Providentia

Off to Vegas

While I am in Las Vegas attending a conference, I thought I'd rerun this post that was first published in 2010. 

Selling Popcorn

It began when media researcher, James Vicary held  a news conference on September 12,1957.  An early pioneer in media psychology, Vicary had made a name for himself with several studies using psychophysiological measures such as eye-blink reactions to test emotional tension relating to buying decisions.  Working as a media consultant for various companies including J.L. Hudson and Benson & Benson, he had established himself as a bit of a showman in promoting the use of psychological techniques in advertising. 

During the news conference, Vicary reported that he had placed a tachistoscope in the projection booth of a movie theatre in Fort Lee, New Jersey to flash virtually undetectable advertising slogans on movie screens to audiences.  During screenings of the movie, "Picnic", Vicary reportedly flashed slogans such as "Hungry?  Eat popcorn" and "Drink Coca Cola" at regular intervals and for only 1/3000 of a second each time.  He claimed that concession sales during intermission increased dramatically with 57 % more popcorn and 18 % more soft drinks being sold.  Vicary later stated that these results had been successfully replicated across multiple screenings with a total sample of 45,000 moviegoers.  In holding the press conference, he also announced forming a new company, the Subliminal Projection Company to exploit the new marketing technology (he was a major shareholder, by the way).

Strictly speaking, there was nothing new about subliminal research.  The earliest studies into non-conscious perception of sensory stimuli began in the 1800s and the venerable tachistoscope has been around for decades.  Researchers also questioned Vicary's motives in giving a press conference rather than publishing his findings in a refereed journal.  This meant little available information concerning basic points such as sample size, use of control groups, replicability of findings, etc.  In 1958,  the American Psychological Association issued a statement declaring that subliminal ads were "confused, ambiguous, and not as effective as traditional advertising".

Whatever Vicary intended with his news conference, he likely didn't anticipate the reaction that he eventually received. Although more modest in his claims about what subliminal advertising could do, the mainstream media was not so guarded.   While some journalists covering the story were skeptical about Vicary's claims (one reporter for the Wall Street Journal pointed out that "precise details of...how the scheme works, how much it will cost, and the validity of its ability to sell popcorn or soda pop, are shrouded in secrecy because of problems involving the company's patent application"), other journalists were alarmed by subliminal messages being used in manipulating people making buying decisions.  An editorial by Norman Cousins captured this alarm when he wrote that: "Question: if the device is successful for putting over popcorn, why not politicians or anything else? If it is possible to prompt the subconscious into making certain judgments of human character, why wouldn't it be possible to use invisible messages for the purpose of annihilating a reputation or promoting it?".

Not long after Vicary's press conference, a pop-culture book, The Hidden Persuaders, was published.  Written by Vance Packard, the book described the potential dangers of media psychology and subliminal messages to trick customers into buying products and even affecting how they voted in elections.  While advertisers denounced Packard as a huckster and conspiracy theorist, his book sold millions of copies and the notion of subliminal advertising sparked an outcry (although Packard never actually used the term).  It probably didn't help that Aldous Huxley came out with Brave New World Revisited in 1958.  In this sequel to his classic 1931 novel, Huxley suggested that subliminal messaging technology was a "powerful instrument for the manipulation of unsuspecting minds".  He also added that "the scientific dictator of tomorrow will set up his whispering machines and subliminal projectors in schools and hospitals..., and in all public places where audiences can be given a preliminary softening up by suggestibility increasing oratory or rituals".  

Conspiracy theorists accused governments and corporations of manipulating popular opinion through "brainwashing".  The National Association of Broadcasters formally banned subliminal advertising in 1958 and all American television networks quickly followed suit. Legislation banning subliminal advertising was later passed in the U.K. and Australia and civil rights groups pounced on all suspected uses of subliminal messages in ads (real or imagined).  

