On the outside, Richard and Michael Grossman were a portrait of father-and-son calm, a pair the neighbors glimpsed in brief but serene snapshots: bicycling near their Highland Park home, walking the golden retriever, playing by their pool.

Richard Grossman, 44, was president and chairman of the publicly traded Trans Leasing International, a medical equipment leasing company in Northbrook. Michael, 17, was a high school football player.

At home Thursday night studying for school, Michael became so enraged by Richard Grossman's loud, unrelenting piano playing that the teen grabbed a carving knife and stabbed his father repeatedly, police alleged.

On the outside, Richard and Michael Grossman were a portrait of father-and-son calm, a pair the neighbors glimpsed in brief but serene snapshots: bicycling near their Highland Park home, walking the golden retriever, playing by their pool.

Richard Grossman, 44, was president and chairman of the publicly traded Trans Leasing International, a medical equipment leasing company in Northbrook. Michael, 17, was a high school football player.

But behind the facade was a not-so-pretty picture.

Their calm was roiled in the past few years by a divorce and a series of minor police calls for such incidents as a fight over Michael's desire to keep a cat, according to police and prosecutors.

In essence, it became a scene of conflict, one that accelerated to the point at which Michael was accused Monday of killing his father.

At home Thursday night studying for school, Michael became so enraged by Richard Grossman's loud, unrelenting piano playing that the teen grabbed a carving knife and stabbed his father repeatedly, police alleged.

Monday morning, Richard Grossman died of the injuries.

Now Michael Grossman faces charges of first-degree murder. He was taken into custody Monday afternoon at Forest Hospital, a Des Plaines mental health facility.

"Who knows what happened?" said Richard Grossman's brother Larry, who lives in Deerfield.

"It seemed like they got along fine. Everybody got along fine, I thought."

To hear neighbors and family members tell it, Richard Grossman and his son were among life's fortunate.

The father headed a successful firm, and he was a pioneer of the LeaseCard, a credit card of sorts for the leasing industry.

Richard Grossman was a musician, as well, an accomplished pianist, guitarist and writer who, Larry Grossman said, recorded at least one compact disc of his songs.

Richard also was a benefactor of the Juvenile Protection Association, a private organization in Chicago that treats abused children and their families.

"They were a very healthy, beautiful family," said Martha Paulissian, who lives across the street at 2021 Keats. "Just wasted."

Although there was evidence the father and son had an explosive relationship, police said they suspect that Richard Grossman's piano playing was the flash point for the rage in his son Thursday night.

"That seems like the catalyst for this whole thing," Highland Park Police Chief Daniel J. Dahlberg said Monday. "That's what got it started."

The two allegedly exchanged words. Then, police alleged, Michael Grossman went into the kitchen, picked out a knife and stabbed his father repeatedly in the neck.

The fight spilled outside. When officers arrived shortly before 8 p.m., Richard Grossman was outside the house, bleeding heavily. Michael was inside.

He was taken into custody a short time later. With his father still alive, Michael Grossman was charged with attempted murder. His mother arranged for the bond that got Michael out of jail.

Authorities increased the charge to first-degree murder when Richard Grossman died Monday while on life support, according to officials at Highland Park Hospital.

Police said Michael was at Forest Hospital on Monday, although it was not clear how long he had been there or what, if any, treatment he was getting. Dahlberg said that investigators were unsure why he was at the hospital.

Michael Grossman now sits in Lake County Jail, his bond revoked.

"His mind must have snapped," said Larry Grossman, trying to explain what had happened between his brother and nephew. "Like I said, who knows what happened?"

Highland Park police said they were called to the well-kept brick Tudor home close to a dozen times over three years for a variety of problems and disputes.

The 1992 divorce between Richard and Susan Grossman and the fighting it produced accounted for a number of the calls.

In July 1992, the father was arrested on a charge of battery and the mother was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct, according to Highland Park police.

