Couple Found Slain
After a Family Murder
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3.4 • 10 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
“Mikita Brottman is one of today’s finest practitioners of nonfiction.”
—The New York Times Book Review
Critically acclaimed author and psychoanalyst Mikita Brottman offers literary true crime writing at its best, taking us into the life of a murderer after his conviction—when most stories end but the defendant's life goes on.
On February 21, 1992, 22-year-old Brian Bechtold walked into a police station in Port St. Joe, Florida and confessed that he’d shot and killed his parents in their family home in Silver Spring, Maryland. He said he’d been possessed by the devil. He was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia and ruled “not criminally responsible” for the murders on grounds of insanity.
But after the trial, where do the "criminally insane" go? Brottman reveals Brian's inner life leading up to the murder, as well as his complicated afterlife in a maximum security psychiatric hospital, where he is neither imprisoned nor free. During his 27 years at the hospital, Brian has tried to escape and been shot by police, and has witnessed three patient-on-patient murders. He’s experienced the drugging of patients beyond recognition, a sadistic system of rewards and punishments, and the short-lived reign of a crazed psychiatrist-turned-stalker.
In the tradition of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Couple Found Slain is an insider’s account of life in the underworld of forensic psych wards in America and the forgotten lives of those held there, often indefinitely.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this sobering account, psychoanalyst Brottman (An Unexplained Death: The True Story of a Body at the Belvedere) picks up where most true crime books end—after the investigation and sentencing. On Feb. 21, 1992, 22-year-old Brian Bechtold surrendered himself to police in Port St. Joe, Fla., and confessed to murdering his parents after suffering schizophrenic paranoid delusions. He was found "not criminally responsible" on the grounds of insanity and remanded to a maximum-security psychiatric hospital. Though Brottman briefly covers the family members and their psychological histories, she focuses on Bechtold's life post-sentencing, during which he's attempted suicide, filed lawsuits, and sought regular criminal incarceration to escape his perpetual confinement. Through in-depth research, patient interviews, and police and medical records, Brottman delivers a horrifying account of life for the "criminally insane," who are often drugged into submission, abused by overworked staff, victimized by other patients, and held at the mercy of subjective and conflicting psychiatric assessments that can lead to confinements far longer than the traditional sentences for the original crimes. Brottman draws with authority on case studies and criminal statistics to dispel the common misconception that the insanity defense is preferable to prison and amounts to a get-out-of-jail-free card. True crime fans looking for a provocative approach to the genre will be rewarded.
Customer Reviews
It was okay
An interesting story for those who like true crime, I have to admit though that it got a bit confusing. I don’t know if it was because of how it was written or how it was read. Perhaps it was a combination of the two that led to it seeming to not have a smooth flow. Be sure you listen to this when you aren’t multitasking.
Thank you to NetGalley, Mikita Brottman, and Macmillan Audio for allowing me the chance to listen to this and provide my honest thoughts and opinions with others.
Drags on and on
This book had potential, but gets bogged down in minutiae, so it gets tedious. I started to skim entire chapters, just reading the last paragraphs of them, and I was able to get the gist of the content. This book could have been captivating, highlighting the serious problems in institutional psychiatry. But instead it was boring. Skip the book and read an internet summary.