On the morning of August 13, 2001, Chad Wegkamp, a former honor student, woke up and decided to rob the bank across the street from the Sheriff's office. Severely mentally ill, he was desperate to secure the money for an operation that he felt he needed to return to normal. 

Small town justice for bank robbery

 

Shouting obscenities, he managed to rob the bank without a weapon and then eluded the Sheriff's deputies on his way home. What would transpire next is a story that is beyond belief. It is the true story of people within a rural county criminal justice system, who were more than willing to discard an eighteen-year-old boy for the rest of his life.

A true story of severe mental illness

 

Paul Wegkamp's intriguing memoir of his son's severe mental illness takes the reader on a journey that reads like a novel. A bank robbery, a counterfeiting operation, a rogue sheriff, surgical scissors, "yellow journalism," a kidnapping, wiretaps, a jailhouse snitch, schizophrenia, an archaic jail, mutilation, and inhumane, ambitious prosecuting attorneys are all part of this incredible journey--one which would receive extensive coverage by the Washington Post and the Richmond Times-Dispatch.