The Idaho Murders: A Psychological Autopsy of Bryan Kohberger

Why did the Idaho murders happen?

Bryan Kohberger has pleaded guilty to the murders of four University of Idaho students. But his plea answered only one question: who committed the crime. It told us almost nothing about why.

In this episode of UNMARKED, I take a different approach. Rather than reconstructing the murders, I construct a psychological autopsy of Bryan Kohberger—examining his childhood, social isolation, personality, fantasy life, academic interests, and the evidence surrounding the case to better understand how someone becomes capable of an act like this.

Research in This Episode: 

Clare S. Allely, Helen Minnis, Lucy Thompson, Philip Wilson, Christopher Gillberg, Neurodevelopmental and psychosocial risk factors in serial killers and mass murderers, Aggression and Violent Behavior, Volume 19, Issue 3, 2014, Pages 288-301, ISSN 1359-1789. 

Rubin, K. H., Coplan, R. J., & Bowker, J. C. (2009). Social withdrawal in childhood. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 141–171.

Show Notes:

If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, my book Charles Manson: The Last Words documents years researching the story and speaking directly with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself. 

Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7

If you want to follow the cases as I’m working on them, you can find me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamesbuddyday/

For those who want to examine the evidence directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.

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