Providentia

The Man Who Raised the Dead (Part Two)

Continued from Part One

It's hard to say what inspired Thomas McMonigle to try for a place in medical history.

Convicted in 1946 for the murder of 15-year-old Thora Chamberlain, McMonigle was sentenced to death despite his victim's body never being found.   McMonigle took advantage of that during the trial by alleging that Thora was still alive and working as a prostitute somewhere.  Then again, he also claimed that she had fallen out of his car, or else that he had hidden the body somewhere in San Mateo country (he could never be quite certain where), etc.   Along with Monigle's repeated fabrications, jurors were also forced to come to terms with his strange dual existence.  Along with having been a full-time truck driver who was married at the tie of his arrest, but also had a lengthy history of assaults and rapes.  He also confessed to killing another woman at about the same time that Thora Chamberlain disappeared but, once again, no body had ever been found).   Which is likely why it only took a few hours for the jury to  find him guilt and  for the judge to sentence him to death.  It also helped explain why his repeated appeals all failed.

And yet, when McMonigle contacted Robert E. Cornish shortly after being sentenced to death and asked to be part of his reanimation research, he had little difficulty convincing the scientist that he was serious.  While Cornish's experiments had stalled years earlier due to the lack of a suitable human subject (executed corpses are harder to come by than you might think), he was still intrigued enough by the request to visit McMonigle on San Quentin's Death Row.   In a letter that Cornish then wrote to California governor in 1947, he asked for permission to use the condemned prisoner in his experiment.    "McMonigle apparently believes in his innocence and hopes that the execution will not take place," his letter read.  "But in the unhappy event that he is placed in the gas chamber, he wishes to give us his body for experimental purposes. McMonigle wishes that we should attempt to revive him after he was declared dead.  He feels that if this should prove possible, the successful method could then be used to save the lives of countless innocent persons who would otherwise die permanently from drowning, from electric or other shock, or from asphyxiation."    

As for the legal ramifications if the revival was successful, Cornish  stressed that the condemned man was well aware that he would  remain in prison if the experiment worked.  Since no execution date had been set, Cornish said that he would need at least six months advance notice to make the needed preparations if the experiment went ahead.   Given that McMonigle's body would have to be as fresh as possible,  the revival would have to begin within minutes of the execution and with the full consent of the prison staff.   

Cornish also acknowledged that his previous experiments  had not been the complete success that he had hoped (Lazarus V, the last dog to be revived, had been left blind by the experiment ).  He had also tried his apparatus on a human subject in 1933, a 62-year-old heart patient named Walter Gosse, but this experiment had failed as well.    Despite these failures, Cornish assured Governor Warren that he would be continuing the dog experiments to perfect his revival technique.  He also added that similar experiments had been tried in other countries, including Russia where researchers had claimed to be successful (no further details were provided).   Recognizing the bizarre nature of his request, Cornish also offered to meet with Governor Warren and discuss the proposal in more detail.

Newspapers had a field day with the story including  headlines such as "Savant May Cheat Death,"  Thomas McMonigle probably enjoyed all the publicity but prison officials certainly didn't.   Almost immediately after the first stories came out, San Quentin  Warden Clinton Duffy categorically denied that he would ever allow such an experiment in his prison.  "Either the next of kin will claim McMonigle's body or he will be buried in the prison cemetery," he said in an interview.  "No doctor will try any experiments."  Duffy added that, due to safety procedures following executions, McMonigle's body would remain in the death chamber for at least an hour after the execution which would render the body unfit for revival.   Perhaps fittingly, he also noted that "I don't think it would be legal for McMonigle to give directions for what might happen after he is in another world."  To add insult to injury, Patsy Ruth Fergus, the blind girl to whom McMonigle had offered his corneas for transplantation in the event that Cornish's proposal was rejected,  announced that she wasn't interested.   Though she declined the offer with thanks, she added that she "didn't like the idea of seeing through a dead person's eyes."  

And that was it for Thomas McMonigle.   After exhausting numerous appeals, he was finally executed on  February 20, 1948 and protested his innocence to the end.  No word on what became of his body afterward.

