PSYCHIC AID.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 365, 5 March 1932, Page 22 (Supplement)

PSYCHIC AID.

CRIME DETECTION. MANY SUCCESSES CLAIMED. SOLVING MURDER MYSTERIES. (By CLAYTON KENT.) (Copyright.) In rather less than two years well over a dozen men and women in Britain have lost their lives at the hand of murderers who still remain undetected, despite the fact that in the majority of these unsolved mysteries the aid of Scotland Y r ard detectives, with all the up-to-date scientific and other resources of Britain s premier crime detection machine, were requisitioned. In many of these mysteries months of -patient, untiring probing went on. Nothing tangible resulted. It is

plain that some murderers are beating the police, whatever the cause. Men, and perhaps women, are able to commit the most grievous crime in the calendar and afterwards walk freely abroad, undetected and, in many cases, unsuspected. In these circumstances it may, T think, fairly be asked whether the time lias not arrived for the serious consideration of new incthods of crime detection. For example, is there any reason why, brushing aside any possible prejudice that may at present exist, the science of clairvoyance should not be invoked to .bring to justice those who at present seem aide to slay tlieir fellow beings with something approaching impunity. It probably seems a startling proposition to put forward, yet if the adoption of such means resulted in even one secret murderer being laid by the heels, the experiment, as it may be called, would surely be abundantly justified. The tiling at any rate, would be well -worth trying. Clairvoyant discoveries could not. of course, be admitted as evidence in any court of law. I do not argue that they should be. But there is the distinct possibility that by circumstances which would strip the proceedings from any suspicion of qurfclcery, the detectives .might possibly be put in possession of some vital clue to the identity of the hidden slayer which they would be able to follow up and clinch in other and more routine ways. Detectives Completely Bafflod. At present those detectives are completely baffled, groping along a darkened roadway for some tiny thread of clue. The psychic eye of a clairvoyant might '—l do not say it inevitably would—possibly provide the beam of light that would show whore lies that thread; for, to continue the simile, it is lying there all the time for the eye that can sec to detect. As matters stand now, nothing would be lost by giving such a departure a trial. Something, on the other hand, might be gained. And. to many people, so serious is the position created by the everlengthening list of unsolved murder mysteries—to say nothing of a far longer list of other outstanding mysteries of crime during the past couple of years—that every possible avenue of discovery should surely be explored. The idea of clairvoyant aid in the detection of crime is no new one. On the Continent and elsewhere, it has been tried oil a number of occasions, and, it is claimed, with considerable success. There arc a number of cases on record where baffled police, faced with a mystery apparently unsolvable, have called in the aid of mediums, and from that psychic source been put in possession of clues that, run to their logical conclusion, have led to complete and, as has afterwards been clearly demonstrated, accurate solving of the problems. The bodies of missing men have been traced in this way. Descriptions of peculiarities of murdered men have been furnished, sufficient at any rate to put -baffled detectives on a track which, from other sources at tlieir command. they have afterwards been able to satisfy themselves is the right one. And who can say that the clearing up of a murder mystery, providing the accurate solution is found, does not justify such means? Conan Doyle’s Support. Some little time before he died, Sir ‘Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the greatest figure in fictional crime detection, expressed himself in no uncertain terms of this question of the use of mediums in solving such baffling problems as have been puzzling Scotland Yard of late. “Clairvoyants most certainly can assist in the unravelling of crime problems,” lie declared, “and there number of instances on record where -they have actually done so. 1 have no liesita-

tion in saying that the day will come in this country when the clairvoyant will be called on by the police to solve otlieiwise baffling crime problems. The next few years will see that happening, 1 am certain. Clairvoyants will be attached to police stations, and the certainty that with this no crime will go undetected or its author escape unsuspected, will -have a very discouraging effect on would-be criminals. A portion of the dress of a murdered person, placed in the hands of a clairoyant, would enable the latter to cast back to the time of the crime and to describe in detail the circumstances in which it was committed. Maybe, too, a graphic description of the murderer could be furnished together with his or her whereabouts. That has been done in certain places where the worth of clairvoyances in this connection has been realised :by the police authorities.” Advance of Science. If the science of clairvoyance can accomplish anything like that it would surely do no harm to give it a trial. After all, a decade or so ago the science of finger prints was far enough in advance of the then existing methods of crime detection to be regarded as an utter revolution, an

unheard of departure from the established, stereotyped order of things. Y'et to-day finger prints are the crime detectors’ greatest aid, as is well known. I would not, for one -moment, suggest that clairvoyants should take the place of detectives. Their use would and should be restricted solely to the providing of possible clues which the detectives would

afterwards have to follow' up and substantiate or reject as the case might be. The point is, however, that some possible clue might in this way be provided that otherwise would never be brought to light. And almost any -means of doing that, surely is preferable to having murderers walking freely the streets of town and city, as obviously they arc doing in over a dozen fairly recent cases.— (A.A.N.S.)