Tim and Tom Culkin in a 1961 family photo.
‘I didn’t kill
my brother,
I killed a
monster’
A family agonizes over the
By Lori Tighe
events that left one son dead
and a second son sentenced to
prison in what it sees as justice
gone seriously awry
Star-BulletinWhen Thomas Culkin got kicked out of St. Louis School, brother Timothy got himself expelled too. When Thomas got into fights, Timothy defended him.
When Thomas got into trouble, Timothy bailed him out.
Until July 27, 1997, in Aiea, when Thomas, 38, under the influence of crystal methamphetamine, attacked Timothy, then 39, who sank a steak knife into his chest.
Timothy Culkin claimed self-defense. The state called it murder. He was convicted of manslaughter, and inMarch was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He plans to appeal.
Tim Culkin "Tim was the
balancing factor," said his
sister, Cindy. "He always
acted as Tom's protector."
Tom Culkin "Tom was
born with the devil in
his eye," said his mother,
Shirley Cryan. "He went out
of his way to get into trouble."
The family thinks it knows what led a brother to knife the brother he loved, but is left wondering why the jury never got the chance to hear the full backgrounds of the two.The state painted Thomas as the good brother and Timothy as the bad brother, when the reverse had been true, according to criminal and medical records, and the family.
The court ruled that Thomas Culkin's sociopathic, drug-filled past was prejudicial information that put him in an unfair light, and could not be used at trial. The court also said Timothy Culkin's run-in with the law a few weeks before the killing was relevant information for jurors to hear.
"When you lay down at night, the cloud comes over," said their father, Mike Culkin, who suffered a nervous breakdown after the killing. "I dream about Tom, I dream about Tim and it rips your heart out."
The Culkins were an Air Force family whose kids were good, except for the youngest son, Thomas.
"Tom was born with the devil in his eye," said his mother, Shirley Cryan, who lives near San Francisco. He cried throughout his life, she said, from his colicky beginning to every act of crime and drug abuse, each a cry for help.
"He went out of his way to get in trouble. He fought on the playground, he brought other kids' toys home. One school put a box around him to control him," Cryan said.
In contrast, Timothy, 11 months older than Thomas, was an easy baby, good in school and responsible, looking after his siblings, especially Thomas.
"Tim was the balancing factor. He always acted as Tom's protector," said sister Cindy Culkin, 43, of Denver.
The Culkins took Thomas to a slew of psychologists, beginning at age 6, but nothing worked. Family Court records show that Dr. Gene Altman of Kahala diagnosed him by age 14 with a severe character disorder, sociopathic in nature. He described Thomas as "a con man with an intense hatred for the system."
Cryan said for years she thought, "What did I do wrong? I've come to the conclusion it was genetic."
By his early teens, Thomas Culkin was mixing drugs with his delinquency. Marijuana at first, then cocaine and heroin, and finally crystal methamphetamine, or "ice." He went through Habilitat, a residential treatment center, three different times, beginning at age 16.
"I blame a lot of it on the drugs," Cryan said. "But I think Tom went to drugs to escape his pain."
After a short stint in advertising, Thomas Culkin was busted at Honolulu Airport for bringing in heroin from Thailand. He landed in federal prison, doing five years, which stretched into 12 due to bad behavior, including an escape.
"Prison life gave him the most self-esteem he ever had," she said. "He could handle prison. He couldn't handle the outside."
Thomas Culkin spoke with his mother about turning his life around, but he never did. The last time he got out of jail, he told Cryan he didn't know if he could change. But he knew one thing: He would never return to prison.
"We were all pulling for Tom," said Mike Culkin. "We never gave up on him."
Thomas Culkin came back to Hawaii on Father's Day 1996 to live with his dad and brother.
"We had a prayer meeting at home," Mike Culkin recalled. "I held hands with the two boys in a circle. I asked Tom to get together (with us) as a family unit and we'd have fun for the rest of our lives. He said, 'OK, Dad.' And it never worked out."
Timothy Culkin tried unsuccessfully to get Thomas off drugs. He had violent outbursts while using ice, and several times people called his brother to come get him.
Thomas Culkin even tried overdosing on drugs a few times, according to his mother.
" 'I can't even kill myself,' he told me. The Lord's punishing me with that too,' " Cryan said.
Federal authorities wanted Thomas in September 1996 for violating parole and testing dirty for drugs. Eight months later, authorities also wanted him for his involvement in a stolen identity scam.
