Dark Tales of Illness, Medicine, and Madness

Dark Tales of Illness, Medicine, and Madness:

The King Who Strangled his Psychiatrist

By Robert M. Kaplan

Dark Tales of Illness, Medicine, and Madness: The King Who Strangled his Psychiatrist

By Robert M. Kaplan

This book first published 2019

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright © 2019 by Robert M. Kaplan

All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN (10): 1-5275-3389-1 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-3389-9

To my mother, Phoebe Kaplan (1920-2018)

CONTENTS

Introduction ...... 1

Adventurers

Maurice Wilson: Everest’s ...... Everlasting Amateur ...... 8

Harold Lasseter:Too Close Flying to the ...... Sun ...... 13

Deceivers

MS: Turning Torment into ...... Trauma ...... 22

Shirley Ardell Mason: The...... Sibyl Saga ...... 36

Milan Brych:nt Medical Maligna Fraud ...... 44

Belle Gibson:anceecepti Theof onD D ...... 52

Leaders

Ludwig 11: The King who Strangled...... his Psychiatrist 60 ......

Otto von Bismarck:ncellor The and Cha his...... Herring ...... 64

Max Jacobson: Celebrity Doctors...... and their Dangers 74 ......

Arnold Hutschnecker: The President’s...... Shrink ...... 81

Assassins

Edward Charles and Edward Antonyntial Spitzka: The Brains of Preside Assassins ...... 88

Lee Harvey Oswald:ssassin The as A Nonentity...... 94

Dr Hendrik Verwoerd: The Assassins...... of Madness 101......

viii Contents

Artists

James Joyce: Portrait of...... an Artist ...... 112

Forrest Bess: Hermaphrodite...... Visionary ...... 120

Killers

Bernard Spilsbury: Doctor A Charismatic and his...... Discontents 128 ...

Arnold Sodeman: The School-girl...... Strangler ...... 135

Karl Kast: Most Murder Medical ...... 139

Lowell Lee Andrews:ther Coldood The Killer Bl O ...... 147

Ira Einhorn: The Unicorn...... Murderer ...... 153

Louis and Sabina Van Schoor: The...... Family that 158 Kills Together ...

Donald Harvey: Health The Loss Care of Innocence...... 162

Kermit Gosnell: The House...... of Horrors ...... 169

Illnesses

Bernadette Soubirous: The...... Healing Broom ...... 176

RM Renfield:der by Mur Death ...... 184

Bee Miles: Eccentricityand Encephalitis...... 191

Machado and Joseph:y for A a Long Protein Wa ...... to Travel...... 200

Three Christsti: of The Ypsilan Trinity Unholy ...... 203

Amanda Feilding:king of The Modern Lea Minds...... 213

Joni Mitchell:hing to Scratc Death ...... 216

Dark Tales of Illness, Medicine,ix and Madness

Doctors

Dr James Barry: The First Woman...... Doctor ...... 224

Leander Starron: The James “If” Man ...... 233

Hermann Rorschach: The Analyst...... of Inkblots ...... 241

Viktor Tausk and-Hellmuth: Hermineh Trouble Hug Couc...... 245

Johann Scharffenberg: Hero of...... the Norwegian 253 Resistance ......

Humphry Osmond: The Psychedelic...... Psychiatrist...... 259

Postlude ...... 270

References for Readers...... 271

Acknowledgements ...... 275

PROLEGOMENON (REALLY A FANCYAY OF W SAYING INTRODUCTION)

The art has three factors, the disease, the patient, the physician. The physician is the servant of the art. The patient must cooperate with the physician in combatting the disease. —Hippocrates

Mr. Duffy lived a short distance from his body. —James Joyce, Dubliners

There are worse occupations in the world than feeling a woman’s pulse. —Lawrence Sterne

For a king to strangle his psychiatristational as this is a unique event. Sens is, can it tell us anything abouts and patients?the world of doctors, disease The answer is yes. Patients doctorsdo kill their murder doctors, just as some their patients. This is only ccurone example in the of the extremes that o world of illness.

While animals and plants get diseases,defining illness is a unique and feature of the humant reflects condition. oure environment,feelings I we th have, the society we live in.ugs It in is Petri not organs dishes in bottles, or b but the whole event; history andpicture. geography And are never out of the the most frequent mediator betweenis the doctor, the patient and the illness descendent of the ancient healer,tor. shaman, magician and witchdoc

The basis for our conception of the illness school goes back 2000 years to of Hippocrates - whether such anatter individual of existed remains a m debate. What matters is that theor the school established the basis f discipline we know today as medicine.r granted, Conditions we now take fo such as hysteria,nd gout, melancholia were clearly. a Many delineated symptoms which wereo ephemeral attributed causesmas t were such as mias designated as dysfunctions ofe gods, the body, as we not visitations from th now know them to be. 2 Introduction

From this arose the Hippocraticand the triad: disease. the doctor, the patient The interaction between these we three know as constitutes the human state illness.

