Providentia

New True Crime Stories You Won't Believe Book Now Out

It's finally here.   True Crime Stories You Won't Believe:  Book Two follows up from the first book with a new collection of bizarre tales of crime and punishment.   They include:  

• The real story behind “Arsenic and Old Lace” and why the reality isn’t as lighthearted as Hollywood made it out to be.
• A case in which a dream helped solve a gruesome murder. Or did it?
• When a staunch Irish sea captain murdered almost his entire crew on the high seas and what happened afterward.
• Did a Ouija board drive an Alabama mother and daughter to commit murder?
• The story of Jane Toppan and what drove her to kill so many of her patients.
• The story of Blanche Monnier, whose family locked her away for decades to keep her from marrying the wrong man.
• Was the Devil responsible for the murder of Alan Bono?
• The true story of the Vampire of Le Muy and his bizarre need to steal corpses.
• The story of Bridget Cleary, whose husband killed her in the belief that she had been replaced by fairies.

And this is just a sampling of the stories you will find. Though you may well be acquainted with some of these stories, I try to be as complete as possible, including newspaper accounts and additional details from what other true crime writers have written about these cases.   

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New Book On The Way

I am pleased to announce that I am preparing to release a new book in the coming weeks.   Tentatively titled True Crime Stories You Won't Believe:  A Cavalcade of Chaotic Justice, the book will feature many of the stories I have published on Providentia over the years (revised and updated) and will be the start of a series of books I will be releasing over the next year or so.    I can't give you a definite release date yet but I hope you readers will enjoy it when it comes out.   

"Just Like An Ape"

The Astoria Apartments were located in the Bunker Hill area of Los Angeles.   A tourist hotel with 125 rooms, it had a reputation for quiet comfort and being a place where people could settle in for an extended stay for a reasonable price.

But that all changed on April 4, 1937.  

When hotel staff noticed that one of their guests, twelve year-old Marguerite Worden, failed to come down to borrow the Sunday paper, they became concerned enough to check on Marguerite and her mother.    After an elevator operator put his ear to their door and heard a low moan, he called in the hotel manager, J.E. Harrigan, who climbed a stepladder and looked into the apartment through the transom.    What he saw was enough to call in the police.

Investigating officers kicked in the apartment door and found a scene of utter horror.  Marguerite's mother, 48-year old Edna Worden, lay sprawled over the cot with her head on the floor.   There was blood all around her head.  Marguerite's body was found in her bed where her head had been covered by a pillow.  A discarded brick was also found on the bed, still sticky with blood and gore.   Both women had been sexually assaulted before being beaten to death.

Edna Worden had lived quietly with her daughter since divorcing her husband who still supplied her with a small monthly stipend for child support.   That, along with the meager salary she drew as a civil servant, was barely enough to keep her and Marguerite fed and sheltered.   As for Marguerite, she was a student at Belmont Junior High School and had been preparing to start at a Beverly Hills school for girls at the time of her death.

Police investigating the murders found that Edna's purse had been turned inside out but there was no other sign that anything had been taken.   Nobody had heard anything since their nearest neighbour was partially deaf.    Investigators determined that the intruders had forced their way into the apartment through the kitchen window.   Based on the circumstances of the crime, it seemed certain that the death of the Wordens was linked to a similar incident that had occurred on March 2 when a woman was raped and her skull smashed with a brick while her infant slept nearby. 

Those two crimes were only the latest in a series of brick attacks on women in previous months.   Since a black man had been seen running from the scene of one of the attacks, police began  questioning suspects who appeared to match the description they had.  Through careful analysis of the Worden crime site, investigators found their first solid clue:  a fingerprint on a milk bottle.  

Since there was no national fingerprint database at the time, the clue was not as helpful as it might have been today.   The killings stopped in Los Angeles but a new murder took place on May 28, 1938 in Chicago, Illinois.     Florence Johnson, the wife of a Chicago firefighter, was killed with repeated blows to the back of the head with a brick.    Her killers had apparently broken into the South Side apartment she shared with her sister.     The sister, who had been asleep in another bedroom, saw two men flee the scene.    Based on her description,  Robert Nixon and Earl Hicks were arrested a short time later.    Both men were nineteen years old and accused each other of committing the murder.  

Nixon also reportedly confessd to another murder, that of Florence Thompson Castle in 1936 though newspapers became suspicious of how police obtained the confession.   Police interrogations were far more extreme at the time than methods used today and physical beatings were not uncommon.   Given that Nixon was of below-average intelligence (some newspapers were already describing him as "feeble-minded"), the possibility that police had obtained a false confession hardly seemed implausible.

What ultimately convicted Robert Nixon was the fingerprint he had left behind in the Worden apartment.   After learning about his arrest and how Florence Johnson had been killed, the L.A.P.D. investigated and found that Johnson had been living in Los Angeles at the time of the of the Worden murders.   Once L.A. Police chief James E. Davis announced that fingerprint evidence linked Nixon to the Astoria Apartments killings, Robert Nixon confessed.   He also confessed to the murder of student nurse,  Anna Kuchta in 1937 and to assaulting as many as seventeen other women.   Earl Hicks later admitted to striking Marguerite Worden with a pistol butt but denied sexual assault.   He also admitted that he and Nixon only found eight dollars in the apartment.  

