Mother Of DIMEBAG's Killer Featured On Tonight's 'Secret Lives Of Women'

The mother of Nathan Gale, the ex-Marine who killed PANTERA/DAMAGEPLAN guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott and four other people at a Columbus, Ohio, nightclub in December 2004, is one of several mothers who are profiled in tonight's (Tuesday, August 18) episode of WE's "Secret Lives of Women".

According to the Daily News, each segment within the show, entitled "Mothers of Murderers", features one of the mothers explaining what she knew about her son and trying to understand what made that same son become someone she didn't know.

Gale was killed by a Columbus police officer, against whom his mother says she holds no grudge. In fact, Mary Clark says, she met the officer and thanked him for saving other potential victims, since Gale still had 35 rounds of ammunition and wasn't being particular about whom he shot.

She does put some responsibility on the Marine Corps, which diagnosed Gale with paranoid schizophrenia and discharged him, rather than treating him.

Gale had told his mother and a former employer that he was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic before he was discharged from the Marines in October 2003, two years into a four-year stint. Military records do not mention mental illness as the reason for the discharge.

In a December 2004 interview with the Marysville Journal-Tribune, Mary Clark said, "I was shocked that my son was gone, but the damage that he did to everyone else... My heart just goes out to them."

During high school, Gale developed an obsession with PANTERA. Although Clark cannot remember if he ever saw the group perform a concert, Clark said her son did attend live heavy metal performances and took part in "mosh pits," which involve violent masses of bodies running into each other during such concerts. She remembered that during one such event, Gale came home with a black eye.

Though PANTERA split up, Gale remained fixated on its music. He dabbled in music, trying to play guitar but having little success, his mother said. He claimed at one point, prior to his diagnosis, that the band had stolen lyrics from him. He said the ideas in songs by PANTERA were his own ideas and experiences.

Beyond that episode, Clark said, Gale never had a bad word to say about the band.

But on the night of December 8, 2004, a deeply-hidden secret erupted from within Gale at the Alrosa Villa nightclub.

The group DAMAGEPLAN, comprised of two former members of PANTERA, including guitar legend "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, took the stage that night. Gale was there. A short way into the first song he climbed onto the stage, made his way over to Abbott and shot him repeatedly with the gun that his mother had purchased.

He also used the weapon to kill three other people before Columbus Police Officer James D. Niggemeyer entered the club without backup and killed Gale, who was holding a hostage, with a single shotgun blast.

People across the country have hailed Niggemeyer as a hero. Clark said the man who killed her son is indeed a hero.

"He was doing his job," Clark said. "You don't know how many lives he saved with that shot.

"That's a horrible thing for him (Niggemeyer) to have to do," Clark said. "He was a hero — I agree with everyone on that."

Clark shoulders some of the blame for the tragedy in December 2004 that ended five lives, including the life of one of her children. Through doubts about purchasing the weapon, Clark is left with a deeper regret about failing to recognize her son's mental illness. She said her son kept his struggles a secret.

She said he never confided in her about the voices in his head.

"He kept it very well under control around me," she said. "If he hadn't gone in the Marines, we may never have known."

For more information on tonight's episode of WE's "Secret Lives of Women", go to this location.

Mary Clark (Nathan Gale's mother):