“That was the last time we had any physical violence, because I knew that if it happened again, I would do everything in my power to protect myself,” she later told Larry King.ĩ. When Christina was 13 years old, she supposedly suffered one final brutal beating from her mother, in which she thought she was going to be choked out. The kids then had to write thank you cards for each and every gift, and those cards were meticulously edited by Crawford.Ĩ. But they were only allowed to choose one thing to keep while the rest were given away to charity or saved to be re-gifted. At Christmas, the children were photographed as being gifted tons of items. Crawford supposedly kept Christopher tied up in bed in a “sleep safe” device and she also trussed Christina up in the shower at night.ħ. Christina says she was once starved for days when she refused to eat an undercooked steak that was still bloody, all in a bid for her mother to further control her.Ħ. Crawford was prone to what Christina called “night raids,” in which she would wake the children up drunk and make them clean messes they hadn’t necessarily made for hours on end.ĥ. Crawford then made Christina wear the dress for a week in order to humiliate her.Ĥ. Christina had a favorite dress until she provoked her mother into shredding it. In a scene that’s become synonymous with the film, she is said to have dragged her daughter by the hair yelling, “No wire hangers, no wire hangers!” while beating her with one until her “ears rang.”ģ. Crawford hated wire hangers, and reportedly once woke up her daughter in the middle of the night for using them. But after Crawford’s third marriage fell apart she renamed the children.Ģ. and Phillip Terry Jr., (after his adoptive father). When Crawford first adopted Christina and Christopher, they were named Joan Jr.

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