Publicity over the case inflamed racial tension in Chicago and police took added precautions to protect Nixon and Hicks from potential lynch mobs.   Almost from the beginning, the media focused primarily on Nixon given his darker skin and reported lack of remorse.  The mainstream press described Nixon as being extremely dim-witted and even gave him the nickname of "the Brick moron."     News stories of the case typically described Nixon as a "slow-witted colored youth" or "colored moron."    

In one characteristic news story about the case,   Charles Leavelle wrote an article titled "BRICK SLAYER IS LIKENED TO JUNGLE BEAST" which was published in the Chicago Tribune on June 5, 1938.   The article quotes a police officer who said of Nixon, "Look at him go.  Just like an ape."    The article was filled with racist references and stated that Nixon, "has none of the charm of speech or manner that is characteristic of so many southern darkies" despite his coming from a "pretty little town in the old south, Tallulah, LA".    He described Nixon's "hunched shoulders and long, sinewy arms that dangle almost to his knees;  his out-thrust head and catlike tread all suggest the animal.   He is very black - almost pure Negro.   His physical characteristics suggest an earlier link in the species."   Talking about Nixon's violent behaviour, Leavelle argued that he was similar to the "roustabout" working on Mississippi steamboats where were known to be "ferocious and relentless in a fight. Though docile enough under ordinary circumstances, they are easily aroused. And when this happens the veneer of civilization disappears."  When the sheriff of Nixon's home town was interviewed, he described Nixon's long history of property crimes and concluded that, "It has been demonstrated here that nothing can be done with Robert Nixon. Only death can cure him."   Leavelle even went so far as to compare Nixon's crime to the savage killings in Edgar Allen Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue - for which a large ape was ultimately found to be responsible.

When the newspapers were not focusing on Nixon's race, they dealt with the heinous nature of his crime.    Pictures of Florence Johnson's two children with headlines reading "Orphaned By Crime" stoked racial tensions and many white residents began moving away from neighbourhoods regarded as too dangerous due to the high concentration of African-Americans living nearby.    While the case was going to trial, the Illinois House of Representatives approved a bill to curb "moronic attacks."   The International Labor Defense appointed lawyer Joseph Roth to help the African-American lawyers defending Nixon. 

As for the trial, it only lasted a week.   Both Nixon and Hicks accused each other of murdering Florence Johnson but Nixon was accused of lying.   After a jury deliberation that lasted a single hour, Robert Nixon was sentenced to death and the sentence was quickly carried out.   He died in the electric chair at the Cook County Jail on June 16, 1939.   As for Earl Hicks, his testimony against Nixon saved his life although he later received a lengthy prison sentence for his role in the killings.

Aside from the shocking racism that characterized the trial and questions relating to Robert Nixon's mental capacity, the case would have been largely forgotten had it not been for Richard Wright.   One of the greatest African-American authors of the 20th century, Wright's classic novel, Native Son, was first published in 1940.   Featuring a 20-year old African American man named Bigger Thomas, the novel provides an unforgiving look at the social and economic conditions of ghetto life in the 1930s and Wright largely based his character on Robert Nixon.   Many of the details of Bigger Thomas' crimes and the racist trial he received afterward were directly based on Nixon's trial (Richard Wright had keenly followed all details of the trial while writing his book).   Though he changed many of the details to fit his story, Wright also used the novel to reflect his own views on how African-Americans were treated in American society.    Despite being an immediate best-seller,  Native Son generated enormous controversy during Wright's lifetime.   Now regarded as a classic,  The Modern Library ranks Native Son as number 20 of the 100 best novels of the 20th century.

Along with the strange literary immortality he received, the trial and sentencing of Robert Nixon highlighted the racial divide that characterized American society during much of the 20th century.   Although the graphic racism displayed by the media is no longer tolerated (for the most part), many of the same attitudes prevalent then still surface during high-profile cases where race is deemed to be a factor.   Whether a judge and jury allows these attitudes to interfere with the proper dispensing of justice is a challenge that is faced all too often. 

The Devil in the Convent

Beginning in 1632, rumours spread throughout the town of Loudon, France about a strange outbreak occurring in the local Ursuline convent.   All of the nuns, including the Mother Superior, began experiencing strange convulsions and "using abusive language" (although the lurid details kept changing as the rumours spread).   Although the nuns and their priest had attempted to hide what was happening for as long as possible,  tales of the demonic possession occurring in the convent eventually led to a formal investigation.

The convent, which had only been founded a few years earlier, already had a reputation for pious living and also functioned as a boarding school for the daughters of well-off families. Almost all of the seventeen nuns in the convent, including the Mother Superior Jeanne des Anges, belonged to minor noble families although the sisters had a difficult time making ends meet. The convent had no income aside from tuition fees and their only significant property was the convent house itself. Due to the reforms imposed by the Council of Trent some decades previously, convent life was strictly controlled by the Church with no males allowed inside the convent walls except for the Father Confessor.   

