I
am promoting one of the most challenging, important, and stimulating books that
I’ve ever been associated with in my 20+ years in book publishing. It’s a book written, in part, by a mass
murderer who wiped out his entire family.
The main author is a neuropsychologist, Dr. Robert Hanlon, who has treated or
personally studied and consulted with hundreds of murderers, penned a book, Survived By One: The Life and Mind of
a Family Mass, with the
subject of his book, Thomas Odle, voicing his views, thoughts and opinions with
a chilling effect.
I haven’t
been associated with a book quite like this.
It’s a thorough examination of one man’s life, from his victimized
childhood at the hands of a sadistic and unloving mother up to the present,
where he’s serving a life sentence in prison after his death sentence was voided a decade ago. It details the
brutal and horrific events of November 8, 1985, when Odle stabbed his dad, 39,
and then mom, 39, to death. Over a
period of eight hours, one by one, he murdered the rest of his family – one by
strangulation, the rest butchered. They
were 10, 13, and 14.
The
book covers a lot of ground, including discussions about mental illness and the
death penalty. It also examines what
conditions flourish that create a killer.
The book can leave you feeling shaken.
You may even feel sympathetic towards the killer. You may also feel disgusted by his
actions. But it makes you think and is
not something you can merely consume and move on from. It stays with you, forcing you to humanize
and familiarize the lost soul behind a mass murderer. When you read his words, unfiltered, you
begin to feel his plight.
It
is clear that Tom was doomed by his childhood, yet you still have to question
why other kids raised under similar or worse situations don’t kill people, especially
their whole family. But who is to say why
we do what we do?
I
can’t understand nor accept the killing of his siblings. They were victims of the same parents, too. I don’t condone killing but I can see why he
killed his mom. She not only never said
she loved him, but she beat him from head to toe every chance she got, often
without cause or reason. She’d chain him
to his bed, without food, and force him into social isolation. She repeatedly told him she wished he was
dead. His dad, though not abusive, did
nothing to stop the mother’s rampages.
If
parents can raise a killer, do they also raise writers and publicists?
Our
career paths are chosen from our childhood, whether intended or not. Sometimes we rebel and become what our
parents don’t want us to be. Or we serve
their wishes, to the point where we suppress who we really are. So many things factor into who we grow up to
be, but certainly parents can play the most influential role by what they do
and say or don’t do and say.
So
many writers come from dysfunctional childhoods, as if inspired by insanity,
poverty, abuse, and other dramatic negatives.
But I’d like to think great writers come from great thinking,
imaginations, research, and interesting experiences. Can’t some writers develop from normal
childhoods or even happy youthful times?
I’m
not quite sure how I became a publicist.
I always thought of myself as a journalist and a writer. But here I am, having spent about half of my
life, promoting the words, deeds, ideas and fantasies of others.
Some
of us become who we are because of circumstance, and many in spite of it. Few of us become killers but after reading Survived By One, I feel forever changed
in how I view others.
The
book debuts August 22, from Southern Illinois University Press. It’s a fascinating exploration into the mind
of a killer and an examination of the judicial system, parenting, and the role
our choices play in how we live – and die.
Interview With Survived By One Author Dr. Robert Hanlon
1.
What inspired you to write Survived By One: The Life and Mind of a
Family Mass Murderer? The inspiration for Survived by One was derived from the
opportunity to tell the story of a horrific crime in a unique way in order to inform
people about the psychological factors and family dynamics that may lead to the
most extreme type of domestic violence:
family mass murder. By telling
the story of this horrible crime and the life of the killer who committed it, Survived by One will hopefully help
people learn to identify the signs of impending domestic murders before they
are committed, thereby preventing future tragedies of this type.
2.
How did you come to know Thomas Odle
and what have you done for him?
