Providentia

The San Quentin Sex Gland Experiments

When Dr.  Leo Stanley expressed an opinion about criminal behaviour, people listened.  Even as he carried out some of the most outrageous medical experiments in California penal history.

As Chief Surgeon at California's San Quentin State Prison from 1913 to 1951, Dr. Stanley could always be counted by reporters and editors to share his own unique insights into the causes of crime, even long after his retirement.  Tall and thin with an aristocratic bearing, he even looked the part of a man who dedicated his life to treating society's misfits.  But for all his dedication to improving the medical facilities at the prison and serving as a pioneer in prison medicine, he was very much a man of his time when it came to being a devout believer in the "disease" model of crime, not to mention the role that "inferior genes" played in criminal behaviour.  

Though this kind of thinking would go out of style quickly enough after World War II due to the horrifying excesses of the Nazi regime,  Stanley remained a stern eugenicist for much of his career.  As a result, he openly advocated the sterilization of countless prisoners to prevent them from passing on their presumed genetic defects to their children.   Being Chief Surgeon, he was not only well-placed to recommend that prisoners be sterilized, he also personally carried out the operations for hundreds of prisoners over the years.   While involuntary sterilization was legal at the time in California, Dr. Stanley's gruff manner and the trust he instilled in the inmates he cared for was enough to convince most inmates to be sterilized "for their own good". 

Not that Stanley blamed all criminal behaviour on inferior genes.   In an influential 1923 article, he argued that criminals suffered from one of three kinds of disease:  moral, mental, and physical.  Even having poor eyesight could motivate some people to turn to crime due to their being unable to compete for jobs.   This motivated him to set up a cosmetic surgery program for inmates with deformities such as bad facial scars to improve their chances of re-entering society.   All in all, the "old croaker" as he was affectionately known by inmates, had a reputation for being hard-nosed but compassionate in treating his patients.  

Perhaps more importantly, when he wasn't talking to the press or tending to the medical needs of his prisoners, Leo Stanley also carried out his own research which, while largely ignored by the media during his lifetime, has earned him an even more bizarre form of immortality after his death.   Beginning in 1918, five years after first starting at San Quentin, he became inspired by the work of researchers such as  Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard and Serge Voronoff.   Both Brown-Sequard and Voronoff had gained fame by claims that implanting sex glands from young men into older men could effectively rejuvenate them.  While their medical colleagues tended to be skeptical, newspapers were more enthusiastic in suggesting that the key to eternal youth lay just around the corner (at least for men).

While some of the more bizarre claims being made still lay in the future, including the infamous John R. Brinkley and his "goat gland therapy",  Leo Stanley likely regarded himself as being in an excellent position to grab some of the Voronoff glory for himself.   Not only did he have hundreds of prisoners for his research subjects, but he also had access to the testicles of executed prisoners (did I mention that he was also the prison coroner?)   Though the families of some of the executed prisoners objected to organs being removed without permission, they were largely ignored.

Not that Stanley limited himself to human sexual organs.  His initial work implanting the testicles of executed prisoners into older prisoners hadn't worked out as he hoped since there weren't enough executed criminals to go around.   As an alternative,  he  switched to using goat glands instead.  In one radical experiment which was reported in a 1922 Los Angeles Times article, he implanted goat glands into 1,000 inmates (and a few overeager staff members).   This basically involved slicing the glands thinly, putting them into a syringe, and directly injecting the tissue into the patient's abdomen.  Some elderly inmates also got the "full treatment" with testicles from executed prisoners implanted into them.   Stanley brushed aside any concerns about tissue rejection and insisted that the transplanted tissue was “absorbed into the patient’s system without the slightest harm.”   

And it seemed to work, at least from the perspective of the reporter covering the story.   One 72-year-old prisoner receiving goat glands became “as lively as a young colt"  (or a kid, presumably).  How much of this was due to the placebo effect seems impossible to determine.  Still, Stanley seemed satisfied enough with the results to continue his experiments.  A 1940 United Press newspaper story was even more enthusiastic in describing Leo Stanley's gland research.   "Unknown to the outside world except for limited medical circles," the story begins, "San Quentin Prison for the past twenty two years has been the world's greatest clinic for rejuvenation experiments."   Over the course of those twenty-two years, Dr. Stanley carried out over 10,000 operations (all with the consent of the patient, the reporter was quick to point out).   According to Leo Stanley, the main source for the story, his operations were effective in treating acne, diabetes, asthma and "general systemic weakness."  