As for Robert Cornish, he was likely bemused to find that numerous people from across the country were offering to take McMonigle's place in his reanimation experiment.  One offer came from an ex-Canadian war veteran who was having trouble making ends meet on his limited pension.  He offered the use of his body on the condition that he receive a wood and coal range, a comfortable chair, and a hot water heater to enjoy following his successful reanimation.   Cornish had no difficulty turning these various offers down.   "It's preposterous to think I would kill people to further my work," he said.  "It's different asking for bodies of men who have been condemned to death."   

With no realistic prospect of following through on his reanimation experiments, he stopped them completely.  Instead he undertook a series of bizarre projects in the following years.   For example, he earned headlines by training  a five-legged frog that was entered  in the annual Jumping Frog Jubilee in Calaveras County (the frog lost).   He was also publicly consulted about the prospect of reviving a frog that had been found frozen in a glacier centuries before.   Despite his expertise with reanimation and frogs, Cornish remained skeptical. 

Aside from a conviction in 1954 for making adulterated tooth powder (don't ask), his later life seemed strangely uneventful for a man whose scientific career had begun with such promise.  Robert E. Cornish died of a heart attack in 1963, he was fifty-nine.   Never having married, he was  survived by his siblings and their children.  His official obituary listed his long-ago experiments with reviving dogs but no other accomplishments of note.

While there was likely no possibility that the proposed experiment with Thomas McMonigle's body would have ever been allowed, the prospect of reanimating a body declared clinically dead doesn't seem as implausible as it used to be.   Advances in emergency medicine has led to some remarkable stories of survival as long as the brain is kept properly oxygenated to prevent tissue damage.   Given concerns about double jeopardy, we aren't going to be seeing experiments like the one Robert Cornish planned any time soon.   If  nothing else, we can still enjoy the horror movies he helped inspire. 

Mad Joanna

She is still known in history as Joanna the Mad (a.k.a, Joanna la Loca).

Born in 1479 as the second daughter of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon (yes, that Ferdinand and Isabella of Christopher Columbus fame), she had a reputation from an early age of being morbid.  With a longstanding taste for the macabre, Joanna was intensely superstitious and obsessed with death.  According to one story, she told her governess that she wanted to try on her skeleton and cried when her governess informed her that the skeleton was already inside her.  Although she originally wanted to be a nun, her parents knew that a marriage of state would be essential to strengthen their political position. 

While Joanna wasn't the heir (she had two brothers and an older sister), her arranged marriage to Archduke Philip of Burgundy (a.k.a. "Philip the Handsome"), only son of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I made perfect sense. It was actually a double marriage with Philip's sister marrying Joanna's brother Juan so you can imagine how glorious the wedding was.  Sadly, for Joanna, Philip was not a good husband.  A spoiled 16-year old brat with decadent tastes, his arranged marriage to a seventeen-year old princess with little experience of life was a disaster.  Although Joanna quickly fell in love with her husband, it didn't take long for him to neglect her in favour of other women who were more to his taste (he liked blondes).  Joanna had to go to extreme lengths to entice Philip back to her bed (as well as making sure none of her attendants were attractive enough to distract her husband).

Of course, the deaths of her brother Juan in 1497 and her sister in 1498 helped improve Joanna's position immensely.  It was the death of her infant brother Miguele in 1500 that led to Joanna being unexpectedly declared  heir apparent for her parents' throne. From the beginning, it was clear that Joanna was nothing more than a bargaining chip between her father and her increasingly ambitious husband.  Despite their growing family (they eventually had six children together), Philip was as distant as ever and he hated the Spanish climate.  When Philip returned to Flanders in 1502, Joanna tried to join him but was eventually locked up by her parents at their castle in La Mota.  Not only did Ferdinand and Isabella want Joanna to be prepared for her future role as queen, they distrusted Philip and his advisers.  It may have been around that time that the first rumours of Joanna's mental instability began (the court doctors diagnosed her as being "lovesick" but it was more likely postpartum depression worsened by her separation from her husband).  

