Q&A with Mikita Brottman

 

Photo by Dereck Stafford

 

 

Mikita Brottman is the author of the new book Guilty Creatures: Sex, God, and Murder in Tallahassee, Florida. Her other books include An Unexplained Death. She is also a professor of literature at the Maryland Institute College of Art and a psychoanalyst, and she lives in Baltimore.

 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Guilty Creatures, and how did you learn about this case?

 

A: I first heard about the case back in 2018, right after Denise’s trial. I have a longstanding interest in court trials, and at the time I had a podcast called Forensic Transmissions, in which I aired segments of crime-related public domain audio, mostly testimony from court trials.

 

So, I’m always looking for interesting audio, trawling the Court TV archives, which is where I came across footage of Brian Winchester’s confession.

 

This was in 2018, 18 years after Brian murdered his best friend. He's confessing in public, and it’s gut-wrenching. I’d never seen anything like it—watching a 50-year-old man reveal a horrible secret he’s been keeping for 18 years. You can see and feel the deep horror and shame and guilt, and a sense of release.

 

I immediately found out everything I could about the case and started to write about it.

 

Q: The author Becky Cooper called the book a “compelling psychological double portrait of what happens when two people are forever bound by a life-altering secret.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I think it's very appropriate because the book is really about the psychology of a couple who commit murder, in particular the ways they defended themselves against guilt through the years — this astonishing range of psychological manipulations, maneuverings, justifications, denials.

 

And their relation to one another, which began as complete united devotion to concealment at all costs, and how the murder bore down on them, driving them in different directions, then back together, then apart.

 

At different times, one of them might bear the guilt, then the guilt would be unloaded on to the other, moving the terrible burden back and forth, always unconsciously. And, how they squared it with their Baptist religion.  

 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: The book's title is a line from Hamlet. I chose it partly because the case has so many uncanny resonances with classical literature.

 

The story is basically the plot of Macbeth, where a couple commits a murder to benefit their own social position without realizing how it’s going to come back and haunt them, destroying their relationship.

 

At first Lady Macbeth is the one in charge, the aggressive one, and Macbeth is reluctant, but over time their position changes and it’s Lady Macbeth who can’t bear the guilt, where Macbeth goes into deep denial.

 

There are also echoes of the Oresteia, by Aeschylus, in which Agamemnon is murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover. It's full of classical figures, like the seductress and the avenging mother.

 

Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: Obviously, I did a lot of research—this book took four years to write. And of course, I went to Tallahassee and interviewed people, visited the places involved, and so on.

 

I can’t say much about who I spoke to, as a lot of people wanted to remain anonymous, and I want to protect my sources, but I can tell you that neither Brian nor Denise, the murderers, who are both in prison in Florida, responded to my attempt to reach out to them for interview.

 

I was surprised by how many people in the community were aware of the murder, and had suspicions about the perpetrators all along, but never came forward.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

  

A: Another Florida murder case, the Teresa Sievers case. Another bizarre murder involving lots of twists and turns, swinging, open marriages, the American tradition of quacks, charlatans, petty conmen, shady “healers” and insurance scams. It’s fascinating!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I think the book will appeal to everyone - not only true crime fans! I tried to make it as much of a page-turner as possible.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb