Book summary “Murder of innocence”: summary

Introduction

You live in a society that often fails to recognize severe mental illness until it erupts into lethal violence. Investigative journalists Joel Kaplan, George Papajohn, and Eric Zorn explore this systemic failure in Murder of Innocence. You confront the terrifying reality of Laurie Dann, whose escalating psychological collapse culminated in the May 20, 1988 shooting at Hubbard Woods School in Winnetka, Illinois.

This book investigates how family denial, inadequate mental health laws, and lax police procedures allowed a deeply disturbed woman to execute a murderous rampage across the affluent Chicago North Shore.

You will examine the seven distinct phases of this tragedy. The authors trace Dann's early maladjustment, her turbulent marriage, and her increasingly aggressive harassment campaigns. You will see how medical professionals, legal authorities, and family members repeatedly missed critical warning signs. The narrative culminates in the chilling premeditation of mass poisoning and school violence.

You must ask yourself several difficult questions as you read:

• How do families and institutions enable dangerous behavior through silence and denial?
• Where do privacy laws and psychiatric patient rights fail to protect the public?
• Why do police and courts struggle to intervene before domestic disputes turn lethal?

1. Background and Early Maladjustment

Laurie Dann's early life in affluent North Shore suburbs was characterized by emotional withdrawal, rigid rituals, and a fragile sense of self-worth masked by temporary plastic surgery and intense romantic codependency.

You can trace the family's trajectory within a broader demographic migration of upwardly mobile Jewish families moving northward along Lake Michigan from Chicago into elite North Shore suburbs. Norm and Edith Wasserman moved from South Shore to a tri-level on Sumac Lane, taking out a $14,000 mortgage in 1955. They later bought a $105,000 single-story house in Glencoe. Observers often referred to these affluent areas using local terms such as the Golden Ghetto, Pill Hill, or the Suicide Belt.

During her youth, Laurie exhibited deep-seated emotional withdrawal, compulsive rituals, and a fragile sense of self-worth. Classmates and teachers noted her tendency to stare blankly, her academic struggles, and her attendance in special education classes for troubled children. At age five, Laurie adopted rituals involving touching objects and fixing on good and bad numbers. During this period, the local North Shore teen suicide rate climbed to three times higher than the national average.

A plastic surgery procedure to reduce her nose during her youth dramatically changed Laurie's physical appearance and boosted her superficial social confidence. After altering her nose in the summer of 1973 before entering New Trier East High School, she transitioned into a visually striking young woman. Wade Keats spotted Laurie in a yellow bikini at an Aspen pool in 1973 and was immediately struck by her appearance.

In her romantic relationships, Laurie displayed intense possessiveness, emotional volatility, and a pathological dependence on her partners. Her relationship with pre-med student Stephen Witt involved severe clinginess, prompting her to drop out of university courses to monitor him until he broke off the affair. Steve eventually drove 1,800 miles distance from Tucson home to Glencoe to escape her, leaving behind unfinished work toward the 125 credit hours required for a degree at the University of Arizona.

2. Marriage, Domestic Disarray, and Resistance to Psychiatric Help

Following her marriage to Russell Dann, Laurie exhibited chronic job instability, bizarre domestic disarray, and emerging superstitions while rejecting professional psychiatric care backed by her emotionally detached parents.

Russell Dann grew up as the popular youngest son of well-to-do parents on Sheridan Road, joining his family's firm, Dann Brothers Insurance Company. At 25 years old, Russell met Laurie at Green Acres in the spring of 1981 and proposed during a trip to Boca Raton. On September 11, 1982, they married with 65 guests at the wedding reception at Green Acres.

Norm Wasserman reacted with little enthusiasm to the engagement, offering 15,000 dollars instead of a large wedding blowout. Russell estimated Norm Wasserman's net worth at 3 to 4 million dollars. Norm Wasserman was 55 years old when he semi-retired on his doctor's advice.

Following her marriage, Laurie developed pronounced superstitions and obsessive rituals, refusing to let Russell leave for work in the morning until she touched the sofa. She cycled through numerous jobs as a waitress, hospital receptionist, orthodontist assistant, and dermatologist receptionist. In nearly every position, she struggled with basic tasks and was ultimately fired. Laurie's approximate earnings after taxes from her various jobs totaled 300 dollars a year.

