Dead by Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? (89 page)

psychopathology of the criminal mind.

Shinn pointed out that, unlike some witnesses, Dr. Turco was not

"living in an ivory tower.
 
Tell the jury a little about yourself."

"I have at least ten years' experience as a homicide detective," Turco

remarked.
 
"I'm a commissioned police officer in the State of Oregon.

I've investigated many homicides.
 
Detective Rod Englert and I worked

on a serial murder case together."

In fact, Turco had worked with the FBI, and with police agencies all

over America.
 
At Shinn's request, he had reviewed a stack of documents

on the Cheryl Keeton murder and read the long chronology of both Brad's

and Cheryl's lives.
 
"Almost too muchþincluding a letter that Mr.

Cunningham sent his mother," Turco said.

"Mr. Cunningham," Mike Shinn began, getting down to the case at hand,

"is a man who, from outward appearances, seems to have the

characteristics and background that were totally inconsistent with the

kind of brutal murder that killed Cheryl Keeton.... I want to

understand what went on here between him and Cheryl Keeton."
 
He asked

Turco what he might have found significant in the materials he had

studied on this particular murder case.

"Outward appearances are not very helpful," Turco said.
 
"At least, in

the everyday behavior observed by strangers.
 
This is what we call a

false self."
 
The individual projects an image of what he is really

not.

It's only in-the intimate situation that you find what he is really

about.
 
That's the so-called true self that is hidden."
 
Turco cited

Dr. Jeffrey McDonald, the Green Beret doctor convicted of killing his

wife and small daughters, as an example of an individual who projected

the false self.
 
"His public image was exemplary," he said.

Shinn reminded Turco and the jury of Brad Cunningham's many

achievementsþhis athletic stardom, his intelligence, his business

career where literally millions of dollars were under his control, his

love relationships with any number of beautiful, successful women.

"It's totally contradictory that he could do something like this," he

remarked.

"Not at ah," Turco said.
 
"The 1-5

Killer' fits the profile you just gave of Mr. Cunningham.
 
He was a

football player, well liked, had lots of girlfriends, very smooth, very

social."

"That's [Randy] Woodfield?"

"Yes.
 
Ted Bundv is another person who would fit that category....

We did the profile of Mr.
 
Woodfield in 1980-81.... It's not unusual.

That's a tEpical pattern.
 
It's one of the reasons why these people

surreptitiously murder.
 
Why not just get a divorce?
 
Why not just

leave town?
 
But * these people maintain a facadeþan image.
 
In order

to do so, these people have to destroy someone who can show that they

don't meet that image.
 
They're destroying the evidence," so to

speak.

That's one of the reasons they always profess to be innocent.
 
In a

sense, they even believe ... that they had the right to do what they

did.... It's a narcissistic presentation .
 
. . malignant narcissism.

" Turco explained that people like Woodfield, McDonald, Bundy, and

Cunningham had character disorders, they were unable to relate in any

meaningful way to anyone.
 
They had no consciences.
 
"It's the way they

live," he said bluntly.
 
"Narcissists cannot love in a genuine way.

It's an incapacity."
 
It was indeed, he testified, a kind of blindness,

an inability even to see that one is doing something harmful.

"In the materials about Mr.
 
Cunningham .
 
. . I see projection.

Particularly in the letter he wrote to his mother," Turco said.
 
"In

projection there's a tendency to take one's own feelingsþusually

negative feelings þand to project them onto the environment, and

anticipate that they will be coming back at you.
 
He accuses many

people in his life of doing things to harm himþa representation of his

underlying rageþI think it's intimately tied up with the parental

relationships."

Turco went on to note a number of deliberately cruel patterns of

behavior that Brad had exhibited, behavior he had seen again and again

in depositions and testimony from both his former wives and his

family.

He commented particularly about the fact that his first wife Loni Ann

had been totally dependent on Brad's child support checks, and yet he

had invalidated them after he gave them to herþso that she would be

destitute.