After attempting to escape from La Mota, Joanna went into a hysterical rage and lashed out at her attendants and even her powerful mother.  Which was probably a mistake.  While Isabella allowed Joanna to return to Flanders in 1504, she also gave Philip and his courtiers 'full authority" to restrain Joanna "in the things that her passion can make her do".  Within a month of reaching Flanders, Philip had his wife confined for abusing the various women in his life (including one blonde courtier whose hair she ordered cut off).  Historical records say that Joanna went on a hunger strike and spent much of her free time mixing love potions from recipes provided her by her maids.   She and Philip would reconcile on occasion but the cycle of abuse and neglect would start up again quickly enough.

Whatever Isabella thought about her increasingly unstable daughter, she despised her son-in-law and had no intention of allowing him to rule her country.  While she was on her deathbed, Isabella added a clause to her will specifying that, should Joanna be "unwilling or unable to rule", Ferdinand would serve as her regent until Joanna's eldest son Charles came of age.  Philip was not happy with that arrangement and insisted that he be allowed to serve as regent instead.  It took a formal hearing by the Cortes, Spain's ruling body, to override him and declare Ferdinand regent based on testimony of Joanna's mental unfitness.  When Isabella died in 1504, Joanna became Queen Regnant of Castile and her husband was declared to be ruler de jure uxoris.  After being blocked from taking power himself, Philip would eventually enter into an agreement with Ferdinand (without consulting Joanna at all).  Whatever ambitions Philip had about replacing his father-in-law ended with his unexpected death from typhus in 1506.

Although Joanna had initially intended to rule Castile in her own name, her reputation for being "mad" worked against her.  Pregnant with her sixth child and with her eldest son being only six years old, Joanna was unable to stop the political crisis that arose after Philip's death.  It probably didn't help that there was an outbreak of plague at the time and Joanna seemed poorly suited to handle the crisis.  To prevent civil war, Ferdinand returned to Castile in 1507 and promptly took charge.  Joanna was ordered confined to a suite of rooms in the palace at Tordesillas in central Castille.  When Joanna reacted to Ferdinand's decree by refusing to bathe or change her clothes, the rumours of her madness spread even further.  In 1509, Ferdinand drafted an accord stripping Joanna of any royal authority and Ferdinand maintained his control over her with an iron grip.

Whether Joanna was really "mad" or not, Ferdinand's ruthless actions made political sense.  Not only was Joanna prevented from having any actual influence on government matters, she was also prevented from any remarriage that might have undermined her father's authority (among others, King Henry VII expressed interest in marrying the still-young widow).  The possibility that Joanna might be made a figurehead for any of Ferdinand's enemies was also ever-present.  Joanna's confinement at Tordesillas continued for the rest of her life.  Even Ferdinand's death in 1516 did nothing to change her imprisonment since her son, Charles, took over as regent.  Largely raised abroad, he regarded his mother as being little more than a stranger and he made sure that she was never seen in public.  

For forty-seven years until her death, Joanna was confined to one small chamber with no window and no natural light. Since she refused to eat in anyone's presence, her meals of bread and cheese were usually just left outside her room and her guards were fully authorized to punish Joanna with the "strap" whenever she acted out.  Actual details of Joanna's life at Tordesillas are rare (and usually tailored by her captors to justify her imprisonment) but the only joy in her life seemed to be caring for her youngest child, Catalina, with the help of her two female servants. 

Even this one comfort was eventually denied her when Catalina married in 1525 and Joanna was left alone.  By the time of her death on April 12, 1555, she was paralyzed from the waist down and her legs were covered by painful ulcers.  After a muted royal funeral, Queen Joanna was laid to rest beside her husband and their bodies were later placed in the Royal Chapel at Granada along with the bodies of her parents.  A statue in her honour still stands in Tordesillas and the convent where she spent so long is a tourist attraction.

So, was Joanna mad?  You be the judge.

Human Trafficking and Oppression

Human trafficking is maintained within a context of intersecting forms of oppression. Cultural oppression, including racism and ethnic bias, creates additional risk for human trafficking and generates unique challenges for prevention and intervention. According to a new article published in the journal Woman and Therapy, there are cultural strengths that survivors of human trafficking have that may be utilized to aid their recovery process as well as psychotherapeutic interventions. In addition to traditionally recognized legal and economic strategies, ending human trafficking requires engagement in interrupting the factors that increase vulnerability to human trafficking, including racism and ethnic bias. By combating oppression, abolitionists can work to create a society that is committed to ending slavery.

