When murder hit Westchester County, New York in 1998, it took many by surprise. In the land of never ending possibilities, and where one write’s their own ticket for success, this was so unexpected. Where “control, control, control your own destiny” is a mantra, the question of how it could be that a man, born and breed in the perfectly marinated liberal culture of New York could ever do what Cain did to Abel.
After all, this guy was brilliant. He had the love of a talented and devoted woman, not to mention a $600,000 advance on a book deal he had made, plus a 2.1 million dollar movie deal. Leonardo DiCaprio could not star in the movie due to a schedule conflict, it was then decided that Brad Pitt would step in with Ron Howard directing the story of Michael Laudor’s life. What could have went wrong?
That question is answered in Jonathan Rosen’s book, “The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions.” In his book, he does a deep dive into the murder of Caroline Costello and answers that question with all the communist leaning references that you could imagine an elite N.Y. man capable of. The writer honed his liberal views from those bastions of such thought, Yale and Berkeley, and tells his story from that point of view. He is a skilled writer and storyteller whether I agree with everything that he says or not.
However, at least I know what I am getting as I read Mr. Rosen’s book. He makes no secret of his beliefs and neither do I. I just wish that he didn’t have to hit me over the head with his overbearing liberalness with the constant barrage that he did. Still, I have always wanted to know more about what happened to beautiful and intelligent Caroline Costello in 1998. Did I say “deep dive”? I mean an exhaustive, if not exhausting. dig into the inner sanctums of the elite liberal royal life that he and his friend, Michael led. I wish that he stuck to the story a tad more, but to be fair I can go off on any number of tangents myself, can’t I?
When anything bad happens in Westchester County, mum’s the word. Secrets are hidden lest any tiny gems of reality should emerge and get in the way of the westchester county perfect life bubble. People don’t deal well with the truth in Westchester. They don’t want to hear that their husband is not really a good lawyer or that their son is not cut out for medical school. Your kid’s not a bully, the teacher is not stimulating him enough and he is bored, or else the other kid started it. That other kid started it last year too.
When I first moved to Westchester County, there was so much that I did not know about the place that I was moving to. I wanted to raise my children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, as I knew that to be then. I was also looking for the perfect place to raise my children. I was hoping for a kind and nurturing community. I was looking for an intellectually rich environment. The schools had a reputation for excellence in Westchester, the village I chose was charming, and the county is strategically located right next to Manhattan, what could go wrong? If only I knew then the dangers to Christians living in that County I would have moved elsewhere, maybe to Texas or Singapore.
What could go wrong? Well, with Michael Laudor, mental illness could descend upon his brain and mock all of his hard work and dreams for the future. In my experience, mental Illness is poorly dealt with in Westchester County. Many families I know with mentally ill members have felt shunned and alone there. A lot of mentally ill people stick out like a sore thumb in Westchester. Many, end up going to New York City where they blend into the big city drama already present.
When murder hit the small community of Westchester the news coverage did not tell you much. Whatever source you turned to essentially said the same thing. It seemed like journalism was already dead in 1998. I had the sense that only the pretty news made the headlines or the news that aggrandizes the liberal values of the community are promoted. News like this murder was heavily sanitized before it reached the public. The censorship of today was already beginning then. Like in any dictatorship the only worthy news is through “word-of-mouth” because the news media is no longer a source of the truth.
There was a time in the past where the news media in Westchester had police and fire news accurately depicted. This news coverage allowed me to identify those arrested for pedophilia and drunk driving. That proved helpful in one of two cases in my life. One was when a man slated to drive on an upcoming class trip was identified as a drunk driver. I got to witness first hand the deep levels of denial and delusion that overtake such individuals when I confronted him about it. He immediately made excuses for his actions and had not one once of guilt or shame when I saw him two weeks later at high noon purchasing two six packs of beer from a local deli. Needless to say, I saw to it that another parent filled in for him.
