Providentia

Bizarre Toronto Murder Trial Ends in Guilty Verdict

A strange murder trial which tested the very limits of the Canadian judicial system ended when a Toronto woman who represented herself was found guilty of murdering her husband.   41-year-old Xiu Jin Teng was silent as a jury found her guilty of first-degree murder in the death of her husband, Dong Huang.    According to evidence presented during the trial, Teng strangled her husband in February, 2012.  She then hid his body in a closet in their basement Scarborough apartment after dousing the body with bleach and wrapping it in plastic.   The body was discovered by their landlord before she had a chance to dispose of it using items purchased from Canadian Tire.

While Crown prosecutor Joshua Levy maintained that the crime was motivated by the $2,000,000 insurance policy she had on her husband's life, Teng emphatically denied the charge and questioned every aspect of the evidence presented in court.   Though the trial had originally been scheduled to begin in September 2016, repeated delays caused by her frequent conflicts with her various attorneys, almost all of whom she fired, eventually led to her representing herself in court.  Before the trial began, she attempted to have the murder charge stayed due to unreasonable delay, citing a recent Supreme Court decision setting a 3o-month time limit from the time of arrest to the trial's conclusion.   This legal argument was thrown out by the court after Crown Prosecutor Robert Fried pointed out the delays were of her own making due to her repeatedly changing lawyers.  “The only thing that is unreasonable has been the conduct of Ms. Teng and her attempt to use her Charter right as a sword, not a shield,” said Crown prosecutor Robert Fried.

During the course of the bizarre trial, Teng repeatedly accused the judge and prosecutors of "illegal" behaviour and made frequent claims that she was being denied proper representation.   She also engaged in numerous outbursts which led the judge to order her removal from the courtroom and placing her in a room with a video link where she could watch the trial without objecting.   On one occasion, she burst out, "“You are wrong! You are wrong! You do everything illegally in this courtroom. You are an illegal judge.”  On other occasions, she engaged in sarcastic applause, pretended to nap, and held up objects to block her view of the judge she referred to as "Your Majesty."   She also refused to call witnesses and openly flouted the judge's authority.

Teng has complained about being unable to see her daughter who has returned to China and is in the custody of her husband's family.   She blames the lengthy trial for this custody decision and insists that she would have been reunited with her daughter had it not been for the court.   When informing the judge that she was planning to apply for a mistrial, the judge responded, "“Ms. Teng that is enough.  It is hard to describe the number of things you have raised that have prevented this trial from proceeding in an orderly fashion. We are continuing with your jury address . . . . I am done playing games with you, Ms. Teng. I’m finished.”

While Ms. Teng is expected to file an appeal, she likely faces life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

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The Angel of Mons

The Battle of Mons was the first major action by the British Expeditionary Force during World War I.  From August 22-23 1914, despite being heavily outnumbered by German forces, British troops were actually able to hold the line at the Mons-Conde Canal near Mons, Belgium before being forced to retreat.  Despite heavy casualties, the British troops inflicted even greater losses on the Germans during the battle and gradual withdrawal which lasted nearly two weeks before the Allies were able to counter-attack at the Battle of the Marne.  It hardly seemed surprising that the British success in holding off superior troops during a well-ordered retreat became a propaganda coup for the British government.   While technically a defeat, the story of the British troops at Mons became legendary. 

And in more ways than one. 

From 1915 onwards, stories surrounding the retreat at Mons became widespread in Christian and Theosophical magazines as well as by word of mouth.  Various "eyewitness" accounts reported that the British troops received supernatural protection during their retreat.  The accounts ranged from a "strange mist" that hid soldiers from the Germans, phantom horsemen led by St. George himself, or even a host of angels.  While similar stories had been told in medieval battles, this was the first case of its kind in modern warfare.  While there were certainly reports of mass hallucinations taking place during that period (including the "Miracle of the Sun" at Fatima in 1917),  the Mons event doesn't appear to be one of them.  All of the accounts of sightings were second- or third-hand involving either friends of soldiers or nurses who tended the soldiers afterward. 

Despite the flimsy nature of the actual evidence for the Angels of Mons sightings, the British spiritualist magazine Spiritualist published details of the "miracle" in a 1915 issue and the controversy was on.  The story of the miraculous events at the Battle of Mons was repeated in religious sermons across the U.K. and  in newspapers around the world.   The war was already unpopular as the British people realized just how long and vicious it would be.  The notion that God was on the Allied side and ready to strike down the evil Germans helped boost morale.   While WWI progressed with horrendous casualties and no evidence of further divine intervention, the story of the Angels of Mons became one of the most often-repeated tales of the war (and one of the first true urban legends of modern times).

