Providentia

Self-help Course Linked to Fatal Psychosis

In 2005, 34-year old Rebekah Lawrence signed up for a four-day course titled, "The Turning Point" that had been recommended for her by friends.  The course, promoted as a "journey to the core of the human spirit" was run by People Knowhow in the Sydney suburb of Cremorne.  Designed to help participants establish a dialogue between their adult and child selves, the course instructors trained the participants in childhood regression therapy.  Her husband, David Booth, reported that she came home from the course in a "dreamlike state-almost like someone on drugs" and that the usually gentle woman began to show alarming behavioural changes Despite her worsening psychological problems following the course, the instructors running the program, none of whom had professional training, were unable to help her.

On December 20, two days after the course ended, Rebekah Lawrence arrived late for work at her job as assistant for the CEO of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in Sydney, Australia.  A coworker later described her as "quite unstable in a manner in which I had never seen before".  After stripping naked, she then screamed and acted "like a child having a tantrum".  She began screaming, "I love you David", climbed out a second-story window and then jumped. There was no history of mental illness and no trace of drugs or alcohol was found in her system.

At a recent inquest into Rebekah Lawrence's death, Deputy State Coroner Malcolm MacPherson ruled that her psychotic state and subsequent suicide could be linked to the self-help course and called for greater regulation and training to oversee the content of counseling or psychotherapy-oriented courses  He called for the health minister to enact legislation to set up a system of registration, either at the national or state level.  During the course of the hearing, the director of the Turning Point program conceded that the program had "inadequate" safeguards both in screening participants or in following up with them afterward.  Although the course provider's lawyers suggested that preexisting mental problems may have been to blame for Ms. Lawrence's death, there was little evidence to support the claim.  Mr. McPherson concluded that childhood regression therapy was "intrinsically unsafe" and played a clear role in the death.

Members of Rebekah Lawrence's family, including her husband David Booth, expressed satisfaction with the inquest's findings and urged that proper legislation be enacted to prevent future tragedies.  David Booth has not ruled out litigation against People Knowhow and the Turning Point program.

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Mental Illness Linked to Shocking Family Murder

It was a shocking crime that was never supposed to happen in peaceful Merritt, British Columbia.  On April 8, 2008, Darcie Clarke found her three children dead in their family trailer.  Her daughter Kaitlynne, 10, had been stabbed to death while her 8-year old brother Max and 5-year old brother Cordon had been smothered.  After the murders, the children's father, 40-year old Allen Shoenborn, fled into the local woods and evaded capture until April 16.  He was later charged with three counts of first-degree murder while police were left baffled over his motive for killing his children. 

The police investigation and repeated forensic assessment have slowly unraveled a complex story of mental illness and domestic violence.  When questioned over his reasons for killing his children, Allen Shoenborn has maintained that his children were being sexually abused and was forced to kill them for their own protection.  Based on evidence presented by forensic psychiatrists, Shoenborn`s defense attorney maintains that his client is suffering from a delusional disorder that contributed to the killings.  The Crown is arguing that the killings occurred in a jealous rage due to fears that Darcie Clarke would leave and take their children with her.  Due to his long history of paranoid delusions and hallucinations going back years, social workers expressed concern at Shoenborn's escalating pattern of threatening behaviour toward his children.  They warned Darcie Clarke three days before the killings that they would intervene if she failed to take steps to protect them from their father. 

While Shoenborn is being held for trial at Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre, the nature of his charges require his placement in solitary confinement for his own protection. He told examining psychiatrists that he still speaks to his children wishing them a good morning when he wakes up and a good evening when he goes to sleep.  He also maintained that it was his duty to kill his children when they were threatened,  Due to his bizarre outbursts during the trial to date, he is kept in a Plexiglas-enclosed prisoner box while in the courtroom.  While he has pled not guilty, his attorney is attempting to have him declared not criminally responsible.

The trial is continuing.

