Tag Archives: Illness

THE REAL REASON FOR ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S UNPREDICTABLE FITS OF RAGE  

There’s nearly unanimous agreement among historians that Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was America’s greatest leader. Honest Abe, as he was affectionally called, served in the nation’s highest office from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. During that time of civil war, Lincoln’s guidance held the union together, and he worked towards the emancipation of slaves. But despite Lincoln’s reputation of calmness under stress, there was a dark side to him. Abraham Lincoln was known for his unpredictable fits of rage.

Abraham Lincoln was not a well man during most of his adult life. It’s documented that Lincoln suffered from what was then known as hypochondriasis—the 19th-century term for paranoia and melancholia. Today, he’d likely be diagnosed as having manic-depressive disorder or, at least, experiencing clinical depression. Lincoln’s symptoms included gastrointestinal discomfort, headache, fatigue, fever, chills, insomnia, anxiety, hypervigilance, forgetfulness, immense sadness or despair, and uncontrollable mood swings including maniacal laughter as well as those unpredictable fits of rage.

At one congressional debate in the 1850s, Lincoln lost it and grabbed an opponent by the throat, shaking him so violently that the man’s teeth chattered. In the beginning of his presidency, White House staffers feared Lincoln’s rath which seemed to come from nowhere. Remarkably, though, after five months in the Commander-in-Chief’s chair, Abraham Lincoln suddenly changed. For the rest of his days, he was the picture of calm and control.

It’s well known, historically, that President Lincoln was medicated for his ills. His main prescription was for a common-at-the-time pharmaceutical called Pilula Hydrargyri or Blue Mass. Blue Pills, as the drug was also known, were prescribed for a wide range of ailments from diarrhea to childbirth pain. And it was the go-to pill for treating melancholy.

Abraham Lincoln stopped taking Blue Mass, or Blue Pills, after five months in the Oval Office. He said they were “making him cross”. No doubt they were, as Lincoln was a changed man when he got off his meds. Let’s look at who this remarkable person was, his feats as President, and find out just what was inside those little blue pills.

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a Kentucky log cabin. His family were dirt-poor, and Lincoln had little formal education. He was kicked in the head by a horse when he was nine and nearly died. He also suffered serious injuries by being clubbed unconscious during a robbery, nearly severing a thumb with an axe, experiencing severe frostbite on both feet, and breaking an arm.

Abe Lincoln was an unusual-looking adult—tall and gaunt. He was 6’ 4” and weighed 150-160 lbs. Lincoln had a notably drooping eye and disproportionate limbs. Some speculate he had a rare genetic disorder called Marfan Syndrome which could have accounted for his deformities.

Although Lincoln had little schooling, he was far from uneducated. He was a self-taught man and a true life-long learner. He’d moved to Illinois in 1830 where he self-studied law and passed the state bar exam in 1836, setting up a practice in Springfield.

Politics called for Abraham Lincoln in 1847 when he was elected to one term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was defeated for a second term and went back to practicing law. Lincoln became politically active again in the mid-1850s and gained fame with an outstanding performance in what’s known as the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.

Abraham Lincoln lost his bid for the Vice Presidency in the 1856 general election. Defeat didn’t stop Mr. Lincoln, and he was elevated to the Office of President of the United States of America in 1860. His official inauguration was on March 4, 1861. In two months, the American Civil War would break out.

Lincoln experienced extreme sadness and grief during his life. His beloved mother died when he was twelve. The same year, he lost his affectionate aunt and uncle. His first wife died unexpectedly, and two of the four boys he had with his second wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, died in their childhood.

Lincoln’s law partner, John Todd Stewart, described him as “an unfortunate and miserable man… the most striking picture of dejection I have ever seen.” Lincoln self-assessed in a preserved letter. It read:

I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth. Whether I shall ever be better I cannot tell; I awfully forbode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better, it appears to me. I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.

John Todd Stewart is on record that Abraham Lincoln was prescribed Blue Mass for his depression as early as 1841 when Lincoln was thirty-two. It’s not known if this was daily for the next twenty years but Lincoln, himself in his diaries, recorded that he stopped ingesting the pills in August of 1861 at age fifty-two. This was right at the time Lincoln made the momentous decision to sign the Confiscation Act that seized Confederate possessions including slaves and when his most capable soldier, General Nathaniel Lyon, was killed in battle.

In sobriety, Abraham Lincoln executed his duties of the Office of the President in exemplary fashion. He became a figurehead of calm reason—a man of vision and calculation—who inspired others to fight on and win the solidarity of the union as well as being instrumental in freeing America’s enslaved. Tragically, The Great Emancipator was assassinated on April 15, 1865. The Gettysburg Address is one of his legacies.