There is still controversy over the original source of the rumours but the most likely explanation involves a short story by Arthur Machen that was printed in The Evening News on September 29, 1914.  Titled "The Bowmen", Machen's story was written from a first-person perspective and had St. George appear at the Mons battle site with an army of phantom archers to save the retreating British troops.  While Machen was employed as a journalist at the time, he was also an accomplished fantasy and horror writer who often wrote about supernatural themes.  Since Machen was one of the newspaper's regular correspondents and the story wasn't clearly identified as fiction, there was some confusion over whether his story was meant to be taken as fact.  Shortly after the story's publication, Machen received numerous requests from parishes across Britain to republish the story and he was also asked for the source of his account.  Machen was quick to insist that his story was completely fictional but various retellings distorted the tale, and its fictional origins, almost beyond recognition (somewhere along the way, his phantom bowmen were transformed into angels). 

Although Machen continued to emphasize that his story was pure fiction, spiritualists claimed that he had based his story on rumours that had already been spread by British soldiers. The story became so popular that it became downright "unpatriotic" to dispute it (which placed skeptics in an awkward position).  One possible source of these claims came from letters that were apparently written by Brigadier-General John Charteris in 1914-1915.  In the letters, which were published in Charteris' memoirs in 1931, he noted that "the story of the Angels of Mons [is] going strong through the 2nd Corps".  While the letter appears to predate Machen's story, there is some controversy over whether the dates were falsified considering that the letters themselves can't be found in Charteris' actual archives.  No other first-hand testimony was ever recorded.  While Arthur Machen played up the fictional nature of his story, his book The Bowmen and other Legends of the War published in 1915 became a runaway success selling 3000 copies in London on the first day it came out.  The fact that the book's introduction carefully explained how his original story became a legend did nothing to stop the rumours.

So why did the rumours around the Angels of Mons persist?   Part of the reason could be that World War I represented one of the first modern conflicts where propaganda played a major role in boosting morale for Allied troops and civilians alike.  Along with the Angel rumours, there were stories of German atrocities such as crucifying Allied soldiers, killing and mutilating Belgian women and children, and executing Allied nurses.  Since the war was becoming increasingly unpopular as the death toll rose, military authorities often depended on disinformation campaigns to drum up popular support (Brigadier-General Charteris was part of British Army Intelligence).  Whether or not the military actively promoted the angel story, the notion that God had provided heavenly help for the Allies played well to churchgoers in Britain (even though there was no divine support in later battles).  Long after World War ended, believers and skeptics alike still searched for first-hand testimony of angel sightings without success.

Though largely forgotten today, the Angels of Mons rumour and its persistence over time is a powerful example of how urban legends can spread.  As new legends arise, skeptics are continually reminded of how hard it is to dissuade people in believing in them, especially when they're being told what they want to hear.

The Devil and George Lukins

On May 31, 1778, the Reverend Joseph Easterbrook, Anglican vicar of the now-abandoned Temple Church in Bristol, England, was called in on what would become the most bizarre case of his clerical career.  

Sarah Baber, a member of his parish, had recently visited the nearby town of Yatton where she came across a man suffering from a very  strange malady.  According to Mrs. Baber, the man in question, a forty-something former tailor named George Lukins experienced daily fits during which he "sang and screamed in various sounds, some of which did not resemble the modifications of a human voice; that he cursed and swore in a most tremendous manner, while in his fits, and declared that doctors could do him no service."   Having lived in Yatton many years previously,  Mrs. Baber knew George Lukins and his entire family and described him as a "good, churchgoing man" who had shown no problems until his strange fits began eighteen years before.

The Lukins family had already tried taking George to various medical doctors, none of them had any clue about what was happening to cause these strange episodes.  As for George Lukins himself, he seemed as mystified as anyone over what was happening.  According to his own testimony, his possession began while he was performing a mummer's play at Christmastime and he experienced what he called a "divine slap"  (possibly alcohol-related according to some people who knew him at the time).    Almost immediately afterward, his bizarre seizures started, including his making strange barking sounds and uncontrollable twitching of the right hand.  Many of the local townspeople suggested that George's fits were due to being bewitched, an opinion that George himself seemed to share.   In fact, he had recently begun claiming that his fits were caused by his being possessed  by seven demons and that seven clergymen would be needed to drive them out.   Hence the reason for Sarah Baber approaching the Reverend Easterbrook for his help. 

A few days later, the good vicar arranged for George to be brought to Bristol so he could be examined directly.   As Easterbrook later reported, his colleagues who had come to see Lukins for themselves  "were struck with horror and amazement,-at the sounds and expressions which they heard, and the unaccountable agitations and convulsions which they beheld."  Satisfied that he was dealing with a genuine possession case, Easterbrook searched for clerics to help with the  exorcism. Unfortunately for him, this was more difficult than he thought since too many of his colleagues were skeptics concerning whether George was possessed rather than insane.   

Despite efforts by Easterbrook and others to be as discreet as possible about the attempted exorcism, a June 11 letter to the Bristol Gazette written by an anonymous source made that impossible.   The letter described George Lukins as "the most singular case of perverted reason and bodilv suffering that I ever heard of; nor have the most learned and ingenious men been able to solve the phenomenon, much less to administer relief to the afflicted object. You may depend on the authenticity of every part of the relation, a member of my family having been near thirty years minister of the place where the person resides, many of my friends still inhabiting it, and myself having been frequently a witness to the facts I shall mention."  

Suddenly, the "Yatton Demoniac" was front-page news and the "discreet" exorcism that Easterbook had been planning became a public event.   When the vicar met with six of his colleagues in a vestry room at Temple Church to pray for Lukins, "a considerable number of people planted themselves upon the walls 0f the vestry-room and heard part of the prayers, the singing, the conversation, and the wonderful sounds which proceeded from George Lukins, and carried some account of these circumstances to a printer, who instantly dispatched papers upon the subject, through the streets of Bristol and its vicinage.'  (the 18th century version of Facebook, in other words).   

To prevent some of the wild stories that were already starting to spread, Easterbrook and the others published their own account of what happened when they met with Lukins.   According to this new account, which was published on June 18 in the Bristol Gazette,  when they "began singing an hymn, on which [Lukins] was immediately thrown into strange agitations, (very different from his usual seizures) his face was variously distorted, and his whole body strongly convulsed, his right hand and arm then began to shake with violence, and after some violent throes, lie spake in a deep, hoarse, hollow voice, personating an invisible agent, calling the man to an account, and upbraiding him as a tool for bringing that silly company together.....  He then began to sing in his usual manner, (still persona Ling some invisible agent,) horribly blaspheming, boasted of his usual power, and vowed eternal vengeance on the miserable object, and on those present daring to oppose him ; and commanded his “faithful and obedient servants” to appear."

Despite these terrifying antics, the clerics continued to pray and to command the demons inhabiting him to return to Hell.   Finally, the object of their prayers shouted out, "Blessed Jesus!" and his seizures suddenly stopped.   Lukins calmly thanked the clerics for what they had done for him and insisted that he was cured.    As proof, he recited the Lord's Prayer and showed no sign of his previous possession.   The account concludes that the possession had been genuine and that Lukins  returned to his old life, completely cured.

Unfortunately, the skeptics weren't quite so convinced.   Almost immediately after the story on Lukins was published, other people who had known him in Yatton came forward suggesting that the entire possession story was fake.  Not only was George Lukins well known for his talent with ventriloquism and mimicry, but was apparently a bit of a hypochondriac as well.   Before long, clerics and medical doctors across the country began weighing in on the case of the Yatton Demoniac, and the general consensus wasn't particularly positive for Easterbrook or his supporters.    Various theories were put forward, everything from outright fraud on Lukins' part to suggestions that he was an epileptic, suffering from a "grievous hypochondriack disorder", or even that he had been bitten by a rabid dog.

But the case of the Yatton Demoniac wasn't quite over.   Joseph Easterbrook, no doubt feeling stung by the accusations of fraud and about his own supposed gullibility, wrote a treatise in 1788 which was titled, "An appeal to the public respecting George Lukins, (called the Yatton demoniac,) containing an account of his affliction and deliverance; Together with A Variety of Circumstances which tend to exculpate him from the Charge of Imposture."  The book (which is available online), tried to vindicate rhw clerics who had carried out the exorcism though skeptics were less than impressed by the testimony Easterbrook provided.   Hannah More, a prominent religious writer, likely said it best when she wrote:  "The divining-rod is still considered as oracular in many places. Devils are cast out by seven ministers: and to complete the disgraceful catalogue, slavery is vindicated in print, and defended in the House of Peers. Poor human reason, when wilt thou come to years of discretion?"   

As for Lukins himself, he largely faded into obscurity after his spectacular exorcism.   Though he returned to Yatton, he made repeated attempts to move to Bristol (apparently he enjoyed his time there).   Unfortunately for him, he had no income to speak  of (presumably his skills as a tailor had become rather rusty by then) and depended on his parish for support.   Since nobody in Bristol seemed inclined to finance his transfer, he was forced to remain in Yatton.  Nothing more was heard of him until February 1805 when an article in the Bristol Mirror was published announcing death.  According to the article, Lukins had been living in extreme poverty except for the money he raised by begging and selling small books.   He had also been a chronic invalid with numerous hypochondriacal complaints.   No real information was provided about the cause of his death.

While the case of George Lukins has been largely forgotten except by historians, the question of whether he was a deliberate fraud or suffering from some form of mental illness has never been answered.    In the centuries since his exorcism however,  surprisingly little has really changed.   As movies such as The Exorcist (which is now a television series) and The Exorcism of Audrey Rose continue to pervade the popular culture, new cases of presumed demonic possession are being reported in countries around the world.   Though many of these possession cases are unquestionably due to mental illness and stories of  "possessed" people being killed in the course of being exorcised continue to be heard, the demand for exorcists seems greater than ever.  

George Lukins would have approved.

 

Finding Mr./Ms. Right?

Whatever you might think of "love at first sight", finding a relationship and making it work is never easy.   

While countless movies, television shows, and romance novels help convey the idea that romantic love and a fulfilling sex life are easy to maintain when your romantic partner is "the one", the reality is very different.  Part of the problem rests in the unrealistic expectations conveyed by popular media which can often lead to disappointment and frustration when real life doesn't measure up.  

According to C. Raymond Knee of the University of Houston, success in romantic relationships often depends on the implicit theories that we may have about romantic love.  Implicit theories deal with the underlying beliefs and biases that can influence how we interact with the world.  Concerning relationships for example, there can be two types of implicit theories:  relationship destiny beliefs and relationship growth beliefs.  Relationship destiny focuses on the idea that people can be truly "meant" for one another and that key to a satisfying relationship rests with finding the right partner or "soulmate".   On the other hand, people believing in relationship growth, while recognizing that the relationship they happen to be in isn't perfect, are willing to expend the time and effort needed to develop and strengthen this relationship over time.

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

Harry Thaw and the Law

Newspapers across the United States called it the “Crime of the Century” (never mind that the 20^th century was still only six years young at the time). 

On June 24, 1906, when Pittsburgh millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw shot prominent New York architect Stanford White in Madison Square Garden’s rooftop theatre, it sparked a media sensation that would grip New York for months to come.  

Harry Kendall Thaw certainly didn’t seem like your usual murderer (not on the surface at least).  Born in 1871 to one of Pittsburgh’s most prominent families, he was the principal heir to his father’s coal and railroad fortune.  That he was openly paranoid and violent from an early age hardly seemed to matter.   His family money allowed him to coast through studies at the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard University.  He was finally expelled after his arrest for chasing a cab driver through the streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts with a shotgun (Thaw insisted it was unloaded).   After his expulsion, Harry drifted through high society and experimented extensively with various drugs including cocaine and morphine (he is widely credited with inventing the speedball). 

At some point during his stay in New York City, Harry Thaw first met Stanford White.   White was one of the prominent architects of his age and had designed some of New York’s most famous buildings (including Madison Square Garden).    It was in 1902 that White first met chorus girl, Evelyn Nesbitt.   Having come to New York a year earlier to study modeling,  Evelyn had made a name for herself by modeling for Charles Dana Gibson and being featured in his masterpiece, The Eternal Question.   Capitalizing on her fame as a “Gibson girl”, Evelyn then went on to star on Broadway as a “Floradora girl”.     When Stanford White introduced himself to her, he managed to spirit her away to one of the various love nests that he maintained in downtown New York for his romantic conquests.    After getting Evelyn drunk, he and Evelyn had sex.  While White claimed that the sex was completely consensual,  Evelyn would later insist that it had been rape.

Whatever happened between them, White and Nesbitt continued to see each other for years afterward despite her taking on other lovers (including actor John Barrymore).   When Harry Thaw first saw Evelyn Nesbitt, White warned her of his violent temper and she stayed clear of him for a time.  After Harry impressed her with his wealth and generosity (including visiting her in hospital after she had an appendicitis attack), Evelyn  was won over.   Since she had not completely broken off her relationship with Stanford White, Harry  saw him as a rival and was furious when he learned that White had warned Evelyn about him.  

After White backed off, Harry Thaw proposed marriage to Evelyn and insisted that she accept, even after she admitted that she was no longer a virgin thanks to Stanford White.  While Thaw was furious at the revelation, he still insisted that Evelyn agree to marry him and even took her to an isolated German castle where he physically abused her with a bullwhip.   Evelyn only agreed to marry Harry after his mother convinced her that the marriage would curb her son's "eccentricities".   Harry Thaw and Evelyn Nesbitt were finally married on April 4, 1905 and moved to Pittsburgh where they lived with his mother.

Whatever hopes Evelyn and her mother-in-law had of curbing Harry's violent impulses ended when he and Evelyn visited New York in 1906.    On June 24, while they were on their way to the premiere of Mam'zelle Champagne at the outdoor Madison Square Garden Roof Theater,  Harry and Evelyn spotted Stanford White at the nearby Cafe Martin and later at the very same premier that they were attending.    After taking his wife back to the hotel,  Harry disappeared for a time and reappeared wearing a heavy black overcoat.   Despite the hot weather, he refused to take off the overcoat and insisted on wearing it at the premiere.    After leaving his own seat during the performance, he wandered through the theater and was seen approaching White's table several times.   Finally, during the show's finale, Harry whipped out a pistol and fired three shots into White's face screaming, "You've ruined my life!" (other witnesses suggested that he might have said "You've ruined my wife!").     Stanford White was killed instantly although the other theatre patrons, believing that the shooting was part of the show, didn’t react at first.  

After the shooting, Harry walked out of the theatre with his gun still out in the open.  When Evelyn asked her husband what he had done, he calmly replied that he had probably saved her life.   Police quickly caught up to him and he was arrested without incident.  On being arraigned at the Jefferson Market Courthouse, he was then transferred to the Manhattan Detention Complex (a.k.a.  The Tombs) where he was held for trial. 