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AA Gunman Found Not Criminally Responsible

On March 24 of this year, Anthony John Allen walked into the Weedon Pioneer Community Hall in Cochrane, Alberta where the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting that he usually attended was being held.  According to witnesses, the 49-year old Allen then  pulled out a sawed-off shotgun and handgun and told the other members in the room that he was, "the new sheriff in town and God had told him to come to the meeting with guns".   They added that Allen told them that his gun was fully loaded and he was willing to use it.  He also pulled out a bottle of vodka and a box of shells which fell to the floor.  Another member, a former newspaperman, defused the situation and persuaded Allen to surrender without incident.

At a Calgary hearing in which the results of a forensic assessment was presented, Provincial Court Judge Judith Shriar ruled on November 23 that Allen was not legally responsible for his actions.  In handing down her decision, Judge Shrier accepted the testimony of psychiatrist Kenneth Hashman who argued that the defendant had experienced a psychotic breakdown which led to his actions.  Under Alberta legislation, Allen must appear before a Provincial review board at Alberta Hospital within 45 days for the resolution of his case.  While free on bail, a house arrest provision has been included to safeguard his behaviour.

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The Colorado Cannibal

Legend has it that when Judge Melville B. Gerry handed down a death sentence on Alferd Packer, he used these words, "There was seven Democrats in Hinsdale Country but you, you voracious man-eatin' son of a bitch, you ate five of them. I sentence you to be hanged ... as a warning against reducing the Democratic population of this state". According to the actual trial records, Judge Gerry was more succinct (and apolitical) in his death sentence, stressing that Packer would be "hung by the neck until you are dead, dead, dead!".

If Judge Gerry was upset with Alf Packer, he was hardly the only one. As the sole survivor of a six-man prospecting expedition that had become snow-bound in the Colorado Rockies in 1874, Packer's story was that one of the other prospectors, Shannon Bell, had gone mad and killed the others before Packer killed him in self-defense. The fact that Packer admitted to cannibalism, had changed his story several times, and had money belonging to the other prospectors with him when he was arrested counted against him, though. While in custody awaiting a hearing, Packer escaped from jail (nobody ever found out how) and spent nearly nine years on the run before being rearrested. In the meantime, the bodies of the other prospectors had been found with evidence that they had been bludgeoned to death.

On March 14, 1883, Alf Packer was arrested at Wagonhound Creek where he had been living under the name of John Schwartze. Since cannibalism isn't actually a crime in most states (only Idaho has an actual law against it on the books), Packer/Schwartze went on trial for murder. Despite his own account of killing Bell in self-defense, neither the jury or Judge Gerry found his version of events credible and Packer received a death sentence. Given the amount of public hatred directed against him, authorities arranged for him to be transferred to another jail to avoid possible lynch mobs and the execution was stayed.

It's hard to understand why Packer was so hated since accounts of cannibalism weren't all that rare. Given the brutal winters found in that part of the country and the tendency of isolated groups to be snowbound for months, desperate measures were often needed to avoid starvation (much like the famous Donner party of the 1840s). Local and national newspapers certainly played a role in shaping the way that the public viewed Packer (one described him as a "Human Ghoul who Murdered and Grew Corpulent on the Flesh of his Comrades").

While Packer was awaiting execution, the legal wrangling dragged out for years. One lawyer pointed out that Colorado was still at territory when the crime occurred and argued that the murders were not illegal at the time under territorial law. The Colorado Supreme Court overturned the murder conviction although Packer was later tried and convicted of five counts of manslaughter. He was sentenced for forty years in the state penitentiary at Canon City.

Not that the story ended there. A model inmate in prison, Alf Packer (aka "Prisoner 1389") became the focus of numerous legal appeals and applications for pardons by a string of attorneys. The "Free Packer" movement gained its greatest champion in Polly Pry, a columnist for the Denver Post, who wrote numerous columns on Packer's "unjust" imprisonment. Pry's crusade was directed at Colorado governor, Charles S. Thomas who finally gave in and ordered Packer to be paroled as his last official act before leaving office on January 1, 1901.

