Stoner?" she said, looking up
at me.
I nodded.
"Dr. McCall will see you. just go through
there."
I went into the office. It was a large room, mostly
taken up with file cabinets and bookshelves. A red-haired man with a
horsey face, horn-rim glasses, and buck teeth was sitting behind a
desk at the far wall. He was wearing a doctor's smock with a
stethoscope hanging from one of the side pockets. His pale skin was
lumpy with ancient acne scars. He fingered one of the lumps idly as I
walked up to him.
"You're Stoner?" the man said in a
businesslike voice.
"Yes." I
"Sam McCall."
McCall motioned me to a wooden chair.
There was a manila folder on his desktop. He put two
fingers on top of it as if he was taking its pulse.
"This is what you came for, I think," he
said, jabbing the folder. "You know we're not supposed to let
you see this. We're not supposed to show it to anyone other than a
physicians."
"I guess Dr. Sacks told you it's an unusual
case."
McCall nodded. "I'm a friend of Phil Pearson's,
too. That's why I'm going to let you read through this. But if the
matter should somehow end up in court, nothing that you see in here
is admissible evidence. Notl1ing."
He jabbed the folder hard to emphasize his point. He
came out from behind the desk. "I'm going to make nightly
rounds. That usually takes a couple of hours. When I come back, the
folder goes in the file cabinet. Agreed?"
"Agreed," I said.
"If you need anything else, ask my receptionist,
Nurse Rostow."
He went out of the room, leaving the manila folder on
his desk.
It took me about an hour and a half to go through
Herbert Talmadge's file. Parts of it I couldn't decipher—pages of
notes written like a prescription in a doctor's crabbed hand. But a
good deal of it had been transcribed by a typist, and those parts
made chilling reading.
Talmadge had first been admitted to Rollman's in
December 1974, after beating and sodomizing a teenage girlfriend. The
examining doctor's diagnosis was acute schizophrenia.
Subject is an intelligent black man, 28 years old, a
high school graduate with three years military service. Subject
released from military in 1974, after suffering anxiety attacks and
hallucinatory episodes. Subject referred to Veterans Administration
Hospital, November 1974, diagnosed as schizophrenic, and allowed
disability pension.
Subject was remanded to RPI by court order, 3
December, 1974, after attacking a woman friend with a handsaw.
Subject has no memory of the attack. Subject maintains the woman is
lying, that he has never harmed a woman . . .
Subject fantasizes himself a ladies' man and claims
he only does what women want him to do. Subject refuses to speak in
detail about hallucinatory episodes.
Talmadge was committed to Rollman's four more times
over the next year—each time following a sadistic attack on a woman
friend. He was invariably released after a week of
observation—perhaps because the girlfriends had dropped the charges
against him, perhaps because they had no room for him at Rollman's or
no real interest in his care and cure. In August of 1975, he was
committed to Rollman's for a fifth time by Thelma Jackson, his
landlady. The interesting part of the '75 episode was the fact that
the attending psychiatrist was Phil Pearson, then a senior resident
at Rollman's.
Pearson's notes weren't any different from any of the
other examining psychiatrists'. He referred to Talmadge's
intelligence, his denial of guilt, his refusal to speak in detail
about psychotic episodes. There was some speculation about Talmadge's
childhood, with the strong suggestion that incest with his mother may
have precipitated his psychosis.
I had hoped to find that Pearson was still the
attending psychiatrist during Talmadge's last stay at Rollman's, in
the spring of 1976. But he wasn't. A Dr. Isaac Goldman had taken over
the case. Either Goldman was more persistent than Pearson or just
plain smarter, because for the first time in three years of being
shuffled
at me.
I nodded.
"Dr. McCall will see you. just go through
there."
I went into the office. It was a large room, mostly
taken up with file cabinets and bookshelves. A red-haired man with a
horsey face, horn-rim glasses, and buck teeth was sitting behind a
desk at the far wall. He was wearing a doctor's smock with a
stethoscope hanging from one of the side pockets. His pale skin was
lumpy with ancient acne scars. He fingered one of the lumps idly as I
walked up to him.
"You're Stoner?" the man said in a
businesslike voice.
"Yes." I
"Sam McCall."
McCall motioned me to a wooden chair.
There was a manila folder on his desktop. He put two
fingers on top of it as if he was taking its pulse.
"This is what you came for, I think," he
said, jabbing the folder. "You know we're not supposed to let
you see this. We're not supposed to show it to anyone other than a
physicians."
"I guess Dr. Sacks told you it's an unusual
case."
McCall nodded. "I'm a friend of Phil Pearson's,
too. That's why I'm going to let you read through this. But if the
matter should somehow end up in court, nothing that you see in here
is admissible evidence. Notl1ing."
He jabbed the folder hard to emphasize his point. He
came out from behind the desk. "I'm going to make nightly
rounds. That usually takes a couple of hours. When I come back, the
folder goes in the file cabinet. Agreed?"
"Agreed," I said.
"If you need anything else, ask my receptionist,
Nurse Rostow."
He went out of the room, leaving the manila folder on
his desk.
It took me about an hour and a half to go through
Herbert Talmadge's file. Parts of it I couldn't decipher—pages of
notes written like a prescription in a doctor's crabbed hand. But a
good deal of it had been transcribed by a typist, and those parts
made chilling reading.
Talmadge had first been admitted to Rollman's in
December 1974, after beating and sodomizing a teenage girlfriend. The
examining doctor's diagnosis was acute schizophrenia.
Subject is an intelligent black man, 28 years old, a
high school graduate with three years military service. Subject
released from military in 1974, after suffering anxiety attacks and
hallucinatory episodes. Subject referred to Veterans Administration
Hospital, November 1974, diagnosed as schizophrenic, and allowed
disability pension.
Subject was remanded to RPI by court order, 3
December, 1974, after attacking a woman friend with a handsaw.
Subject has no memory of the attack. Subject maintains the woman is
lying, that he has never harmed a woman . . .
Subject fantasizes himself a ladies' man and claims
he only does what women want him to do. Subject refuses to speak in
detail about hallucinatory episodes.
Talmadge was committed to Rollman's four more times
over the next year—each time following a sadistic attack on a woman
friend. He was invariably released after a week of
observation—perhaps because the girlfriends had dropped the charges
against him, perhaps because they had no room for him at Rollman's or
no real interest in his care and cure. In August of 1975, he was
committed to Rollman's for a fifth time by Thelma Jackson, his
landlady. The interesting part of the '75 episode was the fact that
the attending psychiatrist was Phil Pearson, then a senior resident
at Rollman's.
Pearson's notes weren't any different from any of the
other examining psychiatrists'. He referred to Talmadge's
intelligence, his denial of guilt, his refusal to speak in detail
about psychotic episodes. There was some speculation about Talmadge's
childhood, with the strong suggestion that incest with his mother may
have precipitated his psychosis.
I had hoped to find that Pearson was still the
attending psychiatrist during Talmadge's last stay at Rollman's, in
the spring of 1976. But he wasn't. A Dr. Isaac Goldman had taken over
the case. Either Goldman was more persistent than Pearson or just
plain smarter, because for the first time in three years of being
shuffled
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