On the other hand, researchers who tried to replicate Vicary's research weren't getting the same results.  Vicary had been extremely ambiguous about the actual methodology that he used making  true replication of his method impossible.    In an attempt at replicating his own results, Vicary carried out a 1958 study using a Canadian television broadcast in which the words "Telephone now" were flashed 352 times during a half-hour show.  There was no noticeable increase in telephone use during or after the broadcast (although the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation did get thousands of letters from viewers guessing at the nature of the subliminal message, nobody got the right answer).  Other research studies were just as inconclusive.  Vicary's Subliminal Projection Company quickly went out of business and he returned to being a media researcher for Dunn and Bradstreet.  In a 1962 interview, Vicary admitted that the news conference and his research findings had been nothing more than a "gimmick".  As he ruefully added in the interview, "All I accomplished, I guess,...was to put a new word into common usage. And for a man who makes a career out of picking the right names for products and companies, I should have my head examined for using a word like subliminal".

Despite this confession, the supposed dangers of subliminal advertising still lurk in the popular imagination and has taken on the status of an urban legend.   While there is no actual evidence that subliminal messaging works, anecdotes about its supposed effectiveness abound. Not only are "subliminal" self-help tapes still being sold, but opinion surveys have shown that belief in subliminal advertising is widespread.  This belief is especially apparent in allegations of "backward masking" of satanic messages in rock music, a claim that is still a common staple in conservative circles.  A 1990 trial in Reno, Nevada was held in which the parents of two teenagers blamed their suicides on subliminal messaging in a Judas Priest album.  The parents lost the case but the resulting publicity added to the "anecdotal evidence" of subliminal advertising's widespread use.

Meanwhile, laws against subliminal advertising remains on the books in many countries and research still continues (albeit without conclusive results).  Despite the lack of success, the subliminal tape industry continues to do good business as well.  Such is the power of advertising.

After The Halifax Explosion

It's still considered the largest man-made accidental explosion in history.

Even during World War I, the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia was one of Canada's busiest ports. As the terminus of the St. Lawrence Seaway, its location made it the third largest port in the British Empire and a natural base of operations for Canada's navy. Thousands of tons of munitions passed through the port regularly with little thought of the potential danger involved. Until...

On December 6, 1917, a French ship, the SS. Mont-Blanc was carrying a heavy load of explosives from New York to Halifax. As the ship was proceeding into the harbour, a Norwegian ship, the S.S. Imo crossed into its path (it was carrying relief supplies). Though both crews attempted to avoid a collision, the Imo struck the Mont-Blanc on its starboard (right) bow.Attempts to disengage the two ships started a fire that the Mont-Blanc's crew was unable to get under control and they quickly abandoned ship under the captain's orders. Although the French-speaking crew attempted to warn authorities of the terrible danger, they were not understood as the burning ship drifted toward shore.

At 9:04:45 AM, the SS Mont-Blanc exploded. Its cargo, including 450,000 pounds of TNT, 2300 tons of picric acid, and 35 tons of benzol, exploded with a force of 3 kilotons of TNT. The Mont-Blanc was instantly destroyed and the resulting fireball rose 1.9 kilometers into the air. Hot metal rained down on the cities of Halifax and Dartmouth and the tsunami triggered by the blast sent the water rising 18 meters above the harbour's high-water mark. The force of the explosion also triggered fires throughout Halifax's North End and entire neighbourhoods were set on fire. The damage from the explosion affected buildings as far as 16 kilometers from the blast epicenter. An estimated 2000 people were killed in the explosion and resulting firestorm and over 9000 people were injured. Only the heroic actions of numerous emergency personnel and support workers kept the death toll from rising even higher (many of them were killed in the process). All told, more Nova Scotians died in the explosion than were killed in World War I.

To make matters worse, a massive blizzard struck the Halifax area on the day after the explosion, interfering with rescue efforts. Many of the survivors still trapped in wreckage were forced to deal with the severe cold and Halifax emergency crews were swamped trying to build shelters for all those left homeless. With more than 1630 homes being completely destroyed and an additional 12000 being seriously damaged, providing adequate housing was a critical necessity throughout the harsh winter.

Immediately after the disaster, medical relief trains began arriving from across Canada and the United States. The city of Boston provided a relief train that arrived within a day of the explosion (the city of Halifax still provides an annual Christmas tree to Boston in gratitude). Medical facilities were swamped with injured and even first-year medical students were drafted to treat patients.