At Langtry's restaurant, Laurie blew up at a rowdy table of women and was fired on the spot by the manager. Laurie stuffed her closets with piles of clean and dirty clothes and made severe errors like setting out potato chips a week in advance.

After a year and a half of marriage, Laurie briefly entered psychiatric treatment with Highland Park psychiatrist Dr. Robert Greendale, who prescribed thioridazine. Laurie visited Dr. Greendale 3 times in her first month of therapy, and the doctor wrote a stern warning letter emphasizing that her problems required ongoing professional care. Norm Wasserman dismissed psychiatry entirely, stating he did not believe in it.

3. Escalation to Harassment and Lethal Weapons

High-conflict divorces involving a mentally unstable partner often involve malicious legal maneuvers, fabricated break-ins, and harassment.

Russell and Laurie paid $178,500 for a five-bedroom house on Hastings Street in Highland Park, but Laurie immediately obsessed over another family buying a similar house for $20,000 less. After Russell sought a separation, Laurie engaged in various forms of harassment and legal maneuvering. She filed for divorce in Cook County to delay proceedings, staged a fake burglary at her parents' house, and made hundreds of hang-up phone calls to Russell, his family, and former acquaintances.

Laurie reported a burglary at her parents' Sheridan Road home, claiming thousands in cash and valuables were stolen. Glencoe detective Floyd Mohr found no signs of forced entry and realized she staged it for divorce leverage. She reported $2,130 in cash and a $500 gold chain stolen in the fake burglary.

State firearm regulations and purchase processes can allow individuals with severe emotional instability to easily obtain heavy-caliber weaponry. On May 5, Laurie purchased a nickel-plated Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum with a four-inch barrel, along with ammunition and a cleaning kit, paying $275 after completing an application.

To acquire the weapon, you must complete specific administrative steps:

• Pay a $5 fee for the firearm owner identification card
• Fill out a one-page questionnaire answering basic disqualification questions
• Wait for the mandatory three-day cooling off period before collecting the weapon

Law enforcement and family members often find their hands legally tied when trying to disarm someone who legally obtained a weapon despite red flags. Detective Floyd Mohr made nearly a dozen separate attempts to convince Norm Wasserman to have Laurie relinquish the .357 Magnum. Norm eventually claimed it was locked in a safe-deposit box and refused to let police inspect it.

Severely disturbed individuals may fabricate elaborate falsehoods regarding past pregnancies, children, and secret relationships to manipulate former partners. Laurie called Dr. Steve Witt in New York, claiming they had a five-year-old daughter from a past encounter and demanding he come to Chicago to sign adoption papers.

Neighbors and casual romantic partners often misinterpret severe mental illness as mere odd quirkiness until deeper behavioral anomalies become apparent. Dean Pappas noticed Laurie pulling hair from his head and her own, opening doors with her sleeves instead of her bare hands, and abruptly walking out of the house without saying goodbye during visits.

4. The Ice Pick Stabbing and Legal Battles

Russell Dann's alleged stabbing by Laurie and subsequent legal accusations of sexual assault and arson triggered complex investigations and a contentious divorce settlement amid continued psychiatric interventions.

In September 1986, Russell Dann was discovered with a one-inch chest wound that caused a 10 percent collapse of his left lung, which he attributed to Laurie. On September 30, 1986, Russell called the Highland Park police reporting he had been stabbed in his townhouse while asleep at 3 a.m. Responding officers were skeptical because the wound was not bleeding seriously and Russell had an abrasive, incoherent demeanor.

Highland Park doctor Mart Jalakas initially suggested small marks around the wound were hesitation marks, though he later recanted. An ice pick package and receipt from Eckart Hardware were subsequently found in Laurie's house, but detectives contaminated the evidence by letting Russell and his brother search the room first. Russell also failed a polygraph test, leading prosecutors to decline filing criminal charges due to insufficient evidence.

Laurie subjected Russell and his associates to relentless late-night silent phone calls. Susan and Jeff Taylor paid Illinois Bell $20 a month for tracing devices, which successfully tracked hang-up calls in December to the Hastings Street house where Laurie was living. Friends and relatives like Susie and Jeff Taylor and Beth Rosen resorted to installing specialized tracing traps via Illinois Bell, lighting up their backyards with flood lamps dubbed Laurie Lights, and alerting schools to prevent unauthorized child pickup.

