Providentia

Killing the Prophet (Part 2)

Continued from Part 1

With two sisters who were part of Creffield's cult, George Mitchell felt ample justification for killing the man who had "seduced" them. After the shooting, he made no attempt to escape and calmly waited for the police to arrive. As he would later tell the police who arrested him, "I came here to kill that man, as he ruined the lives of my two sisters, and I have done my work". He made a full confession and later sent a telegram to a friend stating that "I got my man. I'm in jail here."

Creffield was given a pauper's burial in Seattle's Lakeview Cemetery with Maude Creffield as the only mourner (the other followers were in Oregon).  Maude firmly believed that her husband would rise after four days and kept constant watch on the grave.  After weeks of waiting, she concluded that his rising would be "spiritual rather than corporeal."   Maude's vigil was only part of the drama that made George Mitchell's trial so sensational, though.   Were it not for the Harry Thaw trial that was going on at the same time in New York City, Mitchell's trial would have likely been front-page news across the country.

Esther Mitchell, George's sister and one of Creffield's followers, came to Seattle to watch the trial with Maude Creffield.  She was especially scornful at her brother's insistence that Franz Creffield had "ruined" her and had no hesitation in saying so.   Since George Mitchell's lawyers based his defense on the "unwritten law" allowing a man to commit murder to protect his family members from "debauchery", Esther's refusal to say that Creffield had seduced her made things awkward.  They also called in various witnesses as well as a forensic specialist to testify on George Mitchell's state of mind to invoke the insanity defense.

The defense worked since the quiet consensus of the court and most of the witnesses was that Mitchell was a hero for killing the bizarre prophet.   After twenty-five minutes of deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of Not Guilty and the entire courtroom then burst into applause as various women congratulated Mitchell. His victory would be  short-lived however.    On July 12, 1906, George Mitchell was preparing to return home in triumph when by his sister, Esther approached him at the Union Depot in Seattle. She had come down to the station to see her brother leave for Portland. After greeting him with a smile and a handshake, she then shot her brother in the back of his head as he turned away from her . The gun had been purchased for her by Maude Creffield.

Much as her brother had when he killed Creffield, Esther simply stood there after the shooting as she waited to be arrests.   She showed no emotion as she explained that, since George had "killed God", Esther felt perfectly justified in killing him in turn.   Both she and Maude Creffield had planned the killing after it became clear that George would be freed.   It was Maude who had provided the gun and told Esther to kill her brother as soon as a good opportunity became available. Maude Creffield was arrested as well and the news of the murder shocked the nation.  It even knocked the Harry Thaw coverage off the front pages for a change.

If Maude and Esther had hoped for any kind of clemency from the courts, they quickly found out otherwise. Since George Mitchell was viewed as a hero, his murderers had no support whatsoever.  A few weeks after her arrest, Maude Creffield was found dead of an apparent suicide. She had taken strychnine that had somehow been smuggled into her cell (nobody ever figured out how).

Left to face the music alone, Esther Mitchell was eventually declared not guilty due to insanity and sent to Washington State Asylum.   She was released after three years when asylum doctors declared her cured and "thoroughly disgusted with herself".   Although she moved to Waldport, Oregon and later married at the age of 26, she committed suicide by taking strychnine after being a bride for only three months.

Creffield's church never really survived his death although a number of his followers settled in the Waldport area near the site of his proposed "Garden of Eden."   Many of their descendants still live in the area. While it may be a total coincidence, on September 14, 1975, a meeting was held in Waldport's Bay Shore Inn. Three hundred people gathered to listen to a most unusual couple who described themselves as "The Two" as they outlined their own apocalyptic beliefs.    Marshall Herff Applewhite and Bonnie Lu Nettles gained a number of followers in Waldport for their new Heaven's Gate cult.    Whether any of them might have been descended from Creffield's original followers isn't known.

Franz Edmund Creffield might have approved.

The Internet Suicide Minefield

For young people contemplating suicide, the Internet can be a very dangerous place.