What ultimately happened with the criminal charges is unclear, however.

Officers were called because of disputes over custody of the couple's three children, according to police, and for fights between father and son. In July 1993, for instance, the police were called because the two were fighting over keeping a cat.

Though Michael's father had custody, Michael sometimes lived with his mother in Lake Forest, and some friends described him as troubled.

He withdrew from Highland Park High School in May, before the end of his junior year, according to Jane Gard, the principal. This year he started at Lake Forest High School, with his father paying a higher out-of-the-district tuition.

Michael was quiet, his friends said, and he told them that he and his father did not always get along. He told some that their arguments sometimes turned violent, though it seemed his two sisters, Kimberly and Joanna, were able to steer clear of family trouble.

Monday, the black 1997 Chevrolet Camaro that his father bought him was sitting in their driveway, a symbol of his father's generosity.

There was a sense that Michael Grossman was trying to move past the troubles he had at Highland Park High School. Friends said he tried to distance himself from his old crowd and, perhaps, was trying to find an arrangement with his father they both could live with.

"He said his Highland Park friends were bad influences," said one former friend, who spoke on condition his name not be used. "Look at him now."

Shackled and flanked by guards, Michael Grossman, 17, on Wednesday morning made possibly the last trip beyond bars that he will ever make, to pay his last respects to his father, Richard Grossman, 44, of Highland Park.

Lake County Judge James Booras granted a defense request that the boy be allowed to go to a Wilmette funeral home to say goodbye to the man he has been charged with fatally stabbing Oct. 3, despite prosecution objections that the visit would be a security risk.

After issuing a gag order to minimize the potential for others to come in contact with the boy while he was out of jail, the judge permitted Grossman a 30-minute visit to the dark wooden casket where his father's body lay, said Lake County Assistant State's Atty. George Strickland.

Shackled and flanked by guards, Michael Grossman, 17, on Wednesday morning made possibly the last trip beyond bars that he will ever make, to pay his last respects to his father, Richard Grossman, 44, of Highland Park.

Lake County Judge James Booras granted a defense request that the boy be allowed to go to a Wilmette funeral home to say goodbye to the man he has been charged with fatally stabbing Oct. 3, despite prosecution objections that the visit would be a security risk.

Richard Grossman died Monday.

After issuing a gag order to minimize the potential for others to come in contact with the boy while he was out of jail, the judge permitted Grossman a 30-minute visit to the dark wooden casket where his father's body lay, said Lake County Assistant State's Atty. George Strickland.

Afterward the boy, who was being held without bond at the Lake County Jail, left the Weinstein Brothers chapel on Skokie Boulevard in an unmarked police car shortly before 11 a.m.

Grossman's bond hearing was to resume Thursday afternoon, when the court will hear defense attorneys argue that he is insane and should be freed from jail on bond so he can enter a custodial mental health care facility until his trial is over. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 22.

The other Grossmans attended services for Richard Grossman at the funeral home a few hours after the boy's departure.

There, the family held an impromptu news conference to paint a more well-rounded portrait of the father than did the glimpses found in police reports and divorce records, and to make a plea for mercy on the son's behalf.

His voice choked up and his chin quivering with emotion, Larry Grossman spoke for the family.

"Richard was a very loving person, a wonderful brother and a loving father," Larry Grossman said of his brother. "He never did anything but love life and cherish people."

Richard Grossman, an amateur musician, was president and chairman of the Northbrook-based, publicly traded Trans Leasing International, a medical equipment leasing company.

The family had some problems, Larry Grossman said, particularly during the end of Richard Grossman's marriage to Susan Grossman, who stood next to Larry Grossman as he spoke.

Police went to the Grossman home at 2000 Keats Lane in Highland Park on a few occasions for domestic problems, Larry Grossman acknowledged, but all of the incidents were resolved at the scene.

After the divorce, the family reconciled, in a sense, and was at peace, Larry Grossman said.

