I tried to connect to this book several times, but could not get into the narrator.
I will definitely try reading this with my eyes vs. ears.

“The primary tool for diagnosing a person with a mental illness is the judgement of the clinician, a fact that gives psychiatrists enormous power.”

You may expect this to lean more into the investigation of a crime, based on the title of the book, but this isn’t an examination of the questions behind a murder. Instead, it takes a look at the consequences doled out to someone ruled not legally responsible for a crime by reasons of insanity. The main themes focus on what rehabilitation should look like versus what it actually is and how a psychiatric hospital handles (or mishandles) rules, regulations, and the patients in its care.

Brian Bechtold murdered his parents in 1992. After driving away from the scene of the crime in Maryland, he made his way down to Florida, where he entered a police station and confessed to the double homicide. There’s no question that he did it, but his sanity at the time of the crime was compromised, which led to a sentencing of hospitalization, rather than imprisonment.

I do have some mixed feelings about some of the book’s content, as Brian DID commit a horrific crime and, despite the statistics presented about parricide and a lack of repetitive violent crime in such cases, this did sometimes feel like it minimized the magnitude of Brian’s actions. The author did note toward the end that the argument wasn’t necessarily that he be released back into society, but into a lower level of confinement. I think it would have helped my perspective a bit to have known that earlier. Additionally, I understand the author’s sympathy toward Brian and I am not unsympathetic, myself, but there were things that concerned me within her bias.

However, I do think the information presented in this book about the institution Brian is in and the overall concerns about the flaws within the mental health field were well presented. Obviously, I can’t tell you that I know for a fact everything was completely accurate when it came to subjective stances, but I have fought the system for a relative before and found many of my old frustrations bubbling up within me, so I did find some of what was shared relatable. I have no trouble believing that even the most shocking details were true, given the experiences I can compare it to.

Despite not feeling completely settled on certain issues, I think Brottman did a thorough job supporting her own stance. She brought some really important issues to the surface. We invest a lot of stock in the mental health system and books like this make it clear that our trust may be misguided at times. That’s not to say all facets of the mental health system fail, as there are plenty of positive aspects, but there can be issues within it that essentially fail individuals and/or worsen the symptoms of those in need. We may be wholly oblivious to this from the outside looking in. Couple Found Slain helps raise awareness. I’d definitely recommend gleaning all you can from informative books like this one!

I am immensely grateful to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for my audio review copy. All opinions are my own!

Couple Found Slain is available now!

Strong "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Silent Patient vibes. Pretty disturbing to read, due to the content about murder, psychological abuse/illness. All together this book was unlike any I had read before, and it kept me thinking about the book long after I was done listening. Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for a copy of this book for an honest review.

Couple Found Slain is the non-fiction story of the Bechtold's and the aftermath of their murder by their youngest son Brian. The book starts with Brian walking into a Florida police station to turn himself in for the murder of this parents in Maryland, who have not been found yet. Brian later pleads guilty but not responsibly due to mental defect. The murder occurs in 1992 and while Brottman spends some time at the beginning talking about the Bechtold's and their abusive relationships with their children the book is mainly about Brian's life at Perkins Hospital in Maryland. Perkins is an institute for the criminally insane and is meant to be a place where defendants can get treatment to either stand trial or be returned to society. Unfortunately, many are there for decades. Brian is one of these people. Originally diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, due to the believe that the devil made him kill his parents, Brian believes that he is no longer sick and should be released. However, everything he does is viewed by the staff as reinforcement of his diagnosis.

This book is very much from Brian's perspective and does not seem to contain the viewpoint of any of the staff or doctors. I am not saying that is required but when the subject is someone who once had a period of paranoid schizophrenia you need to take their perspective with a grain of salt. This is not to say that I believe Brian is crazy, I do not know him, but I also know that when persons with mental disorders do not get proper treatment things can seem wrong. Brottman does spend time talking about all of the different doctors Brian has had and the various attempts to make him take large doses of meds. One thing she points out is the change in practice by Perkins to stop group therapy and no type of one on one talk therapy. Sometimes those are more helpful than giving meds and leaving patients to the own devices.

It was an interesting book but seemed lopsided towards the patients are correct and the institution is evil. To help reinforce this the last part of the book is about all of the tragedies at Perkins and the changes they have made since. The conversation that this book to help start is the funding of these types of institutions so that proper care can be done and your chances of leaving (when appropriate) are not contingent on the amoutn of money your parents are willing to spend on outside doctors and lawyers.

