Psychic Criminology

The Art of Using Psychics as Detectives and in the Courts

May 1, 2007

Applied psi, psychic phenomena, presumes psychic abilities exist and tries to find ways to use these talents in conventional disciplines including crime and archaeology.

Psychic Crime Investigation

Authorities using “police” psychics began during World War I in Europe. Today, law enforcement departments have different opinions of this. Some, like the Los Angeles Police Department, LAPD, will work with them. Others are skeptical and may or may not do so. There are still those who think things psychic are the work of the devil.

Psychic Abilities Used on the Street and in Courtrooms

The bulk of psychic investigative work involves psychometry, the ability to read a place or an object. The object used is the personal property of the victim. As psychics touch the items, they may have visions or receive information in other ways like intuition or hearing words. There may be dreams. Automatic writing, hypnosis, channeling, graphology and/or dowsing, using a forked stick or other object to locate objects underground or water, can be employed. The place investigated is the crime scene.

The major objection to using psychics is that information is not always reliable. Psychic testimony is not admissible evidence in court.

There are criminals who contact the police and pretend to be psychics to avoid detection.

There was a devastating industrial fire in the USA. A “psychic” contacted the police. He had predicted the fire and gave amazing details. The information was so accurate that the police suspected he was the arsonist and arrested him. The investigation proved the police right.

For several years, Dr. Martin Reiser, American psychologist, conducted highly controlled investigations involving the LAPD’s using psychics. Part of his experimentation involved weapons used in homicides. These were mixed with unused weapons, used as controls. He found the psychics couldn’t differentiate between them.

Inspector Edward Ellison, Scotland Yard, responded to psychics’ statements that the agency regularly worked with them after investigating this claim. He said the Yard never approached psychics for help. England had no official psychics it worked with. The agency doesn’t endorse psychics. There is no recorded documentation in England of a psychic solving or providing evidence or information leading to a case’s resolution.

Hundreds of psychics and mediums called the West Yorkshire Police with leads about who the Yorkshire Ripper was and claimed to have helped solve the case of this serial killer. Bob Baxter, Chief Press Officer, said he got no information from them that helped solve the case. It was police work that led to the investigation of Peter Sutcliffe who finally confessed to the killings in 1981.

In the early 1980s, another serial killer killed young black males in Atlanta, Georgia. Psychics and mediums sent over 19,000 letters and 2,000 plus drawings attempting to solve the crimes. The killer was depicted as white. None of the illustrations or letters accurately described the murderer or named him correctly. Wayne Williams, a black man, was convicted of the slayings.

Lawyers sometimes use psychics to advise them when clients or witnesses are lying, when settlement offers will be made and in jury selection, with mixed results.

Jean Harris was convicted of killing Dr. Herman Tarnower in 1981. Her attorneys used a psychic for jury selection. The psychic said if she testified, which she did, conviction would happen. Attorney Melvin Belli used psychics in jury selections.

Despite lack of evidence that psychics helped solve any crimes, psychic criminology raised Fourth Amendment Rights issues. Some argue that psychics could receive telepathic information that might violate the right of privacy.