It’s far more than a coincidence that Abraham Lincoln’s emotional condition improved, or stabilized, when he stopped taking the Blue Mass pills. That’s well recorded and was observed by all those working with Lincoln or folks being familiar with the man. This leads to the logical question of just what was in those little blue pills that were making President Lincoln sick.

The ingredients of Pilula Hydrargyri or Blue Mass pills were no secret. They were well-known back in Lincoln’s day. Here’s the recipe posted in Medical Histories of the Union Generals:

  • 33 Parts Mercury
  • 5 Parts Licorice
  • 25 Parts Althaea
  • 3 Parts Glycerine
  • 34 Parts Rose Honey

33 Parts Mercury? Hold on. Mercury is a heavy metal that’s toxic to human beings when ingested and metabolized by the system. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “Mercury exposure at high levels can harm the brain, heart, kidneys, lungs, and immune systems in people.”

All the symptoms Abraham Lincoln presented—gastrointestinal discomfort, headache, fatigue, fever, chills, insomnia, anxiety, hypervigilance, forgetfulness, immense sadness or despair, and uncontrollable mood swings including maniacal laughter as well as those unpredictable fits of rage—were consistent with side effects from mercury poisoning.

Here’s more information from the EFA about mercury:

Mercury is a naturally occurring chemical element found in rock in the earth’s crust, including in deposits of coal. On the periodic table, it has the symbol “Hg” and its atomic number is 80. It exists in several forms:

  • Elemental (metallic) mercury
  • Inorganic mercury compounds
  • Methylmercury and other organic compounds

Elemental (Metallic) Mercury

Elemental or metallic mercury is a shiny, silver-white metal, historically referred to as quicksilver, and is liquid at room temperature. It is used in older thermometers, fluorescent light bulbs, and some electrical switches. When dropped, elemental mercury breaks into smaller droplets which can go through small cracks or become strongly attached to certain materials. At room temperature, exposed elemental mercury can evaporate to become an invisible, odorless toxic vapor. If heated, it is a colorless, odorless gas.

Elemental mercury is an element that has not reacted with another substance. When mercury reacts with another substance, it forms a compound, such as inorganic mercury salts or methylmercury.

Inorganic Mercury

In its inorganic form, mercury occurs abundantly in the environment, primarily as the minerals cinnabar and metacinnabar, and as impurities in other minerals. Mercury can readily combine with chlorine, sulfur, and other elements, and subsequently weather to form inorganic salts.  Inorganic mercury salts can be transported in water and occur in soil. Dust containing these salts can enter the air from mining deposits of ores that contain mercury. Emissions of both elemental or inorganic mercury can occur from coal-fired power plants, burning of municipal and medical waste, and from factories that use mercury. Inorganic mercury can also enter water or soil from the weathering of rocks that contain inorganic mercury salts, and from factories or water treatment facilities that release water contaminated with mercury.

Although the use of mercury salts in consumer products, such as medicinal products, have been discontinued, inorganic mercury compounds are still being widely used in skin lightening soaps and creams. Mercuric chloride is used in photography and as a topical antiseptic and disinfectant, wood preservative, and fungicide. In the past, mercurous chloride was widely used in medicinal products, including laxatives, worming medications, and teething powders. It has since been replaced by safer and more effective agents. Mercuric sulfide is used to color paints and is one of the red coloring agents used in tattoo dyes.

Human exposure to inorganic mercury salts can occur both in occupational and environmental settings. Occupations with higher risk of exposure to mercury and its salts include mining, electrical equipment manufacturing, and chemical and metal processing in which mercury is used. In the general population, exposure to mercuric chloride can occur through the dermal route from the use of soaps and creams or topical antiseptics and disinfectants. Another, less well-documented, source of exposure to inorganic mercury salts among the general population is from their use in ethnic religious, magical, and ritualistic practices and in herbal remedies.

Methylmercury

When inorganic mercury salts can become attached to airborne particles. Rain and snow deposit these particles on land. Even after mercury gets deposited on land, it often returns to the atmosphere, as a gas or associated with particles, and then redeposits elsewhere. 

As it cycles between the atmosphere, land, and water, mercury undergoes a series of complex chemical and physical transformations, many of which are not completely understood. Microscopic organisms can combine mercury with carbon, thus converting it from an inorganic to organic form. Methylmercury is the most common organic mercury compound found in the environment and is highly toxic.

So, if mercury is primarily used for industrial purposes and is highly toxic in human consumption, where did the idea come from to make it into medicine and poison someone like Abraham Lincoln? No one seems to know who first thought of swallowing little blue pills made with quicksilver, but the practice has been around a long time. Literature from the early 1800s recommends the generic name Blue Mass as a treatment for dysentery, constipation, syphilis, gonorrhea, melancholia, worms, tuberculosis, toothache, and more.

Here’s a quote: To be fair, it was probably equally effective for all those diseases… which is to say not effective at all for any of them.

And here’s some mercury poisoning trivia: Hat makers often suffered from the same syndrome as Lincoln. Constant exposure to a mercury compound used to treat felt hats gave them violent mood swings, inspiring the Mad Hatter in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.

Blue Mass pills have been off the market for decades. (By the way, the blue color came from blue chalk that was used as a buffing agent to help bind the mercury to the other ingredients.) No pills were thought to exist that could be analyzed by a modern forensics laboratory to determine the exact mercury content, or weight in each pill, which could show how over-medicated (read that as over-intoxicated) someone like President Lincoln would’ve been.

That was until a retired physician and medical historian, Norbert Hirschhorn, dug into the Lincoln case. Dr. Hirschhorn and the Royal Society of Chemistry struck gold—actually, quicksilver—in a medical museum. There, in a nicely crafted wooden box, were two vials marked Pilula Hydrargyri. Inside were a bunch of little blue pills.

Dr. Bin Chen, Senior Applications Chemist at PS Analytical in Kent, England, carried out a test on the Blue Mass pills. He found each contained 33.6% mercury in ground amounts that could easily be absorbed into a human body. Every pill contained 750 micrograms of elemental mercury—far above the EPA’s long-term mercury tolerance of 21 micrograms for the human body to safely withstand.

Quoting Dr. Chen: To think the President was meant to take three pills a day, every day, for how many years… that is appalling. He would have been consuming nine thousand times over the safety limit.

If this were the case, and there’s every reason to believe it was true, then the President suffered from heavy metal poisoning. It’s no wonder Abraham Lincoln had unpredictable fits of rage.

THE MOTHER FROM HELL—MUNCHAUSEN SYNDROME BY PROXY

If I’d mention “Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy”, you’d likely have no idea what I was talking about. That’s understandable—I certainly didn’t when I heard it, and I’m not making this up. Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, or MSbP, is a rare and real form of child abuse where a caregiver intentionally inflicts harm on a helpless dependent in order to gain perverted attention towards themselves. It’s a grievous crime, and sometimes MSbP turns deadly. No, I’d never heard of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. Not until I investigated the Mother From Hell.

It was 1993 when I met the Mother From Hell—twenty years before Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy was officially designated as a serious psychiatric affliction in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Edition 5 (DSM-5). Technically, MSbP is categorized as Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another (FDIA) which is a recognized form of medical child abuse. You’ll also hear this crazy condition called Factitious Disorder by Proxy (FDbP) and Malingering Stimulation of Disease (MSoD). No matter what term, premeditating to put one’s own child in medical peril is a sick, sadistic and heinous crime.

Before getting into details on what Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy involves, who the stereotypical offenders are and what the medico-legal ramifications are, let me tell you how this investigation went from confusingly bad to uncontrollably worse. It’s a classic case of how a poorly-understood subject gets manipulated by the “system” and fails to protect those unable to protect themselves—especially from monsters like the Mother From Hell.

Our Serious Crimes Section got a call from the British Columbia Childrens Hospital in Vancouver, Canada reporting a suspected case of child abuse involving Liza Nellis and her two-year-old daughter, Mariana. (Names changed to prevent me from getting sued over this case—again.) Allegedly, BC Childrens Hospital medical staff caught Liza Nellis in the act of intentionally choking little Mariana to unconsciousness.

I’m the poor bastard who got the police file.

Obviously, I’d never heard of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, let alone how to pronounce it. Neither had any of my detective colleagues. Nor was anyone in the prosecutors’ office and in the regular medical community familiar with this devious derangement. It was only one young pediatrician at Childrens Hospital who’d recently attended a child abuse seminar where this extremely rare psychiatric and criminal disorder came up.

The first part of any criminal investigation always involves establishing the basic case facts. Liza Nellis had a continuous history of medical complaints involving her two adopted children. One was Marianna, a toddler. The other was her older brother, four-year-old Michael. Both children were adopted from Honduras as part of a Christian Baptist placement program. Kerry Nellis, the adoptive father and Liza’s legally married husband, was a commercial fisherman and absent for long periods. For the most part, Liza Nellis was raising the two children on her own.

Criminal suspicion of child abuse within the Nellis family simmered slowly. For approximately one year, a pattern emerged where Liza Nellis reported apnea (breathing interruption events) happening with Mariana. Her family doctor and a pediatrician specialist documented the same thing had happened with the older Nellis child. Michael seemed to grow out of breath-lapse episodes once he turned three and was able to talk. Now the same pattern was occurring with the younger Nellis girl—Mariana.

