On 14th September 1989, Joe Wesbecker entered the Standard Gravure printing plant in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, armed with an AK-47 assault rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Half-an-hour later, he had shot 20 of his former co-workers - Wesbecker had been on mental disability leave from the plant for a year - before turning the gun on himself. It emerged that Wesbecker had been on Prozac, so his victims and their families sued its makers, Eli Lily and Company, for compensation. In the course of preparing their cases, lawyers created the most detailed profile of a murderer ever assembled. The jury rejected the plaintiffs' claims, but it soon came to light that Lily's lawyers had made a secret deal that led to their landmark court victory. Using case documents, interviews and his own coverage of the trial, the author recreates the tragic events - a story embedded in the crises of blue-collar life in takeover America. He also offers a new perspective on the genesis of violence, on the tears in America's societal safety net that only pharmacology now seems to fill, and on the struggle, in labs and law courts over the definition of identity itself.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Cornwell (Earth to Earth) reconstructs the story of Joseph Wesbecker, on medical leave from his job in a Louisville, Ky., printing plant, who returned to his workplace in 1989 and shot 20 fellow employees, killing eight of them before killing himself. He also relates the battle by the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical company to fight the damage suit brought by the survivors of Wesbecker's murder spree and the families of the dead, who alleged that his action had been caused by his use of Prozac. The antidepressant drug accounted for about a third of Lilly's multibillion-dollar sales, and eventually the company settled the case via a payout kept secret even from the judge. Cornwell discusses questions being debated by neuroscientists and psychopharmacologists about the link between brain states and human behavior, with some affirming the Cartesian dualism of mind and body, others believing in a narrow reductionism in which the brain is seen as a "meat machine" capable of being controlled, still others asserting the nonmechanistic opinion that human beings have a measure of mental freedom. Cornwell presents a profound analysis of the fundamental question of human identity and of epistemological matters sure to be ongoing concerns as pharmacology becomes even more prevalent in treating the emotionally unstable.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In 1989, Joseph T. Wesbecker went on a shooting spree at his former place of employment, Standard Gravure, in Louisville, Kentucky. After killing eight people and injuring 12, he took his own life. Wesbecker, on long-term disability leave owing to work-related stress and a history of mental illness, was taking the antidepressant Prozac. The survivors of his rampage sued Eli Lilly, the manufacturer. Journalist Cornwell, a senior research fellow at Cambridge University and visiting fellow at the Neurosciences Institute at Rockefeller University, covered the trial for the London Sunday Times Magazine. Here he addresses not only the trial but also Wesbecker's personal life, the stress faced by blue-collar workers in postindustrial America, the nature of depression, and the development and marketing of Prozac. Cornwell does an excellent job of making the science of psychopharmacology understandable to the lay person and conveying the drama of the trial. He does slightly less well in his attempt to analyze the larger questions raised by the trial?the nature of mental illness, personality, and identity, and the ethics of pharmacological tampering. Transitions between chapters are a bit choppy, but the story itself is gripping. This title will appeal to true-crime readers as well as anyone concerned about the widespread prescription of mood-altering drugs.?Eris Weaver, Marin Inst. for the Prevention of Alcohol & Other Drug Problems, San Rafael, Cal.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A legal thriller that happens to be true.,
By Emilio_Corsetti@Compuserve.com (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Power to Harm (Paperback)
With the lawsuit mania that exists today, it's not unusual to find big corporations dragged into lawsuits for no other reason than their deep pockets. Lawyers go to extreme lengths to assign fault for even the most tangential involvement. A casual observer to the lawsuit covered in "The Power to Harm" might perceive it as just another baseless attempt of going after the guy with the most money. After all, how could anyone blame a drug for causing someone to shoot twenty coworkers? If you read this book, you'll know the answer. John Cornwell covers the behind-the-scene details of the trial with great skill and frugality. Nothing is wasted. The facts concerning the drug Prozac are fascinating. I'm truly amazed that the drug ever received FDA approval. Prozac is currently being sold in over seventy countries. If you are taking this drug or are considering taking it, please read this book. This is a first rate legal thriller where the story and characters are real, and so too are the victims.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
complicated case well told,
By fairleft (Chicago) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Power to Harm: Mind, Medicine, and Murder on Trial (Hardcover)
The author makes a complicated tale understandable and very very interesting. You couldn't ask for a better introduction to issues like the psychological drug approval process, 'the drug made me do it' thinking, and free will vs. brain chemistry determinism vs. community, company and co-worker responsibility. Very well written and very fair-minded!
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must for HR managers, bureaucrats, medicos, lawyers.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Power to Harm: Mind, Medicine, and Murder on Trial (Hardcover)
Cornwell leads the reader through an incredible series of events. He holds a mirror to bosses who don't notice or are too self possessed to care. He shows bureaucrats that fail to act responsibly. Describes a chemical company that is apparently without a conscience and medicos that are hindered by a system. Lawyers cut a deal, that in popular parlance is intended to deliver a win-win solution to the chagrin of the trial judge. And the families who grieve, a son that's pilloried and the reader left to wonder about mass killers and what really gets them started. A must for HR managers, bureaucrats, medicos and lawyers and anyone who cares about others
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