"This is the saddest day of our lives," he said. "But it would be sadder if Michael was locked up in a maximum-security prison."

The former Highland Park High School football player could spend the rest of his life behind bars if convicted of first-degree murder.

Larry Grossman, flanked by nearly a dozen family members, pleaded for prosecutors to have mercy on his nephew. and said it would be unfair if Michael Grossman were imprisoned, rather than placed in a hospital to get the psychiatric care the family said he needs.

Larry Grossman described how the teen's behavior had changed in the last few years, saying the youth went from being a straight-A student to a dropout, and from hanging out with jocks to hanging out with a "bad crowd."

After Michael Grossman withdrew from Highland Park High in May, his uncle said, he tried hard to turn his life around. He moved in with his mother in Florida and began therapy that included the taking of the anti-depressant drug Prozac and an anti-psychotic drug.

This fall, Michael moved back with his father, enrolled in Lake Forest High School and dissociated himself from his old friends.

"But his mind snapped," Larry Grossman said. "For some unknown reason, he stopped taking his medication."

On Oct. 3, after Richard Grossman would not stop playing the piano while the teenager studied, the son grabbed a carving knife, chased, hacked and stabbed his father, and delivered the fatal blow--a plunge into the older man's neck--before the astonished eyes of a Highland Park police officer.

"We want Michael to get the psychiatric care he needs," Larry Grossman said. "We understand he needs to be locked up for a long time, but it would be doing a great disservice to lock him up in a maximum-security prison."

A Lake County grand jury Wednesday indicted a 17-year-old youth on a first-degree murder charge in the stabbing of his father, who was wounded fatally this month as a Highland Park police officer looked on.

Michael Grossman, who is being held without bond in Lake County Jail, is scheduled to be arraigned Friday before Judge John Goshgarian, said Lake County Assistant State's Atty. Michael Mermel.

On the evening of Oct. 3, Grossman allegedly stabbed his father, 44-year-old Richard Grossman, inside their posh home after the father would not stop playing the piano while the youth tried to study.

A Lake County grand jury Wednesday indicted a 17-year-old youth on a first-degree murder charge in the stabbing of his father, who was wounded fatally this month as a Highland Park police officer looked on.

Michael Grossman, who is being held without bond in Lake County Jail, is scheduled to be arraigned Friday before Judge John Goshgarian, said Lake County Assistant State's Atty. Michael Mermel.

If convicted, the teen could spend the rest of his life in prison, Mermel said.

On the evening of Oct. 3, Grossman allegedly stabbed his father, 44-year-old Richard Grossman, inside their posh home after the father would not stop playing the piano while the youth tried to study.

When a police officer responding to a 911 call from the youth's 14-year-old sister arrived at the Grossman home at 2000 Keats Lane, he allegedly saw the former high school football player wielding a carving knife and chasing his father into the street, authorities said.

The officer ordered both Grossmans to stop, but only the father did, police said.

The son caught up with his father and allegedly plunged the knife through his father's throat, slicing his jugular vein and carotid artery and severing the vocal cords.

Michael Grossman then allegedly went back into the home and dropped the knife on the foyer floor. He was found inside moments later.

Richard Grossman collapsed on the hood of the police cruiser. He died four days later at Highland Park Hospital.

Grossman's attorney, Jed Stone, was out of town and unavailable for comment Wednesday. Stone has stated that Grossman is not culpable for the crime because the youth was insane at the time of the stabbing.

With the youth's history of psychiatric hospitalizations, the defense has argued in earlier hearings that Grossman was actively psychotic when he stabbed his father and did not understand the act was criminal.

Michael Grossman, who was hospitalized in a Florida psychiatric ward this summer, was supposed to be taking anti-psychotic medication and Prozac at the time of the attack, but had discontinued the medication in August because it made him sleepy, Stone has said.

The attorney maintains that stopping the medication put Grossman in a psychotic state.