Speaking of this kind of cruelty carried to the point of murder, Turco

said, "We call it sadismþegosyntonic sadismþwhich means there are

people in this world who are just basically very comfortable with

cruelty.

It's almost a way of life for them to be cruel to othersþin small ways

and in big ways.
 
Reading through these records, that pattern becomes

apparent."

"Could you give us an example?"
 
Shinn asked.

". . . behavior toward his former wivesþto the women in his life.

That's pretty well documented," Turco responded.
 
"I think there's

really a very serious indication of loss of impulse control.
 
This

person is not just cruel on a level of canceling checks or cheating.

It has an aggressive component that's really quite substantial."

Shinn held up the letter that Brad had written to his mother on January

28, 1974, when he was twenty-five years old.
 
"What does that reflect

about his feelings about his mother?"
 
he asked Turco.

"Briefly stated," Turco said, "this letter reflects his perception of

his mother as being very cruel, and being a very inhumane person who is

out to destroy his life and the life of his father.... Actually there

are two t: \N' elements to this letter.
 
We would have to assume that

his allegations are false.
 
.."

The letter that Brad had sent to his mother was three pages of

singlespaced typing.
 
It was packed with vituperative accusations,

beginning by castigating her for her "thinly veiled offensive .
 
. . to

cover your own tracks because you had opened and destroyed my

first-class mail," and moving on: ". . . You liken .me and my father to

conspirators in your divorce.... You clearly ... know that your bizarre

and unexplainable actions .
 
. . caused the man to seek out peace of

mind away from you.

His most serious heart attack [wasl caused by one of your relentless

ranting and raving sessions.... Your threats to kill people ...

"I have made a concerted effort to divorce myself from your sphere of

influence," Brad continued in his hate letter to his mother.
 
"You have

ignored my right to quiet enjoyment, harassed my person .
 
. .

ostracized and impugned my character and reputation .
 
. . attempted to

alienate my children's affection....You have physically attacked the

woman with whom I associate, calling her a slut and a whore, and

threatening to kill us both.... You have pawed through my personal

belongings like an animal.... I can subpoena witnesses to state ...

they heard you threaten to kill various people.... You also said you

should blow off my father's head with a gun.... I speculate and believe

that you will need the professional help of a psychiatrist.
 
Without

this assistance, I fear you may commit an irretrievable act in carrying

out one of your earlier...

threats."
 
Brad had ended his letter to his mother, "Consider yourself

informed as to my feelings on these matters via this letter.
 
Any

continuance of further actions on your part to harass, intimidate, or

malign me or my family or friends will be met with appropriate and

swift legal restraints.

"Yours, Brad M. Cunningham."

Analyzing this letter for the jurors, Turco said, "You basically see an

individual projecting .
 
. . his own rage, hostility, paranoia,

etcetera, to another person.
 
In this case, onto his mother.
 
The

second element.
 
. . what is or isn't true, whether his mother is a

terrible person or an angel þis irrelevant.
 
It is that he views her as

such and that is extremely, extremely bad .
 
. . the relationship with

a mother is very important, and this [letter] is a projection of his

own hostility.

"Take this a step further.
 
Individuals who believe that their mothers

are that bad almost instinctively reenact the same rage toward other

women in their lives ... they lack the ability to not be

aggressive....

they have the inability to relate in any fashion.... This man doesn't

have empathy.... He's using peopleþonly to get something out of

them."

"Do you notice thatþnot just in his dealings with his wives, but with

his children?"
 
Shinn asked.

"Yes," Turco agreed.
 
"I noticed that quite specifically.
 
He's

basically relating to them with respect to wanting complete control."

Brad Cunningham's whole life with other people then had been one of

wanting to dominate and to control.

"Would the words Jekyll and Hyde' be used here?"
 
Shinn asked.

Privately, he often referred to Brad as "either Prince Charming or

Darth Vader."

Dr. Turco said that this was just another way of saving "true self'

and "false self."
 
He explained that the more a person's private self

matched his public self, the more likely he was to be a "pretty well