Providentia

The Brother XII Saga

It all began with a vision. At least, that's what Edward Arthur Wilson told his followers.

Born in Birmingham, England in 1878, Wilson's early life seems to be a mystery. While he drifted from job to job, his chronic health problems made him unable to stay in any one place for long. Whatever Wilson was seeking during his travels, he apparently found it when he first visited British Columbia in 1905. The vision that he claimed to experience there would change his life. Returning to England, Wilson became a pupil of Helen Blavatsky and her fellow theosophists in the 1920s. Drawing on Theosophical teachings, Wilson founded the "Aquarian Society" in 1926 and announced that he had been "translated to the Higher Realms in order to meet the eleven Masters of Wisdom".

Under his new name of "Brother Twelve" (based on the twelve astrological signs of his birth), he made a series of announcements that were published in various English metaphysical journals.It's hard to do justice to Brother XII's philosophy in just a few sentences (the name was usually written in Roman numerals). Not only did he claim to be the reincarnation of the Egyptian god Osiris, but also differed from the other Theosophists of the time in proclaiming the need for a utopian community which would enable a "world teacher" to rise who would transform all human life.

In one essay, titled "A Message from the Masters of Wisdom", Brother XII announced that his new community would be formed in British Columbia and mobilized his followers to make his dream happen. More than a hundred Theosophists followed him to Canada in 1927 and soon raised the money needed to launch his dream. Not only did these followers turn their life savings over to their leader, but numerous wealthy patrons made large donations. The self-sufficient farming commune that he established was named "Cedar By The Sea" on Vancouver Island near Nanaimo.

Whatever the followers expected, it was nothing like the reality of their life in this utopian community. Brother XII developed an elaborate set of prayers and rituals that had to be followed and his rule was absolute. He also introduced new "sexual teachings" to enable his followers to become "the sixth root race". Various females in the community were selected to serve as Brother XII's concubines (regardless of marital status) and the resulting children were to be trained to welcome the coming teacher. While this "free love" philosophy alienated many of his core followers, Brother XII's popular writings still attracted new recruits. At the community's peak, there were as many as four hundred inhabitants (though he would claim far more) .

One of Brother XII's special followers was a woman named Myrtle Baumgartner who had been recruited during one of his fundraising trips. He convinced her that she was the reincarnation of the goddess Isis and was destined to bear the expected world teacher (to be named "Horus"). A separate house was built for their "important work" in conceiving the teacher and Brother XII arranged for another settlement to be built on nearby Valdes and DeCourcy Islands as a refuge for the new "root race".

In reality, Brother XII's bizarre rule had antagonized most of his followers and he decided to establish the new settlement to rid himself of malcontents. It didn't help that the British Columbian government was starting to take a hard look at the group and whether any laws were being broken. The new settlement, known as the "City of Refuge" was established in 1929 so the faithful could wait out the coming Armageddon (Brother XII was big on apocalyptic prophecies). This colony became increasingly isolated with only rumours trickling out about what was happening there. Cedar By The Sea was abandoned completely.

Sadly, Myrtle had difficulty in bearing Brother XII's male heir and suffered a mental breakdown. By 1930, she was replaced by Mabel Skottowe (who was given the name of "Madame Zee"). Mabel and Brother XII ruled over the settlement jointly but revolt began to brew. The Aquarian Foundation finally had enough of Brother XII and a series of lawsuits were filed in 1933 accusing him of misusing funds and "harsh treatment".

In the courtroom, disgruntled followers gave lurid testimony about the abuse they had received from Brother XII and Madame Zee. One follower claimed to have been ordered to kill a Canadian government official using "black magic" while others testified about Madame Zee and her fondness for whips. The number of followers had long since dwindled to only a dozen stragglers (mostly female). In 1934, the court decided against Brother XII but, when the bailiffs went to Valdes Island to collect what was owed, there was a surprise waiting for them.

Most of the buildings had been destroyed and Brother XII's sailboat, the Lady Royal, had been sunk in the harbour (witnesses later said that he used dynamite to blow a hole in the hull). Almost nothing of value was left and Brother XII and Madame Zee were never seen again (neither was the money that they had taken with them). Despite various sightings around the world, their ultimate fate is a mystery. While one report had Brother XII (who was back to being Edward Wilson) dying in Switzerland of a heart attack in 1934, this was never confirmed.

The Theosophy movement is still around but the strange Aquarian cult founded by Brother XII faded into obscurity after his disappearance. Like other believers before them, a few followers went on to live quiet lives in the area (minus their life savings). One of the last Aquarians, Mary Connaly, lived on De Courcy Island until her death in 1947. Nowadays, Cedar by the Sea is a charming oceanfront community that thrives on tourism.

Visitors to the area still hear colourful stories about Brother XII and Madame Zee (and rumours of a fortune in gold hidden in the former commune). That seems to the only surviving legacy of one of the strangest cults of the 20th century.

The Great Comic Book Crusade

Since the comic book format was first introduced in 1934, start-up companies featuring legendary talents such as Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson quickly established themselves. Throughout the  late 1930s and 1940s, comic books sales boomed with the rise of popular characters such as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. While other countries followed suit with their own comic book industries, U.S. comic book companies tended to dominate the field and the comics industry grew and adapted with changing world events. As the U.S. entered World War II, comic book characters went to war in increasing numbers and the rise of the Atomic age simply introduced new plot lines for the next generation of comic book characters.

By the beginning of the 1950s however, the industry began to decline and new "grittier" comic books were released which increasingly focused on horror and detective dramas. It also marked the peak of the comics book boom with over 650 different titles being produced monthly by 1952 and millions of issues being sold every year. While conservative factions had long protested against the "evil" influence that comic books had on developing minds, the increasingly violent content to be found in many of the horror- and crime-oriented comics began to worry parents and educators alike.

That same era also marked the rise of juvenile delinquency as a serious concern in American society. Beginning in the years following World War II, increased publicity about crimes being committed by (usually male) youths generated considerable alarm and left child experts scrambling for an explanation. While early criminologists pointed out the probable role of family disruptions resulting from the war in delinquent behaviour, parents and educators were often uncomfortable with the blame falling so close to home. Hard questions began to be asked about the role of mass media in violence, especially given the violent content often found on radio (and later television) as well as comic books. Could violent comic books play a role in delinquency?

The crusade against comic books was nothing new (comic book burnings at conservative high schools had actually begun in the 1940s) but it took Fredric Wertham to give it respectability. A German-born psychiatrist who had moved to the U.S. in the 1920s, Wertham had established himself as a prominent forensic psychiatrist (he had appeared as an expert witness in the Albert Fish trial). He was also a prominent social activist who developed an interest in the role of the media in shaping violent behaviour. 

Beginning in the 1940s, Wertham wrote a series of books and articles on the influence of violent comic books on youth violence. He specifically target comic books over other media portrayals of violence since comics were written specifically for children.  Other forms of media violence managed to escape his wrath since they were intended for audiences of all ages. For that reason, comic books needed to meet a higher standard than other media. It didn't help that the early comic book industry was almost completely unregulated with none of the government agencies overseeing newspaper and radio content.

Some of Wertham's early articles prompted attempts at self-censorship by the comics book industry. Many comic book publishers formed their own advisory boards with child psychiatrists weighing in on the impact of violent content on children but that wasn't enough to appease Fredric Wertham.  He dismissed these advisory board members as "psycho-prima donnas" who were obviously lacking in basic clinical experience with children.As he later wrote, "The fact that some child psychiatrists endorse comic books does not prove the healthy state of the comic books. It only proves the unhealthy state of child psychiatry".

In 1954, Wertham published his most influential book, Seduction of the Innocent.  In his book, Wertham provided graphic descriptions of the violent content that could be found in comic books. He specifically targeted EC Comics with its extensive line of horror/crime comics (including the Tales from the Crypt series). Along with his fairly valid objections to the extreme violence depicted in comic books, Wertham made some bizarre conclusions about the hidden sexual content to be found as well.  Not only did he denounce Wonder Woman for its "lesbian" and bondage themes, but he also suggested that Batman and Robin's relationship had homosexual overtones. Wertham also had harsh words for the advertisements in comic books (offering items such as air rifles, knives, and "x-ray glasses"). In his book, he concluded that, "The time has come to legislate these books off the newsstands and out of candy stores".