On recently being appointed to that post, the new Confessor Canon Mignon was certainly alarmed by what the nuns began telling him about strange nightly visitations by demons, apparently intent on seducing them. Beginning with the Mother Superior herself and eventually spreading to all of the other nuns in the convent, signs of demonic possession, including sexual moaning, convulsions, speaking in tongues (glossolalia), and visions quickly spiraled out of control.  Canon Mignon consulted various medical doctors and eventually arranged for exorcisms to try controlling what was happening.   He and his fellow priests became increasingly alarmed when the nuns reacted to the exorcisms by screaming and making lewd sexual advances towards the priests.   Even more outrageous was the Mother Superior accusing a local priest, Urbain Grandier, of being responsible for what was happening.    The nuns, led by Jeanne des Anges, insisted that the possessions were due to two devils named Asmodeus and Zabulon and that Grandier had sent them to the convent after throwing roses over the convent wall.

Grandier was, by all accounts, a most unusual priest. Handsome and well-connected, he had already gained a scandalous reputation, not only for being politically outspoken but also for the less-than discreet affairs that he had with numerous women in the town (including fathering several children). Despite numerous complaints by outraged husbands and fathers, Grandier was protected by the local Huguenot community who admired his outspokenness and his bold attacks on the Church and its special privileges. When his bishop had Grandier arrested in 1630, he was formally banned from serving as a priest in Loudun at which point his family and friends went to work on his behalf. Using bribery and intimidation of the witnesses against Grandier, they managed to have him reinstated in 1631. All that the ecclesiastic panel was able to do was to issue a mild warning for Grandier to “behave well and decently according to the Holy Decretals and Canonical Constitutions”.  Although the bishop warned Grandier to leave Loudun, he ignored the advice and regarded his acquittal as a total victory. He even went so far as to harass all of the townspeople who had testified against him including demanding legal restitution in court.   While friends tried to talk him out of this campaign, he ignored them all. It would be a costly mistake.

Ironically, Urbain Grandier had offered his name for the post of Father Confessor for the Ursuline convent in town despite his sinister reputation. The job went to Canon Mignon instead and sparked an uncomfortable rivalry between the two priests, especially since Mignon had been involved in his previous trial.  As for the nuns, many of whom had supported Grandier becoming the Father Confessor for the convent, exactly what was causing the strange stories of nightly visitations and demonic seductions is still open to question. Whether Urbain Grandier was actually sneaking into the convent somehow or that the strange epidemic was entirely due to mass hysteria on the part of the nuns, the rumours of what was happening in the convent spread beyond the town. Not only did parents withdraw all of the convent’s students one by one, but the convent's nuns were left completely destitute when their own families withdrew all support.   

Grandier knew full well the danger that he was in and he arranged with the Archbishop of  Bourdeaux to have his personal doctor examine the nuns.  When no medical evidence for the possessions was found, the Archbishop ordered the exorcisms to end and arranged for the nuns to be imprisoned n their cells.  Canon Mignon and his assistant then went over the Archbishop's head and asked King Louis XIII's chief minister Cardinal Richelieu to order an investigation.   Since Richelieu was a frequent target of Grandier's political diatribes, he likely saw this as an excellent opportunity to rid himself of the renegade priest once and for all.    That one of Richelieu's own relatives was one of the Loudun nuns likely didn't help matters either.  The Cardinal sent a team of investigators to Loudun and authorized them to do whatever was necessary to end the possessions (including threatening to tear down the convent and the surrounding town).

During a public exorcism conducted before more than seven  thousand people, the chief exorcist, Father Jean-Joseph Surin invited the demons possessing the nuns to inhabit his own body, the demons reportedly complied and he "lost mental balance as a result".  Father Surin inflicted various injuries on himself and then attempted suicide.   After being restrained and regaining his sanity,the exorcist said that he was "unable to understand what happened to him" when the unknown spirit entered his body.   As the exorcisms continued, the accusations against Grandier became even more lurid and the nuns claimed that they were possessed by a multitude of demons.    When Grandier attempted an exorcism himself to clear his name,  the supposedly possessed nuns answered his threats by making him seem more guilty than ever (their testimony had likely been coached by Richelieu's investigators).     After a formal document surfaced, allegedly showing the pact between Grandier and Satan and written in blood,  Grandier's fate was likely sealed.   

Urbain Grandier was imprisoned at the Castle of Angier in December, 1633.   Despite protests by his supporters, he was stripped, shaved, and his body searched for "devil's marks".  When he refused to confess to sorcery, he was repeatedly tortured according to the practices laid out n the Malleus Maleficarum.    Anyone courageous enough to speak out on Grandier's behalf (including some of the nuns) were threatened by the Church and the Crown.   Eventually, the presiding inquisitor announced that anyone who testified in favour of Grandier would be declared traitors to France and have their property seized.   4

With all supporters silenced, the outcome of Urbain Grandier's trial was a foregone conclusion.  He was found guilty of magic, maleficia, and of "causing demoniacal possession of several Ursuline nuns of this town of Loudun, as well as of other secular women, together with other charges and crimes resulting therefrom".   Grandier's steadfast refusal to confess his crime despite being his torture and the severity of his punishment hardly moved his persecutors.  As one of the monks charged with trying to convert him prior to his execution later said, "I am not astonished at his impenitence, nor at his refusal to admit himself guilty of magic, both under torture and at his execution, for it is known that magicians promise the devil never to confess the crime, and he in turn hardens their heart". 