Though the reconstruction would take decades, the Halifax Explosion represented one of the first modern disasters to be studied from a sociological and psychological perspective. Several years after the explosion, Samuel Henry Prince completed his Ph.D. at Columbia University.  His thesis, titled Catastrophe and Social Change: Based on a Sociological Study of the Halifax Disaster, represented the first systematic study of relief efforts following a major disaster. As a scholar, pastor, and social activist, Prince's own experience dealing with disaster was considerable. Not only was he part of the rescue effort following the Titanic sinking five years earlier, but he narrowly escaped being injured in the Halifax explosion himself (despite the risk of flying glass, he arrived on the scene just minutes after the blast to help with rescue efforts). After the explosion, Prince helped mobilize international relief efforts and continued to work on behalf of survivors and their families for years afterward.

In his book, Prince described the "shock and disintegration" that followed the explosion as well as the massive relief effort needed and the complex social issues that were linked to aiding survivors. He also emphasized the long-term consequences of the tragedy by stating: "The Halifax Disaster will leave a permanent mark upon the city because so many of the living have been blinded or maimed for life. But it is possible that the disaster may leave a mark of another sort, for it is confidently believed by those who took part in the relief work during the first few weeks that Halifax will gain as well as lose.  The sturdy quality of its citizens will bring "beauty out of ashes"". Prince also stressed the role that disasters can play in bringing about meaningful social change to prevent future loss of life.

Although there had certainly been previous disasters and major relief efforts, Catastrophe and Social Change represents one of the first attempts at studying disasters from a social science perspective and is still considered a classic in the field. While emergency management would eventually become a well-researched topic after World War II, the lessons learned from the Halifax Explosion continue to be applied in rescue efforts around the world.

To download Catastrophe and Social Change

Does a Chlld's Emotional Functioning Predict Future Health Problems?

The temperamental trait of negative emotionality (NE) plays an important role in maladaptation among adults experiencing significant life stress. However, the prospective relation between childhood NE and subsequent interrelated behavioral, emotional, and biological dysregulation in later life has not yet been established among children who experience early adversity. A new study in the journal Emotion uses a longitudinal sample of youth who experienced parental divorce during childhood (N = 160; 53% male; 83% White) and tested the hypothesis that childhood NE would predict physiological, emotional, and behavioral dysregulation 15 years later. NE was assessed by maternal report when youth were between 9 and 12 years old. Fifteen years later, young adults (mean age = 25.55 years) participated in a psychosocial stress task to assess cortisol reactivity and reported on internalizing symptoms and problematic alcohol use. Structural equation modeling revealed that higher childhood NE predicted significantly greater alcohol use, internalizing symptoms, and total cortisol output during a stress task 15 years later. Importantly, these findings held after adjusting for childhood internalizing symptoms. In addition, problematic alcohol use was associated with greater cortisol reactivity and internalizing symptoms. Findings suggest that childhood NE is a critical risk marker for interrelated forms of dysregulation in young adulthood among at-risk youth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

Can Sleep Loss Make Us More Violent?

I love sleep.  My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?   Ernest Hemingway

Everybody enjoys a good night's sleep.  While there are different theories about why we first evolved the need for sleep,  it seems essential in purging the brain's toxins, promoting rest and regeneration, and even helping the brain encode new memories. 

For people who don't get the recommended amount of sleep (typically seven to nine hours each night), the consequences can be severe.   Though we all suffer from the occasional bout of insomnia, research looking at total sleep deprivation have shown that sleep debt can lead to impaired judgment, loss of emotional control, reduced mental flexibility, and (at least in some cases), psychotic symptoms.   With an estimated thirty-three percent of Americans reporting loss of sleep for various reasons, it's hardly surprising that sleep deprivation has been linked to industrial and automobile accidents as well as judgment errors in just about any task you can think of.   And it's also linked to a wide range of mental health problems, including depression and anxiety.

But can it also be linked to aggression?  There is certainly no question that  aggressive behaviour is distressingly common.   In 2012 alone, there were almost seven million reports of violent victimization.  But not all aggressive behaviour leads to criminal charges.   In most cases, episodes of  verbal assault, cyberbullying,  road rage, etc.,  often go unreported but they can still have a a negative impact on how people live their lives.  Understanding why people act aggressively and finding ways to prevent this kind of behaviour is a major motivator for researchers and lawmakers alike.

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

 

Can Research with Psychics Help in Understanding Auditory Hallucinations?