Mary Thaw spared no expense in defending her son.   Spending astronomical sums of money (up to $1,000,000 in 1906 dollars according to some sources), she hired a team of defense attorneys and even staged a play featuring characters named Harold Daw and Stanford Black that twisted the facts of the case to her son's benefit.  Most notoriously, she persuaded Evelyn to testify that Stanford White had threatened her and that her husband was simply protecting her.   In return, Evelyn would receive a divorce from Harry along with a million-dollar divorce settlement.   Evelyn played her part beautifully (she was an actress, after all) and helped secure her husband a hung jury for his first trial in 1907.   

Unfortunately for Harry, shooting one of New York's most prominent citizens in front of witnesses ensured enough outrage to force a second trial.   On the advice of his attorney, Marvin Littleton, Harry Thaw changed his plea to guilty and testified that he had killed White after experiencing a "brainstorm"  (a form of temporary insanity).    Evidence was also presented by the defense that there was a history of insanity in Harry's family (which likely didn't please his mother and sister).  Harry Thaw was found not guilty by reason of insanity and sentenced  to the Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Fishkill, New York (now the Fishkill Correctional Facility).  

Despite Harry having almost complete freedom while serving his sentence, he was apparently not satisfied with that.  On August 17, 1913, with the help of one of the hospital staff, Harry Thaw walked out of the asylum and arranged to be smuggled across the border to Sherbrooke, Quebec.    He and his lawyer fought extradition but he was eventually returned to the United States and returned to the hospial.  After impressing a jury that he was sane, he was released in 1915.  

But this was hardly the last legal scrape for him, mind you.    The year after his release, Harry was charged with horsewhipping (and possibly sexually assaulting) a teenage boy named Fred Gump Junior.  Harry  escaped to Philadelphia where he was found with his throat slashed.  Although the suicide attempt failed, he was found insane by the courts again and committed to an asylum for seven years before being released in 1924.   His mother quietly settled the case with the Gump family.     After his release, Harry later went into film making and founded a movie company in Long Island although he eventually gave it all up and moved to Florida   By the time of his death from coronary thromobisis in 1947, Harry Thaw was living quietly at his home in Florida, his long history of violence well behind him.

As for Evelyn Nesbitt, she got her divorce from Harry Thaw in 1916 but never received the promised divorce settlement (Harry later left her $10,000 in his will).   While she gave birth to her only child, Russell William Thaw in 1910 and insisted that Harry was the father,  he  denied it vigorously (the baby was conceived and born while he was still in custody).   After her divorce, Evelyn remarried although this second marriage didn't last long either.  Despite other relationships (including a rumoured reconciliation with Harry Thaw), she would say shortly before her death in 1967 that Stanford White was the only man she had really loved.

The Stanford White shooting has inspired a lengthy list of fictional and non-fictional books and movies.   Harry Thaw and Evelyn Nesbitt both wrote books about their experiences although the most famous version was likely  E.L. Doctorow's book, Ragtime,  which was later adapted into a movie and a musical.    The Madison Square Gardens building designed by Stanford White was torn down in 1924 and the venue moved to its new location over Penn Station.   Although several of Stanford White's other buildings are still standing (including the Washington Square Arch in Washington Square Park picture right), no other physical traces remain of the long-ago murder that shocked New York City.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Einstein Factor

Eduard Einstein's future seemed to be a bright one.

Born in 1910 as the younger son of physicist Albert Einstein and his first wife, Mileva Maric, his early academic ability was apparent enough.  Despite frequent illness throughout his childhood, Eduard enjoyed a warm relationship with both of his parents although he was especially close to his mother who gave him the nickname "Tede".   Both Eduard and his older brother, Hans Albert, were deeply affected after their parents divorced in 1919 although Mileva and Albert did their best to ensure their children's welfare.   Despite Albert's remarriage, he continued to play an active role in his sons' lives as they grew up in Zurich (he referred to them both as "die Barchen"-little bears).  The prize money that Albert received after winning the Nobel prize in 1921 was placed in trust for both boys (although their mother could draw upon the interest as needed).

Although his time was often taken up by his work, Albert tried to see his sons when he could.  Travel from Berlin to Zurich was often difficult due to the political climate.  As a prominent Jew, Albert Einstein was a natural target for the rising antisemitism of the time, especially with the growing Nazi movement.  "Anti-Einstein" rallies were common and the ten-hour train ride from Berlin to Zurich could be dangerous at times.  His frequent absences had a strong effect on Eduard who often railed against his absent father.  While Albert was proud of both his sons, he and Mileva grew increasingly worried about Eduard's frequent illnesses and early signs of emotional instability.  Since Mileva's sister, Zorka, suffered from mental illness, both parents were well aware of the familial risks despite Eduard's passion for learning and his amazing memory. It would be later said of him that "Eduard inherited from his father the facial traits and the musical talents, from his mother the tendency to melancholy".