Despite promises that he would be allowed to make a public statement and that he would be humanely garroted beforehand, Urbain Grandier was burned alive at the stake on August 18, 1634.  According to one story, Grandier promised that one of the attending priests, Father Lactance, would died within thirty days and that many of his other persecutors would die as well.  While Father Lactance died on schedule (reportedly crying that he was not responsible for Grandier's death),  the legends surrounding Urbain Grandier and the Loudun possessions hardly ended there.   Many of the participants who were involved in  Grandier's execution died within a few years of his execution, whether due to remorse or a dying magician's curse seems to depend on which account of the time you happen to read.

And the Loudun possessions didn't end with Grandier's death either.  Mother Superior Jeanne des Anges (who seemed to have some exaggerated views of her own  piety) insisted that the exorcisms continue since she and her nuns were still being possessed by devils.   Public exorcisms of the nuns continued until 1637  when Richelieu himself ordered them stopped and the investigation ended.  Hardly anyone else in positions of power really believed that Grandier had been guilty but the story of the Loudun possessions and Grandier's fate made for a graphic lesson of what happened to anyone who crossed Cardinal Richelieu.   That the public exorcisms helped convince many local Protestants to convert to Catholicism seemed to be an extra benefit.   As for the "contract" with Satan supposedly signed by Grandier, many modern historians are divided over whether Grandier's signature had been completely forged or whether Grandier had signed it himself during one of his torture sessions.

Whether the Loudun possessions began with mass hysteria or as an entirely staged power play on Cardinal Richelieu's part, the case has been examined in depth by numerous authors including Alexander Dumas (pere) and Jules Michelet.  Aldous Huxley's full-length book, The Devils of Loudun was published in 1952 and inspired a successful stage play as well as  a classic horror film by Ken Russell.    The continuing fascination with Urbain Grandier's case may well be due to the role that religious persecution and cynical political manipulation played in his torture and gruesome death.  That accused sorcerers are being killed today over evidence just as flimsy as what condemned Grandier centuries ago suggests that the lessons of his case have still not been learned.

 

 

The Story of Madame Pinson

Visitors to the sanitarium on the outskirts of Paris during the early years of the twentieth century would have been struck by her appearance. 

Living in a special villa on the sanitarium grounds, the elderly woman hardly spoke a word but her thin, refined appearance still had some traces of her former beauty. Her full-time attendant saw to all her needs and even helped her to go out on occasion to attend the opera or walk in local Paris gardens. While she needed to be watched carefully at times to keep her from harming herself, her famous name and her own tragedy kept her in the spotlight until her death. As the sole surviving child of one of the world`s most well-known authors, the royalties from her father`s many works ensured that all her financial needs were met.

Born in 1830, Adele Hugo was the fifth child of Victor Hugo and his wife, Adele Foucher. Her father`s early fame for his classic works such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, ensured that Adele grew up knowing some of the world's greatest authors and she certainly made an impression on them in turn (Honore de Balzac described Adele as "the greatest beauty I shall ever see").  The drowning death of her vivacious older sister, Leopoldine, in 1843 while on her honeymoon, left Adele emotionally devastated. A few years later, Victor's political views forced him and his entire family into exile on the Channel island of Guernsey. He would not return to France until 1870.

Life in exile would not be easy for Adele. Not only was she separated from the life she knew in France, but she was constantly overshadowed by her famous father.  She wrote about life in Guernsey in a diary that was eventually published under the title Journey de l'Exil (Journey of the Exile). The diary includes her observation on life in the Hugo household (including her father's numerous infidelities) as well as her own growing obsessions with the supernatural.

By 1856, she began showing signs of the mental instability that seemed to run in the family (Victor's brother Eugene died in a psychiatric hospital in 1823). Adele's belief that her sister, Leopoldine, was contacting her from the spirit world led to the the lifelong habit of "tapping every night on her bedroom wall according to some superstitious ritual". It probably didn't help that her parents were fascinated with spiritualism themselves and conducted seances in their house for years before Adele's bizarre beliefs became known.

And then she met Albert Pinson..

Whether Pinson was a heartless cad or a befuddled victim of erotomania pretty much depends on who you choose to believe. Whatever passed between them after their first meeting in Guernsey, Adele quickly fixated on the handsome lieutenant. Despite her father's fame and fortune, Pinson evidently lost interest in her but Adele had other ideas. When he was transferred to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1863, Adele followed him there (she stole her mother's jewelry to finance the trip).

During the three years that Adele spent in Halifax, she insisted that she was Albert's fiancee despite her family's opposition. She told Pinson that she had given birth to their stillborn child (there was no evidence of this) and finally wrote to her brother, Francois-Victor, that she and Albert had been married that year. Despite their apprehension, the family dutifully posted a wedding announcement in a Guernsey paper. Adele later wrote her brother and confessed that the marriage had not happened but she was still hopeful (she even talked about hiring a hypnotist to "persuade" Albert to propose).