For the abstract

How Much is Too Much Stress?

What are the warning signs of too much stress?   Answering that question is harder than you might think.

Stress can build up in all sorts of ways, whether through major life events (such as losing your job or ending a marriage), or simply through a buildup of daily hassles that can reach a breaking point.   But not all stressful experiences will affect us in the same way.   According to Hans Selye, feelings of stress occur when our sense of homeostasis is disrupted and our body relies on inner resources to restore that natural balance.   Which is fine until the stress builds up to the point that our inner resources are exhausted and we lose this ability to adapt to what is happening.   That is when we reach that physiological and psychological breaking point more commonly known as "stress overload."   It is also when be become particularly vulnerable to a wide range of physical and mental problems linked to too much stress.

But what are some of the signs that stress overload is occurring?    While numerous stress symptoms have been identified, including fatigue, insomnia, headaches, etc., these can apply to anyone feeling stressed, whether they are feeling overloaded or not.  While these symptoms may tell us that we need to relax, they don't work as warning signs that health problems related to stress are imminent.   

A new research study published in the International Journal of Stress Management takes a closer look at the kind of symptoms  seen in people experiencing  stress overload and how they are often overlooked.  

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

Lawsuit Claims Sexual Abuse by Exorcist Priest

A new lawsuit brought against a prominent exorcist/priest alleges that the plaintiff, an unnamed 32-year-old woman, was repeatedly sexually assaulted under the premise that he was ridding her of "demonic infestation."  According to the lawsuit, Father Thomas Euteneuer, a former head of anti-abortion group Human Life International (HLI), first came into contact with the woman in 2008 when she was 24 years old.   Along his HLI work, the 50-year-old priest was also under the supervision of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia.   The lawsuit describes her initial contact with him in which he had her sign an "agreement for spiritual help" and then told her that she need to cooperate fully so that he could drive out the demons that were plaguing her.

Almost immediately after the sessions with Father Euteneuer began, he began touching her inappropriately.  He then took her to HLI headquarters in Charlottesville, Virginia where he carried her to a guest bedroom.  He then "laid her on the bed, embraced her, touched her under her bra, and attempted to touch her under her underclothes, which the plaintiff stopped”according to her statement.  He then spent the rest of the night in bed with her.   

Between April and June 2008, the exorcism sessions continued and "created in the plaintiff a distorted and damaging belief that exorcism was tied to sexual activity.”   Though she kept what had happened secret for a time, she then disclosed the abuse to the Arlington Diocese victims' office in 2010.    While she was given spiritual and psychological counseling, a spokesman for the Diocese told her that they had no responsibility for Father Euteneuer who had not been authorized to carry out an exorcism.    Father Euteneuer resigned from his post at the HLI that year and was subsequently recalled to the Diocese in Palm Beach, Florida.   He also published a statement that he "violated the boundaries of chastity with an adult female who was under my spiritual care.”   

After other women made similar accusations, Palm Beach Bishop Gerald Barbarito announced that Euteneuer would be undergoing “intensive evaluation and counseling.”   They have since settled with the plaintiff (known only as "Jane Doe") for an undisclosed amount.   Father Euteneur's current whereabouts have not been made public.    The current lawsuit is directed against Human Life International and the Arlington diocese for their negligence in allowing the abuse to continue.

For more information

 

 

The Man Who Raised The Dead (Part One)

When Robert Edwin Cornish graduated from the University of California at Berkeley at the age of 18, no one doubted that the young prodigy had an amazing future ahead of him.   And they were right (sort of).

The oldest child of Berkeley City Attorney Frank Cornish, Robert actually began school at the age of eleven having been home schooled by his mother up to that point.  Once in university, he quickly distinguished himself as a brilliant student and the youngest student ever elected to Phi Beta Kappa at Berkeley, not to mention an accomplished musician.  By the time he was twenty-two, he had earned his doctorate and went on to become a research associate in anatomy at Berkeley.   It was there that he engaged in a series of ambitious, not to mention far-out, experiments in human physiology.     By 1932, he was already making headlines over stories such as inventing special lenses that could be used to read newspapers underwater as well as josquest to make synthetic vitamins.  In that same year, he distinguished himself further  by developing the first practical antidote to thallium poisoning in response to a health scare involving poisoned barley.   Not only was he directly credited with saving the lives of three children who had been accidentally poisoned, but he seemed on the verge of revolutionizing nutrition with his vitamin research. 

