Prozac mass murders: the truth comes to light

by Jon Rappoport

October 2, 2019

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If you were the head of a drug company…

If you had no conscience (the key fact)…

If one of your drugs was causing people to commit murder…

If MANY law suits against your company were waiting to go to trial…

And if the first such trial was convening…

And if the verdict in that case would influence the outcome of all the other law suits…

What would you do?

This is the story of a medical drug, a famous drug company, trust, betrayal, and mass murder.

After 30 years, the truth is confirmed—Eli Lilly, the maker of Prozac, secretly paid off plaintiffs in a court case.

The plaintiffs were families of victims killed by a man who went violently crazy after taking Prozac.

The mass shooting took place in 1989, in Kentucky. I covered the case in 1999, by which time the Lilly payoff was an open secret among some lawyers, doctors, and reporters.

But NOW we have confessions from the plaintiffs who took Lilly’s money. In the trial, Eli Lilly was exonerated, absolved of any blame for murders by the jury.

Ahrp.org: “The Louisville Courier Journal reports that thirty years after Joseph Wesbecker went on a deadly shooting rampage in Louisville Kentucky, on September 14, 1989, the families and survivors of his actions have finally come forward to tell the truth. They were plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Eli Lilly because they had reason to believe that Prozac, manufactured by Lilly, had been the trigger that propelled Wesbecker on his violent rampage. Eli Lilly had paid these plaintiffs $20 million in hush money to conceal damaging evidence about Lilly’s culpability in marketing defective, deadly drugs from the jury in the Wesbecker- Eli Lilly trial.”

The Louisville Courier Journal: “On the eve of the jury’s verdict, which absolved Lilly of liability, the company made the secret payment without telling the judge overseeing the case. In exchange for the payment, the plaintiffs – eight estates and 11 survivors – agreed to withhold damaging evidence about the arthritis drug Oraflex that Lilly withdrew from the market. Lilly [had previously] pleaded guilty to 25 criminal misdemeanor counts for failing to report adverse reactions that patients suffered from the drug [Oraflex], and the drug company feared that the Prozac jury would be more inclined to rule against the drugmaker [on Prozac] if it learned of it.”

In other words, the court, which was willing to hear evidence about Lilly’s Oraflex cover-up, never did hear that evidence, which would have alerted the jury that Eli Lilly had a track record of concealing damning truths about its drugs.

AHRP: “Circuit Judge John Potter, the judge in the [Prozac] case, suspected that Lilly bribed plaintiffs and their lawyers before the jury verdict. He uncovered evidence of bribery, and fought Eli Lilly for years but failed to obtain [proof of] the terms of the [Prozac payoff] deal. Lilly succeeded in keeping its criminal action from a judicial proceeding. As is Eli Lilly’s norm and practice; it trashed the judge for his pursuit of the truth.”

The Louisville Courier Journal: “The drugmaker that produces Prozac, the antidepressant that Joseph Wesbecker’s victims blamed for his deadly shooting rampage 30 years ago at Standard Gravure, secretly paid the victims $20 million [in 1994] to help ensure a verdict exonerating the drug company. Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly vigorously shielded the payment for more than two decades, defying a Louisville judge who fought to reveal it because he said it swayed the jury’s verdict.”

“Wesbecker began taking Prozac about a month before his murderous spree that killed eight and wounded 12 in the print shop attached to the Courier Journal. All but one of the victims sued Eli Lilly, the company that manufactured the popular but controversial drug.”

“On Sept. 14, 1989, Wesbecker, a pressman who had been placed on long-term disability leave for severe mental illness, entered Standard Gravure around 8:30 a.m., carrying a bag full of weapons, including a semiautomatic rifle. Over the next 30 minutes, Wesbecker walked through the building, firing more than 40 rounds at those he encountered before shooting himself in the [head] with a handgun. It is the worst mass shooting in Kentucky’s history.”

You need to understand that a diagnosis of “severe mental illness” is a far cry from “killing eight people and wounding 12 people.” The two factors are not automatically connected as cause and effect. If they were, we would see a dozen mass murders every day. That said, according to press reports, Wesbecker did have thoughts about committing violence before he was started on Prozac, and even made threats to commit murder. But he didn’t kill anyone until after taking Prozac. And the charge against Prozac was: it was the chemical trigger that pushed Wesbecker over the edge from thought into horrific action. (In that regard, see the brief collection of studies I cite below.) In any event, no argument about motivations for murder justifies Eli Lilly’s $20 million bribe to the plaintiffs. Lilly wanted an absolute slam dunk in the Wesbecker trial, to protect itself from many other law suits where, no doubt, the role of Prozac in suicide and murder was more vivid.