After his release, Alf Packer worked as a security guard at the offices of the Denver Post. Growing tired of city life and suffering from Bright's Disease (he had been diagnosed in prison), he moved back to Colorado and spent the last years of his life as a mine caretaker. Despite his notoriety, Packer was a favourite with the local children and he often regaled them with stories about the Old West (they just considered him to be a "nice old man"). His liver problems worsened and a state game warden found him unconscious near his home in 1906. He spent the last few months of his life as an invalid although he wrote a letter to the governor pleading for a full pardon (it wasn't granted). Alf Packer died on April 24, 1907. According to one local news story, his last words were, "I am not guilty of the charge". The cause of death was believed to be a stroke although his death certificate listed his condition as "senility - trouble & worry". He is buried in the Prince Avenue cemetery in Littleton, Colorado at government expense (he was a veteran) and his gravesite has attracted thousands of visitors over the years.

The actual debate over Packer's guilt dragged on for decades after his death (requests for a pardon were repeatedly denied).In 1989, the case became news again when a team of forensic scientists, led by James Starr of George Washington University, unearthed the bodies of Packer's fellow prospectors (the place where they had been buried is still known as Cannibalism Plateau in Colorado). After a forensic analysis of the bodies, Starr concluded that Packer had lied about killing Bell in self-defense and that Alf Packer was "as guilty as sin and all his sins were mortal ones".

Later forensic disputed Starr's conclusions and one determined curator, David Bailey, launched his own project to prove Packer's innocence based on a rusted Colt revolver believed to have been used by Packer to kill Shannon Bell in self-defense. In an amazing feat of forensic science, the fragments of a lead bullet found at the death scene were matched to Packer's revolver. Although the research is ongoing, the question of Alf Packer's guilt seems unlikely to be resolved.

In the meantime, Alf Packer has found his way into American folklore. Not only is he an unofficial mascot of the University of Colorado (the student cafeteria was named after him) but his bust is still on display in the Colorado state capital building. He's been the subject of several movies and musicals as well as a semi-humourous Alferd Packer Society (their motto is "serving our fellow man since 1874"). Lake City, Colorado still has an annual celebration of the Packer story and the local tourism based on Packer's cannibalism tends to be popular (not to mention macabre).

The Alf Packer legend lives on.

Australian "Shaman" Loses Bid to Keep Name out of Report

A self-styled "North American Indian shaman healer" has failed in his bid to prevent an Australian Health Service Commissioner from naming him in a report to Victoria's State Parliament. Due to reports of sexually inappropriate behaviour with female patients, Shamir Narra Avorham Djuwani Kiefa Israel Marlon Wati Dakota Jessie Malakhi-Zion-Angel-Shalom (born Peter Marlon de Angelis) was ordered to stop his healing practice.  After repeated refusals to comply, Health Service Commissioner Beth Wilson told Shalom that he would be named in the report to warn vulnerable members of the public about him.

Shalom, 52, and his lawyer disputed Ms. Wilson's allegations and maintained that the shaman was not a healer but rather a "teacher who empowered patients to heal themselves".   Through "tantric dances" and other rituals, Shalom offered his services in the treatment of various diseases, including cancer.  Charging $220 Australian dollars for each shamanic healing session, claimed that he was a spiritual teacher and sage who often assisted other healers and even police departments with "ongoing psychic detective investigations".  A twice-divorced father of two, Shalom was recently reduced to living in his car following a domestic dispute.  While Ms. Wilson referred to various advertisements that described him as ''(Wakinyan) Thunder Eagle'', a ''Shaman, psychic, spiritualist, healer, counsellor'', Shalom denied placing the ads himself.

Beth Wilson's concerns about Shalom and his health practices arose from several complaints filed by female patients.  According to their statements, Shalom had promised to cure their cancer and entered into sexual relationships with several of his patients.  By falsely representing himself as a healer and failing to respect proper boundaries with his patients, Wilson maintains that he poses a danger to the public. Shalom, in turn, maintains that being publicly named in the report would "destroy his life" and ruin his practice.  He also stated that the allegations of sexual misconduct raised against him are part of a conspiracy arising from his "sensitive dealings" with the police.

