at.
Two guesses as to who lost the argument.
On the 12th of April, Matthew George lost his temper, grabbed his wife by the hair and forced her into the kennel. While their 20-month-old son was watching, Matthew George handcuffed Mary Swihart to the inside of the kennel and left her there for a few hours.
After getting tired of her mouth, Matthew George went to get his .45, which had a small flashlight attached to it. While Matthew George aimed the gun at his wife, threatening to kill her, Mary Swihart pleaded with him to let her out of the cage.
While their son watched, Matthew George let her out of the cage long enough to handcuff her to the outside of the cage. Matthew George then fired the gun near her feet about three times.
Just another day in the George residence.
Mary Swihart begged her husband to let her out of the handcuffs so that she could go to the bathroom. Personally, after being handcuffed to a kennel, having a gun pointed at my head by my spouse and having my spouse fire the weapon in the house at the floor…I’d need to use the bathroom myself.
Matthew George fell for it, and as soon as she was let loose, she grabbed their son and ran from the house to a neighbor’s house, where she called her father, who called 911.
Police arrived at their duplex at 4:50 in the afternoon in response to the 911 call. With no response from inside the duplex, the door was kicked in and police searched the house. Matthew George had left the house through his backyard, but the .45 that he had used to shoot at his wife was left behind, along with several spent shell casings that police found on the floor.
The police issued an all-points bulletin for Matthew George. Officers in a nearby town found his vehicle in the parking lot of a Red Roof Inn, with a very sick Matthew George and a suicide note inside the vehicle. Matthew was throwing up, which people tend to do after taking approximately 100 Tylenol.
After being treated at the local hospital and released on Tuesday, Matthew George was taken to jail, where he was charged with abduction, felonious assault, domestic violence and child endangering.
Mary Swihart, who displayed injuries consistent with being punched in the face a few times, is now living with relatives. Her son is with her. The Swihart family is concerned that Matthew George will post bail and come after her again. This makes sense.
The dogs, and presumably the kennel, are with Matthew George’s relatives.
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Mr. George can redeem himself. It’s not too late.
He can change this and turn it around. He should get Hell, but I can’t send him to hell yet.
I think he shortened his life a bit by taking 100 pills. I bet that hit his liver pretty hard.
Mr. George should get some prison time and Mary Swihart should get a restraining order to keep Mr. George at bay. I don’t think he should get to see his son unless supervised by authorities.
He definitely needs anger management! The officials should monitor his behavior closely if he ever gets out of prison. So many fatalities happen after jail time and police not enforcing that restraining order. Mr. George can turn this around. It’s not too late.
BTW, doesn’t this guy look like a cop? LMAO
First thing I thought when I saw his pic was OMG a cop gone bad! ha
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100 Tylenol.
He almost did us a service - he should have been left to die. We will most likely see him resurface / get a second spot on this web site weather in a few days when he decides that bail means total freedom or with in a few years when he’s paid his debt to society (lived at taxpayer’s expense while beaing Bubba’s Bitch)
Can he change? Yes
But that is not a crap shoot that I want to play!
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I was pounding fist in air too soon thinking he killed himself. hopefully he’ll succeed before he damages more people or kills them. that child isalready damaged from witnessing all that and for that reason this assholle will rot in hell.
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This could have turned out soo much worse. I am glad to see that even though this woman made a lot of stupid decisions she FINALLY made a right one… That was probably the smartest thing she ever did by running out of that house. I hope this jackass goes away for a long, long time and hoefully he will never see his son again!!
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I don’t see how anyone thinks this guy will change. I don’t think he tried to kill himself out of guilt for what he did, but because since she got away, he was terrified of going to prison.
I wouldn’t give him any second chances. Keep the animal locked up.
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http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=69983607
im preeetty dang sure thats his Myspace. too bad it’s private, but, the headline alone is fucking laughable, given the current circumstances.
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Wow! You guys are tough. I reserve hell for killers, but to each his/her own.
I respect that. I do agree with jail time obviously.
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I have to vote for hell too. He wont be going as deep as some of the assholes on this site, but he’s definitely headed that way.
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I haven’t any patience for people that abuse someone they “love”. They haven’t got the capacity to love, haven’t got a clue as to what love is.
These people know exactly what they’re doing. They don’t lock up their boss because he pissed them off, they don’t punch the clerk at the store over some imagined slight. It’s a very deliberate act to control another because the abuser knows what a weak little fuck he is and needs to control and belittle another to validate himself.
If these assholes truly believe they’re that tough, I dare them to bring they’re bully ass into a room with me, or anybody else that isn’t afraid of them. They won’t do it. Goddamn right they deserve prison, hell, and anything else we can throw at them.
I’m glad Ms. Swihart was able to summon the courage, fear, whatever, to get away from this douchebag, and hope she continues to get the help she needs. She has a tough row to hoe.
Anybody in this situation can find help at the YWCA. I hope they do. There really are people that want to help.
