# 283: Theodore Canatis

An episode of [Morbidology](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1463979546), 18 Nov 2024, 40 min.

Audio: https://prefix.up.audio/s/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/s.gum.fm/s-610c47a4222ada0024acb2d8/pscrb.fm/rss/p/prfx.byspotify.com/e/tracking.swap.fm/track/2IMk17EdnEqyRhJTIpIU/claritaspod.com/measure/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/62229911/morbidology_283_theodore_canatis.mp3

One night in 1977, police were asked to conduct a welfare check on a man in Midwest City, Oklahoma, who hadn’t been seen in a few days. When they gained access to his apartment, the officers stepped into the middle of what was likened to a slaughterhouse…. SPONSORS - SmartLabels: Get prepared for fall with SmartLabels. Purchase their QR code labels on Amazon, which are now available in the UK! Manscaped: This holiday season, gift him a grooming upgrade he'll actually be excited about. Get 20% off and free shipping with the code "MORBIDOLOGY" at: https://manscaped.com/ SHOW NOTES - https://morbidology.com/morbidology-the-podcast-283-theodore-canatis PATREON - https://www.patreon.com/morbidology YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/morbidology Audio Credit: Epidemic Sound Evening of Chaos - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Empty Reflections - ErikMMusic - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgq4SPKHlyI A Mothers Sacrifice - OurMusicBox - https://ourmusicbox.com/ Dark Tranquility - Anno Domini Beats - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6mBav72Ak Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/morbidology--3527306/support.

## Transcript

[0:45] Speaker 1: Midwest City is just a few miles east of Oklahoma
[0:48] Speaker 1: City in Oklahoma, the United States. It was founded during
[0:52] Speaker 1: World War Two to serve as the home of Tinker
[0:55] Speaker 1: Air Force Base. Over the years, it's grown into a
[0:59] Speaker 1: close knit community, one that takes pride in its military
[1:02] Speaker 1: history and its laid back suburban atmosphere. But beneath that
[1:07] Speaker 1: calm exterior, Midwest City harbored a dark secret, a crime
[1:12] Speaker 1: so disturbing that it's largely faded into obscurity, with little
[1:16] Speaker 1: written about it in the years since. On the fifth
[1:20] Speaker 1: of May nineteen seventy seven, police were dispatched to an
[1:23] Speaker 1: unassuming apartment after receiving a phone call from a concerned neighbor.
[1:28] Speaker 1: Theodore Canadis hadn't been seen in a couple of days.
[1:32] Speaker 1: While he kept to himself, it was still very unlike him.
[1:36] Speaker 1: The officers knocked on the apartment door several times, but
[1:39] Speaker 1: there was no answer. When they noticed an upstairs window
[1:43] Speaker 1: slightly ajar, they decided to enter. What they found inside
[1:49] Speaker 1: was far beyond anything they could have ever imagined. The
[1:53] Speaker 1: scene was so gruesome that it was later compared to
[1:56] Speaker 1: a slaughter house. Gregory Canatis had once lived a very
[2:14] Speaker 1: ordinary childhood. He was born in Wichita, Kansas, on the
[2:19] Speaker 1: seventeenth of November nineteen fifty six, the second child of
[2:23] Speaker 1: three boys to Theodore and Betty. The family stayed here
[2:28] Speaker 1: until Gregory was two years old, following which they moved
[2:31] Speaker 1: to Okinawa. Gregory's father, Theodore, had spent twenty years in
[2:35] Speaker 1: the Air Force as a jet engine mechanic, which meant
[2:39] Speaker 1: that he often spent a lot of times overseas. He
[2:44] Speaker 1: was stationed in Vietnam in the nineteen sixties, and upon
[2:47] Speaker 1: his return he and Betty called it quits on their marriage.
[2:51] Speaker 1: Gregory moved with his mother to Hawaii, where she eventually remarried.
[2:56] Speaker 1: He got on well with his stepfather, who was a photographer,
[3:00] Speaker 1: and they did things together as a family. Gregory loved
[3:04] Speaker 1: to draw and spent his day surfing the waves off
[3:06] Speaker 1: the coast. As for Theodore, he moved over to Midwest
[3:11] Speaker 1: City in Oklahoma. Gregory once said of him, he was
[3:17] Speaker 1: alright as a person, but he had a bad temper.
[3:19] Speaker 1: A lot of the time. Life seemed stable enough, at
[3:24] Speaker 1: least at first. Gregory was in regular classes at high
[3:28] Speaker 1: school except for special reading classes. As he explained, I
[3:33] Speaker 1: was a slow reader. But as Gregory grew older, the
[3:37] Speaker 1: shadows of his mind darkened. By his teenage years, he
[3:42] Speaker 1: struggled more and more, with his mental health spiraling into
[3:45] Speaker 1: bounts of confusion and erratic behavior. He was expelled from
[3:49] Speaker 1: school in his junior year for smoking marijuana at school.
[3:54] Speaker 1: But then in the fall of nineteen seventy six, everything changed.
