Karl Schonborn, who just published his non-fiction book, “Privileged Killers,” will be signing his book on June 15 at 2 p.m., at Orinda Books, located at 275 Village Square.
When you think of the word “privileged,” one would hardly associate killers with it, but quite the opposite for criminologist and author, Karl Schonborn, who recently released his latest book, “Privileged Killers.”
Schonborn will be signing his book on June 15 at 2 p.m., at Orinda Books, located at 275 Village Square.
He hopes readers will take away some key points from his book.
“There have been, and continue to be, privileged persons who can game the criminal justice system. Often they’re sociopaths and psychopaths who need to be called out for what they are. They especially need to be held accountable for violence and even threats of violence, because the latter undermines idealism … which is always fragile,” he said.
Described on the back cover, “Privileged Killers” is a “Classic true-crime work that focuses on his experiences with several sociopathic individuals. Four of them, ironically white males, committed monstrous violent crimes. And because each of them were privileged – blessed with brilliance, wealth, talent or charm – Lady Justice only slapped their wrists despite their homicidal attacks.”
Born in Boise, Idaho, raised in Palo Alto, Schonborn, an Orinda resident for the last 38 years, is the product of three ivy leagues, Yale, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania.
Initially headed for the medical field, Schonborn’s educational career took a twist.
“I went to med school and studied psychiatry at Columbia to study the roots of the violence sweeping the nation in the mid-60s,” said Schonborn. “When President Lyndon Johnson pumped a lot of money into the study of the causes and management of violence, I jumped ship to study criminology at the foremost criminology school of the day at U Penn. I worked at the Stanford psychiatry department the summer before starting my Ph.D. program.”
He said part of his inspiration for becoming a criminologist came from a singer and social activist.
“Interacting a lot with Joan Baez (and her older mentor, a Gandhian scholar) in Palo Alto, I dreamed of trying to understand violence enough to bring non-violence to criminology by turning American cops into unarmed English Bobbies, helping prisons be more rehabilitative and teaching courts about restorative justice,” he said.
Before this latest book, Schonborn wrote five academic books about all manner of crime, “So I was always a crime writer of sorts,” he added. “But the non-scholarly, personal “Privileged Killers” story was always simmering under the surface.”
He also worked in video and television – becoming a producer in the early 80s – inspired by his father.
“My dad was a journalist and documentary producer, and when film and video became easier to do in combo with being a professor, I created “soc-umentaries” – a term I coined for adding audio and video to “dry” sociological articles,” he said. “The goal was to appeal beyond the academy.”
Schonborn said for each of the four homicidal sociopaths he writes about, he details his interactions with these highly disturbed men, “including how a brush with one on parole nearly cost him his life.”
He also said two of the killers were local.
“The Paper Bag Killer operated in San Francisco and the Psycho-ologist in the East Bay. The Executioner killed in Portland, but terrorized locally,” he said. “And the Unicorn Killer, the only one who was unable to quell sensational national coverage, was once the Prince of Peace (no kidding) in Philly, the City of Brotherly Love.”
