EPILEPSY AND MURDER
- 13 April 1964
- journal article
- editorial
- Published by American Medical Association (AMA)
- Vol. 188 (2) , 172
- https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1964.03060280074015
Abstract
The "average reader" who has recently been exposed to the many newspaper articles relative to the Jack Ruby murder trial can understandably get the impression that epilepsy, murder, and crimes of passion are related. Many of my epileptic patients and also many employers of persons with epilepsy have contacted me. They cannot help but wonder if some such frightful thing could be perpetrated by them—or upon them. Since I have spent a medical career dealing with epileptic patients, I feel a sincere responsibility to express my opinion on this subject. To my knowledge, there are no reports in the current medical literature which prove that there is a higher rate of criminal action among epileptics than among other individuals. My observations are in agreement with the ings of Alström,1who investigated the relationship between criminality and epilepsy and reported as follows: "In a modern text-book of neurology published inKeywords
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