EXCLUSIVENarcissist, fantasist, and a sociopathic liar: Inside the 新たな展開d mind of a brilliant family doctor who became one of America's most 'murderous 麻薬 売買業者s'

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Paul Volkman is a 犯罪の with an impressive 再開する.

The 77-year-old is 現在／一般に serving four life 宣告，判決s in an Arizona 連邦の 刑務所，拘置所 for the overdose deaths of four 患者s, and his 関係 to the deaths of 非常に／多数の others. But he was once a high school valedictorian and 尊敬（する）・点d family doctor.

A friend who knew him in med school said: ‘I honestly thought that one day I would 選ぶ up the newspaper and see that Paul had been given the Nobel Prize in 薬／医学.’

Instead, in 2012, Volkman received one of the longest 宣告，判決s given to a doctor during the opiate 疫病／流行性の. A DEA スパイ／執行官 who worked on his 事例／患者 述べるd him as a ‘murderous 麻薬 売買業者.’

Between 2003 and 2006, while working out of cash-only 苦痛 clinics in Southern Ohio, he 定める／命ずるd a 激流 of controlled 実体s ? painkillers, sedatives, muscle relaxers ? in a 地域 that was dubbed the ‘OxyContin 資本／首都 of the world.’

Paul Volkman, 77,?is 現在／一般に serving four life 宣告，判決s in an Arizona 連邦の 刑務所，拘置所 for the overdose deaths of four 患者s , and his 関係 to the deaths of 非常に／多数の others

Volkman and Philip Eil's father went to University of Rochester together - photos from the time show an uncanny physical resemblance

Volkman and Eil fell out of touch after 医療の school in Chicago - and by 2004 Volkman was the 主要な purchaser of oxycodone in the country

His prescriptions - によれば a 家宅捜査令状, one 患者 received 270 oxycodone pills, 270 Percocet, 120 Somas (a muscle relaxant), and 60 Xanax in a 選び出す／独身 visit - were so large that 地元の pharmacies 辞退するd to fill them.?In 返答, he and the clinic’s owner opened an on-場所／位置 pharmacy.?

Volkman 持続するd then, and continues to （人命などを）奪う，主張する, that all of his prescriptions were 合法的な and appropriate.

In 2004, he was the 主要な purchaser of oxycodone in the country.

By now, nearly 30 years since OxyContin’s 開始する，打ち上げる and その後の downfall, tales of doctors who ‘broke bad’ are nothing new. It has been the 支配する of 文書のs, and scripted shows (based on real events) 含むing Dopesick and Painkiller.?

And one 熟考する／考慮する identified more than 350 犯罪の 事例／患者s 伴う／関わるing 内科医s and opiates between 1995 and 2019. The CDC 報告（する）／憶測s that hundreds of thousands of people died from opiate-関係のある overdoses during a 類似の timeframe, and that prescription opiates account for the ‘first wave’ of those deaths.

But Volkman was different, because I know him 本人自身で.

He went to college and 医療の school with my father. Both men were brainy, ユダヤ人の guys from the East Coast. They played 橋（渡しをする） together and both sang in the University of Rochester Glee Club. Photos from their time at the University of Rochester even show an uncanny physical resemblance.

In a letter from 刑務所，拘置所 after his 有罪の判決, Volkman wrote: ‘My best days are those in which I am the most angry. In my position, 怒り／怒る and fury is the energy which keeps me going’

Volkman 患者 Scottie Lin James (left) died in September 2005 at age 30. 'Everybody loved her,' said her sister Jakkie.?Ernest Ratcliff (権利) died the に引き続いて month, at age 38

High school 競技者 James Estep (left) died in February 2004 at age 32 - his death by overdose was linked to Volkman's prescriptions. Father of three Danny Coffee (権利) died in November 2003 at age 47

They fell out of t ouch after 医療の school. But when I learned about Volkman’s 事例／患者, I was fascinated. What on earth had happened to this guy?

This was in 2009, two years after he was 起訴するd. And I’ve spent the years since answering this question. It was a 追求（する），探索（する） that began by reaching out to Volkman, who, as it turned out, was eager to talk.

There were at least two defining character traits that I noticed during my 12 years of conversations with Volkman. 真っ先の was his 怒り／怒る.

The 的s of his fury were almost too 非常に／多数の to count. He spoke disparagingly about his mother, his father, his late wife, and his two grown children. During one conversation, he said, of his older brother ? and 孤独な sibling: ‘I can’t stand the son of a bitch… Hopefully, he’s dead.’

When narrating the 早期に years of his career, he 攻撃するd out at a former 監督者 who he felt had stifled his 研究 career and, at other times, 述べるd lawyers who had helped 患者s 告訴する him for malpractice as ‘ethically-challenged, financially struggling barristers’ who were 捜し出すing ‘an 平易な payout of Other People's Money.’

