Patient Stalks And Fatally Shoots Surgeon (2023)

That's A Crime
Episode 66: Patient Stalks And Fatally Shoots Surgeon (2023)

Jason Connell and Sal Rodriguez break down the true crime story of the Patient Stalks And Fatally Shoots Surgeon in 2023. On July 11, 2023, 43-year-old Dr. Benjamin Mauck, a Memphis, TN hand surgeon, was fatally shot by one of his patients, 29-year-old, Larry Pickens.

Recorded: 10-11-23
Studio: Just Curious Media
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Transcript

Jason Connell: 0:01

Whoa, just curious. Welcome to Just curious media. This is that's a crime. I'm Jason Connell.

Sal Rodriguez: 0:10

And I'm Sal Rodriguez.

Jason Connell: 0:12

Alright, so we are back with another crime.

Sal Rodriguez: 0:17

I feel like it's been too long, not

Jason Connell: 0:19

too long. It hasn't been that long South feels like last week we did a crime, but you want to be doing crime on a daily basis, unfortunately. So there are crimes on a daily basis.

Sal Rodriguez: 0:32

I wouldn't mind doing it more often only because the reservoir is just never ending. Yeah,

Jason Connell: 0:37

we're never gonna catch up. Never. This is an interesting crime today. Not on the lighter side, definitely on the heavier side, because we cover everything from a misdemeanor to a murder. And this is on the darker spectrum of that. Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez: 0:53

the murder side. The murders. Yeah. Because

Jason Connell: 0:57

today we are breaking down the True Crime Story of the patient stocks and fatally shoots surgeon in 2023. Very

Sal Rodriguez: 1:06

scary. Who has saved very squarest safe. Exactly.

Jason Connell: 1:10

You have a patient stalking and shooting and killing their surgeon. Like, yeah, this is bad. But you know, not every crime is easy. You flex different muscles. I think if we're covering a crime, we owe it to the crime to give the facts respectfully to those impacted, and not everything's lighter. And I'm I'm up for the challenge. And this one was interesting to catches my eye. And here we go. I know you've read it. I know you're familiar. But are you ready to delve into this crime?

Sal Rodriguez: 1:43

I am ready. Sure. I think so. Okay.

Jason Connell: 1:47

So on July 11 2023 43 year old Dr. Benjamin Mach, a Tennessee hand surgeon was fatally shot in his examination room in what police have described as a targeted attack. Creepy Sal already kind of scary. You're not even safe in your own examination room doing an exam, I presume?

Sal Rodriguez: 2:12

No, it's sad, because everywhere you go security seems heightened metal detectors everywhere now in schools, metal detectors. And unfortunately, like, yeah, a doctor's exam room, you wouldn't think something's going to happen there. But yeah. And how does someone get through there? Well, I would imagine that he would have to have been probably a patient existing. Yeah,

Jason Connell: 2:34

let him throw. Yeah, he's here to talk to the doctor. He's tied up right now. But here comes someone who is stalking someone. Well, you know what, yes, they're stalking them gone.

Sal Rodriguez: 2:43

You can't just see a surgeon you have to be referred. So Exactly. Yeah. By the time you're seeing a surgeon, you'd already been through a couple of avenues ahead of that.

Jason Connell: 2:52

Right. Right. That's true. Familiar with the staff, unless you're stalking them. And with Sal, we've talked about this before, unless you have an armed guard and hospitals may or may not in the movies, they always get around those armed guards. But if someone's out to get somebody, it's hard to protect that person from this evil being.

Sal Rodriguez: 3:14

Jason, I think if we've learned anything, after all these episodes, and just by living in our world today, if someone wants to perpetrate an act of evil, there is almost no way of stopping them. If they're that determined.