Stanley added that working on prisoners had many benefits for medical research since the patients could be observed for years afterward to see if any adverse problems developed.   The article insisted that the good doctor was in the process of preparing a final report that would sum up his findings.  Presumably he did though I couldn't find any record of it ever being written.

With the outbreak of World War II and the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States was soon at war.   To do his part for the war effort, Leo Stanley took a sabbatical from San Quentin and joined the navy as a surgeon.   Following the end of the war and his return to San Quentin however, he quickly found that eugenics and biological explanations for crime were no longer in favour.   Not only were sterilizations largely discontinued but his gland experiments were stopped completely due to pressure from prison officials.  The legal downfall of John R. Brinkley (the other goat gland doctor) had likely generated enough adverse publicity to make the California Department of Corrections somewhat leery about one of their own doctors conducting potentially dangerous experiments on inmates.  

His dream of human rejuvenation being dashed,  Stanley eventually retired from San Quentin in 1951 though his post-retirement life seemed idyllic enough.  He and his wife lived on their large estate in Marin County (despite his eugenic beliefs, they never had children).   When not working as a gentleman farmer and horse breeder, he served the occasional stint on cruise ships  and even had a brief political career, largely on the local Water Board.   He also dedicated himself to freelance writing, including a book based on his prison experiences, Men at their Worst.  Leo Stanley eventually died in 1976 at the age of 90 and his obituary made no mention of his strange experiments.  

Though Leo Stanley can be considered a pioneer in the use of hormone therapy to treat disease, his use of prisoners in potentially dangerous experiments seems incredible today.  Or, perhaps not.   Though hedied without ever seeing the massive rise in prison populations of the past twenty years,  Stanley might have appreciated the opportunities this kind of overcrowding might bring.   Some researchers are already advocating the loosening of restrictions on medical experiments using inmates while legislators in South Carolina have openly debated an incentive program to offer shorter sentences for inmates in exchange for organ donation.  

As prison populations rise and governments continue to be more concerned with punishment  rather than rehabilitation, who knows what the future will bring?

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The Scott Panetti Case

On September 8, 1992, Scott Louis Panetti shaved his head, dressed in military fatigues, and drove to his in-laws' Fredericksburg, Texas home where his wife and daughter were staying.  After breaking into the home, he shot his wife's parents at close range.  Amanda and Joe Alvarado died at the scene.  He then took his wife and daughter hostage and forced them to come to his bunkhouse.  When police later surrounded the building, Panetti released both hostages unharmed.  He then changed into a suit and surrendered.  He would later say that his in-laws had forced one of his several personalities, "Sarge", to come out and kill them.  He also added that, due to divine intervention, his victims didn't suffer. 

Scott Panetti's psychosis apparently began when he was a teenager in his native state of Texas.  Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, he was first hospitalized in 1981 and his bizarre behaviour and delusions would lead to multiple hospitalizations over the next eleven years.  In one psychotic episode in 1986, Panetti became convinced that the devil was taunting him and he attempted to slash the walls of his family home to exorcise the demonic influence.  He also buried his family's furniture believing that the "devil was in it" and nailed the house curtains shut for fear that the neighbours would film him.  In 1986 alone, he was hospitalized nine times for periods ranging from four to forty-four days. 

Panetti's case was complicated by his refusal to take psychiatric medication and frequent threats made against family members (especially his wife and her parents).  Between 1981 and 1992, he would be hospitalized eleven times (always involuntarily) with his last release being in August of 1992. Due to his drinking and abusive behaviour, Scott Panetti's wife left him and took her daughter to live with her parents, .  She also obtained a restraining order against her husband, not that this would prevent the murder of her parents.

As you might expect, the murders and the psychiatric issues involved triggered a media frenzy.  Two competency hearings were held in the Panetti case.   The first hearing, held in July 1994, ended in a mistrial when the jury failed to reach a verdict.  Prior to the second hearing, held in September of that same year, his lawyer reported that Panetti had been unable to instruct him in any useful way due to his delusional thinking.  Despite a psychiatric report presented by the prosecution confirming the diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, Scott Panetti was found fit to stand trial. 