All illness is social; what ccursvaries and is thethe context in which it o interaction between those threed, confusing axes. For illness is complicate and often disturbing, an intrinsic, deeply part of the human experience embedded in our awarenessback as the as first fartch humans. doctor A wi going into a trance is regarded a midwife as a healer. In the Middle Ages who delivers stillborn childrench. In is the burned at the stake as a wit twentieth century, some people paralysis in the American South with sleep – a phenomenon documented back as biblical as far that days they – insist have been abducted by alien beings.herer tribe If a member of a hunter gat fell over, twitching and frothinght to at be the mouth, they were thoug infested by evil spirits. The the cure shaman, was a healing dance in which in a trance state, would relievee time them of the of their suffering. By th Romans and Greeks, many of those people were revered for their connections with gods. When Jesus touch, did if his healing, the power of not special words, were sufficientmedieval to drive out the demons. In times, to behave like that wasvil seen and as could a visitation from the de lead to burning was at onlythe stake. with theology It rise in of the neur nineteenth century that epilepsyt it was. began But to be recognised for wha for a long time, such patientsill were and stillkept in regarded as mentally psychiatric wards.

With the rise of scientific medicine,nd disease, the if gap between illness a anything, widened. Disease was somethingat that could be removed operation, seen through a microscoper death. and found in the body afte Illness, by contrast, was not complained material. of, It was what the patient could persist despite being surgicallyed – and, of removed or medically cur course, it vanished at death.

Here lay the basis of a persistingr the anddoctor, ever-growing problem. Fo what could not be seen, poked, dprodded, was a heard, tested or remove dilemma: the only explanation soul lay or in mind. the patient’s imagination, This laid the basis for enormousempts dispute to and confrontation. Att unify the problem, such as psychoanalysiscine, or psychosomatic medi never really resolved the issue.to arise, And much if difficulty continued not fester.

These issues laid bare the roleprocess. of the Thedoctor in the treatment idea that takinginary a history process iss – questionsa the b doctor and ask Dark Tales of Illness, Medicine,3 and Madness the patient dutifully providesnstantly the required shown information – is co to be a myth; itcess is rather where botha pron allparties sorts bring of i issues, conscious and unconscious, discuss to manipulate the agenda. To this in any detail would not require. Instead, just a book, but a library selected issues that highlightness the are process that occurs with ill provided with the cases, orre shall provided. we rather say stories, that a

King is a distrait1 voyage through the main elements in illness: doctors, diseases and patients. All theseristics, actors have their own characte making them at times as unpredictablehich they as the circumstances in w arise. It covers a wide territory; least 22000from (well, at feet up) to the sun-blasted deserts of places of Central and lot between.

There are many great, inspiring, doctors and awesome tales about illness and their patients – and no shortageis not one of ofbooks about them. This them. These tales here are aboutght the interesting issues. extremes to highli It can be summed up as doctors and difficult, patients illnesses interesting peculiar. Of course, not allhe the clinical people sense, discussed were ill in t although their course does allowis done for where some speculation and this appropriate.

No claim is made that this collectionatic, let is alone anything but idiosyncr comprehensive.iter’s That choice;is the wrf read and decide. it for yoursel

How does medicine work? We now have we do, a scientific basis for what but can it explain everything?ritten There off are as still cases that are w incurable but proceed amazing to recovery. makeen an by Patients,some se as gullible, by others as desperate,ts of alternatives will still turn to all sor in the hope of recovery. know howlacebo Todaythe p orks,weeffect but w does it explain every unexpectedd faith cure? can The power of religion an play a considerable role but,sceptics at the same who time, there are many see this as merely misleading,Around if not the exploiting the gullible. world some places are creditedsick with will healing power to which the flock in the hope of a miraculousgrotto cure. at The most famous is the Lourdes in France. People claimhysteria, amazing cures there, but is it placebo, mysticism, quackeryns or out, even has fraud? The Vatican, it tur a remarkably hard-headed attitudered and to declaring someone to be cu there is a longcal history committees of medi andto examine ensure cases

1 See OED: Mid 18th century: French,ast participle from Old French of destrait, p destraire ‘distract’, fromistract). Latin distrahere ‘pull apart’ (see d 4 Introduction that they are the a miraculous genuine thing: curemedically that can be demonstrated. We examine the findingsurprising and look at some of the s results.

These tales arees. not Johann without Scharffenberg herogainst his went a conservative beliefs,hero of the becoming Norwegiance and a then resistan treating the treacherousuisling with leader compassion.mes BarryQ Dr Ja encountered enormous odds to beritish the first woman doctor in the B Empire, disguising her femaleed sex. to die Bernadette Soubirous, destin early with tuberculosis, wasr manyto provide people inspiration and hope fo at the shrine whereons. sheMaurice saw visi WilsonLasseter and Harold may have died of exposure in theemain most as extreme an conditions, but r inspiration for the human idealw unrealistic of chasing dreams, no matter ho they may seem.

There are the deceivers who telley do us about as much about illness as th human nature. Belleheroine Gibson, of the perturned wellness out to set, t be a world-class fake. Shirleyted with Ardell Mason, who coopera her psychiatrist in producingies, dozens became of non-existent personalit Sybil, icon for an iatrogenic epidemic. Milan Brych, the fake cancer therapist, treated hundredsd, of the desperate Cook patients in New Zealan Islands and Los Angeles beforeaps the the law caught up with him. Perh most disturbing are those whoeaning practice the Holocaust deception, dem experience of the genuine victims.