But what Robert E. Cornish would become best known for was inventing a machine to reanimate the dead.  

While  hardly the first to make this claim, he had the advantage of living in an era in which the boundary between life and death was already being pushed back due to advances in emergency medicine.   Along with improved methods of artificial respiration and blood transfusion,  surgeons were routinely carrying out operations that might have been impossible just a few years earlier.   In an article which he wrote in 1934, Cornish described in detail the process he was planning to use to revive the recently deceased.  

As he explained in his article, the reanimation process had four essential steps:   first, remove or neutralize the agent causing death, second, conduct artificial respiration,  third, restart the heart, and fourth, nurse the patient back to health.   While his first experiments involved using electric shock to restart the heart, Cornish eventually decided that it was too dangerous to patients who might be left insane as a result.  As an alternative, he used a "teeter board" allowing gravity to produce artificial respiration.  Essentially a see-saw, the board allowed the body to be teeterded at regular intervals (about every six to eight seconds) with which  Cornish and his colleagues hoped to create enough blood flow to  get the heart started again.  

While the teetering was taking place, Cornish and his colleagues also planned to monitor the heart carefully using stethoscopes and, if necessary, injecting additional fluid into the body to build up arterial pressure to the necessary level.   The fluid would consist of human blood mixed with heparin to reduce clotting.   They would also inject epinephrine to constrict the smaller arteries and build up the required arterial pressure.  While all this was happening, intermittent pressure to the heart, along with brief blasts of oxygen to the lungs, would help compress the fine capillaries in the lungs and, hopefully, get the heart restarted.

Though Cornish suggested that this grandiose plan could be tried out on an executed prisoner, he was obliged to start small.   His first subject, a mongrel terrier named Lazarus IV (no word on what happened to Lazarus I through III), had been deliberately asphyxiated  and then subjected to the teeter-board process in April, 1934.   In describing this experiment, Cornish carefully pointed out that the dog had met all clinical tests of death before the reanimation process began.  While the dog was successfully revived, Cornish didn't consider the experiment a success since the dog's brain had been left permanently damaged by what had happened.   Though all physical functions were restored, the dog seemed sluggish in responding to commands and Cornish suggested that much more research would be needed before anything similar could be tried with a human.

"The world must not jump to the conclusion that we, in our humble experiments with the dog, have arrived at a solution for death,"  he told reporters.  "We do know. as a result of these experiments, that we have taken a dog, asphyxiated it, and by scientific experimentation have brought the dog back to the point where it eats normal dog meals, sleeps, breathes, and lives.   Whether it lives constantly in a world of today, or exists in a world of shadows, we have no way of knowing.  Further research or greater study by higher scientists may one day return that answer.  Until we know the answer to that riddle, we shall try no human experiments."

Despite his caution, Cornish's success with Lazarus IV and a second dog, Lazarus V, made the notion of  successfully reanimating the dead seem distinctly plausible.  Movies featuring scientists restoring the dead to life became increasingly popular during the late 1930s and 1940s, largely due to Robert Cornish's research.  One movie that came out in 1935, Life Returns, actually featured a charismatic scientist who was largely based on Robert Cornish (who also appeared as himself in the movie).  

Reanimating the dead also became a standard staple in horror movies including such classics as The Walking Dead (1934) and  The Man They Could Not Hang (1939).   In both movies, Boris Karloff played a character who is executed and revived using methodology not that dissimilar to Cornish's research (The Walking Dead even featured a teeter-board).   Not surprisingly, reviving the dead doesn't turn out so well onscreen (they were horror films, after all) with more than a hint that Cornish and others like him were dabbling in matters best left alone.

