Mikita BrottmanRezensionen

3.5 stars, this is a wild true crime story that shows even the dumbest unplanned crimes can go unsolved for decades, and are often only solved when a conscience cracks.½

Guilty Creatures: Sex, God, and Murder in Tallahassee, Florida by Mikita Brottman is a recommended psychological examination of a true crime story.

Couples Brian and Kathy Winchester and Mike and Denise Williams all met while students at North Florida Christian High School. They all remained friends after high school and attended a Baptist church. On December 16, 2000, Denise’s husband Mike disappeared while duck hunting on Lake Seminole. His body was never found. Mike's mother never gave up hope that her son was still alive and the search for her son should continue. Denise had Mike declared deceased and collected $1 million in life insurance.

Then within five years of Mike’s disappearance, Brian divorced his wife and married Denise, which started rumors about their relationship. With ongoing pressure Mike’s mother put on the police and the help of a Tallahassee Democrat reporter the investigation reopened and gathered momentum. Denise later divorced Brian, but the two were forever connected by their secret. Brian snapped, kidnapped her, and upon his arrest and questioning the truth came out.

Brottman examines the psychological aspects of the couple and their soul crushing bond based on holding a terrible secret for eighteen years. This is a murder story with ties to religion and sex. The book is more a focus on Brian and Denise self deception concerning their guilt. The presentation of the material and information surrounding the case is interesting and written in a matter-of-fact manner rather than one that creates any suspense. I knew nothing about this case before reading this account. Thanks to Atria/One Signal for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2024/07/guilty-creatures.html

In Tallahassee, Florida, Mike and Denise & Brian and Kathy were all friends in high school and continued that friendship beyond once Mike and Denise were married, as well as Brian and Kathy. They were fairly religious Baptists. It was only on (or near) Mike and Denise’s 6th anniversary in 2000 when Mike disappeared while on a hunting trip. Not long after, Brian and Kathy divorced and Brian and Denise began seeing each other. It seemed pretty obvious – Brian and Denise likely had something to do with Mike’s disappearance (death? murder?). After years of Brian and Denise’s marriage, things started to crumble.

I knew nothing about this, but I found it quite interesting. And kind of crazy that Brian and Denise could do such a good job of convincing themselves they’d done nothing wrong. God-fearing and all… sure. I was focused when reading and was happy to just continue reading; it was unfortunate when I had to put the book down. But, life…

Guilty Creatures: Sex, God, and Murder in Tallahassee, Florida by Mikita Brottman is a 2024 Atria publication.

This true crime book details the decades long investigation into the murder of Mike Williams in Florida. Mike went duck hunting one day, but was never heard from again. Meanwhile, it became obvious that Mike’s wife, Denise, and his best friend, Brian, were getting pretty chummy with each other. With only circumstantial evidence and no body, it was hard to prove Mike was murdered and even harder to prove Denise or Brian were responsible for his death. So, for years the case was kept alive by Mike’s mother, Cheryl, and a stubborn Florida reporter until finally, a series of events breaks the case wide open…

This is one of those cases that really does have it all. A bit of of Double Indemnity- a bit of Shakespeare. These people are incredible- one minute they are having a hot and heavy affair, plotting murder, and the next they are deeply religious, devout church members... and seriously convince themselves they are sincere believing their own lies.

This was a high-profile case- especially if one lived in Florida. Mike’s disappearance was featured on the Discovery channel show, “Disappeared”- but I’m not sure if everyone knows the case chapter and verse- so I thought the author could have gone with a more suspenseful approach so that the reader would feel compelled to find out how it would all play out. Instead, very early on we are told some pieces of information that popped that balloon- though there are plenty of twists in the case- and tons and tons of juicy tidbits and gossip. At times it felt like I was reading a trashy novel instead of a true crime saga. But as they say- you can’t make this stuff up.

The writing, though, is just okay- sometimes it didn’t flow well, and though this won’t make sense, it could be dry reading sometimes- but it was never boring- that’s for sure. If you like true crime this case will is one you’ll want to check out, especially if you’ve never heard of Denise and Brian. It’s a real jaw-dropper.