You also need to understand the status of Prozac in the years leading up to the rigged 1994 trial in Kentucky that falsely exonerated Eli Lilly. I’m talking about media coverage, psychiatric literature, the court system, and the mindset of the public. Prozac was precariously perched on a ledge. Would it gain universal acceptance? Would it be exposed as a gross danger? At the time of the Kentucky court case, there were roughly 100 other law suits against the drug heading toward trial. The outcome of the Kentucky Wesbecker case would send a powerful signal to lawyers and plaintiffs about the odds of winning judgments against Eli Lilly and Prozac. If Lilly were exonerated in Kentucky (and it was, through payoffs), lawyers in other such cases would back off. They would see little point in trying to prove Prozac was a grave danger.

Here is some background about Prozac in those years. It illustrates how great the threat was to Eli Lilly’s blockbuster antidepressant then—and, by comparison, how little any concern is allowed into the public arena now.

On February 7th, 1991, Amy Marcus’ Wall Street Journal article on the drug carried the headline, “Murder Trials Introduce Prozac Defense.” She wrote, “A spate of murder trials in which defendants claim they became violent when they took the antidepressant Prozac are imposing new problems for the drug’s maker, Eli Lilly and Co.”

Also on February 7, 1991, the New York Times ran a Prozac piece headlined, “Suicidal Behavior Tied Again to Drug: Does Antidepressant Prompt Violence?”

In his landmark book, Toxic Psychiatry, Dr. Breggin mentions that the Donahue show (Feb. 28, 1991) “put together a group of individuals who had become compulsively self-destructive and murderous after taking Prozac and the clamorous telephone and audience response confirmed the problem.”

Breggin also cites a troubling study from the February 1990 American Journal of Psychiatry (Teicher et al, v.147:207-210) which reports on “six depressed patients, previously free of recent suicidal ideation, who developed intense, violent suicidal preoccupations after 2-7 weeks of fluoxetine [Prozac] treatment. The suicidal preoccupations lasted from three days to three months after termination of the treatment. The report estimates that 3.5 percent of Prozac users were at risk. While denying the validity of the study, Dista Products, a division of Eli Lilly, put out a brochure for doctors dated August 31, 1990, stating that it was adding ‘suicidal ideation’ to the adverse events section of its Prozac product information.”

An earlier study, from the September 1989 Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, by Joseph Lipiniski, Jr., indicates that, in five examined cases, people on Prozac developed what is called akathisia. Symptoms include intense anxiety, inability to sleep, the “jerking of extremities,” and “bicycling in bed or just turning around and around.” Breggin comments that akathisia “may also contribute to the drug’s tendency to cause self-destructive or violent tendencies … Akathisia can become the equivalent of biochemical torture and could possibly tip someone over the edge into self-destructive or violent behavior … The June 1990 Health Newsletter, produced by the Public Citizen Research Group, reports, ‘Akathisia, or symptoms of restlessness, constant pacing, and purposeless movements of the feet and legs, may occur in 10-25 percent of patients on Prozac.’”

There are other studies: “Emergence of self-destructive phenomena in children and adolescents during fluoxetine [Prozac] treatment,” published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (1991, vol.30), written by RA King, RA Riddle, et al. It reports self-destructive phenomena in 14% (6/42) of children and adolescents (10-17 years old) who had treatment with fluoxetine (Prozac) for obsessive-compulsive disorder.

July, 1991. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Hisako Koizumi, MD, describes a thirteen-year-old boy who was on Prozac: “full of energy,” “hyperactive,” “clown-like.” All this devolved into sudden violent actions which were “totally unlike him.”

September, 1991. The Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Author Laurence Jerome reports the case of a ten-year old who moves with his family to a new location. Becoming depressed, the boy is put on Prozac by a doctor. The boy is then “hyperactive, agitated … irritable.” He makes a “somewhat grandiose assessment of his own abilities.” Then he calls a stranger on the phone and says he is going to kill him. The Prozac is stopped, and the symptoms disappear.

(What is true about Prozac is true about Paxil or Zoloft or any of the other SSRI antidepressants. And be warned: suddenly withdrawing from any psychiatric drug can be extremely dangerous to the patient. Gradual withdrawal must be done under the supervision of a professional who understands exactly what he/she is doing.)