As an avid listener of true crime podcasts, I am drawn to stories that focus on the victims. In this case, everyone is a victim. In many ways each person-both the murder victims and their son, their killer-was the victim of untreated mental illness. The family history leading up to the deadly event is just part of the story. The rest of the story is Brian’s and what happens to the criminally insane. This is a well-researched, deep dive into life in an institution. Readers are left wondering about Brian and his fate. Lots to unpack and discuss.

I was not able to finish this book, I tried to listen to this book twice and couldn’t get into the book past chapter 3.

🏡 This book was such a different read from my typical genre. Although I really enjoy watching crime shows, reading about one was so different and weird for me.

🏡I’m not saying what Brian did was right (that’s controversial) but it sure was interesting reading about his story. I found myself stuck in an ‘OMG MOMENT’.

🏡I decided to listen to the audiobook of this one as soon as it came out on NetGalley. I have never heard of this story, but I definitely was intrigued by the idea.

🏡I loved how the author gave a background on Brian’s life and every moment in between. This book was so disturbing, I almost had to put it down.

🏡I typically don’t really like rating true crime stories, but I think I decided middle of the road for this one.

🏡This is a very disturbing story and therefore I’m not sure if I would recommend this one... maybe if you’re a true crime lover.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CPE7SFrr6tW/?utm_medium=copy_link

TW/CW: Parricide, Mental Illness, Medical Abuse, Imprisonment

I am huge fan of true crime-tv shows, books, documentaries; you name it and I’ve probably watched it or read about it. So, when I was looking for an audiobook to review on NetGalley and saw that a true crime audiobook was available, I jumped all over it. It didn’t take very long for me to realize that Couple Found Slain wasn’t your average true crime book.

Couple Found Slain by author Mikita Brottman chronicles the story of Brian Bechtold, a patient at the Clifford T. Perkins Center, a forensic psychiatric facility. Right off the bat, this story is different because it begins with 22-year-old Brian Bechtold entering a Florida police station and telling the police there that he murdered both of his parents. Found incompetent to stand trial, Brian is sentenced to a psychiatric facility with no determined date of release.

This story is more than the story of a man who killed his parents brutally. It is the story of how the mentally ill can be sent to facilities such as Perkins without a clear treatment plan and no plan for rehabilitation. And as you will read in the book, often they cannot even keep the patients safe from each other.

Brian was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic but later feels that he is cured and should be on the path to be released back into society. Doctors and other medical professionals feel that he is hiding his symptoms and needs to be on psychiatric medication. The medication makes him feel worse. The notes the doctors make on Brian get passed from doctor-to-doctor treating Brian over the years, each adding their own differentiating diagnoses. It becomes difficult to tell what the doctors are seeing in Brian and what they are being told by other professionals and accepting as truth.

This story is well researched and presented well, beginning with Brian’s family history of abuse, the murders of his parents, and moving on to his incarceration in Perkins, and how the desperation to be treated fairly and justly leads to desperation and reckless choices. The writer’s empathy for Brian is evident, but it doesn’t affect their ability to tell his story objectively.
Brian Bechtold entered Clifford T. Perkins in 1992 and remains there until this very day.

4/5 Stars
Thank you to #NetGalley and #MacMillanAudio for providing me with an audiobook version of this book for my review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book is probably not what you expect. Although following a true-crime setup, Brottman brings a new spin to her story. We learn of the Bechtold family -- made up of toxic, abusive parents, fostering a toxic household. Although most of the Bechtold siblings managed to go their own way, Brian’s teetering mental health, paranoia, and other related causes lead him to kill his parents. This story follows the aftermath of his murderous confession.

Wow, I’m speechless! There was so much depth and research poured into this. Often, it is assumed that pleading mental illness to a crime will result in an easy sentence for a convict, but that is far from the truth. Listening to Brian struggle and suffer from his consequences had me sympathizing and feeling equally infuriated. The corruption in the prison is sickening as we see Brian and other inmates being heavily drugged, mistreated, and often manipulated. Definitely learned a lot and I recommend this to any true crime fans!

Thanks NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for my copy!

Thank you to Netgalley and McMillan Audio for this advance listener copy in exchange for my honest review.