3.5 stars½

The author spends 10 years researching and trying to solve, understand the death of Rey Rivera.. Listed as a suicide the author exlpores other thoughts on his cause of death. Well written, interesting writing style. A little different than many true crime books.

After killing his parents at age 22 in 1992 Brian Bechtold has been in the Perkins Psychiatric Hospital. He gives his perspective of these many years hospitalized as he feels he is no longer mentally ill. The author also gives her point of view and detiails many of the problems with caring for the mentally ill. After having worked with some of the patients in a state psychiatric hospital I agree with Ms. Brottman on most of her observations and the need for much improved care.

Don't be fooled by the title. Mikita Brottman loves to read.It's merely a ploy to draw the reader in.(Worked on me). What she actually argues against is literary snobbery. She takes offence to those who proclaim that the "Literary Classics' are the only worthwhile way to examine the depths of the human psyche. Brottman discusses a number of genres which she personally feels have given her more insight into the human mind. Some of her favorites are modern bestsellers, tell all bios, true crime books, and psychoanalyst case studies. She makes strong and compelling arguments for all these genres, and I'll probably find myself dipping into some of them.

The title of this book definitely peaked my interests; prisons and books. Also, the cover is fabulous! The book is a memoir of the author’s experience facilitating a book club inside a male prison and the lives of the inmates participating. It’s just an okay book and only slightly interesting. I’m not familiar with the books they read and it didn’t seem to be a hindrance. I think the author learned very quickly that facilitating a college-level book club with people who have spent most of their lives incarcerated is vastly different from teaching college students. There is a whole culture inside a prison that the author definitely got schooled on during book club. It also seemed the author had unrealistic expectations of the inmates; therefore, she had difficulty meeting them where they were at regarding their book interests. She saw the inmates the way she wanted to see them and tried to make them fit into the characters of the story she made up. She also frequently contradicted herself by being annoyed when the inmates related the books to their own experiences by being tangential and discussing current prison life, while a few pages later probing them to talk about how they related to the story. On a different note, the author’s boundaries with the inmates is concerning. Especially some of the reading material she selected and the movies she brought in for them to view. She also repeatedly makes disrespectful comments about the correctional staff and engages in those splitting conversations with the inmates. She appears quite naïve to the potential dangers she exposes herself. I appreciate the service she provides and know that it can be done in a professional manner in which she can gain respect from both correctional staff and inmates. I also do not underestimate she has had some unpleasant experiences with correctional staff; however, I don’t think it serves her overall purpose to have those experiences published in this book.

This is a fairly different take on a true crime story. It's focused primarily on what happens to the murderer after he's killed and is sent to a psychiatric facility. There's still a good bit of foundation laid regarding his upbringing, his parents, the murder (he killed his parents - and I didn't feel too bad about that since they were mostly awful), and his psychosis. He had some very serious problems.

The book is interesting but not particularly engaging. I think I was mostly frustrated by what seemed like Brian's inability to get a fair shake with the doctors and the courts. But I was also constantly aware that I'm getting Brian's point of view through the author - who has no actual training in psychiatry (at least I got the impression that is the case) and only got to know him through a course she offered at the facility. So is Brian the most reliable source of information when it comes to his diagnosis? I don't know. And that's how I ended up feeling at the completion of the book: I don't know. There was a lot of information given but I don't know what the facts truly are so, in some ways, I'm feeling like maybe this wasn't a good use of my reading time...

Really enjoyed the book. Really liked her descriptions of the prison, the convicts, the guards - and also her comments about the books themselves and most of all her reactions to it all. A very good writer!

Outside of America’s political system, the misnamed “Criminal Justice System” is the nation’s most broken institution. In aggregate, states and the federal government spend upwards of $100 billion each year to punish people who have broken laws and call the punishment “rehabilitation” or “correction.” Any institution with an 82% failure rate such as the incarceration system does simply is not working.
Brottman’s book traces her experience inside on of these institutions. She meets with nine convicts regularly to read and discuss great books. Along the way, she tells about their lives, their backgrounds,their crimes and the hopelessness that she sees inside the walls of this system of cages. Yet she also chronicles the resilience and hope some men are capable of.
The book is an insightful look into the system and its impact on its victims, for to call these convicts anything else dismisses their realities. The author gains insights into the books she shares with these men that often amaze her and sometimes even raise her to higher levels of her own understanding of the books.
It is a worthwhile read both for its actual content and for its implications. Since every single other nation of the world has both lower incarceration rates and lower recidivity rates, it is also an indictment of a society that fails to correct a system that wastes billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives rich in human capital.