[4:00] Speaker 1: At nineteen years old, Gregory had found himself homeless after
[4:03] Speaker 1: his mother asked him to leave their home. She had
[4:07] Speaker 1: become overwhelmed by his increasingly unpredictable nature and didn't feel
[4:11] Speaker 1: comfortable with him living there. According to a psychiatrist's report,
[4:16] Speaker 1: there were allegations of sexual abuse between Gregory and his mother,
[4:20] Speaker 1: but this was never substantiated. Gregory denied the sexual abuse,
[4:25] Speaker 1: and so did his mother. With the changes in his life,
[4:29] Speaker 1: Gregory tried to grasp onto the normal sea slipping through
[4:32] Speaker 1: his fingers. He even proposed to his girlfriend, Patricia Browning.
[4:39] Speaker 1: She would later reflect, he was just a beautiful young man.
[4:44] Speaker 1: He just started getting sicker and sicker and sicker. With
[4:49] Speaker 1: nowhere else to go, Gregory left Hawaii and traveled to
[4:51] Speaker 1: the mainland to Midwest City in Oklahoma, where his father,
[4:55] Speaker 1: Theodore welcomed him into his apartment. Theodore had since retired
[5:00] Speaker 1: from the U. S. Air Force and now worked maintenance
[5:03] Speaker 1: at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. For Gregory,
[5:09] Speaker 1: it was an attempt at a fresh start. Tragically, however,
[5:14] Speaker 1: his struggles didn't fade with the change in scenery. In
[5:22] Speaker 1: January of nineteen seventy seven, Gregory was admitted to Saint
[5:25] Speaker 1: Anthony Hospital after attempting suicide by slashing his wrists and uncles.
[5:31] Speaker 1: He changed his mind about suicide, and his father had
[5:34] Speaker 1: found him in the bathtub, bleeding out, but trying to
[5:37] Speaker 1: stem the bleeding. He told the psychiatrist that he was
[5:40] Speaker 1: trying to let the bad blood out. At the hospital,
[5:45] Speaker 1: Gregory said of his suicide attempt, there was nothing to do,
[5:50] Speaker 1: and I was thinking about my friends. But I couldn't
[5:52] Speaker 1: go back to Hawaii Cow High School because there were
[5:55] Speaker 1: a lot of bad guys after me. He didn't elaborate
[5:59] Speaker 1: other than to say that one man had pointed a
[6:01] Speaker 1: gun at him. He said, I didn't tell anybody, but
[6:06] Speaker 1: it looked funny. Gregory later said that he planned on
[6:10] Speaker 1: slitting his own throat, but he couldn't bring himself to
[6:13] Speaker 1: do it. He stayed at the hospital for more than
[6:17] Speaker 1: two months, and he later said that he had fought
[6:19] Speaker 1: memories of his stay. He recollected the food was good.
[6:25] Speaker 1: Ever since I've been in Oklahoma, life has been bad.
[6:29] Speaker 1: Nothing to do. I'm depressed and sad. Gregory hadn't made
[6:34] Speaker 1: any friends in Oklahoma, but he bonded with people at
[6:37] Speaker 1: the hospital. Once released, Gregory returned once more to his
[6:41] Speaker 1: father's apartment. He was a broken man, teetering on the
[6:45] Speaker 1: edge of sanity. In early May of nineteen seventy seven,
[7:00] Speaker 1: neighbors of Theodore Canatis had begun to grow uneasy. Theodore
[7:06] Speaker 1: was a quiet man who kept himself to himself, but
[7:09] Speaker 1: it wasn't like him to vanish for days. Yet nobody
[7:13] Speaker 1: had seen him or heard from him. By the fifth
[7:16] Speaker 1: of May, their concern had deepened. One of the neighbors
[7:21] Speaker 1: had knocked on Theodore's door, only to be greeted by
[7:24] Speaker 1: his teenage son, Gregory. Gregory claimed that his father was
[7:29] Speaker 1: in the hospital, but when they called rawn to local
[7:32] Speaker 1: medical centers, nobody had a record of the Theodore being admitted.
[7:38] Speaker 1: On the seventh of May, neighbors couldn't ignore the gnawing
[7:41] Speaker 1: sense of dread any longer. They were fully aware that
[7:46] Speaker 1: Theodore's son, Gregory, had mental health problems, and they were concerned.
[7:52] Speaker 1: They contacted the police and requested a welfare check. Officers
[7:57] Speaker 1: Steve Taylor and Phil Anderson were dispatched to investigate. Pulling
[8:03] Speaker 1: up outside Theodore's apartment, both officers immediately noticed that, unlike
[8:08] Speaker 1: the other lit up apartments, Theodores were shrouded in darkness.
[8:14] Speaker 1: The curtains were drawn, and the straight was uncomfortably quiet.
[8:20] Speaker 1: When the officers knocked on the front door, nobody answered.
[8:25] Speaker 1: Given the circumstances, their supervisor authorized them to enter the
[8:28] Speaker 1: apartment by any means necessary. Taylor and Anderson headed to
[8:33] Speaker 1: the back of the building, where they noticed a second
[8:36] Speaker 1: floor window with the curtains billowing slightly in the night breeze.
[8:41] Speaker 1: The window was partially open, just above a narrow catwalk.