And it was quite a trial...

While in the Bell County Jail waiting for his capital hearing to begin,  Panetti discontinued all psychiatric medication.  He stated that he no longer needed any medication since he was a "Gnostic Nazarene who had been spiritually healed".  He also accused his attorneys of conspiring against him with the police and the prosecutor.  When his September 1995 trial began, he waived all right to counsel and insisted on representing himself.  Despite objections from his family, defense counsel, and even the prosecuting attorney, his request was granted. 

By all accounts, Scott Panetti's defense was bizarre (to say the least).  He dressed in cowboy style during the course of the trial, complete with cowboy hat, bandanna, and cowboy style shirts.  The presentations that he gave in his defense were rambling and frequently incoherent.  He attempted to subpoena hundreds of witnesses, including Jesus Christ, John F. Kennedy, Anne Bancroft, and a host of others.  Various observers to the trial  reported being baffled by the judge's willingness to let Panetti ramble on.  One attorney who had been called as a witness by Panetti later commented that "The courtroom had the atmosphere of a circus. The judge just seemed to let Scott run free with his irrational questions and courtroom antics".  

Largely due to his long and incoherent rambles, the jury sentenced Scott Panetti to death on September 22, 1995.  Members of the jury had been intimidated by Panetti's strange presentation and were frightened by the prospect of his eventual release.  Since being placed on death row, Scott Panetti has consistently refused to take psychiatric medication and his attorneys have been fighting his execution on the grounds of his mental illness.   Under the 1986 Ford versus Wainwright Supreme Court ruling, persons deemed unable to understand the reality or reason for their punishment can not be executed.  Despite psychiatric evidence establishing Panetti's mental illness, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the execution order on the grounds that he was sufficiently competent to recognize the purpose of his punishment.

In the spring of 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Scott Panetti's favour in a 5-4 decision.  The Supreme Court decision sent the case back to the Federal District Court for resolution.  An evidentiary hearing was conducted before Judge Sam Sparks on February 6 2008 to evaluate the defendant's mental capacity.  On March 26, Federal Judge Sparks ruled that Scott Panetti was competent to be executed.  In his ruling, the judge concluded that "Panetti was mentally ill when he committed his crime and continues to be mentally ill today. However, he has both a factual and rational understanding of his crime, his impending death, and the causal retributive connection between the two. Therefore, if any mentally ill person is competent to be executed for his crimes, this record establishes it is Scott Panetti."

Despite numerous appeals and petitions (including one filed by his ex-wife and the daughter of the victims), Scott Panetti remains on death row. No formal execution date has been set.  

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Can a Mobile Phone App Help Prevent Suicides?

Safety plans have been suggested as an intervention for people at risk of suicide. Given the impulsive character of suicidal ideation, a safety plan in the format of a mobile phone application is likely to be more available and useful than traditional paper versions. The study recently published in the journal Crisis describes MYPLAN, a mobile phone application designed to support people at risk of suicide by letting them create a safety plan. MYPLAN was developed in collaboration with clinical psychiatric staff at Danish suicide preventive clinics. The mobile application lets the user create an individualized safety plan by filling in templates with strategies, actions, and direct links to contact persons.  MYPLAN was developed in 2013 and is freely available in Denmark and Norway. It is designed for iPhone and Android platforms. As of December 2015, the application has been downloaded almost 8,000 times. Users at risk of suicide as well as clinical staff have provided positive feedback on the mobile application. Support via mobile phone applications might be particularly useful for younger age groups at risk of suicide as well as in areas or countries where support options are lacking. Yet, it is important to examine the effectiveness of this type of intervention.

For the abstract

Can Feeling Insecure Predict Obesity?

Can the quality of our relationships play a role in obesity?   A new meta-analytic study suggests that it can (at least for adults).

Oesity has long been recognized as a major health issue around the world with the overall percentage of children and adults classified as overweight or obese soaring dramatically over the past thirty years.    According to one 2012 study, the estimated  percentage of overweight individuals in the United States is 68 percent and obese individuals (defined as a BMI greater than 35) at 38 percent.   The makes the United States the country with the highest average body mass index (BMI) of all high-income countries.  Not only has been obesity been linked to a wide range of serious medical conditions, including heart disease, cancer, and reduced mortality, but the economic costs associated with health care needs and lost work productivity are profound and will certainly increase in the years to come.

