CRIME CRAVE

The Rosenhan experiment is a notorious piece of research that was published in the journal Science in 1975. The experiment itself was designed to test the validity of psychiatric diagnoses, and was simple but effective in its design. The first part of the experiment involved 8 mentally healthy individuals (including the chief investigator, Rosenhan himself) attempting to gain admission to psychiatric institutions. They were instructed to do this simply by making an appointment with for an assessment, and reporting one psychotic symptoms - auditory hallucinations. They were instructed to inform the assessor that the hallucinations took the form of a voice that simply said one of three words, ‘empty’, ‘thud’ or ‘hollow’. No other symptoms were to be reported, and once admitted the ‘pseudopatients’ were to cease reporting these symptoms and behave normally. None of the staff in the institutions were aware of the experiment.

Every participant was admitted, and the experiment required that they get out of the hospital on their own. Once admitted they discovered that in order to be discharged they were expected to admit that they were mentally ill and agree to take antipsychotic medication. Seven of the participants were diagnosed with schizophrenia, one participant was diagnosed with manic-depressive psychosis. The average admission length was 19 days, with a range of 9-52.

After the first part of the experiment was completed, a well known teaching hospital that was not involved in the initial experiment felt that they would be able to identify any pseudopatients if they were to receive them. Rosenhan arranged a 3 month period of time where pseudopatients would be sent for assessment and the staff would rate patients on their likelihood of being an impostor. Staff identified 41 patients out 193 as impostors.

Rosenhan had not sent any pseudopatients. All 41 ‘impostors’ had been genuine psychiatric patients.

Early in the morning of December 5, 1981, an unidentified woman was hit by a car on I-10 on Breaux Bridge in Saint Martin Parish, Louisiana. She was last seen alive at a truck stop trying hitch a ride. At the time of her death, she had a blood alcohol level of 0.3. A white female, she was between 25-35 years old, stood between 5′0″-5′4″ (152-162 cm), weighed approximately 130-140 pounds (58-63 kg) and had short, brown hair and brown eyes. She had a surgical scar on her abdomen, possibly from a c-section, and a healed fracture on her left cheekbone. She was found wearing a gray and black Coronet Casual brand cowl neck sweater with long sleeves and collar (size small), Wrangler jeans (size 30" X 31"), white knee socks, a Gelmart bra and red and gray Pro Wings jogging shoes. Clothing with the body includes a short-sleeved plaid cowboy-style shirt, size 14.5, 3 pairs of Sears large-sized (Hips 38-40) underwear in blue, red and beige; Wrangler blue jeans, Misses size 10, and a white and blue dotted nightgown. Near the body, a bag from Howard’s Supermarket in Port Arthur, Texas was found. Authorities believe that she may have spoken French and been from a French-speaking area, possibly Quebec, based on her clothing.

As of October 2018, 3 missing persons have been excluded as being Jane Doe.

Georgia Nolan of Kentucky missing since 1976

Alma O’Con of Louisiana missing since 1981 

Mary Shinn of Arkansas missing since 1978

If you have any information regarding the identity of Jane Doe, please contact the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office at 337-394-3071.

Sources:

Doe Network

NamUs (WARNING: POSTMORTEM PHOTOS AT LINK)

The Executioner with a Conscience 

 Between 1913 and 1926, John Hulbert was New York State’s executioner. He was responsible for ending 142 lives in the electric chair. During his time there, he received several threats against his life and as a result, would frequently carry a gun. When he went out to eat, he would always eat at the same restaurant and always request the same waiter out of fear that somebody was going to poison him. Hulbert became increasingly depressed while working as an executioner but couldn’t leave because of the decent salary of $150 per execution.

He became known as “the man who walks alone” due to his hermit-like existence. The stress of the job finally had a toll on Hulbert who had a mental breakdown in 1926 and eventually left his grim career behind. “I got tired of killing people,” he said. Unable to accept his past, he fell into a deep depression. When his wife passed away in 1929, he was inconsolable.

It was the 31st of December, 2003, when the body a young baby was discovered in plastic bag in a burn barrel in a wooded area behind Sycamore Amish School in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She weighed just 6 pounds and had brown hair and blue eyes. Her umbilical cord was still attached to her stomach. Her throat had been slit ear to ear, seemingly almost as soon as she took her first breath of fresh air. She became known as Baby Allison.

An investigation as to who the mother could have been was underway when an employee from Turkey Hill Mini-Market called police and told them they found blood in the restroom shortly after the discovery. It was located about 4 miles from where Baby Allison was discovered. Police started to contact customers who had made credit card purchases that day to question whether they had seen anything out of the ordinary but it was unfruitful.

It was determined that she wasn’t a baby born from incest. Police theorised that the mother was most likely a young woman. Police started to search for women who had recently been pregnant but it led them nowhere. Over the forthcoming years, they only received about 20 leads in the case, all of which were investigated scrupulously. Despite an exhaustive search, the mother could never be found.

Terrifying photo reveals the moment a woman climbed onto her roof to hide from home intruder only for him to appear behind her.

One of the most haunted places in the United States is Alcatraz, located on a rock in San Francisco Bay. With such a tragic history, it’s easy to see why. In the 1850s, the military built a fortress on the rock and this was the work place of labourers that didn’t make it into the gold mines. Many lives were lost during the building phase. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Alcatraz was used to house tribal leaders of Arizona and Alaska along with the country’s worst criminals. Eventually the island became a prison that was said to be impossible to escape from. Those who attempted either died while attempting to cross the cold water and strong currents or were captured or forced to surrender upon realising they couldn’t escape.

The most haunted spots in Alcatraz are said to be the Warden’s House, the hospital, laundry room, and cell block C where several inmates died while attempting to escape in 1946. According to paranormal investigators, cell block D - which was solitary - is the worst and is substantially colder than the rest of the prison. A former prison guard said these cells had no windows and when an inmate was sent to cell block D, they screamed within seconds of being placed in the darkness. Many inmates said that they weren’t alone in these cells and that there were glowing eyes watching them.

Those living in the Victorian era were notoriously obsessed with death. This morbid fascination often extended to art forms, as we see here in examples of Spirit Photography.