Fact, fiction merge in vampire case
I’m not a psychologist but I am the 50-year journalist expert who covered Rod Ferrell’s vampire cult murder case.
Shrink testimony was great but I had my own theories, supported strangely enough in a novel written by a famous therapist.
Ferrell led a ragtag group blood-drinking teens from Kentucky to Central Florida in 1996 where he killed a cult member’s parents in a crime that made international headlines. One psychologist said Ferrell had pent-up rage and was living in a “fantasy world” where he would rescue a “damsel in distress.”
Ferrell claimed the cult member, 15-year-old Heather Wendorf, told him she was being abused by her parents in Eustis, Fl.
Ferrell, 16, claimed he was abused and neglected as a child. His attorney pilloried his mother, citing her own interest in vampirism.
One mental health expert, who had evaluated 700 murder suspects, said the Murray, Ky., teen came from one of the most dysfunctional families he had ever seen.
His diagnosis was personality disorder and schizotypal, with odd, delusion beliefs and conduct disorder.
He was not insane, however, when he beat Ruth Queen and Richard Wendorf to death with a crowbar and stole their vehicle.
My opinion? The Wendorfs took the brunt of his pent-up rage because he could not bring himself to beat his family to death.
Best-selling mystery writer Jonathan Kellerman’s fictional hero, Dr. Alex Delaware, is a psychologist consultant with L.A.P.D. But here’s the kicker: Kellerman is also a real psychologist.
In “City of the Dead,” Dr. Delaware opined about a serial killer.
“…my best guess is displacement. Projecting anger and other emotions onto substitute targets. It’s the basis of racism and it’s also common in borderline personality. So are inappropriate anger and a distorted self-image. Grandiosity, seeing yourself as above the rules……”
Of course, as one observer noted in my true-crime book, “Cold Blooded, A True Crime Story of a Murderous Vampire Cult,” immortal vampires are the ultimate rule-breakers.