Back in 2003, a 29-year-old man named Cody Alan Dwire attacked someone with an axe outside the Eureka Inn. It was pretty startling at the time, as the attack seemed to be random and likely would have been fatal had another man not intervened.
Recently, a reader alerted us to the shocking last chapter of Dwire’s life, which took place in 2008. Below is a news report from a local TV station in Lewiston, Idaho.
This article appears in R.I.P. Prop. 19.
I can’t believe we spend so much money and effort trying to rehabilitate the sick people in this world. We should stick these folks on a giant raft in the sea and let em fend for themselves.
I can’t believe we spend so much money poisoning people. “Vaccines” containing numerous poisons (Google: Vaccine Ingredients), fluoride in the water (Google: Fluoride toxicity), disabling artificial sweeteners (Google: Aspartame toxicity; Google: Splenda toxicity), Genetically Mutated Frankenfoods, and of course filling innocent children with mind-altering drugs if they dare to act like children or display a whit of independent thought.
Glad Terry has some interesting points of view to present.
Shouldn’t ignore the question, how did Dwire get to be what he became. And how do those factors affect the rest of us? What can we do to reduce the chances of more Dwires, reduce the chances of more Dwires to that extreme? What can we do to reduce the threats those same factors pose to each and every one of us?
No simple answers, but we really should get beyond “Good Riddance”. We should ask “What can we learn from this?”.
And as for Evan’s original point, it’s less expensive to prevent Dwires in the first place than the price of the consequences for not doing so. Likewise, healthy prevention (and no, I don’t mean “Pre-Crime”) is less expensive than rehabilitationl.
Evan is just a brain injury away from his own raft.
People who suffer from mental illness deserve compassion even if their illness makes them a danger to us or to themselves. It is up to those of us in control of our mental faculties to assist those who cannot depend upon their own brain to rationally process information. I can think of nothing more frightening than losing the ability to reason. This man’s life must have been a nightmare. God bless him.
Hey Evan, instead of a raft, how about we throw them a life preserver of corrdinated modern mental health services, including inpatient care when needed? How about we act with love and generosity?
It is not possible to avert all suffering and tragedy, but it is possible to act with love and generosity. A moral people help their helpless.
This guy hit a tourist in the forehead with an ax splitting his head open and then stabbed him 17 times while the victim’s wife watched and screamed from a hotel room DA Gallegos refused to prosecute for attempted murder and accepted an insanity plea. Result: He went to a mental hospital, walked out four years later, was sane enough to find his way back to Idaho and shot his mother in the head and killed her boyfriend with a 44 magnum. I witnessed the Eureka Inn attack and intervened to stop the attack. It was horrible. Insane or not, our justice system failed.
“DA Gallegos… accepted an insanity plea.”
I’m pretty sure its up to a JUDGE to decide whether to accept an insanity plea. And at any rate, it seems like this guy fit the bill, as far as insanity goes.
I think the relevant question is why he was able to just “walk away” from a mental health facility just a few years after the Eureka Inn axe attack.
Ok. Wrong choice of words. Should say DA chose not to prosecute for attempted murder. That decision was made before the trial.
Of course the justice system failed. So long as human beings are treated as so much chemical soup, in which the first, last, and only “solution” is patented pharmaceutical poisons, the Dwires of this country will continue to suffer, and will continue to cause trouble.
“Mental Hospitals” and other governmental “mental health” facilities, do not seek to determine and cure/heal what caused the person to commit the crime in the first place. Rather, they experiment with combinations of drugs until the symptoms are sufficiently masked, the person is adequately sedated, and/or the person is turned into a pharma-zombie.
T.L. Clark nailed it — the environmental culture we have allowed to take over our lives is so Orwellian, its easier to be in denial. What if our lifestyles were so fucked up, in order to continue would take a paradiam shift of massive portions? Ouch, that doesn’t sound like fun. Give me something to ease the pain, NOW.