[8:46] Speaker 1: Officer Taylor recalled, we put a nearby picnic table under
[8:50] Speaker 1: the window, a brick block on the table. Then I
[8:53] Speaker 1: helped Anderson up and he helped me in. Once inside,
[8:58] Speaker 1: the dim lighting did little to mask the gruesome scene
[9:02] Speaker 1: that awaited the officers. The air was dense with the
[9:06] Speaker 1: coppery smell of blood mixed with a sharp, acrid odour
[9:11] Speaker 1: that stung their nostrils. Their eyes immediately landed on blood,
[9:16] Speaker 1: a lot of it. It smeared the walls, striking the floors,
[9:21] Speaker 1: and even splattered across the ceiling. Officer Taylor later said,
[9:27] Speaker 1: we immediately saw all the blood everywhere and pulled out
[9:30] Speaker 1: our guns. In the master bedroom, the true horror began
[9:35] Speaker 1: to unravel for the two officers. The bed was drenched
[9:40] Speaker 1: in blood and a bloodied pair of underwear laid escarded
[9:43] Speaker 1: on the floor. Taylor and Andersen exchanged tense glances as
[9:49] Speaker 1: they scanned the room further. Two dresser drawers and a
[9:54] Speaker 1: closet were saturated in blood as well. When they opened
[9:58] Speaker 1: them up, they were filled with guts that looked suspiciously
[10:02] Speaker 1: human like. The trail continued down the hallway leading to
[10:08] Speaker 1: the bathroom. A blood stained knife rested on the edge
[10:13] Speaker 1: of the tub, and the entire room was streaked in
[10:16] Speaker 1: red from the sink to the floor. Officer Taylor recalled,
[10:22] Speaker 1: we sat quietly at each other because we didn't know
[10:25] Speaker 1: whether the guy was still downstairs. That we've got a
[10:28] Speaker 1: murder for sure, and probably a dissected body. Their dread
[10:34] Speaker 1: mounted as they slowly followed the trail of blood down
[10:37] Speaker 1: a spiral staircase. The living room was faintly lit, but
[10:42] Speaker 1: it wasn't enough. The officer switched on the overhead light,
[10:47] Speaker 1: and what they saw turned their stomachs more blood more
[10:52] Speaker 1: than they could have imagined. It directed them towards the kitchen. There,
[10:58] Speaker 1: in the dim glow, they found the worst of it all.
[11:03] Speaker 1: There was a large puddle of blood that concentrated around
[11:06] Speaker 1: the refrigerator. Smeared across the stainless steel door of the
[11:11] Speaker 1: fridge was bloody handprints. Officer Taylor reached out, hesitating for
[11:17] Speaker 1: a moment, then slowly pulling open the door. Inside was
[11:23] Speaker 1: a sight that made them recoil in horror. It was Theodore,
[11:29] Speaker 1: or at least what was left of him. Portions of
[11:33] Speaker 1: his body were arranged on the shelves, some grotesquely displayed,
[11:38] Speaker 1: others haphazardly thrown in. Officer Taylor later recounted, I used
[11:45] Speaker 1: to work in a mortuary, but I've never seen flash
[11:48] Speaker 1: like that before. The grizzly scene made his stomach turn.
[11:54] Speaker 1: Blood coated the floors, and the place raeked of death.
[12:00] Speaker 1: First part, however, was the side of flesh that had
[12:02] Speaker 1: been carved from the body. It looked like a slaughterhouse.
[12:08] Speaker 1: Some of the pieces of flesh had been cooked, cut
[12:11] Speaker 1: into stake sized portions, and laid neatly on a tray.
[12:16] Speaker 1: Taylor couldn't help but notice that some pieces still had
[12:19] Speaker 1: hair on them, clearly taken from Theodore's arms or legs.
[12:24] Speaker 1: Lying amidst the grotesque remains was a single fork stained
[12:28] Speaker 1: with congealed blood. In the freezer, they found Theodore's hands
[12:34] Speaker 1: severed at the wrist and stacked with cold precision on
[12:39] Speaker 1: a nearby skillet. There was even more human flesh. With
[12:44] Speaker 1: the apartment too dangerous to explore further, Taylor and his
[12:47] Speaker 1: partner radioed for backup, unsure if the killer was still
[12:51] Speaker 1: hiding somewhere inside. As the scene outside the apartment was
[12:56] Speaker 1: corded off with crime scene tape, detectives focused their efforts
[12:59] Speaker 1: on finding Gregory. He was their immediate suspect. They were
[13:05] Speaker 1: aware of his troubled history and the fact that he
[13:08] Speaker 1: had been living with his father before claiming that his
[13:11] Speaker 1: father was in hospital. As the officers gathered outside to regroup,
[13:17] Speaker 1: somebody spotted a figure moving in the bushes near the
[13:19] Speaker 1: back door. It was Gregory. He had been hiding there
[13:24] Speaker 1: all along, likely having escaped through the open window the
[13:27] Speaker 1: officers had found earlier. Officer Taylor later reflected, he must
[13:34] Speaker 1: have been watching us from the bushes all that time.