Auditory hallucinations, i.e., hearing sounds or voices without external input, are often scary, both for the ones with the hallucinations and the people around them.  Though these kind of hallucinations were treated with awe and dread in ancient times,  more recent cases have typically been viewed as symptoms of mental illness and treated by medical doctors.   Along with Joan of Arc, Socrates, and Pythagoras, other famous examples include Galileo who reportedly heard the voice of his dead daughter while grieving over her death and Robert Schumann who suffered from increasingly complex musical hallucinations (including angelic and demonic choirs).  

An estimated five percent or less of the general population has reported hearing voices though rarely on a regular basis.  While most commonly seen in cases of severe mental illness, they can also occur in people of all ages and all walks of life.   Though mental health professionals continue to grapple with the complex issues surrounding auditory hallucinations, new research suggests that people can learn to live with them and even thrive.   In a recent TED talk by psychosis patient Eleanor Longhorn, she described her history of coping with psychiatric treatment and suggests that learning to listen to the voices in her head helped her survive and move on with her life.

A new article published in Schizophrenia Bulletin presents the results of an innovative study suggesting that auditory hallucinations may be far more common than we realize and, in many cases, can be experienced by people who view them in positive ways that don't require psychiatric treatment.   Conducted by  Alfred Russell Powers III and Philip R. Corlett of the Yale School of Medicine, the study compared voice hearers with a diagnosable disorder such as schizophrenia with self-proclaimed psychics who often reported hearing voices as well. 

In an interview with Medscape Medical News, Dr. Powers said that the voices reported by psychics are often reported as clairaudient experiences which are regarded as positive and even protective.  As Dr. Powers pointed out, "Some of my patients are pretty traumatized by auditory hallucinations, and we are pretty limited in the options we can offer them for treatment if they fail that first line. One of the reasons for that is that we don't really understand how hallucinations arise in the brain...For that purpose, it would be really useful to have a population that doesn't have medications, that functions quite well and does not have the full spectrum of psychotic disorders but does, nonetheless, have auditory hallucinations."

His co-author, Dr. Corlett, added that "There's been indications that one could use cognitive-behavioral therapy in particular to teach people hearing voices not to completely ignore them or push them down but to learn to live with them and to work around them.  We think that perhaps the people in our psychic group might have learned to do that on their own, and may be more capable than patients with schizophrenia to do that on their own....By comparing the psychics to the schizophrenia group, we think we may be able to learn more about how they do it.  Ultimately, we'd like to try to teach patients how to do that or come up with new interventions that we can use to help patients come to that conclusion as well."

For more information

 

 

The Case of Blanche Monnier (Part Two of Two)

Continued from Part One

When Madame Monnier was arrested for her role in her daughter's 25-year-imprisonment, she was likely astonished at the angry mobs that had gathered about the prison where she was kept.  

Considering her former place in Poiters society, the sight of many of her old neighbours and acquaintances yelling and threatening her with revenge must have been a substantial blow to her already poor health.   Almost immediately, she was placed in the prison infirmary where doctors could monitor her condition.  Not that she survived for long.   On June 9, 1901, just fifteen days after her arrest, Madame Monnier died unexpectedly from heart disease.   Newspapers speculated that her condition had deteriorated after the judge's examination of the case just days before which caused her to realize the full gravity of what she had done. According to one account, doctors reported that her last words were:  "Oh, my poor Blanche!"

Madame Monnier's death basically meant that her son Marcel would stand trial alone for his role in Blanche's imprisonment.   Marcel insisted that his mother was mainly responsible and he had only gone along with her out of filial piety.   He also added that his nearsightedness had kept him from seeing how terrible her living conditions actually were.   Despite his claims, it's probably not surprising that he needed police protection to keep him safe from the crowds while his case came to trial.  

Marcel's wife and daughter were targeted as well despite their insistance that they had no idea what was happening.  After the story erupted, both of them retreated to a  convent for their own protection.   Ironically, Marcel's daughter, a beautiful 17-year-old socialite, had been engaged to be married to a well-respected French officer but this was quickly canceled due to the horrendous publicity over the case.  

In the meantime, Blanche continued to improve slowly in the hospital where she was being treated.   Though doctors determined that she was no longer in danger of dying, nobody had any real expectation that she would ever recover.   As one news story noted, "When she was removed from her mother's house to the hospital, she had almost lost the use of her tongue.  She could only stammer a few words and could not frame a complete sentence.   Little by little, the power of speech has returned to her.  She recognizes flowers, birds, and articles which were once familiar to her."

