Original subtitles

My parents had no personal experience with schizophrenia.

I mean, could you imagine having a 20-something year-old son

that just tried to murder somebody and commit suicide?

What would you do? Where would you turn?

Was there any place to turn?

Okay. Comfortable? Mmm-hmm.

Okay.

You're cold?

Want me to put it around you shoulders?

Where schizophrenia is diagnosed between age 17 and 24.

It's a tragic story.

To be part of the Galvin family is to be part of a tragedy.

This mutation was present in every person

in that family who had schizophrenia.

They might hear voices.

They can command them to do things.

Command them to do things.

Thrown a cat into a bonfire,

dismembered a dog in a bathtub.

This family gave us hope that there might be

a chance to cure schizophrenia.

He shot her first and then he shot himself.

Well, it started to fall apart.

My brothers were falling ill.

They were losing their minds.

They were losing their minds.

There was no peace and quiet growing up with nine brothers

and two sisters in a very small house.

Some of the boys were just a little bit too edgy.

They got a little bit too rough, beyond just playfulness.

And that's when you knew something wasn't right.

It just was never talked about,

nor did we know what was going on.

If you look at that first incident, which was really Donald,

it took years before we really started to know

something was really wrong.

"10:20 a.m., Donald Kenyon Galvin, 24,

was booked for protective custody

in connection with an alleged suicide

and possible homicide attempt."

"He mixed acid and cyanide and held his wife and himself in the room.

He had little insight and gave little feeling

about the seriousness of his actions."

Here is records from Pueblo from the state mental hospital...

...from July 15th, 1970.

That is less than a month after the incident with Jean.

And it says, "Donald is being released to his father, who lives in Colorado Springs,

who plans to set up private psychiatric therapy

and continue medications for Donald."

Don came home a mess.

It really became apparent that he had something severely wrong with him.

Donald's just been a complete nutcase for most of my life.

He came home from college ill when I was a ten or 12-year-old boy.

Though he spent a good portion of that time in his room,

reciting the Beatitudes to himself.

It's kind of hard to ignore his behavior when you're a child.

I didn't know what schizophrenia was at the time, I mean.

But yeah, from age 11 or so on,

I knew that there was a serious problem there.

Donald was difficult to live with.

My parents just had such a difficult time managing him and his illness.

He would take all the pictures off the walls

or break all the statues in the house,

or he'd be burning photographs in the fireplace.

There was one time when we came home,

I remember going in the front door,

and the whole house was empty of furniture.

Being like, "What is going on here?"

And then it sort of started to dawn on you.

Ugh! It's Donald again.

He had removed all the furniture

from the living room and kitchen

and taken it outside up on the hill.

I don't think my parents were very good at managing

those situations without hysteria and anger.

They would be very angry at him.

And then that would cause him to be more agitated and more violent.

There was a lot of bad times for Mom.

I don't know how she did it.

It was mostly that Donald would just be abusive to her.

You never know when he was gonna come out and do something stupid.

Uh, like hold up a knife to my mother's throat.

I do remember Donald coming after my mother

physically, a few times.

And other brothers would step in.

Jim, probably Mark and Joe.

I never was personally threatened by him or physically harmed by him.

But we were all afraid of him.

And we had all witnessed his aggression.

And so Jim became my mother's go-to

for babysitting the younger kids.

Jim was the brother that would pick us up

and take us home from the swimming pool.

He would take us skating to the skating rink in the wintertime

and things like that.

Jim, he was fun to be around.

He was cool.

He drove a little red convertible

and had a motorcycle and wore a leather jacket.

Everyone always called him James Dean.

Compared him to that kind of persona.

That's sort of too cool for school, you know.

Bad boy.

Jim, he liked to party.

He took me out to a place when I was still underage.

But, my older brother says, "Oh, you look old enough. You look over 18."

I think I met Kathy, who became his wife,

one of those nights.