While researchers continue to explore the complex causes of obesity, including genetic factors, the psychological roots of obesity are just beginning to be understood.  Studies looking at obesity in children and adults have found that individuals prone to emotion- and stress-related eating are especially vulnerable to obesity and also have greater difficulty losing weight.  This ties in to additional research suggesting that attachment insecurity is strongly linked to many physical diseases, including obesity.

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

Doctors Baffled by Oregon Hallucination Epidemic

It apparently began in mid-October when a 54-year-old caregiver for an elderly woman made a bizarre call to police in North Bend, Oregon at 3 am.   She informed them that seven or eight people were "trying to take the roof off her vehicle" but police found nothing out of the ordinary when they investigated.   Then police received a similar call from the same women less than two hours later.  Believing the woman was hallucinating, police officers took her to a local hospital where she was assessed and released after doctors concluded that she was healthy.    

Which is when things started getting really strange...

Over the course of the day, virtually everyone who had come into contact with the woman started developing bizarre symptoms, including nausea, lightheadedness, euphoria, and hallucinations.  Along with the two officers who had taken her to hospital, the 78-year-old woman she had been caring for her needed to be hospitalized.   Even one of the  hospital employees who had come into contact with her began reporting flu-like symptoms.  Suspecting some sort of epidemic, a police hazmat team was mobilized to decontaminate the hospital and the home where it all started.  

Despite extensive testing of vehicles, the emergency room where the woman was seen, and blood samples from all affected people, absolutely nothing was found that could account for the mysterious epidemic.   Though a search of the elderly patient's home turned up fentanyl patches containing opioids, their role in the epidemic were later ruled out by investigators.  With no indication of a clear medical cause, some experts are now suggesting that the epidemic may have been psychogenic.

While cases of mass hysteria are fairly common, they usually involve impressionable people being influenced to believe they have been exposed to some environmental factor that causes their symptoms.   Most often seen in adolescents and young adults, the police officers and medical professionals involved in this latest epidemic certainly don't  fit the usual pattern.    Still, as Professor James Giordano, Ph.D. at Georgetown University Medical Center's Department of Neurology and Biochemistry points out, stress can have a bizarre effect on even the most hardheaded professionals.  

In an interview with Popular Science, he remains open to the idea that a contaminant may have been present that altered the brain chemistry of all those affected.   Even with a common contaminant, it seems likely that the symptoms they developed may have been influenced by what other affected people were describing.  "If the situation is stressful enough, that it’ll really sort of play on somebody’s mind strings. Here’s an individual who’s having vivid hallucinations," he says. "If they’re describing the hallucinations, particularly if they’re being very vocal about it... The idea that they may be having simultaneous experiences can happen." 

With no new cases, the epidemic seems to be over.  Whether due to a mysterious environmental agent or psychogenic factors, all people affected have been given a clean bill of health.  Exactly why it happened will likely remain a mystery.  

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The Kissing Bug Craze

Chagas disease, a.k.a. American trypanosomiasis, is a potentially serious tropical disease affecting millions of people across Mexico, Central, and South America.  Estimated to cause over 12,000 deaths a year, the disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi and spread primarily by biting insects that are known not-so-fondly as "kissing bugs."   Belonging to the Triatominae subfamily of insects, most species of kissing bugs (also referred to as assassin or vampire bugs) get their name by sucking on the blood of sleeping mammals and, after biting them, defecating on their victims.   Though Chagas disease was only formally identified in 1909, the potential role of kissing bugs in spreading disease that can damage the heart, nervous system, and other parts of the body has been recognized for centuries giving them an unsavory reputation across most tropical regions.

While kissing bugs can also be found in the southern United States, actual incidents of disease remain almost unknown except among recent arrivals from countries where exposure is more common.   In fact, most species of Triatomine found in the United States don't carry the Trypanosoma parasite and rarely attack humans the way their southern counterparts do.  Not that this prevented a bizarre panic surrounding kissing bugs that broke out in 1899 across the U.S. 