Do-it-yourself in surgery several presents ways,g holes mostly in thedrillin skull – children, do not do thisuse without of the adult supervision and electric drill is especiallypainter discouraged Forrest – and, in the case of Bess, too awful to contemplate.er, James hated Joyce, a truly great writ surgery of any kind but diedulcer. after an Madness operation for a ruptured and illness oftenand surrounded showed up in him his work.

The murder cases raise all sortskillers, of issues: the fate the motives of the of their victims and how they werevolved. dealt with by the doctors in Bernard Spilsbury ensured that any Dr Crippen was hanged, but how m people were unjustly executed l,on whohis evidence? Dr Kermit Gosnel butchered late term foetuses couldiller be but America’s worst medical k may have been overtakend Harvey, by the Donal nurseup to who70 killed patients.

The illnesses portrayedhe common disorders are notee t Miles, we know. B the famous Sydney street dweller,fact was had thought to be mad but in Dark Tales of Illness, Medicine,5 and Madness encephalitis lethargica,ing sickness. theroote The sleep people Eyland of G had a terrible neurological conditiones of that travelled in the gen Portuguese sailors to the Malaccasrgellons and then to their island. Mo disease, a condition of intense social controversy, media shows the power of in shaping illness behaviour;imed, it is but not skin infestation as cla delusions of parasite Milton Rokeach’s infection.nfront attempt the to co Three Christs of Ypsilanti outded of as their his delusions was as misgui patients were.

Doctors, good and bad, show uscharisma– how important is the element of and the catastrophes that occurStarr when it goes wrong. Dr Leander Jameson, possibly the most charismaticeved doctor of his time, achi notoriety by mounting a failedntry military and was raid into a foreign cou duly commemoratedidol. as an Freud, imperial afigure near-messianic to his followers, set up the psychoanalyticd troubled project which attracte followers like Viktor Tausk andhom Helmine had Hug-Hellmuth, both of w unhappy endings. Hermann Rorschachecame ainvented the inkblot test, b cultural icon but died tragically largest young. Humphry Osmond did the trials of LSD in a remote partned. of Canada before its use was ban

A special category is the assassinszkas, father and their doctors. The Spit and son, gave evidence at the presidentialtrials of the second and third US assassins – but failed to saveOswald them from was execution. Lee Harvey a confused unsettled nonentityeasons who blundered he into history for r probably did not even understandlling himself. Dr Verwoerd, the appa architect of Apartheid, two assassins, attractedfferent both mad ways, in di the second and successfulven by a tapeworm one dri in his gut.

So go ahead with hope and anticipation it. If and see what you make of nothing else, it is conclusivedeeply proof immersed that the writer’s mind is in the murky demi-monde. Hereecide. again Hadit is I up to the reader to d followed my family wishes, I wouldng stand- now be a defrocked rabbi doi up comedy.

Footnote: The original titleThe King of Who theStrangled book His was Psychiatrist and Other Dark Tales. By the time it emerged from the publication process it has the’s in title a title? you see I on the cover. What leave it to you, the reader,y to resurrect decide; perhaps in a the original ma second edition.

ADVENTURERS MAURICEWILSON : EVEREST’SE VERLASTINGAMATEUR

I wanted something different; I wanted something that challenged me and that pushed me further. Then this idea of climbing Mount Everest came to my mind. It stuck in my head for days. Someone told me I couldn't do it, and that really annoyed me. —Raha Moharrak

The first question which you will ask and which I must try to answer is this; What is the use of climbing Mount Everest? and my answer must at once be, it is no use. There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. —George Leigh Mallory

No one remembers who climbed Mount Everest the second time. —Edmund Hillary

Yet another death of a climberion on Evereston the leads to more discuss hazards of high-altitude climbing,w one’s as well as the need to follo dreams, whatever the cost. Couchedalistic in the contemporary individu trope, it (as usual) ignoresctivity. the historical Leigh basis behind such a Mallory’s irritable answer to was a journalist trying who asked him why he to scale Everest – “Because itce is between there” – sums up the differen such climbers andlf-realization the currentale se the set. mountain It is to sc that is the challenge, not to do something for yourself.

Everest has become the ultimateumerism, high temple of existential cons some of whose climbers pay the is ultimate littered penalty. As a result it with bodies, some of which returnng warm from their entombed past duri spells. One skeleton, like a frozene regular succubus, seems to at emerg intervals but few would knowiginal it is the Everest mortal remains of the or dreamer, one who could outdo anyalisation of the current crop of self-re climbers. Of all those who havems attempted by to achieve their drea climbing the world’s highest mountain,nusual as none has been quite as u the first true amateur, Mauricemodel Wilson, for the man who became the aBoy’s Own Paper character.

Born in 1898, Wilson’s family hadshire. a wool He mill in Bradford, York enlisted in 1916, experiencing distinguishing the bloody fighting at Ypres and Dark Tales of Illness, Medicine,9 and Madness himself in an attack on a machinerded gun the post for which he was awa Military Cross. He was badly shot pain, up, a leaving him with constant largely immobiles events left arm were and, toffected show,a deeply by a his combat experiences.