Stone has said Grossman belongs in a custodial mental health care center, not a jail. The victim's family members, including his brother and parents, agree.

But the state argues the youth is no more insane than any other killer is--he just can afford a better lawyer.

Grossman lucidly and calmly recounted his activities on the day of the stabbing to detectives shortly after the incident, Mermel said, and was not acting psychotic in the presence of police officers and detectives.

The youth has denied he is mentally ill, according to court testimony.

Full Text  (658  words)

Copyright Chicago Tribune Co. Apr 22, 1998
 

An 18-year-old Highland Park youth faces 20 to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty but mentally ill to first-degree murder for the 1996 stabbing death of his father.

In entering the agreement with the Lake County state's attorney's office, Michael Grossman admitted he killed his father, Richard, by stabbing him in the neck with a carving knife.

Authorities said the teenager, then 17, attacked his father after becoming enraged by his piano playing one night in the family's home.

Grossman has been described in court as a schizophrenic who hears voices that tell him to do things. Shortly after his arrest, he was hospitalized for psychiatric care.

A year ago, Lake County Circuit Judge Stephen Walter ruled that Grossman was too mentally ill to stand trial and ordered him to continue treatment. In February, the judge ruled the young man, with the assistance of psychotropic drugs, was mentally fit to stand trial.

Larry Grossman, the teen's uncle, called the plea agreement "probably a fair deal."

"I think he definitely has severe mental problems," Larry Grossman said Tuesday. "I also think he was guilty of murdering my brother."

Lake County State's Atty. Michael Waller said he considered the agreement "an appropriate resolution, given all the facts and circumstances."

"We consistently viewed this as a murder case, but a murder case with some unique circumstances," Waller said. "There isn't any question the young man does have underlying psychological problems that need to be dealt with."

The state's attorney's office has not yet decided the length of the sentence it will recommend.

Michael Grossman's lawyer, Jed Stone, said he favored the plea agreement because he believes his client likely will serve less prison time than if he had gone to trial and been found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Under Stone's reasoning, if Grossman receives the minimum sentence of 20 years in prison, he could be released in 7 1/2 years with time off for good behavior and credit for time already served, as the result of a recent Illinois appellate court ruling that found the state's truth-in-sentencing law unconstitutional.

That law had required those convicted of serious violent crimes to serve virtually all of their sentences.

Had the case gone to trial, Stone said, under the best scenario for his client, Grossman would have been found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a psychiatric hospital. Stone said a study of defendants in slaying cases acquitted by reason of insanity in Illinois showed that more than half of them were hospitalized at least 10 years before being released.

Stone said he hoped Grossman would be sent to a prison psychiatric facility in Dixon Correctional Center, west of DeKalb.

Waller said his office's position is that "the Department of Corrections should place him in the most appropriate facility."

Larry Grossman said his family had not made any recommendation to prosecutors about the case.

"We just let the judicial system handle it," he said, adding that neither he nor his family had been in touch with Michael Grossman. "Obviously, it's the most traumatic thing you could possibly imagine."

The murder victim, Richard Grossman, 44, was president and chairman of Trans Leasing International Inc., a publicly held medical-equipment leasing company based in Northbrook. He was divorced from his wife, Susan.

The Grossmans had a history of domestic problems, according to police. Officers had been called to the family's brick Tudor house in Highland Park almost a dozen times over a three-year period for a variety of disputes, including fights between the father and son.

Michael Grossman, the oldest of three children, sometimes lived with his mother in Lake Forest. He had withdrawn from Highland Park High School and started attending Lake Forest High School shortly before the October 1996 slaying.

He is scheduled to be sentenced by Walter on May 20, five days before his trial was to have begun. He entered his guilty plea in Walter's courtroom Friday.

