March 09, 2020

The Homicidal Sleepwalker (ON)

58 minutes

Episode 115 - On the morning of May 24, 1987, 23-year-old Kenneth Parks walked into a police department covered in blood that was not just his own. Kenneth was disoriented and bleeding profusely from wounds to both his hands which were badly cut. Kenneth said “Oh my God, I just killed someone”; “I've just killed two people”. Kenneth was referring to his in-laws Barbara and Denis Woods of Scarborough. Police found Barbara deceased at the scene and Denis was severely injured, but survived. There was no question Kenneth had done it, but was he responsible? In a precedent setting case his defence team would claim that as Kenneth was sleepwalking when he committed the crime, he should not be held accountable.

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Sources & Further Reading
[Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker]
[Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman]
R. v. Parks (C.A.), 1990 CanLII 6954 (ON CA)
R. v. Parks, 1992 CanLII 78 (SCC), [1992] 2 SCR 871
[CanLII Connects - R v Parks Case Brief]
[Sleep Driving and Sleep Killing | Psychology Today]
[Sleepwalking Killers—And What They Tell Us About Sleep | Psychology Today]
[The Curious Case of Kenneth Parks - YouTube]
[(PDF) Homicidal Somnambulism: A Case Report]
[(PDF) Pushing the Margins of Responsibility: Lessons from Parks’ Somnambulistic Killing]
[Home - Canadian Sleep Society (CSS)]
[Sleepwalking Disorder Causes & Solutions - National Sleep Foundation]
[While You Were Sleepwalking]
[Automatism legal definition of automatism]
[Sleepwalking - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic]
[The Sleepwalker Killing (TV Movie 1997) - IMDb]
[MACBETH, Act 5, Scene 1]
[2 Jul 1988, 90 - The Ottawa Citizen at Newspapers.com]
[25 Apr 1997, 48 - Star-Phoenix at Newspapers.com]
[6 Sep 1992, Page 11 - The Sydney Morning Herald at Newspapers.com]
[5 Jan 1991, 77 - The Gazette at Newspapers.com]
[22 Jun 2006, 17 - The Windsor Star at Newspapers.com]
[4 Jul 1988, 21 - Edmonton Journal at Newspapers.com]
[31 May 1988, 44 - Star-Phoenix at Newspapers.com]
[31 May 1988, 5 - The Ottawa Citizen at Newspapers.com]
[26 May 1988, 3 - The Ottawa Citizen at Newspapers.com]
[24 Nov 1990, 22 - The Leader-Post at Newspapers.com]
[Homicidal sleepwalking - Wikipedia]