Demobilised in 1919, Wilson, likeenced so the many others who had experi hell of the trenches, was unablerica to and settle. New He travelled to Ame Zealand – where he ran a woman’srriages clothing shop – and had two ma before returning to England indifficulty 1932. Although he never had any working, his lifeere was and going he seemed nowhof on a the verge breakdown. It was later statedis; that as thishe had pulmonary tuberculos amounted to a death sentence Onin thethose ship days, it seems unlikely. back to England, he was attractedsadhus (sages) to a and group of Indian discussed their religious beliefs.h a mysterious On his return he went throug process of prayer, fasting andaimed special the diets for 32 days. He cl inspiration was from a guru in who the had unlikely location of Mayfair healed not just himself but 100ses. other No proof people of incurable disea of the guru was ever found, leadingrienced some a to ask whether he expe mystical revelation instead.

Regardless of how he reached thisas cured. state, in two months Wilson w It is fair to say he was in a stateus event of elation. would Such a miraculo lead many to proclaimin which the they manner hadNone been saved. however have come up with such a grandd. way to convince the worl Recuperating in the Black Forest,verest a press cutting on the 1924 E expedition gave him an ineluctableould be urge to show that anything c accomplished withd discovered. the faith he Wilson thatha he announced intended to be parachuted onto bly) Everest. When this was (predicta rejected, he came up with an evenmountain better scheme: to fly to the instead, crash-land and simply on the walk slopeshe waythe torest the of t peak. Two obvious problems – hed hadhe ever never flown a plane, nor ha climbed a mountainssed – as were minor dismi matters be easily that could overcome.

At that stage, there had beenhe three world’s British attempts to scale t highest peak. The last attemptgh inMallory 1924 led to the deaths of Lei and Andy Irvine whoto have were reached thoughtint the to highest date. po Wilson had got one thing right.in The an old- expeditions were organised fashioned way, over-burdened withple. equipment and unnecessary peo They were also motivatedpost-warl ethos imperia by the how to show great Britain could still be. 10 Maurice Wilson:’s Everlasting Everest Amateur

To mountaineers, as much as the ust public, Wilson’s plan was not j misbegotten but mad. He had no lonemountaineering the experience, let a resources of an expert supportworld’s team to back his assault on the highest peak. He avoided toolshes like and ice picks, wore hiking clot intended to overcome the high llaltitude power, and icy cold by sheer wi meditation and fasting.

Being unable to fly did not deteropen him. cabin He bought a second-hand biplane, a twin-engineEver-Wrest Gypsy (of Moth, course) named it the and took flying lessons. He tookbasic longer skills than most to learn the and had several reparation accidents. for Histed the p of climb consis walking from Bradford to London, hills. as well as hiking around local

If Wilson’s preparation wase ludicrous, information he eagerly sought all th available, avidly reading reportsave on expeditions. This should h convinced him of the difficultiesextent but the he ignored them. To some English tendency to play downbing the dangers may of high altitude clim have contributed to this. Addedthorities to the obstacles were facing him, au firmly against the plan. The politicsricky, the of and were t Foreign Office vetoed his departurewere of similar and the flight authorities mind, convinced his scheme was quite mad.

In one respect Wilson was thoroughlyhis modern. From the start of adventure, he contacted the paperse he flew who lapped up the story. Onc off, coverage increased.The Between Times alone 1933 and 1934, published nearly 100 articlesinterviewers on Wilson's quest. He claimed to that he was not only an experiencedby any climber – which he was not means – but had locked himselfearn up in the an airtight container to l effects of high altitude – unlikelyma Gandhi – and would challenge Mahat to a fast – even less likely. Lessper report to his liking was the newspa describing hisaborate project suicide’, as anminds ‘el which of many in the it was.

On 21 May 1933, seen off by Leonard and Enid Evans whom he had befriended, Wilson flew intohould destiny. have His trip to north India s been an aviation legend. It isetermination a testimony to his courage and d that he got thatal occasions, far. On severg flying heat over in blisterin desert in the Middle East, he could have; somehow, crashed when his fuel ran out he managed to get to the next landing realised spot. that In India however he it was impossible to go furthereveral by plane Sherpas, and, with the aid of s managed to smuggles the himself border acros intowas Tibet,hostile which to foreigners. Again, through of sheer locals determination, he with the aid Dark Tales of Illness, Medicine,11 and Madness got to at thems base really of Everest. Now his proble began.

Wilson refused to accept any limitations.dequate, he His equipment was ina had no skills to deal with ice leftand even by an refused to use crampons earlier expedition. Three loyals they Sherpas could. gave him as much help a He continued to insist that faith,uld give fasting him and special diets wo the means to overcome the brutalest conditions on the world’s high mountain. His first attempt endedack to in the failure and he retreated b monastery to spend the winter.earned It was evident that he had not l anything from his failure. Heach still or use refused to change his appro proper equipment, let alone abandon the endeavour.