You can probably imagine the family's reaction when Albert wrote to Francois-Victor later that year after learning of the wedding announcement.  Not only did have absolutely no intention of marrying Adele, he was planning to marry someone else. Adele's brother pleaded with Adele to "divorce" Albert and return to France but she refused. Nobody in Halifax knew her true identity until Albert's engagement to the daughter of a local judge was announced. Adele had her lawyers write to the judge informing him that she was Albert's true wife and that they had been secretly married in an Anglican church. Despite Albert's protests, the judge called off the engagement. According to later sources, Adele's claims weren't totally delusional since Pinson visited her on occasion. She had no visitors otherwise and relied on money from her family.

When Albert was transferred to Barbados in 1866, Adele followed him there. Little is known about the six years that she spent in the West Indies but her condition deteriorated as she became more isolated (her mother and brother both died during her time on the island). She insisted on being called "Madame Pinson" although Albert had left the island by 1869. One observer commented on Adele's "sad, disheveled appearance, her wardrobe ill-suited to the tropical climate, her habit of writing constantly, her practice of wandering the streets at all hours of the day". She even preferred to walk the streets at night since children often threw stones at her.

Out of pity, a local woman named Madame Celine Baa befriended Adele. When she discovered her father's identity, Madama Baa wrote to him about his daughter's condition. Victor Hugo arranged for Madame Baa to bring Adele back to France in February, 1872. It was a pathetic homecoming for the once independent Adele since her father was the only surviving member of the family. She never recovered her sanity and spent the rest of her life in a psychiatric asylum in Vincennes. Victor Hugo visited her regularly until his death in 1885 and his will established a substantial trust to pay for her care.

By the time Adele Hugo died in 1915, her story was largely forgotten until 1975 when a movie directed by Francois Truffaut was released. Titled The Story of Adele H., the drama was based on Adele's story and starred Isabelle Adjani in the title role. Her gripping portrayal of Adele earned Adjani a well-deserved Academy Award nomination and ensured that Adele's strange tale of obsessive love and madness will continue to be remembered.

Who Inspired Frankenstein?

 

Away for Easter weekend so I thought I'd run this for you instead.   Seems appropriate somehow....

It was a fateful summer in 1816 when a highly distinguished group rented the Villa Diodati near Lake Geneva in Switzerland.   Along with the eminent poet Percy Bysshe Shelley was Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (who was already calling herself "Mrs. Shelley" despite his first wife still being alive), their son, and their friend, Clare Claremont.  Later joined by poet Lord Byron and his personal physician, John Polidori, what they had all hoped would be a pleasant stay was marked by miserable weather which kept them all housebound for days at a time.   Since 1816 was also The Year Without a Summer with abnormal weather patterns disrupting agriculture around the world (and probably caused by the Mount Tambora eruption of 1815),  the mood at the villa was not exactly genial. 

It's probably not surprising that the travelers amused themselves by sitting around the log fire and reading aloud from a popular anthology of horror fiction.  They also spoke at length of new scientific developments relating to the use of electricity in returning dead matter to life (electricity in medicine was all the rage at the time). Whatever the inspiration, Lord Byron then issued his now-famous challenge that each one present would try writing a story with a supernatural theme.  While the stories written by Percy Shelley and Lord Byron are not as well known as their other works, John Polidori wrote The Vampyre, the first English vampire novel and, arguably, the beginning of the romantic vampire literary genre (so you can blame him for the Twilight and True Blood franchises).  

The most famous of the stories that came out of that summer was by Mary Shelley.  Originally only intending to write a short story, she was persuaded by her husband to write a full-length novel instead.  Published anonymously in 1818 under the title, Frankenstein: A Modern Prometheus, it was the first true science fiction novel (though modern literary critics tend to dispute that label).  As a strange tale of science gone wrong, the novel was not well received by literary critics who viewed it as a "tissue of horrible and disgusting absurdity".   The fact that the author was the daughter of a prominent and controversial author as well as a  "fallen woman" living in a scandalous relationship raised critical hackles as well.  Despite the criticism, Mary Shelley's novel was an immediate success with numerous reprintings, foreign translations, and theatrical productions.  The popularity of Shelley's novel, with its various remakes, movies, etc has ensured her immortality (and definitely made her more famous than her eminent husband) and Mary Shelley's work continues to studied for its literary and feminist content.

As for the actual inspiration behind Mary Shelley's work, she would later attribute it to the classical story of Prometheus (hence the novel's title) as well as a "waking dream" (more clinically known as a hypnopompic state) that she had experienced.  In describing her dream, she would say that: "I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion. Frightful must it be; for SUPREMELY frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world." 

