THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. KAPPLER The Doctor Who Became a Killer

Hardback. In 1975, Dr. John Kappler, a Los Angeles anaesthesiologist, secretly attempted to kill a pregnant patient by giving her the wrong anaesthetic. That same day, he tried to kill two other patients. Driving home, he crashed into two vehicles on the freeway. Doctors from the hospital not only helped bail him out of jail, they allowed him to continue practicing medicine. In 1980, Dr. Kappler again attempted to murder a patient. The patient suffered a cardiac arrest. Yet John Kappler continued to practice. Later, in 1985, when Kappler yet again tried to kill a patient, he was - finally - arrested for attempted murder but subsequently freed because of insufficient evidence. Then, in 1990, Kappler deliberately drove his car into two absolute strangers, killing one and maiming the other. Kappler claimed insanity at his murder trial, pointing to repeated psychiatric hospitalisations since the 1960s. Voices he said, commanded him to drive into his victims, just as they had commanded him to kill before. But was Kappler insane or a cunning psychopath? Here is the harrowing story of an anaesthesiologist who, despite bizarre and violent behaviour, was allowed to maintain his professional standing and continued to work in dozens of California hospitals. Through his investigations the author, a journalist and psychiatrist, brings us face to face with the dark side not only of one doctor, but of the medical establishment itself, which looked the other way as Kappler became more and more dangerous. The author also provides a disturbing glimpse of the world of psychiatry - a world that seems more concerned with labelling and medicating patients than truly healing them. In a compelling courtroom drama, the author introduces attorney Marcy Jackson, a brilliant and fiery prosecutor who attacked the credibility not only of Kappler but of the prominent Boston psychiatrists who testified in his defence. With little experience trying murder cases, she faced defence attorney Jonathan Shapiro, an established Boston trial lawyer who painted Kappler as the victim of a mental illness over which he had no control. A fascinating and chilling portrait of a healer who became a killer, and it also raises critical questions about the medical profession, psychiatry, and the law. Illus. + Afterword. 215pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in F. dw.