Because of Wertham's book and his credentials as an expert witness, he was called to testify before the newly-formed U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency.   Then-chaired by Senator Estes Kefauver, the subcommittee held public hearings that focused on "crime and horror" comic books and their potential impact on juvenile delinquency. Fredric Wertham was hardly the only expert witness called&to testify though. Other prominent researchers, including Lauretta Bender and Frederic Thrasher disputed the link between comic books and juvenile delinquency although Wertham's higher media profile gave his testimony more weight.

Despite Wertham's authoritative pronouncements on the supposed link between comic book violence and juvenile delinquency, there was little actual research to back him up.  While studies into comic book readership tended to find that most U.S children under the age of ten read comics on a regular basis (with boys being more likely than girls to prefer adventure comics).few studies found evidence that the books were harmful. Some researchers reported that comic book readers  had a lower IQ than non-comic book readers although later researchers failed to replicate this result.  But this lack of empirical data didn't stop Wertham's crusading.

The comic book industry hardly took Wertham's criticism in stride though. Not only did publishers hire private detectives to investigate his past, these detectives also harassed Wertham's colleagues at his clinic. According to an unfortunately-worded editorial written in the comic book industry newsletter Quest, "The immediate enemy is Fredric Wertham, not some other publisher.  He cannot be reasoned with. He must be discredited and rendered ineffective. Will he go away?Probably not. He must be knocked out". Wertham was sufficiently alarmed by the editorial to send a copy to New York's police commissioner.

Based on the Senate hearings, the Comic Code Authority was established in 1954 to regulate comic book content. Until it was revised in the 1970s, the Code banned all graphic descriptions of violence, gore, and sexual innuendo in comic books. It also banned any negative representation of authority figures and stipulated that "in every instance, good should triumph over evil" as well as any representation of kidnapping or concealed weapons. EC Comics only survived by focusing on its only non-horror title, Mad Magazine (which savagely parodied Fredric Wertham for years afterward).

Wertham's influence was hardly limited to the United States alone. Child welfare agencies in Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and elsewhere began to call for restrictions on the importing of American comic books (partly out of concern for the violent content and partly to protect their own domestic comic book industries). Articles in British, Canadian, and Australian newspapers routinely denounced American comic books as being equivalent to a "narcotic" administering steadily greater shocks that desensitized children to violence. Women's groups, educators, the Catholic Church, and various other special interest groups formed alliances designed to counter the comic book menace on an international scale. Fredric Wertham's writings were extensively quoted in speeches and radio broadcasts around the world and government panels weighed in on the concerns that anti-comics crusaders raised. By the late 1950s, government regulating bodies for comic books were established across North America as well as various European and Asian countries.

The passing of the Comic Code Authority represented Fredric Wertham's greatest achievement (even if he protested that the regulation didn't go far enough). He would never be as influential again despite his efforts to expand his crusade to include other forms of media violence. In 1959, he attempted to publish a followup to his earlier book to focus on television violence but no publishers were interested. Despite occasional television appearances and articles in popular newspapers, his career as a media pundit was effectively over. Wertham continued writing on juvenile delinquency and the power of media until his death in 1981. Later social scientists tend to dismiss his work as being without scientific merit and comic book fans remember him only as a conservative demagogue and an advocate of censorship (one comic book writer referred to him as the "Josef Mengele of funnybooks"). To this day, comic book writers continue to parody Wertham and his crusade in various forms.

And yet...

Whatever we try to make of Fredric Wertham, he was hardly your typical demagogue. An early supporter of desegregation (and a personal friend of Ralph Ellison), Wertham's writing on race relation swere used as testimony in the 1954 Brown vs Board of Education case which overturned school segregation in the United States. In his 1966 book, A Sign for Cain, he linked racism to the genocidal policies of Nazi psychiatrists in the forced euthanasia of mental patients. He ended the book with a powerful message for abolishing the death penalty and his own philosophy of social reform. He even tried to reach out to the comic book subculture with his support of fanzines although fans refused to forgive him for his role in undermining the industry. Throughout his lifetime, Fredric Wertham placed his reputation on the line to support unpopular causes and to defend what he believed to be right.

While he is mainly remembered by the anti-comics crusade, his role as an early pioneer in the role of media in influencing behaviour can't be denied, even if you disagree with his views. It was Fredric Wertham who took comic books seriously enough as a cultural medium to address their impact on the children for which they had been written (something no other social scientist had bothered to do before). Whether his crusade was completely without value is still a matter of debate.

The Hitler Profile

Formed through an presidential order on June 13, 1942, the United States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Strategic_Services(OSS) was intended to replace the intelligence gathering operations run by different military and executive departments with a single, centralized operation to aid the American war effort. While It got off to a rocky start (the FBI and and different branches of the military disliked sharing information with the new agency, its new head, Colonel William "Wild Bill" Donovan, was quick to take advantage of all the resources that were available to him.

While the OSS was not actively involved in psychological warfare, Donovan saw another potential role that psychologists could play in the war effort.  To have a better understanding of Adolf Hitler and his role in the German war effort, Colonel Donovan (who would be promoted to Major General by the end of the war) called on William Leonard Langer, then head of the OSS Research and Analysis branch.  Langer, in turn, put together a unique team of psychoanalysts and psychologists led by his brother Walter Charles Langer.

Already a prominent psychoanalyst, Walter Langer had studied with Anna Freud while living in Austria during the 1930s. He also met with Sigmund Freud on a frequent basis and accompanied him to England when he was driven into exile in 1938. At the time that his brother recruited him, Walter Langer was a practicing psychoanalyst in Cambridge, Massachusetts and well respected in the psychoanalytic community. Other members of the team that he put together included Henry A. Murray of Harvard University, Ernest Kris of the New School for Social Research, and Bertram Lawin of the New York Psychoanalytic Institute.   Henry Murray had previously prepared a document for the OSS titled Analysis of the Personality of Hitler and many of his conclusions were later absorbed into the Langer report.

Since Adolf Hitler would not be directly available for analysis, psychological profiling proved to be a complex problem.Langer and his team gathered information by interviewing people who had personally known Hitler. These included Ernst Hanfstaengl (a former Hitler confidante who had defected to the Allies), Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe (a Nazi spy in U.S. custody), and Friedlinde Wagner (daughter of Richard Wagner and an anti-Nazi activist). The team also scoured various printed documents about Hitler and eventually put together 11,000 pages of quotations and condensed versions of longer documents into a "Hitler Source Book" which was appended to their actual study.

The final document, titled "A Psychological Profile of Adolf Hitler: His Life and Legend" was released in 1943. Due to pressure from Donovan and the OSS, Langer and his team only had a limited amount of time to finish the report.  After the report was released, it was quickly declared Top Secret and distributed to different branches of the Allied forces. In addition to the preface, the report was broken down into six sections:

• Hitler - As he believes himself to be
• Hitler - As the German people know him
• Hitler - As his associates know him
• Hitler - As he knows himself
• Psychological Analysis and Reconstruction
• Hitler's Probable Behavior in the Future

Although Langer arranged for three independent psychoanalysts to review the report and their conclusions, he frankly admitted that forming conclusions based on second-hand sources limited the report's usefulness. Despite his misgivings, the report concluded that Adolph Hitler was likely a "neurotic psychopath" whose hold on the German people seemed absolute. The report reviewed Hitler's unhappy childhood, his relationship with both of this parents, and his early psychosexual development.

The team drew heavily on Freudian concepts and made various assumptions about Hitler's sexuality and attitudes towards women in general based on the limited information provided in works such as Mein Kampf. The crux of the report was the final section, Hitler's Probable Behavior in the Future. which described the various possible scenarios of Hitler's response to Allied military advances. After weighing different outcomes, it was suggested that Adolph Hitler would become increasingly neurotic with each German defeat. The authors also concluded that Hitler would probably commit suicide if the Nazis lost the war. In a prophetic line at the end of the report, the authors concluded that "In any case, his mental condition will continue to deteriorate. He will fight as long as he can with any weapon or technique that can be conjured up to meet the emergency. The course he will follow will almost certainly be the one which seems to him to be the surest road to immortality and at the same time drag the world down in flames."