 

SENTENCE FOR KILLER DEBATED HIGHLAND PARK TEEN STABBED FATHER IN '96; [LAKE SPORTS FINAL Edition]

John Flink. Special to the Tribune.. Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Ill.: Jul 10, 1998. pg. 6

Abstract (Summary)

Mental health experts disagreed Thursday on whether a Highland Park teenager who stabbed his father to death in 1996 should receive the minimum sentence of 20 years, or whether he is such a threat to society that he deserves to remain in prison an additional 10 years.

Lake County Judge Stephen Walter listened to the lengthy testimony during a sentencing hearing Thursday for Michael Grossman, 18, who entered a plea of guilty but mentally ill in April for fatally stabbing his father, Richard [Grossman], in the neck with a carving knife.

Testifying for the defense, psychologist Michael Gelboert, who examined Grossman after the murder, said Grossman's fixation on his father, who Grossman reportedly called a "surrogate of evil," resulted from circumstances unlikely to be repeated again.

 »  Jump to indexing (document details)

Full Text  (415  words)

Copyright Chicago Tribune Co. Jul 10, 1998
 

Mental health experts disagreed Thursday on whether a Highland Park teenager who stabbed his father to death in 1996 should receive the minimum sentence of 20 years, or whether he is such a threat to society that he deserves to remain in prison an additional 10 years.

Lake County Judge Stephen Walter listened to the lengthy testimony during a sentencing hearing Thursday for Michael Grossman, 18, who entered a plea of guilty but mentally ill in April for fatally stabbing his father, Richard, in the neck with a carving knife.

In return for his plea, Grossman faced a sentence of 20 to 30 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for Friday.

Testifying for the defense, psychologist Michael Gelboert, who examined Grossman after the murder, said Grossman's fixation on his father, who Grossman reportedly called a "surrogate of evil," resulted from circumstances unlikely to be repeated again.

"I can't imagine anyone else taking on that role and Michael being untreated such that he would do this again," Gelboert testified. "Now that his father is gone, I don't see significant potential danger in Michael's future."

During psychiatric evaluations, Grossman referred to his father as a manifestation of the devil and said voices in his head that he ascribed to aliens and demons would be stilled if he killed his father, authorities said.

But prosecutors argued that Grossman, declared unfit to stand trial shortly after the murder, has managed to control his psychosis only with psychotropic drugs. If he stopped taking those drugs, said Assistant State's Atty. George Strickland, his behavior would likely turn violent.

A documented history of domestic problems in the Grossman household before the murder also indicates Grossman's innate tendency for violence, Strickland said.

Highland Park police had been called to the Grossman home almost a dozen times over three years to break up family disputes, sometimes between father and son, they said.

Henry Lahmayer, a psychiatrist who evaluated Grossman after the murder, testified for the prosecution that Grossman could again turn violent if released.

"Prior violence is the best predictor of future behavior in that arena," Lahmayer said.

Grossman stabbed his father in the front yard of their Highland Park home in October 1996 during a fight spurred by his father's piano-playing, which the younger Grossman said interfered with his concentration while working on a school project.

Police had already been summoned to the house and witnessed the stabbing when the fight tumbled into the front yard. Richard Grossman, 44, died two days later.

 

MAN GETS 24 YEARS IN SLAYING OF FATHER DAD'S MUSIC ANNOYED HIGHLAND PARK TEEN; [NORTH SPORTS FINAL Edition]

John Flink. Special to the Tribune.. Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Ill.: Jul 11, 1998. pg. 5

Abstract (Summary)

Calling Michael Grossman's 1996 slaying of his father in the front yard of their Highland Park home "a tragedy of classic proportions," a Lake County judge on Friday sentenced the 18-year-old to 24 years in prison.

(Stephen) Walter agreed with the assertion from the defense that the youth can be successfully rehabilitated and returned to society as a productive citizen, provided he receives proper care and a strict regimen of psychotropic drugs to control his psychotic behavior.

He had pleaded guilty but mentally ill to stabbing his father, Richard (Grossman), in the neck during a fight over his father's piano playing, which the younger Grossman found annoying.