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My only hope is this fucker can be treated the same way as the love of his life. Lock his ass in a dog kennel, beat him up and handcuff him and shoot his ass up. Why don’t we show him some of the same “love” (tough love, I imagine) that he was trying to show his wife. People like this digust me. I’ll vote him into hell in no moment. Abusers like this who gets off on hurting others will get what’s coming to them. Kudos to this woman for making the right decision and getting out of thier, thier kid could have been this guy’s next punching bag.
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correction on the first “their” which should be there. sorry for my grammatical errors, I saw this story on a news site but it didn’t give the extensive details which this site does about the nature of the abuse, just the charges and the mention of a dog kennel used in the abuse.
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What a nice honeymoon :) A 4 x 4 room with a view. 100 Tylenol will not kill you…I know this for a fact…it only makes you throw up.
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yikes reply on April 18, 2008:
You’re a moron. Acetaminophen overdose is the most common way people overdose.
OD symptoms start at 7000mg, and any more than 1.2grams becomes very serious. A Tylenol tab has anywhere from 250-500mg of APAP, so do the math..
Even if he took 250mg tylenol tabs, that’s 25,000mg, which is definitely enough to kill you.
Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself.
Post back when your skin starts to turn yellow, that means it’s working.
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lucky she got away when she did, i’m sure it wouldn’t have taken much longer before he would’ve actually killed her.
these are the kind of people you want to bump into after baseball practice or something simmilar.
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You people don’t even know these people and have no room to judge. You only know what Mary has manipulated the media to believe. Anyone that actually ever believes anything the media says is the unbiased truth deserves to go to hell just for being stupid.
Contrary to what is now popular belief Matt was probably one of the nicest guys I knew. He unfortunately hasn’t been the same since he fell head to concrete from a second story porch around 2002. Everyone he knew told him to stay away from Mary…but he always insisted that she was ‘the girl of his dreams’. Matt must have some messed up dreams. I used to rent the apartment above the garage from Matt and was witness to their constant fighting. Was never sure how it started since the fights typically were carried from the inside out….but most of the time it was Mary being belligerent and Matt trying to calm her down and talk some reason into her. I’ve even witnessed her trying to run him over with her car before. I know he has been trying fruitlessly for years to get her off of her addiction to un-prescribed pharmaceuticals medications. She would even threaten to leave him if he didn’t find her some pills to take. Messed up relationship from the get go and everyone I know that was aware of the situation told him again and again to get away from her. But he was always concerned about the child growing up with a broken family. I always said just because you guys stay together doesn’t mean you’re not broken already. This is really sad and while I don’t condone his actions I know him well enough to know that was not typical behavior for Matt. Something really major must have went down. Sad for both of them and the child. I was really hoping we would see them both get their lives together. All I can say is that relationship was a bad idea from the beginning.
And a comment from another person that knew both of them and the situation.
“the media is really making me upset in this situation. yes what matthew did is totally fucked and he is totally fucked for continuing to stay around but the the thing is i know her. and i know she is waaaaaaay way way way fucked up and a total drug addict. and 9 times out of 10 when i have seen them fight she was ALWAYS the aggressor. the media paints this picture like oh mary is safe and the baby is safe with her and blah blah blah but that is not the case because mary was always ditching the baby with matthew or her parents so she could get high. the kid should not be in her custody. i hope the trial really brings that shit to the forefront and child services steps in or something.”
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I can only second bibles comments above. I had known them for years and while I will neither defend Matt, nor will I say he is an upstanding citizen, this situation is far deeper and the blame shared far more then anyone can realize.
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penny reply on April 18, 2008:
That is part of the problem, we never know or claim to know the real truth. We mainly bas our opinions on the facts were given here. thank you for giving more info on the case, it does help to understand the situation better.
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bible and randomseed, true, there are 2 sides to any story. However, locking a person up, handcuffing, and discharging a firearm. Absolutely not. If he was so concerned about drug addiction there are a lot of resources to help. He too could have sought help from the YWCA if she was abusive towards him.
Basically what I’m saying is that he is an abuser and she is a victim.
She will need help to overcome the abuse she has suffered.
Sadly, it’s a little more difficult for abusers to overcome their patterns. They often are unable to take responsibility for their actions, instead blaming the victim (if she didn’t make me mad I wouldn’t have to punch her).
The comments by bible and randomseed place blame on the victim or cause the victim to share the blame and minimize the abusers role in the abuse.
I don’t care what happened. Matthew shoulders full responsibility for his actions. He is an abuser. He locks his wife up, he beats her, he shoots guns at her, he handcuffs her - he does this in front of his child. He is teaching his son that this is appropriate behavior, he is teaching his son this is the way we treat people we love - great fucking role model.
bible and randomseed - pull your heads out of your asses. This guy is a piece of shit, he is an ill excuse for a man. Don’t defend him. That just makes you look as stupid and shitty as him. There is no excuse for domestic abuse.
For the sake of the kid I hope the court can sort out if she’s not able to take care of him. The kid surely doesn’t belong with Matthew. Realize, I’m not sticking up for her as a drug addict, I am sticking up for her as a victim of abuse. I still applaud her getting away from the abuse, druggie or not.