The apparent cause of the panic was a story written by Washington Post crime reporter James F. McElhone in the summer of 1899.  After discovering that an unusually high number of patients had been admitted to the Washington City Emergency Hospital for insect bites, McElhone wrote an article describing the bug-bite victims as being "badly poisoned" and concluded that they were part of a new epidemic.  Since none of the victims could recall being bitten,  McElhone concluded that they had been bitten by kissing bugs as they slept. He then went on to state:

"Look out for the new bug.  It is an insidious insect that bites without causing pain and escapes unnoticed.  But afterward, the place where it has bitten swells to ten times its normal size.  The Emergency Hospital has had several victims of this insect as patients lately and the number is increasing." 

One of the victims named in McElhone's article was a newspaper agent named William Smith who had an "upper lip swollen to many times its natural size.  The symptoms are in every case the same, and there is indication of poisoning from an insect's bite."   Other newspapers quickly spread the story and the panic was on.  

Within days of the original Washington Post story, newspapers in other cities were warning that the kissing bug epidemic was spreading from Washington, D.C. to other parts of the country.  One enterprising reporter identified the specific culprit as melanolestes picipes, a.k.a. the Black corsair.   The reporter then went on to describe this particular "varmint" as a little black bug prone to attacking humans as they slept. Quoting an unnamed entomologist at the Department of Agriculture, he wrote that the bug "attacks the upper lip and its sting is painless at the time it is inflicted.   Within a  few hours afterward however, the lip swells to a frightful extent becoming a dark scarlet in color.  Intense pain accompanies the swelling and continues for twenty-four hours." 

In reality, while belonging to the Triatominae subfamily, these particular kissing bugs were mainly found in woodland areas and rarely attacked humans unless their territory was disturbed.   But, sure enough, panicked reports about kissing bug attacks soon came in from all parts of the country.   Just days after the first story was run, a new story titled "Kissing Bug at Work" described the agonies experienced by three victims after being bitten.  One of them, an actress, was described as being bitten on the forehead and that her doctor would be operating on her if the swelling failed to go down.

Since actual descriptions of the dread kissing bug were vague at best, virtually anyone reporting an insect sting, including from familiar culprits such as bees and wasps, joined the kissing bug hysteria bandwagon.  In one town where kissing bug attacks had occurred, it was reported that "every residence in the town  is closed airtight" to avoid being bitten. 

But the hysteria hit a fever pitch in mid-July when a 33-year-old Chicago native named Mary Steger died of unknown causes.   After determining that Mrs. Steger had been bitten by a mysterious bug six days previously, her doctor, George M. Illingsworth issued a unique death certificate that stated  "Chief and determining cause of death, sting of kissing bug.   Consecutive and contributary cause:  tonsilitis."    Almost immediately, local medical experts began questioning Illingsworth's diagnosis but, when the coroner tried to conduct an autopsy on Mary Steger's body, he soon discovered that she had already been embalmed.  As a result, there was no way to establish true cause of death.

Not that this stopped newspapers across the country from printing stories with headlines such as "Cause of Death a Kissing Bug."   Before long,  new cases of mysterious deaths were also attributed to  the kissing bug, even when there was no real evidence that a bug bite had occurred.  The most dramatic declaration made about the kissing bug epidemic sweeping the country came from a Chicago preacher, A. M. Leonard.  Based on his unique interpretation of the Book of Revelation, "Professor" Leonard concluded that the kissing bug was a sign that the world was about to end.  As his proof, he cited Revelation 9:3-4  "And out of the smoke, locusts descended upon the earth, and they were given power like unto the scorpions of the earth.  They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads." Basically, he concluded that all of the people bitten so far were non-believers who had been targeted by God.  

Fortunately, the craze soon subsided as scientists spoke to the press to set the facts straight about melanolestes picipes.  Leland Howard, then-chief entomologist of the Department of Agriculture wrote an influential article in Popular Science Monthly in which he referred to the kissing bug phenomenon  as  a "newspaper epidemic, for every insect bite where the biter was not at once recognized was attributed to the popular and somewhat mysterious creature.”   Of all the countless specimens of alleged kissing bugs sent in to various scientific organizations for identification, virtually all of them were common insects such as houseflies, beetles, bees, etc.   One person even sent in a butterfly. 