A sensitive child, Eduard often wrote poetry and had planned to study medicine (he wanted to become a Freudian analyst).  Throughout his late adolescence and early adulthood, he became increasingly moody, withdrawn, and suicidal.  Treatment with various doctors (including Sigmund Freud himself) had little benefit and he was later diagnosed with schizophrenia.  In 1932, Eduard was placed in the University of Zurich psychiatric hospital, Burgholzli for the first time.  Although he would later be released into his mother's care whenever his condition improved,  he would eventually spend the rest of his life in and out of the hospital.  Despite the trust fund that had been established for Eduard by his father, his mother was overwhelmed by the costs of his medical care and was forced to sell two of the three houses that she owned.  To prevent the loss of her one remaining house, Mileva transferred ownership to Albert in 1933.

By 1932, the political situation in Europe had worsened.  Albert and his second wife, Elsa, traveled to the United States and a new position at Princeton University.  Although he had initially planned to shuttle between Princeton and his academic posting in Berlin, Hitler's coming to power on January 30, 1933 changed all that.  Albert renounced his German citizenship and arranged to stay in the US but returned to Europe that year to wrap up his affairs and deliver several lectures at different European universities.  At Mileva's request, Albert went to Switzerland one last time to see Eduard.  It was a heartbreaking experience for the physicist since there was little sign of the Eduard that he had known.  After playing his violin for Eduard and failing to get any response, he left Burgholzi.  Albert returned to Princeton and never saw Mileva or Eduard again.  Hans Albert Einstein, already married and with children of his own emigrated to the US in 1938.  Unfortunately, this was not an option for Eduard given the rigid immigration policies of the time (it was a marvel that Albert was allowed in, given his socialist leanings). 

The onset of World War II made life difficult for both Eduard and Mileva.  As it was, however, they were both very fortunate in being Swiss nationals.  Even if Eduard had somehow managed to survive Aktion T4 which led to the deaths of thousands of mental patients across Nazi-occupied Europe, he (and possibly even his mother) would certainly have died in the Holocaust that followed (as did many of Albert`s relatives).  The end of the war in 1945 brought little relief.  The financial and emotional burden of caring for her invalid son overwhelmed Mileva whose only real income involved giving private tutoring in mathematics and piano.  When Mileva died in 1948, she was penniless and was buried in Zurich's Nordheim cemetery in an unmarked grave.  With his mother gone, Eduard was permanently institutionalized at Burgholzli.  While Albert continued to provide financially for his younger son until his own death in 1955, there was no direct contact between them.  On more than one occasion, Albert went so far as to say that it would have been better if Eduard had not been born.

Despite Eduard having little contact with the outside world, his illustrious surname and his status as the son of the world's widely renowned physicist ensured that he was not completely forgotten.  He died of a stroke in 1965 and only survived his famous father by ten years. Buried in Zurich's Honggerberg Cemetery (in a different cemetery from his beloved mother), he has been largely overlooked in death.  While there is still controversy over the circumstances that led to Albert's divorce from Mileva and whether he neglected his family in Zurich, there is little surviving information surrounding the early signs of Eduard's mental illness.  Athough Eduard's case has often been used to generate public interest in schizophrenia, he continues to be as much a mystery in death as he was in life.

What Causes Homophobia?

Research indicates that antigay bias follows a specific pattern (and probably has throughout written history, at least in the West): (a) men evince more antigay bias than women; (b) men who belong to traditionally male coalitions evince more antigay bias than those who do not; (c) antigay bias is targeted more at gay men than at lesbians; and (d) antigay bias is targeted more at effeminate gay men than at masculine gay men. In a new article published in the journal Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, the authors propose the coalitional value theory (CVT) of antigay bias to explain this pattern. The CVT argues that men evolved psychological systems to facilitate coalitional formation and regulation and that these systems may lead to antigay bias because men perceive gay men as possessing lower coalitional value for traditionally male coalitions.  The authors tested the CVT in 4 studies. In Study 1, gay men were perceived as less masculine than straight men and as less competent at traditionally masculine activities. In Studies 2 and 3, masculine gay men were rated as more competent than and chosen over feminine straight men in traditionally masculine activities. In Study 4, actual coalitional contribution predicted men’s perceptions of other men’s derogation more than did sexual orientation. The authors also found that men’s preferences for masculinity diminished in nontraditionally masculine tasks such as poetry, suggesting that men’s assessments are contingent upon the nature of the task. This offers a possible palliative for antigay bias: coalitional pluralism, which we discuss.

For the abstract

Providentia- Year 10

This week marks the tenth anniversary of my Providentia blog.  It's been a long journey but I managed to stick with it and, in the process, learned to beef up my writing skills and, hopefully, educate some people on the wide and wacky world of psychology and some of the stranger aspects of our world, past, present, and future.    As new writing challenges develop, including my other blog at Psychology Today and my book writing (did I mention I had a book?), I will find time to stay with this blog and the one at Psychology Today.    These past ten years have been a privilege and I look forward to many more years as well.

 

The Great American Witchhunt (Part Three)

Continued from Part Tw0

Interestingly enough, all three men convicted of Nelson Rehmeyer's murder did relatively well in prison.   Certainly none of them served their full sentence and managed to return to their lives, albeit older and somewhat wiser.   After being sent to the notorious Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia,  they all became model prisoners.   In fact, Hess and Curry became "born again" after attending services held at the prison by the Women's Christian Temperance Union.   