I want to start off by saying that I really enjoyed this book. That being said, this book won't be for everyone. I'm a huge true crime fan and this is NOT a traditional true crime novel. This is essentially a case study of what happens after an insanity defense. Brian Bechtold killed his parents in 1992 during a schizophrenic episode. He was confined to a maximum security psychiatric hospital for 27 years, in which he was the victim of several injustices. This is a hard look at the insanity defense in our criminal justice system. If you're looking for a traditional true crime story in which the crime and trial are discussed at length, then this is not the book for you. If you're interested in psychology and a look at a man's life when he's been institutionalized for almost three decades, then I recommend this book highly. It was eye opening and different from any other crime story I've ever read. This is a great expose piece on the cruelty of life in an institution when you really don't belong there.

Now, for the audio narration. The narrator sounded like a reporter, which for a book like this is great, but I wouldn't want to listen to her read a work of fiction.

Solid 4 stars. Mainly because it was marketed wrong. It's not true crime, but more of a memoir written in the third person.

This was a really good book, but not as an audiobook. It is non-fiction, so one thing I do not expect in my audiobooks is character voices. I expect factual retellings, and not having it sound like I am reading a fictional reenactment of an encounter.

Also, can I just say that while I do not like to blame the victims in any circumstances, the parents in this book were just absolutely horrible. Like they should have never been allowed to have children, and it's a miracle that they only had major serious problems with one of their 5 children, with the other 4 being just 'damaged'. It's really hard to feel bad for people this horrible, which in turn makes me feel like a bad person.

I found this nonfiction book about Brian Brechtold who, in 1992, murdered both of his parents. The description of how it all went down and was really detailed but not with boring unnecessary details. Brian came from a family who had mental health problems among quite a few of them. It became evident to me (though I'm not in the medical field) that he, too, had mental problems.

I found the story of Brian's murders fascinating. I thought it would've been planned and that he killed them with great intention; however, after he killed them he went to the police after a week or ten days and turned himself in but claimed he didn't know if he really had killed them, dreamt it, or even hallucinated it. The investigation into the murders was quite informative.

Brian eventually ended up being placed in Perkins Psychiatric Hospital and the author used that setting to further the reader's insight into mentally ill people who murder. The data was given in an informal way so I didn't feel bogged down with stats. At the same time, Brottman informed her readers with some interesting things about people who murder their parents, which I had never known before.

The narrators I found this nonfiction book about Brian Brechtold who, in 1992, murdered both of his parents. The description of how it all went down and was really detailed but not with boring unnecessary details. Brian came from a family who had mental health problems among quite a few of them. It became evident to me (though I'm not in the medical field) that he, too, had mental problems.

I found the story of Brian's murders fascinating. I thought it would've been planned and that he killed them with great intention; however, after he killed them he went to the police after a week or ten days and turned himself in but claimed he didn't know if he really had killed them, dreamt it, or even hallucinated it. The investigation into the murders was quite informative.

Brian eventually ended up being placed in Perkins Psychiatric Hospital and the author used that setting to further the reader's insight into mentally ill people who murder. The data was given in an informal way so I didn't feel bogged down with stats. At the same time, Brottman informed her readers with some interesting things about people who murder their parents, which I had never known before.

Narrated by Christina Delaine; Mikita Brottman - I thought they did a superb job of presenting an oral reading of this nonfiction, true crime. There was no boring monotones, but the voice intonations were not overdone either. Pronunciations were clear and very easy to follow the audiobook and understand

I highly recommend this book.

I would like to thank Macmillan Audio for a free audiobook in exchange for my opinion.

Couple Found Slain
By Mikita Brottman

Brian Bechtold walks into the police station in a small town in Florida to confess that he murdered his parents in their family home in Maryland. ⁣
⁣
He was found to have schizophrenia and ruled “not criminally responsible” for the murders on grounds of insanity.⁣
⁣
What happens next is where most true crime non-fiction ends, but Mikita Brottman takes us through the dark under belly of a life in a maximum security psychiatric hospital, where the chance of freedom is indefinite. ⁣
⁣
The recount of his next 27 years as he witnesses harrowing murders in the ward by truly insane patients, to his attempt at escape, being shot, and living his life drugged to semi-conscious state by some incompetent practitioners, is truly eye opening.

I highly recommend this book!

An interesting story for those who like true crime, I have to admit though that it got a bit confusing. I don’t know if it was because of how it was written or how it was read. Perhaps it was a combination of the two that led to it seeming to not have a smooth flow. Be sure you listen to this when you aren’t multitasking.

Thank you to NetGalley, Mikita Brottman, and Macmillan Audio for allowing me the chance to listen to this and provide my honest thoughts and opinions with others.