As story after story came to be written about the case, the house where Blanche had been kept became a ghoulish tourist attraction.  Hundreds of visitors made the pilgrimage to the house on Rue de la Visitation and lined up to see the covered window of Blanche's prison.   It also became apparent soon enough that the imprisonment had not been all that secret.   Many of the neighbours admitted to being aware that Blanche had been locked away but they had accepted her mother's claim that it was due to her being insane and not wanting to send her to the asylum.   Others told newspaper reporters that they had often heard Blanche screaming at times.   One neighbour reported that she had heard her scream, "Oh God, when will they set me free?  Why am I imprisoned here?  I am suffering the tortures of the damned."  This was eight years after she had first been locked up but, again, nothing had been done.

Considering the stigma surrounding mental illness in 19th century France (and most other places), it was hardly uncommon for insane relatives to be locked up in a cellar or attic so they could be kept out of sight.  Though Blanche had shown no symptoms to suggest that she was going mad, hardly anyone raised awkward questions when her mother and brother shut her away.   Virtually every old family had a mad relative or two so why should the Monniers be any different? 

When Marcel Monnier finally went on trial, the audience was packed with Blanche's supporters, all of whom wanted to see him go to prison.   Testifying on his own behalf, Marcel insisted that he had no control over his mother who ruled the household with an iron fist.   She also controlled the family wealth and going against her will would have meant financial ruin for him and his family.  He also insisted that he did what he could for his sister, including going into her room and reading the newspaper to her on a regular basis.   As for the servants themselves, they testified that they were used to the appalling conditions since "it had been like that when they got there."   Many of the servants were even expected to stay in the room with Blanche in case she needed anything (except for her freedom). 

Part of the problem that the court faced in prosecuting Marcel was that he hadn't actually done anything illegal.   There was no law at the time against locking up insane relatives.   The only one who had broken any laws was Blanche's mother who was already dead.    On October 11, largely to satisfy the mob mentality of the public, the court eventually sentenced Marcel to fifteen months in prison.   Hearing of the verdict, the courtroom erupted in applause  which quickly spread to the large crowd waiting outside.  

But this public approval was short-lived.   Almost immediately, Marcel appealed the sentence (I did mention that he was a lawyer, right?).  During his appeal hearing, Marcel's attorney insisted that Blanche had been free to leave anytime she wanted and that no violence had been used against her.  Once again, the fact that Marcel hadn''t broken any laws came into play.  Finally, on November 30, the appeal court overturned the previous sentence and Marcel Monnier was a free man.   Though the people in the courtroom were horrified, there was no attempt at overturning this decision.   Marcel eventually inherited his mother's estate (except for the house where Blanche had been kept) and retired to a country house far from Poitiers where he died in 1913.  

As for Blanche herself, she recovered to some extent and even gained a little weight but she was never able to rejoin society.    Eventually placed in a sanitarium in Bois, she passed away in 1913, twelve years after being rescued from her family home.   Aside from a book written about the case by Andre Gide in 1930, her story remains little known outside of France.  The house where she had been kept is still standing though it has been extensively remodeled inside and out.  Nothing remains of the room where Blanche spend so many years locked away from the world.

Children, Trauma, and Dissociation

A new study published in the journal Psychological Trauma examined adolescent traumatization and the impact of various types of trauma on dissociative experiences in a sample of 239 Swedish youngsters, 13 to 20 years of age, with diverse socioeconomic and migration backgrounds. The researchers also evaluated whether the type of worst lifetime trauma was associated with higher rates of dissociation.  Statistical analysis was carried out on quantitative and qualitative data on posttraumatic stress, dissociative experiences, and potentially traumatic events (PTEs), including participants’ written descriptions of their worst lifetime trauma. Results showed that most (92%) of the participants had been exposed to at least 1 PTE and 51% to 4 or more, during their life. Number of PTEs correlated with symptoms of posttraumatic stress and dissociation. There were higher rates of dissociation among economically vulnerable and second-generation war refugee participants. Emotional abuse by others (mostly peers) was the only significant predictor of dissociation when controlling for gender, age, total PTEs, posttraumatic stress, and poverty. Moderation analyses showed that lifetime worst traumas categorized as primarily emotional moderated and amplified the relation between total PTEs and dissociation, but only among girls. The research findings indicate that traumatization is very common among adolescents, with greater prevalence of dissociation among vulnerable groups, and that emotional traumas are linked to higher rates of dissociation, especially among girls. Researchers, clinicians, and school personnel need to focus more on immigrant status and low SES as vulnerability factors, and address the consequences of emotional abuse, including bullying, among adolescents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

The Couch Potato Problem

Being a couch potato can be more dangerous than you think.