But were there other sources of inspiration for her novel?  As I've already mentioned, the early 19th century was a time of fervent speculation about electricity and its possible medical applications.  The potential for using the still-mysterious phenomenon to reanimate dead tissue hardly seemed so implausible and, in fact, several scientists of the time were already making extravagant claims of accomplishing just that (including Giovanni Aldini's electricity experiment on the body of a murderer in 1803).  Did Mary Shelley base Victor Frankenstein on one of them?    Granted, her novel never directly mentioned electrical stimulation and she never named any one scientist in particular, but there are still several possible candidates for the dubious honour:

Erasmus Darwin   While more famous for being the grandfather of Charles Darwin, Erasmus Darwin was legendary in his own right for his extensive scientific achievements.  Trained as a medical doctor, he wrote extensively about biology, physics, astronomy, and the origins of life (he formulated one of the first true theories of evolution, in fact).  Despite being recognised as one of the finest medical doctors in England (and an early pioneer in the humane treatment of mental illness), Darwin's views on radical politics (he supported the French and American revolutions),  his atheism, and tendency to advocate seemingly outrageous ideas (such as  humans evolving from lower animals) made him increasingly unpopular in his old age.    Although he died in 1802, his being a long-time associate of Benjamin Franklin as well as a staunch friend of both Lord Byron and Percy Shelley put him in a good position to keep them informed about new developments in the medical applications of electricity.  Darwin's lectures on the subject certainly influenced Mary Shelley.  In her later memoirs, she would describe listening to Byron and Shelley discussing one of Darwin's experiments in which he preserved the fragment of a worm in a glass case and the possibility of using "galvanism" to reanimate dead tissue (she originally planned to call her novel "Franklinstein" after Benjamin Franklin).  

James Lind   A second possible candidate was Percy Shelley's old science teacher, Dr. James Lind.   Meeting at Eton College during Shelley's last two years there, Lind was an accomplished scientist and medical doctor (men of science tended to be versatile in those days).   Despite his reputation as an eccentric, Lind was keenly interested in just about every branch of science and his Windsor residence was packed with various scientific devices including telescopes, Galvanic batteries, and other odd items that made him seem more like an alchemist than a scientist.  Along with other scientists of the time, Lind followed Luigi Galvani's research closely and replicated his use of electricity to stimulate dead frog legs.  According to Mary Shelley's unpublished biography of her husband, he and Lind had been extremely close and Shelley regarded him as a second father.  While not as famous as other scientists of the time, Lind was a scientific advisor to George III (and even suggested the possible use of electric shocks to treat his mental illness).   It was largely as a tribute to Lind  that Percy Shelley maintained a lifelong interest in science and medicine and even based one of his own literary characters on the scientist. 

Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein  The third candidate (and the only scientist who had not been personally known by either Shelley) was German physican and physicist Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein.  Born in Saxony (now part of Germany) in 1723, Kratzenstein became a professor of physics at Halle University when he was only 23 years old and later became a professor of medicine as well.  While he  was one of the first scientists to  use electricity to treat paralysis, his scientific interests ranged from acoustics to mechanics and he published numerous papers in Danish, French, German, and Latin.  He also lived briefly in London and formed numerous contacts with his scientific colleagues in England (including Erasmus Darwin and James Lind, most likely).  After returning to Denmark, Kratzenstein continued with his research into treating paralysis with electricity (he also induced "electrosleep" in human subjects) and his scientific papers almost certainly influenced Byron and Shelley.   He died in 1795 after a fire destroyed his laboratory.

Johann Conrad Dippel  A final dark horse candidate whose name has been frequently suggested as a possible Frankenstein inspiration was the 18th century alchemist and physician, Johann Conrad Dippel.  There is no real evidence that Mary Shelley was ever aware of his alchemical research or his quest for an "elixir of life".  The only reason that Dippel's name has even been associated with her work is the fact that he was born at Castle Frankenstein near the German town of Darmstadt.  And, yes, there is a Castle Frankenstein and Mary Shelley did once travel to Darmstadt although there is no indication that she was even aware of its existence.

Whether Mary Shelley based her novel on any of these scientists, the character of Victor Frankenstein has permanently shaped attitudes concerning the ethical consequences of science as well as creating the stereotype of the mad scientist.   The "Frankenstein" label is inevitably invoked whenever a potentially risky new scientific development is discussed in the popular media (regardless of how unlikely the scenario  involved may be) and Frankenstein has become a universal cultural icon recognised virtually everywhere (even if people do keep confusing the scientist with his creation).   That her novel is so vividly remembered centuries after the author's death may be the best possible tribute for  a woman resigned to living in her brilliant husband's shadow.

The Counterfeit Lama

Beginning in the 1950s and continuing for decades afterward, the name Tuesday Lobsang Rampa was synonymous with the occult and exotic.  When his first book, The Third Eye, was published in 1956, the author (who had originally gone by the name of "Doctor Carl Kon Suo") described his training as a Tibetan monk.  As Rampa related in his book, he had originally been sent to a monastery at the age of seven and began his  arduous training by having the "Third Eye" awakened to enhance his powers of clairvoyance.  The operation involved a small hole being drilled into his forehead with a U-shaped awl.  In his book, Rampa stated that, "one of the lamas "pressed the instrument to the center of my forehead and rotated the handle. . . . There was a little jolt as the end hit the bone. He applied more pressure. . . . There was a little 'scrunch' and the instrument penetrated the bone. . . . Suddenly there was a blinding flash. . . ." "You are now one of us, Lobsang," the lama said. "For the rest of your life you will see people as they are and not as they pretend to be".  He called himself Tuesday Lobsang Rampa since that was the day of the week on which he was born (which he claimed was a Tibetan tradition for birthnames).