Jason Connell: 3:29

That's the scary part. Case in point here, the suspect and patient 29 year old Larry Pickens was apprehended at the scene by police. Now the motive for the attack is unclear. But we do know Larry was a patient. But a witness claimed that the shooter had threatened a clinic staffer over the course of a week. So I don't know. You know, the origins of this was it surgery got wrong. Not sure. They're threatening a staffer? Don't know what's happening here. Now police believed that the attacker waited for several hours before shooting Dr. Mark and fleeing the clinic. So I waited several hours outside contemplating this, you know what was about to happen? This assault, this deadly assault is a very scary sell. It really is. And I've been to enough of these. I don't go to the hospital very often. Rarely. But sometimes I've gone to like a specialist sports thing. I had a knee surgery years ago. And yeah, you're at like some other like smaller facility to go in there and meet your doctor. There's zero security in that. And my surgeons right there. Yeah, I have to have an appointment. But no one's thinking you're come in. There's no real threat. If there's a lock on the door, it's always unlocked. So yeah, these doctors aren't safe. And if there was this clinic staff are being threatened. I would think that we'll put this on another level like high alert, you would hope and think that would happen but not enough to deter you know, Larry Pickens from entering with a gun and shooting Dr. Mach. Jason,

Sal Rodriguez: 5:17

I learned this a long time ago, I remember I was very young, possibly in my early 20s. And I was visiting a friend at the hospital. And I went to the hospital when the elevator went to the floor. And I remember thinking, nobody asked me Yeah, I was like, I could be a psycho. Just walk right into all these vulnerable people here. Anybody could have walked in. So yeah, I would be hard pressed to believe that almost any medical facility whether a specialized physician here, or just your average hospital, there, they're not safe places, Jason? No.

Jason Connell: 5:51

And obviously, Larry's a very troubled person. Because even if you're at this point, and you're a patient of a surgeon, what is this gonna prove? You're that mad take their life. It wasn't one of these murder suicide situation. It was murder and a fleeing. Yeah, you're gonna be on camera. And they probably were outside. Larry could have been outside for several hours thinking, you know, maybe he's that distraught. Troubled, as I said, more about Dr. Mark. He was a highly regarded surgeon specializing in elbow hand and wrist surgery. He had a 4.9 rating with patients and was recently named on Memphis magazine's 2023 Top Doctor list. Just five days before his death, Sal, it's

Sal Rodriguez: 6:38

always the glare. It's always the good people. It's always the valedictorian who's killed by a drunk driver. Right? So always the good ones. Yeah,

Jason Connell: 6:47

I don't have a lot of information here on Larry, it was just these are those cautionary tales that always just hurt scary safeguard against this type of thing. Signs of stalking. I know now, that seems like schools are more in tune with, you know, outcast or things. Because of all that's changed in schools and shootings over the last several decades. People need to have safeguard against stalking, even if it's just BS. It's like bomb scares, we take those serious. Yeah, you know, you don't do it. But the minute one happens, you've got to honor it. Because you just don't know. And I'm not saying that didn't happen here. I'm not pointing the finger at anybody. But I think anytime you have, hey, we have a situation here. Like you got to go into like lockdown mode. That's how I think because there's no, there's really no reasoning with someone at that point, as we've just talked about. So I think you've got to really start to build in, you know, like you said, you can't just wander up to some place that you shouldn't be because we're all on the honor system. I think we're gonna have to start locking things up, more cameras are more relevant, and locks and just just start to button things up more for the safety of the staff, surgeons, whomever, because I'm not in that type of profession. But Sal, I'll tell you, if I had a stalker, that would be a creepy thing. We don't even know if Dr. Mach knew about it. It was just like, on his conscience, like, I know, I know, Larry's upset. And even if you know, you have somebody stalking you, who's intervening. It's a scary situation. I don't even know I don't even have answers. But I'm just, you know, I think more should be done. Well,

Sal Rodriguez: 8:32

because we don't have a definitive motive yet. I think when you don't have a clear motive, right? The default is, well, serial killing is a category, but you just say mental health, mental health, like there's no motive. If there's no motive, why did they kill? What was the purpose of it for them? Was it revenge? Yeah, we don't have that information. We

Jason Connell: 8:53

don't. And that's unfortunate. We looked we couldn't find it. But I was in enough to want to do this episode. I'm still interested in want to honor Dr. Benjamin mock. And here's someone who's an elbow, hand and wrist surgeon, a highly regarded prominent one at that. And this is a patient. So obviously, he comes to him for one of these things. We don't know. Is he an athlete? Is he someone who's still feeling pain? I don't we don't know. I'm just making some assumptions here. You know, it's like not happy with the bill. We could speculate all day long. We don't have that information. Hopefully more comes to light. But what we do have are some really glowing words of love for Dr. Mark himself, and I'll let you read these. I'll cue them up for you. The first one is another patient. That was of Dr. Marks. It was Josh Jacobs, who had this to say,