While it's still an open question on how much, if any, influence the Langer report had on the Allied leaders (probably very little given how late in the war it was released), it marked a radical shift in the role of psychology in military and political strategy.  As one of the first practical applications of psychological profiling (at least as applied to world leaders), the report would remain classified until 1972 when it was finally published and became a bestseller.

Despite critical gaps (many details about Adolph Hitler only became known long after the war ended), the Langer report was considered enough of a success for the OSS (later the CIA) to continue producing psychological profiles to assist political strategy. Psychological profiling would only be used on occasion during the 1950s and 1960s (including an influential report on Nikita Kruschev which was carefully studied by John F. Kennedy). The CIA eventually developed its own in-house psychological profiling section in the late 1960s although most of the reports produced remain classified.

The actual value of psychological profiles based on second-hand information remains controversial.  Older psychodynamic profiling approaches have been abandoned in favour of psycholinguistic and content analysis strategies designed to provide some insight into the thinking processes of foreign leaders and how they might react in stressful situations. Unfortunately, psychological profiles are usually only as good as the factual information that is available and even minor discrepancies in known facts about a leader could completely distort the resulting profile. Reports also tend to downplay situational factors that might play a stronger role in a leader's decisions than long-term personality. As a result, foreign policy experts and psychologists remain divided concerning the actual value of psychological profiles in shaping foreign policy.

As for Walter Langer, he remained convinced of the potential value of psychological profiling until his death in 1981.In the forward to his 1972 book on Adolph Hitler, he was quoted as saying "I may be naive in diplomatic matters, but I like to believe that if such a study of Hitler had been made years earlier, under less tension, and with more opportunity to gather first-hand information, there might not have been a Munich; a similar study of Stalin might have produced a different Yalta; one of Castro might have prevented the Cuban situation, and one of President Diem might have avoided our deep involvement in Vietnam.''

While profiling will certainly continue to be used, the controversy remains.

Can Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Help Treat PTSD?

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) refers to the medical use of oxygen at a much higher pressure than the 1,013.25 mbars  which represents the normal atmospheric pressure at sea level.   Since being first introduced in the 19th century, hyperbaric oxygen treatment usually involved placing a patient in a specially-constructed chamber that allows atmospheric pressure to be raised on a pre-set schedule (up to 1.5 to 3 times normal pressure).   Along with the higher atmospheric pressure,  patients can be administered a 100 percent oxygen mixture to increase the supply of oxygen to all parts of the body.

Though originally developed to treat decompression sickness and air embolisms, the use of HBOT has since been expanded to include treatment of a wide range of medical conditions.  This includes gas gangrene, arterial occlusions, necrotizing fasciitis, severe burns, and after major skin grafts, all of which are conditions for which the FDA has formally approved this type of therapy. 

Still, despite considerable research looking at the value of HBOT in treating other conditions including autism, Alzheimer's disease, and multiple sclerosis,  little empirical evidence has been found to date to indicate that it has any real treatment value.   Despite this lack of evidence, however, HBOT use for "off-label" purposes continues to rise.

But can it actually help patients suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) ?    Considering that many patients with traumatic brain injuries and PTSD show microscopic damage to the white matter of the brain (including axons).   Since conventional treatment of these conditions show relatively little benefit, researchers have been taking a closer look at whether HBOT can help patients recover normal cognitive and emotional functioning.

Since 2017, the Veterans Administration has been providing HBOT for veterans with PTSD at selected facilities in Oklahoma, California, Florida, and Texas.   While many patients have reported positive benefits from this treatment, actual research, as well as a 2015 report from the US Government Accountability Office,  suggest that it is no better than placebo-based treatment.  

Based on patient testimonials concerning the value of HBOT, two legislators have introduced a new bill requiring the VA to provide HBOT-treatment to any veteran diagnosed with PTSD or traumatic brain injury.    Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D have jointly introduced the The TBI and PTSD Treatment Act which has gained support with veterans groups across the country.

“This bill gives veterans an additional choice to treat these serious mental health issues,” Rep. Biggs said in a recent media statement. “[Hyperbaric oxygen therapy] has the potential to help the VA make progress in their mental health and suicide prevention efforts. This is an avenue where we have a lot of ground to gain.”

Presently, HBOT is administered by a VA physician and is only given to veterans who show no improvement with other, more evidence-based approaches.  The VA had previously delayed expanding HBOT use pending the results of research examining its effectiveness.   Under the new Act, however, HBOT would become a covered treatment under federal law and its use would be expanded across the entire United States.  

Sacrificing Edith

On May 1, 1879, Charles F. Freeman plunged a knife into his five-year-old daughter, Edith,  apparently believing that it was God's will.  As his wife would later testify, he then walked the room with her dead body as he prayed and wept   Afterward, he  took the body to bed with him and kept it with him all night.   On the following morning, Freeman then gathered his fellow worshippers together and proclaimed that God would raise her up on the third day.  

He didn't.

Charles Freeman was a farmer who lived with his wife and two children in the tiny village of Pocasset, Massachusetts (now part of the township of Bourne).   Having converted to  Second Adventistism a year before, Freeman had become a leader among the local believers and was well-known for his fiery sermons.  The Second Adventism movement was a radical offshoot of the Adventist church founded by Willliam Miller in 1844.   After the Great Disappointment, when Miller's apocalyptic predictions failed to materialize, the sect which Charles Freeman joined continued to preach the imminent coming of Christ.   Along with their message of salvation, the Second Adventists also fanatically proclaimed that God would send signs to announce Christ's Second Coming.

As for Charles Freeman, he became convinced that God had a special purpose for him, both as a missionary to the unbelieving and to rally those believers whose faith was lagging.   Believing that he needed to make a great sacrifice to prove God's power, Freeman became inspired by the story of Abraham being called on to sacrifice his son Isaac.   He would later report that, two weeks before Edith's murder, he had heard God commanding him to sacrifice a member of his family.   After discussing this command with his wife (whom he ordered not to "stand in the Lord's way"), the only question remaining was who was to be sacrificed.   As Freeman would later report, though he prayed that he would be the one chosen, he was told in a dream that his daughter, Edith, was the one who had to be killed.   Edith was the youngest in the family and the favourite child which presumably made her the ultimate test of her father's faith.

While his wife Harriet objected to Edith's death,  she gave in eventually when Freeman insisted that God would either reconsider at the last moment (as in the story of Abraham and Isaac), or else Edith would be resurrected on the third day.   After the older daughter, Bessie, was taken out of the room by her mother,  Freeman then carried out his murder plan.

On the following day, Charles Freeman called together all of his fellow sect members and told them what he had done.   While he had described his plan for a great sacrifice, nobody had any idea that he would kill his daughter.   Amazingly enough, the fellow-worshippers declared that Freeman had been right to carry out such an act of faith and praised him for it.   They also agreed that God would raise Edith up on the third day as a sign for the unbelievers. 

What followed was a bizarre "wake" (in every sense of the word) as Freeman and his followers waited for Edith to be resurrected.    In an interview with a local newspaper, Edith's grandmother asked the reporter not to say anything to the surviving child about her sister's death.   The rationale appeared to be that Edith would be resurrected soon enough with no harm done.    When nothing happened on the third day (or afterward), the sect members were genuinely astonished.  Some even went so far as to accuse God of breaking His promise with Freeman by not raising Edith.  Not surprisingly, Charles Freeman had already been arrested for his daughter's murder.

The funeral for Edith Freeman was widely attended.   According to the newspaper description,  the Methodist church where the funeral was held was packed to capacity with hundreds more standing outside the building.   The Adventists were all in attendance, most keeping an eye on Edith's coffin hoping for a last-minute miracle, and the tension between the Adventists and the rest of the community was understandably high.   After the pastor lectured the Adventists on their false beliefs, the new Adventist leader (replacing Freeman who was in jail), Alden P. Davis, was prevented from making a speech under threat of arrest. 

