Guilty by Reason of Insanity: A Psychiatrist Explores the Minds of KillersEveryone has felt the urge to kill. Most people don't kill. Some people do. Dorothy Otnow Lewis, a psychiatrist and an internationally recognized expert on violence, has spent the last quarter century studying the differences between those who do and those who don't. Among the murderers she has examined are the notorious killers Ted Bundy, Arthur Shawcross, and Mark David Chapman, the man who shot John Lennon. Now, she shares her groundbreaking discoveries--and the chilling encounters that led to them. Guilty by Reason of Insanity is the gripping, brilliantly written true story of Dr. Lewis's search to understand those who kill. The unforgettable cases revealed here clearly illustrate how the disparate elements of brain damage, paranoia, and family brutality combine to create a killer. It starts at a juvenile court in New Haven. A thirteen-year-old girl--out of the blue, in broad daylight--has stabbed her best friend to death before an audience of gaping classmates. Dr. Lewis convinces her colleague, the eminent neurologist Jonathan Pincus, to help her figure out why. Thus begins a collaboration that continues to this day. The passion to understand the underpinnings of violence draws the Lewis-Pincus team to the psychiatric and forensic wards of New York City's Bellevue Hospital, and then to prisons around the country--eventually leading to the corridors of death row and to an infamous gallery of condemned killers. There we meet a thirty-six-year-old woman who forms a sexual attachment to a fourteen-year-old boy. Together, they kidnap, torture, and ultimately murder a teenaged girl. Suddenly, in the midst of the interview with the doe-eyed, soft-spoken murderess, amenacing, male persona appears and Dr. Lewis finds herself face-to-face with her first case of multiple personality disorder, a condition she never before believed existed. We sit in on the psychiatric evaluation of a condemned boy who, at seventeen, raped and murdered a seventy-six-year-old nun. Only after his death does Dr. Lewis discover the grotesque secrets of his childhood that finally explain his murderous rage and his bizarre choice of victim. Powerful, controversial, and utterly absorbing--including an intense final interview with an executioner--Guilty by Reason of Insanity is a tour de force, a compelling odyssey of one extraordinary psychiatrist striking a delicate balance between emotion and objectivity. It will forever change the way you think about crime, punishment, and the law itself. |
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Page 10
... death penalty . I should amend that statement . When we started our work together on death row , he had no qualms whatsoever . Only after he evaluated a man on death row in Starke , Florida , who he was convinced was innocent , did he ...
... death penalty . I should amend that statement . When we started our work together on death row , he had no qualms whatsoever . Only after he evaluated a man on death row in Starke , Florida , who he was convinced was innocent , did he ...
Page 81
... death row cell to a small holding cell close to the death chamber . There a light burns day and night so that the prisoner can be watched closely and prevented from taking his own life . The con- demned is visited there by a tailor ...
... death row cell to a small holding cell close to the death chamber . There a light burns day and night so that the prisoner can be watched closely and prevented from taking his own life . The con- demned is visited there by a tailor ...
Page 200
... death row juveniles . The next three years were eye - openers . As Jonathan and I learned more about multiple ... death , and who should appear on screen but Johnny Frank Garrett . Barbara Bard , the expert who had conducted the ...
... death row juveniles . The next three years were eye - openers . As Jonathan and I learned more about multiple ... death , and who should appear on screen but Johnny Frank Garrett . Barbara Bard , the expert who had conducted the ...
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989 Madison Avenue Aaron abuse Anna Giusseppi Arthur Shawcross asked attorney behavior Bellevue Billy Bob Smith brain damage brothers called child childhood clinical conduct disorder court death row defense delinquents diagnosis evaluation examined execution eyes father feel frontal lobes Grandma guard happened hear hospital Huntsville inmates insanity interview Jameson Johnny Garrett Johnny's Jonathan Judge Lindsey jury juvenile kids kill knew knife lawyer learned Lee Anne Lee Anne's lobe looked Lucky Larson Lucky's Marie Moore Marie's mother multiple personality disorder murder neurologic neurologist never Old Sparky pain patients paused police prison prosecutor psychiatric psychiatrist psychotic question raped remember scars schizophrenic seizures sentence Shawcross Shockman Sister someone Starke sure symptoms talk Ted Bundy tell temporal lobe things thought told Tony took trial tried turned Velma Barfield victim violent voice watched William Bonin woman Yale