AR17 - CLAIRVOYANTS ON THE CASE

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	CLAIRVOYANTS ON THE CASE As Police Departments Search for New Weapons in Their Battle Against Crime a Growing Number Are Turning to Resources Once Considered Taboo. by Beverly Jaegers
Index of Issue 17

Are Police Departments more willing to utilize other than traditional means of solving crime, including the psychic, as we approach a new millennium? Do ongoing developments of science and technology obviate the use of the mind in criminal detection? Where does the future lead us?

In truth, the traditional role of the detective is itself a fairly new development in law enforcement. An outgrowth of a recognized need for specialists who were divorced and kept separate from the job of ordinary street policing led to the development of a special group who would apply their entire workday to the solving of one type of crime. Often dressed in ordinary clothing and carrying badges of a special color, the "detective" soon created an aspect of respect and dedication to which the ordinary uniformed "cop" could only wish to aspire.

The art of detection itself has had a formal history of only a little more than a century. Holding strong roots in the fictional epics of such writers as Wilkie Collins, Sr., Arthur Conan Doyle and later Agatha Christie, the detective himself is an evolving creation.

The word "detect" itself implies the use of thought to recognize a crime, although the ordinary police detective is usually presented with a known crime, and asked to solve it by whatever means he can.

Modern advances in biochemistry, DNA analysis, spectroscopic analysis and even botany are becoming the tools of the laboratory "detective." These new and exciting fields have led to such feats as absolutely identifying the long-buried corpse of Jesse James and convicted a murderer through a torn segment of green plant found caught in the bed of a pickup truck!

Wayne Williams, Atlanta's serial killer, was tightly pinned to his victims by a bit of twisted blue-green rug fiber. Indeed, the arsenal of science bodes well to make any crime, no matter how old or esoteric-solvable....

Developments such as these tend to diminish and render outdated the ordinary tool of the detective-the mind-to the dustbin of history.

Not so, cry the purists, pointing with pride to the FBI's VICAP program, itself a new development in criminalistic. Through computer analysis, complete projections may be made of general and sometimes specific physical and physiological characteristics or murderers, especially those known as serial or "repeater" killers.

Even the creators of the VICAP program, however, will admit that the computerized profiling will not by itself solve a crime, no matter how detailed and accurate. There is still the need for the knowledge, talent and dedication of a John Douglas, or any one of the specialized unit's "experts." Profiling is a pointing finger, a clue, a place to begin to seek for the hidden personality behind the profile. Technological advances have not yet and never will replace the need for the trained senses of the human mind.

DEDUCTIVE VS INDUCTIVE

Sherlock Holmes was a fictional character given to hallucinogens, acute observations and pronouncements on obscurities overlooked by bumbling British Police Inspectors and even his amanuensis, Dr. Watson. He, then, was a master of one form of detection, the deductive. Though Doyle, his creator, was a strong proponent of the so-called "supernatural", he never introduced any hint of this into the actions or revelations of his fictional detective. He was careful always to tie up his "clues" by their tails and make them fit naturally into what seemed like brilliant deductive reasoning. And brilliant it would have been, had there really been a Sherlock Holmes. To deduce, then, is defined as the ability to infer from a set of facts or observations and to reach a conclusion by reasoning.

Induction is reasoning as well, by "bringing forth facts, evidence, etc." including the definitions "to lead on, influence or persuade." Induction then is a similar but not quite identical form of thinking. Inductive reasoning also allows more room for the bright flash of inspiration, the intuitive "gut" sense of the veteran observer of human criminality and even the input of that more developed insight often referred to as "psychic."

If we accept the hunch of the seasoned police detective, then we may logically take the next step and admit that these flashes of insight into a crime can rarely be backed up by the evidence or fact. These are merely regarded as normal and useful tools of veteran officers. They may later be confirmed by fact, but at the time they occur, they cannot be so explained. Dr. Marcello Truzzi, Ph.D. refers to such occurrences as a "Blue Sense." It is perhaps odd that some detectives can have such an ephemeral experience upon first sight of a crime scene or the body of a murder victim. There may be no facts to support such a "hunch" until the case is solved by ordinary means.