Despite the misgivings raised by his research, Robert Cornish was more than willing to take his experiments to the next level and try reviving a human being.  Since his work with dogs had allowed him to refine his method, he felt reasonably certain that he could succeed in restoring a recently executed criminal.   He even described how he would counteract the effects of hydrocyanic acid fumes (such as in a standard gas chamber) by using methylene blue, an antidote for cyanide poisoning.  This would be quickly followed by the reanimation process that he had used with dogs and, hopefully, lead to a successful revival.

As you might imagine, approaching officials at San Quentin and other prisons where executions were conducted went nowhere.   Until, that is, when a condemned prisoner named Thomas McMonigle contacted Robert Cornish and offered himself as a test subject.

Which was when things got interesting....

Continue to Part Two

 

The Ginger Jake Blues

Much like every new craze, it probably seemed like a good idea at the time.

Patent medicines containing Jamaican ginger had been available since the 19th century and were used for treating various medical complaints.  Familiar names such as "Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound" (a.k.a. Lily the Pink) were extremely popular, not only for their presumed medicinal value, but also for their alcohol content.   Packaged in syrup or tincture form, the ginger was often dissolved in alcohol (as much as 90 per cent in some cases).   Commonly known as "jake", the ginger extract was sold in pharmacies and considered to be perfectly safe in dealing with minor colds, menstrual cramps, and digestive problems.

Unfortunately, things changed when the U.S. Treasury department began investigating the alcoholic content found in most jake products.   After the Stock Market crash of 1929,  jake became increasingly popular as a low-cost alternative to the inflated prices that bootleggers charged for liquor.  Since Prohibition was still in force,  producers of jake attempted to bypass alcohol control laws by claiming that the ginger content made their product "undrinkable".  Mixing jake with soft drinks such as Coca Cola helped hide the ginger flavour so this was hardly a deterrent for serious drinkers. As a result, jake sales soared in "dry" parts of the country.  Alcohol was still alcohol however and the pressure was on to make jake more acceptable.   Various alternative ingredients went into bootleg jake  (including castor oil and molasses) but the "kick" that the alcohol had brought to the product was still lacking.

Beginning in early 1930, a disturbing new illness began sweeping much of the country.   The first five instances was seen in an Oklahoma hospital on February 27, 1930 by Dr. Ephraim Goldfrain on the same day.   Characterized by aching calf muscles, numbness in the legs, and eventual loss of sensation, the disease progressed to muscle weakness and paralysis which was irreversible in some cases.    Although sudden paralysis was usually associated with polio or lead poisoning, these were quickly ruled out as possible causes.  The strange new disease could be identified by the peculiar "foot drop" (and occasionally "wrist drop" as well).   Over the first six months of 1930, more than 400 cases were identified at Cincinnati General Hospital alone with cases being reported in Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas, Ohio, and Kansas as well.  

No children were affected and virtually all victims were men (usually poverty-stricken alcoholics).  Careful questioning of the various patients implicated ginger jake (one of the victims happened to be a pharmacist who sold the product in his own store).  This led to quite a medical puzzle since Jamaican ginger products had been sold for decades with no previous problems being identified.   As newspapers took notice of the strange epidemic, various nicknames for the disease became common including "jake leg", "jake walk", "jakeitis", and "gingerfoot". 

Alarmed by the epidemic linked to ginger jake, the Treasury Department's Bureau of Industrial Alcohol began testing available jake supplies.   Based on laboratory findings, approximately two percent of the affected alcohol contained tri-orthocresal phosphate (TOCP), a common industrial plasticizer.   When the adulterated jake was given to test rabbits, they were found to develop similar symptoms (monkeys and dogs were apparently immune).  The Food and Drug Administration seized most shipments of ginger jake and the adulterated jake was eventually traced to Hub Products, a company in Boston.    Based on their investigation, it turned out that the company was a shell run by two  bootleggers, Harry Gross and Max Reisman (who also happened to be brothers-in-law).   They were well-known to the Treasury department for their various illegal alcohol operations.  

By 1928,  Gross and Reisman had formed their latest venture, Hub Products, and went into full-time production of Jamaican ginger extract.    Since they also happened to be amateur chemists (many bootleggers were back then), they experimented with different ingredients to avoid the problems associated with the usual additives  and to give their jake some "kick".    Given that Treasury agents often tested suspect jake by boiling it, they needed something that would be cheap, non-toxic, and non-volatile.   After some experimentation, they settled on TOCP which was then being sold under the brandname of "Lindol" and which they were assured was non-toxic.  