Despite numerous websites providing excellent advice about how to find help, there are far too many other sites that actually encourage users to kill themselves.   Along with chat rooms and bulletin boards where suicidal ideas and death fantasies can be shared, cases of suicide "voyeurs" who encourage  vulnerable people to  kill themselves are hardly uncommon.  There are also sites providing concrete advice on how to commit suicide including the sale of "suicide kits" as well as instructions on how to make suicides look like accidents.      While many of these pro-suicide sites can also provide emotional support, the damage caused by the pro-suicide material vulnerable users come across cannot be underestimated. 

 One research study looking at young people aged ten to seventeen who are exposed to pro-suicide conversations or images are seven times more likely to have thoughts about killing themselves.   Exposure to pro-suicide material can also have an adverse effect on mental health, especially for people experiencing depression.  Critics argue that these pro-suicide sites can romanticize suicide and push young people on the edge into carrying out suicidal acts instead of finding professional help.   While only a small percentage of  hits in an average search for suicide-related material will be to these pro-suicide sites, they are still freely available to anyone motivated to finding them.   

To read more, check out my new Psychology Today blog post.

 

Disturbing Revelations about British Soccer Players Show Dementia Risks Being Downplayed

England's decisive win in the 1966 Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup championships thrilled soccer fans the world over.    Not only was it England's first ever World Cup victory, but average attendance records for games set records that wouldn't be broken for another 28 years.  

But disturbing new revelations about health problems developed by members of that historic team have cast a dark shadow on the world of professional football.   At least three former team members have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease believed to be related to the repeated concussions they sustained during their playing careers.  These three members, Martin Peters, Nobby Stiles and Ray Wilson,  are all experiencing early onset dementia with more likely to emerge in the near future.

And that may just be the tip of the iceberg.  When former England and West Brom striker Jeff Astle died in 2002 of a degenerative brain disease, a verdict of death by industrial injury was given.   Family and friends disputed the verdict due to suspicions that the illness may have been caused by the common practice of heading soccer balls during play.    Though modern soccer balls are made of plastic, they were considerably heavier in Astle's day due to their leather construction.    Despite research evidence showing the potential brain damage caused by this kind of repetitive damage, the Football Association dismissed allegations that Astle's soccer playing was involved.   A "Justice for Jeff" campaign was later launched by outraged fans to put pressure on FIFA to acknowledge the dangers faced by professional players and the Astle family publicly referred to the lack of awareness as "sport's silent scandal."  

 It was only in 2014 that Professor Willy Stewart of Glasgow University examined Jeff Astle's brain and concluded that he had been suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) at the time of his death.   Also known as dementia pugilistica, CTE is commonly found in boxers, wrestlers, and rugby players.     Based on these findings and the growing publicity surrounding CTE in soccer players, FIFA launched a panel of distinguished experts to review playing rules and prevent further CTE cases.   The panel included Willie Stewart as well as Professor Bob Cantu from Boston University, Professor Tony Belli from Birmingham University.

In discussing his work on the panel, Professor Stewart described the progress made to date in an interview with the Daily Mail. "The concussion panel has met once in the past year and drawn up some excellent guidelines for treating concussion but I am not aware of any progress in terms of research.  In isolation, the 1966 team could be a statistical anomaly but when you start looking at groups of players from Hearts, Port Vale, Rangers, Bristol Rovers and more, all with significant numbers of former players suffering from dementia in their 50s and 60s, it is time to start asking serious questions."

Dawn Astle, daughter of Jeff Astle, and one of the organizers of the "Justice for Jeff" campaign, worries that FIFA and other sports organizations aren't moving quickly enough. "We’re finding clusters of players from the same teams all suffering from forms of early onset dementia," she said. "We’ve got players from the 1960s and 70s dying from it and probably 90 per cent are centre forwards, who headed the ball a lot. That’s more than coincidence. More than 250 people have been in touch with us, with either a dad or husband who has the condition or who died of degenerative brain disease. All of them believe repeated head injuries sustained playing football caused the illness.’"