A documentary type book covering the trials and tribulations of a man who as a very young man slew his parents in a fit of perceived mental illness by the justice system. I listened as an audiobook and it certainly did enlighten me as to what happens in our judicial system when someone is found legally insane for their crime.

You would think the process would seek to treat and reform the person and behavior but it turns out in this advocacy type of presentation it is not that apparent. This individual ends up spending most of his life ensnared in a web of law and medicine that leaves him in a perpetual limbo as to his own life. It probably could be argued that the treatment is just but the author reveals a different take in how difficult it is to prove sanity in the legal system that seems itself blinded in its justice.

The book becomes bogged down in endless conflicts the patient endured but there was certainly information that can be gleaned in how the process works when someone is held mentally incompetent for the crime. And it appears to be no reprieve.

This not your usual true crime book. Most true crime books I have read deal with the crime and trial. This book, while it does go through Brian’s crime and his childhood, is more about what happened after. Brian, at 19, murdered his parents and was found not criminally responsible. It was determined that he was mentally ill. Brian, himself, agrees with that. He gets sent to Perkins, an institution in Maryland.
Most of the book is about life in Perkins, with the emphasis on Brian and his battle for freedom from Perkins. If you have an interest in mental health and how some of our mentally ill are warehoused, this is a book you will want to read. I do feel, after reading this, that for many years we have failed at adequately caring for the mentally ill. I was heartened to read that there has been some recent improvements. Some of the chapters have little to nothing to do with Brian. I feel they were intended to give a more complete picture of life inside Perkins. Life inside institutions for the mentally ill has always been dangerous. It seems that changes occur very slowly. We are still looking at some of the same issues that were happening in 1985, when a state hospital where I lived was closed. Many of those issues were present in the 1930’s. One would hope that, in that length of time, we would have better care. Unfortunately we don’t. We have many mentally ill who are homeless and receiving inadequate care. Having read this insider look inside an institution, I see those who are in placement also receive inadequate or inconsistent care. Hopefully this book will bring about some conversations on what we need to do and how to accomplish those goals.
I found this to be an interesting book. There are no suggestions for improvements. I would have appreciated reading the author’s ideas on this. I found this to be heavy reading and needed to take breaks. I needed time to reflect on what I was reading. I wish I had some answers for what we can do. The mentally ill are a part of our society and, in my opinion, can most likely be found in a majority of families in the United States. We need to find a balance between inpatient and outpatient care that better addresses the care of them.

*I won an advanced reader’s edition in a Goodreads Giveaway. My review is voluntary and is my thoughts and opinions on what I read.*

I have read several dozen true crime books but like author Mikita says, most focus on the events leading up to the crime and justice for the crime. That is where most of the books end. Which I have to admit that most of the time I don't spend much time thinking about the person or persons afterwards. So, I was intrigued to take a look more at the perpetrator's view after the trial.

In the case of Brian, he was sent to an institution to determine if he is considered competent to stand trial. It might seem like an institution would be a better place than prison but it is not. Sadly, not all of the people in an institution require long term care but a lot of them do end up there for the rest of their lives. The situation is not an improvement nor do the people receive the care that they require or need. Overall, I did like this book and the different point of view it gave me.

Overall interesting book about one man’s experience of being judged “not criminally responsible” for a terrible crime which essentially results in a life sentence at a mental hospital. Once in, there’s no real way to prove he is cured and get released, and he is trapped in an abusive, Kafkaesque world where he has fewer rights than in prison. While reading it, I had various disagreements or beefs with the author’s POV, conclusions, or tone. One example—someone (the subject of the book, the psychiatrists quoted, or the writer) can’t distinguish between Islam and the Nation of Islam and this is never teased out. But the author did a good job advocating for her subject and his case and casting a light on this horrifying system.

