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Michael Laudor

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Michael B. Laudor
Jonathan Rosen (left) and Michael Laudor (right) in extracurricular activity group photo, New Rochelle High School yearbook, 1979
Born (1963-05-12) May 12, 1963 (age 61)
NationalityAmerican
EducationYale University (BA, JD)

Michael B. Laudor (born May 12, 1963) is an American graduate of Yale Law School who made national headlines in 1995 for having successfully graduated while suffering from schizophrenia; and again in 1998 for stabbing his pregnant fiancée, Caroline Costello, to death during an episode of psychosis.[1][2]

Early life and career

Laudor was born in 1963[3] to parents Charles, an economics professor at Adelphi University, and Ruth. He grew up in New Rochelle, New York and was raised Jewish.[1] As a child, Laudor was known to be intellectually gifted and a voracious reader, performing well in school despite often cutting class to practice jazz guitar. While in high school, Laudor was chosen to take part in the prestigious Telluride Association Summer Program at Cornell University.[1] He went on to attend Yale University as an undergraduate, from which he graduated a year early with two majors and summa cum laude honors.[4]

Laudor's first job after graduation was as a consultant at Bain and Company. Once there, he started to develop his first symptoms of schizophrenia; namely, a constant fear that his phone lines at work had been tapped.[1] Due to this and the associated pressures of work, Laudor left Bain in 1985 to pursue a writing career.[5] Laudor's psychiatric symptoms escalated during this period, however, as he started to imagine that musician friends of his were members of a cult, that his room had become engulfed in flames, or that his parents had been killed and replaced by Neo-Nazi agents.[1][2][6] Eventually, Laudor was hospitalized at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where he stayed for eight months, and was given a schizophrenia diagnosis.[1]

Law school and recognition

Following his release from hospital, Laudor's doctors suggested to him that he get a job as a cashier at Macy's, but his father convinced him instead to attend Yale Law School, where he had applied shortly before becoming ill.[1] Upon hearing of his illness, Yale Law School Dean Guido Calabresi reportedly said to Laudor: "If you were here, and your problem or illness was that you needed a wheelchair and a ramp, there would be a wheelchair and a ramp. It isn’t so easy to do, but I will be your wheelchair and ramp."[7][1] Despite his schizophrenia symptoms continuing to affect him,[5] Laudor graduated with honors in 1992 and was offered a two-year research associate fellowship by his professors.[1][6] Laudor is known to have published at least two legal articles during this time: "Disability and Community: Modes of Exclusion, Norms of Inclusion, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990" in the Syracuse Law Review[8] and "In Defense of Wrongful Life: Bringing Political Theory to the Defense of a Tort", in the Fordham Law Review.[9]

Laudor attempted to find a job as a law professor after his fellowship without success. While he was seeking employment, his life and overcoming of his illness was profiled in a 1995 New York Times article by journalist Lisa Foderaro.[1] Upon reading the article, film director Ron Howard bought the rights to Laudor's life story for $1.5 million, planning to turn it into a movie with Brad Pitt as the lead role.[10] The article also netted Laudor a $600,000 book advance from Scribner's, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, for an autobiography. Both the movie and the book were intended to be called "Laws of Madness".[10][11]

Killing of Caroline Costello

Laudor began dating his fiancée, Caroline Costello, in 1990, while he was in law school and she was working at IBM,[5] though the two had first met as Yale undergraduates in 1983.[7] Costello was aware of Laudor's schizophrenia since the first few months of the relationship.[5] At the time of her death, the couple lived together in an apartment in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. Costello, aged 37, worked as the associate director of technology for the Edison Project (now EdisonLearning), an education management organization, and was pregnant with the couple's first child.[12] The pair had a loving relationship,[13] even as Laudor continued to be prone to schizophrenic delusions, believing at times that Costello was an alien impostor and refusing to let her in the apartment.[5]

Leading up to Costello's demise, Laudor's antipsychotic medications had become less effective at curbing his symptoms, resulting in him becoming depressed and withdrawn, and failing to make progress on his autobiography. Some sources claim that Laudor had recently stopped taking his medication altogether.[2][7] The 1995 death of Laudor's father Charles, a critical source of support who had often talked Laudor through his hallucinations, was also said to have contributed to his mental decline.[2][5]

On June 17, 1998, Costello was found stabbed to death in the couple's apartment.[14] Laudor had been experiencing a particularly severe psychotic episode that day, to the point where Costello had told her boss in the morning that she could not come to work due to a "personal emergency". After attempting to defuse the situation on the phone, Laudor's mother Ruth called the police urging them to conduct a welfare check on the couple.[5][6][15] Laudor was apprehended for the crime 170 miles away on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, after he had driven there and promptly turned himself in to campus police. It is unclear why Laudor drove to Cornell, as he had no known connections to the university besides his time there in high school.[6]