At the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science held in Columbus, Ohio that summer, Professor John B. Smith issued an interesting challenge:  "If anyone would bring me a live kissing bug I will let it sting to its heart's content. We are simply going through a craze like the one we had when spider bites were popular. Everybody who was bitten by any kind of an insect was bitten by a spider. The same is true now.”

While stories about kissing bug attacks slowly petered out over the next few months, the legend of the deadly bug lived on.  Though there were still reports kissing bug attacks over the next few years, most newspapers tended to run them more for amusement value rather than the deadly earnestness at the height of the 1899 epidemic.  Other health panics would come along soon enough and the deadly kissing bug was largely forgotten. 

So spare a thought for the lowly melanolestes picipes the next time you hear about a new health scare.  More often than not, there is no reason to get bugged about it.

Becoming a Mean Girl

The popularity of reality TV programming exceeds that of any other genre, particularly among young female viewers. Past research suggests a link between viewing reality TV, gender stereotyping, and social aggression among young women, but little is known theoretically about this relationship. A new study published in the journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture examines a group of U.S. female emerging adults (N = 174) using a media psychology approach to understand how reality TV may contribute to gender stereotyping and belief in social aggression as a necessary means to getting ahead in life. Reception variables are studied to advance theoretical thinking about the influence of reality TV. Findings suggest that female emerging adults who perceive the lifestyles in reality programming to be realistic and desirable hold more stereotypical views of women and see greater value in social aggression. “First-person desire,” or a viewer’s desire to experience a reality TV lifestyle firsthand, proved theoretically important as an explanatory variable for the relationship between viewing the makeover and docusoap reality subgenres and the stereotyping of women and girls as socially aggressive. Overall, viewing of popular subgenres of reality TV produced unique results. Suggestions are made for future experimental work.

For the abstract

 

Why Are We Offended by Media Violence?

Even for many die-hard fans of the long-running AMC drama, The Walking Dead, the gruesome violence of the Season Seven premiere, including the brutal deaths of two well-liked characters, proved to be too much to handle.  According to one fan reporting afterward on social media, “I consider myself well versed when it comes to horror and violent movies and shows in general but this was just something else,” they wrote. “I found this episode a too disturbing even for TWD standards.”   But other fans praised the opening episode and declared it to be one of the best ever seen on the show. 

Media representations of violence are certainly common enough.  According to some estimates,  average television and movie viewer will have seen 20,000 violent deaths or more over the course of a lifetime.   For many producers of movies and television, the shock value provided by violence often means increasingly graphic deaths to draw in viewers.   Even in video games, we are seeing a rise in extremely violent content including games such as Manhunt in which players murder, maim, and torture victims to score points.  Despite efforts to rein in violent content, including the use of rating systems to warn potential viewers, researchers are still concerned over the possible desensitizing effects of media violence and the impact it might have on aggression in the real world.

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One aspect of media violence largely neglected by researchers up to now deals with

Italian "Exorcists" Arrested on Sexual Molestation Charges

A Catholic priest was arrested in Palermo, Sicily on charges that he sexually molested four adult women and a twelve-year-old girl while pretending to rid them of demonic possession.   Father Salvatore Anello, aged 59, was arrested at a Capuchin convent by investigators from the state police's child protection unit.  According to prosecutors, he had met his victims while serving as a chaplain at a local hospital.   His victims, many of whom suffer from serious physical or psychiatric illness, reported being told by Anello that he could free them from demonic influence with prayers and took advantage of his position to molest them.

The arrest stems from the six-month investigation of a similar case in Palermo involving a self-proclaimed exorcist, Colonel Salvatore Muratore, charged with ten counts of molestation.  The 52-year-old Muratore, a Colonel in the Italian military, had met his victims while a member of the Renewal of the Holy Spirit Catholic community.   According to his victims, Muratore had promised to pray for them as a member of the community despite not having any official position.  He would then come to their homes to "free them from the demon of lust."   He has since been suspended by the Italian military.

In both cases, the Catholic church and the Renewal of the Holy Spirit Catholic community have distanced themselves from the two suspects.   The Catholic Church also denied that Father Anello was formally authorized to carry out exorcisms.   Both of the accused remain in custody until they stand trial while police ask other potential victims to come forward.

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