Joseph Satten

Joseph Satten (born 1921 in Brooklyn , New York , † December 28, 2012 in San Francisco ) was an American psychiatrist. He became known through Truman Capote's novel in cold blood , in which his reports on the murderers of the Clutter family are mentioned.

Assessment of the Clutter Murder Case and Other Diagnoses

Joseph Satten believed Perry Smith to be primarily responsible for the murder of Herbert Clutter and his family. He stated that Smith's biography followed a common pattern for murderers who killed others on behalf of their fathers or other caregivers who had mistreated or neglected them. The murder of Herbert Clutter, actually without an obvious motive, as Satten headlined in an article published in 1960, can be explained in this way. The other three murders of Bonnie, Nancy and Kenyon Clutter, however, were motivated by the death of the head of the family. In the case of "the nicest boy in Wolcott," Lowell Lee Andrews , Satten was diagnosed with schizophrenia, which did not lead to the insanity of the student who shot his sister and parents. Both Lowell Lee Andrews and the Clutters' killers died by hanging. Satten's description of perpetrators with no apparent motive for murder was later compared with the personality traits of Kennedy killer Lee Harvey Oswald and found to be consistent. Joseph Satten provided technical assistance in the filming of Capote's book.

Life

Joseph Satten graduated from New York University in 1945. In the same year he married Norma, whom he had met in 1941. The marriage had three children.

Norma Satten (* 1922; † 2010) first graduated from Brooklyn College with a degree in economics and then earned a Master of Arts in urban planning. Norma and Joseph Satten lived in Topeka from 1948 to 1971 ; Joseph Satten was employed at the Menninger Clinic there for a long time. In 1971 the couple moved to San Francisco . Norma Satten, who had already dealt with health planning and social issues in Topeka, was involved in the organization of home care services and the establishment of the Coming Home Hospice, a hospice for cancer and AIDS patients. She received numerous honors for her commitment, also in the Jewish community.

Publications (selection)

• The Concept of Responsibility in Psychiatry and its Relationship to the Legal Problem of "Criminal Responsibility" , in: University of Kansas Law Review 1955–1956, p. 361 ff.
• Growth of Psychiatrists During And After Residency Training. An Objective Evaluation , with Herbert C. Modlin, William Benjamin, S. Burritt Lacy and Bernard H. Hall, in: American Journal of Psychiatry 115, 1959, pp. 1081-1090
• Crime and Mental Disorders , Franklin Watts, 1963

Others

In 2011 the Satten family sold a house built in 1925 on Clayton Street in Haight Ashbury to the writer Nancy Austin .

Web links

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Individual evidence

1. ↑ Joseph Satten: Obituary In: Topeka Capital-Journal , January 7, 2013, accessed February 25, 2017
2. Jump up ↑ Joseph Satten, Karl Menninger , Irwin Rosen and Martin Mayman, Murder without Apparent Motive - A Study in Personality Disorganization , in: The American Journal of Psychiatry, July 1960
3. ↑ Truman Capote, In Cold Blood , pp. 368 ff.
4. ↑ NYDailyNews.com  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ^ Mel Ayton, Lee Harvey Oswald's Motives
6. ↑ BFI
7. ↑ Data on Sattens biography on a doctor review page  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ^ Obituary for Norma Satten
9. ↑ Blockshopper.com  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.