Not deterred, Davis managed to make his speech in the churchyard after the service.   The speech, which contained a stirring endorsement of Charles Freeman and his sacrifice, stirred up the crowd even further, including threats of forming a lynch mob.   While no violence broke out, it was likely a near thing.    Even other evangelists expressed their horror at the murder.  An editorial in the New York Evangelist published shortly afterward stated that,

"We hope that this murderer would be treated as all murderers should be, and that it will not be admitted that religious fanaticism is to justify human sacrifices. The law expressly holds that crime committed while a man is intoxicated as if the man was sober; and so Mormons, Adventists, and Spiritualists should be held responsible for offences against law, notwithstanding their pretended revelations of a higher law. There is no safety in society if any other principle prevails.

Though Harriet Freeman was regarded as a willing participant in Edith's  death, she was later released and Charles Freeman was indicted for murder.  

At a special session of the Supreme Court on January 1880, a sanity hearing was held and several medical experts argued that Freeman was fit to stand trial.  John Davis Long, who was governor of Massachusetts at the time, then ordered Freeman sent to the nearby Danvers Lunatic Hospital where he would be held for the next three years.   In a new sanity hearing held in 1883, Freeman insisted that he fully recognized killing his daughter in a  fit of madness.  Stating that his stay in Danvers taught him enough about mental illness to recognize it in himself, he pointed out in his testimony:

"When I got to Danvers, I found a condition of things with which I was wholly unfamiliar.  I found people there who saw God and had communication with Christ, who believe that they were with Christ, who believed they had special revelations, who interpreted signs.  The question arose in my mind, knowing as I did, that these men were insane, unreliable men, many of them filthy and others treacherous, knowing them to be insane, the question arose in my mind whether I was also not insane."  

During his testimony, Freeman wept openly on the witness stand as he described what had led him to kill his daughter.  "I was sent to the insane hospital. and, as I have just stated, I saw my error," he said. "I regret it as the most dreadful act that was ever perpetrated.  I feel that I have been victimized.  I do not blame any person or persons, but I consider it an unfortunate affair from the beginning and for which perhaps no one person has been responsible." 

The prosecutor questioning him was very careful to point out the legal implication of Freeman giving in to his religious visions.  To that,  Freeman replied that "I thought we ought to obey God rather than man."   As for the question of remorse, Charles Freeman's answer was likely less than what the courts deemed acceptable: "I can not conceive of an honest man feeling remorse if he acts up to the very highest concept of his duty at the time."   He did feel that he had enough of religion and vowed never to return to Pocasset or the Second Adventists   All that his release plan involved was to find a job and to support his wife and remaining daughter. 

Harriet Freeman described her husband as being kind to his children and being a good provider for this family.  After his religious conversion in 1879, everything changed.  Not only did he neglect his business and devote himself to Second Adventistism, he also began experiencing visions telling him to send a message  to the world.. His newfound religious enthusiasm certainly caused problems with the rest of his family (his brother-in-law threatened to shoot him at one point due to his proselytizing).  

The presiding judge declared that he had no doubt over Charles Freeman's fitness to stand trial.   That trial was then held in December of  the same year and the outcome was never in doubt.  Not only did the court hear evidence from several medical experts that Freeman had been insane at the time of the murder but even his defense attorney wholeheartedly agreed that he was insane.   

In her own testimony,  Harriet Freeman provided more details about the vision in which he had been told to sacrifice Edith came after several days of going without food and sleep.  Though she admitted to agreeing with her husband that he needed to sacrifice their young daughter, she defended herself by saying that she could not believe that he would ever hurt Edith.   She regarded it as a test of faith, much like Abraham and Isaac, and that God would stop him from going too far.  Describing how her husband had acted on previous occasions, she said that his faith had been tested in the past and that he would not be allowed to do anything to endanger their children. 

On the night that Edith died however, she was told by her husband that God had asked him to make a great sacrifice.  She then saw him "leave the room, and when he came back he had the child in his arms; it was dead; he walked the room with it and prayed and wept; he took it to bed with him and kept it with him all night; the whole scene is like a terrible dream, which one remembers, but can't distinctly connect, and which, when I try to think of it, seems like an awful recollection." 

Weighing all the evidence, Judge Morton declared that he had never seen such a case in which there was no conflict in the testimony.   Since Charles Freeman faced the death penalty for Edith's murder, the judge fully recommended that the jury find him not guilty by reason of insanity.    The jury agreed and returned that verdict after only ten minutes of deliberation.   Charles Freeman was  sentenced to the Danvers Lunatic Hospital for the rest of his life. 

What little information there is on the Freeman case seems to end with his sentencing.  During his trial, he indicated that he functioned well in the Danvers hospital and seemed resigned to work there in one of the jobs assigned to inmates.  I have been unable to find out what became of him and how long he lived after his sentencing.   As well, the fate of Harriet Freeman and her surviving daughter isn't given either.  

While religious fundamentalism is still widespread, the case of Charles Freeman continues to resonates today.   The religious hysteria that apparently drove him to kill his young daughter has its parallels in similar cases, often involving exorcism to "drive out" evil influences.  Still, the death of Edith Freeman provides important lessons in avoiding other tragedies    Not only in terms of watching for the kind of hallucinations and delusions that can lead to murder, but also the bizarre enabling behaviour shown by Harriet Freeman and her husband's fellow believers.  Would Charles Freeman have committed murder without the support provided by Harriet and the others?  And where to draw the line between religious mania and mental illness?

Questions that need to be asked, time and again.

To Photograph a Ghost

Is it really possible to photograph a ghost?     

Through much of the 19th century, the new art of photography inspired a generation of photographers on both sides of the Atlantic to experiment on different ways to improve the long exposure time and the quality of the images they produced.    Which is presumably what first inspired William Mumler, later known as the dean of spirit photographers, to produce the first of the many spirit photographs he took during his career.

Born in 1832, Mumler actually got his start as an ornamental engraver  in Boston though his true passion was for photography which was still (if you'll pardon the expression) developing at the time.   As he would later relate, his first spirit photograph occurred by accident when he was trying out some new chemicals to develop a photographic plate at a photography studio owned by one of his friends.   After taking a photograph of himself (you didn't really think selfies were a modern invention, did you?), he was stunned to see the image of a seated woman in the picture with him.    According to the November 21, 1862 newspaper story describing Mumler's odd hobby, he reportedly recalled feeling a "peculiar sensation and tremulous motion in his right arm"  while standing for the photograph he took and and afterward feeling " very exhausted".     When he first saw the image of the woman in the picture, he not only concluded that she was a spirit, he also recognized her as his deceased cousin.    

After sharing his discovery with some Boston spiritualists, they immediately asked Mumler to take photographs of them as well.   Out of the twenty or more photographs that Mumler took, a few of them did show additional images which more than a few of the Spiritualists identified as deceased acquaintances or family members.   The images were typically much fainter than what Mumler got with his live models and, even for those volunteers who sat for more than one picture, the ghostly images being shown were rarely the same.   

For many of the people taking part, Mumler's photographs were a revelation.   Learning that close family members they had believed  gone forever were actually hovering around in ghostly form reaffirmed everything they believed about Spiritualism.   They also scoffed at the suggestion that any trickery was involved.    As one of Mumler's supporters, Dr. Ammi Brown, told reporters, he had examined Mumler's apparatus and found no sign of faking.   He also added that, "if these pictures, claimed to be the pictures of spirits, be a swindle or a sleight-of-hand deception, the operation beats the ingenuity of all the necromancers and prestidigitateurs(sic) of the present and the past.   

Answering accusations that the ghostly images were actually double-exposures on old photographic plates, Mumler invited skeptics to supply their own plates to be used in his experiments and, sure enough, ghostly images still appeared in the developed plates.    While other photographers showed that they could reproduce the ghostly effect using two negatives and printing them onto the same photograph, nobody could explain how Mumler was able to do the same with a single plate.   

Certainly, the pictures themselves were extremely memorable.  One of Mumler's photographs was of a man named Luther Parks but there was also the fainter image of a beautiful female spirit, apparently about to place a wreath of flowers on his head.    In another photograph,  a woman, identified only as "Mrs. Snow", could be seen along with the ghostly image of her dead brother who was holding a musical instrument in his hand (he had been an instrument-maker during his life).     One of the other photographs was of a man,  "Mr. Taylor", whose child had died recently.   He apparently wanted to see this child sitting on his hand (which he held out while the photograph was taken).   Sure, enough, the photograph that Mumler developed had a ghostly image of the child just as the father had requested.