Though the World Health Organization recommends a minimum of 150 minutes a week engaging in moderate-intensity aerobic exercise to stay healthy, far too many people spend most of their lives in a sitting position, whether at work or at home.   Whether we are sitting at home watching television, playing video games, listening to music, working on a computer, or sitting in a car, modern living often means spending most of our days expending as little energy as possible, even when we are working or studying. 

The Sedentary Behaviour Research Network (SBRN) defines sedentary behaviour as "any waking activity characterized by an energy expenditure ≤ 1.5 metabolic equivalents and a sitting or reclining posture."   In other words, any sitting or reclining activity.    Even for people who may think of themselves as physically active and engaging in regular exercise, spending too much time in sedentary behaviour has been linked to a wide range of health problems such as obesity, depression, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and overall mortality.  

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

 

"Angel of Mercy" Faces Life in Prison Following Poisoning Death

A Bangor, Maine man is facing life in prison for mailing potassium cyanide to a suicidal man living in the U.K.   54-year-old Sidney Kilmartin first came into contact with 49-year-old Andrew Denton when Denton tried to purchase cyanide from him over the Internet.   Kilmartin had apparently been operating a fraudulent site in which he represented himself as an "angel of mercy" who sold cyanide to suicidal customers but actually sent them Epsom salts instead. 

When Denton first purchased what he believed to be cyanide from Kilmartin and discovered the fraud, he threatened to go to police.  To prevent this from happening, Kilmartin sent the real cyanide which Denton then used to commit suicide at his home in Hull, Yorkshire in 2012.   His body was found by his niece on New Year's Eve and he was believed to have been suffering from depression.  A toxicology report confirmed that he had died of cyanide poisoning and a coroner's inquest ruled that his death was due to suicide.

Kilmartin first obtained the cyanide by posing as a jeweler and persuading a chemical distributor in California to sell him 100 grams of potassium cyanide for $127.56.   He then posted an advertisement on a web site for suicidal people  offering "industrial grade cyanide" that would be  a "a painless and quick way to commit suicide."   In all, he received $1050 by selling the cyanide to five customers in all.  He was arrested last year over charges that he swindled Denton and the other customers.  

during the trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Halsey Frank told the court that "Sidney Kilmartin targeted vulnerable people who were depressed to the point of suicide to take advantage of... When Andrew Denton had the audacity to complain that Mr Kilmartin had defrauded and taken advantage of him, Mr Kilmartin killed him."   Though admitting to the fraud, his attorney cast doubt on the prosecution's case regarding his client's role in Andrew Denton's death.   While already pleading guilty to mail fraud and wire fraud, Kilmartin has now been found guilty of mailing "injurious articles resulting in death and witness tampering."   

Sentencing has not been scheduled to date.

 

 

 

 

The Case of Blanche Monnier (Part One of Two)

On May 23, 1901, France's Attorney General received an anonymous letter which said, in part:

"Monsieur Attorney General: I have the honor to inform you of an exceptionally serious occurrence. I speak of a spinster who is locked up in Madame Monnier’s house, half starved, and living on a putrid litter for the past twenty-five years – in a word, in her own filth.”

The house referred to in the letter was located in an upscale neighbourhood in the French city of Poitiers.  The Attorney General notified local police and asked them to investigate but nobody expected anything to come of it.   According to police who knew the area well, the only two people living at the address mentioned in the letter were Madame Louise Monnier and her middle-aged son Marcel.   Both Monniers had lived exemplary lives, Marcel was  a law school graduate and a former sub-prefect.   Madame Monnier's husband, Emile, had been the head of the local arts faculty prior to his death in 1879 while Madame Monnier herself belonged to the illustrious Poitier family (the city was named for them).  She had even received an award from the Committee of Good Works for her philanthropic deeds.