[13:37] Speaker 1: If we had gone the other way first, he probably
[13:40] Speaker 1: would have caught him. Upon his arrest, Gregory made no
[13:44] Speaker 1: denials that he was the person that detectives were looking for.
[13:48] Speaker 1: He immediately made a full confession that was disturbing in
[13:51] Speaker 1: its detail. He admitted that he had killed his father, Theodore,
[13:56] Speaker 1: four days prior, following a heated argument about his ability
[14:00] Speaker 1: to find a job. His father had been frustrated with
[14:04] Speaker 1: his son's reliance on him for support. With no extra
[14:09] Speaker 1: money to give, Theodore had pushed Gregory to take responsibility
[14:12] Speaker 1: for his own life. The argument had escalated quickly, and
[14:18] Speaker 1: Gregory told detectives that, in a moment of rage, he
[14:21] Speaker 1: grabbed a rock and struck his father on the head.
[14:26] Speaker 1: According to Gregory, he had brought the rock inside a
[14:28] Speaker 1: few days earlier, just in case he and his father
[14:32] Speaker 1: got into an argument. He then followed the initial blow
[14:36] Speaker 1: by stabbing his father repeatedly, but the hoard didn't end there.
[14:43] Speaker 1: Gregory revealed that after killing his father, he had consumed
[14:46] Speaker 1: part of his body, specifically part of his head. Over
[14:52] Speaker 1: the next four days, he continued to cannibalize his father's remains,
[14:56] Speaker 1: slicing portions of flesh and muscle from the body and
[14:59] Speaker 1: then cooking them. His confession shocked the detectives as he
[15:04] Speaker 1: described calmly how he had spent those days eating pieces
[15:07] Speaker 1: of his father's body. Once taken to the jail cell,
[15:11] Speaker 1: Gregory's disturbing behavior persisted. He spoke openly with the guards
[15:17] Speaker 1: about his actions, even going as far to explain that
[15:21] Speaker 1: he had dismembered his father's body to avoid wasting good meat.
[15:27] Speaker 1: His lack of remorse and his matter of fact manner
[15:29] Speaker 1: deeply unsettled the guards. Hours later, during a routine check,
[15:34] Speaker 1: the guards discovered that Gregory had smuggled a bloody pocket
[15:37] Speaker 1: knife into a cell and had been hiding it under
[15:40] Speaker 1: his mattress. It appeared that he had concealed the weapon
[15:44] Speaker 1: in a body orifice. Along with the discovery of the knife,
[15:48] Speaker 1: the guards also noticed that Gregory had numerous manner cuts
[15:52] Speaker 1: on his arms, legs, in genital area. When questioned about
[15:57] Speaker 1: the injuries, Gregory claimed they had been caused by his
[16:00] Speaker 1: father during their fatal altercation. However, after being examined by
[16:06] Speaker 1: a doctor, it became clear that the wounds were in
[16:09] Speaker 1: fact self inflicted. Gregory was booked in on a charge
[16:14] Speaker 1: of first degree murder. He appeared in court the next day,
[16:18] Speaker 1: where Judge Crest and Williamson ordered him to be committed
[16:22] Speaker 1: to Central State Griffin Hospital in Norman for sixty days.
[16:27] Speaker 1: The order had been requested by Gregory's public defender, Garvin Isaacs.
[16:33] Speaker 1: He said that when he met with Gregory, he appeared
[16:35] Speaker 1: to be confused and disoriented, and said that there was
[16:38] Speaker 1: no way he would be able to assist in his
[16:40] Speaker 1: own defense. According to defense attorney Isaacs, he would hallucinate.
[16:46] Speaker 1: It just broke my heart, the whole thing, per guy.
[16:50] Speaker 1: He later said that Gregory had smuggled the knife in
[16:53] Speaker 1: and had caused the injuries to himself. The worst of
[16:57] Speaker 1: the injuries were to his own genital area. He recalled,
[17:02] Speaker 1: there was blood going everywhere. They called the ambulance. I
[17:06] Speaker 1: knew then this kid was crazy. After the brief court hearing,
[17:11] Speaker 1: Gregory was bundled into a police fan and driven to
[17:14] Speaker 1: the hospital twenty miles south. As he arrived at the hospital,
[17:19] Speaker 1: detectives announced that they were looking into the possibility that
[17:22] Speaker 1: he was involved in another murder. Just the year beforehand,
[17:27] Speaker 1: an unidentified woman was discovered dead in an abandoned home
[17:31] Speaker 1: in Oklahoma City. She had been found in a condition
[17:36] Speaker 1: very much like Theodore, having been surgically dismembered with several
[17:40] Speaker 1: organs missing. However, detectives could never find any connection between
[17:46] Speaker 1: the two cases. The body found in the abandoned home
[17:50] Speaker 1: would eventually be identified as Cathy Shakelford, and she was
[17:55] Speaker 1: the first victim of the Oklahoma City butcher I identified
[18:00] Speaker 1: serial killer murdered three homeless Native American women and was
[18:04] Speaker 1: never identified. During Gregory's session with doctor Lorraine Schmidt at
[18:17] Speaker 1: the psychiatric hospital, he shared a fragmented view of his
[18:21] Speaker 1: life before the murder of his father. When he first
[18:25] Speaker 1: sat down, he spoke casually about his physical injuries, downplaying
[18:29] Speaker 1: the situation. He said, I had cut on my arm's
[18:34] Speaker 1: leg and stomach. They thought I needed treatment, But the
[18:38] Speaker 1: conversation soon shifted to the real reason for his stay,
[18:42] Speaker 1: the brutal murder of his father. He confessed, ME and
[18:48] Speaker 1: my father got into a big fight, and I ended
[18:50] Speaker 1: up killing him with a big knife. His tone was detached,
[18:55] Speaker 1: as though he were recounting a distant memory. He went
[18:59] Speaker 1: on to describe how after the fight he left the apartment.
[19:03] Speaker 1: When he returned, his father was dead. He said, I
[19:08] Speaker 1: didn't know what to do. I was so scared about it.
[19:11] Speaker 1: I didn't know where to go. I didn't know the roads.
[19:16] Speaker 1: He added that if he had known the area better,
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[21:42] Speaker 1: organization for the season ahead. As he delved Deeber into
[21:49] Speaker 1: the events leading up to the murder, Gregory painted a
[21:52] Speaker 1: picture of a tense relationship. He said, I told him
[21:58] Speaker 1: I didn't want to sit around this place all of
[22:00] Speaker 1: my life. He said, don't worry about it, you'll get
[22:04] Speaker 1: a job. But that reassurance quickly turned into more complaints,
[22:09] Speaker 1: according to Gregory. He said that his father fussed about
[22:13] Speaker 1: the constant mess in the apartment, accusing him of being
[22:16] Speaker 1: lazy and not carrying out the trash. Gregory said, he
[22:22] Speaker 1: said the house stank because of me. He was always
[22:25] Speaker 1: snapping at me, and then he'd be real nice. Gregory
[22:29] Speaker 1: expressed frustration with his inability to find a job, partly
[22:33] Speaker 1: Judea not having a car, but he admitted that the
[22:36] Speaker 1: only place he actually applied for was a local pizza store.
[22:41] Speaker 1: His days were monotonous, spent sitting in the apartment while
[22:44] Speaker 1: his father went to work. The resentment built as his
[22:49] Speaker 1: father frequently complained about Gregory eating all the food, although
[22:53] Speaker 1: his father still gave him money from time to time.
[22:57] Speaker 1: Their arguments, Gregory admitted, were frequent, but never escalated to
[23:01] Speaker 1: such violence until that fateful day. He recalled his father's
[23:06] Speaker 1: strange habits with food, describing how he would buy loisy
[23:09] Speaker 1: food like chicken, keep it in the fridge for weeks,
[23:12] Speaker 1: and then still eat it. He told the psychiatrist he
[23:17] Speaker 1: also bought loads of noodles and kept them on the
[23:19] Speaker 1: stove for days, then at them even after they'd gone off.
[23:24] Speaker 1: Doctor Schmidt listened intently, absorbing Greggory's disjointed narrative. Greggory said
[23:31] Speaker 1: that he often refused to eat the bad food, but
[23:34] Speaker 1: this annoyed his father, who would ask, isn't this good
[23:37] Speaker 1: enough for you? Greggory's chilling confession to the doctor only
[23:42] Speaker 1: grew more grotesque as he spoke of the murder in
[23:45] Speaker 1: its aftermath. He said the situation escalated quickly, and although
[23:51] Speaker 1: Greggory insisted he hadn't intended to kill his father. He
[23:54] Speaker 1: admitted that he spotted a butcher knife that Theodore had
[23:57] Speaker 1: just purchased that day, Grabbing it in a fit of anger,
[24:02] Speaker 1: Gregory said he tried to beat his father off with it.
[24:07] Speaker 1: When his father fell to the ground, things took a
[24:10] Speaker 1: darker turn. Gregory confessed that he stabbed his father in
[24:14] Speaker 1: the throat before fleeing from the apartment in panic. When
[24:19] Speaker 1: he returned later and found his father dead, Gregory explained
[24:22] Speaker 1: that he feared getting into trouble. His mind raised, and
[24:27] Speaker 1: in a desperate bid to conceal his crime, he decided
[24:30] Speaker 1: to dismember his father's body. Gregory's description of the dismemberment
[24:36] Speaker 1: was horrifyingly clinical. He said he placed Theodore's guts in
[24:40] Speaker 1: a dress or drawer, cut out what meat he could
[24:43] Speaker 1: from the bones, and then stored it in the fridge.
[24:47] Speaker 1: Over the next four days, he began cooking and eating
[24:50] Speaker 1: his father's remains. I was so angry with him, Gregory recalled,
[24:55] Speaker 1: with an eerie calm. He then added, I chewed him up.