But, it wasn't just family members who appeared in these photographs.   In one picture of a "well-known citizen of Boston", the unmistakable image of recently-deceased statesman Daniel Webster could be seen alongside him.   Other ghostly images weren't as easily to identify, however, though most of the people photographed were convinced that the images in their pictures were of deceased family members.  

All of which still raised the question of how Mumler was taking these amazing photographs.   Certainly no other photographers in Boston were getting similar results though they used essentially the same equipment.   One reporter writing about Mumler even supplied his own photographic plate and carefully watched Mumler as he took the picture and developed it afterward.    Sure enough, the result was another spirit photograph.   As the reporter concluded in his story, "the modus operandi of producing these spirit pictures is a mystery...how it is made, neither deception investigation or philosophy can answer."

And Mumler wasn't the only member of his family who dabbled in the supernatural .  His wife, Hannah, was a spiritual medium who provided her own services, including spiritual healing for willing customers.   Through her channeling the famous physician Benjamin Rush, Hannah dispensed various patent remedies including, "Mesmerine of the blood" which was a cure for "displacing the many different diseases that flesh is heir to."   That the spectral image of Rush often appeared in photographs of Hannah (all taken by her husband) helped bolster her own psychic claims.

By early 1863, the word about Mumler's photographs had spread among photographers on both sides of the Atlantic.  One story about Mumler which came out in the Photographic News, (a London-based popular journal for photographers).   Describing the"considerable interest" they had over the photographs, the edictors still remained cautious about the possibility of fraud.  Though Mumler certainly had numerous prominent defenders, the American Photographic Society soon declared that the "spirit likenesses are a fraud and gross deception" and their British counterparts wholeheartedly agreed.   And then there were prominent skeptics such as P.T. Barnum who also insisted that Mumler's claims were "pure hokum".  Barnum even devoted an entire chapter to Mumler in his 1866 book, Humbugs of the World.

But Mumler's photography business continued to thrive and he soon moved to New York city where even more prominent photography experts soon concluded that they could find no fraud.   It likely helped that the United States was embroiled in a horrific civil war at the time with thousands of casualties and grieving relatives desperate for some proof of an afterlife.   Given the enormous market for spirit photographs spawned by the war, it is any wonder that people were willing to suspend disbelief?  Or that other photographers, recognizing that Mumler was onto a good thing, began to produce their own spirit photographs?   Not that this cut into Mumler's business, or stopped him from charging fees for photographs that were far higher than any of his non-spiritual competitors.

It was too good to last, however.   Acting on stories about Mumler's photographs, New York major A. Oakley Hall ordered an investigation.   His chief marshal, Joseph Tooker, visited Mumler under a fake name and had his photograph taken.   What appeared was Tooker and what Mumler insisted was his deceased father-in-law.    After examining the picture closely, Tooker concluded that the picture "failed to represent anyone he had ever seen or known" and promptly arrested Mumler for fraud and "cheating the public."  

On April 12, 1869, Mumler appeared in court  before Judge Joseph Dowling on two counts of fraud and one of mischievous larceny.   According to the prosecutor, Mumler had defrauded his customers "through trick and device and by false pretence, in furnishing certain … cards said to have been produced by spiritual and supernatural agency, but which were in fact the result of ordinary scientific and chemical means, in common use by persons engaged in the photographic art.”    The sticking point for the prosecutor's case was whether Mumler had knowingly committed fraud (though he was certainly guilty of price inflation).    It soon became apparent that Spiritualism itself was on trial with believers and skeptics both giving testimony.  

But it was Mumler's photographs that would get the most attention.   As the first criminal trial in which "spirit photographs" were introduced as evidence,  photography experts  weighed in on how Mumler had produced them and whether he could have genuinely believed that he was photographing ghosts.   More than twenty-two photographs would be examined over the course of the three-week trial.  

It's hard to point out specific high points of the trial but calling P.T. Barnum as an expert for the prosecution was certainly one of them.   An accomplished showman, Barnum knew how to play to the audience (even in a courtroom) when he insisted that Mumler's photographs were "pure hokum".  He also drily pointed out that none of Mumler's customers seemed at all curious at how ghosts could be dressed in the clothes they had worn on earth.   And, interestingly enough, these clothes seemed to match the latest fashions quite well.     He also talked about his own previous experiences with Mumler and how easily such photographs  could be faked.

Given how entertaining Barnum's testimony was and the impact it was having on the jury (and the newspapers), Mumler's defense counsel tried to rattle the witness by asking him how long he had been in the humbug business.   When Barnum fielded that question ably, he was then questioned about his own various hoaxes, including the Fiji Mermaid and Joyce Heth.  None of this worked and Barnum stepped down from the witness stand in triumph.

After all the evidence was heard,  the prosecutor and defense counsel both gave extensive closing arguments that covered all of the complex issues that had arisen over the trial.   Whether or not Mumler was guilty of fraud seemed almost secondary to questions about Spiritualism, freedom of religion, the comfort that Mumler's photographs brought to his bereaved customers, and the distinction between belief and truth.    Finally, after weighing all of the deliberations, Judge Dowling concluded that “However I may be morally convinced that there may have been trick and deception practiced by the prisoner, yet as I sit as a Magistrate to determine from the evidence given by the witnesses, according to law, I am compelled to decide that I would not be justified in sending this complaint to the Grand Jury. "    And so, Mumler was a free man (but hardly exonerated).

Though he resumed his photography career, Mumler was still being called a "swindler" by most newspapers.  He had already relocated his business to Boston and it would be there that he would live the rest of his life.  Deeply in debt, Mumler had little hope of paying off his creditors considering that the demand for his spirit photographs was almost non-existent.  Though spirit photography would be a booming business in decades to come, the stigma over Mumler's name meant that he couldn't be part of it.    Even his existing photographs, which had once sold at exorbitant prices, could now be had for twenty-five cents each.    Almost all of his income came from ordinary photography as well as being an amateur inventor who came up with a new process for creating photo-electrotype plates (still known
as the Mumler process).

But he still did some spirit photographs.   One of his customers during his twilight years was Mary Todd Lincoln, widow of the martyred president (though she gave her name as "Mrs. Lindall").   Since the ghostly image bears little resemblance to her late husband, "Mrs. Lindall" needed some prompting by Hannah Mumler before saying that it was him in the picture.    Still, the publicity over the alleged ghostly picture of Abraham Lincoln helped revive his career to some extent and other people came to him as well.   

Finally, it all came to an end for William H. Mumler when he died in May, 1884.   Though his official obituary makes little mention of his spirit photographs and simply referred to him as a photographer and inventor, his spirit photographs continued to be widely distributed by Spiritualists even though most modern photography experts have long-since debunked them as fakes.  

So, was Mumler a fraud or did he genuinely believe that he was photographing ghosts?  You be the judge.

 

 

 

 

Do Cases of Amok Still Occur?

With the publication of Captain James Cook's journals of his extensive voyages around the world during the late 18th century, Europeans first became aware of a strange phenomenon that reportedly occurred among the various peoples of the Malay Archipelago.   Known by different names including mengamuk, pengamok, or simply amok: cases of uncontrollable violence erupting in formerly peaceful men with few, if any, warning signs continued to be reported even after Malaysia became a British territory.   In one typical case from 1891,  a Malay farmer named Imam Mamat suddenly erupted into violence after spending the day building a fence around his land.   After entering the house of his brother-in-law, Bilal Abu, with a spear and a golak [bladed weapon] in his hands, Mamat shook his brother-in-law's hand and asked for forgiveness.  He then shook his wife's hand and asked her forgiveness as well.  At that point, he immediately stabbed his wife in the abdomen with the golak.  According to the report:

She immediately fell and received two more superficial wounds...  Bilal Abu rushed to the rescue and received for his trouble a deep wound in the region of the heart and a superficial wound on the right side;  he fell never to rise again.  At this moment, Ngah Intan, wife of Bilal Abu, followed by four of her children, rushed to the door and jumped out, her eldest son Kassim receiving a stab in the back as he jumped out.  Imam Mamat jumped out [the house was on stilts] and, with two more spears picked up in the house, gave chase to Ngah Intan, who was followed by her three youngest children.  One little girl, Si Teh, received two wounds in the back, not dangerous ones.  A boy, Mumin received a deep wound in the side and the second little girl, Si Pateh, received a severe wound in the stomach [both children later died of their injuries].  Having satisfied himself with the children, he followed up with the mother, catching her 100 yards off, and killed her on the spot by a stab in the abdomen.