Killing The Prophet (Part 1)

Still one of the most bizarre stories in Oregon's history, Franz Edmund Creffield is surprisingly unknown these days. 

Little seems to be known about his early life in Germany before coming to the United States.   Born in 1871, he apparently left his native country to avoid military service which made his decision to join the Salvation Army especially ironic. In any event his Salvation Army career came to a premature end  though nobody knows today whether he quit or was fired.   Creffield's real history began in the spring of 1903 when a gaunt figure with a thick beard appeared in Corvallis, Oregon to preach about his new religious movement.  Renaming himself Joshua the Second, his charismatic personality began to attract followers for his Church of the Bride of Christ. While some townspeople recognized him as a former Salvation Army officer, the bearded Creffield was spreading a very different message this time around.

His doctrine was simple enough: the Prophet and his followers would seek a perfect woman who would become the mother of a new "Savior" who would redeem the world. Along with his followers (mostly female), he recruited a former Salvation Army officer named Charles Brooks to act as his second-in-command.  Their prayer meetings certainly must have been something to see. The Prophet would start praying, and leading his followers into a state of frenzy. He would then order them to rip off their clothes and roll on the floor where he and Brooks (who had been given the name of "The Apostle") would join them.  While rolling and moaning, the followers would "speak in tongues" as they sought guidance from God.  These prayer meetings, held at first in the homes of Creffield's converts, were what earned them the name of "The Holy Rollers".

This strange nudity cult became international news but Corvallis residents had little appreciation for the publicity. The town council banned the meetings but Creffield simply moved his followers out of the town's boundaries.; The sect built a retreat on nearby Kiger Island where a large wigwam of rough cut tree branches was built by Creffield and his followers. The meetings continued on a daily basis although the cold Oregon winters made nude praying rather difficult. They later moved to the house of a prominent Corvallis citizen, O.P. Hunt, who had become one of his converts.

The prayer meetings continued as before and the Hunt front gate now sported a large sign that said "Absolutely No Admittance, Except On God's Business".  Rumours of "immoral practices" going on at the meetings with Creffield, Brooks, and the (mostly female) followers had the town in an uproar.   Brooks and Creffield were eventually dragged into a local court for a sanity hearing but  were released due to lack of evidence. Finally, when a photograph went around showing Creffield and many of his female followers in the nude, a mob broke into the house where the Prophet and Brooks were staying. The men were taken to the edge of town where they were tarred and feathered before being told to leave.

The tarring and feathering was enough for Brooks who was never seen again but Creffield simply continued as before (if a little more discreetly).   A surprise marriage with Maude Hunt (O.P. Hunt's daughter) stunned the Corvallis community and Creffield's mission went on.  It was in April, 1904 when the husband of one of Creffield's followers swore out a complaint against him.  Although the police searched for months (and the husband posted a reward for his capture), Creffield was finally found, naked and filthy, under a house where he had apparently been hiding.

Creffield was tried in Portland, Oregon and sentenced to two years in a penitentiary for adultery. The families of his  followers hoped that his jail sentence would be enough to end Creffield's influence and many of the more deluded women were sent to sanatoriums or convents to straighten out their lives. These hopes were short-lived. Creffield continued to write letters while inside and was released after fifteen months as a model prisoner. Almost as soon as he was released, he remarried his wife Maude (her family had forced her to divorce him due to the adultery conviction) and resumed his ministry.

Creffield made plans to move his followers to a site near Waldport, Oregon where they would created a new "Garden of Eden". Several of Creffield's more prosperous followers sold their property to buy the site and Creffield urged all followers to join him there. He announced that he had laid his curse on Corvallis, San Francisco, and other places that had treated him badly. When San Francisco was almost destroyed by an earthquake in 1906, the followers took it as a sign of the Prophet's power.