Sal Rodriguez: 9:49

praying for Dr. Benjamin marques friends, family and co workers, wishing them all peace. He was the hand surgeon who found my cancer and performed my amputation. I give him partial credit for possible like saving my life, the work he did for me was amazing. This is very sad news to hear. Yeah,

Jason Connell: 10:06

here's a guy that had his life. Possibly saved. I say, let's just give him full credit. Right? Let's just, let's just give Dr. Mark full credit. But here's a guy that's honoring him forever. He's devastated. Right and his family. And yeah, that's I mean, it's beautiful to know that Mark touched so many people helped people. Amazing that he I didn't even had I hadn't read that quote, yet. That's just beautiful. Here's another one. Christina Austin, a former schoolmate of Dr. Marks, Dr.

Sal Rodriguez: 10:38

Mark was remembered as a phenomenal doctor, many of his patients who lauded him as kind, funny and smart said he saved their lives with his vital work. I don't know what could be said that could top something like that. I mean, this is definitely a special person in a specialized field. And you know what, Jason, whenever I've entertained throughout my life entertained going into medicine, you know, you make, you know, fantasize about things, the level of responsibility that a physician has, and then look, hypothetically, someone blames you. I mean, we don't know all the details. But if someone blames you for something that went wrong, that could have been out of your hands come out, maybe it wasn't your fault, something goes wrong, you are held accountable for something that was completely out of your hands just based on the person's physical condition. It's not like you necessarily were negligent, it's just things can go wrong. Things can happen. Your body can reject things, you know. So definitely, it's a level of responsibility I would never want to find myself in. So really, I gotta hand it to all these physicians out there. Absolutely.

Jason Connell: 11:42

I mean, obviously, Dr. Bach was driven to help others has a track record of that. And sometimes you help the wrong person and they're not satisfied, it escalates. And then this can happen. This happens stalking fatally shooting, there's more to find out as this plays out, because we don't know much more about Larry, but obviously, there's going to be a case this was not a murder suicide, as I've talked about, which might have made some sense, but it's like, what were they thinking they've got justice in their own mind. We'll get to that in a second where things are at in this case, but Dr. Mock leaves behind his wife, Rihanna, mock, and their two young children. And the investigation is ongoing. And updates are expected. So we I know we say this a lot, and especially episodes like this that are limited on information. We'll watch do a Google alert, come back with an update as we have one. And I know we kind of have something here about later. But anything else you want to chime in on Mike's family and kids or anything else before we segue to Larry again?

Sal Rodriguez: 12:48

No, I think the only the only thing that's on my mind, as we talk about this is the why. Yeah, we want to make sense of it. You know, not that it doesn't justify it. But at least your brain can wrap around a why, at this moment in time, we have no idea why. Why Dr. Mock? We don't know. Well,

Jason Connell: 13:08

I may never know. We may never know. As for Larry Pickens, he has been charged with first degree murder and aggravated assault. His Bell was set at $1.2 million sale. And he is scheduled to appear in court again on October 24, which is coming up in just less than two weeks. So there could lead to more entail what really happened. Why, like you said the why behind this. But you'll never get Dr. Mock Back. And rest in peace, Benjamin mock, I hope other people will come forward and share their wonderful stories. He's touched a lot of lives. And unfortunately, you know, went out into very horrific and unnecessary way. Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez: 13:58

rest in peace. Dr. Mark and, Jason, mark my words, I think this is going to be an insanity plea. I think this is going to be written off as a mental health issue, especially if Larry Pickens doesn't have a history of assault. He doesn't have a history of murder. This was just a one off for him. We have to look at his priors and all that. But if we circle back around on this, I bet you it's going to be an insanity plea. And maybe he'll get 10 years off after 15. We'll see.

Jason Connell: 14:23

Yeah, you're probably right. So and that covers the True Crime Story of the patient stocks and fatally shoots surgeon in 2023. Before we sign off, Sal, we started this last episode, something we talked about before and I like it, and we're going to do it again. And that is spotlighting a crime from our library. Just to remind people like you don't just do an episode, put it out there and move on and forget about it completely. It's still living, it still works. It's just in our library and if you don't listen to every single episode or you forgotten or whatever, This is a chance for us to highlight one. Go back and enjoy it. And Sal, what do we pick out today?

