The Psychic and the Serial Killer Examining the ‘Best Case’ for Psychic Detectives
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
SI March April 2010 pgs_SI J A 2009 1/27/10 10:46 AM Page 32 The Psychic and the Serial Killer Examining the ‘Best Case’ for Psychic Detectives An examination of the ‘best case’ of psychic detective abilities offers insight into how extraordinary claims are made, exaggerated, and clung to despite clear disconfirming evidence. BENJAMIN RADFORD mie Hoffman, an eighteen-year-old cheerleader at Parsippany Hills High School in Hanover Township, A New Jersey, left her part-time job at a local mall on the evening of November 23, 1982. She had worked a dou- ble shift and was heading home for the Thanksgiving holi- day with her adoptive parents. Unfortunately, she never arrived. After several worried hours, Hoffman’s mother went to the mall, where she found Amie’s car in the parking lot. The keys were in the ignition, and her purse and sweater were in the front seat. There was no evidence of a struggle; it seemed Amie had simply vanished. She was found floating face down in four feet of water in a concrete water tank at the Mendham Borough Reservoir 32 Volume 3 4 , Issue 2 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER SI March April 2010 pgs:SI J A 2009 1/22/10 11:48 AM Page 33 on November 25 by a couple walking their dog. Hoffman had of the Hoffman and O’Brien suspect’s car and arrested him on been stabbed several times with a sharp knife. The killing set the spot. The tread on his right rear tire matched a track left at the community on edge. A $5,000 reward was offered for any the scene of O’Brien’s murder, and fibers found in his car information about Hoffman’s killer, and within a week the FBI matched those from the clothing of one of his victims. The was involved in the investigation. Several eyewitnesses came reign of terror that had gripped Morris County since Thanks - forward with a description of a man and his vehicle last seen giving finally eased. with Hoffman, though the case seemed stalled. Police identified the suspect as James Koedatich, a thirty- Finally one detective working on the periphery of the case, year-old man of Polish descent who lived nearby in Morris - Capt. Jim Moore, contacted local psychic Nancy Weber, with town. He had served ten years in a Dade County, Florida, whom he was acquainted. Moore soon brought in a second prison for robbery and second-degree murder and had been detective, Bill Hughes. Weber told both police officers details released on August 18, 1982. about Hoffman’s death that allegedly even the police did not As presented by Nancy Weber, a 2006 episode of the know, convincing them of her credibility.1 Biography Channel TV show Psychic Investigators, the Skeptiko After a few initial meetings, the three of them drove together podcast, and elsewhere, Weber’s psychic information about to the crime scene, and Weber gave the police information about Hoffman’s killer turned out to be amazingly accurate in nearly Hoffman’s killer, telling them: “The man who did this, his first every detail. Her credibility was dramatically bolstered by name is James, his last name is Polish, multiple syllables, begin- detectives Moore and Hughes, who publicly professed belief in ning with a ‘K’ and ending in an ‘ish.’ He came up from Florida her abilities. Little wonder that it is touted as one of the best where he had been imprisoned for murder. He lived in the area” cases of psychic detective abilities. (Weber 2008). Moore and Hughes took down her information but were The Skeptiko Psychic Detective Challenge unable to locate the killer. He murdered a second woman, I first heard about the case in mid-2008, when I was a guest Dierdre O’Brien, two weeks later on December 5. Like Hoff - on a podcast called Skeptiko (whose tagline is “Science at the man, she had been abducted and repeatedly stabbed. She was res- tipping point”). During an interview about testing psychics, cued by a driver at a truck stop and briefly described her attacker host Alex Tsakiris repeatedly accused skeptical investigators of to him, but she bled to death in his arms. On December 10, purposely choosing the weakest cases. According to Tsakiris, Morris County police released a sketch of the suspected mur- skeptics steer away from the “best cases” and instead choose derer; three of Hoffman’s coworkers had seen the man and his the most dubious ones, the equivalent of a professional boxer Chevrolet at the mall. This turned up no new leads, and the intentionally choosing unworthy opponents (“tomato cans”), to investigation continued.2 The serial killer was not arrested until six weeks later, in the Benjamin Radford, managing editor of the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, early morning hours of January 17, 1983. He had called the is a longtime investigator of psychic detective claims and all man- Morristown police from his home to report that he had been ner of other extraordinary claims. He is author of Media attacked by an unknown assailant. It turned out to be a false Mythmakers and co-author of Hoaxes, Myths, and Manias report, but while at his home an observant police officer (with Robert F. Bartholomew) and Lake Monster Mysteries noticed that his turquoise Chevrolet matched the description (with Joe Nickell). Email: [email protected]. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER March / April 2010 33 SI March April 2010 pgs:SI J A 2009 1/22/10 11:48 AM Page 34 inflate their apparent success rate. Tsakiris (2008a) asked me, “the notion that somehow the burden of proof is greater on me “Why don’t you ever investigate very good cases? than it is on you, I do not accept that at all.” That wasn’t true of me or any other skeptics I knew—as an And what evidence was produced to support this extraordi- investigator, I don’t want to waste my time on poor evidence. So nary claim? Virtually none, except for statements by Weber I challenged Tsakiris to find his best case for psychic detectives: and the police. As I researched the case, I kept expecting “You find the best case you can. Look through all the psychics Tsakiris to present me with some hard evidence that supported you want; pick the one case you think is airtight.” He could Weber’s claims. The burden of proof in this case lies squarely choose any case from any time, anywhere in the world, that pre- with Weber (and by extension Tsakiris), and by any reasonable sented the gold standard for evidence of psychic detectives. He measure they failed to meet that standard from the outset. would then present it to me, and I would investigate it. This Three people’s quarter-century-old memories are simply not challenge turned into one of the most in-depth and thorough adequate to establish proof of psychic powers. examinations ever conducted of one psychic detective’s claims. Despite the weak evidence offered, was Weber’s informa- A few weeks later, Tsakiris contacted me with the Amie tion really as inexplicable as it seemed? Did the police really Hoffman murder case. I had never heard of either it or Nancy support her claims? I wanted this “best case” to end up with Weber. Here, finally, I was being offered the rock-solid proof— something conclusive, coming as close as possible to either one of the best cases, if not the best, in the world, according to proving or disproving Weber’s psychic claims. Tsakiris. If I could solve this “best case” mystery, not only could Tsakiris no longer claim that skeptics avoid the best cases, but Examining the Psychic Detective Claims all other psychic detective cases—which according to Tsakiris Because this case was complex and multifaceted, Tsakiris and I are not as strong—would therefore be even more dubious. agreed to limit our investigation specifically to the information Tsakiris referred to Weber’s information in this case as “amaz- Nancy Weber gave regarding Hoffman’s murder. Tsakiris ing” and “off-the-charts extraordinary.” People who posted on (2008) noted, “I want to focus on and verify whether Nancy Skeptiko’s Web site were also impressed. “Appears to be a slam provided the investigators the first name of the perpetrator, dunk,” wrote a man named Rod McKenzie; another wrote, when that name was not known to them; whether she pro- “That was a lot of very specific information she gave.” A New vided information regarding the last name, that it had three Zealand blogger named John Baylis (2007) wrote, “We watched syllables; was of Polish descent, ended in an ‘itch’ sound. I on a recent TV documentary how brilliant psychic Nancy Weber want to verify whether she provided information about him solved a crime for the New Jersey State Police. ... It cannot be being a convicted murderer who had left Florida and returned explained in any other way. All of her clues were 100% correct!” to New Jersey, that he was originally from New Jersey.” Interestingly, everyone involved—including Weber— Tsakiris interviewed all three principals and watched the admits that her information did not solve the case. According TV show, concluding that “all three [Weber, Moore, and to New Jersey reporter Abbot Koloff (2006), “Law enforcement Hughes] agree that Weber provided information on the most authorities who were in charge of the Koedatich case say Weber important aspects of the incident. All three agree she provided: had no role in the investigation. ... They say Koedatich was the first name, James; the last name, begins with a hard K; caught by old fashioned police work, a combination of his own Polish/Eastern European descent, with an ‘itch’ sound on the mistakes, and an examination of the evidence.” Still, Weber and end; [he was] from New Jersey; and was serving time in a her supporters believe that the information she gave regarding Florida jail for murder.” Indeed, the TV show suggests that Koedatich was so amazingly accurate and specific that psychic Moore and Hughes support all of Weber’s claims.