They were in a bar and drinking beer.

Kathy was a very, very lovely girl.

Um... very nice person.

And I thought she was the best thing that happened to Jim.

I was, I think three, when they got married.

But Kathy and Jim were always taking the young children off my parents' hands,

which I think, they appreciated.

I loved being with them.

They were great fun.

I mean, they were always great fun.

But then there's this dark side to him, that was horrible.

I don't know if Jim was, uh, giving Mom and Dad a break

because we spent a fair amount of time at his home,

even on sleepovers.

And it seemed like for a lot of years,

Jim and Kathy were a pretty happy couple.

But I don't know

inside that relationship, how things were.

I don't know how much the others remember of those times,

but Jim was

extremely abusive to Kathy.

He would come home at night, drunk,

and he would cause some kind of ruckus with her.

And there'd be yelling and screaming.

We would just be hearing it.

We'd be in the other room.

Then sometimes Jim would then leave, you know.

He'd go out in a rage

and Kathy would say, "Okay, come on, kids.

Come on, kids. Let's get in the car. Let's go.

Let's go. We need to get out of here."

Like, for fear of our lives.

But it was either be there with that,

or be at home with Donald,

which for some reason was scarier,

because it involved things that weren't real,

whereas I think Jim's was more concrete.

It was like domestic violence may be more socially acceptable, perhaps,

than schizophrenia.

And so I don't know which was worse.

There are many causes of people arriving at this state of behavior

and experience that we call schizophrenia.

But there are certain common characteristics.

Probably the most dramatic characteristic are what we call hallucinations,

which can be very frequent, very disturbing

and dominate the person's life.

They hear things. And generally, what they hear are voices.

Usually multiple voices,

often of people they don't know.

Rarely are the voices friendly.

They're usually voices that negatively comment on their behavior,

on their appearance, on their thinking.

They can command them to do things that can be very destructive.

And they generate tremendous anxiety and discomfort.

And this is one of the most really dramatic, harrowing experiences

of individuals with schizophrenia.

Don and I didn't get along very well.

And, uh, Don was physically abusive.

Don and Jim were at each other's throats all the time.

I tried to avoid the family when it suited me to do so.

And not be part of the strife that was going on.

After I graduated from high school,

I didn't visit Colorado Springs very often.

Because I got a scholarship to go to music school.

I had piano as my major instrument while I was going to school.

And, uh...

That's where I met my wife after a couple of years at the University of Colorado.

Met in 1970.

And married January 9th in '71.

And that was 51 years ago.

When I first went to his family,

it seemed a little off.

It was, uh, overly orderly.

And, um, Mimi,

would give instructions and everybody followed it to the letter

like they're little robots.

I didn't see individual personalities of interest.

And I thought it was strange that each girl had their own little room.

And these boys were stacked two bunk beds in one room.

So you had four in one room, four in another and two in another.

Everything was in order.

And everybody had a job.

Somebody set the table, somebody washed, somebody dried.

Mimi would deliver orders and they would do it.

It just seemed like one bad apple spoiled the whole bunch.

Thanksgiving is supposed to be a day to be thankful for a bountiful harvest

and whatever you have in your life that is good.

My mother had prepared a beautiful meal for everybody.

It was all prim and proper, setting up the table.

Beautiful tables, china and the whole thing. It was...

They spared nothing there.

But we were one of those families

who was to be seen and not heard.

I don't know what sparked the argument

between Donald and Jim that day.

I was the only sibling in the dining room when they came in.

They were chasing each other around the dining room table

and Jim's faster.

Donald can't catch him.

They're on opposite sides of the table

and Donald just decides to pick the table up and throw it.

And then my mother comes in the room,

sees the wreck of her dining room,

takes the rolling pin,

smashes the gingerbread house.

And I'm witness to this.

Like what the heck is going on?

Trying to get attention. I think that was part of it.

They wanted attention. They were losing their minds.