While the notion that the human pineal gland was the seat of the soul and the centre of mystical experience dates back to ancient times, the use of trepanation techniques to enhance psychic powers has been explored to some extent in occult literature.  Still, it was T. Lobsang Rampa who made the idea famous with his best-selling book .  Rampa also described how the trepanning operation gave him tremendous psychic powers including the ability to diagnose disease by reading "auras", astral travel, and levitation.  He also discussed his meeting with yetis, advising the Dalai Lama, being imprisoned in Russian and Japanese concentration camps, and serving as a medical officer in China.  Readers were awed by the vivid descriptions of the mysterious world hidden in Tibetan monasteries. 

Unfortunately, people who had actual experience of life in Tibet were not so impressed by the book's numerous errors.  Suspicion over Lobsang Rampa's fantastic claims led to a formal investigation by Liverpool private investigator, Clifford Burgess.  The results of Burgess' investigation were eventually published in 1958 in an issue of U.K. tabloid the Daily Mail and revealed that Tuesday Lobsang Rampa was actually Cyril Henry Hoskins.  The son of a Devon plumber, Hoskins had never visited Tibet and didn't even own a passport at the time his book came out.  Prior to 1956, Hoskins was working as a clerk in London while trying to become a successful writer.  At some point, he decided to shave his head, grow a beard, dress in elaborate Chinese robes, and change his name to Carl Kon Suo.  After being confronted with these revelations, Hoskins made no attempt to deny them.  As he would explain in a later book, Hoskins' body was possessed by  T. Lobsang Rampa's spirit after falling out of a tree in the backyard of his Surrey home.   Since Hoskins had become dissatisfied with his own life, he agreed to allow Rampa's spirit to enter his body. 

Despite his very public exposure, it was hardly the end of Tuesday Lobsang Rampa.  Although his British publisher canceled plans for Hoskins' next book, his American publisher was a little more ambivalent about distancing themselves.  In a prepared statement, a representative for Doubleday said that: "We expected that people would think it good reading, but not necessarily true."  The controversy over the authenticity of Rampa's book simply drove further sales.  In 1964, The Third Eye was reissued by Ballantine Books (with no mention of the controversy) and has since gone on to multiple printings.  In the forward, Lobsang Rampa dismissed all claims against him as being due to "vicious hatred" by his many enemies and that all events in The Third Eye were true. He also added that, "I am Tuesday Lobsang Rampa, that is my only name, now my legal name, and I answer to no other"

Rampa went on to write an additional eighteen books including My Visit to Venus, The Saffron Robe, You Forever, and Three Lives.  He also put out a Rampa Meditation Kit including a saffron robe, incense and burner, and a tape of Tibetan monastic chants.  Even his wife San Ra'ab Rampa published several books describing her life with Rampa.  During the 1960s, Lobsang Rampa and his wife immigrated to Canada to escape the high income tax on his royalties.  They both became Canadian citizens and established an ashram in Toronto.  Long after his death in a Calgary hospital in 1981, Lobsang Rampa's books have remained in print and sold millions of copies around the world.  Ironically, the greatest appeal for Rampa's teachings seemed to be in Western countries.  There was little support for the books in India or the rest of Asia where the obvious mistakes could be easily spotted.  At least one journalist has argued that Tuesday Lobsang Rampa was largely a creation of the Western media.

Even today, Tuesday Lobsang Rampa has his supporters as well as an active organization propagating his rather, unique, take on Tibetan mysticism.  Although the 14th Dalai Lama himself has publicly denounced Rampa's books, accusations of "conspiracy" continue to be laid against skeptics.  The Rampa movement has declined in recent years as other cult religions have become better known but the books are still being sold in occult bookstores as well as online (with no mention of the disputed authorship).

As for Cyril Henry Hoskins/Tuesday Lobsang Rampa himself, it's hard to decide what to make of him.  Whether it was fraud or self-deception (or some combination of the two), he certainly knew how to write books that people wanted to read.  Even with more information about mystery religions from faraway lands becoming available, self-appointed religious figures are still able to attract the kind of following that Rampa did.  

Belief can be a strange thing.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jekyll, Hyde and Brodie

When Robert Louis Stevenson first published The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde in 1886, it was an immediate success and became one of his most memorable classics. Through numerous movies, television dramatizations, and plays, the story has entered the cultural mainstream. Although Stevenson had originally meant the book to explore his fascination with the duality of good and evil (which he had briefly touched on in his early short story, Markheim), he was largely inspired by a famous case that had rocked eighteenth century Scotland.

Born in 1741 in Edinburgh, Scotland, William Brodie was the son of a prominent cabinetmaker and was likely considered quite a disappointment to his parents. From an early age, he was reportedly a gambler and a playboy who was off gambling even while his father lay dying.  He had a knack for charming family and friends into forgiving his excesses. After his father died, Brodie apparently straightened out his life to become a successful cabinetmaker in his own right. Not only was he a member of the Edinburgh city council, he was also elected deacon (chairman) of the local trades guild. Socializing frequently, he was a well-known figure in Edinburgh society.

During the evening hours, things were very different however. His gambling had continued and, finding himself running short of money, he decided to supplement his income through crime. Brodie's legitimate work gave him the opportunity to take wax impressions of the main doors of the various houses that he would later burglarize. Teaming up with an English locksmith named George Smith, his criminal career was impressive (he and his gang once stole the silver mace from the University of Edinburgh).

