Edward L. Jones III is the author of the new book Medication, Mental Illness, and Murder: What Really Killed the Crespi Twins. He also has worked in the fields of advertising and higher education, and has been a community columnist for the Charlotte Observer.
Q: What inspired you to write Medication, Mental Illness, and Murder?
A: The book begins with these words: “In 2005, Kim Crespi had what she later described as ‘the perfect life.’” It then goes on to recount how that ideal life was destroyed in less than40 minutes. While Kim was out getting a haircut, her husband David, while in the throes of a medication-induced psychosis, stabbed their precious twin daughters to death.
Above all else, it was Kim Crespi’s quiet courage in the aftermath of all of this that motivated—even drove—me to write the book. Her unshakeable commitment to and forgiveness of her chemically altered husband. Her propensity to always light a candle and never curse the darkness.
As readers will see, Kim’s contemporaneous journal entries are the “spine” of the book; they give the story its arc. Plus, Kim’s example gives the book a real-life hero.
Q: How did you research the book, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?
A: During the process, I acted as a kind of “sleuth researcher,” seeking out the most objective, reliable sources I could find (e.g., scholarly articles and books) regarding antidepressants and their potentially dangerous side effects.
I also scoured the Internet for articles that chronicled how SSRI antidepressants were initially developed and marketed, and for any accounts of SSRI-related family tragedies that were similar to the Crespis’.
My approach to what I included in the book was: only the finest minds in psychiatry, psychology, pharmacology, neuroscience, and investigative reporting need apply. No conspiracy theorists or gun lobbyists, please. (There are more than 160 footnotes in the book, so skeptical readers are free/invited to double-check the veracity of my sources.)
Along the way, I learned a lot that surprised, shocked, and at times enraged me, especially regarding the greed and mendacity of Big Pharma.
To me, the most egregious example is an infamous clinical trial that was bought and paid for by GlaxoSmithKline involving Paxil. Thanks to a whistleblower, GSK was caught red-handed in fraudulently concealing data which indicated that Paxil caused suicidality in an alarming percentage of adolescent patients.
The US Department of Justice charged GSK with failing to report safety data (and more), and in 2012, GlaxoSmithKline pleaded guilty and paid a $3 billion settlement, including a criminal fine of $1 billion.
Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: What I hope the title signifies to prospective readers is that they are about to read a kind of detective story that seeks to uncover clues and answers to this question (among others): Is it possible that a wildly popular, legally prescribed SSRI antidepressant like Prozac can turn an exemplary husband and father like David Crespi into a homicidal monster?
Q: What impact did it have on you to write this book, and what do you hope readers take away from the book?
A: Writing the book was an emotional rollercoaster. Those emotions ranged from sorrow to inspiration to anger to excitement (about what my research had uncovered) to tears.
And there were many tears, most of which were triggered by Kim Crespi’s journal entries—how brave and loving and resilient she was (and continues to be) in the midst of moments that would have crushed other people. How utterly lacking in self-pity.
Four things I hope readers will take away from the book: a) When patients and their families are armed with accurate information about medications, lives can be saved; b) better, more evidence-based options for treating depression are now available instead of neurotoxic pills; c) you as a patient have a legal right to informed consent; and d) never give up hope.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: First, I am helping a Pulitzer Prize-nominated historian edit a brilliant new book he is writing which is a kind of anthropology of loneliness in American culture.
Second, I am working on a screenplay with the working title Two Priests Walk into a Gay Bar.
I am a convert to Catholicism, and I love my adopted faith, but in too many quarters— especially among the more hyper-conservative priests, bishops, and laypeople—the Church can be mercy-less to gay and trans people. To me, that is yet another scandal.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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