Deadly Charm: The Story of a Deaf Serial Killer

by McCay Vernon, Marie Vernon

From the day he was born, Patrick McCullough faced hardships and reacted with untempered anger. His mother, a soon-to-be-divorced military wife, was late to realize that he was deaf and never learned how to handle his outbursts. Eventually, she abandoned him by petitioning for him to be a ward of the state. Stints in mental institutions and dismissals from several schools punctuated the rest of McCullough’s early years. Despite this severe childhood, no one could have predicted the outcome of his life described in Deadly The Story of a Deaf Serial Killer . Authors McCay and Marie Vernon present a compelling story about McCullough, a strikingly handsome man with a winning personality. His charm was endearing, but his incendiary temper resulted in increasing aggression and abuse. Eventually, he was convicted for the murder of two men. Yet, McCullough ingratiated himself with the court and served only seven years in prison. Once free again, he resumed his pattern of sweetness and mayhem. He beguiled sympathetic women whom he then abused and stalked. Finally, his rage culminated in a crescendo of destruction. Deadly Charm depicts a deaf serial killer driven by frustration and violence and leaves much to consider. Did McCullough’s deafness exacerbate his lethally violent nature? Perhaps his vicious impulses could have been constrained if his time in mental institutions had been more productive than his time in prison.
 

Genres: True Crime

248 pages, Paperback

First published May 31, 2010

Reviews

[Julie Morales · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story of Patrick Mccullough, born in 1960 in Alaska to a military family who later relocated to Maryland when Patrick was still quite young. Patrick was born profoundly deaf, a fact his parents didn't know until much damage had already been done psychologically, but he was also mentally ill, and that compounded all of the other difficulties Patrick faced. He spent his school years in and out of hospitals for the mentally ill and schools for the deaf, but he couldn't stay in one place for long enough to get used to being there. He had a violent temper, even when he was very young, and he had strength that far surpassed that of the average child. As a man, his strength was seemingly superhuman.
Patrick had a third-grade reading level and a poor education, so at the age of 18, when he was legally on his own, he was ill-equipped. He had a few people who really tried to get involved in his life and help him succeed, but in the end, this is the story of a deaf serial killer who fell short of his potential as someone with an IQ of 120.
This book treats Patrick's case with compassion. We don't just focus on the lives Patrick destroyed, although we do learn about them, but we also read quite a bit about his growing-up years, and by the end of the book, at least I was left feeling as mixed up as I'm sure many who knew him felt. We see his potential, and we see how many ways the system failed him. He was misdiagnosed as being "retarded," was dismissed even from a nursery school, so his difficulties started at a very young age and never got any easier. Life definitely wasn't kind to Patrick, and when given the chance, he was usually out of control and dangerous. In the end, he was a threat to others and himself.
This was a book that had me in tears more than once, for the families Patrick tore apart, but also for Patrick himself. As I read, it was easy to see what he could have become if things had been different.

[Allison Sauntry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was interested in this book because I’ve lived in the Annapolis area for many years and was surprised I had never heard about this case (of course, all of these events took place well before I ever came to the area.) Fascinating and sad story.... though the writing could have been much better.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

sad that he was so misunderstood and needy that it resulted in multiple murders.

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written by a psychologist who apparently does not recognize such an obvious case of Borderline Personality Disorder that the guy he was discussing, Patrick McCullough, could have been wearing a sandwich board announcing the fact. Oh, and he wasn't a serial killer in the FBI sense. Dreadful tale of a man who should have been locked up much more securely, and much, much sooner.

[Maurine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to read this book for an ASL class I'm in and while I did find it interesting, I was constantly distracted by the poor editing and redundancy of material.

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched but the subject wasn't as interesting as I'd hoped.