Imam Mamat walked down a stream and approached a friend, Uda Majid, who attempted to stop him by asking if he knew him.   Mamat replied, "Yes, but my spear doesn't know you."  He then stabbed him twice in the abdomen before killing another village man who was trying to restrain him.  Mamat then vanished into the jungle before attacking another family.   This time, he was successfully beaten back and sustained serious injuries to his face and thigh.   He died of his injuries a day later.  When asked why he had become violent, witnesses reported that Mamat "did not know what he was was doing, only his head went round and the devil told him to do it."   At the inquest into the deaths, fellow villagers said that the attacker was "on most friendly terms with everyone".     During his rampage, he had killed six people, including two pregnant women, and wounded four others. 

Although Malay cultural tradition holds that amok is caused by possession, Western psychiatrists writing about amok episodes describe it as a culture-bound syndrome most commonly found in Malaysia.  Episodes of amok behaviour have also been reported in Laos, the Philippines, Polynesia (where it is known as cafard or cathard),  Puerto Rico (mal de pelea), and among the Navajo (iich'aa).   According to the DSM-IV-TR, amok, much like pibloktoq, koro, and ataque de nervios, is classified as a dissociative trance disorder.  "Classic" symptoms found in most clinical descriptions of amok include:

• an initial period of social withdrawal lasting for hours or days
• sudden, unprovoked violence directed at anyone within reach, whether family, friends, or total strangers
• assaults continuing for minutes, hours, or even days until the amok person is killed or restrained
• in cases where amok sufferers survive, they typically fall into a deep sleep or stupor that can last for days
• after waking, the formerly amok person continues to be withdrawn or uncommunicative and is unable to recall the violence that occurred

A less common characteristic of amok cases involves the use of bladed instruments, such as the traditional Malay short sword (known as a kris).  Filipino amok cases have moved beyond the traditional edged weapons towards the use of automatic weapons (and grenades have been used during amok episodes in Laos). 

Amok case studies have been reported in the clinical literature for more than a century with subjects ranging in age from early adulthood through middle age.  Virtually all reported amok cases have been males with Malaysia clinicians arguing that latah (the sudden yelling of vulgar or obscene words) is the female equivalent of amok.   Since there has been at least one reported case of female amok and male latah cases have also been described, the gender lines are not so easily drawn.  While most amok cases were illiterate farmers or fishermen, there have also been incidents involving prosperous merchants, soldiers, skilled craftsmen, and even a member of Malaysia's royal family.   In all cases where amok sufferers managed to survive and avoid prison, they were able to return to their former lives with little or no repeat violence.

The actual cause of amok behaviour has perplexed psychiatrists and medical researchers for decades.  Although early psychiatrists have suggested that amok is linked to psychodynamic factors such as loss of social standing, hostility, and victim blaming, more recent investigators have described it as a behavioural syndrome with different potential causes including medical illness such as malaria or neurosyphilis.   Acute intoxication has also been suggested as a possible factor in some cases (despite alcohol being forbidden in the predominantly Muslim Malay culture).   Since most clinical amok cases have been diagnosed in prisons and psychiatric hospitals, it's hardly surprising that psychiatric diagnoses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are commonly given.  Still, it is an open question whether these diagnoses can be used to explain the extreme violence in amok episodes.  

Although the actual amok syndrome is less well-known, the phrase "running amok" (or "running amuck") has become part of the common language for English speakers around the world.   Even in the United States,  "running amok" was raised as a legal defense in the Hawaiian Supreme Court case of Orlando Ganal.    Ganal, a Filipin0-American man, was charged in the shooting murders of four relatives on August 25, 1991.  After killing his victims he then set their Honolulu house on fire.   During his trial, Ganal insisted that he had "run amok" due to humiliation over his wife's infidelity which triggered his violent rampage.   While the argument failed to impress the court and Ganal was sentenced to life in prison, he later attempted to appeal the decision on the grounds that the prosecutor made sarcastic remarks trivializing the amok defense.    The Supreme Court rejected the argument and upheld his conviction.   I am not aware of the "amok defense" being raised in any other North American criminal trial (although automatism has certainly been used in many cases).  

Has amok changed over time?  While cases were more frequent in Malaysia and Indonesia before English and Dutch colonialism, the advent of psychiatric treatment means that amok episodes were increasingly more likely to be treated with lifelong incarceration in psychiatric hospitals or prisons.   Even the use of the term, "amok" has changed over time.  Although "classic" cases still occur,  Malaysians have extended the amok term to include any episode of sudden violence happening in Malaysia (whether committed by Malays or non-Malays).   Tempting as it is to use the amok label to cover episodes of "sudden murder" occurring elsewhere in the world (including the modern "spree killer" phenomenon ),  there are important differences..    Although sudden violence  happens throughout the world, the unique nature of amok seems to stem directly the existence of the amok tradition in local cultures. 

Will  amok episodes  continue to occur or will they gradually fade away as  with other culture-bound syndromes around the world?   Whenever new episodes of explosive violence occur, the "running amok" explanation will likely be raised to try explaining what happened.  Whether the lessons learned from dealing with amok sufferers will help with similar cases elsewhere remains to be seen. 

The Case of Anthony Tudor

For Sir Clive Wigram, private secretary to King George V, handling the king's correspondence was all in a day's work.   Even for Sir Clive, the strange-looking envelope that crossed his desk on February 1, 1931 was definitely out of the ordinary, though.  Not only did the envelope bear the official-looking seal of the long-defunct House of Tudor, but the words:  "By Royal Command" were embossed in gold on one corner.  But it was how the envelope was addressed that really caught Sir Clive's attention.  There, in curious medieval script, was written "George Frederick Albert Ernest Windsor, Esquire, Buckingham, Palace"  (which was hardly the proper way to refer to a sitting monarch).   

When Sir Clive broke open the envelope, the message inside, written on fine parchment, was certainly succinct enough.   Not only did the letter's author refer to himself as "King Anthony I" but he also claimed that he was the rightful king of England and that the present occupant of the throne was a "usurper, not of the Blood Royal".   Not only did "King Anthony" demand the crown, but also insisted that King George step down "on pain of transportation" (to Australia, presumably).

And so began a bizarre campaign by an otherwise-unknownformer police inspector named Anthony William Hall that would last for decades and confound Buckingham Palace, the House of Commons, the judiciary, and Hall's own family.

But who was Anthony William Hall and why did he claim to be the true king?   

According to census records, Hall was born in Cheswick, Middlesex in 1898 and his early childhood seemed completely unremarkable for a supposed king.   There was an older brother, Humphrey, but his being "feeble-minded" (as it was called in those days) likely meant that it was Anthony who was considered the oldest son as far as his younger brothers and sisters were concerned.    After serving in World War I,  Anthony returned home to England though he seemed decidedly restless on the family farm.   By all accounts, the broad-shouldered and sturdy Anthony decided that he wanted a more adventurous life and, after getting married in 1923, soon joined the Shropshire police force  in which he reportedly had a stellar career.  For a while, at least.

In 1926, Anthony received a small inheritance and, though accounts vary as to why, abruptly quit his police job before taking his wife, Ethel, and daughter to Canada to start a new life.   Soon after settling in Quebec, he founded an export business and quickly established himself as a prosperous businessman with dozens of employees and a big house in Montreal.   But people who knew Hall noticed a disturbing change in his behaviour as he became more preoccupied with his family tree.   Along with spending hours locked in his study while he pored over genealogy and history books, Anthony also spent a small fortune on frequent letters to Somerset House in London (then home to the  Registrar General of Births, Marriages and Deaths) for information about his family history.