They needed help.

But I think my parents knew that there was something going on with Jim.

It sort of all came crashing down

within a matter of,

felt like a very short time in my life.

I really didn't know that Jim was schizophrenic while I was growing up.

Donald, you know, was the first obviously, to become ill.

And I didn't know about Jim's...

I know he had some issues as a young boy

being admitted in Denver at Fitzsimons Hospital.

But then he came out and he seemed like he was okay.

I was unaware, as a child, that he was mentally ill.

I had no understanding or indication that he had sought treatment.

And that my parents had helped him get treatment.

And in retrospect, of course, you know, he was quite ill.

God, you couldn't believe what you were hearing

that was happening.

Jimmy running around naked.

Donald on the monk road.

I mean, you're going, "What is going on with these brothers of mine?"

And so I started spending a lot more time with my friends.

Going out and being with others outside of the house.

I'm to partake in the experimental drugs.

Pretty much all of us experimented with recreational drugs.

I remember my elder brothers giving me marijuana at a very young age.

By middle school, it was white crosses,

which was a speed, an upper.

And then on through college, mushrooms, acid, cocaine.

Anything and everything and usually all at the same time

is how I put it.

When I was a kid and my parents

would go out of town on a business trip,

my older brothers always had a party at the house,

at Hidden Valley.

And there was a lot of drug use.

I saw firsthand my brother smoking pot,

when we came home from college, which I couldn't believe.

Of course, I was involved in athletics.

If you were caught smoking or something like that,

you were off the team. You were suspended.

You didn't play.

So, I didn't do any of that stuff.

My brothers, Brian and Michael,

I consider both of those true old school hippies.

Michael went to Woodstock.

You know, he was definitely truly part of that culture as a young guy.

This is Michael right here.

And you can see, like, a little kid.

He's, like, so, like, just...

I don't know.

He just had a...

a peacefulness about him.

From a very young age, I think.

My parents were frustrated because they wanted him to, you know,

find a career and go about the normal things

you're supposed to go about in, in life.

He was much too interesting for a traditional career.

He is an interesting guy.

Um, my dad...

I was a daddy's girl. He was my Peter Pan.

Like, my parents separated when I was three.

So he's always been, sort of, a nomad.

Like, he...

It took him a long time

to, kind of, find some settlement in his life, I think.

He always has loved his music.

That's been where he put his energy in

because it was probably his way of escape.

Michael and Mom did not get along well when Michael was younger.

He was a rebellious type, you know.

Mom always wanted him to cut his hair and things like that.

I don't think my mom understood the hippies at all.

He was counterculture.

He was...

He epitomized what my parents feared

was causing the schizophrenia.

To see whatever he saw as a kid

and having to, you know, process through and go through,

I can definitely imagine that

he would have had to, kind of, determine

"Am I normal? Am I okay? Do I have this? Do I don't?"

If I were him growing up in a household like that,

I probably would have been like,

"Wow," you know? "Is this going to happen to me?"

Michael was in California.

And one day, I think he was 17,

and he thought, "Oh, we can't be that far from the beach.

I'm going to go to the beach."

And he cut through a neighborhood

or a trailer park or something.

And I think someone's hose was running,

and he took a drink of water from it.

The person called the police

and had him arrested for trespassing.

He ended up in a maximum-security

state mental hospital in California

at the age of 18 years old for six months.

Can you imagine?

And so I hear my mom is at home with Donald, who's not well.

Jim was not well, either.

And then this happens.

I don't think they knew what to make of it.

My brother, Michael, was originally, I think, taken to jail

and then transferred to the psychiatric hospital.

And I think maybe my parents played a hand in that

in saying, "Oh, he has a brother.

This must be happening to him, too."

There was some overcrowding, I think, issues.

And he had a choice.

And I guess he chose to go to a mental institution

instead of staying in the jail,

which he said to me was a One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest sort of experience.