Frustrated by the local police departments' unwillingness to prosecute Laurie, Russell hired attorney Rick Kessler, who in token brought in private detective Frank Bullock, a former Waukegan police sergeant. Russell hired private detective Frank Bullock of MidAmerica Security Investigation Inc. to uncover additional information and evaluate the safety of Russell's family.

On April 20, 1987, after visiting with Dean Pappas, Laurie reported that Russell entered her parents' Glencoe house, dragged her to a bedroom, demanded a wedding ring, threatened her with a knife, and sexually assaulted her while threatening to frame her. Laurie claimed that Russell broke in, held a steak knife to her neck, and inserted the knife into her vagina to compel her to sign divorce documents. Glencoe officers found a cut door screen, bloodstains, and hair clumps, but medical examination revealed only a minor scratch, and prosecutors again declined to press charges due to lack of conclusive evidence.

On May 12, 1987, Highland Park squad cars pulled Russell over in a felony stop after Laurie reported an unexploded Molotov cocktail found in her parents' home with a cut window screen, claiming the glass container matched a wedding gift set she and Russell had received. Subsequent searches of his car revealed nothing.

In late April 1987, a Cook County judge finalized the divorce settlement splitting the Hastings Street house assets and allocating monthly payments and attorney fees to Laurie. Meanwhile, her parents, Norm and Edith, continued seeking professional help for her, transitioning her care to Dr. Phillip Epstein at Rush-Presbyterian Hospital, who diagnosed her with obsessive-compulsive disorder and chemical imbalances.

5. Campus Chaos and Babysitting Thefts

Laurie fabricates elaborate identities and academic triumphs while hiding raw meat in residential areas.

You see Laurie reinventing her identity within academic and residential spaces. She tells desk clerk Donna McDonough at the Kellogg Living/Learning Center that she transferred from the University of Chicago and claims fraternities like Psi Upsilon court her.

Building staff and suitemates discover raw steaks and fish bones stuffed under hallway carpets and behind chair cushions. Maintenance supervisor David Campbell finds raw slabs of prime-cut beef hidden behind chair cushions in the main hallway and inside a chair in the TV lounge.

Building manager Marc Boney discovers a missing master key linked to Laurie's unauthorized presence in vacant rooms and mailboxes. Evanston tenant rights laws require sixty days minimum for formal eviction proceedings.

You find Laurie working as a babysitter for $2.50 an hour as her independent living fails. Florence Montrose discovers hundreds of dollars worth of steak and shrimp stolen from her freezer in a large garbage bag after Laurie watches her children.

Norm Wasserman pays $400 as a settlement to the Montrose family, while the Williamson family incident carries a $1,700 damage estimate.

Northbrook police respond after Russell spots Laurie waiting outside his office. Laurie claims Russell masturbated in her face and left semen, but officers quickly doubt the story due to the public location.

On November 7, Laurie visits the Marksman and purchases a .32 caliber Smith & Wesson Terrier revolver for $245.

6. Medical Treatments and Institutional Impotence

Despite advanced psychiatric evaluations and experimental drug therapy for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, institutional fragmentation and local police constraints allowed Laurie to continue purchasing weapons and issuing death threats.

In 1987, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder gained widespread public attention as new research showed it was far more prevalent than previously thought, affecting 1 out of every 40 Americans, and was increasingly understood as a physical brain ailment treatable with specific medications. ABC-TV's 20/20 aired a report on OCD on March 19, 1987, hosted by Barbara Walters, John Stossel, and Hugh Downs, portraying the emergence of specialized treatment centers as a major relief for sufferers. Documentaries and media reports highlighted bizarre ritual behaviors and framed the experimental antidepressant clomipramine as a miracle drug that suppressed unusual urges in over two-thirds of patients by altering serotonin delivery in the brain.

Psychiatrist Dr. Phillip Epstein treated Laurie Dann by prescribing restricted medications through international channels and faced multiple prior malpractice lawsuits regarding prescription management. Because clomipramine was still undergoing clinical testing in the United States, Epstein ordered it for Laurie through the Lud Bock Pharmacy in Montreal using Norm Wasserman's credit card. Epstein was previously named in a 1977 lawsuit involving a patient's fatal overdose on Darvocet, settling for $990,000.

