Publishers Weekly
05/17/2021
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. (July)
From the Publisher
The New York Times 2021 summer reading pick
Featured in Marie Claire's “The 10 Best True Crime Books of 2021”
“Mikita Brottman is one of today’s finest practitioners of nonfiction that explores the uncertain truths revealed when violence crashes into human life…Brottman offers a precise and rarely seen accounting of American hospitals for the criminally insane…[and] shows the compounding injustice that results when the criminal mental health system is layered on top of mass incarceration.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Two years after the Menendez brothers famously killed their parents in Beverly Hills, a 22-year old man walked into a Florida police station and confessed to a similar crime. But the case of Brian Bechtold never made the cover of People magazine. Mikita Brottman has compiled an astonishing narrative of a man trapped in a netherworld, locked up in psych wards for 27 years after being declared ‘not criminally responsible’ for his parents’ death. Bechtold grew up in a household that mixed abuse and mental illness, and his life story confronts the question: Can one be both a victim and a victimizer?”
—Robert Rand, author of The Menendez Murders
“Couple Found Slain is a compelling account of a young adult who killed his parents and was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Mikita Brottman has done a masterful job relating this man’s perceptions of his experiences as a patient in a psychiatric hospital for 27 years. This book raises important questions about the rights of the ‘criminally insane.’”
—Kathleen M. Heide, Ph.D., Distinguished University Professor, University of South Florida and author of Understanding Parricide: When Sons and Daughters Kill Parents
"Few have written more eloquently—and beautifully—about the terror of an institution that makes it virtually impossible to prove their sanity. Mikita Brottman shows the injustices of America's mental health care system with urgency, empathy and a keen eye for detail. It gives you goosebumps to think that almost anyone could end up in one of these soul-crushing, Kafkaesque machines."
—Sabine Heinlein, author of Among Murderers
"Mikita Brottman’s COUPLE FOUND SLAIN is a riveting account of a terrible crime and its aftermath. Deeply researched and compulsively readable, Brottman exposes the myriad ways that forensic psychiatry and a calcified system fail Bechtold and others judged 'not criminally responsible' for their actions. A gripping investigation that questions not only the sentence without end meted out to Bechtold, but the psychiatric dogma used to justify his continued incarceration."
—Deborah Rudacille, author of The Riddle of Gender: Science, Activism and Transgender Rights
"Brottman has established herself as a leading voice in modern true crime. She finds empathy in the criminal and shows compassion for those whom society wishes to simply forget. This is not just a well-written book, it's an important book. A must-read."
—James Renner, author of True Crime Addict
"A stunning achievement. This heartbreaking expose will enrage readers who yearn for a humane and rational treatment approach for those who are found by the U.S. court system to be 'criminally insane.' This is not a book for the timid or the weak of heart, but it's an absolutely essential read for those who demand fairness, coherence and compassion in our treatment of mental illness."
—Tom Nugent, author of Death at Buffalo Creek
“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.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Brottman deftly points to problems at facilities like Perkins [Hospital Center], from psychiatrists who spend too little time with patients, to high staff turnover…This thought-provoking book adds to conversations about the role of psychiatric institutions and how society can offer solutions.”
—Library Journal
“The author’s meticulous research is evident throughout…making for a smooth narrative populated by a variety of colorful characters…Brottman shows effectively that forced hospitalization could make anyone seem paranoid.”
—Kirkus Reviews
"[Brottman] makes a compelling case against the unjust, seemingly arbitrary treatment of those deemed 'criminally insane.'"
—Booklist
Kirkus Reviews
2021-05-19
An account of the aftermath of a violent crime.
Brian Bechtold was 22 when he killed his parents in 1992. After a week or two on the run, he turned himself in to the police. Bechtold was eventually diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia; he was ruled “not criminally responsible” for his crime and spent almost three decades in a psychiatric hospital. In the introduction, Brottman, a writer and psychoanalyst, claims that while “most true crime stories focus on the buildup to the crime, the incident itself, and the quest for justice,” this book—an account of Bechtold’s institutionalization—“is about another part of the story, the part that begins when the verdict is announced, the sentence handed down.” That overture begins the author’s plea on Bechtold’s behalf. Throughout his time at the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center in Maryland, Bechtold maintained that while he had certainly suffered from a mental illness at the time of his crime, he had since recovered. He tried to convince hospital staff of his health, attempted to escape, and took the hospital to court—all to no avail. Brottman, who met Bechtold while teaching a Focus on Fiction class at Perkins, is clearly on his side. The author’s meticulous research is evident throughout, and she mostly handles the information deftly, making for a smooth narrative populated by a variety of colorful characters. Her lack of objectivity is the book’s major flaw, and it leads to statements like the following, which describes Bechtold’s reluctance to take increased doses of medication: “He’d done perfectly well on the low dose and felt mentally stable.” Perfectly well according to whom? Bechtold has an obvious stake in maintaining his own sanity. The doctors at Perkins claimed that Bechtold was paranoid, and while Brottman shows effectively that forced hospitalization could make anyone seem paranoid, she fails to prove that, in this case, both could have been true at the same time.
A quick and intriguing read marred by a lack of objectivity.