As Creffield's many followers moved to join him at the new colony, the male relatives of some of those followers began making plans of their own. After an unsuccessful murder attempt by one of them (the gun jammed), the Prophet boasted that "no man can kill Joshua". Other men began converging to finish off Creffield and the Prophet fled to Seattle for his own safety.

Finally, on May 7, 1906, Franz Edmund Creffield was shot and killed by George Mitchell.   But the story hardly ended there.

Continue to Part Two

Is Psychology a STEM Discipline or is it Too WEIRD?

According to a new article published in the journal Canadian Psychology, the science of psychology has a long history of basing its research on a restricted sample of human beings (to say nothing of other species).  A recent examination of this tendency refers to our database as primarily drawn from people living in WEIRD societies (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic). In consequence, psychology’s position as a universal science is impugned by many critics, jeopardizing its scientific bona fides and costing us the support and respect ascribed to STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Although with the development of new research methods, it appears that the discipline is gaining some ground toward such recognition, doubts about replicability and the burgeoning of “identity psychologies” supposedly relevant only, or especially, to particular demographic groups, may retard psychology’s further progress in that direction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

Is There Really a Bystander Effect?

When Kitty Genovese was brutally attacked and killed on March 13, 1964, the news would shock the world.  Not because of the murder itself however, but due to reports that thirty-eight of her neighbours had watched the killing but did nothing.  According to the New York Times article describing what happened,  "Twice the sound of their voices and the sudden glow of their bedroom lights interrupted him and frightened him off. Each time he returned, sought her out and stabbed her again. Not one person telephoned the police during the assault; one witness called after the woman was dead."  

While later investigations would show that very few of the thirty-eight neighbours who had heard some part of the attack were really aware of what was going on (many thought it was just a lovers' quarrel), the idea that Kitty Genovese's murder was fully observed by numerous neighbours who "didn't want to get involved" quickly took on a life of its own.    Headlines about the callous, unfeeling New Yorkers who ignored Kitty Genovese's dying screams led to wide-scale soul-searching over declining social values and the dangers of urban life.  Television movies, books, and plays based on the Genovese murder would play up the unfeeling neighbour angle and spurred the passage of "bad samaritan" laws in some jurisdictions (with limited success). 

Kitty Genovese's murder also inspired psychologists Bibb Latane and John Darley to launch a series of classic experiments investigating bystander intervention in emergencies.  Using New York University students, they investigated factors that seemed to increase the likelihood of bystanders helping in different simulated emergencies.  These ranged from a simple theft to hearing cries of distress from an adjoining room.  In a finding that they would later term the bystander effect, Darley and Latane found that individuals were slower to respond as the number of others that the participants thought were present increased.  Participants who were alone in a room during the simulated emergency were far more likely to respond and response time was significantly slower in group ranging from two to six participants in size.

To read more, check out my new Psychology Today blog post.

New Program in Kenya Brings Hope to Mentally Ill

For Stephen Juma, it began with depression that became steadily worse.  "I had battled an inner voice that kept telling me, ‘Kill yourself,’" said the 40-year-old father of twelve. "It was when I met a pastor in the project that I realized what I was facing could be solved by opening up."   While Juma was able to find help at a nearby medical clinic, most people in Kenya who are battling mental illness are not so fortunate.   With only 500 psychiatrists and psychologists for a country with 40 million people getting the proper help is often impossible. 

What makes the problem even worse is the widespread belief that mental illness is caused by evil spirits which can only be driven out by traditional healers.   Though most cases of mental illness go undiagnosed, largely due to the stigma involved, stories of men, women, and children being seriously injured and killed during exorcisms meant to "drive out" evil spirits are not uncomon.

In different parts of the country,  there are far too many people with mental illness either being confined to their homes by family members or else abandoned to wander the streets in search of food or shelter.  “When there are signs of mental illness, the community member first takes their relatives to the traditional healers so that demons are cast out,” said Dr. Victoria Mutiso, director of the Africa Mental Health Foundation.   But a new initiative working with a Canadian government program and a U.S. hospital is beginning to change that. 

