Alone With the Devil: Famous Cases of a Courtroom Psychiartist - Softcover

Ronald Markman; Dominick Bosco

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0708848486 ISBN 13: 9780708848487

Publisher: Time Warner Paperbacks, 1991

Synopsis

As a forensic scientist, Dr Markman is often alone in a room with someone who has killed - sometimes without provocation or apparent motivation. After lengthy interviews and evaluations, his findings determine the degree of a murderer's responsibility at the time of the crime and thus influence his sentence in court. This is Markman's analysis of some of his toughest cases, including two of Charles Manson's followers, Marvin Gaye's shooting by his father, the infamous "Vampire of Sacramento" and Norma Jean Armistead, who wanted a baby so much that she was willing to kill for it. The book should appeal to everyone who has a morbid fascination about murder and wants to know more about the people who have killed.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

This engrossing if disquieting study, and the strongly held views of forensic psychiatrist Markman, treats the role of psychiatry in the courts. Despite frequent "battles of experts," psychiatrists determine whether the accused was sane at the time of the crime and is competent to stand trial, and their findings influence the prepetrator's fate, stresses this study, coauthored by former Prevention magazine editor Bosco. From the hundreds of murderers he has interviewed, among them serial killers and mass murderers, Markman focuses on the trials of those found guilty of vicious homicides. He seeks to discover why they become killers and how their minds work, then to evaluate subtleties of behavior of a deranged psyche in terms of a justice system that, he contends, favors the criminal over the victim. Unlike other criminals, killers, according to the book, "best represent a cross-section of America," which helps explain why the murderous violence of most psychotics is impossible to predict. First serial to Los Angeles Times Magazine; Doubleday Book Club selection.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

With the help of former Prevention magazine editor Bosco, Markman, a California forensic psychiatrist, has written a riveting account of some of his more famous cases, including the Hillside Strangler and the Manson family murders. Markman's job is to evaluate the criminal's state of mind at the time of the crime, a decision that can determine whether the criminal serves prison time or is rehabilitated in a psychiatric setting. Definitions of insanity and the plea of "guilty but insane" are hot topics in the medical and legal communities, and Markman uses his case studies to support his strong opinions on these subjects. The breezy writing style and the notoriety of many of these cases will make this of interest to the general reader. Recommended.
- Sandra K. Lindheimer, Middlesex Law Lib., Cambridge, Mass.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Time Warner Paperbacks
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0708848486
• ISBN 13: 9780708848487
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368