Some of the older police officers were able to recall one other strange detail however.   Madame Monnier had a beautiful daughter named Blanche who had apparently vanished without a trace twenty-five years earlier.    Amazingly enough, the disappearance of a young socialite had somehow taken place without any police investigation or alarm being raised by her own family.  Despite the odd nature of the disappearance, nobody  had any idea of what would follow or the heartbreaking story that had remained hidden for decades.  

When the police arrived, they proceeded to search the house and quickly found an upstairs room which had been padlocked shut.  Breaking the door open, they were horrified to find Blanche Monnier, naked, emaciated, and  with her head buried under the covers.  According to an account by one of the officers:

We immediately gave the order to open the casement window.  This was done with great difficulty, for the old dark-colored curtains fell down in a heavy shower of dust.  To open the shutters, it was necessary to remove them from their right hinges.  As soon as light entered the room, we noticed, in the back, lying on a bed, her head and body covered by a repulsively filthy blanket, a woman identified as Mademoiselle Blanche Monnier.  The unfortunate woman was lying completely naked on a rotten straw mattress.  All around her was formed a sort of crust made from excrement, fragments of meat, vegetables, fish, and rotten bread.  We also saw oyster shells and bugs running across Mademoiselle Monnier’s bed.  The air was so unbreathable, the odor given off by the room was so rank, that it was impossible for us to stay any longer to proceed with our investigation.

Terrified at the sight of strangers, Blanche continued to hide her head under a blanket.  She was quickly wrapped in a blanket and taken to a hospital in Paris for observation.  Weighing a mere 55 pounds at the time of her discovery,  Blanche seemed incapable of any kind of coherent speech and was visibly frightened at being exposed to sunlight.  As they would later discover, she hadn't seen the sun in nearly 25 years.    Police examining the miserable cell where she had been kept found the word "Liberte" (Liberty) scrawled across the walls.   They also determined that Blanche hadn't worn clothing for the previous twenty years and her only friends were the rats that scrambled to eat the crumbs scattered on the floor of her room.  Even as police were sending her off to hospital, Blanche's elderly mother simply sat in the living room, apparently stunned at what was happening.

After police finished searching the house, they then proceeded to question Madame Monnier and her son.   While Marcel continued to bluster and insisted that his sister was  "foul, angry, overly excited, and full of rage",  the doctors examining her at the hospital simply saw a frail and almost mute middle-aged woman who seemed excited at being given a bath and given new clothes.   It was only after both Monniers were arrested that police interrogators managed to unravel the entire horrific story.

Twenty-five years earlier, Blanche had been a vivacious and attractive 25-year-old socialite facing pressure from her mother to find a suitable husband.  Among her many suitors happened to be an older attorney who lived nearby with whom Blanche fell in love.   After becoming intimate (and more than intimate according to some accounts), it was her announcement to her family that she wanted to marry this attorney that the trouble began.   Her mother was adamantly opposed to the match.   Not only was the attorney much older than Blanche was but he had little money of his own.  For this reason, Madame Monnier insisted that Blanche find someone more suitable. 

When Blanche threatened to elope, her family took extreme action.  They locked Blanche up in an upstairs bedroom and insisted that she would only be released if she agreed to never see her intended again.   Though Madame Monnier and the rest of her family likely thought Blanche would give in, she remained adamant.   As the years passed, Blanche stayed in her prison with no sunlight and only being fed scraps from her mother's meals.   Even after her lover died in 1885,  the imprisonment continued while her family told everyone that she had disappeared. 

But it wasn't just the Monniers who were part of the conspiracy to keep Blanche imprisoned.   Various servants would later testify that they had often heard Blanche's pleas to be released but didn't say anything, whether due to loyalty to their employers, belief that Blanche was insane, or fear of being arrested as accessories to her imprisonment.   To this day, nobody knows who wrote the note that eventually secured Blanche's release.   Whether it was a servant or someone who had heard about her secondhand is anybody's guess.

When Blanche was finally released, the story quickly became international news.   Newspapers christened Blanche "la Sequestree de Poitiers" and public outrage against the Monniers reached a fever pitch.   This outrage grew as more details about her imprisonment became available.    Neighbours even threatened to destroy the house belonging to two of the Monniers' servants since they had apparently been complicit in her imprisonment.

All that remained was to determine what could be done for Blanche and punish the ones responsible.

Continue to Part Two