Not Criminally Responsible

Criminal

The episode explores the tragic case of Brian Bechtold, who killed his parents in 1992 and was found not criminally responsible due to paran

Key takeaways

• Brian Bechtord killed his parents, George and Dorothy, with a 12-gauge shotgun in 1992.
• The Bechtold household was characterized by significant physical and emotional abuse from both parents.

Main topics

• Paranoid schizophrenia
• Not Criminally Responsible (NCR) verdict

Notable quotes

I killed my parents.

Conclusion

The episode serves as a profound meditation on the intersection of sev

Transcript preview

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That's FetchPet.com. Fetchpet.com slash save. I've been telling stories about people who've done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle for more than a decade. But what you probably don't know is that while I was starting one of the very first true crime podcasts out there, I was also taking phone calls from my sister from an Iowa prison. This fall, I'm going back out on tour, but it's going to be very different from the criminal tours we've done before. Because this time, I'm telling a story I've never told before. Speaker 1 (1:35) My Speaker 2 (1:36) own. I'll be coming to Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Raleigh, Austin, Denver, Minneapolis, L.A., Portland, Oregon, San Francisco, and Seattle. Get tickets at thisiscriminal.com slash live. Speaker 2 (1:56) This episode contains descriptions of violence. Please use discretion. Speaker 1 (2:02) In 1992, a young man turned up at the police headquarters saying that he'd just fled the scene of the crime and that he wanted to turn himself in. Speaker 2 (2:13) This was in Port St. Joe, a small town along the Gulf Coast of Florida. The man told the police officer his name was Brian Bechtold and that he was 23 years old. The officer asked when the crime had taken place. Brian said he couldn't remember exactly, maybe ten days ago or maybe seven. The officer asked where he'd been seven days ago. Brian said he'd been at home in Maryland. And then the officer asked if there were any relatives home who would pick up the phone if they called. Speaker 1 (2:47) And he said, that's who I killed. I killed my parents. We're hearing from author Makita Brotman. Speaker 2 (2:55) She says at first the police didn't believe Brian. He told them that he'd been, quote, insane for six or seven years. An officer asked why he did it. He said, I'm not sure exactly. There were a lot of things going on at the time. Brian was able to tell the officer some details. He said he'd used a 12-gauge shotgun and that his father had been eating breakfast and his mother had been sitting in a recliner. But he also said, quote, I'm not sure about what I remember and what happened. It seemed like I was possessed. It seemed like I wasn't alive. It seemed like something on TV or something like that, like I wasn't there, like it wasn't going on. Speaker 1 (3:44) And because he was being so confusing in his responses, the officers didn't know what to do. They thought maybe he was on drugs or maybe he was mistaken. Speaker 2 (3:55) Brian also told them that his parents traveled often and had a mobile home in Deland, Florida. An officer asked if it was possible his parents were just at the mobile home and hadn't been killed. Brian said, I'm sure it happened. But immediately after that, the officer asked, is there a possibility you dreamed it or thought it? And Brian replied, yes, there is. Speaker 2 (4:24) They went back and forth for a while, but then Brian said, I wish it didn't happen. I wish that something else happened. But I don't know. I don't think so. I think it happened. Speaker 1 (4:37) I'm Speaker 2 (4:38) Phoebe Speaker 1 (4:38) Judge. This Speaker 2 (4:39) is Criminal. Brian Bechtold was the fifth and youngest child of George and Dorothy Bechtold. Brian was much younger than the rest of his siblings. When he was born, his oldest sister was 17. Speaker 2 (5:03) The family moved around a lot, and Brian lived in three states before he was five. They eventually settled in Hillandale, Maryland. Speaker 2 (5:14) Tell me a little bit more about Brian's parents. Who were they? Speaker 1 (5:18) Well, his father, George, had a PhD in engineering. He was kind of like a mechanical genius. He worked for the federal government on military technology, and Dorothy was a homemaker. George, the father, was really odd. He had a very bad temper. He could be terrifying to the children. Speaker 2 (5:37) One of Brian's sisters remembered seeing George punch Dorothy in the stomach when she was pregnant with Brian. Brian's older brother, George Jr., got in trouble often. And by the time he was 15, he and his father would get into physical