 »  Jump to indexing (document details)

Full Text  (454  words)

Copyright Chicago Tribune Co. Jul 11, 1998
 

Calling Michael Grossman's 1996 slaying of his father in the front yard of their Highland Park home "a tragedy of classic proportions," a Lake County judge on Friday sentenced the 18-year-old to 24 years in prison.

Judge Stephen Walter also recommended that Grossman receive continuing psychiatric care.

Walter agreed with the assertion from the defense that the youth can be successfully rehabilitated and returned to society as a productive citizen, provided he receives proper care and a strict regimen of psychotropic drugs to control his psychotic behavior.

Grossman was eligible for up to 30 years under an agreement he entered into in April to serve from a minimum of 20 years to a maximum of 30 years.

He had pleaded guilty but mentally ill to stabbing his father, Richard, in the neck during a fight over his father's piano playing, which the younger Grossman found annoying.

"I think Michael is capable of rehabilitation," Walter said, adding that he agreed with a psychologist who testified Thursday that Grossman's psychotic rage was focused mostly on his father and that he poses little threat to other people.

During evaluations after his arrest, Grossman told mental health experts that he heard voices in his head that told him his father was a manifestation of Satan and had to be killed, authorities said.

Grossman and his father had a history of domestic violence, Highland Park police said. Police had been called to the house on the night of Oct. 3, 1996, and witnessed the stabbing. Richard Grossman, 44, died several days later.

Grossman's mother, Susan Grossman, cried softly when the sentence was read. Michael Grossman sometimes lived with his mother at her house in Lake Forest. She has since moved to another North Shore community, which was not revealed in court.

Grossman is likely to serve 8 to 9 years of his sentence, according to Assistant State's Atty. George Strickland. He will be taken to Joliet Correctional Center for evaluation and then transferred to another prison.

Strickland had argued that Grossman should be sentenced to the full 30 years because his stability was dependent on maintaining his regimen of drugs. That regimen should be maintained by force for as long as possible, he argued.

"But we think it's an appropriate sentence," Strickland said after the sentencing.

Defense attorney Jed Stone portrayed Grossman as the product of a severely dysfunctional home. Divorce, drugs, domestic abuse and violence were all part of the Grossman household, Stone said, despite the outward facade of affluence and respectability.

"Everything was not hunky-dory on Keats Street, and it never was," said Stone, referring to the family's house in the 2000 block of Keats Lane in Highland Park. Grossman will not appeal the sentence, Stone said.

https://worldsworstrecords.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-short-unhappy-life-of-rick-grossman.html

Friday, 15 January 2016

The short, unhappy life of Rick Grossman

 

There I was, innocently searching the interwebs for more music by Vinny Roma, when I stumbled across this: Hot Romance, the debut (and only) album from the delightfully coiffured Rick Grossman.

 

Not to be confused with the Rick Grossman who played bass for Australian New wave band the Divinyls, our Rick grew up in the Chicago area. A keen amateur musician, in 1978 he opened up his wallet, gathered together a few some session musicians and set out to make an album of his songs. The result was Hot Romance. Issued by Thunderbolt Records in 1978, Hot Romance – as described by Liam Carroll of Rebeat magazine - is a collection of songs ‘about how good Rick Grossman is at sex. How he has so many babes following him around all the time that he practically has to shake ’em off with a stick. It’s a bizarre, yet beguiling, juxtaposition: this sunny, laid-back music partnered with Grossman’s vaguely rockabilly Lothario persona. At one point, he equates casual sex with eating Kellogg’s cereal, as if that’s a thing.’

 

It’s an odd record: neither the light pop-rock settings from the band, his jazzy piano flourishes nor Rick’s flat, nasal croon could possibly charm a lady enough for her to slip between his black nylon sheets. His lyrics – when decipherable - are atrocious, the drummer is dreadful and the whole thing smacks of being recorded in one session for as little money as possible. The guitar solo on New York, Now You're Alive is indescribably awful.