The energetic Brodie certainly needed the income from his criminal activities. In addition to fueling his chronic gambling, he also maintained two mistresses in separate households (neither of whom knew about the other), and had numerous children. While his gang continued to terrorize Edinburgh, Brodie maintained his image as a prosperous businessman. As a respected cabinetmaker and carpenter, he was in a position to install locks and security devices in businesses and private homes across the city (while checking out places for his gang to rob).

It all came to an end with a disastrous armed raid on a government Excise office in Chessel's Court, Canongate in 1786. Although Brodie planned the operation himself, too many things went wrong and the gang only barely escaped. The city council posted a huge reward and one of the newer gang members (there being no honour among thieves) decided to turn King's evidence. Brodie managed to get word that the other gang members had been arrested and fled to Amsterdam. Things still grew too hot for him there and he was arrested by Dutch police just before he could board a boat to America.

Extradited back to Scotland, William Brodie went on trial on August 27th, 1788. The trial records are still available and make for fascinating reading.  He pled not guilty and his testimony was filled with righteous indignation against the "designing villain John Brown" (the gang member who had turned him in). Building a case against Brodie would have been difficult if a careful search of his house hadn't turned up assorted burglary tools. William Brodie and George Smith were both sentenced to be hanged on October 1, 1788.

There still seems to be some confusion as to what happened with the actual hanging at the Tolbooth prison in Aberdeen. At least one account maintains that Brodie had arranged to wear a steel collar to the gallows (and had bribed the executioner to ignore it) so that he could survive the hanging. Despite the arrangements that he had made to have his body quickly removed, he could not be revived and was later buried in an unmarked grave in a churchyard in Buccleuch. There were later rumours that he cheated the hangman and fled to Paris but no real evidence exists of this.

It's not hard to see what inspired Stevenson to base his novel on William Brodie's double life.  On one hand, he was a prosperous businessman and respected craftsman who, among other things, made much of the scaffolding on the gallows that was later used to hang him. On the other hand, he was the notorious leader of a gang of thieves that plagued Edinburgh for years. Much of the resemblance ends there though. Brodie was never a saintly Henry Jekyll, or even a thuggish Edward Hyde.  He was just a full-time criminal who was particularly good at pretending to be law-abiding.

For all that there was no evidence of the psychological conflict that marked Stevenson's title character, the novel gave William Brodie a curious literary immortality. Along with a pub and alleyway named for him on Edinburgh's Royal Mile (which I plan to visit the next time I'm there), the novel is a strange monument to this once-feared master criminal.

Can Brain Stimulation Improve Memory in Seniors?

Have you ever had a "senior moment" when your memory fails unexpectedly?   Though it can happen at any age, it can often be an uncomfortable reminder that you are getting older.

Long recognized as an inevitable part of the aging process, most seniors tend to laugh these lapses off.   Still, a slow decline in mental and physical functioning can seriously compromise quality of life, especially if it leads to neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease.   And this is a problem that affects everybody.   As the Baby Boom generation grows older, we are seeing a rapid growth in the number of seniors worldwide.    By 2050, the number of adults over the age of 65 is expected to outnumber children by two to one.    Though advances in geriatric care, improved public health measures, and rising standards of living are allowing people to live longer and more productively, the health care systems in most countries are already falling behind in the services available for many seniors, especially seniors suffering from dementia.

As part of a worldwide research initiative, geriatric researchers have been studying how the brain changes with age and how to prevent the devastating loss of cognitive functioning  seen in many seniors.   But, in studying how memory and cognition can decline in seniors,  it is important to recognize that not all cognitive abilities will decline at the same rate.   Working memory, usually defined as the ability to hold, process, and manipulate information on a short-term basis, seems especially vulnerable to aging (particularly after the seventh decade of life).    Then there is long-term episodic memory or the recall of autobiographical information which can also be affected by aging.

Brain imaging research has shown that aging produces key changes in the brain including the thinning of gray matter in the cortex, decreased density of white matter fibres, expanding ventricles, depletion of essential neurotransmitters, and changes in brain networks.   Some regions of the brain seem to be more affected than others however and, not surprisingly, those regions of the brain linked to working memory seem to show the greatest changes due to age.  These include the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the superior parietal lobe, and the medial temporal lobe, all of which play a critical role in the encoding, storage, and retrieval of memories.  

Along with the slow loss of cognitive functioning linked to aging, the aging brain can also become much more vulnerable to injury or disease.   Concussions or other forms of brain damage can affect cognitive functioning at any age but younger brains can usually recover due to neuroplasticity.  In older adults, this kind of brain damage can be much more serious and can often act as triggers for the development of dementias such as Alzheimer's disease or vascular dementia.

But are there ways of protecting the aging brain and preventing the loss of cognitive functioning?   Along with pharmacological research to find medications that can prevent memory loss in seniors,  other approaches are already showing promise.   Exercise, for example, has been shown to have a small but significant impact on improved mental functioning in seniors while cognitive training programs can also improve working memory and executive functioning.  

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