I met Tom Odle in 2000 when he was on death row and facing execution. I was retained by his defense attorneys in
order to conduct a forensic neuropsychological evaluation of him, during the
last stage of the appeals process. I
evaluated him on death row in the Illinois Department of Corrections and
determined that he was highly intelligent, cognitively intact, and manifested
antisocial personality disorder. As a
result, my findings did not help the appeals to spare his life at all. In fact, stating that he was a highly
intelligent, antisocial individual was the last thing his attorneys wanted to
hear.
3.
What did you come to feel as you
spent hours interviewing Tom, for your book? I’m a neuropsychologist, specialized in the
psychological evaluation of violent criminal offenders. During my communications with Tom Odle,
including both written and face-to-face interactions, I have been impressed by
his insight, his willingness to disclose his innermost thoughts and feelings,
and his interest in contributing something positive to society via Survived by One.
4.
What have you learned from Tom’s
case that can help society prevent other such tragedies from erupting? Family mass murders of this type
and many domestic homicides can be prevented if people know what to look for. Family mass murders, or acts of familicide, are usually committed by
males, typically the husband and father.
In most cases of familicide,
the husband/father serially executes his wife and one or more of the children,
and subsequently commits suicide. The
motives for such horrific crimes include the following: acts of desperation driven by severe mental
illness such as psychotic depression or delusions associated with other
psychotic disorders; impulsive acts committed by chronically depressed men
plagued with longstanding feelings of inferiority, insecurity, and inadequacy,
with a concomitant drug or alcohol addiction, who are intoxicated at the time
of the killings; premeditated and planned executions committed by narcissistic
antisocial men with psychopathic tendencies intended to quickly and efficiently
dispose of the family in order to enable them to freely pursue other love
interests or sexual endeavors.
The term parricide refers to the killing of a
parent by a child and includes acts of matricide
(killing of a mother or stepmother) and patricide
(killing of a father or stepfather). Although severe forms of mental illness such
as paranoid schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other psychotic disorders have
been implicated in acts of parricide,
child abuse is the most common factor cited in motivational analyses of
parricidal acts. In reaction to the
growing awareness of the high prevalence of a history of abuse of the offender
by the victim in cases of parricide,
one model classifies parricide
offenders into one of three types, based on primary motive: (1) children who
have suffered chronic physical, sexual, and/or mental abuse kill their parents
to end the abuse; (2) children who manifest a severe mental disorder kill their
parents in relation to psychotic symptoms such as paranoid delusions or command
hallucinations; (3) dangerously antisocial children kill their parents for
personal gain, such as freedom from parental control or inheritance.
5.
He was diagnosed after his crime
with Antisocial Personality Disorder.
How do we treat people for this? Antisocial personality disorder, like most
personality disorders, is extremely difficult to treat. Very few individuals with antisocial
personality disorder are interested in treatment. For the few who are genuinely interested in
treatment, insight-oriented psychotherapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy have
been shown to have some potential for therapeutic benefit. While less than 5%
of the general population manifests antisocial personality disorder, over 50%
of prison inmates manifest antisocial personality disorder. Antisocial personality disorder, like most
personality disorders, is characterized by deeply ingrained, longstanding,
maladaptive personality traits.
Specifically, antisocial personality disorder is characterized by the
following tendencies: deceitfulness, impulsivity,
aggressiveness, irresponsibility, manipulation of others for personal gain,
lack of remorse, unnecessary risk-taking, and repeated violation of rules and
laws. Many individuals with antisocial
personality disorder become progressively less antisocial as they grow old.
6.
Unfortunately, millions of kids
are raised similarly to Tom – abused physically and mentally by his parents,
bullied at school, chronically depressed, self-medicated through illegal drugs
– but many don’t go on to kill their family.
Why does Tom believe he finally snapped? Good question. Yes, most children who are severely abused by
one or both parents and/or manifest psychiatric disorders such as depression
and drug abuse, don’t ever commit a crime, and certainly don’t kill their entire
families.
