Saturday\, Jan 3 | 2 p.m.
Whetstone Branch | 3909 N. High St.
About the Aut hor
\nWhat happens when a graduate student on his way towar d becoming a forensic psychologist sits face-to-face with one of America's most notorious serial killers? That Beast Was Not Me isn't just another s ensationalized true crime story&mdash\;it's an intimate glimpse into the c omplex reality of studying the criminal mind\, where claims of normalcy cl ash with the weight of unspeakable acts.
\nDr. Jeffrey Smalldon grew up the son of a Hoover-era G-man. When he was still an undergraduate stud ent\, he followed the suggestion of his professor for a course in abnormal psychology and began corresponding with Charles Manson and many other mem bers of the so-called Manson Family. One of those was Lynette "Squeaky" Fr omme. After Fromme attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford in Septe mber 1975\, the FBI in Sacramento found a cache of Smalldon's letters in h er apartment. Smalldon's father\, still a special agent with the FBI\, had some explaining to do when his boss summoned him for a debriefing.
\n< p>In December 1983\, almost a decade \;after \;the start of the Ma nson correspondences\, two of Smalldon's co-workers were brutally murdered just off the main hallway at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus\, w here Smalldon was an up-and-coming young administrator. In the aftermath o f the Riverside murders\, Smalldon left the field of hospital administrati on and began work toward his PhD in psychology at Ohio State. His goal was to become a forensic psychologist and secure for himself a close vantage point from which to study the minds and motivations of killers -- includin g the then-unknown monster who'd killed his co-workers and then disappeare d into thin air.\nDuring the course of his career\, Dr. Smalldon co nsulted on close to 300 death penalty cases in both state and federal cour t. Along the way\, he tangled with the likes of John Wayne Gacy (with whom he spent close to 20 hours in an unmonitored visiting room on Illinois's death row)\, Ted Bundy\, Donald Harvey\, Ohio serial sniper Thomas Lee Dil lon\, and many other notorious killers. \;
\nSmalldon's acclaime d debut\, \;That Beast Was Not Me\, \;chronicles a personal and pr ofessional journey unlike any other.
\nEvent Details
\nThe event is free to the public and the author will do a book si gning after his talk. \;Readers are welcome to bring books from home f or Jeffrey to sign or purchase his books on site. \;
\nhttps://colu mbus.libnet.info/event/15293376 URL;VALUE=URI:https://columbus.libnet.info/event/15293376 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR