Customer Reviews

Without Mercy: The Shocking True Story of a Doctor Who Murdered

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Dr. John Kappler was an anesthesiologist who had a nice family, lots of work, and seemed to live the good life. Unfortunately, he got it into his head every now and then that he had to kill one of his patients.

This urge of his was in definite violation of the Hippocratic Oath, not to mention the law of the land, but his wife and colleagues managed to protect him up until the day the voice in his head commanded him to run over two people on a jogging path.

The title of this book "Without Mercy" holds true for almost all of its characters, including the murderous Dr. John Kappler, and for the author himself who showed no mercy on Dr. Kappler's family when he wrote this true crime book. Nor did the jury show mercy on Dr. Kappler, who secretly attempted to kill three of his patients--including a pregnant woman who suffered permanent brain damage from his ministrations. The jurors did not believe Dr. Kappler was insane when he drove up onto the jogging path and killed a promising young psychiatrist, then permanently maimed a young mother.

The author is a psychiatrist and a friend of the young doctor who was killed on the jogging path, and wrote this book in spite of the opposition from Dr. Kappler's family. In fact, Dr. Kappler's wife is portrayed as one of the chief villains for her role in covering up her husband's tendency to murder. I thought this was a bit unfair, since her response to his bouts of madness was to hospitalize him and make sure he took his medications until he seemed normal again. I think she was hoping that her husband would regain his sanity, and their family life could go on as before. I can see my own mother putting on blinders and doing and hoping just what Mrs. Kappler did.

On the other hand, the young psychiatrist might still be alive if Mrs. Kappler had been completely honest about her husband's condition. Judge for yourself, and read the testimony of the psychiatrists who testified at Dr. Kappler's trial.

"Without Mercy" is more of a psychological portrait than most true crime books, and suffers from a languid second half when the psychiatrists are testifying. However it also gives the reader a detailed look at how our judicial system treats an obviously mental ill physician. Perhaps the most frightening part of "Without Mercy" is the long-term cover-up of Dr. Kappler's homicidal treatment of certain patients--by his own medical colleagues.

The style of this book was quite a change from the way Keith Ablow has previously written. Instead of writing fiction, he has chosen to write a bio about Dr. John Kappler. In 1975, Dr. Kappler, an anesthesiologist, secretly attempted to kill a pregnant patient by giving her the wrong anesthetic, deliberately sent a patient into cardiac arrest and with his car, ran down two innocent people. His fellow doctors not only rescued him from jail, but also allowed him to continue practicing medicine. At his trial, Kappler pleaded insanity, claiming he had heard voices telling him to kill people. This is the story of a doctor who became a killer and the medical establishment that looked the other way.

As a professional with an interest in character development, I can't think of any other book I have read that provides such a brilliant and skillful analysis of a complex man who ultimately proved to be deadly.
I could not put this book down and read it for two days. He looks at the family, so called friends, colleagues and all who for their own reasons overlooked or colluded in covering up the anesthesiologist's decent into complete madness and chaos. He does this with a very delicate but surgical touch. How can one blame anyone for not comprehending such a fantastical scenario. The mad doctor covered up his troubles and his wife helped him.

Layer upon layer is revealed by Keith Ablow. He gives us the scientific testing that was done on the murderer. He explains how the mental health field fails people who have psychosis and other "labels" by not providing adequate help. He also makes it clear that the doctor was not going to accept help. It would take an extremely capable psychiatrist to assist someone so hellbent on maintaining his powerful image as doctor.

This book is outstanding. I don't really understand why it has been given such feint praise. Maybe because it is a book that looks at evil and goes very deeply into sorting out if there is evil or if it is a chemical aberration.

Keith Ablow is to all intents and purposes a modern day miracle worker, a true good samaritan if ever there was one. The problem is its not the truth.

The truth is that he lures victims into confiding their deepest secrets and then he uses it against them.

This doctor has a dark side that no one sees.

After all, how many victims would a predator get if he presented the wolf behind the mask too soon?

I doubt my comment will remain long if at all because he has hired "consultants" who clean and polish his web image by getting rid of comments like mine.

I don't know when or how long it will take, but it will eventually come out from all of us.

This book is another in the current trend of padding a book with lots and lots of trial testimony. While Dr. Kappler's case is interesting and the crime that he was tried for took place within walking distance of my house, there was more trial testimony than anything else, except for maybe the author's praise for his colleague who was killed. Read the first half and skip to the last two pages. Everything else is just filler.

I didn't enjoy this book as much as I expected at all. It was too much focused on psychiatry versus the story which is what I wanted to read. Very well written but not of interest to me as I had hoped.