Modified On May 15, 2007
A detailed article in the Toronto Star tells the story of Tony Rosato, an SNL cast member (1981-82) who seems to be suffering from Capgras syndrome.
Named for its discoverer, French psychiatrist Jean Marie Joseph Capgras, the syndrome is characterized by the delusion that a person or people have been replaced by doubles or impostors. The rare condition is most commonly associated with schizophrenia, but according to Dr. Graham Glancy, a forensic psychiatrist with Metro West Detention Centre and Maplehurst Correctional Complex, it can also be caused by metabolic diseases, delirium, brain injury or drugs such as cocaine.
Rosato has gone through six lawyers while he sits for the past two years in a maximum-security prison 30 kilometers west of Kingston, Ontario.
Canadian mental health authorities, law enforcement and the courts have been passing the buck since Spring of 2005, when the actor/comedian was arrested for harassment. He’s not scheduled for a hearing until November.