Once Gross and Reisman settled on Lindol as the perfect ingredient for their jake, they went into mass production.  Purchasing more than a hundred and thirty-five gallons,  they eventually made enough jake to fill thousands of bottles.  Although news stories about the "jake epidemic" were already beginning to circulate, the intrepid bootleggers managed to ship off the last barrels of jake by March of 1930.  Fortunately for the Treasury Department, various distributors were able to implicate Hub Products and still had samples of the adulterated jake in their inventory.  By December of that same year, Harry Gross and Max Reisman were indicted by a federal grand jury.  

Given the thousands who had already been paralyzed by the tainted jake (and the cases that would occur in the following year when the last barrels of jake Gross and Reisman distributed turned up in Los Angeles),  the penalty was surprisingly light.  After a successful plea bargain, Harry Gross served a two-year sentence while Max Reisman avoided serving any jail time.  Despite various lawsuits launched on behalf of the victims, consumer protection legislation allowing class-action lawsuits was still in its infancy.   Hub Products had gone bankrupt and none of the other companies involved had direct responsibility for the tainted jake.  

In 1931, the United Victims of Jamaica Ginger Paralysis was formed.  Claiming to represent 35,000 affected people across the country, the group petitioned Congress for financial support but to no real effect. Since almost all of the victims of "jakeitis" were immigrants, migrants, or itinerants, their political influence was minimal and the pressure to act on their behalf was never great.   The epidemic was especially common among lower-class African-American men, many of whom were not allowed in hospitals where they might have sought treatment.

Public support was nonexistent and jake victims were largely left to fend for themselves.    Reliable statistics on the full extent of the epidemic were never really collected but the number of victims may have been as high as 100,000.  Although the paralysis condition is now formally recognized as organophospate-induced delayed neuropathy (OPIDN), the informal name of "jake leg" became more popular.  Largely forgotten by mainstream society,  paralyzed beggars became a common sight during the 1930s and 1940s.   Considering that jake victims were often viewed as being somehow responsible for their own condition, there was tremendous stigma associated with the paralysis.  Many victims refused to admit that they had ever been jake drinkers which prevented medical doctors from diagnosing their condition properly.  Since the disease also caused impotence, victims were especially reluctant to discuss their sex lives with medical professionals. 

Even well into the 1970s, surviving jake victims continued to display the paralysis that had crippled them.  Autopsies showed damage to the central nervous system including the spinal horn's anterior nerve cells and the spinal column's pyramidal tract cells.  Higher brain functions were unaffected though.   While later epidemics of TOCP poisoning would break out in Europe and Morocco due to adulterated household products, the ginger jake epidemic of the 1930s and 1940s was the most severe.

The ginger jake epidemic also had an impact on popular music of the time.  In 1930, the Allen Brothers released a song titled, "Jake Walk Blues" with memorable lyrics such as "I can't eat, I can't walk, I  can't talk, drinking mean jake.  Lord, I can't walk".    Other blues songs inspired by the jake-leg epidemic included "Jake Walk Papa" by Asa Martin, "Jake Leg Blues" by the Mississippi Sheiks, and "Jake Liquor Blues" by Ishman Bracey.   Many of the songs mentioned the "limber leg" (impotence) caused by drinking jake which may well have been what inspired the blues in the first place.   It is a sad commentary that the ginger jake epidemic might have well been forgotten except as an obscure medical footnote were it not for the musical legacy that its victims left behind. 

 

Narrative Therapy for Victims of Sex Trafficking

Awareness and widespread interest regarding sex trafficking has increased significantly over the last decade. However, research demonstrates little success from well-intended human trafficking “rescue” efforts. In order to increase the capacity for feminist therapists to more effectively serve women and girls who have been subjugated to sex trafficking, a recent article in the journal Women and Therapy presents a narrative therapy approach as a method for helping survivors reconstruct personal narratives that reflect resilience, recovery, and prosperity.