He went ahead again on 12 May 19340 feet, and this an time got past 21,00 amazing feat for an untrained dclimber probably with minimal equipment an undernourished. The weather worsenede were and the effects of altitud taking their toll. The Sherpas,d to their certain death, that going on would lea refused to continue, begging Wilson to abandon the quest.

Wilson refused and, after furtherck and imploring left him, they turned ba him to his fate. He was never seenear alive the again. The following y Shipton expedition found his body,e, at apparently dead from exposur 22,703 feet. Wilson’sentry (on last 31 diary May)gain, read, “Off a gorgeous day”, showing he remainedhe got optimistic as to the end. That far as he did is a minor miracle,ise. however misguided the enterpr

At attempt was made to bury hisleton remains had in the snow but the ske an unnerving capacity to reappeargular from its icy encasement at re intervals (1959, 1975, 1985, 1989, climbers and 1999), perhaps to remind what Wilson had accomplished, if not stood for.

In the years that followed Wilsonpressed was not forgotten. Writers ex grudging admiration for he hadeckless accomplished but condemned his r stupidity in believing he coulde preparation master the task without adequat or equipment. Later, there wasgiven a change more in attitude and he was credit, added to which the pointo succeeded was made that some of those wh were little different in theirod tabloid personalities. story Showing that a go always lurks behind every seriousd that account, Audrey Wilson claime women’s underclothing was foundmour in that his rucksack, there was a ru he was wearing such garments when was discovered and a woman’s shoe found at 21,000 feet by the 1960s Chinese his expedition. Add to thi working in a ladies dress shopion in New could Zealand, the only conclus 12 Maurice Wilson:’s Everlasting Everest Amateur be that he was the first transvestiteattempt Everest. or lingerie fetishist to Perhaps a better indication referencesof what drove to him is several diary Enid Evans, suggestinguited love that may unreq haveof his been part motivation.

The question is often asked: was after Wilson the mad? His unsettled life war; his blustering,anner; grandiose the utterlyobsession m unrealistic that he pursued to his death – can alls insistence occur in a manic disorder. Hi on going on when the Sherpas turnedsuicidal. back was nothing less than Add to this the likelihood thatitual his revelation ‘cure’ was a grandiose spir that can occur in this state. Yet he wentthe determined and dogged way about the whole endeavour mitigates of a against the disorganisation psychotic mind. His diary, oure got only to recordTibet, of his course once h reveals nothing mad, only surprisingly daily mundane responses to the events.

So we can consider whether Wilsonsort had but a manic disorder of some we cannot prove it and, in anyning event of – time so what? Since the begin men have persisted in followinginted their dreams when everything po against realisation. In doingwere so, they it simply cost them their lives but deluded or heroes? You must be reammad to like die pursuing a hopeless d that, some wouldited say. and What dreary a lim would place be the world without dreamers.on had Maurice something Wils after all.

The idea was bestlonely summed governess up by a rm well on a Karoo fa over a century ago:

Without dreams and phantoms man cannot exist —Olive SchreinerThe Story of an African – Farm HAROLDLASSETER : FLYINGTOO C LOSE TO THESUN

The ocean is a desert with it's life underground And a perfect disguise above Under the cities lies a heart made of ground But the humans will give no love —America:A Horse with no name.

Percy: After literally an hour’s ceaseless searching, I have succeeded in creating gold. PURE GOLD! —Blackadder: Series 2

You don’t know me; you never knew my heart. No man knows my history. I cannot tell it; I shall never undertake it. I don’t blame anyone for not believing my history. If I had not experienced what I have, I could not have believed it myself. —Joseph Smith

Somewhere in the sunblasted heart we now of central Australia, the man know as Harold Lasseter lies dying.ty, Starving, desperately thirs remorselessly bitten by ants,crawls almost a last, blind from the flies, he s despairing message to his wifehis in diary a shaky text in the pages of “What good a reef worth millions?”it all he for tells a her, “I would give loaf of bread.”

As an epitaph, it mimes the lastott: For words of the frozen Captain Sc God’s sake, look after our people! Both men, dying in the most extreme places on earth, were as muchay victims nothing of of their own hubris (to s incompetence) ase. extreme While Scott climat wasic on a scientif expedition, Lasseter had a fantasticef of the most dream – to find a solid re desirable substance on earth – gold.

Thus died Haroldan Lasseter, who became the a powerful m myth.

Australia is a vast, empty andhabitants, savage continent. The ancient in supremely adapted to the conditions,s and established their songline dreamtime to negotiate with its who powerful arrived spirits. The Europeans so much later had no such theophany. land as They did did not live with the the Aborigines. Instead they huddledth more on the coast and tried, wi 14 Harold Lasseter:Too Close Flying to the Sun failure than success, to conquerthe bushman the interior. In many regions was the person who embodied thesections explorer. of This still left huge the giant land untouched by anyherers, except and the remaining hunter-gat here lay the capacity for potent myths.

Such a vast waste had to hold aut fabulous his finger secret. And Lasseter p on it: a quartz gold reef sevenfour or to ten seven or fourteen miles long, feet high and 12 feet wide. Sosacrifice much for the was myth. To sell it a needed. And here Lasseter offered up himself.

