12. The Sad Aftermath of a Seedy Scheme
Unfortunately, the CIA’s scheme to play Cupid did not end happily. Susan Cabot grew mentally ill in the 1980s, and became a recluse. Her son, Timothy, who was born with dwarfism, inherited mental issues from both his mother and father – his paternal grandfather and King Hussein’s predecessor, King Talal, had been deposed because he was schizophrenic. Timothy’s problems were worsened by growing up in a dysfunctional home with a mother who raised him in squalor. The kid grew up in a decaying Encino estate, surrounded by rotting food and stacks of ancient newspapers, guarded by a semi-feral Akita. Things were further exacerbated by Cabot’s ill-advised decision to treat her son’s dwarfism with experimental hormones extracted from the pituitary glands of dead people.
The treatment, which was discontinued in the 1980s after it was discovered that it gave some patients a degenerative brain disease, did not cure Timothy’s dwarfism. Instead, it left him with lifelong severe mood swings. On December 10th, 1986, Susan Cabot was found beaten to death with a dumbbell. Her son Timothy told police that a stranger in a ninja mask had broken into the house, knocked him unconscious, then murdered his mother. Police and the District Attorney disagreed, and charged Timothy with murder. He eventually pled not guilty by reason of insanity, raising his dysfunctional upbringing as a defense. In 1989, he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Having already served two and a half years behind bars awaiting trial, he was sentenced to three years probation. He died of heart failure in 2003.