I think he thought it was gonna be easier.

I think he thought it was going to be

a little bit, like, more laid back or something.

But mental institutions at that time, in the '70s, were not so much.

Um, from my understanding, they were a little more scary

than probably just being in a jail cell probably would have been.

My parents wanted to have him committed.

And Michael was totally blown away,

the fact that they really didn't understand him.

Because when your brother has it,

everybody just looks at you and says, "Oh. Are you next?"

You know, "Is that going to happen to you?"

I think my parents suspected schizophrenia in Michael.

But I don't know if that was because

they already had experienced it

with some of my other siblings.

So they think, "Why not another one," you know.

Certainly, with Michael, that would have been a misdiagnosis.

My dad, I think he's always had to, sort of, present

that he's not, you know, ill like his brothers.

Because I think back in the '60s and '70s,

when a teenager had the long hair and the hippies,

they thought something was wrong with them.

That it was, you know, outside of that normal, clean-cut boy.

And I don't think he's ever been that.

I remember many conversations

with my mother on the phone about what was going on.

I dealt with it on a as-it-comes-take-it, you know.

You deal with one at a time.

I never thought of the overall big picture.

I mean, there were some moments

that I've heard about with her,

with Donald trying to strangle her at one point and kill her.

Um...

That had to be frightening.

It had to be.

"She became quite frightened.

And the other children in the home broke up the struggle."

The conflict was often over medication.

The conflict was often over my mother

having to orchestrate the medicines,

to administer the medications

and prevent Donald from overdosing.

John's mother would often...

Every time we go, she says, "Oh, I have no sharp knives in the house."

Well, that speaks volumes.

John and I had traveled with this old trailer with an icebox

because I didn't want to sleep in the house.

John's mother had made up these beds for the kids.

And we were invited to go to dinner.

And, um, so we left the kids at John's parents' house.

It took about, what, 20 minutes to get there?

Yeah. Mmm-hmm. About. For this dinner date.

And we were greeted at the front door saying,

"Oh, there's an emergency at your home.

You've got to leave right now."

So we got in the car and booked... booked home.

And there were several cop cars there with the lights blaring,

um, you know, twirling around, and it was dark.

And I rushed up the stairs.

And we were stopped by the police.

"Oh, no, you can't go there."

And I said, "My children, my children."

And, um, then they let us in.

John's mother had locked herself in their bedroom,

and she called the cops.

And that might have been the time

that Jim was wandering around with a gun or something.

It was very frightening.

323 to 584.

It doesn't take much imagination

to realize what could happen.

You don't know if you're gonna find dead bodies.

They never stayed in that house again.

After that incident, there was no problem us staying somewhere else.

So here you're seeing violence.

And it was pretty chronic. It was a pretty chronic thing.

But my mother relied on Jim to get the younger children out of the house.

I don't think my parents had anywhere else to turn.

Jim, of course, was causing tremendous damage as well.

But he wasn't the only one.

Look at this, here's the rock star, Brian.

It was before I was born.

But I know that everyone always spoke about

his having created this band in high school

that went on to play all over the state.

Um, oh, here he is. That's a good one.

That's how I remember him.

The long hair and the mustache at the piano.

Playing music.

Brian could listen to a piece of music on the radio,

and then he could transpose it to the piano, the guitar with one listen.

He just had that savant-type ability.

He was really talented.

My first recollection of Brian

is with his high school band,

Paxton's Back Street Carnival.

And then in college, during his college years,

he played with a pretty famous rock and roll band from time to time.

Rock and roll was the "counterculture," right?

Mother and Father, of course, were part of the establishment.

They followed the rules.

But the culture at that time,

you've got to remember we were in the '70s.

So it was the drugs, sex and rock and roll

and to hell with our government because of Vietnam War.

It was a different time

and everything was anti-establishment.

It was a brave new world.

My parents described Brian as having taken a different path,

not the traditional academic, go to college, get a job.