His most fiery comments were saved for his 犯罪の 事例／患者. The 連邦の 機関 that 調査／捜査するd him was ‘a vicious, 犯罪の organization, corrupt from 最高の，を越す to 底（に届く）.’ The 専門家 証言，証人／目撃するs who 証言するd against him at 裁判，公判 were ‘whores.’?

A former 従業員 who 証言するd against him was ? as he told her in a Facebook message that he sent while he を待つd the 陪審／陪審員団’s 判決 ? ‘truly disgusting.’ At his 宣告，判決ing 審理，公聴会, he called the 裁判官 a ‘heinous 犯罪の.’

A prescription 調印するd by Volkman for 240 oxycodone tablets

In 2004, Paul Volkman was the 主要な purchaser of oxycodone in the country

The 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大なs of two of Volkman's 患者s, 示す Glenn Reeder and Jeff A Reed

In a letter from 刑務所，拘置所 after his 有罪の判決, he wrote: ‘My best days are those in which I am the most angry. In my position, 怒り／怒る and fury is the energy which keeps me going.’

The other 中心存在 of Volkman’s personality was grandiosity. Even as his circumstances became more 減らすd ? 起訴するd, 罪人／有罪を宣告するd, and, 結局, 拘留するd for life ? his sense of himself seemed to only grow.

At one point, he said the 議長，司会を務める of the department where he 熟考する／考慮するd for his PhD had called him ‘the best grad student he had had in 30 years.’

どこかよそで, he 述べるd his 技術s as an ER 内科医 as almost superhuman. ‘The only time I have made mistakes is when その後の events 供給する 付加 （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） which changes the results of 分析,’ he wrote. ‘Those mistakes are not reall y mistakes, but 失敗 to 予報する the 未来.’

From 刑務所，拘置所, he 誇るd that, after his years of 合法的な 研究 関係のある to his 事例／患者, he was now ‘an 遂行するd 合法的な scholar.’

Perhaps his most eyebrow-raising 声明 （機の）カム すぐに after his 宣告，判決ing 審理，公聴会, when he recounted the moment when the 裁判官 called him a ‘truly dangerous man.’ Volkman somehow 見解（をとる）d this as a compliment.

‘Whether she realized it or not,’ he wrote in a その後の letter, ‘[the 裁判官] called me “dangerous” the way ツバメ Luther was “dangerous” to the ローマ法王, the way Thomas More was “dangerous” to Henry VIII, the way Thomas Jefferson was “dangerous” to George V [sic], the way good, 原則d, honest, 勇敢な, outspoken men are always “dangerous” to cruel, evil, corrupt, petty tyrants.’

Dopesick, starring Michael Keaton, told the fictionized story of a family doctor drawn into the opioid 危機

Most of Paul Volkman's 雇用 at Tri-明言する／公表する Healthcare took place in this building, at 1219 Findlay Street, in Portsmouth

After leaving Tri-明言する／公表する Healthcare, Volkman ran a 苦痛 clinic out of this house, at 1310 中心 Street, in Portsmouth. Within weeks, after 非常に／多数の （民事の）告訴s from neighbors, the house was （警察の）手入れ，急襲d and the clinic was shut 負かす／撃墜する

A faded 調印する for Volkman's offices. Even after his 有罪の判決 - in the 直面する of damning 証拠 - he 持続するd his innocence and （人命などを）奪う，主張するd all of his prescriptions were 合法的な and appropriate

A third defining trait of Volkman’s only became （疑いを）晴らす when I started to 独立して dig into the events of his life: he was not an honest man.

I interviewed dozens of people from his life, career, and period of 申し立てられた／疑わしい 罪，犯罪s. I took 非常に／多数の trips to the overdose-荒廃させるd 地域 of Southern Ohio where his 申し立てられた／疑わしい 罪，犯罪s took place. And I 跡をつけるd 負かす／撃墜する 文書s from さまざまな points in his life and career, 含むing the 4,000-page transcript of his 犯罪の 裁判，公判.

The story I 設立する often 逸脱するd 徹底的に from Volkman’s tale of a decent man beset by bad luck and the 汚職 of others.

Volkman once 述べるd himself as a ‘family man.’ Yet his son had long been estranged from him, and referred to his father as a ‘jerk’ and a ‘vindictive, malicious person.’

His daughter said her father was stubborn, arrogant, and characterized by an ‘異常に 限られた／立憲的な social 認識／意識性.’ By the end of my 報告（する）／憶測ing, she, too, was estranged from her dad. She told me at one point: ‘He ended up living in his own reality I think.’