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Blood-Note Stalker Trial Proceeding

Glasgow therapist, Dr. Lorna Relton, first realized that something was wrong when her patient, Brian Johnstone, asked her for help with his camera during a treatment session in early 2006. The 31-year old Johnstone then took her picture. The next day, Dr. Relton received an anonymous package at her house containing three broaches and a note saying, "Lorna, a gift from guess who" Since she suspected that the package was from Johnstone, she notified her supervisor at Glasgow''s Shawpark Resource Centre and they agreed that she would no longer be his therapist.Days after Johnstone was told of the decision, the external mirrors and windshield wipers from Dr. Relton's car were stolen although police told her that there was insufficient evidence to charge the patient.

Some time later, two mental health nurses who had visited the unemployed Johnstone's home told Dr. Relton that he had a large photograph of her as the background of his computer screen. Police investigated when the mirrors from her car were stolen again. In their search of Brian Johnstone's home, they found more than a thousand photographs and videos of Dr. Relton, her car, and her house. They also found the missing items from her car sealed in plastic bags as well as several notes which he had written in his own blood proclaiming his love for Dr. Relton. At least one of the notes had been written as if it were from her stating, "Brian, I'm keeping my body warm for you, when I see your muscles my heart starts pounding". Police also found handcuffs, pepper spray, smoke grenades, a handgun and a crossbow in their search of Johnstone's home.

Johnstone, now an inpatient at a secure care facility in Glasgow's Stobhill Hospital, has admitted to committing a breach of the peace in his harassment of Dr. Relton. His defense counsel is maintaining that his client is suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder. A forensic psychiatrist evaluating Johnstone has warned that he poses a risk to society if he is ever released. Legal complications have delayed sentencing in the case but Sheriff Norman Ritchie is awaiting forensic reports before the case can proceed. Brian Johnstone faces a possible life sentence.

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Teen 'Hero' Unmasked as Serial Arsonist

On July 26, John and Gina Richardson were awakened by the sound of someone banging on their door and warning them that their bungalow was on fire.After helping the elderly couple out of their Nottinghamshire, U.K. home, 19-year old Ben Welbourn then rushed back inside to save their dog. Although the blaze had largely destroyed their home, they were grateful to Welbourn for saving their lives and even posed with him afterward for pictures that were prominently displayed in the local newspaper. The Richardsons' daughter publicly thanked Ben Welbourn for saving her parents' live. Two weeks later, on August 8, a second fire began at the home of 89-year old Faye Florio. Once again, Ben Welbourn was on the scene to help the frightened woman out of her burning home and to accept praise for his courage. This time however, a sharp-eyed neighbour recognized Welbourn from his previous rescue and contacted the fire service.

After an investigation, Ben Welbourn was arrested and charged with two counts of arson and reckless endangerment. Pleading guilty in a Nottinghamshire court, he was sentenced to four years in prison. The revelation that Ben Welbourn was responsible for both fires left his victims devastated. The Richardsons, who had lost all their personal belongings in the fire, were especially vocal and Gina Richardson stated that, " I feel terrible. I feel he has taken everything away from me. Everything in that home was very precious."

In handing down his decision, Judge Michael Stokes informed Welbourn that, "'I'm prepared to accept that on the first occasion you probably didn't appreciate the unpredictability of what you were doing and you no doubt were taken aback by the way the fire spread. There can be no such explanation for your conduct on the second occasion." Although Welbourn is not considered to be mentally ill, Judge Stokes advised him to seek treatment for his psychological problems.

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Dealing with Animal Hoarders

As part of a new initiative to cope with the problems associated with animal hoarding, a workshop sponsored by the Central Arizona Animal Cruelty Task Force will be held in Casa Grande to provide a public forum to address the complex mental health and animal welfare issues involved. The workshop is intended to provide an overview of the problem of animal hoarding on a national basis and will include mental health professionals and representatives from animal welfare agencies. The workshop arose following a recent case in a nearby town where 185 animals were forcibly removed from a home and the owners were subsequently charged with neglect.

Defined as having a higher than usual number of pets without the resources to care for them, animal hoarding is a growing problem in many jurisdictions in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Animal hoarders begin taking in pets with good intentions, but develop an inability to recognize that their pets are being neglected. Linked to compulsive hoarding disorders such as Diogenes Syndrome and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, animal hoarding has also been associated with certain forms of dementia and delusional disorder.  In addition to problems with neglect and malnutrition, animal hoarding has led to significant health risk for humans including sanitation concerns (including the spread of parasites and dangerous ammonia levels), possible epidemics of animal-borne diseases such as toxoplasmosis, rabies, and bubonic plague, and the potential link between animal hoarding and other forms of abuse (i.e, child and elder abuse).

