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Murder on the mind
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In just two weeks time, Dennis White's relationship with his psychiatrist, Dr. Richard Karpf had been turned totally upside down.
Suddenly, he found himself counseling the doctor who'd been treating him for six years and recording their conversations for the police.
Trying to talk him out of what sounded like a plot to settle a string of old scores with a gun, the patient pointed out to the doctor that, for anyone who'd wronged him in the past, success was really the best revenge.
Dennis White: You know how you got even? Because you’ve got a good practice, right. So you could say, "Hah--touché!"
Dr. Richard Karpf: Yeah, but it does psychological damage.
Dennis White: Oh. Of course it's a ---
Dr. Richard Karpf: I mean, you live with it every day of your life. You get up your---
Dennis White: Yeah but if everybody that got hurt went around shooting people, you know what, we'd be in a real shitty world but that's---
Dr. Richard Karpf: Well, but I’m not going to stand for it anymore. And I’m tired of being humiliated after 50 years.
Dennis White: He said even if it meant him going to the electric chair, that he was going to finish and complete his task. Even if it meant him dying, it had to be done.
Though Dr. Karpf refused to name names, one person did seem to be constantly on his mind.
Remember the former female patient Dr. Karpf told Dennis was causing him trouble?
According to Karpf, the woman abused alcohol and misused the drugs he prescribed. On top of that, Karpf told Dennis she often disrupted their sessions by lifting her shirt to show him her breasts.
Dennis White: What was her purpose of taking her clothes off--to try to arouse you?
Dr. Richard Karpf: Because she's a spoiled girl who does whatever they hell she wants.
Dennis White: Oh.
Karpf told Dennis that he had recently dropped the woman as a patient, but that now she was threatening to get him in trouble by claiming they'd had an affair.
Dr. Richard Karpf: She's very, very pretty. But the thing is I’ve never felt so threatened in my whole life.
Dennis says he thought that if Dr. Karpf was worried a sex scandal could cost him his license, he might be desperate enough, to contemplate murder.
Dr. Richard Karpf: You've got to be careful who you, who you bed down with. I don't care how good they look, there are some very dangerous girls who are incredibly -- just good looking.
Dennis White: Something like--
Dr. Richard Karpf: And this is one of those very dangerous ones.
Whatever it was that Dr. Karpf had in mind on that late afternoon in January 2003, Dennis White knew it was about to come to an abrupt end.
As they drove to the parking lot of a local Home Depot, Dr. Karpf thought Dennis was taking him to meet a friend--an illegal gun dealer who would sell him a pistol, silencer and bullets.
Dennis White: My heart was pounding the whole ride.
Hoda Kotb: I bet.
Dennis White: Because I wasn't sure if he really trusted me.
Dennis knew that the dealer that we're about to meet was really a cop. He also knew that the encounter--documented on tape--would probably end with his psychiatrist in handcuffs.
But, still, Dennis says he couldn't help wondering what might happen when the cops moved in? What if the doctor was forced to make a split second life or death decision while holding a gun?
Dennis White: I’m really, honestly. I was, like, a mess.
Dennis White: Let's go introduce us. How's that? OK?
Dr. Richard Karpf: Well, we don't want any names.
Dennis White: No, no. I meant. OK. Well, we know he's Mike. He knows my name is Dennis.
Dr. Richard Karpf: OK, but I don't want to--
Dennis White: Your name is--how about this? Pete. Pete.
Dennis White: He had a duffel bag with the money and that he could put the gun in it to be, you know--nobody would see the actual gun.
The detective playing the role of illegal gun dealer took it slow, giving the doctor a lesson on how to use the gun.
Michael O’Leary: OK. You put your clip in.
Dr. Richard Karpf: Yeah.
Michael O’Leary: OK? Put the clip in.
Michael O’Leary: He was anxious and he seemed a little out of sorts. So, I, like I say, I’m not a psychiatrist, but I could see that there's something going on with this man.
The undercover officer even suggested that actually killing six people in cold blood might not be as easy as he imagined.
Michael O’Leary: Let me ask you something.
Dr. Richard Karpf: Yeah.
Michael O’Leary: Do you know what you're doing?
Dr. Richard Karpf: Yeah.
Michael O’Leary: I mean-- you're ready to do this?
Dr. Richard Karpf: Yeah.
Michael O’Leary: Because this is really a big step.
But Dr. Karpf didn't take the opportunity to simply walk away. In spite of his inexperience with guns, the psychiatrist's resolve never wavered.
Michael O’Leary: Do you want me to do this job for you?
Dr. Richard Karpf: No no I don't, I don't want you to do the job. I’m going to do the job.
Michael O’Leary: I’m most interested at this point as to who his intended victim or victims are. And as we're talking, I could see that I’m not making any headway with him as to give it up.
Michael O’Leary: Is it your wife?
Dr. Richard Karpf: I can't say.
Michael O’Leary: Ehh--gee.
Dr. Richard Karpf: I don't want to. I don't want to say.
Michael O’Leary: You've got to be pissed off. If you want 40 rounds and a silencer, you got to be pissed off.
At that point, O’Leary gave the signal that brought nearly a dozen police officers out into the open to arrest Dr. Karpf.
Dennis White: "Hands up, hands up!" Well, even me, "Hands up!"
Hoda Kotb: Oh, so…
Dennis White: “You're under arrest?”
Hoda Kotb: So they cuffed--
Dennis White: Grabbed him.
Hoda Kotb: What was Karpf saying?
Dennis White: I don't remember what he was saying. I was just freaked out.
Hoda Kotb: Did he make the connection that you were actually the one who had sort of outted him?
Dennis White: No, no.
Hoda Kotb: What did it do to have your psychiatrist, Dennis, arrested. What did it do to the trust that you had with him at one point?
Dennis White: It was no more. I felt like I lost something. See, by doing that I felt like I hurt myself as well.
Hoda Kotb: Why?
Dennis White: There's a lot of years, you know? And you share a lot. You actually create a bond, almost like a marriage.
But this story doesn't end with Dr. Karpf's arrest. In fact, it only becomes stranger.
Dr. Richard Karpf: I just wanted to impress Dennis with the fact that maybe I was really serious about wanting a gun for a specific purpose.
The shrink who seemed to have murder on his mind said there was an explanation, a method to this madness.
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