If Matthew is even close to being a man, he will relinquish any rights to his son, but I suspect he will fight for his “rights” as a sperm donor and do as so many abusers do, he’ll teach his son to abuse or to accept abuse and the cycle will continue.
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penny reply on April 19, 2008:
midwist-
“The comments by bible and randomseed place blame on the victim or cause the victim to share the blame and minimize the abusers role in the abuse.”
I see your point however, I think that maybe their point was more that the girlfriend wasn’t some poor innocent little wife. I dont think they wish to minimize anything he did. Plus, I think that after a man hits you once and you don’t pack your stuff and move along it is now partly your fault. Not that he is abusing you, but that you stayed and let him.
Your right, drug abuser or not, no one should be treated that way. And there are plenty of options available if you need help.
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I doubt that she is as pure as the driven snow, however, he is clearly an abuser and she is clearly a victim of abuse.
Along with physical abuse, there is also often a great deal of emotional abuse and a learned response that can prevent the victim from leaving even though common sense dictates that they leave.
A victim is not at fault. The abuser makes a decision to abuse and has a very specific victim in mind. The abuser typically does not go thru life terrorizing anyone that crosses him. The abuser will only terrorize the specific victim(s) that he is trying to control.
There is a lot of information available online concerning domestic abuse. I urge you and all others to gain as much understanding of domestic abuse as you can.
I have personally seen how much damage abuse causes. The long range effects are horrible. Anything we can do to prevent it is a good thing, and understanding is the first step to preventing it.
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“comment number 17 by: Miwist
April 19th, 2008 at 12:56 am
I doubt that she is as pure as the driven snow, however, he is clearly an abuser and she is clearly a victim of abuse.”
I agree that she was definitely the victim here. I probably won’t see this site again, as I found it by searching for Matthew George. Commenter number 17 was also correct in assuming Mrs. George wasn’t “as pure as the driven snow”. In fact, this is the first time I knew that Matt ever retaliated. All I knew about was her hitting him and throwing things at him in front of his friends. Although he may have had a reason to eventually start fighting back, and then completely lose his mind, I don’t excuse what he did. He messed up big time and I can’t imagine what his wife and his poor son went through those 4 days. I believe that he needs jail time, extensive counseling and he needs to be supervised should he ever see his son, but I certainly hope he doesn’t go to hell. I feel very bad for all 3 of them, mostly their son, but he did something evil for sure this time. :/
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Everyone here is saying “based on the facts” etc. What facts? All we know is what Mary reported. Someone who I have witnessed first hand punching herself in the face in a driveway at 2am threatening to call the cops and say Matt did it. If Matt did in fact go to the extremes that Mary reported then I of course do not defend those actions. But knowing who these reports are coming from makes me question the validity of the story. Wake up and understand that none of you have any right to pass judgment on anyone. Then to make things worse the notoriously corrupt City of Canton government trying to make themselves look good and “hard on crime” (trying and overshadow the fact that one of their own Police officers who was hired with a criminal record murdered a pregnant woman in front of a young child) is taking Mary’s side of the story, exaggerating it ten fold, feeding it to the press (FOX), who then exaggerates it another ten fold and so on. All the messed up things Mary did to Matt its his fault for not filing reports on it…but the difference between Mary and Matt…Matt loved Mary with all of his heart…Mary was just looking for someone to manipulate to do her bidding and take her crap. Anyways…don’t believe anything you read from any government office or media conglomerate. None of us know the truth about anything except for what we see with our own two eyes so to pass judgment based on the word of a known liar and drug addict, a corrupt city government, and the corrupt media just makes you look stupid. Wake up!
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RealityCheck reply on April 22, 2008:
I wouldn’t have posted on this story. Except, for your conspiracy theory.
So inviting and silly.
True…he didn’t actually shoot her and he let her out to piss.
After all, that is how you kennel train a dog.
I don’t buy into a corrupt government and corrupt media having anything to do with a man keeping a woman in a kennel.
Maybe they are both fucked up or maybe it is a man who kept his bride under lock and key.
What’s the term? Inhumane?
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IF he was treating her that way before they got married SHE is an IDIOT for marrying him, dwelling in the same house as him, in fact she is an IDIOT for living in the same town as him!!!!
He needs help, HE was probably abused some why while he was growing up!!!
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Yeah, I’d disagree. Any time I tried to OD on Tylenol it did nothing. I think I passed out once but really can’t remember. (coincedence) If anything it just fucks up your liver and if you get caught you have to drink this charcoal stuff that taste like charcoal and looks like charcoal when your shitting it out for two days and throwing it up. Not fun.
As far as what Liz was saying, you’ll read plenty stories on this site when the girl stays with the abusive boyfriend/husband. A lot of the time it stems from a familiarity of growing up and something that they’re father had put them through. As far as this situation, I think he deserves hell because he endangered the child the way he did. Who thinks that this child isn’t going to have some serious emotional faults as they grow up. Especially if the mother gets into another pattern forming relationship and so forth.
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