There is no “cure” for mental illness, and the “root cause” remains a mystery. Pharmacological treatment may not be perfect, but it is the best treatment available, and can be effective in preventing psychosis, relieving suffering, and allowing patients to live productively. Failure to provide treatment, including medication, puts the patient, and sometimes others, at risk. Treatment may be costly, and a mentally ill person may be prevented by their illness from contributing to the cost of treatment. On the other hand, failure to treat mentally ill patients is more costly than treating them. It is hot a matter of whether we spend the money, but instead a matter of how we spend it. It is likely that this patient did not receive appropriate post-inpatient follow-up care. Let’s see, when he was discharged, he probably had no means of support, and turned to his mom for help. She lived in another state, so he had to leave California. Moving to a different state could certainly interfere with continuity of mental health care. He would have been in no position to navigate the complexities of coordinating his own care. So why did he become psychotic again after release? Did he just run out of meds? We will never know. We do know from his past behavior that he could become violent when psychotic, so that coordinating his mental health care after his release was critical to his safety and the safety of others.
The reality of our health delivery system is that a mentally ill person cannot just go to a psyciatrist when they need to be seen. Failure to create a system to adequately respond to predictable mental health needs is shortsighted and results in tragedy. The tragedies come in many flavors, of which this was just one.
TLC’s statement: “Mental Hospitals” and other governmental “mental health” facilities, do not seek to determine and cure/heal what caused the person to commit the crime in the first place.
TLC, you should read HH’s comment above. HH speaks like someone well versed in how the system. HH also understands the realities of mental illness.
If someone goes to a state mental hospital to regain their ability to stand trial and later because they were determined in a court of law they were “not guilty by reason of insanity” for the crime they committed, they were released because (1) determinate sentencing guidelines apply – ie they are not locked up indefinitely without a release date or (2) they became non-psychotic and rational due to therapies and pharmacology.
If this is what you mean by your statement: “Rather, they experiment with combinations of drugs until the symptoms are sufficiently masked, the person is adequately sedated, and/or the person is turned into a pharma-zombie,” I can only tell you the behavior(s) of a mentally ill person treated with therapies and pharmacology are infinitely improved over the behavior(s) of one acting out as a result of his/her percieved delusions and/or hallucinations within a full-blown psychotic episode.
Which would you rather experience?
The system is broken. The courts and prosecutors pretend that sending people to “mental hospitals”, to “treatment”, to “mental health”, is accomplishing something, when it’s just dumping the perpetrator into another part of “the system” and off their backs.
“Happy Happy”, for example, asks, “So why did he become psychotic again after release? Did he just run out of meds?”. No, he became psychotic because the “mental hospital” did not determine the cause of the psychosis, the “mental hospital” just masked it with drugs. Dwire’s psychosis was not caused by the absence of patented pharmaceuticals.
“Happy Happy” and “Tim” basically take the position that the current system is the lesser of evils. The lesser of evils is still evil, and if you want to support evil, that’s your choice. I say the whole system needs to be redone. And that needs to start with preventing the Dwires of this world from being damaged in the first place. Lead-based paint was sold for many years without “government meddling”, mercury in dental fillings has governmental blessings, the (crap) water is fluoridated (Google: fluoride IQ). Prevention is much less expensive than the consequences, monetary and otherwise, of the current system.
So, TLC, the “mental hospital” fails to determine the cause of the psychosis and that’s the root of what’s wrong with the system? What are you going to do with that insight? Is it that drug or chemical imbalance that occurred in preganancy? Is it the inherited genetic predisposition exacerbated by stress? Is it nature or is it nurture? Is it both? Believe me, researchers want to know and are searching for those answers – but what about those folks now in distress?
Even if you or the mental health profession knows the cause of the symptoms are you saying society has new and magical choices in treatment? No, in all probability we would be dealing with the symptoms as we do now until better treatment options emerge.
What kind of mental health treatment options are you proposing? How are you going to redo “the whole system?” Mental illness has been around a lot longer than lead-based paint, dental use of mercury, and flouridated water. Sure, everyone wants to understand causality – and many researchers have spent their lives searching for the answer. What you need to focus on, however, is the reality of providing the best treatment available to deal with mental illness and improving the delivery of humane treatment options in a manner affordable to all.
If you think mental health treatment (after the advent of neuroleptic medication) is misguided and wrong, you should have seen it before. Don’t knock current treatment options by providing uneducated characterizations of it.
Terry is apparently having trouble posting a follow-up comment. I’m not sure what could be causing the problem, but if this posts then everything is working on my end.