While most jurisdictions have no clear legal definition of animal hoarding, humane societies and animal welfare agencies across North America and Europe have organized "Hoarding Prevention Teams" to work with hoarders to deal with their pets. Stronger legislation is also being proposed in many jurisdictions to help control animal hoarding.

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Gunman Howard Unruh dies at 88

It has been six decades since Howard Unruh's shocking mass murder but surviving family members of his victims still remember the terror of that day on September 6, 1949 when Unruh's rampage claimed thirteen lives.  Many of those family members expressed satisfaction on learning that the 88-year old Unruh died yesterday at a Trenton N.J. nursing home following a long illness.  Diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and confined to the New Jersey Hospital for the Insane (later the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital)  after the rampage, Howard Unruh had been a model patient who lived for decades without incident.

Howard Unruh had been a returning veteran of World War Two who had become alienated in his civilian life in Camden, New Jersey.  Deeply affected by his wartime experiences, he lived in an apartment building with his mother.  Despite being a war hero, he remained unemployed and seemed to have little to do with his time except look at the medals and other war memorabilia decorating his bedroom walls and care for his considerable collection of firearms. He also maintained a target range that he set up in the basement of his apartment building which didn't prevent him from getting into trouble with his neighbours.The spectacle of a grown man being financially supported by his mother who worked at a local factory made him the target of considerable teasing as a "mama's boy".  In his diaries, he kept careful note of every personal grievance (real or imagined). When the diaries were later examined, it was found that he had written the word "retal" (short for retaliate) next to the name of every neighbour whom he had thought deserving of special consideration.

On September 6, 1949, Howard came home from a local movie theatre to find that the new gate that he had built onto the front of the apartment building had been stolen.  That was the apparent trigger that led to his rampage.  After dressing up in his best suit and arming himself with a German luger and thirty-three rounds of ammunition, Unruh went hunting for those he felt had wronged him.  In the twelve-minute rampage that followed, Howard shot at over twenty-six people, killing thirteen and wounding a number of others.Most of the victims were from his list but many others were apparently just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hearing the approaching sirens, he returned to his mother's apartment and prepared to make a final standoff.  After being wounded, he was convinced to turn himself in. He was eventually charged with thirteen counts of murder and three counts of "atrocious assault and battery" According to the two psychiatrists who examined him before his trial, Unruh stated that "I'm no psycho. I'd have killed a thousand if I had bullets enough".

Although he was found mentally fit to stand trial, Unruh was sent to a psychiatric hospital to serve his life sentence.  Other returning veterans had committed acts of violence following the end of the war but Howard Unruh certainly stood out as the first spree killer in U.S. history. 

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New Study Finds High Rates of Childhood Exposure to Violence and Abuse in US

A new study published in a recent issue of Pediatrics is reporting that nearly half of all children in the United States are being exposed to violence or abuse. Jointly sponsored by the U,S, Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Protection, and the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, the study was conducted by a team of researchers from the University of New Hampshire. Based on a nationwide sample of 4,549 children up to the age of seventeen as well as caregivers, the researchers collected information of victimization experiences through direct interviewing. Their results indicated that three out of five children were exposed to violence, abuse, or criminal victimization in the past year. These numbers include 46 percent who had been physically assaulted, 10 percent who had been abused by a caregiver, 6 percent who had been sexually victimized, and 10 percent who had witnessed an assault in their family. More than a third of the children had two or more different kinds of violent exposure in the past year and 11 percent had five or more. In outlining their results, the researchers urge child care workers, teachers, and parents to be more aware of the range of potentially violent situations that children may face, including dating violence and bullying.

In addition to the journal publication, the results have also been released in an Office of Justice Programs/OJJDP bulletin titled "Children's Exposure to Violence: A Comprehensive National Survey."

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To download a copy of the OJJDP Bulletin.