In 1992, Brian Bechtold turned himself in for killing his parents during a psychotic break. He was committed to Perkins, a mental institution, after being convicted of the crime. This is a facility where patients receive treatment before being sent to prison. Most patients are not held for longer than a couple years. Brian, on the other hand, was held for decades. This book recounts Brian’s childhood, the murder, and his long fight to leave Perkins.

This reminded me a lot of Hidden Valley Road. Both from the perspective of Brian’s family life and the mental illness, particularly Schizophrenia.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan audio for an ALC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Couple Found Slain by Mikita Brottman
Published: July 6, 2021
Henry Holt and Co.
I received a copy of this audiobook for free, and I leave my review voluntarily.

Mikita Brottman, Ph.D., is an Oxford-educated scholar and psychoanalyst and the author of several previous books, including An Unexplained Death, The Great Grisby, and The Maximum Security Book Club. She is a professor of humanities at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore.

This is so much more than murder. More than a devastating case. This book takes a deep dive into the justice system and how broken it is.

I had never heard of this case before listening to this audiobook. But I immediately had to look it up—an absolutely devastating and brutal crime. Committed by the last person anyone would have suspected.

But mental illness is a fickle aspect to find a balance for. The real tragedy here is the facts that remain. And the absolute lack of initial follow-through makes everything that happens within this book ugly and heartbreaking.

The most incredible thing about this book is the ability to discuss all the hot-button issues regarding this cares without overshadowing anything. This was so well done. I enjoyed my first audiobook from Netgalley.

The research was clearly and obviously thoroughly done, and the empathy that our justice system needs help is fascinating. I would absolutely recommend this audiobook.

This book is dark! So many details! I listened on audio at a quick speed which I think helped me gloss over some of the vividly detailed parts but if I had read this in physical format, I think I would have been MUCH more grossed out. This book talks a lot about mental illness. How family troubles can lead to personal troubles. How research and diagnoses have changed. How people can be mistreated once they enter the system.

With all that being said, I think readers would be much better served with a different title for this book. While I found it highly interesting, the title leads readers to think that its about the murder when really, the murder is just a prequel to the story. To be fair, the subtitle leans you in the right direction but I don’t think that’s enough. For people like me who don’t always read the synopsis, some could end up disappointed that this book is not what they wanted for a standard true crime murder read.

I don’t read many true crime books, but I do love all the true crime TV shows and Netflix series, so I was looking forward listening to this true crime story by a new-to-me author.

As soon as I started listening, I realized this wasn’t your normal whodunnit scenario. The story starts off with 22-year-old Brian Bechtold confessing to shooting and killing his parents in their family home. What the book mainly focuses on is a story of what really happens to criminals, like Brian Bechtold, that are deemed insane (untreated schizophrenia) and cannot stand trial, so they are sent to a mental health facility/psychiatric hospital instead of prison.

At times, the audiobook seemed like a fiction novel because it’s was so hard for me to imagine the horrifying scenes described within could possibly have happened in a mental health institution in 2021. Prison would be a better alternative, in my opinion.

Bechtold, now 52 years old is still in the same psychiatric hospital and insists he is no longer delusional. No release date is set.

I don’t want to explain much more of the story. It’s a must read for any true crime lover!!

I felt the narrators did a great job of explaining all of the different episodes at the hospital and the details of the court system in a clear and concise way. I was hanging on every word!

A very interesting perspective on mental illness, psychotic breaks, traumatic childhood and recovery from. I hadn’t thought about a lot of the issues presented and I think it is very important to consider the tension between the medical and legal professions. The book also presents a lot of issues within institutions.

True crime fans, here’s another good one! I recommend the audio. Thank you NetGalley!

My Thoughts: WOW - this book was very different than what I originally expected. It takes a heavy look into what it means to have a successful insanity plea. Receiving this sentence most times is a devastating reality. Brian was mentally ill. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. This is a horrible diagnosis for anyone. I found myself curious about the best way to punish people like Brian. I felt that we don’t have adequate treatment to punish and threat many these cases. Brian did admittedly kill his parents. Does Brian really have control or realize his behaviors?
I’m glad I read this book. However, It’s heartbreaking and terrifying at the same time. I have friends who struggle with caring for an adult child who lives with paranoid schizophrenia and it’s a tragedy for all. Mental Illness needs much more attention and treatment in our country to help prevent so many terrible crimes.

Thanks to Netgalley and MacMillan Audio for the opportunity to read and review a free copy of this book for my honest review.