Clinical evaluations using standardized psychological tests revealed that Laurie Dann suffered from severe obsessive-compulsive symptoms heavily centered on aggressive fears and contamination. Administered by therapist Yoram Shwager and overseen by Dr. John Greist, Laurie completed the 66-question Yale-Brown test, answering severe and always to 42 questions reflecting intense fears of hurting others accidentally and dread of contamination.

Behavioral therapy regimens prescribed strict operational rules for both the patient and her parents to manage daily routines and monitor anxiety levels, using a scale from 0 to 100 to measure daily anxiety levels and 8 p.m. as the designated daily time for parents to review and mark the activity diary. Therapist Yoram Shwager provided structured rules restricting compulsive hair pulling and taboo locations, while mandating that parents record daily frequencies and anxiety scores without criticizing the patient. Shwager instructed Norm and Edith Wasserman to sit with Laurie daily at 8 p.m. to log the frequency of her actions and rate her anxiety between 0 and 100 without offering criticism.

Shwager provided these specific rules:

• Do not go back to the arrows and the cars in the parking lot.
• Do not pull your hair on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.
• You can pull your hair on the rest of the week, but only between 10-11 p.m.
• Go out at least three times to either a movie, theater, friends, etc.
• Do not go back to tempting places in your hometown.
• Make sure within two days that Laurie will have an extension for the telephone line so she can speak from her room.
• Do not watch her closely and do not make any remark or comment about her behavior whatsoever.
• Keep a diary and, every day, at 8 p.m., sit with Laurie and mark, only after she reports, without arguing, the date and hour.

While undergoing psychiatric treatment, Laurie Dann systematically purchased multiple firearms across different gun shops during mandatory waiting periods.

Laurie bought a Smith & Wesson .32 at the Marksman, later acquired a .22 caliber semiautomatic Beretta for $209.15, and returned to pick up her third gun following cooling-off periods, interspersed with intense telephone harassment. On the Monday after Christmas, Laurie returned to the Marksman to select a .22 caliber semiautomatic Beretta for $209.15, picking it up after her 3-day cooling-off period elapsed.

Local law enforcement agencies struggled to protect citizens from dangerous stalkers due to jurisdictional fragmentation and legal constraints regarding unproven threats. Victims of Laurie's relentless telephone harassment met with Glencoe public safety director Robert Bonneville and officer Floyd Mohr to demand action, but police officials stated they could not arrest someone for acting strangely or making muffled phone threats without positive identification. Jeff Taylor, Scott Taylor, Noah Rosen, and Murray Hyman met with Glencoe safety director Robert Bonneville to warn him that Laurie was a ticking bomb with a gun, but police insisted their hands were tied during their 45-minute meeting.

Laurie established herself in a luxury student high-rise in Madison under false pretenses provided by her father while exhibiting extreme antisocial and erratic behaviors. Norm Wasserman filled out Laurie's housing application for the Towers of Madison, shaving 7 years off her age and listing her as a graduate journalism transfer student for the $5,800 annual cost of living. Freshman Jolie Pollock, Laurie's suitemate at the Towers, discovered Laurie's side of the suite smelled of urine, found schedules for riding elevators, and later found her Macintosh computer ruined with spilled Coca-Cola.

Laurie adopted elaborate protective rituals regarding food and cutlery while fabricating false identities and stories for her college dining companions. Haley Bareck and other freshmen befriended Laurie in the cafeteria, where Laurie shared false stories about her life, showed a photograph of herself from happier days before she cropped and dyed her hair, and unannouncedly walked into Dr. Stanley Pollan's dental office to have two wisdom teeth extracted, generating a $204 billing statement.

Laurie transitioned from anonymous hang-up calls to direct verbal death threats against her former employers and family members. Utilizing public pay phones around the dormitory, Laurie abandoned silent hang-ups to explicitly threaten individuals with murder, prompting renewed panic among victims who alerted police, only to be rebuffed by officers citing psychiatrists who claimed she was harmless. Beth Rosen received 4 consecutive threatening phone calls on March 10 starting at 5:50 p.m., during which a muffled voice stated that Beth was going to die, after which Officer Floyd Mohr dismissed her concerns by stating psychiatrists reported Laurie was not harmful.

7. Premeditation and the Distribution of Poison

Laurie compiled explicit murder lists, stole laboratory poisons and disguises, and systematically distributed tainted juice pouches across North Shore communities on the morning of May 20, 1988.