So—A drug company, Eli Lilly; a drug, Prozac; mass murder; trust; betrayal.

A final piece of the truth now comes to light in the Wesbecker case.

In this sordid drama, there are many other actors. I’ve covered them in other articles. But I can’t let this article end without mentioning the FDA, the sole federal agency responsible for certifying all medical drugs as safe and effective for public use. That agency went rogue a long, long time ago. It takes no responsibility for launching killer chemicals on the population. It operates as a colluding partner with the pharmaceutical industry. Trusting the FDA to protect people from drugs such as Prozac is like trusting a PR company, hired to promote war, to maintain the peace.


The Matrix Revealed

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Jon Rappoport

The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews emails here or his free OutsideTheRealityMachine emails here.

16 comments on “Prozac mass murders: the truth comes to light

  1. Scott says:

    On various searches, I have found that 1 in 6 Americans is taking a psychiatric drug. And a doctor’s prescription is required for this (although I disagree with that concept). So I wonder just how much responsibility we should give to the doctors who are prescribing these terrible drugs (more than the drug maker)?

    And by the way, in the opioids crisis people who are getting addicted are getting those drugs from family members or friends or from street pushers more than from doctors. But with the psychiatric drugs like Prozac and Xanax, we can mostly look at the doctors for culpability, I think.

  2. Susan says:

    Thank you for this article.
    “If you had no conscience (the key fact)…”
    Right, so given that some at the top and in control at drug companies have no conscience, (and given that most of the rest who work for drug companies and people in general may be either unaware or in cognitive dissonance) then how will abuse by drug companies ever stop?
    The ones in drug companies who have no conscience, have so much money to either buy people out, ruin reputations, coerce people, etc., that I am at a loss at how these covert crimes by drug companies will ever stop. Any solutions or thoughts?

    • Jim says:

      Expose them relentlessly. Above all, reject their products. They’ll be gone when they go broke.

      Focus instead on getting your basic nutrition right – there is plenty of advice out there, but you have to use your common sense. We get ill from inadequate nutrition, from toxicity (pollution, mass medication (eg: fluoride), weed and pest killer residues etc etc) or from hammer-on-thumb events – but we don’t get ill from a lack of pharmaceutical products.

      • Bj says:

        Very well said. We have been made to believe that the pharmaceutical company is the only answer to our health problems and when that happens that means we have held them up as a god bowing to anything they say or command. They have become such a giant that if anyone wants to go against them, there are consequences. This is with our drugs and our vaccines. The only way to cut off this giant is to stop fueling them with our money. They for decades have tried to destroy anything and anyone that might have answers to healing health so they could remain the only go to for answers. They have destroyed and still are destroying our children and our families. America needs to wake up or we will continue to sacrifice our children and ourselves on the altar of evilness and satanic practices.

  3. paschn says:

    You know, Mr. Rappaport, almost as astounding as the kosher pharmaceutical companies’ evil and the satanic complicity of the D.C. “bathhouse” boys, is the MIND-NUMBING foolishness of +/- 300 million
    who continue to believe the lies of them.

    Posting to various sites where a portion of the commenters actually CARE about horror stories such as these.

    Thank you.

  4. Iamfubar says:

    This is brilliant Jon! I am very glad this is now exposed.

    I have personally taken SSRI’s in the past and I can tell you through my own experience that the information contained in here is correct.

    I had strong homicidal & suicidal thoughts. The ONLY reason I did not kill others…or myself…is because I have a very high drive to preserve human life. Had that not been the case…I would have been in the news like all those others that were put on and/or removed too quickly.

    I truly hope others on SSRI’s read this and can safely get off them as soon as possible.

    Thank you Jon.

  5. Christine Hickey says:

    I was a victim of this fraud having taken Prozac beginning in 1980. I was a college student with a bright future when I entered a psychiatrist’s “care”. I didn’t murder anyone, but did make sincere attempts on my life. Once one has the label of mentally ill, all credibility is lost. In 1986 my psychiatrist killed himself, after nearly destroying me. I lost my marriage, my career, and my sanity. I am alive by the grace of God. There are still times I wonder why. Before my Dad passed away, he commented to me that my life was tragic. I did remarry and my life has stabilized, but I still struggle with the symptoms of trauma. I still take two different anti-depressants because it is too dangerous to withdraw. After years of counseling, it has been revealed that this psychiatrist had manipulated and abused me through mind control methods. Is it any wonder that I want psychiatry destroyed completely. Thank you for all that you have done to expose the evil perpetrated on so many.