Such intuitive flashes are common in police annals, and also in airplane cockpits where pilots, no matter how advanced the instrumentation, constantly admit to feelings, hunches and "flying by the seat of their pants." It is precisely to this acceptance of these unexplainable intuitive leaps that a decision to us the input of a "police psychic" may be related.

Rather than the impulse of the Rookie cop, it is often the wiser intellect of the Departmental Head or even a Chief of Police who will make such a decision to use or even to seek this type of input. There is a revered tradition in the world of the detective to leave no stone unturned.

Regardless of the purported statistical studies and evaluations so dear to the heart of the professional skeptic, it is true that police both uniformed and plain-clothed often seek such help. Departments in larger metropolitan areas do so, whether ready to admit it or not, on a regular basis, while smaller police units are often even more likely to use or seek out such help. A quiet but real Police "grapevine" exists whereby a department seeking such help may call another whose successful use of psychic help has reached their ears.

"According to an article recently written by Marcello Truzzi, Ph.D. studies that have been done on the frequency of use (of psychic help) by Police Departments are incorrect, as one department protested they have not used this resource, although there was good evidence they had. In many cases, says Truzzi, a smaller department may be more likely to seek this type of help than a larger metropolitan police force." In another study done by Montana Crime Attack Team head, Dr. Raymond Worring, approximately half the departments they surveyed had used this type of help at one time or another. In such cases, the individual responding to the questionnaire may himself be unaware of the usage, or it may have occurred at a time before that person was involved with that department.

PSYCHIC DETECTIVES

One might, indeed, wonder what it is that inspires a man or woman to offer their services (mostly free of charge) to police. It may be the same urge that leads others to staff Rescue Squads, volunteer Fire Departments or Search and Rescue teams in many corners of the world. Perhaps it is a simple urge to be of assistance in any way possible. Rarely can it be considered egotism, as those who dare it face hours of work, no pay, and a little if any, publicity, unless the case is a "big one" and only then, when the case is over.

These people fall into several categories, one of which is the ordinary person who may be watching TV coverage or reading about a case, and feels suddenly that he knows something about it. Into this category also fall those who may for some unknown reason dream about a nightmarish crime and later find something similar has occurred. This person may feel such certainty that he knows something which may be of help that he contacts the police unsolicited.

Police are naturally cautious and skeptical about such unsolicited "tips", and the input is rarely recorded or checked out. Yet in a few such cases the information has led to something of real value.

We must exclude from this category the unsolicited calls from the "kook squad" who bombard police with irrational theories, arcane conspiracy details, or those that themselves "confess" to the crime in question.

Another category is the professional psychic reader, whose clientele may now and then include a family member of a crime victim, and who may offer information to that person, which may or may not be passed on to the police.

Blending into this category is another related one, where the victim's family may introduce their personal psychic into a case, or not knowing one, as the police to find one who could be of help.

The final two categories are different, in that the individual psychic may already be known to the Police, and have a track record, good or bad. Peter Hurkos, one of these who had an undeniable track record, was introduced into cases by a sponsoring individual and had a fee for his services.

It is in this category that most crime psychics fit. They often do numbers of personal readings and criminal work as only a part-time occupation. Success in any given case will naturally enhance their reputations and enlarge their clientele.

The next category includes those who do not do readings for the public, and extend their services free of charge to Law Enforcement agencies of any kind. This group is much smaller and includes such individuals as Dorothy Allison, and the U.S. Psi Squad, a group which includes working police officers and ex-police, all of whom have been trained to utilize their inherent psi abilities, including what is now known as Remote Viewing.

Remote viewing is described as the ability to utilize the trained sensitivities of the mind to actually see (in the mind's eye) beyond the perceived barriers of time and space. Both USSR and US authorities have attempted such training and a third such effort has recently begun in mainland China.

