ESP Girl

In November 1964, 5-year-old Kenneth Mason went missing. The police searched the river where he was last seen, but failed to find him.

Then 15-year-old Linda Anderson came forward and offered to use her psychic powers to help the police find Kenneth. Her father put her in a hypnotic trance, to activate her powers, and she declared, "The boy is not in the river, but is in a house." So the police began searching houses in the area.

Charlotte Observer - Nov 14, 1964

Linda Anderson, ESP Girl

In addition to being able to locate missing children, Linda also claimed to have the power of "dermal optical perception." She could read through her skin (as opposed to through her eyes). The media dubbed her "ESP Girl."

Lewiston Daily Sun - Nov 14, 1964

A skeptical physics professor, James A. Coleman, doubted that she could see through her skin and challenged her to prove it.

Bangor Daily News - Feb 11, 1965

She lost the challenge.

Nashua Telegraph - Feb 15, 1965

And then Kenneth Mason was found. Sadly he was dead and in the river after all. So much for the powers of ESP Girl.

Daily Kennebec Journal - Mar 12, 1965

Posted By: Alex - Tue Apr 04, 2023 - Comments (2)
Category: Crime, Paranormal, Predictions, 1960s

Ubiquitous Perpetuity God

1985: Enrique Silberg had previously tried to change his name to God, but was denied on the grounds that it would be confusing and that he also needed a first name. Finally he convinced a judge to let him change his name to Ubiquitous Perpetuity God.

1996: Ubiquitous Perpetuity God was sentenced to nine months in Marin County Jail for indecent exposure, a crime that he had 17 prior convictions for. He said that he exposed himself to women so that they "could have some type of awareness of God".

San Francisco Examiner - Apr 18, 1985

Memphis Commercial Appeal - Feb 15, 1996

Posted By: Alex - Thu Mar 16, 2023 - Comments (1)
Category: Crime, Odd Names, Religion

Serial aperitif thief

Philippe Delandtscheer may have preferred to steal aperitif, but that's not all he stole. He was later arrested for stealing meat from a supermarket.

Saskatoon Star-Phoenix - Feb 15, 1996

Posted By: Alex - Sun Mar 05, 2023 - Comments (0)
Category: Crime, 1990s

Murder, Inc. Vinyl Album

Get the full story here.

Start grooving with this cut, then find the rest of the playlist on YouTube.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Mar 05, 2023 - Comments (0)
Category: Crime, Music, Space-age Bachelor Pad & Exotic, 1960s

The Elizabethean Underworld

This review by the famous Anthony Burgess (A CLOCKWORK ORANGE) alerted me to the existence of a fascinating book. Turns out it's available at the Internet Archive. The lexicon of thieves talk that Burgess mentions makes for fun reading.

Review source: The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) 19 Mar 1965, Fri Page 11

Posted By: Paul - Sat Jan 28, 2023 - Comments (1)
Category: Crime, History, Books, Slang

Decoy Santas

Arizona Daily Star - Dec 10, 1976

Posted By: Alex - Sun Dec 25, 2022 - Comments (1)
Category: Crime, Police and Other Law Enforcement, 1970s, Christmas

Unlikely Reasons for Murder No. 12

Source: Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Illinois) 17 Feb 1949, Thu Page 21

Posted By: Paul - Sat Dec 03, 2022 - Comments (1)
Category: Crime, Death, Feet, Alcohol

Trapdoor for bank tellers

I'm aware of quite a few inventions designed to trap or incapacitate bank robbers. But the idea of allowing a bank teller to abruptly vanish is more novel.

Of course, this approach could only work if there was a single teller working, and hopefully no other customers in the bank.

I was curious whether this bank with the cashier trapdoor might still exist, but I had no luck finding its address. I did find that it was acquired by another bank in 1948. So it was probably demolished long ago.

Hagerstown Morning Herald - Aug 9, 1932

Posted By: Alex - Mon Nov 28, 2022 - Comments (0)
Category: Crime, Inventions, Money, 1930s

Breakaway Stethoscope

Joshua Allen Stivers of Puyallup, WA recently received a patent for a "breakaway stethoscope." It works like a normal stethoscope, but breaks apart if someone tries to use it as a garrote to strangle a person:



A quick google search reveals that stethoscopes become weapons disturbingly often. So it's kind of surprising that breakaway ones aren't already standard issue.

Derby Evening Telegraph - Aug 9, 1948

via Jeff Steck

Posted By: Alex - Thu Nov 17, 2022 - Comments (3)
Category: Crime, Medicine, Patents, Weapons

The Pug Anti-Bandit Bag

Inventor John Rinfret debuted his "Pug Anti-Bandit Bag" in 1963. His idea was that, if attacked, you could activate a spring that would forcefully eject all the contents from the bag. The attacker would be so shocked that he would run away. At least, that was the theory.

From what I can gather, Rinfret hoped to rent his anti-bandit bags to companies that used couriers to carry important documents or money. He definitely put a lot of work into promoting his invention. He even came out with a new and improved version of the bag the following year. But evidently few companies were interested in using his bag.

Possible reasons why: 1) a bandit might pick up the money instead of running away; or 2) what if the spring was activated by accident, spraying money everywhere?

London Daily Telegraph - Aug 28, 1963

Rinfret demonstrates his anti-bandit bag (August 27, 1963). Source: Getty Images

London Evening Standard - Aug 27, 1963

London Daily Telegraph - Sep 25, 1963

Personnel Management and Methods - April 1964

Posted By: Alex - Sun Oct 09, 2022 - Comments (2)
Category: Crime, Inventions, 1960s