Strange crimes and criminals

American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis,  Jul 2005  by Gravitz, Melvin A

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Sifakis, C. (2001). Strange crimes and criminals. New York: Checkmark Books.

The author is a journalist with a special interest in crime. In this book, he has written a comprehensive account of a large number of bizarre crimes and their perpetrators. These are arranged in alphabetical order beginning with the so-called Aldermen's Wars and concluding with Yorky Mickey the Clam Man. The former described an early Twentieth Century series of killings waged over a five year period for criminal control of a section of Chicago. The latter was a strong man who could open clams with his bare hands. When Yorky discovered that his bride had gone away with someone else on their wedding day, he strangled her and reputedly spent the rest of his life searching in vain for the man who had done him wrong. In between these cases, Sifakis described many other curious and not so curious crimes, some of which pertain to hypnosis. These included accounts of an underworld extortion racket in which restaurant owners were forced to buy parsley at outrageous prices, New York City's "Mad Bomber," an all-female criminal gang, a dramatic feud between two actors, and others.

For hypnosis professionals, there is the story of Katherine "Kitty" Ging, a 27-year-old resident of Minneapolis whose violent death in 1894 has been cited as an authentic instance of hypnosis used to cause a murder; even so, the facts of the case were hazy at best and subject to other interpretations. Early that year, one Harry T. Hayward, "a smooth talking local wastrel" completed a course in hypnosis which he then reputedly used to bilk Kitty out of several thousand dollars. Then, Hayward also allegedly used hypnosis to convince Kitty to make him the beneficiary of two $5,000 life insurance policies, which in those days was a considerable fortune. Although attributed at the time to hypnosis, it was by no means certain that such had been the cause of her behavior, but during that period of history hypnosis was regarded by many as a powerful means of control and manipulation. An important cultural influence at the time was the story of Svengali and the hapless Trilby, which was a best-selling novel in that same year of 1894.

Hayward also was said to have hypnotized Claus Blixt, a simple-minded handyman. "He said that unless I looked into his eyes, I couldn't understand what he was saying." Blixt later said that he had been hypnotically compelled to set fire to a vacant building on which Kitty held a mortgage, and as a result of which she collected $1,500 in insurance with the money eventually transferred to Harry. Harry then plotted Kitty's murder so that he could obtain her life insurance. He first approached his own brother, Adry, who rejected the proposal, but who later reported that Harry had "kept looking at me as he talked, and sometimes I felt as if I was being hypnotized." Adry's allegation was ignored until Kitty was found with her head crushed and a bullet wound behind her ear. This act prompted the district attorney's office to conduct an investigation which resulted in Blixt finally confessing that Hayward had hypnotized him a number of times and had thereby caused him to commit the murder. Harry then confessed to masterminding Kitty's death, adding that his mistake was in not killing Blixt. Eventually, Blixt was sentenced to life imprisonment, and Harry Hayward, who by then had become known as "the hypnotic plotter," died on the gallows.

Sifakis described another case of supposed murder by hypnosis. In 1894, Henry Meyer a resident of Chicago had studied hypnosis in Germany with Herbert Flint, a celebrated hypnotist of the time. Meyer is said to have hypnotized a naïve subject, Peter Bretz, whom he convinced by posthypnotic suggestion that he, the subject, was in love with Mrs. Meyer and should run away with her; then, Bretz was to take her to the Grand Canyon and when no one was watching he was to push her over the side. The couple reportedly did go to the Grand Canyon, but at the crucial moment, Bretz "broke out of the spell." The matter was then reported to the authorities, but the story was so fantastic that Meyer was not indicted.

More recent cases described in the book were the notorious 1976 Chowchilla case in which hypnosis was instrumental in identifying the vehicle used by several miscreants who kidnapped an entire busload of school children. The Boston Strangler case and other instances in which hypnosis was used were also reviewed. While due caveats regarding the use of hypnosis were noted, the author could have presented more science-based findings; but the book apparently was written for a lay readership, and drama seems to have taken priority over greater objectivity.

For clinicians and researchers interested in coercive behavior, memory, and forensic hypnosis, this book contains much of value. It was informative, interesting, entertaining at times, and comprehensive.

Associate Editor: Melvin A. Gravitz

Reviewed by: Melvin A. Gravitz, Ph.D., George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC

Copyright American Society of Clinical Hypnosis Jul 2005
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