Based on his research, Anthony concluded that he was a direct descendant of King Henry VIII by his second wife, Anne Boleyn.    This apparent ancestor had been born prior to Henry's divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.  Since this made him illegitimate, the unnamed child's claim to the throne was passed over in favour of Henry's legitimate children, including John's younger sister, Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth I).   To avoid problems, the child was sent to be raised in Sussex by one of Henry's old retainers, John Hall.   This was the presumed beginning of the Hall family name  and, given his descent from Tudor kings, Anthony concluded that he was the rightful king of England.  

While the reasoning may have been convoluted, it was apparently enough for Anthony Hall to insist on being called either "Your Majesty" or "King Anthony" by everyone who knew him.   This was something that poor Hall's poor wife had difficulty handling.   After she became convinced that her husband was truly insane, Ethel returned to England with their daughter.

As for King Anthony, he apparently took his new bachelor status in stride and returned to England himself where he could launch his campaign to overthrow the "usurper" King George V.    As for the hapless king, he seemed amused at first  by this claim and as he reportedly said to Sir Clive Wigram, "I doubt King Anthony would want the job if he had it."     

Anthony was furious when George didn't bother with a reply to that first imperious demand sent  on February 1.   Having set himself up in a house in Hereford, he sent a second letter ordering King George to leave the realm or face the consequences.   This one got ignored as well, along with the next eight letters that followed.   

Realizing that King George would never respond to his demands, Anthony decided to escalate things by holding a reception at one of London's most expensive hotels.   It was there that he formally announced his campaign to be king with all the eagerness of a politician.    Anthony followed up this announcement by hitting what could be charitably described as a campaign trail.   Along with frequent rallies in London, he traveled from one end of the United Kingdom to another, appearing in his familiar trench coat, and declaring the changes he would make once he took over Buckingham Palace.

Sadly enough, King Anthony didn't get a lot of respect at these public appearances.   Along with frequent jeering, verbal abuse, and the inevitable pelting with rotten fruit and vegetables, he was also subjected to a mock crowning ceremony in Oxford and physically attacked on several occasions (followed up by an overnight stay in a police lockup).   

In the meantime, Anthony's wife, the long-suffering Ethel, filed for divorce on the grounds that he had effectively deserted his family (presumably, she wasn't particularly interested in becoming Queen).   Though Hall defended himself in court ably enough, including a six-hour cross-examination of his wife, the judge agreed with Ethel and granted the divorce decree.    In granting the divorce, the judge denounced Anthony as being "tempestuous, undisciplined, and [of] erratic disposition."    Stung by the judge's words, he told reporters afterward that "I take a primitive view of marriage:  I do not recognize divorce."    An ironic statement considering his presumed ancestry.  

With the (non) divorce out of the way, Anthony Hall was able to throw himself into his campaign to be king with greater enthusiasm than ever.    In 1935, the "Royal Tudor Manifesto" he registered at the Royal College of Arms gained him international publicity.   .  Along with restating his claim to the throne, he also described the various changes he would make to the laws once he became king.   This included abolishing income tax, death duties, municipal rates, etc., none of which had been in effect during Tudor times and which, according to Hall, were blatantly illegal.     He also promised to establish a Ministry of Pleasure, to hold regular public picnics at Windsor Castle, to greatly expand London, and to redeem that National Debt (which had recently passed the  £7 billion mark).  Exactly how he was planning to do all of this after abolishing income taxes was left to the imagination.  Thousands of copies of the Manifesto were distributed across the U.K. , all at Anthony's expense, to ensure as many readers as possible.     

When  few people seemed to take him seriously, Anthony decided to relocate to London and a three-story mansion outside of Finsbury Park.   He also commissioned a jeweler on Bond Street to make him an official crown and a ceremonial mace.     And he didn't spare any expense, either.   The crown was lined with velvet and made up of thousands of semi-precious stones while the mace bore the formal inscription:  "Anthony I, King of England and Scotland, Prince of Wales"   (the jeweler's bill for making these items was over £20,000 in case you were wondering).    

Dressed in his royal regalia, including a "coronation robe", King Anthony had himself photographed and distributed thousands of copies, all signed, to various peers, diplomats, politicians, etc.    He also bombarded the Prime Minister's office, and just about every other elected politician in the House of Commons, with formal letters outlining his royal claim.   Since all the letters were on parchment, formally embossed with the Tudor coat of arms, the London firm that was supplying the parchment needed to re-establish their parchment-making department just to accommodate King Anthony.  

If it had just been Anthony Hall alone, the British government might have just dismissed him as a lone crank.   Unfortunately, Anthony's claims were being supported by a growing number of malcontents, most of whom simply wanted to stir up trouble or get the would-be monarch's support for their own pet causes.   Though most of the people who came to  King Anthony's public meetings dismissed him as deluded, they were still turning out in record numbers.    

After King George V's death in 1936, Anthony Hall became even more unhinged (if that seems possible).   Not only did he  move his headquarters to an even bigger mansion, but he also purchased a printing press that he kept in the basement.     While the actual details of how he managed it aren't clear, King Anthony used the press to start printing his own legal currency.  Not only were his one-pound notes larger than when the Bank of England was turning out, but also bore his signature as "Master of the Mint".    He then sold the notes at his various rallies for one shilling each (and promised that they would be redeemed at their full value once he became king).    When a South End court tried to fine Anthony for distributing his bogus notes, he simply declared that he would  confiscate all privately-owned banks and reopen them as branches of the Royal Mint once he assumed power.  

But it was his attempt at holding up the coronation of King George Vi that really marked the end for King Anthony.   When his letters to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Earl Marshall of England  were ignored, he then issued a formal coronation challenge to the King's Champion.   Unused since 1821, the challenge would have allowed him to claim the throne by besting the Champion in a formal duel of arms, though two constables sent from Scotland Yard persuaded him to drop the challenge and stay away from the coronation ceremony.

In the years that followed, King Anthony generated headlines repeatedly with other, equally grandiose claims.   In 1939, he claimed to be true king of Ireland  on the grounds that his mother's maiden name was "Eire."   That claim, along with his claim to the throne of Germany (don't ask), was put on hold with the outbreak of World War II when the Home Office rather forcefully told him that any activities deemed disruptive to public order would get him detained.   As a result, Anthony and his entourage retreated to a house in Herefordshire to wait out the end of hostilities.  

Not that this put the end to Anthony's legal troubles.   The house where he was staying had belonged to his mother and his sister, Mary, went to court to evict him.  Despite threatening to take the case to the House of Lords, the judge eventually ruled against the would-be monarch and ordered his eviction.   He and his sister were still fighting over the house when Anthony William Hall, one-time claimant to the throne of England, died in December 1947 and the age of fifty-three.   Since he had never had a son and his younger siblings were disinclined to pursue the throne, his curious campaign died with him and he was buried in the family plot near Little Dewchurch was plain old "Anthony Hall."   

While hardly the only pretender to the throne, AnthonyWilliam  Hall was certainly the most flamboyant.  As for his supposed lineage, no legitimate historian has ever supported Hall's claim and the general consensus is that he invented much of it.   But what could have made a hard-headed businessman throw away a marriage and a thriving business to dedicate his life to a fantasy?   It's easy to dismiss him as mentally ill though he didn't show any other symptoms that could be used to diagnosis what was happening with him.   In the end, he was simply a man with an obsession that cost him his family and his fortune.   

And there's never been a shortage of people like that.

After the End of the World

It was in 1954 when Dorothy Martin predicted the end of the world as we know it (and became part of psychology's history in the process).

Born in 1900 in Mount Shasta, California, she was a housewife living in the Chicago area when she first came to national attention.  Having a  longstanding interest in psychic phenomena and theosophy (including being "cleared" by a dianetics group), she first came in contact with advanced beings from the planet Clarion through her experiments in automatic writing.  Through these beings (the most important of whom was her personal mentor, Sananda), she was informed that they had been visiting Earth and monitoring fault lines in the planet's crust.   They warned her that a great flood would strike the Chicago area just before dawn on December 24, 1954. The flood would then form an inland sea stretching from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico and a subsequent cataclysm would destroy much of the West Coast from Seattle, Washington down to South America. A  flying saucer would come to rescue those who were true believers.