Rather than undermining traditional healers who are paid by family members to heal mentally ill relatives, the Africa Mental Health Foundation is recruiting these healers to identify people in need.   With a $500,000 grant from the Canadian government and $500,000 from the Makueni County government, workers from the Foundation are educating more than 160 community health workers, faith healers, and members of the clergy on symptoms of mental illness and how they can be treated.   Victoria Mutiso, director of the Africa Mental Health Foundation, says they are making progress.

"It took a lot of dialogue and still takes more even now, but it is working," she says.   Mutiso, who is also a clinical psychologist, admits that there is still a wide gap between traditional medicine and modern medicine.  "For us to get a traditional healer to write a referral note, which they do and give to the patient and the patient takes to the clinic and clinician accepts and takes that referral note, is in itself a huge barrier broken." 

Many traditional healers are openly supporting the program as well.   Queen Muli, a Makueni County healer, denies any tension so far with clergy or medical doctors.  "We have no problem since there are those sicknesses that we can treat and those we cannot," said Muli. "I have referred to the clinic people with problems such as alcohol abuse, epilepsy and others."    As for whether these referrals may end up costing her business, she added:  "We are one community. Even when we are not in this program, we meet in social gatherings. I don’t have a problem with them, and neither do I think the clinics and their officers are taking away our income."

For more information

 

Niccolo Machiavelli's Legacy

Arguably one of the greatest political thinkers in history, Niccolo Machiavelli likely had no idea that he would gain such a sinister reputation after his death.   If anything, much of his political writings were meant to warn about the dangers of what we call Machiavellianism today.   And he certainly gained his insight into politics the hard way.

Born in 1469 in the city of Florence,  Machiavelli lived during one of the most politically active periods in Italy’s history.   Not only was the Italian Renaissance getting underway with a powerful intellectual and artistic awakening that would transform the world, but the entire Italian peninsula had become a battleground with the Papacy and various European kingdoms fighting for political control over the various Italian city-states.  

            A brilliant thinker and writer, Machiavelli earned numerous political posts in the independent Florentine republic which also allowed him to go on numerous diplomatic missions for his government.   His main task at these conferences was to help Florence remain free from outside control even though, ironically enough, he was never a citizen of Florence (due to the bizarre citizenship laws of that time).  Machiavelli’s first-hand experience dealing with international politics helped give him a cynical outlook on how various governments were run and his own encounters with the changing political landscape in Italy would expand his political education.

            The Florentine republic, along with Machiavelli’s career as a diplomat, came to a disastrous end in 1512.  The Medici family, which had previously ruled Florence before being driven from power, managed to retake the city with the help of the Papacy and Spanish troops.  After being removed from office, Machiavelli was quickly arrested by the Medicis and subjected to weeks of torture, including being hanged by the wrists from the back ( a practice charmingly known as “strappado”) before finally being released. 

            His health being largely broken by his experiences in prison, Niccolo Machiavelli retired to his estate and dedicated the rest of his life to writing about politics.  He also maintained an active correspondence with many of his politically connected friends.   Within a year of his forced retirement, he would write the book for which he is best known, Il Principio (“The Prince”) which was based on the life of Cesare Borgia, his one-time pupil.   Though he made copies of the book quietly available to many of his friends and colleagues soon after it was written, the ideas in this little book were so shocking that Machiavelli didn’t dare to have it officially published it during his lifetime.   It was only five years after his death in 1527 that The Prince became an international best-seller.