 

Unsurprisingly, Rick didn’t sell many copies of Hot Romance, so he gave up any ideas of pop superstardom, married his girlfriend Susan (who clearly hadn’t paid much attention to his lyrics either) and went in to business, creating a credit card system for the shipping and loaning industry. Before long Rick was climbing the corporate ladder, becoming chairman of medical equipment rental firm Trans Leasing International.

 

Rick, Susan, and their three children moved to Highland Park, one of the better of Chicago’s many suburbs. But although life should have been sweet for the successful businessman and his family it was far from that. In July 1992, Rick and Susan were arrested: Rick on a charge of battery and Susan on a charge of disorderly conduct, according to Highland Park police. Later that year the couple divorced.

 

The problems between Rick and Susan were nothing compared to those between him and his son Michael. As the Chicago Tribune reported, on the outside, Rick and Michael presented ‘a portrait of father-and-son calm, a pair the neighbours glimpsed in brief but serene snapshots: bicycling near their Highland Park home, walking the golden retriever, playing by their pool.

 

‘But behind the facade was a not-so-pretty picture’.

 

Michael was quiet, his friends said, and he told them that he and his father did not always get along. He told some that their arguments turned violent, though it seemed this violence did not spill over on to his two sisters, Kimberly and Joanna. Officers were called because of disputes over custody, and for fights between father and son. In July 1993 the police were called because the two were fighting over Michael’s desire to keep a cat.

 

One Thursday night in October 1996, Rick decided he wanted to play his piano. Apparently, banging out his songs on the keys proved too loud and distracting for Michael, his 17 year-old High School football star of a son, who was trying to do his homework. Michael became so enraged by Rick's loud, unrelenting playing that the teen grabbed a carving knife and stabbed his father repeatedly. Rick Grossman was just 44 years old.

 

"Who knows what happened?" said Richard Grossman's brother Larry. "It seemed like they got along fine. Everybody got along fine, I thought." In a sadly ironic twist, Rick had also been a benefactor of the Juvenile Protection Association, a private organisation in Chicago that treated abused children and their families.

 

Although there was evidence that father and son had an explosive relationship, police said they believed that Rick’s piano playing was the flash point for the rage in his son.

 

"That seems like the catalyst for this whole thing," Highland Park Police Chief Daniel J. Dahlberg told the Chicago Tribune. "That's what got it started." The two allegedly exchanged words, and then Michael went into the kitchen, picked out a knife and stabbed his father repeatedly in the neck. When officers arrived shortly before 8 p.m., Rick was outside the house, bleeding heavily. Michael was taken into custody a short time later. With his father still alive, Michael Grossman was charged with attempted murder. His mother arranged for the bond that got Michael out of jail. Authorities increased the charge to first-degree murder when Rick Grossman died while on life support, at the Highland Park Hospital.

 

"His mind must have snapped," said Larry Grossman, trying to explain what had happened between his brother and nephew. "Like I said, who knows what happened?"

 

Michael wound up pleading guilty but mentally ill. He claimed that he was schizophrenic, that he had heard voices telling him to kill his father. Defence attorney Jed Stone portrayed Michael Grossman as the product of a severely dysfunctional home. Divorce, drugs, domestic abuse and violence were all part of the Grossman household, Stone said, despite the outward facade of affluence and respectability. "Everything was not hunky-dory on Keats Street, and it never was."

 

In July 1998 Judge Stephen Walter sentenced Michael to 24 years in prison, with the understanding that the young man would likely only serve eight to nine years. Judge Walter also recommended that he receive continuing psychiatric care.

 

Let us remember Rick not as the victim of a heinous crime, nor as one of the catalysts for his son’s troubled mind, but for his recorded legacy, and take pleasure in the soft rock stylings of three tracks from Hot Romance.

 

Enjoy!