That he was reaching for the stars,

that he somehow was going to be famous.

I think for some reason my family was convinced

that Brian was going to be some famous rock star.

And I was still going to school with Nancy in Boulder.

I encouraged Brian to come up there

and join me at the music school.

And so he did for maybe a semester.

And then he decided he wanted to go to California and start a band out there.

He was very much a part of the hippie culture at that time in history.

You see? Um...

But these two are definitely how I remember him.

You know, he had had such tremendous success with his high school band

that I think they thought it was just a natural evolution

for him to go and become somehow a famous rock star in California.

No, he most certainly did not.

I do remember very clearly Brian's girlfriend, Noni, coming.

And I remember them being very happy together,

and they were having fun and...

So it was, you know, probably first love, I would imagine.

The only time I met Noni was when she came to the house to visit with Brian.

He was home from California for a trip to visit.

And I talked to her for just a brief period of time when she came.

She seemed like a very quiet, shy kind of gal.

A little bit withdrawn maybe.

Noni was the youngest...

The youngest child, um, out of three.

My mother was, um, her stepsister.

She was a beautiful girl.

Long blond hair,

um, kind of that California tan look to her.

Um, blue eyes, you know.

She was definitely a looker.

She went to school in Sacramento.

And that's when she met Brian.

Brian was in a band, um, that...

They were performing on one of the campuses there.

I've never been closer to any of my other brothers or sisters as Brian.

And then he went to California.

Seemingly living the good life with his girlfriend.

And he...

I could never imagine,

ever in my wildest dream, Brian hurting anyone.

One morning, I got a phone call from my father,

and he was pretty short and direct about it.

And he used exactly these words.

He said, uh,

"Your brother is dead."

And, uh, I was stunned.

There wasn't much conversation after that.

Somehow he got into her apartment

and was basically laying wait until, um, she showed up.

At the time, I didn't realize the violence of it,

of what actually took place. I wasn't told right away.

He shot her first and then, um, he shot himself.

"Sheriff's deputies are investigating an apparent murder-suicide

involving 19-year-old Lorelei L. Smith of Lodi."

That's Noni.

"And Brian Galvin, 22, of Sacramento."

Um...

"Lorelei Smith, 19-year-old daughter of an El Cerrito physician,

was apparently murdered by her former boyfriend,

who police said then turned a 22-caliber rifle on himself, committing suicide."

"Police say there were no signs of a struggle."

It's just hard. It's just hard reading it.

I was shocked.

I never could imagine Brian doing that.

But I never knew he was on antipsychotic drugs for schizophrenia.

He was already on prescribed drugs.

I knew nothing about it.

My parents never told me anything about him being...

medically being treated for schizophrenia.

I blame Brian for his actions.

But I can't...

I can't sit there and say it's all his fault

because of his mental illness.

After Brian's death, I think there was a lot more awareness

and, uh, about what was going on in the family,

with mental illness.

Up until that time, it was just...

It was, kind of, taken lightly.

And then there was...

When Brian committed suicide...

um...

I think things in the family changed.

It was a lot more somber.

I know for... Especially for my parents.

Uh...

Day had turned into night, and it was dark.

There were... There were frightening moments, definitely.

Police would come to the house, you know,

and have to deal with one of the boys.

And, uh, my older brother, Jim,

I think the disease affected him differently than Don.

The violence.

And the way he treated Kathy, being violent with her.

And he was abusive to my sister Mary, I know.

I think the general overall feeling in the household

was that of complete disbelief.

How could such tragedy happen?

My mom and dad were quite distressed,

obviously, as anyone would be,

with the death of Brian.

And my mother had her hands full with Donald.

Being around schizophrenia is...

very difficult.

And so I could either stay at Hidden Valley Road

with my schizophrenic brothers,

or I could go hang out at my brother Jim's,

my perpetrator, my abuser, my rapist.