On February 21, 1992 Brian Bechtold walked into a Florida police station and confessed to murdering his mom and dad. On October 8, 1992 Brian was found "Not Criminally Responsible". He was committed to the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center.
The story begins with his childhood and the hidden abuse in all aspects. From the alcoholic father to the overwhelmed abusive mom, Brian was constantly told he wasn't wanted. When Brian was sentenced to maximum security, he soon realized he was in a much worse situation than prison.
As the story unfolds the horrors of the institution are revealed. With Brian being bounced from maximum to minimum security, he becomes desperate to escape, go to prison, or even just die. Nightmare stories are told of patients killing each other and guards abusing patients for laughs; this story will almost almost make you sick to your stomach.
I found myself feeling sorry for Brian, even though he murdered his parents. With every move Brian is scrutinized and another diagnosis and medication is added. The idea of patients being locked up and literally forgotten by the system is unacceptable.
I won an Advance Reader's Edition from Goodreads and Holt Publishers. Thank you very much for the opportunity to read this book. Couple Found Slain is a chilling, gripping book! One I will not forget for a long time.

I found this book to be very interesting, and really a bit different than the normal true crime that I read. It starts out talking about the Bechtold family, the way it started with each of the parents, who became the murder victims, and how the family changed with each child and the family resources. I was sad to hear of the mental illness that ran through the entire family, including outside of this family unit. I must admit, the parents were not very sympathetic victims in my opinion. Their treatment of the children was horrible and abusive. My heart went out to each child, including Brian, who is the one who killed the parents. He suffered horrible abuse and mental illness through his entire life. The story and the events afterwards were quite interesting. I did like the book, even all of the issues in the story. I think the author did a great job in bringing out all of the relevant facts. I really liked the way she talked about the mental illness issues and all of the facts about that. I do recommend this book.

I received a complimentary audiobook from Macmillan Audio and NetGalley. My review is voluntary and unbiased.

Author states in the beginning that this is not a story about the crime per se but about the consequences for one person within mental health system. The author’s perspective is interesting given her background as a scholar with a PhD in English Literature as well as a psychoanalyst.

She describes the family history of the Bechtold family which included his parents, Dorothy and George, several sisters given their Catholic beliefs. Unfortunately, they weren’t the most attentive or supportive parents that their children needed. They moved a few times due to his father’s education and eventual PhD which secured him a stable job for the government.

Brian Bechtold, was their youngest kid, who they left alone most of the time. He endured years of abuse and neglect never being able to hold down a steady job. He turned to drugs which landed him in many unfortunate situations. When Brian was 22 yo, he killed both of his parents in their home. He fled and eventually turned himself in to the police explaining that the devil told him to kill his parents. Since his sobriety, he claimed God wanted him to make amends for his crime.

He was deemed schizophrenic and unable to stand trial for the 1992 murders. He was locked up at Clifton T Perkins Hospital Center where he would spend many more years than deemed reasonable compared to the crimes of other inmates. Brian never denied his crime and acknowledges that he wasn’t thinking clearly at that time. Over the years and many clinicians later, Brian would continue to be denied release on grounds that he was a threat to himself or others. For whatever reason, no one believed anything he had to say whether negative or positive. Oddly, the staff would twist his words to suit their purpose of keeping him at Perkins. He often prayed and attempted escape in order to be sent to prison where the living conditions were better than those at Perkins.

It’s a sad story of the injustices and prejudices within the mental health care system of that institution. They endured he stayed there despite his family and friends living too far away to visit. Through research and interviews, it seems the system unfairly over punished some while others were allowed release. The purpose of mental health confinement is to rehabilitate people to return them to society after receiving the help they need. In this case, this facility seemed to lack staff who would evaluate patients in the present without the prejudice of past mistakes.

