The Killer Within

Dr. Bob Bechtel, a seemingly ordinary man in his early seventies‚ is a devoted husband and father and a respected psychology professor. But Bechtel has a terrible secret. One night in 1955, while attending college, Bechtel shot and killed a fellow student. Found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a hospital for the criminally insane, Bechtel was released five years later — in part because the victim’s parents wrote a letter of forgiveness to the judge. Documentary filmmaker Macky Alston (Family Name) gains intimate access to Bechtel’s children, friends, colleagues, and students as Bechtel’s long-held secret is revealed to them for the first time. Was Bechtel a cold, calculating killer, or was he, as he claimed, a young man pushed beyond his limits by taunting and bullying? The Killer Within explores this tragic incident and its ongoing consequences from all perspectives, leaving viewers to make up their own minds about what happened. “Haunting ... The morally fascinating and finally irresolvable tale of a good family man who once killed a man. No final verdicts come down, which is to the picture’s credit and allows it to be a potent discussion-starter” (Robert Koehler, Variety). Colour, Digibeta video. 85 mins.

Post-screening discussion with Dr. Roy O'Shaughnessy, a forensic psychiatrist who has practiced for 25 years in B.C. Dr. O’Shaughnessy is a Clinical Professor and Head, Division of Forensic Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, UBC; Past President, American Academy of Psychiatry and Law; Past President, B.C. Psychiatric Association; and Past President, B.C. Medical Legal Society.

Moderated by Dr. Harry Karlinsky, Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia.