Bloodlines
After dermatologist David Cornbleet was murdered in his Michigan Avenue office, his son, Jonathan, devoted himself to finding the killer. Now a shy and troubled young man—a former patient of Dr. Cornbleet's—has confessed. But that man's anguished father is arguing that a drug prescribed by the slain doctor may have contributed to the killing.
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His depression waxing and waning, Hans Peterson began attending Southern Oregon University, but after a quarter he transferred to Oregon State University, where he overcame his shyness enough to win acceptance into a fraternity, Theta Chi. The school year passed uneventfully. Hans, however, was restless. "I think he knew how smart he was," his father says, "and he wanted to kind of bump brains with a place that would push him a little bit. He wanted to be a part of the bigger college scene. So he decided to go to [the University of Wisconsin] because my father went there and I went there." After a summer at home in Oregon, Hans transferred and again joined a fraternity.
His grades were up and down, depending on his depressive moods. "He would get a 3.8 one semester and a 2.6 the next," his father says. When he would come home for visits, he would sleep until noon, a fact that concerned his dad. "It was like he did not want to get up and do the day. He didn't really care what he had to eat."
Still, Tom wasn't alarmed. "It seemed odd that he would want to stay in bed until noon on a nice day," he says. "But after a while I just kind of accepted it. The downs were never so bad that I thought he would kill himself or anything. I just kind of said, Well, I guess that's who he is. He's a night owl. I'm a morning person. Should I love him for who he is or should I try to change him?"
Occasional upswings helped allay the father's worries. "There were times when he seemed less depressed," Tom says, "not exactly bubbly. But he would get up early, go jogging."
A cap-and-gown photo from 2000 shows a grinning Hans Peterson displaying his diploma. The picture also reveals acne blemishes around his mouth and on his chin.
With a newly minted economics and philosophy degree, Hans landed a job as a clerk to a stock options trader in Philadelphia. "He really enjoyed it," his father says. "They recognized he was smart and let him try some things on his own." Then came 9/11. "After that, stock options trading tanked and so much for that," he says. Still, after a stint on unemployment, Hans was able to find an options job in Chicago. He lived at 2470 North Clark Street, his father says, and took a bus to work. It was also here, about this time, in the spring of 2002, that he found motivation to confront his recurrent skin problems. "He called one day [in April] to say he was going to visit a dermatologist," recalls Tom Peterson.
Two days later, Hans called again. "'I went to a doctor for the acne and he gave me something called Accutane,'" the father says his son told him. "'Now I have a horrible headache; I feel really depressed; I can't concentrate.'
"'You shouldn't be taking it,'" Peterson says he told his son. "He said, 'Well, I already stopped.'
"So then he starts calling me three or four times a day, telling me how horrible he's feeling," Peterson says. "I told him, 'OK, wrap up your stuff and put it in storage and I'll get you a plane ticket to fly home tomorrow.'"
The father says when he met his son at the airport, "there was just this look of terror in his eyes. He was shaking and distressed and complaining about these roaring noises in his ears. I took him home and he would curl up on the couch holding his head. He didn't want to eat. He couldn't sleep. I would try to play music, and he would say, 'No, that hurts my head.'
"My reaction was shock—Oh, my God. . . . I tried to make him as comfortable as I could. I arranged for him to see doctors: neurologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, ear specialists. And the consensus was, he was psychotic."
The father says his son became deeply withdrawn, rarely venturing out of his room. His symptoms improved enough, however, that after several months he took a trip to Normandy, France, with his mother for a two-month visit with relatives. (Jon Cornbleet has said Hans Peterson has never lived in France and therefore questions his ties to the country. Tom Peterson, however, insists that Hans has been there "at least a dozen times. He's got 15 cousins, six sets of aunts and uncles there.")
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Photograph: Courtesy of Tom Peterson
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Reader Comments:
My heart really goes out to Jon Cornbleet. He is a real hero and something should be done to grant him the justice he so badly has worked so hard for. He is somebody I greatly admire and respect. I think that Jon Cornbleet is the next John Walsh.
I really hate France for making this nightmare continue for him.
This is an excellent article. I am very impressed with the class and respect that Jon Cornbleet always shows.
Jon Cornbleet is a real life hero and somebody we should all aspire to be. I sit here and can not believe not only how strong a person he is, but how wonderful a son he is to his father. Jon's pursuit of justice is so admirable.
This is such a sad tragedy. Hans Peterson is a scum and shame on France for not extraditing this guy.
Why is France not extraditing him? He visited France a dozen or so times and thus he is protected under their laws? No wonder EVERYBODY hates the French. I think that what they are doing is criminal and I hold France personally responsible for aiding and abedding a confessed murderer.
I am very touched by the dedication and determination of Dr. Cornbleet's son. I think that all of us inside wish that we had the heart and courage that he does.
I have been following this sad tragedy since it happened. I think that John's persistency and determination is so honorable and such an ode to his love of his father. He shows a lot of class toward the Peterson family which is admirable.
Shame on France. I thought that the new President wanted to be different yet it is the same old song and dance with France. I will never visit or support those jerks.
who ever came up with the website/myspace idea was a genius
Excellent article. I never thought about the impact on the Peterson family. I now feel a great deal of sympathy for them (excepting Hans) as well.
Hans Peterson should be extradited and face his crime. You cannot tell me that in 4 years, he did not have one single lucid moment where he could have expressed and sought help for his feelings of anger. There are many medications that will help a psychotic individual function in society without murdering others.
Excellent article. I am saddened by the tragedy of Dr Cornbleet. He was the greatest doctor that I was ever fortunate to know. I miss his wisdom and humor tremendously.
Kudos have to be given to the son of Dr Cornbleet who has become a real life hero.
I can assure you that I or nobody that I know will ever support the French again. I think that they are obstructing justice and should be ashamed of themselves for not extraditing an American citizen.
It would appear that no one is addressing the issue that Hans only took this drug twice, from his own fathers' admission. Unless I missed it somewhere!? How about having someone, who is qualified to do so, evaluate the effects it can have on a person: same height, weight and gender, as Hans, having only taken the drug twice as well as compared to those mentioned in the article that the drug had a psychotic effect on (in terms of how long, etc., they took it). Let's get some conclusive evidence that it was the drug FIRST. In addition, someone else said it, he had more than enough time, Hans and his father, to seek help (or intervene on behalf of his son) before this happened. This is an unforgiveable crime, and he should pay. And ditto, SHAME ON FRANCE for even becoming involved: whether he was there once or a dozen times, in my opinion, it does not matter - he didn't live there!
Just a horrible crime and plan by Tom Peterson to distract attention from a first degree murder to two pills of vitamin a. Not to say that I wouldn’t do the same if this was my son, but it is clear that the Peterson family feels so much shame that they will do anything to transfer the blame. They are loosing a son in all of this, so it is OK to feel sympathy for them, but if one really reads between the lines of this story, Tom Ps previous comments, and even Hans’ posting on the Asberg blog, it is clear that Hans was an unguided child from the start. It seems that Top P may never really have known Hans, and only now is getting involved in his life by starting a crusade against accutatne. Perhaps this is noble cause or just a way for him to make up for lost time. Either way if wants to build support for his cause he should do everything in his power to get his son back to the US, including hitting the media in the same format and volume that the Cornbleets did.
I think it is time for France to update their law of 1927.