What an in-depth look at a murder, horrendous killing of his parents, but why, is there a reason.
The author takes us on a journey from before the murders, his growing up years, and then when Brian, himself reports the Crime at a Florida police department.
This is riveting as we follow his time in the mental hospital, meet other inmates, and what happens too many of them.
Once you're in this hospital, we see up close how the patients are treated, over medicated, and I felt sorry for him. He seems highly intelligent, and aware of what is going on, so maybe that is harder.
Will he ever be let go? He seems to have a lot of people rooting for him, but is he capable of living in society?
I still have some questions, but the author did a wonderful job at giving a complete picture of what his life is like.

I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher MacMillian Audio, and was not required to give a positive review.

Mikita Brottman’s Couple Found Slain: After a Family Murder is a true crime volume with a twist. Most true crime accounts focus almost entirely on the crime, and on the identification and incarceration of the party responsible for committing it. This, however, is only the beginning of what Brottman has to say about Brian Bechtold’s 1992 murder of his parents in Silver Spring, Maryland. The author focuses instead on what happens to the 22-year-old after he turns himself in to authorities in Port St. Joe, Florida - and what his life has been like for the almost three decades following the murder.

That Brian Bechtold would shotgun his parents to death should have come as no surprise to anyone paying attention to what life in the Bechtold home was like, least of all to Brian’s parents. The Bechtold family is one that has been plagued with mental illness for generations, and neither of Brian’s parents were entirely free of the problem themselves. Perhaps that is why neither of them seemed to feel physically threatened by Brian’s behavioral problems right up to the moment he turned his shotgun on both of them on the morning of February 21, 1992.

But that is only the beginning of Brian Bechtold’s story.

Brian was so obviously mentally disturbed (eventually being diagnosed as schizophrenic) that he was held “not criminally responsible” by a jury and confined to Maryland’s Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center for an indefinite period of time during which doctors would supposedly work to cure him of his mental illness so that he could eventually be released back into the public. And that’s right where he would still be when Mikita Brottman encountered him in that same facility more than two decades later — no closer to being released back into society or even, according to his doctors, “cured” of his illness.

Couple Found Slain is Brottman’s reaction to what she learned about Brian and the situation in which he now seemed to be trapped forever. Her well researched recounting of daily life inside Perkins explains how difficult it became for Brian to cope with what seemed to him to be an endless stream of reliving the same day over and over again. What Brottman describes as life inside Perkins, especially in the maximum security unit where Brian spent so much of his time, makes clear how difficult it must have been for Brian or anyone else to retain their sanity, much less try to regain it under those conditions.

Bottom Line: Couple Found Slain is an eye-opener for those of us who do not pay attention to what happens to people confined to psychiatric facilities by the courts. That longterm residents of the facilities often come to see being transferred into the prison system — and act out, accordingly — as their only way out of the grind of living in a psychiatric hospital tells you everything you need to know about the mental torture of living life under such an indefinite sentence.

The audiobook version of Couple Found Slain, with the exception of brief remarks by the author herself, is read by Christina Delaine whose voice and pacing are such that her words are always easily understood. Delaine’s delivery, however, does tend at times to swing into a monotoned, almost robotic, style reminiscent of computer-generated narration, and that can be distracting.

Review Copy provided by Publisher

First thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review. I couldn't stop reading this book. This is story telling at its finest. Not only a terrific story for true crime buffs but the story continues with the life of Brian Bechtold after his conviction. If you don't feel something after reading this book then you aren't alive. I love this author's writing style and she even explains things that are for those more medically inclined. Photographs go along with each chapter. A highly recommended read!

Couple Found Slain: After a Family Murder
By: Mikita Brottman

In 1992, Brian Bechtold a 22-year-old man brutally murdered his father and mother in their home. This is his story. He never denied his guilt. He was judged "not criminally responsible" by reason of insanity. He was eventually found to be suffering from schizophrenia. His life changed greatly after he was admitted to a maximum-security psychiatric hospital called Perkins Center.

This is Brian Bechtold's biography, starting in his young childhood with parents who were unable to be loving, caring parents to their four children. Brian's childhood was filled with abuse and neglect. There were several instances of mental health issues in their family history.

Brian Bechtold was left to rot in Perkins. There was no care or treatment being offered, the informational brochures put out by the hospital said they offered one on one instruction and classes, and rehabilitation. The inmates were usually forcibly drugged with antipsychotics and left to sit or stand in a dayroom all day and had slobber running down their faces. Classes or group therapy were rare.