            And what were these radical ideas that Machiavelli laid out in The Prince and his other great political work, Discourses (which was also published after his death)?  Some of the most famous examples were:

1. There is a sharp distinction between public and private morality. A state cannot be run by the ethics that individuals take for granted.    For that reason, any method that is successful in promoting the welfare of the state and its citizens is justified, including the use of deception.   Though most world leaders (including the reigning Pope of the time) essentially ran their governments this way, Machiavelli’s assertion that this was a perfectly reasonable way to operate seemed like dark heresy to many of his critics.
2. Anything that works well is acceptable, even if it runs counter to the ethical principles that we live by as individuals. Also known today as “realpolitik”, this is a pragmatic approach to politics and diplomacy which stresses the importance of actual power in shaping how nations behave (again though, he stressed that what was acceptable for nations was not acceptable for individuals).    Again, the notion that governments could be exempt from the moral teachings that were considered universal at the time must have been especially galling considering the political power of the Catholic Church.
3. Machiavelli’s third and most controversial point was this: Selfishness and prosperity are what really motivates human behaviour, whether for a nation or for individuals.   This doctrine of selfishness would be extremely influential, especially in shaping economic theories, not to mention the very basis of capitalism itself.  Later writers such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo would extend these ideas further but it all began with Niccolo Machiavelli.

Not surprisingly, Machiavelli’s political theories shocked much of Europe and he was widely condemned.   The Catholic Church banned The Prince and placed it on their Index of forbidden books. Other political thinkers either praised or condemned the book depending on their own philosophy.  The term “Machiavellian” would become a byword for ruthless scheming and deceit in just about every European language and his political philosophy had a powerful influence on the course of European history.  Machiavelli’s ideas help guide the formation of the modern nation state and he became become widely recognized as one of the founders of modern political science long after his death.

            But was Niccolo Machiavelli really as Machiavellian as all that?   While he may have recommended the kind of scheming behaviour for which he became famous, he at least tried to distinguish between public and private morality, something modern politicians and business leaders who claim to follow his philosophy often overlook.   He also supported republican ideals and spoke against hereditary monarchy and Papal rule, which likely didn’t sit too well with many of the royal houses that ruled most European states those days (it certainly offended the Papacy).   While later writers such as Ayn Rand claim to draw on Machiavelli’s ideas in promoting their own view of the world (including Rand’s concept of the “Virtue of Selfishness,”  none of them would ever be as influential as Machiavelli himself.  

            Still, nothing that Machiavelli wrote about was particularly original or new.  The kind of political scheming he described has been around since the dawn of human history (and possibly even earlier).  In a real sense, all he did was to give it the name by which it is known today.  That Machiavellianism is still alive and well, both as a political philosophy and as a personality trait studied by psychologists says a lot about the appeal of Niccolo Machiavelli's writing.   Achievement, indeed.

Motherhood, Medicine, and Mortality

The emotional bond between mother and child plays a powerful role in emotional health and well-being as children grow into adults, but can it have an effect on whether they develop heart problems?   An intriguing new study by a team of researchers at the University of Minnesota suggests that it can.   The study, which was recently published in the journal Health Psychology, uses data taken from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescents to Adult Health (also known as Add Health to determine the impact of a strong maternal bond on whether or not participants develop cardiovascular problems later in life. 

Add Health is a longitudinal study which follows thousands of participants beginning in early adolescence and continuing through to middle adulthood.   Along with data on emotional and physical well-being, the research also looks at factors such as family relationships, romantic relationships, and ties to the community.  Conducted in a series of "waves" starting with the 1994-1995 school year and continuing through to the latest wave in 2016 to 2018, the Add Health research project has already led to hundreds of research articles on a wide range of different topics relating to how emotional and physical health changes across the lifespan.

In this latest study, lead researcher Jenalee Doom of the University of Minnesota's Institute of Child Development and her co-researchers used Add Health data to assess how maternal warmth during adolescence affected later health.   They focused on cardiovascular disease (CVD) since it is now the leading cause of death for men and women.   Not only does it account for over two thousand deaths a day in the United States alone,  but 40.5 percent of all Americans are expected to have some form of CVD by 2030.    This makes identifying those factors that can increase or decrease risk of CVD more critical than ever.  

