Travels With Dr. Death

by Ron Rosenbaum

Three lives hang in the balance this morning as Dr. James Grigson pulls up in a gleaming white Cadillac, ready to make his rounds. The tall Texan with one hand on the wheel and one hand on his flamboyant golden cigarette holder, the legendary forensic psychiatrist known as “Dr. Death,” is about to head out for the West Texas prairie to do some testifying. Indeed, for the Doctor—the raveling expert witness for hire, the courtroom terror of death-penalty foes—this is going to be the most extraordinarily concentrated stretch of testifying he’s ever done. Three death-penalty trials in three Texas towns in two days.

In Travels with Dr. Death, Ron Rosenbaum profiles legendary Texas forensic psychiatrist James Grigson, who, as of this reporting, had testified in court against 124 murderers. Acting on his advice, and his weird, unproven theories, juries had sentenced 115 of them to death, leading some opponents to call Grigson the "hanging shrink."Travels with Dr. Death was originally published in Vanity Fair, May 1990.

Cover design by Adil Dara.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, Essays

35 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this off the shelves at Heirloom Books in Chicago because some of the essays described on the back cover were about topics of interest such as Hitler's possibly Jewish ancestry, Lee Harvey Oswald's character, the death of JFK's mistress, Skull and Bones et cetera. And, yes, indeed they were interesting, author Rosenbaum having done his home- and legwork on these and other, herein unmentioned, topics. Further, he writes with a fine sense of irony and appreciation of uncertainty and ambiguity. One is informed, entertained, amused--and, most indicative of his mastery of the craft, one forgets one is reading at all.

[Katherine Addison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first encountered Ron Rosenbaum with his excellent book Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil, which is a collection of investigative journalism essays about all the theories people have about what made Hitler into what he was (and in fact the last essay in this book bridges the two collections). This collection is not themed in the same way; it's just a bunch of essays Rosenbaum wrote in the '70s and '80s about a whole host of crazy things: JFK assassination conspiracy theorists, Watergate conspiracy theorists, the BATFUCK NUTS things the CIA was doing in the '80s, the cancer clinics of Tijuana, the phone phreaks, the extremely uncomfortable and awkward questions raised by nuclear deterrence theory, and some splendid true crime essays: the unsolved murder of Mary Pinchot Meyer (who was, among many other things, one of JFK's mistresses); a drug dealer's murder in Brooklyn; the very strange death of David Whiting; and the title essay, which is about Dr. James Grigson. Grigson was an expert witness Texas prosecutors called in basically on behalf of the death penalty. Grigson's schtick was pronouncing the defendant an incurable sociopath, guaranteed to kill again, based on nothing but the prosecutor's "hypothetical" reconstruction of the crime (in a Kafka-esque catch-22, the Supreme Court had judged it unconstitutional for Grigson to examine the defendant himself, because that violated the defendant's 5th Amendment rights). Grigson was a terror on cross-examination and he knew exactly how to get juries to believe him. A particularly perceptive defense attorney told Rosenbaum, "If you ask me, he's the sociopath [...] He's the one who, despite reprimands, goes around making pronouncements which have been condemned by his profession. He's the one who does it over and over again with no remorse [...] Just like a sociopath" (234). And Grigson tells Rosenbaum about the defendant he does get to examine, Gayland Bradford:

"And as I was leaving he pointed his finger at me and said, 'You're slick.'"

"You're slick?"

"Yeah, it was 'Hey, man, you're slick.' It's the sociopath's compliment. It's the recognition of the sociopath for somebody who appreciates what he really is."
(233)

Grigson doesn't quite say, "it's the recognition of the sociopath for another sociopath," but that isn't very far beneath the surface of his grammatically convoluted explanation.

(I notice that, while Rosenbaum doesn't mention all the testimony of future dangerousness listed by the site I found Gayland Bradford on (which, as it happens, is the Clark County Indiana prosecutor's website, which lists all the times the death penalty has been carried out since 1976 because, apparently, there haven't been enough of them), the Clark County website doesn't mention the testimony of Dr. Grigson. Further note, because irony is good for you, Bradford wasn't put to death until 2011--twenty-three years after he murdered Brian Williams, twenty-one years after he was sentenced to death, and seven years after Grigson died of lung cancer.)

It's probably hyperbole to say that Grigson was a sociopath--but is it more hyperbolic than Grigson's own on-the-spot "hypothetical" diagnoses of incurable sociopathy?

At this point, this collection is something of a historical artifact, but Rosenbaum is a smart, thoughtful, engaging writer, and beneath the dated topicality, what he's writing about is the weird, dark, twisted side of human nature, and that, my friends, is still extremely damn relevant.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting book that deals with psychiatrists and those who he deals with that are murderers. Predictive items such as this dr deals with makes it very hard as it almost that he doesn't do things correctly. Not generally meeting with them shows a lack of understanding of the human psyche to me. You can't diagnose without meeting someone.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's amazing the sorts of books you can find, if you look hard enough, at the dollar store. I bought this back in college, and it's one that I dig out every couple of years to re-read. Great investigative journalism into some of the stranger news stories around. Conspiracy buffs would do well to read it.

[Kelley · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really tried to actually finish this one. So many good things are said about Rosenbaum that I was actually excited to pick this on up. But I couldn't even get 1/2 way through... and I've finished a lot of books I hated just out of principle.
Don't bother with this one unless you've read him before and know you like his work, subject matter and writing style.

[Phil Overeem]

I believe I've already read several of the pieces herein, but Rosenbaum's my favorite investigative journalist. Dogged, idiosyncratic, relentlessly questioning, and often quite funny, he's been kind of quiet lately, but no one does quite what he does.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating piece about the Texas death penalty sentencing phase. A psychiatrist nicked named doctor death testifies for the prosecution whether he believes if someone deserves to be put to death. Basically, if the criminal will commit another murder/be violent

[Bird · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh, OK. A tabloid approach to some interesting subjects like JFK and the title character, a physician who argues for the prosecution in death penalty cases.

[Stuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quality is a bit uneven, but a few of these essays are top-notch, especially the title story and a wonderful piece about USAF missile launch officers.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but outdated.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this in a random used-book shop in London. I loved it, as Rosenbaum focuses on so many interesting and leftfield subjects--conspiracy, paranoia and espionage, to name a few.

[Dianne Burton · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting subjects. I'd love to see another like this.

[Lara Arend · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rosenbaum bummbles, trying to fit his square liberalism in the round hole of world events. It would be pitiable if he weren't so arrogant.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Acquired Nov 20, 1999
City Lights Book Shop, London, Ontario

[Kathy Gruwell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Biased