A Forensic Psychiatrist's Journey: A True-Crime Conversation with Dr. Park Dietz

Dr. Park Dietz is a leading forensic psychiatrist and founder of Park Dietz & Associates and Threat Assessment Group (TAG), the pioneering workplace misconduct mitigation firm serving Fortune 500 companies and major organizations nationwide. Named one of Security magazine’s “Top 25 Most Influential People in the Security Industry” and listed among Biography.com’s “10 Most Famous Psychiatrists in History,” Dr. Dietz’s expertise is sought across criminal, civil, and workplace violence cases.

He has consulted or testified in all 50 states, participating in some of the nation’s most notable cases, including the assassination attempts on President Reagan and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, the Jeffrey Dahmer and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev cases, the Menendez brothers’ retrial, Columbine, the Unabomber, and numerous serial killings and mass shootings. He is a consultant to the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit and New York State Police Forensic Sciences Unit, and has led major research projects on violent and mentally disordered offenders for the National Academy of Sciences and the National Institute of Justice. His work is widely cited and featured in national media, documentaries, and films, and he has served as an advisor to numerous Hollywood productions, including “Law & Order” and “The Bodyguard.”

Dr. Dietz is Past President of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and author of over 100 publications. He completed his M.D., M.P.H., and Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins and Cornell, and has held professorships at Harvard, UVA, UCLA, and UC Irvine.

Peter D. Byeff, M.D. graduated cum laude with honors in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1970, followed by graduation from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1974. He completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Georgetown University Hospital, where he worked briefly with Dr. Sheldon Wolff and Dr. Anthony Fauci at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.

As a visiting fellow in Hematology-Oncology at Columbia-Presbyterian, Dr. Byeff received the Royal Gibson Award for outstanding first-year fellow and was awarded the prestigious Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Cancer Fellowship. He is triple Board Certified in Hematology, Oncology, and Internal Medicine.

Since 1982, Dr. Byeff has practiced in Connecticut, serving as Medical Director of the Cancer Center of the Hospital of Central Connecticut, part of the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute and a Memorial Sloan-Kettering affiliate. He is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and has been Principal Investigator for numerous clinical trials through the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group and National Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project.

Dr. Byeff served on the American Society of Clinical Oncology Workforce Taskforce and currently serves as President of the Johns Hopkins Medicine Alumni Association. He and his wife have established two scholarships for medical students and led a successful $18 million fundraising campaign for Johns Hopkins School of Medicine scholarships. In 2015, Dr. Byeff received the Johns Hopkins Heritage Award in recognition of his longtime outstanding service to the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.