I 設立する his most glaring truth-新たな展開ing when I traveled to the troubled 地域 where his 苦痛 clinics had been. One of his lawyers had 述べるd him as ‘an 遂行するd, experienced, competent 内科医 working in a 田舎の under-served area trying to help manage the 苦痛 of his 患者s.’

And at his 宣告，判決ing 審理，公聴会, Volkman 明言する／公表するd: ‘I have no 悔いるs about my 治療s and no 陳謝s to make.’

Yet the 地元の public health 公式の／役人s I interviewed believed Volkman was 与える／捧げるing enormously to an already out-of-支配（する）／統制する flow of pills.

One family member of a 患者 who had died 述べるd Volkm an, bluntly, as a ‘pill doctor.’ Another ? the mother of a former 患者 who was desperate to 保護する her son while he was in 回復 from 中毒 ? had gone to the Volkman’s office, 船d into an examination room and pleaded with him not to 定める／命ずる opiates to her son.

She would later repeat this story under 誓い at his 犯罪の 裁判，公判 in 2011. From the 証人席, she 解任するd how she told the doctor: ‘If you 令状 another prescription in my son’s 指名する, I will blow your brains out.’

Volkman 結局 stopped speaking to me after I published an article in Cincinnati magazine in 2017 headlined: ‘The Pill Mill that 荒廃させるd Portsmouth.’ He called it a ‘vicious, biased screed’ and said that I showed ‘amazing arrogance and stupidity’ by 令状ing it.

A few years later, we 再開するd our correspondence 簡潔に. But when I 拒絶する／低下するd his request to help him with 研究 for a long-発射 合法的な 策略 to get out of 刑務所，拘置所, he stopped talking to me for good.

So, what did I learn from my 12-year interview with an intelligent man 罪人／有罪を宣告するd of heinous 罪，犯罪s?

Volkman portrayed himself as a family man, but he is now estranged from most of his family, 含むing his daughter, who said: 'He ended up living in his own reality'

In Painkiller, Matthew Broderick played?Richard Sackler, whose 製薬の family Purdue 製造（する）d and marketed OxyContin

Perhaps the most memorable ? and haunting ? lesson is just how normal he could appear. During our in-person 会合s in 2009 and 2010, Volkman’s 行為 was unremarkable. He didn’t shout or fidget. He spoke with an impressive 命令（する） of 合法的な and 医療の facts.

His hobbies 含むd chess, listening to classical music, and going to the Art 学校／設ける of Chicago. If you didn’t know anything about his 事例／患者, you could easily mistake him for a run-of-the-mill 高度に-educated 都市の retiree. And some people did.

I spoke with 非常に／多数の people who were taken in by his story. His longtime t herapist in Chicago told me that Volkman was a ‘brilliant guy’ who 所有するd ‘a 広大な／多数の／重要な compassion for people.’ His second wife ? whom he had married after his 起訴，告発 ? was 納得させるd of his innocence 同様に. (The marriage fizzled after his 有罪の判決.)

One of his 橋（渡しをする）-playing friends, a retired CEO, told me that what Volkman was doing in Ohio sounded to him like Doctors Without 国境s, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization 献身的な to bringing 医療の care to 衝突 zones.

This, 明らかに, was a 利益 of working in cash-only clinics that were 400 miles away from his Chicago apartment, and 減刑する／通勤するing 支援する and 前へ／外へ every week. Aside from a few scattered 圧力（をかける） 報告（する）／憶測s, people from Volkman’s life in the city were reliant on him ? a 有望な, 高度に-qualified, and 深く，強烈に persuasive man ? to 述べる his 事例／患者.

In my time interviewing and 研究ing Volkman, I also noticed how he seemed to 査定する／（税金などを）課す the world not by 独立した・無所属 対策 ? good and bad, just or 不正な ? but, rather, how people interact with him. If you support him, work for his 利益, or さもなければ believe in him, he is likely to speak 高度に of you.?

In contrast, his 怒り／怒る and vitriol 燃やす hottest toward the people or parties who most 直接／まっすぐに antagonize him, 含むing the DEA, 連邦の 検察官，検事s, and the 裁判官 in his 事例／患者.

In all of the years I 報告（する）／憶測d on his 事例／患者, his belief in his own innocence has never wavered. In a 最近の 合法的な とじ込み／提出するing, from nearly 20 years after his 犯罪の activity began, he wrote: ‘I was practicing good, proper and 合法的な 薬／医学. Every 選び出す／独身 prescription I 問題／発行するd was 権限を与えるd and 要求するd. I was not then, nor am I now, a 犯罪の.’

Prescription for 苦痛: How a Once-約束ing Doctor Became the ‘Pill Mill 殺し屋' by Philip Eil is published by Steerforth 圧力（をかける）, April 9