Wilbert Hess was the first to be paroled in 1939 after serving ten years in prison.  He returned to his family harm, got married, and began a long career as a factory worker.   Beyond that, he largely vanished into obscurity.   As for John Curry, he had a more interesting career, in and out prison.   His first cellmate was Claude D'Aras,  a former student at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.   After D'Aras discovered that Curry had a talent for art, he taught him to sketch and work with paints.   A prison volunteer who was also a gifted artist later took over Curry's art education and taught him to paint landscapes using paints he purchased with the 20 cents a day he earned working in a prison office.  After a transfer to the lower-security Rockview Prison, Curry was eventually paroled in 1939, the same year as Wilbert Hess.  Following his release, he served as a cartographer during World War II and helped produce the maps that would aid in the Invasion of Normandy.   Following the end of the war, he supported himself by painting portraits  before fading into obscurity they way Wilbert Hess did.

As for John Blymer, he reportedly served his prison sentence quietly with no indication of any resentment over his long incarceration.   It must have seemed an interesting tradeoff for him:  prison in exchange for being freed of the hex that had carried for as long as he could remember.   Despite repeated attempts to get his sentence commuted,  he was not released until 1953 when he too returned home.  After remarrying and having more children, he worked in obscurity as a janitor and night watchman.    Though his famous crime ensured that he never completely faded from the public eye, he managed to live quietly enough.  He died in 1972.

But the story of the York Country Hex Murder has taken on a life of its own.   Though the house where Nelson Rehmeyer died is no longer standing, the surrounding area is now known as Rehmeyer's Hollow and local lore has made it a prime source for ghost stories.   It has also become a tourist haunt, something that vexes the farmer living on the land where Rehmeyer's house once stood.  In a 1995 news story, he pointed out the cinder blocks that are the only remaining part of the original house.   He also described the odd antics of many of the curiosity-seekers who come to the area in search of the house and evidence of the "powwow magic" that lays at the heart of the story.  Some hopeful visitors even ask him if he was a witch (whether they are in the market for cures or curses was never clear).

Much of the remaining public interest in Nelson Rehmeyer's murder stems from a 1969  book, Hex,  by Arthur H. Lewis as well as  a 1989 movie, Apprentice to Murder, starring Donald Sutherland.  There are also various tours of Rehmeyer's Hollow available to anyone willing to pay.   The most popular of these is the Hex Hollow Haunted Hayride run by the local volunteer fire company (and providing a good chunk of the company's annual operating revenues).  

Not everyone enjoys the attention however.   The Rehmeyer family continues to deny many of the claims made about their murdered ancestor, especially about him being a powwow doctor.   Also, a tenant living on the property describes how his two-year old has often been bothered by late-night chants of "Witch, Witch" shouted out by ghosthunters (most often around Halloween).   For the visitors though, visiting the site of a witch murder is something they seem to find hard to take seriously.

But the witchhunting furor that doomed Nelson Rehmeyer hasn't been completely forgotten.  In 1934, just a few years after Rehmeyer's murder, another homicide involving an accused witch occurred in Ringtown, Pennsylvania, not that far from York County.   63-year-old Susannah Mummey, a reclusive widow with somewhat of a "reputation" for being a seer,  was shot and killed by an unknown gunman while she was sitting in her house with her daughter and a tenant.  As police later determined, the gunman had stood on her front porch and fired repeatedly through the window, narrowly missing the others while putting a bullet right through Mummey's heart.   Their investigation also determined that the dead woman was notorious for supposedly putting the "evil eye" on people who displeased her.  One neighbour even went to far as to say he was glad she was dead since she had "hexed" his mules.    Eventually, the police arrested 17-year-old Al Shinsky, a local youth who blamed Susannah Mummey for the "physical and mental torment" he experienced after she hexed him.  During his interrogation, Shinsky claimed that a "spirit from the sky" descended and told him to kill Mummey to break the spell on him, which he did.   Unlike Nelson Rehmeyer's killers, Al Shinsky was found insane and sent to a local psychiatric hospital.  He would spent the next forty-one years there before being released.

While the belief in witches remains strong in other parts of the world, including frequent witch killings, there haven't been any recent murder cases suggesting active witch hysteria in the United States.   Certainly there are still "powwow doctors" in parts of rural Appalachia and vodun practitioners in the southern U.S., or at least there were until recently.   Old traditions die hard though and, given the widespread belief in demonic possession and faith healing that still grips many areas, who can say whether those days are gone completely?    

 

The Lanfray Murders

It was a crime that nobody would have expected in peaceful Switzerland.

Jean Lanfray was a 31-year old labourer who lived with his pregnant wife and two children on the second floor of a farmhouse in Commugny, Switzerland. His parents and brother lived downstairs. A burly, ex-soldier (he had served three years in the French army), Lanfray would later be described as a devoted family man who worked hard to support his growing family.