[25:00] Speaker 1: It made me stronger. He described that the flesh tasted
[25:04] Speaker 1: like beef, and said that it wasn't difficult to consume
[25:07] Speaker 1: his father. It never crossed my mind that anybody would
[25:12] Speaker 1: find out, he said. But Gregory didn't stop there. He
[25:17] Speaker 1: boiled his father's heart and ate it, telling doctor Schmidt
[25:21] Speaker 1: it kept my father's spirit alive. Gregory also admitted to
[25:26] Speaker 1: stuffing fat bones and guts into garbage bags, which he
[25:29] Speaker 1: then threw into the apartment's dumpster. As for the flesh,
[25:34] Speaker 1: he either boiled or baked it, and said he consumed
[25:37] Speaker 1: nearly thirty pounds of his father's remains over the course
[25:40] Speaker 1: of those four days. As Gregory recounted the police arriving
[25:45] Speaker 1: at the apartment, he said that he never actually expected
[25:49] Speaker 1: them to show up. When they knocked on the door,
[25:52] Speaker 1: he said he slipped through a window and hidden the bushes,
[25:55] Speaker 1: where officers eventually found him. Despite the horrific nature of
[26:00] Speaker 1: his actions, Gregory remained emotionless. When asked if he felt remorse,
[26:06] Speaker 1: he simply shrugged it off. I didn't feel bad about
[26:09] Speaker 1: reading my father, he said bluntly, as he said he
[26:14] Speaker 1: was already dead. In June of nineteen seventy seven, it
[26:23] Speaker 1: was announced that Gregory had been determined to be legally insane.
[26:28] Speaker 1: He had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was also
[26:31] Speaker 1: suffering from hallucinations. He told psychiatrists that he frequently heard
[26:36] Speaker 1: his brother's voice and even saw his face. According to
[26:41] Speaker 1: psychiatrist's report, subject does exhibit abnormal emotional behavior, which is
[26:47] Speaker 1: quite primitive in some respects. At present, he is partially
[26:51] Speaker 1: compensated to the point of using more evasiveness and denial.
[26:56] Speaker 1: The report said that Gregory had bizarre type behavior in
[27:00] Speaker 1: which he was verbal but withdrawn and looked to the
[27:03] Speaker 1: floor constantly. He also constantly bit his finger nails, picked
[27:07] Speaker 1: his nose, and ate the peckings. He also frequently masturbated
[27:12] Speaker 1: openly on the ward. The report concluded. He is considered
[27:18] Speaker 1: overtly psychotic at this time, there's no evidence of organic
[27:22] Speaker 1: brain disorder. As a result, Gregory was committed to Central
[27:26] Speaker 1: State Hospital, where he was to remain until he was
[27:29] Speaker 1: deemed sane. The case made little progress over the following months. Then,
[27:37] Speaker 1: in November of the following year, Gregory's defense attorney, Garvin
[27:41] Speaker 1: Isaac's filed a two million dollar lawsuit against Saint Anthony
[27:44] Speaker 1: Hospital and doctor Sam Collins, alleging negligence. According to the lawsuit,
[27:51] Speaker 1: the hospital had released Gregory after a suicide attempt just
[27:55] Speaker 1: a couple of months before the murder, but they had
[27:57] Speaker 1: failed to recognize the dangers that he posed. Isaac's argued
[28:02] Speaker 1: that this negligence contributed to Theodore's tragic death. The lawsuit
[28:08] Speaker 1: was eventually dismissed, but not without controversy. The following year, P. L. Browning,
[28:14] Speaker 1: the administrator of Theodore's estate, petitioned the Supreme Court to
[28:18] Speaker 1: reverse the dismissal. Browning's argument was damning. He said Gregory
[28:24] Speaker 1: had been released into his father's care without any warning
[28:28] Speaker 1: about his violent tendencies. He cited the California Supreme Court's
[28:33] Speaker 1: nineteen seventy four decision, which established that doctors must warn
[28:38] Speaker 1: potential victims if their patients pose a foreseeable danger. The
[28:43] Speaker 1: petition read, in part, as a result of this improper
[28:46] Speaker 1: treatment and the failure to warn the father, Theodore Canardis
[28:50] Speaker 1: was killed. Despite the legal battles, Gregory remained at Central
[28:55] Speaker 1: State Hospital under constant supervision. He was still considered insane,
[29:01] Speaker 1: unable to assist in his defense, and had shown no improvement.
[29:06] Speaker 1: In May of nineteen eighty, however, the legal landscape shifted
[29:10] Speaker 1: a during preliminary hearing was ordered sparked by a groundbreaking
[29:14] Speaker 1: ruling in January of that year. U S District Judge
[29:18] Speaker 1: Luther U Banks had found Oklahoma's criminal commitment statutes unconstitutional.
[29:24] Speaker 1: According to the judge, the statutes violated the due process
[29:27] Speaker 1: in equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. Under the
[29:32] Speaker 1: old laws, someone deemed mentally incompetent could indefinitely be committed
[29:37] Speaker 1: to a state hospital without further judicial review. The civil
[29:42] Speaker 1: commitment statutes, on the other hand, allowed for release when
[29:45] Speaker 1: a person was no longer considered a danger to themselves
[29:48] Speaker 1: or others. Judge U Banks ruled that individuals such as
[29:53] Speaker 1: Gregory deserved the right to a hearing before being committed.
