I happened to see the Dr. Phil Show on March 23, 2006. The topic for the day was Nasty Custody Battles. (The show originally aired on January 9, 2006.) One segment was called An Out-of-Control Father? It featured Angela and Chris, the parents of a seven-year-old girl. Chris wanted visitation rights. Angela didn't want Chris to see their daughter. She feared for the girl's safety. Why? Here's how Chris matter-of-factly described his past on the show: "As a juvenile, I was incarcerated for burning down a house. I stabbed one guy three times and it paralyzed him from the neck down. They ended up convicting me of assault causing bodily injury," he said. "I was arrested in 2001 for …
Sociopathy–People Magazine doesn’t get it
Last year People Magazine put out a special publication called True Crime Stories—Cases that shocked America. It is a 144-page collection of headline-grabbing murders, rapes and thefts. It also suggests that when it comes to sociopaths, People Magazine just doesn't get it. The book includes 96 cases, plus celebrity mug shots. The word "sociopaths" was used once, in the introduction to the chapter called Murder for Murder's Sake. Here is what it says: "There's one group most of us don't understand: those whose motive for killing is killing itself. They don't hate their victims; often they don't even know their victims. When caught, they rarely plead, whine or cry. Frequently they're c …
Call Ed Hicks a bigamist, but not a sociopath
Ed Hicks pleaded guilty to bigamy in a Chesapeake, Virginia courtroom on March 2. He will sit in jail until his sentencing on May 8. Ed Hicks was married seven times, and court records indicate that four of the unions were bigamous. As you might expect, the story is complicated—for details read the Ed Hicks case history on Lovefraud.com. Here's the quick version: Sandra Hicks, the seventh wife, filed bigamy charges against Ed Hicks last year. Worried that her "husband" would get away with a slap on the hand—bigamy is rarely prosecuted—Sandra went to the media. The Washington Post published a story about Hicks and his marrying ways on July 1, 2005, the date of his initial hearing on the …
Oprah and the con man
This past Monday, February 13, The Oprah Winfrey Show aired a story called Casanova Conman. It profiled Eric Cooper of the Houston, Texas area, who allegedly married or became engaged to nine women in 10 years. Five of the women appeared on the show. Between 1994 and 2004, Cooper married Melissa, Kimberly, April, Paula, another April, Jennifer and Krystal. All the marriages happened quickly, and at least two were allegedly bigamous. He also became engaged to Brandy and Tonya. He has three daughters, and a child on the way, all with different women. So how did Cooper convince so many women to say "yes"? He told them he was in the Navy, or a Navy pilot, or a Navy SEAL, and showed up for …
Psycho movies add to the confusion
In the 2004 movie Taking Lives, Angelina Jolie stars as an FBI profiler sent to Quebec, Canada to help solve a grisly murder. Shortly after she arrives there's another murder—and a suspect. Jolie interviews the suspect. Afterwards, she says to the Canadian investigators, "Psychopaths actually have very different brain patterns. You say words like tree, sofa, house, rape, incest, murder. A normal person's brain pattern changes; the frontal lobe reacts. Psychopaths have no reaction. They feel the same about rape and murder as they do about eating dinner. They have no emotional reaction." Jolie's character is right. Everything she says has been validated by scientific research. As the m …