That executed murderer is Jeffrey Landrigan, who was adopted as an infant by an attentive mother and a respectable geologist in 1962. His adoptive family in Oklahoma was educated and "straight-laced," Raine writes.

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Landrigan made a shocking discovery on death row: his biological father was a murderer too. He also discovered his grandfather was a violent criminal, Raine writes. Landrigan made the discovery when another inmate on death row told him he looked exactly like a man named Darrel Hill, who was on death row in Arkansas.

Hill was in fact his father, according to Raine's book and multiple news accounts. Hill had also committed murder multiple times. He'd even escaped from prison like his biological son. Landrigan's grandfather was a career criminal who was killed by police after a robbery in 1961.

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Landrigan's case is a stunning example of the possible genetic roots of violence. But there are actually "hundreds of Jeffrey Landrigans" out there, Raine writes. About a dozen studies have shown that adopted children whose parents were criminals were more likely to commit crimes than adopted children whose biological parents weren't criminals, he writes.