Laudor was charged with second-degree murder by Jeanine Pirro, then the district attorney of Westchester County,[5] but did not stand trial as prosecutors accepted Laudor's plea of not guilty by reason of mental defect. This conclusion was supported by three psychiatrists, who argued that Laudor believed his fiancée was "a nonperson, a robot or a doll... planning to kill or torture him". One psychiatric report claimed that an impending crisis intervention team visit arranged by Laudor's mother and doctor had triggered Laudor's fears of being tortured and lobotomized.[14] According to Laudor's lawyer, Laudor had not realized that Costello was dead for six weeks after his arrest, and as a friend of Laudor's later recounted, he had been confused about why Costello was not visiting him in custody.[14][7] Pirro stated that she was obligated to accept the insanity plea but criticized that the case would not go to trial, as did Costello's mother and sister.[14] Costello was buried in her hometown of Newton, Massachusetts.

Later developments

Laudor was committed to the Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychotherapy Center in New Hampton, New York and remains institutionalized there as of 2023.[16] Laudor's movie and book deals were canceled, with Ron Howard going on to make A Beautiful Mind in 2001 about schizophrenic mathematician John Nash, whose story was deemed more palatable for audiences.[10] A Beautiful Mind went on to win four Academy Awards, including Best Picture.[17]

In April 2023, a close friend of Laudor's since childhood, Jonathan Rosen, published a memoir centered around Laudor's life entitled The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions.[18] The book has received high levels of praise from critics.[19][20][21][18]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Foderaro, Lisa (November 9, 1995). "A Voyage to Bedlam and Part Way Back;Yale law Graduate, a Schizophrenic, Is Encumbered by an Invisible Wheelchair". The New York Times. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d Berger, Joseph; Gross, Jane (June 19, 1998). "From Mental Illness to Yale to Murder Charge". The New York Times. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  3. ^ "New York, New York, U.S., Birth Index, 1910-1965" (digital images), Original data: New York City Department of Health, courtesy of www.vitalsearch-worldwide.com, Ancestry.com, 2017 Closed access icon
  4. ^ Avery, Erin (April 20, 2023). "Michael Laudor was a Yale gold boy. Then a psychotic breakdown led to tragedy". US Today News. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Rosen, Jonathan (April 11, 2023). "American Madness". The Atlantic. Retrieved April 24, 2023.(subscription required)
  6. ^ a b c d Usborne, David (June 22, 1998). "The two faces of Michael". The Independent. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  7. ^ a b c d Spark, Debra (April 15, 2015). "The Dangerous Act of Writing". AGNI Online. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  8. ^ Laudor, Michael B. (1992). "Disability and Community: Modes of Exclusion, Norms of Inclusion, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990". HeinOnline. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  9. ^ Laudor, Michael B. (1993). "In Defense of Wrongful Life: Bringing Political Theory to the Defense of a Tort". FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  10. ^ a b c Friedman, Roger (February 15, 2002). "Exclusive: Ron Howard Changed His Mind; and Screenwriter Admits to 'Semi-Fictional Movie'". Fox News. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  11. ^ Abramowitz, Rachel (March 25, 2002). "In a Crisis, It Was a 'Beautiful' Job". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  12. ^ Berger, Joseph (June 20, 1998). "Victim in a Stabbing Saw Only the Best in Her Schizophrenic Fiance". The New York Times. Retrieved April 25, 2023.
  13. ^ Chua-Eoan, Howard (June 29, 1998). "A Precarious Genius". TIME.com. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  14. ^ a b c d Fitzgerald, Jim (May 12, 2000). "Insanity Plea Accepted in NY Murder". AP NEWS. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  15. ^ Span, Paula; Kastor, Elizabeth (June 19, 1998). "SCHIZOPHRENIC LAWYER'S TRIUMPH TURNS INTO TRAGEDY". Washington Post. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  16. ^ Kellman, Steven (April 20, 2023). "This devastating memoir will break your heart". The Forward. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  17. ^ "The 74th Academy Awards (2002) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. AMPAS. Archived from the original on November 9, 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2011.
  18. ^ a b The Best Minds. Penguin Books UK. April 18, 2023. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  19. ^ Anthony, Andrew (April 16, 2023). "The Best Minds review – rich examination of madness and the way the west deals with it". the Guardian. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  20. ^ McNally, Richard J. (April 7, 2023). "'The Best Minds' Review: Brilliance and Breakdown". WSJ. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  21. ^ Hoffman, A.R. (April 14, 2023). "'The Best Minds' Could Be the Best Book of the Year". The New York Sun. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
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