Survived
by One provides
an ominous formula for family mass murder, specifically parricidal familicide: A sadistic, abusive, personality disordered
parent (Parent #1) and a passive, submissive, and dependent parent (Parent #2)
produce a smart, deceptive, manipulative, conduct disordered child. That child is chronically abused, both
physically and emotionally, by Parent #1 while Parent #2 allows the abuse to
persist and in many ways enables the abuser.
As the child matures, he struggles with repeated failures and depression,
and engages in chronic drug abuse. Ultimately, the parents decide to abandon
the child, which enrages the child, and in an act of ultimate revenge, he kills
both parents, as well as his siblings for total closure.
7.
Were you afraid to talk to Tom? Did he make you feel angry or sad or
other? Did you think you could really
help him in some way? No.
No. I believe that he gained some
insight regarding his character and his past behavior.
8.
Your book seems to make the case
that we shouldn’t have the death penalty.
Does it really play any role in preventing a crime like Tom’s? Survived by One DOES NOT make a case against the death
penalty. Survived by One is NOT an anti-death penalty book. If that is the reader’s perception, it is a
misperception. Obviously, the death
penalty is a controversial, societal issue.
The State of Illinois has a very jaded history with respect to the death
penalty. Due to various problems in the
criminal justice system in Illinois, 20 men were wrongfully convicted of
murder, sentenced to death, and ultimately exonerated of their crimes. Any society with a standing death penalty runs
the risk of possibly executing an innocent person. On the flip side, the death penalty provides
prosecutors with leverage in murder cases that may facilitate guilty pleas
which would not occur, otherwise.
9.
Why do you believe an 18-year-old
kid killed his parents and three siblings? As described above, Survived by One provides an ominous formula for family mass murder,
specifically parricidal familicide. In the case of the Odle family, the mother
(Carolyn) was sadistic and abusive, whereas the father (Robert) was passive and
submissive. Their first child, Tom, was
a highly intelligent, deceptive, and manipulative boy, with a conduct
disorder. He was chronically abused,
both physically and emotionally, by his mother, while his father allowed the
abuse to persist, despite knowing that his wife was abusing Tom and his younger
brother, Sean. As Tom reached
adolescence, his antisocial behaviors escalated as he became increasingly
depressed, secondary to repeated failures, rejections, and drug abuse. Ultimately, the abandonment he felt when his
parents, in a united front, decided to throw him out of the house, enraged the depressed,
dejected, and desperate adolescent, resulting in a nihilistic, drug fueled
termination of the family unit.
10. Tom
was a drug addict and robbed homes to keep his drug supply coming. What role did drugs play in his murder spree? Please note that this crime is
technically a “mass murder.” It is not a “spree murder,” despite the fact that
the murders were committed in sequence over a period of 8 hours. Tom Odle had reportedly ingested LSD prior to
the murders and smoked marijuana throughout the day of the murders.
11. Tom
played on a youth baseball league, was part of the school orchestra, a member
of the Cub Scouts, and had a paper route.
But there were many, many indications things were not right at
home. What type of warning signs should
we look for? The
warning signs may include the following:
(1) history of chronic physical, sexual, or emotional abuse; (2)
worsening depression; (3) social isolation; (4) increasing drug and/or alcohol
abuse; (5) increase in aggressive behavior; (6) increase in impulsive violence
directed toward others or objects; (7) recent loss of a job; (8) recent loss of
a friend or relative; (9) recent romantic rejection.
12. When
Thomas’ death sentence was converted to life in prison, what went through his
mind? He
experienced an epiphany. For 17 years,
he expected to be executed, and as a result, lived in denial, repressing all
thoughts and feelings about his crime. Suddenly, he was confronted with an unfamiliar
reality: a future. As a result, he
became motivated to understand why he killed his family.
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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog
are his alone and not that of his employer, the nation’s largest book promoter.
You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He
feels more important
when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by
BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2013
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