Brian found himself feeling better if he was not taking the heavy drugs, The hospital personnel insisted that he needed to be on the medications so that he would heal and be able to return to society one day. Except that one day never came. Brian did everything he could to get out, not take the harsh medications, or at least be sent to a prison, where he would at least have basic human freedoms. With no success. The doctors and staff had preconceived ideas about Brian Bechtold and did not examine him or even read his charts, when they had to update his files or testify in court about his abilities or lack thereof, they would simply copy over whatever the last ten doctors had written and go on.

If Brian complained it looked like he was not cooperating in his treatment. If he refused to take medications, they saw it as a denial of his condition. All he wanted was to be treated as a human being and given a chance. He was not allowed. He instead is treated as less than a human being and has been kept in Maryland at Perkins Center for 29 years, with no end in sight.

There was no real conclusion to the book, just that Brian Bechtold exists in this state mental hospital, with no hope for the future. He has no say whatsoever in his care, is not allowed to refuse treatment. Is not allowed to move in with his sister who has said she would let him live with her and she'd look after him.

Thank you to NetGalley for the complimentary copy for which I was not required to leave a review.

Outside of America’s political system, the misnamed “Criminal Justice System” is the nation’s most broken institution. In aggregate, states and the federal government spend upwards of $100 billion each year to punish people who have broken laws and call the punishment “rehabilitation” or “correction.” Any institution with an 82% failure rate such as the incarceration system does simply is not working.
Brottman’s book traces her experience inside on of these institutions. She meets with nine convicts regularly to read and discuss great books. Along the way, she tells about their lives, their backgrounds,their crimes and the hopelessness that she sees inside the walls of this system of cages. Yet she also chronicles the resilience and hope some men are capable of.
The book is an insightful look into the system and its impact on its victims, for to call these convicts anything else dismisses their realities. The author gains insights into the books she shares with these men that often amaze her and sometimes even raise her to higher levels of her own understanding of the books.
It is a worthwhile read both for its actual content and for its implications. Since every single other nation of the world has both lower incarceration rates and lower recidivity rates, it is also an indictment of a society that fails to correct a system that wastes billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives rich in human capital.

Outside of America’s political system, the misnamed “Criminal Justice System” is the nation’s most broken institution. In aggregate, states and the federal government spend upwards of $100 billion each year to punish people who have broken laws and call the punishment “rehabilitation” or “correction.” Any institution with an 82% failure rate such as the incarceration system does simply is not working.
Brottman’s book traces her experience inside on of these institutions. She meets with nine convicts regularly to read and discuss great books. Along the way, she tells about their lives, their backgrounds,their crimes and the hopelessness that she sees inside the walls of this system of cages. Yet she also chronicles the resilience and hope some men are capable of.
The book is an insightful look into the system and its impact on its victims, for to call these convicts anything else dismisses their realities. The author gains insights into the books she shares with these men that often amaze her and sometimes even raise her to higher levels of her own understanding of the books.
It is a worthwhile read both for its actual content and for its implications. Since every single other nation of the world has both lower incarceration rates and lower recidivity rates, it is also an indictment of a society that fails to correct a system that wastes billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives rich in human capital.

Super dark and enthralling. Mikita Brottman investigates a mysterious death in her apartment building, while also referencing back to the former hotel's sordid past as a den of suicides and murders. Rey Rivera's death raises questions not only for his family, but for the media as well. This you successful married man, ran out of the house one day never to be seen again. When he was found over a week later, it was most perplexing. It was as if he did a running leap of the thirteenth floor and landed feet-first into the former pool. He clearly died on impact, but was it suicide or something else? Since the death occurred in Mikita's building she takes a massive interest in the case. Obsessively following it for over a decade. An Unexplained Death is part historical portrait of The Belvedere (the current apartment building and former luxury hotel), part memoir (at least of the author's neuroses, fears, and mental health), part look at suicide, and part investigation into Rey Rivera's death. There's a lot going on, but it all meshes really well together and creates a unique format is hard to put down.