Sal Rodriguez: 15:07

Jason? I think if you were to speak to any songwriter, any musician, you would say to them, what is your favorite song? Give me your five favorite songs of your career. And I bet you they could tell you, I bet you they could. So similarly, what's one of my personal favorites from the that's a Crime Library, Episode 41 Rosie Ruiz, Boston Marathon cheater. I love the idea of cheating on a sporting event. I mean, I hope that everything gets rectified, I hope the winner is really labeled a winner. But in the meantime, I'm reminded of The Little Rascals our gang when they wanted to get into the movie theater, and they would have one on top of the other with a long coat. It's just such silly trickery. And I think something like this cheating on a marathon event falls under that silly trickery category. So my pick for what I would love to have all of our listeners go back and give another second listen to our first listen to episode 41. Rosie Ruiz, Rosie

Jason Connell: 16:06

Ruiz, Boston Marathon cheater 1980. So it's a classic last almost in the 70s, you know, early 80s. This was a very memorable episode. Indeed, we recorded this July 15 2022. I remember it vividly. I was still living in Massachusetts, not too far from where this thing took place. And the Boston Marathon is very renowned, as you know, of the two of us, and I'm also a big athlete, but I was not like a long distance runner beyond a mile. Between the two of us. You have run an actual marathons, half marathons. And we brought that to the episode. It was very enjoyable. And in fact, you you shared a story that you and your brother entered a marathon later and just kind of jumped in, right.

Sal Rodriguez: 17:03

Well, you know, the thing about these marathons, you know, speaking of spirit, anybody could just jump into a marathon. Yeah, luckily, we have the bib numbers, we did purchase our tickets and have the bibs. But instead of starting at the start line, we decided to just run half of the event. So Jaffa marathon, yeah, we jumped into the LA Marathon, which is a full marathon at the halfway point, which I believe was near USC University of Southern California, jumped in there and then ran to the end. Now when we got to the end, I did take the ceremonial metal. My brother refused the metal. He refused the firefighter. Well, he's like, Well, I didn't run the full marathon. But I'm like, Hey, I paid for my bed. I read half. I want the metal. So I took the metal by brother. Yeah, a little more honorable than me. Maybe. And

Jason Connell: 17:48

you said, I'm doing a Rosie. Rosie Ruiz. I just jumped it. You also saw weren't trying to trick anybody. You're just doing it like, Hey, we're here. We can't do the full 26 Whatever it is. Let's do half you're not like trying to become the winner beat the Kenyans? Well, I'm not trying to do that.

Sal Rodriguez: 18:07

No, Jason, is anybody that will try to replicate a rosy Ruiz or do a rosy today never work. No, there's a lot of tech involved today. That was not around in 1980. So good luck to anybody that would try to perpetrate a similar crime today.

Jason Connell: 18:23

Well, if you go back and listen to this episode, and watch a video about her, it doesn't take an astute eye to figure out something's not adding up. Yeah. And there were sports caches at the time saying, This is not right. You don't just go from running this incredible runtime. And then she couldn't even answer basic questions. But it's a great thing. We delve into her what happened after this big scam. And it was a big deal. This is a different time. And it really probably changed like you said technology. But it probably even changed by the next year at one that you really couldn't pull a rosy even in 81. Without all the tech people were more alert, hey, people are gonna cheat. We gotta lock this down because they did declare the wrong winner. And she wore the crown. And in fact, I think she wouldn't give the crown back. So dive into this so much fun. I really is. This is the lighter side of us. I mean, it still impacts people I'm not laughing at it completely. But compared to the murders, this is more on the lighter side. And very enjoyable. Good choice cell. Very good choice indeed. So we'll come back with more crimes, some heavier, some lighter, but all entertaining. So thank you so much for listening. And please be sure to subscribe to the that's a crime podcast and the that's a crime YouTube Live Channel. You can also really help us by giving the show a five star rating on Apple podcast

Sal Rodriguez: 19:52

and for all your listeners that enjoy sharing your thoughts. You can leave us a review on Apple podcasts, send us a direct message or post a comment on any that's a crime social media platform We

Jason Connell: 20:01

also highly recommend checking out our other podcasts and visiting just curious media.com