One: Detoxify. This is not rocket science, but it does require following safe proper protocols. Mercury in particular causes a multitude of physical and mental health problems. Start with removing all mercury dental fillings and replacing that toxin with safe dental fillings. Cleansing the body of mercury that is lodged in muscles and elsewhere will be needed as well.
Two: Stop further poisoning. No fluoride A completely organic diet. No vaccinations that contain toxic ingredients.
Three: After the initial detoxification has been completed, and the healthy diet has been in place for an adequate period of time, comprehensive testing. There are numerous healable medical conditions whose symptoms manifest themselves as criminal behavior. Testing for a broad spectrum of health conditions, testing for toxins, testing for nutritional deficiencies.
Four: Intense/comprehensive one-on-one counseling throughout the process.
Will this cost money? Yes. But the $18.5 million cost of a single Predator Drone used to slaughter women and children in Pakistan, will heal a lot of mentally ill criminals. There will be savings in fewer additional crime victims. What “price” would you put on the suffering endured by Dwire’s mother, who survived the attack? The “price” of the death of Ralph Mack? The cost of law enforcement to investigate Dwire’s 2008 crimes, the cost of medical treatment for his mother. While Dwire did himself in, most of the time the cost of future incarceration needs to be factored in. And having a safer society, with less cause for fear, certainly has value.
Will this always pinpoint the cause of the criminal behavior? Of course not. But then, human beings are not specimens for experimentation in a petri dish, and healing the perpetrator/preventing future criminal behavior — not a science experiment — is the ultimate goal.
And in most cases, the underlying cause will be several factors, not a “one-size-fits-all”.
The current system is nothing more than a game of “kick the can”. Gallegos and the Judge sent Dwire to a =93mental hospital=94, and Dwire became the hospital’s problem. The hospital stabilized Dwire to the point that they had a pretext for unleashing him upon the public, knowing full well the odds of Dwire’s continuing to follow the hospital’s strict protocol and not relapsing were slim and none. The can got kicked, with two people dead and another seriously wounded.
As for the notion that the pharmaceutical drug cartel is working on cures, that is like saying Boeing is working on peace. Drug companies profit from addicted/repeat customers, and are certainly not going to upset that gravy train.
To pick the lesser of two evils and pretend those are the only two options begs the question of how to fix a completely broken system. Likewise, the implication that because things were worse, we should accept the rampant evil that remains.
Wow TLC – detox, stop vacinations and flouride, testing and talk. Predator drone missiles and drug cartels. Rampant evils and broken systems in society. Pretty Humboldt stuff you express. Now let’s get real: all you have now is a mentally ill patient with cavities prone to disease. Talk to him/her about your “rage against the machine” and get “their” delusions stirred up. Good luck with that…
Wow, ignore the facts and give some non-sequiturs.
As President Reagan said in that great Freudian Slip, “Facts are stupid things”.
Thanks for reminding me of why I don’t spend much time on the local blogs…
Be sure to wash the non-sequiturs down with a glass of aspartame, available at your local Co-Op. See, for starters:
The Connection between Aspartame (Artificial Sweetener) and Panic Attacks, Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Memory Problems, and Other Mental Symptoms
http://www.alternativementalhealth.com/articles/aspartame.htm
and sources cited therein.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame_controversy
kooks
TLC – I finally got it. Aspartame caused Cody Dwire to split a tourist’s head open with an axe and the court and mental health treatment entities screwed up because they’re not as enlightened as you to the link between aspertane and mental illness. You really do grasp the big picture.
Wikipedia? While it can be a useful tool, you have to check out its sources to determine whether a particular item is accurate/credible:
“Wikipedia is a wiki, meaning that anyone can edit any unprotected page, and improve articles immediately for all readers. You do not even need to register to do this. Anyone who has edited is known as a Wikipedia editor and no matter how trivial the edit may seem, can be proud they have helped make Wikipedia what it is – all those edits add up!”
Source: Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page
Wikipedia Lies:Online Disinformation & Propaganda
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/wikipedialies20jan08.shtml
As for Dwire, as I pointed out repeatedly earlier, but then PBS and the deterioration of that vast wasteland television (among other things) have severely damaged American’s attention spans, we don’t know what sent Dwire over the edge, and even with the program I outlined might never have known. Aspartame, other toxins, drugs, head injury…the list goes on…or some combination of factors.
