Murder Suspect Linked to Multiple Personalities Dies

A Denver murder suspect at the center of a controversy over multiple-personality disorder has died of complications from leukemia. Ross Carlson’s leukemia was diagnosed just three weeks ago, the day after a state judge ruled him competent to stand trial for the 1983 slayings of his parents.

Carlson, who died Thursday, had spent six years in the state mental hospital as the courts and doctors argued over whether he had multiple personalities or whether he was faking the disorder to avoid trial.

Carlson was 19 when the crimes were committed, and 25 when he died at University Hospital.

He was charged with the Aug. 18, 1983, killings of Rod and Marilyn Carlson, whose bodies were found beside an isolated road in Douglas County, south of Denver. They were lying face down, shot to death.

The son pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, and a psychiatrist said he thought Carlson was suffering from multiple-personality disorder. Therapists eventually said they identified as many as 10 personalities, and Carlson was committed to the Colorado State Hospital in Pueblo.

Walter Gerash, a lawyer who represented Carlson throughout the case, said: “They hired debunkers instead of people who know how to treat the disorder.”

Gerash said he had hoped therapy would “fuse” Carlson’s personalities, making him well enough to stand trial. “I think death was the final solution that caused the fusion of the personalities, which the state hospital refused to do,” the attorney said.

Douglas County Senior Judge Robert Kingsley, who found Carlson competent and set trial for next month, said he thought Carlson’s personalities were simply a good acting job.

Soon after the competency ruling, Carlson was rushed to the hospital because of vomiting. On Nov. 7, doctors confirmed that he had acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

On Sunday, Carlson tried to wrestle a gun from a deputy sheriff guarding him. His attorney said it was an attempt to commit suicide.

Gerash said he talked to almost all of Carlson’s personalities, and he said no one really understood the man or his illness.

“Most of the time I talked to Justin. He varied a lot between Justin and another personality, Steve, a 40-year-old person who was very articulate. In 1985, he developed another personality, Holden, a hospital personality. I also saw a weeping child, Blue, handling the leukemia. There was a child of 11, Gray, and I saw Black. I was threatened once by Black.

“I saw another guy, Norman, who was pre-homicidal, a tough-talking New Yorker who smokes. Carlson was allergic to smoke, but I saw him smoke,” he said.

However, the judge was not the only one who doubted that Carlson had multiple personalities. A columnist in the Denver Post on Sunday criticized the spending of $1,180 a day on caring for Carlson’s leukemia, which also will be billed to taxpayers because his trust fund ran out.

The columnist, Woody Paige, wrote: “ . . . I’m certainly not making light of mental illness. Trust me. It is a serious matter. But the Mighty Carlson Art Players and their act is beginning to wear thin.”