Lewis Hubert Lasseter (the firstSeptember of many names) was born on 27 1880 at Bamganie, . Hisnd mother his died when he was young a father remarried. His childhoodof a was cruel not happy with allegations father and indifferent stepmother. school forLater he was put in a reform three years.

Lasseter’s founding at the story age of wasoss 17, that the riding centre acr of the country, he came acrossthe a huge border gold reef somewhere near between the Northern Territoryupplies, and . Without s close to death, he was found by anhim Afghan to camel driver who took the camp of surveyor Joseph Harding.Western Harding got him safely to Australia and, three years later,Lasseter, the two they men returned. Led by found the reef and took rich samples.e not Because their watches wer synchronised, accurate readingsith could not be taken. Lasseter, w characteristic sangfroid, was by following sure he could find the reef again the landmarks. The gold samplestonne were – assayed as three ounces a very rich indeed – but Harding,d three the only years other witness, had die later.

Lasseter pushed his story butter got rested. no interest He and there the mat got on with his her life, interests pursuing stless and ot showing and a re unsettled tendency. He claimedoyal to Navy, serve for four years in the R went to the United States whereand he thenadopted the Mormon religion returned to Australia. There were he settled two bigamous marriages before with his last wife and had threesseter children. lived From 1908 to 1913 La on a lease-hold farm near Tabulam. was He joined up for the war but discharged as medically unfit.ernment He was a perpetual writer to gov ministers promoting wild schemesll of his own making which were a rejected without hesitation. making These included an improved bullet, battleships torpedo-proof ands torecommending clear soldiers use shotgun the enemy. Dark Tales of Illness, Medicine,15 and Madness

By 1929 Lasseter was going nowhereuch but nor were the prospects m better for other Australians.he The country. Great Depression devastated t The national trauma was greate as Lasseter’s the First World War. Here aros big chance and he pushed the wagontime asthere far as it could go. This were people to who hear wanted his story.

On October 1929 Alberte MP for Green, Kalgoorlie, th letter received a from Lasseter stating that heg had reef discovered in a vast gold bearin Central Australia at the western18 years edge of the MacDonnell Ranges ago. Claiming tosurveyor be a competent and prospector,er offered Lasset to survey an 800-mile pipeline the route reef from the Gascoyne River to for £2000. After being interviewedurther byaction federal bureaucrats, no f was taken. So then he looked to Sydney. the In John Bailey, head of Australian Workers' Union, he eyfound was his man. In March 1930 Bail prepared to act. The promise ofby asomeone fabulous gold find, estimated in a back-of-the-envelopetion as 66 million calculae it Pounds,a risk mad worth taking no matter how manyonsistent doubts Lasseter’s vague and inc account raised. Suchnot only a find relieve wouldof the the poverty Depression but emake richest Australia in country the world. th

Here is Bailey’s descriptionA short thick-set person, of about Lasseter: 5 feet 3 inches high, dark complexion and well-spoken, I formed the impression that Lasseter had been well-educated. At this time he was shabbily dressed.

The result was the Central Australian(CAGE) Gold Exploration Company which raised the amazing sum of an £50,000 in private funding for expedition to relocatet was the most the reef. expeditionwell-equipped I of its time to venture into the truck,vast desert, portable including a six-wheel radio and plane to follow them.ice The Springs team of seven which left Al on 21 July was led by George Blakely,land, followed by George Suther prospector; Philipr and Taylor, driver; enginee iver;Fred Colson, Errol dr Coote, pilot of the aeroplane;overnor- Captain Blakeston-Houston, the g general's aide Lasseter, as 'explorer'; officiallys a guide, and listedpaid a £10 per week and insured for £500.

From the start, the trip was ad nightmare. to the rough The truck was unsuite conditions which are still dauntingne crashed to modern vehicles. The pla and required extensive repairs.d three The men portable radio, which neede to liftever it, worked. n

But as they pushed their way throughs Lasseter the impassable bush, it wa 16 Harold Lasseter:Too Close Flying to the Sun who became the problem.e more withdrawn, He becam d suspicious an erratic. He passed the time singinge irritation Mormon hymns, to the intens of the group, and writing up hismited diary. Challenged about the li information he provided on thedn’t route want to his the reef, he said he di primacy in the find to be taken from him.

By the time they struggled throughwas up. to Mount Marjorie, the game One lie after another was exposedth in Lasseter. and the team had lost all fai His behaviour was erratic, inconsistentoint of being and suspicious to the p paranoid. When werehe declared 150 miles they f,north Blakely of the ree exploded; the breakaway countryo traverse that lay ahead was impossible t in pursuit of what was now no more mad, than a a chimera; Lasseter was charlatan and hadthe no reef idea – ifwhere itlocated. existed The – was expedition was turning back and what it washe up to Lasseter to decide wanted to do. They parted with him at Ilbpilla.