[29:58] Speaker 1: This hearing would allow them to c ross examined witnesses
[30:01] Speaker 1: and challenge the findings of incompetence. Gregory had been declared
[30:06] Speaker 1: insane without ever having the chance for such a hearing,
[30:10] Speaker 1: a stark violation of his constitutional rights. Now, with the
[30:16] Speaker 1: June hearing approaching, the question of Gregory's legal fate hung
[30:21] Speaker 1: in the balance. On the seventh of June nineteen eight a,
[30:31] Speaker 1: Gregory stood before the Oklahoma County Court in a committal
[30:34] Speaker 1: hearing alongside his defense attorney, Garvin Isaacs. The hearing was
[30:39] Speaker 1: crucial in determining Gregory's fate after years of being deemed
[30:43] Speaker 1: legally insane. His mother, Bety, had filed a petition for
[30:47] Speaker 1: his commitment under civil statutes, and Isaac's announced that he
[30:51] Speaker 1: had aligned with the District Attorney's office in supporting the
[30:55] Speaker 1: civil commitment motion. Betty had gone to visit her son
[30:59] Speaker 1: regularly in the psychiatric hospital, and she worried about his condition.
[31:05] Speaker 1: In a letter, she had expressed her concern, writing, he
[31:09] Speaker 1: has a very wild look in his eyes, and he's
[31:11] Speaker 1: confused and extremely dull. I've never seen him look so bad.
[31:16] Speaker 1: Gregory had been in maximum security for some time after
[31:19] Speaker 1: he told some visiting high school students about what he
[31:23] Speaker 1: had done. Understandably, it terrified them. There had also been
[31:29] Speaker 1: some rumors that Gregory had been leaving the grounds and
[31:31] Speaker 1: sneaking back in before the morning. During the court hearing,
[31:35] Speaker 1: Isaac's explained that everyone involved in the case agreed on
[31:38] Speaker 1: Gregory's condition, he was truly insane. Their primary concern was
[31:44] Speaker 1: sparing Gregory and his family further hardship. Isaac's remarked, greg
[31:50] Speaker 1: is embarrassed by having to come to court and his
[31:52] Speaker 1: family's embarrassed, so we joined the motion. This motion led
[31:58] Speaker 1: to the dismissal of the murder charge, again anint Gregory,
[32:01] Speaker 1: and he was once more ordered to be committed to
[32:03] Speaker 1: a psychiatric facility. Isaacs expressed his belief that Gregory would
[32:09] Speaker 1: likely remain at Central State Hospital for the rest of
[32:12] Speaker 1: his life, somberly stating, I don't think there's any chance
[32:16] Speaker 1: of him ever recovering. Following the hearing, Assistant District Attorney
[32:21] Speaker 1: Arlene Joplin weighed in, noting that while the murder charge
[32:25] Speaker 1: had been dismissed, it could be refiled if Gregory were
[32:28] Speaker 1: ever declared seeing She emphasized that this decision was made
[32:33] Speaker 1: to ensure public safety and proper treatment for Gregory. She explained,
[32:40] Speaker 1: we decided that this is the most expeditious way of
[32:43] Speaker 1: making sure that he is going to be kept some
[32:45] Speaker 1: place where the safety of the public can be protected
[32:49] Speaker 1: and he can be treated. In May of nineteen ninety five,
[32:59] Speaker 1: nearly two decades after Gregory was first intitutionalized, there was
[33:04] Speaker 1: an unexpected development. Prosecutors announced that they were considering refiling
[33:09] Speaker 1: the murder charge against Gregory after learning that he had
[33:13] Speaker 1: been released from the psychiatric hospital and was living unsupervised
[33:17] Speaker 1: in the community. Reports varied, with some suggesting that Gregory
[33:23] Speaker 1: had been released two years earlier, while others said that
[33:26] Speaker 1: it had only been two weeks. Regardless, prosecutors hadn't been
[33:31] Speaker 1: informed at the time, Gregory had been living as an
[33:34] Speaker 1: outpatient to Norman and working as a grocery store packer
[33:38] Speaker 1: in a local store. District attorney Tim Kochendall expressed his concern, stating,
[33:45] Speaker 1: we didn't think that it was appropriate. He argued that
[33:49] Speaker 1: if Gregory was functioning in the community, he should be
[33:52] Speaker 1: deemed competent to assist in his defense. This raised questions
[33:56] Speaker 1: about whether Gregory, after so many years inside pychiatric care,
[34:01] Speaker 1: was now mentally fit to face the charges he had
[34:03] Speaker 1: evaded due to insanity back in nineteen seventy seven. However,
[34:09] Speaker 1: Gregory's former defense attorney, Garvin Isaac, strongly disagreed. He argued
[34:15] Speaker 1: that Gregory remained unfit to stand trial, pointing to the
[34:19] Speaker 1: severe mental illness that had plagued him at the time
[34:21] Speaker 1: of the murder. In his comments, Isaac said he was
[34:27] Speaker 1: insane at the time he killed his father. Anybody that
[34:30] Speaker 1: saw the boy and was around him knows that he
[34:33] Speaker 1: was truly a sick boy. In the end, authorities decided
[34:38] Speaker 1: not to refile the murder charges, citing the persistent instability
[34:42] Speaker 1: of Gregory's mental health. However, he was returned to Griffin
[34:47] Speaker 1: Memorial Hospital, where it was determined that he would remain indefinitely.