Martin had already become involved with a local flying saucer cult known as "The Seekers" and they responded eagerly to her messages from Sananda and the other Clarions. Their efforts to warn the public of the coming disaster were published in a local newspaper story under the headline: PROPHECY FROM PLANET. CLARION CALL TO CITY: FLEE THAT FLOOD. IT'LL SWAMP US ON DEC. 21, OUTER SPACE TELLS SUBURBANITE (it didn't make the front page for some reason).  The two-column story was accompanied by a photograph of Martin with a pencil and pad in her hand and described her experiences in communicating with the "superior beings" who had relayed the warning. It was this newspaper article that first attracted the attention of social psychologist, Leon Festinger.

As later written in the seminal classic When Prophecy Fails (published in 1956), Festinger and his colleagues, Stanley Schacter and Henry W. Riecken, first interviewed Martin in October, 1954 . Given that she was making a prediction about a specific future event which had already become the focus of media attention, the researchers decided to carry out a field study examining apocalyptic belief.  They also viewed it as an ideal test of Festinger's fledgling theory of cognitive dissonance.

Mrs Martin and her fellow Seekers (in the book, her name was changed to Marian Keech) strongly believed in her prediction and had already started making arrangements for their departure for Clarion. The three researchers and their fellow cohorts were able to infiltrate the group and provide a fascinating look at what happened before and after December 21.  When the Seekers' attempts at "telling the world" were largely ignored, their efforts at proselytizing ended in September when Dorothy Martin was reportedly told by two strange visitors to end all warning efforts and "await further orders."  The exact number of Seekers involved in the movement was never made clear but their mailing list ran to hundreds of names.

There was a surprising lack of effort on the part of the Seekers to recruit new members and the researchers had difficulty in infiltrating the movement. The Seeker meetings mainly involved readings of Dorothy Martin's teachings, sharing of mystical experiences, and writing letters urging President Eisenhower to reveal the "secret information" that the U.S. Air Force had collected on flying saucers. Plans to relocate to the mountains were scrapped in favour of waiting for Sananda and the other "Guardians" to transport them from the Seekers' headquarters in Dorothy Martin's house in Chicago.

Then came December 20 when the final group of fifteen to twenty Seekers met in the Martin home to await their salvation. Based on Dorothy Martin's messages from Sananda, the aliens would come at midnight to take them to their new home. To prevent being burned by contact with the alien spacecraft, the Seekers were instructed to remove all metal from their bodies (including zippers and bra straps). The book describes with some detail the suspense as midnight approached and passed and the group became increasingly disappointed. Finally, at 4:45 am, Dorothy Martin received another message stating that the cataclysm had been called off by the "God of Earth."   Apparently their group had impressed God with their faith and the human race was spared as a result.

Now came the hard part of telling the world. Dorothy Martin and her supporters were dismayed at the negative reaction that they received from the newspapers and wire services that they contacted. Martin took news of earthquakes in Italy and California as confirmation of her predictions of disaster but there was little else in the weeks that followed. As media interest trickled off, the group slowly dwindled. Dorothy Martin received other messages but they became even more incomprehensible with time.

Responding to complaints from her neighbours, police warned Dorothy Martin that would be arrested and possibly committed to a psychiatric hospital if she persisted with her activities. She went into hiding and eventually joined a dianetics centre in Arizona.  The book ends with the group being entirely dispersed although that was not quite the case.

Discussing the social psychology surrounding persistence of belief in failed prophecies, Festinger and his colleagues proposed the following five necessary conditions: 1. There must be conviction. 2. There must be commitment to this conviction. i.e, believers have to have taken an important action that is hard to undo (such as quitting a job or selling a house). 3. The conviction must be amenable to unequivocal disconfirmation, i.e, there must be a way of testing the conviction 4. Such unequivocal disconfirmation must occur. 5. Social support must be available subsequent to the disconfirmation (Groups of believers can support one another better than isolated believers).

Despite failures to replicate these findings with other apocalyptic groups (and there are more of those around than you might think), When Prophecy Fails represents a fascinating inside look at the mechanics of belief and how it interacts with human behaviour.

Dorothy Martin lived in Peru for several years before returning to Arizona. In 1965, she founded the Association of Sananda and Samat Kumara. Under her new name of "Sister Thedra", she continued to act as a channel for Sananda and was prominent in the UFO contact community until her death in 1992.   The association that she founded is still active.

Indian Activists Seek Nationwide Law to Stamp Out Witch-Hunts

In a recent incident which has become all-too common in parts of India, four  women were lynched by a mob in the village of Siskari in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand.  The women, all of whom were between 45 and 60 years of age, had been the target of a harassment campaign stemming from locals accusing them of using "black magic" to kill a village resident some time ago.  According to police reports, all four women were dragged from their homes and beaten to death by a mob of masked men armed with sticks.  Over twenty-four people have since been arrested by police.

This killing is only the most recent example of the anti-witch hysteria that remains prevalent in Jharkhand and other economically depressed parts of the country.   This July alone, a mob in India's Assam state beheaded a woman accused of making villagers fall ill.   Around the same time, a couple and their four children were burnt to death in Odisha for allegedly bringing disease to the village and evidence of another man , burned to death in a similar incident, was also found.  According to recent statistics from the Times of India newspaper, 123 people were killed by mobs in Jharkhand between May 2016 and 2019 alone.   And this may well be an underestimate given that many anti-witch attacks go unreported.       In 2016, there were 134 killings nationwide according to National Crime Records statistics (and, again, this may be an underestimate) with thousands of other deaths taking place over the past decade.  The overwhelming majority of these victims were women or members of low-status ethnic minority groups.

While Jharkhand remains the province with the highest number of reported attacks on suspected witches,  belief in witchcraft is extremely strong across much of India.   Not only is it believed that witches are born with the power to heal or curse, but they are often sought out to help cure illnesses or lift curses.    Given the lack of proper medical care in many of the poorer communities, any death or misfortune (including illness, famine, or drought) can be blamed on suspected "black magic" practitioners.   There are numerous self-styled practitioners who boast supernatural powers and who are widely respected and feared in their local communities.  Also, given that most  accused witches are single women living on valuable land claimed by their families, cases of family members accusing them of witchcraft to force them off the land are hardly uncommon.    With the stigma surrounding mental illness in much of India, anyone displaying "odd" behaviour or signs of mental illness may also be accused of witchcraft.

As Shashank Shekhar Sinha, an author and expert on local cultures told reporters, evidence suggests that these killings may be on the rise given changing economic conditions.   "This has to do with the politics of development," he said, in describing why the witch-hunts are so prevalent in Jharkhand,  "Coal mines and industries are being set up in the area, and a lot of people are migrating into the region. In this model, the adivasis [tribal communities] are losing their lands to these development projects. They are losing their lands and at the same time they are not benefiting from development projects."     With anger directed against newcomers who are seen to be taking away jobs needed by villagers, land-grabbing and rumour campaigns are an effective way of forcing out undesirables, many of whom are either killed or driven off their land which is then claimed by other villagers.

While many individual states have introduced legislation to stop witch-hunting, human rights are pushing for a nationwide law that will address all anti-witch harassment, including the sexual violence and public humiliation that accused witches often face.  "The current approach has been very piecemeal, where you only talk about the legal aspect of the problem. The laws are inadequate in covering the entire range of crimes associated with witch hunting," said Sinha.   Along with making these kind of hunts illegal, Sinha stressed the need for public awareness campaigns, especially among the locals who are most likely to target suspected witches.   Victims of anti-witch violence also need to be able to access medical services, including counseling to help with their trauma.   Accused witches also need real legal protections, especially if they are being accused by their own family members   

Perhaps the most critically important change to be made involves better enforcement of existing laws.   Even in cases involving death of accused witches, police investigations often reach a dead end, whether due to lack of effort on the part of police or simply because villagers refuse to speak out to protect the accused.

https://www.dw.com/en/indias-witches-victims-of-superstition-and-poverty/a-49757742