As Lasseter insisted on going companyon, a deal was made for him to ac Paul Johns, a rather dubious camelain. Johns driver. He was never seen ag returned in a roundabout way from to Alice Lasseter Springs, bearing a letter but that was that. Bob Buck, anut experienced in March bushman, was sent o 1931. Buck found Lasseter's emaciated his body at Winter's Glen and personal effectsll's in Creek. a cave His at gave Hu notes a pathetic and diary account of losing his camels slowafter descent he parted from Johns, then a into starvation and disease.d The to help local him Aboriginals had attempte but he ended up alone, dying miserably writing to in a cave. Nevertheless, his wife, he claimed to have peggedcimens. the reef and taken rich spe

Lasseter’s body (assuming that Maurice it was his) emulated the fate of Wilson’s reappearing corpse on ist Everest. In 1947 the sensational American journalof Lowell Lawrence Thomas of Arabia ( a fame) led television crew to the burial Thomas site. They exhumed the bones and cooed a line from Hamlet to thehibition, skull. After the this disgusting ex remains were reinterred in Alicee Springs and given an impressiv tombstone.

The CAGE directors reluctantlying accepted to find that they were never go the reef and dissolved into acrimonyrecting with Bailey and Blakely di blame towards each other for was the taken rest of up their lives. The story by Ion Idriess, resultingLasseter’s in Last the Ride highly. fictionalised Thus startedat the persists legend toth this day. Dark Tales of Illness, Medicine,17 and Madness

But who was Lasseter and what wasver the be real story, if it could e clarified? The first thing anystery investigator that discovers is the my covers every step of his trail, to confusion hide a deliberately intended murky past. The outline that slowlyn a emerges will be no more tha palimpsest of the lives Lasseter part constructed of the for himself. Every story is up forng grabs, on whose dependi accountsseter’s you go by. La account of traversing the remotea as and a dangerous central Australi seventeen-year old with no bushto say skills nothing is highly questionable, of the dates listed. The samethe applied reef with to the alleged return to Harding. If the gold samples heces found a tonne, were assayed as three oun why were these findings not madee claimed available? Conflicting with th dates of the original discoverywith hisof the time reef in is the overlapping reform school. ofHis bigamous accumulation marriagesve raised should ha concerns in thoseluate who his had claims. to evater Whyappear did Lasse to have virtually no navigationoff? skills Having once the expedition set claimed to be a sea captain, hein had compass only done a dubious course surveying and did not seem to knowoned how by to use a sextant. Questi the aviator Charles Ulm aboute his would bearings, be the location he gav somewhere in the Indian Ocean.

Later, when it was all over, thoseitation on the in expedition had no hes damning him. Blakeley, possibly a group the most credible witness among of people who all had their ownn ofagendas, jumbled described him as 'a ma moods lacking a credible storym 'a about man of anything’; Coote called hi most eccentric nature'; Taylorhe was a 'humbug'; more an old friend that ' or less of a crank, aggressive,of large, very self-opinionated hopeful and full visions'.

A legend of sufficient size hasth thea central dimensions of an octopus wi body and limbs extending in everythat isdirection. taken For every big lie up, those who do become liars themselves; their either, by overcoming reservations to make themselves further believe their the lie or to use it to own agendas. And almost everyone. Bailey involved had something to gain was one of the roughest playersone in step Australian ahead politics, always of trouble. The Arthur Federal Blakely Ministerrother appointed his b George as the leader of the expedition.lot, did not Coote, the appointed pi have a pilot’s licence and his Furthermore, flying skills were questionable. in his determination to be part discovered, of the action when the reef was he continually undermined Blakeley’s leadership.

Then there was Johns, an criminalby regarded with deep suspicion everyone at Aliceermannsburg, Springs and and H a Nazilater to become 18 Harold Lasseter:Too Close Flying to the Sun spy. He was gun-happy, had a violentthis was temper not and a proven liar; the ideal person for Lasseter,n in another such serial liar, to depend o difficult country. Johns’ behaviourowing that was highly questionable. Kn Lasseter was in trouble, he tookSprings several and weeks to get to Alice showed no inclination to do anyave more. been The reason for this may h Lasseter’s letterd tried alleging to shoot hebe him haarrested. and should

What can be made of the hodgepodgehe loss of Lasseter’s of life? He had t his mother when nvery a harbinger young, ofte ancefor later and he disturb progressed to reform school. Ifo on many to who have this experience g ordered lives, others find itwhich a university the for adult crimes in conman is prominent.ok up a Lasseter variant.signs to He showed of the affectionless psychopathy, ed a condition children found in institutionalis who have a glib manner, making xploitingindiscriminate friendships and e people without any remorse or insight.ents, he Like the Munchausen pati had a tendency to wander. There immersion was alleged naval service, then in the Mormon Church before returningus to Australia, with bigamo marriages to boot.

His World War 1 services significant: recordlist imedical a peculiar records manner; constant talking; hallucinations; from a head loss of consciousness injury. In addition, renderedspent unconscious six by a head injury, he weeks recovering. Add in two to this hospitals theresence documented of p scars on his scalp and there hoticis a case disorder. for brain damage or psyc He was discharged from the army one 2 November 1917. Frontal lob damage is notable for the association impersonation with lying, exaggeration, and loss of inhibitions.