For the abstract

Coping with Terrorism

Terrorism (n)   The use of the use of  indiscriminate violence to create terror or fear for the purpose of achieving  a political, religious, or ideological goal.

We've all been affected by terrorism, whether directly or indirectly.   Memories of the 9/11 attacks, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Boston Marathon bombing, as well as recent "lone wolf" attacks in North America and Europe often leave us horrified and afraid of future attacks.    While we tend to feel reasonably insulated from all but the worst attacks (we hope), what about the ones who have to deal with the threat of terrorism on a daily basis?   For troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, aid workers in high-risk deployments, and people simply living their lives in numerous hot spots around the world, the risk of death or serious injury is something they must live with regularly.   

A new study published in the International Journal of Stress Management examines some of the coping styles used in dealing with the daily threat of terrorism and how effective these coping styles are.  Written by Keren Cohen-Louck and Sarah Ben-David of Ariel University in Israel, the study focuses on 400 Israeli adults (54 percent female with an average age of 30).   Of these participants, 26 percent reported having been personally affected by terrorism, 25.5 percent having relatives who had been affected, and 42.7 having friends who had been affected. 

 

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

Media Campaign Spotlights Bridal Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan

In Kyrgyzstan, it is known as "Ala Kachuu" or kidnapping for marriage.  

Since Kyrgyzstan became an independent nation in 1991, there has been a boom in bridal kidnappings with woman and girls being abducted from their family homes, sometimes with the consent of the brides' parents but often not.   With an estimated 8,000 kidnappings occurring each year, the practice shows no sign of abating despite tougher laws aimed at protecting women from abduction.    Now, a new series of animations have aimed at publicising bridal kidnappings and allowing victims to tell their own story has reignited debate, not to mention heated protests from conservative elements in Kyrgyrz society.  

Tatyana Zelenskaya is an artist and, along with her animator spouse Egor Tankov, has created five "One Day They Stole Me" animations which are already being made available on the Internet.   With Russian language text and Kyrgyz-language voiceover, each animation presents a different story though the names have been changed to protect vulnerable women against potential retaliation.    One of these animations documents the story of "Nazik" and was released last month in time for International Women's Day.    

According to Nazik, her mother had disliked who she was dating and arranged for a marriage with "Abay" without her knowledge.  Aided by her brother, the mother made Nazikgo with Abay to the local cinema.  Instead, she was forced into a car being driven by one of Abay's friends and taken to his house for her wedding, which had already been arranged.   Though Nazik protested, her brother arrived and told her, "Nazik, our father has decided that you will stay here. Abay is a good man and will make a good husband. Getting married means happiness for any girl!"

In reality, her brother was lying and her father had no idea that she had been abducted.  When he learned what had happened, he was furious but a mullah had already blessed the marriage by that time.   While her mother relented and offered Nazik the chance to come home,  she decided to remain due to the stigma that she would face over breaking off the marriage.   The video concludes with Nazik describing how her husband's family had kicked out her and her child just four years later.

A second video describes the ordeal faced by "Elzada" who was forced into marriage while her father was seriously ill.  Though her husband's family tried gentle encouragement at first to make her accept the marriage, they eventually threatened to spread vicious gossip about her not being a virgin if she attempted to leave.  Forced to remain with her captor, Elzada finds herself in the strange position of needing to support him financially since he refuses to work.  "Only our children keep us together,” Elzada says. “I am the one who earns the money and I make all the decisions. Not only do I not love him, I don't respect him.”

The animations provide many more examples of bridal abductions but a final story, that of Nargiza, is definitely the most hopeful.   When Nargiza was brought to her husband's home with the assistance of a matchmaking aunt, she threatened to call the police and cited a recently introduced law.   The new law is aimed at bridal kidnappers with sentences ranging from five to ten years.   Not only did the abductors back down but Nargiza is now a presenter on Kyrgyz state television.  She was also the only one in the animation series to give her real name.

In a recent article, Tatyana Zelenskaya explained that she released the animations with Nargiza's story at the end to provide abductees with a concrete example of how to fight back. She is also hoping that one of the country's national television channels will show the animations so that the message can reach to the outlying provinces and rural regions where  Ala Kachuu is most common.  

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