Dr. Lunde takes us behind the scenes in some of the most celebrated and controversial criminal and civil trials of the past fifty years.
As one of the pioneers in the field now known as forensic psychiatry, he interviewed people like Patty Hearst and the Hillside Strangler and consulted with judges and attorneys in hundreds of cases in his illustrious career.
After reviewing extensive evidence and interviewing witnesses, Dr. Lunde often served as a key witness in trials involving people like Howard Hughes, who were the subjects of much speculation but few actual factual investigations.
As a well-known Stanford psychiatrist, he was able to uncover the reasons why people committed outrageous and sometimes unspeakable acts which shocked their communities and even the world.
This book reveals previously unpublished details of the way in which doctors and other professionals go about trying to understand an event and then see that justice is served. One such event discussed is the mass murder/suicide of almost one thousand Americans in a remote South American jungle clearing called Jonestown.
This memoir contains stories which are stranger than fiction but that actually happened. They are told by someone who was in a unique position to learn about them and who now shares the experience with the reader.
Dr. Lunde was born and raised in Wisconsin but came to Stanford University in 1954 (as did his wife, Marilynn). He spent summers on active duty with the U.S. Navy and graduated in 1958 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. He served as a CIC Officer and member of a military court aboard the flagship USS Yorktown from 1958-61.
He returned to Stanford in 1961 and earned a master’s degree in psychology in 1964 and his M.D. degree in 1966. An internship in internal medicine was followed by a residency in psychiatry at Stanford Medical Center. In 1969 he was appointed to the faculty in psychiatry, where he taught without interruption for over 25 years. He has had additional faculty appointments at the Stanford Law School and the Program in Human Biology at Stanford. He was also a member of the first successful U.S. heart transplant team in the 1960’s and in 1969 published the first paper in history on psychiatric complications of heart transplants.
His position in the field of forensic psychiatry was firmly established with the publication of his book Murder and Madness over twenty-five years ago. He has served as a consultant and expert witness for judges and attorneys from Hawaii to Florida on over two hundred cases, some criminal and some civil.
In an important First Amendment case, Dr. Lunde was the psychiatrist consultant and expert witness for CBS, Columbia Records, and the British heavy metal rock group, Judas Priest. In this case two families sued, claiming that a Judas Priest recording “induced” their sons to commit suicide.
Dr. Lunde and his wife have five sons and thirteen grandchildren. Appropriately enough, they have co-authored a book entitled, The Next Generation: A Book on Parenting.
Dr. Lunde’s present title is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Emeritus, Stanford University School of Medicine.
Around noon on November 18, 1978, Maria Katsaris asked to talk to Larry privately. Maria was near the top of the Peoples Temple hierarchy, as was Carolyn Layton. Maria told Larry that if Congressman Ryan and his party, including the Peoples Temple members who were planning to defect with the Congressman, succeeded in leaving that they would generate adverse publicity for Jonestown and the Peoples Temple. This would result in the Guyanese defense force coming into Jonestown, which in turn would result in bloodshed and the end of their plans to move the community to Russia. Larry volunteered to help in any way he could. At this point, Carolyn Layton joined the conversation and asked Larry if he would be willing to actually bring down an airplane by shooting the pilot once the plane was airborne. He said “yes” he would. Larry, Carolyn and Maria then went to talk to Jim Jones about this plan. Jim Jones and Maria told Larry that he should use a pistol for the job. Larry had an alternate proposal of using dynamite which he knew was available at Jonestown and which seemed to him to be a more effective way of bringing down the plane. Larry was overruled and told to wait behind the x-ray facility for further instructions. He went to that location and Maria appeared a little later and told him to be sure to get on the first plane at the airstrip. She gave him a gun and left. Later, another person (nicknamed “Poncho”) appeared and switched weapons. He told Larry that the gun Maria gave to him was registered in Maria’s name and could be traced to her.
Layton told Congressman Ryan that he wished to defect from Peoples Temple and leave Jonestown and he was allowed to board the dump truck, which was preparing to take various members of the Ryan party, including various defectors, to the Port Kaituma airstrip. Upon arrival at the airstrip, Layton stayed away from the main group and attempted to avoid conversation with people who were leaving, although at least one or two asked him where he was going. He recalls telling them that he was going to go home to Berkeley and live in his father’s house there. When the first plane landed at the airstrip, Layton placed the gun under the seat behind the pilot when no one was observing him. (He was also wearing a poncho over his regular clothing, which provided concealment during the trip from Jonestown to the airstrip.) Subsequently, he insisted upon being allowed to travel on the first plane rather than the second larger plane that came in, and he was allowed to do so. The first (smaller) airplane, which Layton had boarded, was ready for departure first and the pilot began taxiing and then picking up speed for a take-off when the shooting started on the airstrip. Layton recalls telling the pilot to “hurry up and get the plane off the ground” but instead the pilot slowed down and then stopped the aircraft. Layton claims his memory from this point on to the point where he was in custody is somewhat vague …