Psychiatrist Dr. Al Carlisle spent over 600 hours speaking with notorious killers, including serial killer Ted Bundy. Following his death in 2018, Dr. Carlisle’s relatives found tapes documenting his time spent attempting to discover what drives a person to kill. Some of those tapes are featured in Oxygen True Crime’s new documentary series, Violent Minds: Killers on Tape.
In addition to Ted Bundy, Dr. Carlisle’s conversations with the HiFi Killers, Arthur Gary Bishop, and Manny Cortez are included in the nine-episode season premiering on Sunday, April 2, 2023 at 7pm ET/PT.
Oxygen True Crime released this synopsis of the new docuseries:
“The premiere will feature two back-to-back episodes focused on Dr. Carlisle’s conversations with Ted Bundy after he was arrested and charged for aggravated kidnapping in Utah in 1975. Dr. Carlisle met Bundy before he would become known as one of the world’s most notorious serial killers. Bundy’s duplicitousness made everyone believe he was an upstanding citizen. Tasked by the judge to evaluate his potential for evil to help determine an appropriate sentencing, Dr. Carlisle went the extra mile to develop a comprehensive portrait of Bundy by speaking and recording his conversations with his mother, friends, girlfriend and exes. This all culminated to a chilling and unforgettable discovery.
Before criminal profiling and the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit existed, Dr. Carlisle dared to reach into the minds of the most dangerous killers in the world. Raised as a devout Mormon, Dr. Carlisle firmly believed that everyone is born good and wondered how does one become a monster? He believed if we can understand how one becomes violent, we might be able to stop killers before they claim their first victim. Dr. Carlisle recorded most of his conversations with killers as he searched for an answer.”
Ample Entertainment’s Ari Mark, Phil Lott, and Kathryn Vaughan serve as executive producers along with Motiv8″s Kara Kurcz and Brian Lee.
Violent Minds: Killers on Tape First Six Episodes and Air Dates:
- April 2 – Dr. Al Carlisle’s descent into the violent mind begins by chance, when he’s asked to run a psychological evaluation on a man who will go on to become one of America’s most infamous serial killers: Theodore Robert Bundy.
- Dr. Carlisle’s evaluation of Ted Bundy is over, but his work on the notorious serial killer has just begun. As Dr. Carlisle develops his theory of the development of the violent mind, Bundy escapes from prison and goes on a murderous rampage.
- April 9 (supersized episode) – Dr. Al Carlisle’s study of the violent mind continues when the men convicted of Utah’s horrific Hi-Fi Shop mass murders enters the Utah State Prison, awaiting a death sentence.
- April 16 – When a new inmate at the Utah State Prison claims he cannot remember the crime that sent him to prison, Dr. Carlisle’s experiments with hypnosis reveal a violent alternate personality hidden just beneath the surface.
- April 23 (Supersized episode) – Dr. Carlisle’s Mormon faith is tested when Arthur Gary Bishop asks for his help in understanding how he became a serial killer.
- April 30 – Dr. Carlisle discovers a surprising link between the traumas of war and the development of the violent mind when he interviews a Vietnam War veteran turned killer.