[35:00] Speaker 1: One thousand and six, the Daily Oklahomaan revisited the case
[35:02] Speaker 1: of Gregory Canatis, revealing that he was now being held
[35:06] Speaker 1: at the Northwest Center for Behavioral Health, having left the
[35:11] Speaker 1: psychiatric hospital in Norman in September of two thousand and four,
[35:15] Speaker 1: Gregory's life had remained largely out of the public eye.
[35:20] Speaker 1: Despite the media attention the case once garnered, there was
[35:23] Speaker 1: little new information available. While media had reported on the
[35:28] Speaker 1: murder in the immediate aftermath, not much else had ever
[35:31] Speaker 1: been written. Borne by law, state officials couldn't discuss Gregory
[35:37] Speaker 1: or other patients under their care. District Attorney Wesley and
[35:41] Speaker 1: made it clear that if Gregory were ever released, he
[35:44] Speaker 1: would pursue charges related to the murder of his father. However,
[35:50] Speaker 1: he acknowledged a significant challenge. He questioned, where's the evidence?
[35:58] Speaker 1: He expressed doubt about whether anything had been preserved from
[36:01] Speaker 1: the nineteen eighty dismissal of Gregory's case. He asked, what
[36:06] Speaker 1: did they do way back when to preserve anything for us.
[36:11] Speaker 1: Gregory's former defense attorney, Garvin Isaacs, hadn't seen him in
[36:15] Speaker 1: over a decade, but he had vivid memories of his client.
[36:21] Speaker 1: Isaac's recalled one particular day in the psychiatric hospital where
[36:25] Speaker 1: Gregory was seen playing pool in the day room with
[36:27] Speaker 1: a girl who called him Honeybear. Isaac's reflected on Gregory's
[36:33] Speaker 1: deep desire for release, remembering how he repeatedly said I
[36:37] Speaker 1: wish I could get out for the first time. Isaac's
[36:42] Speaker 1: revealed a disturbing detail that Gregory had shared with him.
[36:46] Speaker 1: He had said that hawk eagles had commanded him to
[36:49] Speaker 1: kill Gregory explained that these creatures were the rulers in
[36:54] Speaker 1: ancient civilizations and that their voices led him to murder.
[37:00] Speaker 1: Isaac said, if he was on his meds, he was
[37:03] Speaker 1: a very lovable, likable guy, but if he's off, the
[37:06] Speaker 1: Thorzane lookout. Patricia Browning, Gregory's former fiance, echoed these sentiments.
[37:16] Speaker 1: She had visited him in the psychiatric hospital for several
[37:19] Speaker 1: years after his arrest, and while Gregory appeared docile, likely drugged.
[37:24] Speaker 1: She believed that his delusions remained. He had told her
[37:29] Speaker 1: that raised her heads from Greece, who were hiding in
[37:32] Speaker 1: the walls, had directed him to kill his father. She commented,
[37:38] Speaker 1: he was very ill. I don't blame him for Ted's death.
[37:41] Speaker 1: I don't blame him at all. In twenty fourteen, Gregory
[37:46] Speaker 1: Canatis died of heart disease aggravated by years of cigarette smoking.
[37:52] Speaker 1: He was fifty seven years old and had spent thirty
[37:55] Speaker 1: seven of those years in various psychiatric institutions. Though the
[38:01] Speaker 1: outside world had largely forgotten him, Gregory's life behind hospital
[38:06] Speaker 1: walls remained one of delusion and chaos until the very end.
[38:12] Speaker 1: A doctor who had traded him noted he still remained
[38:16] Speaker 1: very delusional up until the very end. As the years passed,
[38:22] Speaker 1: Gregory's case became an unsettling reminder of a crime, too
[38:26] Speaker 1: horrific to easily remember, yet too strange to forget. Well,
[38:50] Speaker 1: Bestie's that is it for this episode of Morbidology. As always,
[38:54] Speaker 1: thank you so much for listening, and I'd like to
[38:56] Speaker 1: say a massive thank you to my new supporter up
[38:58] Speaker 1: on Patreon. I'd also like to share that I'm expecting
[39:04] Speaker 1: my very first baby. I'm due in December, but nothing
[39:07] Speaker 1: will be changing with more Bidology. I've somehow managed to
[39:11] Speaker 1: get so far ahead to account from eternity leaves, so
[39:14] Speaker 1: episodes will still run weekly, unless, of course, something unexpected
[39:18] Speaker 1: comes up. I'd just like to once more thank everybody
[39:23] Speaker 1: for all of their support over the years. This podcast
[39:26] Speaker 1: has enabled me to work from home full time, and
[39:28] Speaker 1: as I transition into this new period of my life,
[39:31] Speaker 1: I really couldn't be more thankful for all of you.
[39:37] Speaker 1: Remember to check us out at more bidology dot com
[39:39] Speaker 1: for more information about this episode and to read some
[39:41] Speaker 1: true crime articles. Until next time, take care of yourselves,
[39:45] Speaker 1: stay safe, and have an amazing week.

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