Within the last small group is an even smaller one composed of those members of the former Military or SRI Remote-Viewers, some of whom accept criminal case referrals from police. It is in these last two groups that most police seek when they feel a need for the psychic detective.

Although portrayed as a "last resort" by skeptics, this is definitely not the case, and several members of these groups have been called into cases within hours of the crime itself.

In one case, a Police Chief from medium-sized Belleville, Illinois, called in the Missouri-based Psi Squad on the day following the disappearance of 14-year-old Elizabeth West. The group's leader immediately upon handling clothing belonging to the child and a photograph, that the child had been kidnapped for sexual assault and murdered, her body discarded in a watery ditch. A description of the assailant was given including his Presley-type sideburns, the information that his name began with the letter B, and that he would be caught in the commission of another such crime. These detailed observations were presented to Chief Biehl, along with a map of the dump-site, marked with a specific X, and a location of where the killer himself stayed when in town. Several numbers were included, one of which was a large 5.

Two days later, on the 5th, the girl's body was found in the exact area of the X'ed location, in a small stream flowing along a deep-sided ditch. Following a similar kidnap killing of another young woman (by the same killer, according to the Psi Squad) a third attempt was made. The killer forced another young woman into his vehicle. She managed to escape, but remembered important details about the kidnapper and his license plate. Sent to jail for attempted kidnap, Bowman was finally forced to admit the two killings, was tried and convicted for the kidnap and murder of Elizabeth West. The narrow-faced murderer not only possessed long Elvis-type sideburns, but resided when in Belleville within the very location pinpointed by the remote-viewing psychic detective.

Reams of information had been produced by the psychically trained team and a large proportion of this proved to be extremely accurate.

Chief Barry Biehl unhesitatingly recommends the use of the psychic detective, stating "I believe that people with this ability can be of assistance to the police, and along with good investigation techniques can help to bring the criminal to justice. I would certainly not hesitate to use this group again, if the need arose." He also states the help "was an asset to our investigation, at the time (she) told us things we would not have known".

There are many such stories in the annals of cooperative efforts between police and psychics or remote viewers dedicated to this type of work, although not all of them reach the pages of the newspaper.

SHOULD POLICE USE PSYCHICS?

Laughing at a fact or denying its existence will not make it go away. An elephant remains an elephant, though you call it a giraffe.

Evidential research at institutions of higher learning has proven the ability of the human mind to push the envelope and avoid or surmount the barriers of time as well as distance, including work done at Princeton's Engineering Anomalies Research Laboratory, Stanford Research Institute, and University of Nevada's Consciousness Research Lab headed by Dr. Dean Radin. Many dedicated and forward-looking police have said, "If it works, don't fix it. If it's helpful, use it".

Whether this type of help has always provided specific or evidential information is not the question. What is most important is that they were called upon at all.

Those who are not helpful will be winnowed out in the future processes of criminal investigation.

Where is the future? It lies in the potential of adding this now less unusual method of crime investigation to the training and operations procedures of those uniformed officers and detectives who investigate the crimes.

Research into remote viewing shows not only its probative value, but the fact that this "seeing in the mind's eye" can be done at any distance. A user, then, need not be in the actual place where a crime occurred, and information from months or even years before may be retrieved and put to use. Information exists showing that the ability exists in all minds, and although it cannot be "created" it can be enhanced and developed, like any other normal human potential.

Will the development and training of these inborn human abilities join those other detection methods taught in FBI and Police Academies of tomorrow?

Only time will tell.

Beverly C. Jaegers, also author of Psychometry, the Science of Touch (Aries, 1997) and her latest The Psychic Paradigm, Berkeley Putnam, 1998, has been a journalist, newspaper columnist and free-lance writer since 1968. She has spent more than three and a half decades in various interesting fields, including the history of inkwells, fountain pens and antique writing equipment, along with a solid background in contemporary criminal/psychic field research. The daughter of a Police Detective and the grand-daughter of another, her viewpoints in the area of Police and psychic-cooperations are unique.