Defending Jacob

Andy is convinced that Patz killed Ben. He begins to follow him and confronts him outside his home. Patz tells him, “‘The DA said you’d try to talk to me […] He said you were crazy’” (222). In the grand jury transcript, Andy tells Logiudice that he was wrong and that it was irresponsible to tell Patz not to talk to Andy—“the evidence pointed at Patz” (223).

The grand jury transcripts reveal Dr. Vogel’s diagnosis of Jacob: she is not sure whether he “perceives the difference between right and wrong” (229), and he likely has “reactive attachment disorder, narcissistic personality disorder” (229), and “a heart two sizes too small” (229). Andy tells Logiudice that the news was heartbreaking: “You can’t see your own kids straight. No one can. You love them too much, you’re too close” (230). Logiudice calls Andy a “master of self-delusion” (232).

Andy visits his estranged father Billy in prison, imagining him as a “leopard in the zoo” (233). Billy admonishes him for never visiting. Andy explains Jacob’s situation and asks his father if his own act of murder was an “irresistible impulse” (238). Smiling, Billy takes his son’s suggestion and agrees it was precisely that. Andy, however, thinks he is lying—and that he is a bad liar.