John Chapple/ID Michelle Ward, star of Investgation Discovery’s “The Mind of a Murderer” SHE’S got some killer guests lined up — and for some critics, that may be a problem.
“The Mind of a Murderer” is a new reality series on Investigation Discovery. In it, Michelle Ward — described as a real-life “Silence of the Lambs” Clarice Starling — will interview violent murderers on TV, hoping to gain insight into the reasons people kill.
But is it wise to put jailed murderers in the spotlight?
“The goal here is to try and help the audience understand them (the killers),” says Ward, who has an M.A. and Ph.D. in psychology from USC. where she studied clinical neuroscience and behavioral genetics.
“We cannot prevent crime if we cannot predict crime and we cannot predict crime without understanding what drives criminal behavior,” she says.
The show debuts on Feb. 19.
Ward stresses that while her show does provide air time to cold-blooded killers, it will not be a platform to celebrate their infamy.
“We don’t let them stand on a soapbox and give stories,” she says. “I ask questions and they give answers. I clearly run the interview.”
Still, there’s an argument out there that the killers Ward studies should remain cut off from society — and especially TV cameras.
She believes otherwise — and so do we.
“Are we really sure we don’t want to hear from these people ever again? Because if we don’t hear from them,” she stresses, “how will we ever understand and prevent similar crimes?”
Richard Harbus/for New York Daily News Jason Bohn is brought into Queens Supreme Court for his arraignment on killing his girlfriend. His case is the first examined on “The Mind of a Murderer.” Go figure that the first episode is a New York story. It’s a profile and interview with Wall Street lawyer turned murderer, Jason Bohn. Last April he was sentenced to life in prison for savagly beating and strangling his girlfriend, Danielle Thomas, in 2012.
Her final moments, in which she begged for her life, were caught on a voice-mail believed to come after the accidental dialing of a friend’s number. The recording was played at the trial. Cops had found Thomas, 27, in the bathtub of the couple’s Queens apartment, surrounded by ice.
To this day, Ivy-League-educated Bohn claims he has no recollection of the murder. At his sentencing, he dramatically collapsed at the defense table, weeping and bleeding from his nose from the impact.
“Given his resume, you wouldn’t expect him to kill his girlfriend, so we need to know why,” Ward says. She adds that Bohn’s father was a drug addict who abused him as a child, but his mother is a brilliant publishing executive who earns millions.
“He’s got the demons of his father, but he’s smart and calculating like his mother,” Ward says. “Jail is not filled with those types of people, so in order to study them, you have to be in front of them.”
Fox News Megyn Kelly takes Mike Huckabee to task on Fox News. Meeting Bohn was “chilling,” Ward says. “I’m not usually afraid. But I was incredibly afraid to be in the room with him.”
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Some of the talking heads at Fox News Channel are fighting.
Last week former GOP vice-presential candidate and Fox contributor Sarah Palin slammed Bill O’Reilly. He had mocked her for the inevitable chatter about how she might be a 2016 presidential candidate. And host Megyn Kelly ripped Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and Fox host. Another possible presidential candidate, Huckabee had complained in a radio interview about how “trashy women are in New York.”
News flash: Even though Palin and Huckabee have been on the FNC payroll in the past, in this instance O’Reilly and Kelly were just doing their jobs. They were holding potential presidential candidates responsible for their words and actions. Bravo to both.
Tags: tv , the mind of a murderer , megyn kelly , mike huckabee