As your paranoia deepens, you engage in premeditated thefts of poisons and disguises to plot a catastrophic event. You steal arsenic and lead solutions along with lab equipment from a University of Wisconsin hospital lab. You also shoplift various books on poisoning and antidotes from the library, alongside wigs and clothing from department store mannequins while using aliases when caught.

On March 12, 1988, Laurie stole chemicals from a University Hospital lab, and on March 14 she was caught shoplifting wigs at J.C. Penney in Madison, initially giving a false name before admitting she was Laurie Dann. Police set a 200 dollars bond amount when releasing her after the arrest. Meanwhile, you subject former targets and acquaintances to an unremitting stream of death threats and abusive phone calls, making up to thirty calls in an hour to Steve Witt in Arizona, threatening his life and telling him he will not live to see his baby grow up.

Law enforcement and psychiatric professionals repeatedly dismiss or fail to coordinate warnings about your dangerous behavior. Police prosecutors claim evidence is merely circumstantial, and the FBI initially rejects harassment complaints for lack of evidence. Dr. Greist fails to recognize your violent potential or successfully initiate involuntary commitment, leaving a 34 days time gap since last seeing Norm Wasserman before deciding against contacting him about missed appointments.

You meticulously compile written lists of potential targets, including former acquaintances, children's schools, and fraternity houses. Your notes include names of resident advisors, college students, Russell Dann's friends, and specific educational institutions associated with targets' children. You create a list that includes schools like the Ravinia School and Kennedy School in Highland Park, where Jeff and Susie Taylor's children are enrolled. The Kennedy School day-care center and preschool have a capacity of 160 children.

During your final weeks at the University of Wisconsin towers, your behavior becomes bizarre, unhygienic, and hostile. You engage in erratic rituals such as repeatedly punching television channels 7 and 21, walking with obsessive compulsive patterns, hiding naked in garbage rooms, and destroying property when roommates or partners pull away. A student staff member finds you burrowed into refuse and curled up in a ball inside a fifth-floor garbage room, wrapped in a plastic bag and dripping with sweat. You gain 50 pounds while living in the dorm and cause 300 dollars in estimated damage when slashing clothing and a textbook.

On the morning of May 20, 1988, you execute your plan to distribute poisoned juice and treats across multiple North Shore suburbs. You awaken at 5:05 AM to begin final preparations. Using stolen laboratory arsenic and lead solutions, you inject fruit juice pouches and baked Rice Krispies treats, labeling them as free samples and dropping them into mailboxes and fraternity houses. You leave poisoned juice pouches and treats at residences in Glencoe, Highland Park, Winnetka, and at the Psi Upsilon and Alpha Tau Omega fraternity houses at Northwestern University.

10 Key Ideas

1. Investigative journalists Joel Kaplan, George Papajohn, and Eric Zorn explore how family denial, inadequate mental health laws, and lax police procedures allowed Laurie Dann to execute a murderous rampage across the affluent Chicago North Shore.
2. During her youth, Laurie exhibited deep-seated emotional withdrawal, compulsive rituals, and a fragile sense of self-worth that contrasted with her temporary social confidence following a plastic surgery procedure.
3. Following her marriage, Laurie developed pronounced superstitions and obsessive rituals, cycling through numerous jobs while struggling with basic tasks and rejecting professional psychiatric care.
4. State firearm regulations and purchase processes allowed Laurie to easily obtain heavy-caliber weaponry, while law enforcement and family members found their hands legally tied when trying to disarm her.
5. Russell Dann suffered a chest wound attributed to Laurie, and despite subsequent legal accusations of sexual assault and arson, prosecutors declined to press charges due to lack of conclusive evidence.
6. Laurie reinvented her identity within academic and residential spaces while stealing food and maintaining unauthorized presence in vacant rooms.
7. Despite advanced psychiatric evaluations and experimental drug therapy for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, institutional fragmentation and local police constraints allowed Laurie to continue purchasing weapons and issuing death threats.
8. Local law enforcement agencies struggled to protect citizens from dangerous stalkers due to jurisdictional fragmentation and legal constraints regarding unproven threats.
9. Victims of Laurie's relentless telephone harassment met with local officials to demand action, but police officials stated they could not arrest someone for acting strangely or making muffled phone threats without positive identification.
10. Laurie compiled explicit murder lists, stole laboratory poisons and disguises, and systematically distributed tainted juice pouches across North Shore communities on the morning of May 20, 1988.