By Reason of Insanity: The David Michael Krueger Story

Susan Massarella is a reference librarian at Laurentian University.

Mark Bourrie, a parliamentary press gallery journalist, originally
planned to write a history of the Oak Ridge psychiatric hospital in
Brockville. During the course of interviewing inmates for that book, he
was taken into the confidence of child-murderer David Michael Krueger.
Krueger, first sent to Oak Ridge as a teenager after killing three
children in the 1950s, was in the news for having killed a fellow inmate
while out on a day pass in 1991.

The book starts with a general profile of Krueger today and then jumps
first to the gruesome 1991 killing of Dennis Kerr and then to
Krueger’s childhood and the three children he murdered. At this point
things get confusing. The author uses Krueger as a foil to comment on
the treatment of psychiatric prisoners and the situation at Oak Ridge in
general. The shifts between Krueger’s case and more-general statements
about the system are disorienting.

Bourrie also makes sweeping claims about psychiatric treatment without
appearing to have the clinical background to do so. He criticizes
government policy (both current and past), staff, psychiatrists, and
Krueger himself, yet never seems to offer any solutions. More
interesting than his critiques of the psychiatric system are his
attempts to understand how his close association with a serial killer
has affected both him and his family.

Given the current debate over prison reform, the case of David Michael
Krueger is very pertinent. Unfortunately, this book addresses so many
aspects of psychiatric care that it ends up leaving no solid impression.
Furthermore, it is poorly edited, with some facts changing from page to
page. Recommended only for large public libraries and criminology
collections.