But why would maternal warmth during childhood help protect against heart disease later in life?  Research studies have already found a range of biomarkers associated with CVD that appear to be influenced by a strong maternal bond in childhood.  These include blood pressure, heart rate, cortisol, cholesterol, glucose, and insulin levels.   Adults who experienced secure attachments to their mothers as infants were also less likely to experience inflammation-linked conditions such as hypertension, stroke, diabetes, and heart disease than their counterparts who were insecurely attached as infants.    A  35-year follow-up study by Gary Schwartz and Linda Russek found that 91 percent of men without a warm relationship with their mother during early adulthood developed chronic disease (heart disease, hypertension, alcoholism) later in life.   For those men who did have a warm relationship, only 45 percent suffered from chronic illness decades later.

To read more, check out my new Psychology Today blog post.

Saving Ezra Pound

The end of World War II in 1945 was a time for celebration, but it was also a time of reckoning. While the Nuremberg trials for Nazi war criminals were still in the planning stage, legal proceedings against enemy collaborators were well underway. In Great Britain, the trial of William Joyce (a.k.a. Lord Haw-haw) for treason due to his Nazi propaganda broadcasts led to his execution in 1946.

And then there was Ezra Pound...

As a major figure in 20th century poetry, Pound's expatriate life in Italy led to his becoming an advocate for the Axis powers. He opposed the war (particularly the involvement of the United States) and expressed his support for Mussolini and Fascism through numerous radio broadcasts and writings. Even after the United States entered the war, Pound continued to be active in Italian politics until being arrested by Italian partisans in 1945. His incarceration by American forces near Pisa (including 25 days in an open cage) led to a nervous breakdown. Only after the end of the war was Pound finally sent to the United States for trial but what happened then is still a matter of controversy. While being a world-renowned poet, Pound was also reviled for his anti-Semitic views and his role as a Fascist collaborator.

Since treason was technically a capital offense at the time, Pound and his defense counsel had ample motivation to arrange a plea bargain stating that he was unfit to stand trial. There was absolutely no indication that Pound was actually suffering from any mental illness but the plea bargain was quickly accepted to avoid embarrassing publicity. It seemed likely that Pound and his attorneys were hoping that he could be released after public furor died down.

Unfortunately for Pound, this gambit backfired. He was sent to St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C. where he would spend the next thirteen years of his life. His treating psychiatrists seemed confused about what to do with him and it was only in 1953, after considerable prodding from the Justice Department, that a formal diagnosis was given: narcissistic personality disorder. Despite the fact that he was never diagnosed as suffering from a major mental illness, Pound continued to be held in the hospital. There is also some controversy over whether Pound received special treatment while in hospital since he was able to continue with his literary efforts (he would write three books there),receive numerous visits from family members and fellow writers, and even engage in conjugal visits with his wife (not to mention his mistress). While in hospital, Pound continued to have an influence on a whole generation of new writers. Despite being allowed some freedom to pursue his writing, Pound hated his hospital stay and depended on his frequent visitors to keep him sane.

Only after numerous appeals from his fellow writers (including the poet Robert Frost) was Pound finally released in 1958 into the custody of his wife, Dorothy.  Interviewed after his release, he gave the famous quip that " all America is a lunatic asylum" and returned to Italy to live for the rest of his life. P ound would continue to write avidly but lived as a near-recluse with his long-time mistress, Olga Rudge (he and Dorothy separated after their return to Italy). While he became a little less rigid in his declining years and disavowed many of his anti-Semitic views, he remained largely unapologetic to the very end.  Ezra Pound died in 1972, just after celebrating his 87th birthday and is buried in San Michele Cemetery on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore near Venice.

What are we to make of this case? Critics of psychiatry often tend to paint Pound as a victim of psychiatric abuse while others regard him as a traitor who managed to escape justice.  Ezra Pound was not a sympathetic figure but his 13-year incarceration in a mental hospital remains a graphic example of how psychiatric hospitals can be used to "warehouse" people regardless of their actual mental status. It is a misuse of psychiatric hospitals that continues to occur in too many countries around the world.