Thomas Culkin lived in hiding.
"The only thing he had was Tim," Cryan said.
On July 27, 1997, Thomas Culkin showed up at his brother's Aiea house high on ice and accompanied by a woman, according to court records.
"His life was caving in on him," said Timothy's attorney, Pam Tower.
A fight erupted between the brothers. Timothy Culkin wanted his brother to leave, but he refused. Thomas lunged for him. Timothy ducked and threw him against the wall. Then Thomas began chasing Timothy through the house. As they ran up the stairs, Timothy grabbed a steak knife from a plate.
"I just wanted him to stop. When I grabbed that knife I didn't think about stabbing him," Timothy Culkin testified.
The brothers had fought before. But Timothy had never seen his brother fight with such intensity.
"He wouldn't stop, like he was crazy," Timothy Culkin told the jury.
Jayne Suarez, the woman who had gone to the house with Thomas, said the next thing she heard was a "high-toned, long scream."
A neighbor testified that she heard this exchange:
Thomas: "I can't believe you did this to me."
Timothy: "I told you to leave."
The older brother ran downstairs, grabbed Thomas' gun and scared Suarez away.
Timothy Culkin returned the knife to the plate he had gotten it from. Thinking Thomas was not seriously injured, Timothy gathered all the guns in the house, which he owned but was afraid his brother might use, and put them in the garage. Then the police came, called by a neighbor.
Thomas was taken to Kapiolani Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
In a phone call, Mike Culkin learned that one son had died, and that the other son had killed him. He called his youngest daughter, Theresa Culkin, who was headed with her mother and sister on a Maine vacation.
None of them was surprised that Thomas was dead. But they were stunned that Timothy had killed him. After they spoke with Timothy, they believed it was self-defense.
"I know how Tom could be," Cindy Culkin said. "Tim's life was threatened and he protected himself. He didn't have a choice."
Cryan spent her life savings on legal fees trying to save her surviving son. She had planned to retire next year, but now must work past her mid-60s.
"Tim told me, 'Mom I didn't kill my brother, I killed a monster.' He turned down two plea bargains to tell his story. Little did we know they would disallow so much information," Cryan said. "It leaves us quite bitter at the justice system."
Just because the victim had an imperfect past doesn't mean he can't be a victim of murder, said Deputy Prosecutor Marcus Sierra.
Timothy Culkin's actions after the killing didn't suggest self-defense, Sierra said. They showed "cover-up and consciousness of guilt."
"When you have two sons and one is dead, you want to help the other," Sierra said.
When police questioned him, Timothy Culkin said "someone stabbed my brother." When police asked if Suarez did it, he answered, "I don't know."
Timothy Culkin's statements to police were "spontaneous utterances" of a man in shock, said Tower, his lawyer. He also told police, "He had to do it."
The prosecutor said Timothy Culkin cleaned the knife after the killing. But Tower said the contraction of Thomas' abdomen cleaned off the knife as Timothy pulled it out.
"It's a misconception that every knife wound is bloody. It depends on where the wound is," Tower said.
Timothy stabbed his brother under the arm, in the stomach and, the last time, in the heart.
The jury heard from toxicologist Dr. Randall Baselt that Thomas Culkin had 1.5 grams of ice in his system, or six times the lethal dose for a nonuser.
Timothy Culkin had run into legal problems of his own a few weeks before his brother's death. His involvement in a bar brawl resulted in a conviction for terroristic threatening. He was also convicted of a misdemeanor for forgery after opening a bank account under a false name.
These charges surprised his family.
The state used it against Timothy Culkin at trial.
Still, the family couldn't understand why Thomas Culkin's long history wasn't used in the trial, but Timothy Culkin's brief encounter with the law was.
Even the jurors wanted to know if Thomas Culkin had been in prison or gone through rehabilitation. But the judge refused the questions because he had excluded the information from the trial. He ruled it prejudicial, or unfairly portraying the victim.
"You don't make judgments based on character," Sierra said. "The jury considers the facts of that day. Tim's life in that month led up to that day."
Cryan has a different theory.
"I think sometimes attorneys are so zealous to win, it's not about justice, it's about winning," she said. "How ever you can win, that's what we're going to do. It's frightening."
Timothy Culkin told the judge at his sentencing in March: "I just want to say I love my brother very much and I think about him every day. If I could go back in time, I would let Tom beat me. But I chose to defend myself. I never meant to hurt him the way I did."
