Records show mental illness of Thanksgiving gunman

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Medical records show a South Florida man who gunned down four relatives during a Thanksgiving 2009 massacre was depressed and controlled by obsessive compulsive rituals.

The records were released by prosecutors after Paul Merhige (MAYR'-ihj) pleaded guilty last month in a deal that spared him the death penalty. He will serve seven consecutive life sentences.

The Palm Beach Post reported Sunday (http://bit.ly/sB3Af5) that the records show he still sucked his thumb at age 24, sometimes wore two pair of underpants and took five-hour showers.

The documents also say Merhige tried to kill himself at least twice and told numerous psychiatrists that he couldn't get death off his mind. His mental illnesses were so severe that he had to give up plans for law school and couldn't function on his own.