Lasseter’s reef did not emergeers. out Books of nowhere but had many fath relating the myth of gold in thend's interior novel include Simpson Newla Blood Tracks of the Bush (1900), DavidAn Hennessey'sAustralian Bush Track (1896) and ConradGolden Buckles Sayce's (1920). Notably Harold Bell Wright'sThe Mine with the Iron Door (1923) led to Lasseter adding 'Harold Bell' to the moniker on his second marriage.

Lasseter always had an eye on the that big other picture. What bigger than great hope for the Depression eter– the made Sydney Harbour Bridge? Lass an outline sketch of the bridgeor recognition, but was rejected in his claim f if not recompense. To call himng thea fabulist obvious. is no more than stati Lasseter lied aboutut, like everything everyhe confirmed needed b a liar, mug who wanted to believe what he was told. And it took unusual circumstances to give him the right mark. Dark Tales of Illness, Medicine,19 and Madness

Making the story even more remarkableious form. is that Lasseter had prev In Canberra in 1927 he claimedCamp to workers that in the Mount Ainslie he discovered gold on a creek ats ledthe tobase of Mount Ainslie. Thi workers going to the site at night surprise, to pan it for gold. To no great turned out that the site had beenh Lasseter salted with brass filings wit widely believed to have been the originator of the scam.

As a conman, the gold reef wasing his to big this. pitch and he kept return Once he had his expedition, the Munchausen lies came home to roost. Like a patient who wangles his way intof the hospital, lies is incessant querying o dealt with by and, anger, ultimately, retreat flight.

This mirrors Lasseter’s behaviourand his as the expedition progressed credibility steadily crumbled.ould When have confronted by Blakely, he c slunk off home with them and faced such the as unpleasant consequences, possible jailing for fraud. Hebe coulddropped have taken up the offer to off somewhere and take his chancesife, with getting away to a new l something he hadithout done before difficulty. wwhose Butbush Lasseter, skills appear to have been close on alone to non-existent, to elected to go almost certain disaster. Was ited simply as a the shame of being expos failure that his vanity couldhat not gnawed tolerate? away Was it a delusion t at him until he could not letneuropsychiatric go of the glittering vision? The symptomsstent are consi with this.

We shall never knowhat fordrove certain Lasseter ride. w on What his last can be said is that his dream wasson, ineluctable. there Like Maurice Wil was no going back; if Wilson went Lasseter up Everest when all was lost, pushed on into the desert until,e would like have Scott of the Antarctic, h exchanged it all for one loadable of bread. end but It was an utterly miser he could have had no idea of they ahead. legendary resurrection that la

There is a counter-story to the widely accepted legend. Paul Johns was regarded as a dubious, if not tcriminal believe character;his many would no account of events.ond possibility It is not Lasseterbey that he and killed faked the last diary entries.that No onethe couldbody be entirely certain Buck found was that of Lasseter. is Stretching things even further Blakeley’s beliefdid not that die Lasseter butAlice headed Springs back to and then left Australia. Bothshow are that intriguing in theories but only the vortex of lies surroundingots the are great fabulists, such sub-pl inevitable.

20 Harold Lasseter:Too Close Flying to the Sun

Retrospective diagnosis is alwaysn Lasseter’s a questionable activity but i case, there is material evidence.dence His of military record shows evi mental disorder, including severetal lobe head injury. People with fron damage have a poor understandinghysical of environmental, social and p stimuli associated with loss rms of inhibition. of They can imitate fo behaviour in the social contexttention of the (or situation without the in purpose) to do so, and seem incapablese. What ofis inhibiting this respon knownutilisation as behaviour occurs when the patient automatically searches for and or utilises other stimuli objectsonment. in the envir

However the best way to understandlected Lasseter is to look at a neg concept in psychiatry: the spectrumcal) lying. of compulsive (or pathologi This extends from so-called ‘normal’ia lying through to pseudolog fantastica. The former term a refers part of to daily the kind of lying that is life when there is a clear motive;ctivity the with latter the is a compulsive a telling of fantastic talesthat without the teller any restraint. does The rider is not have an evident motive – meaninggh this it is is unconscious – althou questionable. Munchausen’s syndromey want to patients have a motive: the be admitted to hospital.

There is poor understanding fof compulsive the motives and classification o liars. They not only cause havocences for for themselves but the consequ those who are takenstories in by can their beeter disastrous. fits Lass perfectly into this category.

Lasseter was wedded to the lieied from and an lied early age. He lied and l until he had surroundedith a golden himself web.it –w He he believed had to – and there was no getting out after that.

Australia is a tstrange elevates country. loss,mise defeat Ifar above and de victory and vindication. Bourkeoli, and all Wills, utter Ned Kelly and Gallip failures in their own way, dominate was a the national myth. Lasseter compulsive liar, but the bige one has devoured become him. His great failur part of the defining mythologyemorated of Australia. And now he is comm by a cave, a highway, a grandiose casino, tombstone an in Alice Springs, a ever-replenishing coterie ofnd believers a story (including Dick Smith) a that never seems to end. At leasto find 13 theexpeditions have set out t treasure,stantly but con failed.

This may not have been the fateulist, Lasseter there desired but, for a fab are worse waysdown toin gohistory.