    • Bj says:

      Never think you can’t get off the SSRI’s. After reading a book by Dr.Ann Blake Tracy titled, Prozac: Panacea or Pandora, I was horrified as to how these drugs are allowed to go on. No one hears about the numbers of people destroyed by these drugs. I consider the manufacturers of the drugs and the doctors who push them as criminal. This has got to stop. It has and still is ruining America including our children. Our children has had Ritalin,Adderall XR,Concerta, Metadate,etc.pushed on them only to find out later it has harmed the brain receptors which is just as harmful as the SSRI’s. We were not meant to take these drugs. Our bodies react and reject them all the time. Parents need qualified alternative doctors that can check the body’s levels and can make proper changes naturally that your body will accept without harmful side effects if used properly. I am sure it is worse to treat if meds have already been taken and you will go through an up and down period but there will be light at the end of the tunnel. Dr. Ann Blake Tracy walks you through how to detox off these drugs but it is very slowly, very, very slowly. Some doctors even withdraw at once which causes a major bad reaction which then they try to tell someone they need to stay on the drugs. So sad. I would get someone fully qualified to help you and I am sure Dr. Tracy could help you as to how to go about it. Think in the book there are lists of who you can contact for help.Stay away from the doctors who prescribed these meds. We have known about these drugs for a long time but so many still do not know the dangers. Tell your story and help others not to go that route. It is much easier to help the body before the drugs have already been put in the them. Best to you.

  6. John McLean says:

    Why is this not available to share on FB?

    • Phil says:

      Better question might be why is an enlightened person still using F-book?

    • Bj says:

      Yes, I want to know, too. We need info out there circulating to others to warn them of the dangers. It might be because of the repercussions that might ensue because it is truth. The country is in a spiritual battle right now where truth and lies are battling it out. the lies/liars are offended when truth comes knocking at the door. We see it in our politics, our schools, in our government, our state leaderships. Truth must be told and fought for whether it is welcomed or not.

  7. EJS says:

    The propensity to violence to self and others with these drugs occurs mostly in young males. If you do some simple math you will come to realize we have thousands of ticking time bombs walking around at any given moment. The number of people prescribed these drugs is staggering. WHY is this not looked at with the increase in mass killings. Im sorry! there is a connection and no one is allowed to talk about it. MONEY and GREED!!! How about this? You cannot be prescribed an SSRI without being under the care and supervision of a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist must complete a thorough mental health and risk assessment before, during and after treatment. If you are prescribed an SSRI by a psychiatrist you can be immediately considered for a red flag gun ban. You cannot and will not be prescribed these medication by a general practitioner. These drugs are dangerous! period end of story!

    • Bj says:

      They will not look at the drugs as the cause of the mass shootings because our media, politicians, are controlled by the drug companies/cartels. Love of money talks and until this country makes decisions based on Biblical right and wrong, this will continue. Until we get the secular psychiatrists out of our public schools and put God back in – problem #1 was in the 80’s when they took God out and put these secular psychiatrists in. It was baseless job creation that turned our kids toward self instead of God which as we can see was and is a disaster. Our schools have gone downhill ever since. They have become prisons instead of Godly learning institutions. The psychiatrists turned children to self and drugs instead of God. This was a great money-making proposition for Big Pharma and the medical profession. The money was flooding in like crazy while our adults and children were being damaged. Open all our eyes, Lord, so we can move back in the right direction and get back on the right path and fight this monstrous evil.

  8. Marilyn Steffen says:

    I got very sick when I took Prozac so I stopped and my daughter used it and committed suicide.

    I have been using wild yam cream for 12 years and it is helping when prescriptions never did. And for any mental issue, 12 step programs (AA or Al-Anon) work better than therapists or prescriptions. I went to probably a dozen therapists and got no help at all.

  9. Jonbo says:

    Both SSRI’s & SNRI (also affect neuro-epinephrine? uptake)
    Sadly SSRI for understandable Exam stress, which mindful breathing could have assuaged, wrecked my seat of emotion, leading to lack of ‘joy’, motivation shot, I was no more than a meat puppet, going through those actions in life, I couldnt avoid, such as work etc, whilst holding a mask of “sanity” whilst doing the “Anti-Catch 22″a coined by my self.

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