But what was known from the outset, when Dwire was sent to the state “mental hospitals”, Dwire was a seriously disturbed individual who, at best, might be temporarily drugged into socially acceptable conduct. What was known from the outset was that Dwire’s underlying condition, the underlying causes of his psychotic conduct, was not going to be cured in the system we have.
If all we are concerned about is the lesser of evils, then agreed, Gallegos and the Judge accurately determined that sending Dwire to the state “mental hospitals” gave Dwire and society a small chance of Dwire leading a crime-free life, verses virtually no chance at all were he sent to our no-rehab/no-meaningful-treatment prisons.
But is a “small chance” the best that we can do? Should we stop there and wear blinders to the obvious consequences of that decision? Tell that to Dwire’s mother. To Ralph Mack’s surviving friends and family. To the others who are victimized by people who commit criminal acts, are dumped into the “criminal justice”/”mental health” system, and re-offend.
TLC – “What was known from the outset was that Dwire’s underlying condition, the underlying causes of his psychotic conduct, was not going to be cured in the system we have.”
My point is that in almost all cases of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe personality disorders, you’re not going to “cure” the mental illness at all. Not in my lifetime anyhow. You can treat the symptoms in the most humane manner of treatment(s) and work toward increasing availability and affordability of that treatment.
My second point is that the problem doesn’t lie with a legal process that determined Dwire mentally ill, sent him to a state mental hospital such as Atascadero and, as a result, treated him with psychotropic medication. It lies with people who fail to understand mental illness – and that includes judges and juries.
I don’t understand why you criticize the mental health / state hospital system for bringing his psychosis under more manageable control – doing the best they can with what they are given. Untreated psychosis when exacerbated by violent urges and perceptions creates a lifetime of living hell for family and caregivers.
Keep in mind please that almost all persons having a mental illnesses are not dangerous and are treated in our communities. Your broad brush criticisms of the “system” and lack of insight into the realities of treating the mentally ill are what I object to. All the obfuscation about soft drinks, flouride, etc. miss the point.
I knew Dwire many years before this event. When he was a toddler he was run over by a van. He was playing in a pile of leaves along the road in Montana and a van sped around the corner and ran him over. His mother was a teenager. His father was a recovering drug/alcohol addict who lived in another state and rarely was in his life.
He went to college and got a Chemistry degree. He worked with his mother on a pepper spray business. He enjoyed traveling, adventures, rock climbing, backpacking, photography, etc. He had a huge love for nature and the environment. He had this amazing intellect. Yet emotionally, he was a man of extremes. He had no switch to tell him not to do something. It was definitely a misfiring in his head, probably from the trauma of his childhood, but possibly from the trauma of drugs as well…or a mixture.
I saw the demise of him when I knew him as we would have great times together, only for him to do something crazy to ruin it. In the beginning I thought it was me and would try to figure out what I had done to trigger him to act or do the things he did. It only escalated over the years I knew him.
He did come to my house one day and threatened to kill me and my dog. I didn’t let him in. I moved far away from him and his threats on my life. He had threatened to kill me a few times as well as himself when I was with him.
For years I googled his name as I thought he would try to find me and harm me. I just wanted to keep tabs on him. My heart sank, when I saw what had happened to the poor man in Eureka. It was amazing that man survived.
It was no surprise that he left outpatient therapy…or that he would seek out to hurt the only one left in his life who loved him the most, his mother. She probably told him he had to go back to therapy. He felt cornered and that was probably the only trigger needed for him to try to kill her.
I hope his mother and Ralph Mack’s family will be able to find peace.
I am a close family member of the man who was attacked in Eureka. As a family to provide closure we have all forgiven Cody for what he did. He is being judged by a higher authority and that judgement none of us are qualified to perform.
His attack on my family member caused a ripple effect in our family and has changed the man who was attacked for the rest of his life. You never hear about the victim after the case is “over” it is never over for my family member! He lost his job, has physical damage that prevents him from working physical labor, he has frontal lobe damage which has taken its toll on his reasoning and memory. He will never be the same because of Cody and had the system done their job this whole thing would never have happened in the first place.
It is very sad that the lives of so many people have been changed because of the actions of one man. I wish that this whole mess had never happened.