On March 9, 1995, an extremely animated American man was causing a disturbance at the public phones in Palmar Sur, Costa Rica. A policeman approached and confronted him, but this went badly when the extranjero pulled a .22 rifle out of a rice bag and said, “Don’t touch your pistol.”
The cop broke and ran, but the stranger leveled the rifle and fired two shots — both of which hit the officer in the back.
Unfortunately, the shooter was my father.
Manic Dawn: The Strange Adventures of a Mad Father and a Loyal Son is a gripping memoir about a father who suffered from a severe type of bipolar disorder that caused extreme manic episodes lasting months — and got him into every kind of trouble imaginable.
Jerry Kahler, a native of Arkansas, was an international educator who raised a family in five countries and once played bridge with John Wayne. But in his mid-30s he began experiencing drastic changes of personality — he couldn’t sleep, couldn’t stop talking, couldn’t shut down the geyser of ideas constantly flooding his brain. In public he spoke to everyone who crossed his path, sometimes launching into speeches in front of crowds. He was supremely inspired, utterly confident and absolutely fearless. He came to believe he was God’s personal emissary on Earth, and he answered this call with the devotion of a saint and the fury of a demon.
Jerry was arrested perhaps 20 times and served seven years in prison in two countries. Yet he was the uncommonest of criminals, one whose repeat offenses included disturbing the peace, resisting arrest and fleeing the police when they weren’t even chasing him.
The climax of this true story occurs in Costa Rica, where Jerry was captured, severely beaten and imprisoned pending trial on charges of attempted murder. In prison he brawled frequently and was widely feared, though he became popular when he learned how to make wine out of coffee in a jug in his cell.
A fascinating exploration of the manic condition, this compulsively readable narrative is a harrowing descent into madness, and a son’s uncommonly intimate portrait of a troubled father.
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Manic Dawn is available as an e-book ($4.95) or softcover ($19.95) from Amazon and other platforms. For previews and ordering info, visit https://www.karlkahler.com/manicdawn.
