Commentary

Hollywood Actress Delivers Most Unhinged Lindsay Clancy Conspiracy Theory We've Heard Yet: 'Women Don't Strangle'

 By C. Douglas Golden  August 18, 2026 at 5:25am

The Lindsay Clancy case is both sad and, factually anyhow, straightforward.

On Jan. 24, 2023, Clancy, a woman who had sought treatment for mental health issues related to postpartum depression, strangled her three young children in her home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, with exercise bands. She then attempted to strangle herself but survived, leaving herself with spinal cord injuries.

Her husband, whom Clancy had asked to leave the house to run errands while she committed the murders, discovered the children at home when he came back and called 911. Clancy is pursuing an insanity defense; according to Connecticut Insider, Clancy said she committed the murders because she was commanded by a male voice.

Her lawyers insist she was improperly medicated by the mental health professionals treating her and that her care regimen was disjointed, the Associated Press noted as the trial wrapped up its 14th day on Monday.

In terms of whether Clancy’s mental state and the standard of care she received allows her to escape a murder conviction is a matter of subjectivity. The objective facts — that she killed her children and attempted to kill herself — are not in dispute, even by the defense.

That has not stopped an insane brigade of bored wine mommies from inundating TikTok, Instagram, and X with conspiracy theories that it wasn’t Lindsay but instead her husband, Patrick, who committed the murders.

And for those of you who just believe this is limited to anonymous attention seekers, consider the fact that Hollywood actress Lisa Rinna — best known for her starring roles on “Days of Our Lives” and “Melrose Place” — is now a Clancy truther.

"Alright, he did it. Patrick did it. Patrick's the one who did it. Not Lindsay,” she said in the video. “Patrick did it.”

Her reasoning?

“Because you know, I also heard that women typically don't strangle. So awful to even say, but that isn't what a woman would do. They don't strangle,” she said.

She came to the conclusion while in therapy (clearly a good sign of reliability) and asking her therapist how women usually kill.

“She said, well, they poison or drown them,” Rinna said. “Like, we literally had that conversation today. And she looks at me and she goes, 'He did it.'”

“I was like, 'Wow, yeah. Yeah,'” she said, nodding vigorously.

Now, Rinna is the most famous Clancy truther, but hardly the only one. In fact, it’s gotten to the point where a GoFundMe nominally for her family (but realistically in support of her) has raised over $835,000 with plenty of supportive messages:

Clancy, in short, is nothing more than a mascot for crazy misandrists who fear and loathe men and need someone to root for. In this case, they’re not only rooting for an admitted killer, they’re actually saying that no, she didn’t do it.

Why? In Rinna’s case, because women don’t strangle. Seriously. Not that she has evidence to back her up — but as another toxic social media flibbertigibbet might put it, she doesn’t know, but she knows knows. Intuition trumps evidence, and if you say otherwise you’re reducing the lived experience of women.

It’s tragic enough that this father has to endure losing three children all under the age of five. Is it not enough to ask that uninformed, inane, and clinically diagnosable true-crime detective wannabes don’t slander him with a horrific accusation that even his ex-wife and her lawyers will tell the world is a lie in a court of law?

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