EERIE GIFTS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 11280, 9 August 1930, Page 9

EERIE GIFTS

WOMAN’S .REMARKABLE : t . ' POWERS'. ’

CRIME DETECTOR AND PSYCHO-METRIST

A strange, tall woman in the early 30’s given to ,storms, of laughter, rambling in; speech, beautifully dressed, short-haired, with strange-ly-fascinating eyes, a great hatred of superstitious old ladies' • .and a frank turn .of phrase almost shocking at -times. That is Frau Lottie Plant. ' She came to London from her homo in Oldenberg, where sho lives with her two children (writes a Daily Chronicle representative in the issue of May 19). Sho came to exhibit to psychologists her eerie gifts,. whereby she' has at' will, and by holding a relevant object in. her hands:— Lived back in) the times of tlio Carthaginian Empire; detected murderers bv holding their coats; found lost dogs; rediscovered old masters ; heard voices that whistle words in English of the lives of dead' mediaeval characters wliilo she holds their bones.

I saw her recently in her quiet hotel in South Kensington, and she fcdld me some eerie, some amusing nnd somo .almost embarrassing tales of tho weird power sho claims.

Seated in a little chair in her bedroom, her .silk-stockinged legs neatly crossed beneath her short, black dress as sho fingered a photograph, sho said:

“Ah, yes;' I can see all inside you ■ —right through. “I can seo you just . What is it in English All ! Just as though you had no clothes on. Funny, Isn’t it?”

“Indeed!” I murmured, buttoning up my coat. “Yes, I can often sco anvone like that, and the insides of their brains Working, too. >

“7j feel tlleir pains, too. lam at a tea party., and I say to a lady when I sco inside her, ‘You poor tiling, you havo had your appendix out.. I feel your pain nivself, too.* ” I asked her to give instances of the l power she c-lnimsyor seeing bank .in connectiori-'With-an object -held in her hand. . . ,' v '

'“They senctgm© a- piece, of the stone out -of "the ruins of Carthage, f. took hold of it . . .1 was living back among the people. I‘ hoard quite plainly tho noise of the battle as the Romans attacked the cjitv, and I . could see all round me the soldiers with their . round shields and snears.

“This is how I see it. First I see—just like on a film all about the people connected with the thing I .am holding. There just behind me, round my ear a voice whistles in English—isn’t that strange, as I am Dutch—names of murderers, exact dates and things like that. Unless it as dull weather and then sometimes it is bad. I see nothing.' “But sometimes 1 the people tease me. Once I was' sent a bojx of bones. I laid the. bones out and took one tin. The voice tolcl me that it was an old South German abbot of the 14th century, and lie wrote hooks, and I saw him in a clqlsber. ’“But when I took uo .another bone it was orilv a cow. Tlio man knew this, and lie was teasing me.

“Another time mv friend had lost her dog. I held liis collar in mv hand and told her where he had. gone.

“I found out my powers four years ago. I -went to a meeting with another psychometrast. She is jealous of mo now. Ha, Ha, Ha! But she put a- pencil in my lian'd and said, ‘Yon, .try;* I lauglied, but I suddenly started telling her all about the owner of the pencil.; ‘Oh, What am I> doing?” I said. That was how I started.”

Frau Plaat' states-that she is regularly employed by. German police to detect and interrogate prisoners In their- cells.

These are two of her criminological . exploits,. as told to the Daily Chronicle: • ” •

A German nobleman brought her a coat. Holding it, she cried that it was t-ho coat of a murdered man, and that she was' seeing the murderer drive .a blunt instrument into the victim’s.chest and throw him in the water. • • ' r . . ■ ' _ ■

She describedtho man ias having a front tooth missing arid, I .a tattoed. arm. - By. this means tlip guilty man was caught; and a confession was elicited by Frau Plaat in his cell. .-;

On another occasion , slip'; confronted a murderess with an exact de-. scription, gained pHycliicalljy of liow •sho* strangled.'her sister-in-law. Passages from her reading of tho signet ring of 'Mr Harry Price read as follows : : ' “Tins is a man. . . . can ho teiv l-ibly rude-, absolutely awful . . . Hut

. oh, such a child. If you take him tho right way you women could do what you like-with hint.