One day, as if by decree, the local newspaper stopped publishing names and addresses and severely cut back on what crime stories were covered. There was talk of stigmatizing people charged with crimes. The public’s safety was now second best. This condition existed when Caroline Costello was killed by her fiancée in the small village of Hastings on Hudson in 1998. The killer, Michael Laudor, a childhood genius of some sort, graduated in three years from Yale University, summa cum laude. His life before and up to this point had been inhabited by influential liberal and illustrious people nurturing him along.
Even when that terrible disease of schizophrenia hit him he reinvented himself. He fought back to complete law school. He had some serious problems manifest during his college years but through it all, his friends, family and the university tried to do everything possible to help him through it. The problem is that in life, we have to attain our own degree, we have to live with certain circumstances and despite what people do, there are realities that we all must regrettably accept.
Major cities in the United States are not dealing with mental health realities correctly. How are they handling it? Unrealistically. Right now, the mentally ill are allowed to run rampant and create all kinds of havoc. Everything from terrorizing people to stabbing and murder are happening in the name of not stigmatizing the mentally ill. This is not civilization but some misguided and misplaced altruism.
I don’t think that it is an accident that Michael never worked as a lawyer. He seemed to be fudging quite a lot, or faking it until he could make it as they say. People with love in their hearts helped him and maybe even gave him a pass on certain things. Trouble is, that is not thriving. Jesus spent quite a lot of time touching the lives of those afflicted with any number of ailments during his earthly ministry. He still does, but healing does not always include having all of our wishes fulfilled. Sometimes, there is a new direction that we have to go in and we have to accept that. Michael Laudor now lives in a mental health facility with a barbed wire fence. He did not beat the illness, it beat him. Part of our fallen human state includes the harsh reality of locking people up for their own and other people’s safety.
My belief as a Christian is that we need to have mental health facilities that keep the patients, the staff and the community at large safe from the effects of what mental disease sometimes does. Many psychiatric patients are not dangerous but, we can not ignore the fact that delusions can and do cloud their decision-making faculties at times. We must be on guard for those signs and act to protect those who would be victimized by such ideations.
Should homes for mentally challenged people be places of care, learning and entertainment? Should family, church and community be encouraged to participate in the life of the mentally ill at these facilities? Yes, we should try to create humane treatment centers and give care which will afford the best quality of life that is possible. There should be transparency and accountability too. We need to respect human life from birth to death upholding the dignity that God afforded each person in his creation. This is not always easy and is an act of service at times.
As I continue trying to finish the books on my summer reading list I am struck with the blessing of being able to think about this crazy and beautiful life that we all live and that I have the Bible and Holy Spirit helping me to understand it all. My heart goes out to people struggling with schizophrenia like a family that I knew in Westchester County with two schizophrenic daughters. One would stop by my home from time to time dirty, disheveled with poor fitting clothes on. I would find something in my wardrobe to fit her. Make her a meal and talk her into calling her social worker and getting back on her medicine.
My neighbors and family were not always happy about me doing this and asked me why I would give time to this “crazy woman.” Honestly, they were afraid of her. This crazy woman is a sister in Christ who endeavored always to try to follow Jesus amid the confusion that engulfed her mind. Also, she struggled with reality frequently. I thought it was important to gently point her back unto the right course for many reasons. The most important being she did not have any believers in her family or in her group home. Was I ever scared of her? A few times but, when she was at her best, we discussed books. nature and Jesus. She was able to do so with some clarity. I think she might have been like Michael Laudor had I known her before her diagnosis, brilliant and on a trajectory for success. Quick note: she contacted me by letter after not stopping by for a long while. She moved into a new assisted care home a few towns away from where we had both lived and through a back and forth letter writing exchange, she seemed more stabilized in her condition then I had seen her in a long time. I believe that in her heavenly form she will once again be made whole mentally. I like forward to when that times comes. Until then, Lord have mercy.
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