At 4:30 am on August 28, 1905,  Lanfray got up from bed as usual. He then began his day with his regular shot of absinthe mixed with three parts of water. He and his wife quarreled briefly as he insisted that she wax his boots (they had been quarreling fairly frequently over the past year about his drinking). Jean then went to join his father and brothers in the vineyards where they worked. Despite this heavy workload, he still managed to find time to stop off at a local tavern and down more alcohol (the police would be very conscientious about later documenting all the alcohol he had that day).

Ending his work at 4:30 pm (there had been two more wine breaks in the meantime), Lanfray and his brothers dropped into a local cafe where he had black coffee mixed with brandy. After finally going home, he found his wife in an extremely bad mood. The fight began with Lanfray refusing to milk the cows and ordering his wife to milk them herself. Although his father tried to head off the worsening argument, Jean Lanfray exploded with rage. Despite his father`s desperate protests, he got his rifle and shot his wife in the head. She died almost instantly while his father ran out of the house screaming for help. When four-year old Rose ran into the room, she screamed at the sight of her dead mother. He shot her in the chest and went to the crib where one-year old Blanche was sleeping. After killing the infant as well, Jean Lanfray then attempted to shoot himself in the head. He made several clumsy attempts (due to the length of the barrel, he needed to use a string to pull the trigger) and finally managed to fire the gun. The bullet missed his brain completely and lodged in his lower jaw. Tucking Blanche`s corpse under one arm, he went into the barn and laid down on the ground to sleep; apparently with the intention of bleeding to death before the police arrived.

The police reached Jean Lanfray in time and took him to a nearby hospital where the bullet was removed. Described by the police as "dazed and incoherent", he fell asleep after the surgery and denied any knowledge of the murders when he regained consciousness  After being taken to see the bodies of his wife and daughters, he became inconsolable. A nurse later reported that Lanfray moaned over and over again, "It is not me who did this. Oh God, tell me please that I have not done this.; I loved my wife and children so much".

Almost from the beginning, people searched for an explanation of why such an inconceivable crime could have happened. The autopsy results that showed Madame Lanfray being four months pregnant with a boy roused the townspeople even further. A town meeting was held on September 5th of that year where the people on Commugny heard speaker after speaker linking Lanfray's violence to a single culprit: absinthe.

Distilled from the flowers and leaves of artemisia absinthium (wormwood), absinthe is a green liqueur-like alcohol drink that was the basis of a 100 million dollar industry at the time of the Lanfray murders. Through its long association with "bohemian" culture, artists, and intellectuals, the liqueur (also known as the "green fairy") had always been viewed with suspicion by conservatives.  Despite efforts to ban its use, consumption in France alone rose fifteen-fold between 1875 and 1913 alone. Since some absinthe manufacturers also used unusual (and occasionally toxic) additives to give their product an extra "kick", the results were often unpredictable.  

Temperance movements particularly targeted absinthe for its psychoactive properties and the addiction problems that it supposedly caused. Medical researchers produced studies showing the potentially destructive effects of absinthe and even proposed a new term, "absinthism" resulting from prolonged absinthe use. Symptoms of absinthism included seizures, hallucinations, speech impairments, and eventually death. Although these early studies often lacked real validity, they were enough to help the anti-absinthe temperance movement push for a total ban.

The primary factor for absinthe's notoriety seems to be one of the chemicals found in absinthe. A GABA-receptor antagonist, thujone is a; ketone found in wormwood that has been believed to cause psychedelic effects in those taking it. While absinthe only contains small amounts of thujone, early researchers were quick to link the chemical to the various psychiatric symptoms associated with absinthism.

The fact that Jean Lanfray had consumed absinthe on the day of the murders (along with numerous other alcoholic beverages) seemed enough to implicate it's role in the tragedy. During Lanfray's 1906 trial, his attorneys certainly attempted to lay as much blame as possible on his absinthe use. A Swiss psychiatrist, Dr. Albert Mahaim, was called in to testify about Lanfray's absinthism although the judge and prosecutor remained skeptical. Jean Lanfray was found guilty on all three counts of murder and sentenced to thirty years in prison. Although he was found hanged in his cell three days after the verdict, the closing of the case did nothing to stop the hysterical anti-absinthe crusade that he had helped set in motion.

In 1906, following a petition with 82,000 signatures, the Swiss government banned the sale and use of absinthe. Despite efforts by absinthe manufacturers to reverse this decision, the Swiss Constitution was changed to make absinthe illegal in 1910. Publicity over the Lanfray case and efforts by temperance activists led to similar bans across Europe and the United States (only the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Spain failed to follow suit). There is a certain irony in the absinthe ban considering it occurred at a time when heroin and cocaine were still legal (although the trend towards banning all addictive substances was only just beginning).

Absinthe continued to be sold by bootleggers and it gained a reputation as a dangerously addictive substance that would take decades to shake. By the 1990s, the trend towards legalizing absinthe began as it became clear that absinthe's dangers were greatly exaggerated. Since 2000, Switzerland and other countries have reversed their ban and the United States began allowing the importation and manufacture of absinthe in 2007.

While still illegal in some countries, the green fairy definitely seems to be back.