fights. Once, outside, in front of their house. Speaker 1 (5:58) And it seemed as though George's violence seemed to make Dorothy, the mother, feel like using force was acceptable. And so she too began to physically abuse and also humiliate the children. Speaker 2 (6:13) Brian's sister Kathy told Makita that once their mother gave her a black eye from hitting her in the face with a belt buckle. Speaker 2 (6:23) Another time, Brian and Kathy were at their neighborhood swimming pool. Speaker 1 (6:28) And Brian was hit in the head by a toy that one of the other kids was playing with. Speaker 2 (6:32) When Kathy looked over, he was covered in blood. Speaker 1 (6:36) And Kathy immediately gathered him up, and they called Dorothy to take him to the hospital. But Dorothy said she was busy and couldn't deal with it right now, and so it was another friend's mother who took them to the hospital. But doctors said they needed Speaker 2 (6:50) a parent's permission to treat Brian. When the hospital tried to call Dorothy, the line was busy. Eventually, a doctor persuaded the operator to interrupt Dorothy's call to get permission to give Brian stitches. Another one of Brian's sisters, Carol, tried running away a few times, and once ended up joining a cult in New York called the Forever Family that, according to Carol, performed exorcisms. Once she sent Brian an audio recording of one of them, Makita says Brian was six or seven at the time and became fixated on the idea that someone could be possessed by the devil. Makita says that most of Brian's siblings exhibited some signs of mental illness when they were children. Speaker 1 (7:40) For example, George Jr., the oldest child, was really turning into a replica of his father. He became violent, rude, abusive. Kathy, who Brian was very close to, started retreating inwardly and was actually in and out of psychiatric hospitals for suicidal depression. And she actually attempted suicide numerous times. And basically all the children just tried to get away from home as soon as possible. And Brian was left at home alone. Like I said, he was significantly younger than the other siblings. And he himself was depressed and never seemed to have any friends. And then at one point he mentioned his school counselor that he had thought about suicide. The counselor suggested he go to a psychiatric hospital and his parents agreed. And Brian thought that they didn't really so much want to help him as just get him out of the house. Speaker 2 (8:37) By this point, Brian was 16. At the psychiatric hospital, he was diagnosed with depression. He was kept on a maximum security ward for children and put on lithium. He only stayed for 13 days before Dorothy changed her mind and brought him back home, against medical advice, according to Brian's records. Speaker 2 (9:01) For a while, things seemed to get a little better. He joined a karate studio and made a friend there. He thought maybe he could train to be a karate teacher after he finished high school. He started dating someone. Speaker 2 (9:16) By this time, Brian's father, George, had retired, and he and Dorothy decided to buy the mobile home in Florida. Speaker 1 (9:24) And they planned to spend five months there every year, but Brian wasn't invited. So even though he was only 18, he was going to be spending half the year alone in his family home in Maryland. Karate had been a great help. for him for a while, but he injured his knee and could no longer go to karate. He started smoking more pot, doing PCP and LSD. The girl he'd been in love with broke up with him. He had a job delivering pizza, which he lost. He got arrested when marijuana was found in his car. So it seemed as though things were really starting to fall apart for him. Speaker 2 (10:06) Brian was put on probation, and his parents decided to send him to rehab. Makita says he became paranoid and started to believe that other patients at the facility were secret agents that had been sent to spy on him. His doctors diagnosed him with schizotypal personality disorder and mixed substance abuse disorder. Brian made a New Year's resolution in January of 1988 to quit drugs completely. For a while, he isolated himself in his bedroom at his parents' house. With his knee injury, he knew it wasn't realistic to try to become a karate teacher. So he applied to college, and in 1990 was accepted by DeVry University in Georgia. Speaker 1 (10:55) He lived in a house with roommates, but pretty quickly he descended into paranoia. Again, he was very isolated and suspicious. and took to even like holding a knife behind his back when he answered the door because he was worried about people being against him. After his second trimester, his probation officer told him that he'd violated terms of his probation on