The family doctor and pediatrician couldn’t find any medical cause for either Michael or Mariana’s distress. To them, both children appeared normal and healthy. These medical professionals told Liza that Mariana would also grow out of it and not to worry. Liza, the Mother From Hell, refused to take no for an answer. She started taking Mariana into the regional hospital’s emergency department on a regular basis.

The local ER folks also noticed an emerging pattern. All of Mariana’s apnea, or stop-breathing incidents, occurred out of the hospital and were only witnessed by her mother. An ER-doc consulted with the family physician, both finding the case history peculiar but not necessarily alarming. To them, Liza Nellis appeared the epitome of the perfect mother.

Many other people in the community also thought Nellis was an angel. By anyone’s standards, she was attractive—impeccably dressed and groomed. Liza Nellis was highly educated with a nursing degree and possessed a concert-quality pianist gift with a choir voice. She was a pillar in her Baptist church where she taught Sunday School as well as providing piano lessons to troubled teens. But, it was well-known that Liza and Kerry Nellis were childless on their own. It made perfect sense that someone as apparently selfless like Liza Nellis would step up to the admirable task of adopting foreign orphans.

Mariana’s apparent distress escalated to an episode where Liza Nellis called 911 reporting her daughter was unconscious and not breathing. Attending ambulance attendants arrived at the Nellis home to find Mariana awake after Liza reportedly performed CPR to revive her. Out of caution, the EM responders transported Mariana straight to the regional hospital where the staff made a critical decision. Based on the history, they transferred Mariana to the specialists at Childrens Hospital. Liza Nellis insisted on accompanying Mariana—dutifully staying at her daughter’s side at all times.

Mariana Nellis underwent exhaustive tests at Children’s Hospital. Some were invasive and uncomfortable, especially for a two-year-old. Like the regional hospital professionals, the specialists at Childrens found nothing wrong with Mariana. They directed her discharge despite Liza reporting several more apnea episodes while only Liza was in the room with her uncommunicative little girl.

Then it happened. Liza was alone in the private ward with Mariana when a hospital worker suddenly walked in on them. “What are you doing?” the worker screamed. She’d caught Liza Nellis with her fingers pinching Mariana’s nose and her hand cupping the wee girl’s mouth. A started Nellis let go and stammered an excuse that her daughter went into another acute apnea episode and she was beginning CPR. “That’s not how you do CPR!”, the worker said. “You’ll kill her doing that!”

That set off alarms inside Childrens Hospital. The staff began comparing notes, and another worker reported also finding Liza Nellis in a suspicious position. A young pediatrician clicked into the Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy scenario and a collective medical team began taking a close look into the case history. Without question, the only apnea episodes occurred when Liza Nellis was alone with Mariana. And, a close physical exam on Mariana found petechial hemorrhages in Mariana’s eyes—those tiny blood spots associated with suffocation. To them, this was conclusive evidence of foul play. Someone had intentionally choked Mariana Nellis. The only logical suspect was her mother.

Out of extreme caution, management at Childrens Hospital placed a guard in Mariana’s room while they contacted authorities. First was the Child Protection Agency who took emergency intervention by seizing custody of Mariana and prohibiting Liza’s contact with her daughter. Then they called the cops. As fate goes, that involved me.

With Marina under protection and Liza Nellis at arms-length, there was time to do a cautious and careful investigation—or so I thought. This was new ground for me as well as the other multidisciplinary team members. All of us had a hard time getting our heads around why an apparently model mother would intentionally harm her child. So, we started a two-pronged investigative approach. One was to interview witnesses. The other was reviewing medical records.

Witnesses included the staff at Childrens Hospital, the regional hospital, the family physician and a specialist pediatrician who initially assessed and monitored both Nellis children. There was no question, according to the Childrens Hospital witnesses, that Liza Nellis had been caught choking Mariana with physical evidence corroborating it. The regional staff was suspicious, but they deferred to the pattern of reports as recorded on hospital charts. The family doctor was ambivalent. He was old, ready to retire and really didn’t want any part of a criminal matter.

The specialist pediatrician, however, was a piece of work. She was downright hostile. Her only statement was, “I can’t believe any mother would intentionally harm her own child!” I had to get a search warrant to get her medical records on the Nellis family to which she tried to get a Supreme Court quash. It didn’t work. But, by the time I wrested the files from her cold hands, I’d learned that both the pediatrician and Liza Nellis were friends and leading members in their Baptist church congregation.

The medical record review team did an admirable job. They amassed a spreadsheet and graphs that conclusively established a clear pattern where Liza Nellis—and only Liza Nellis—was present when Mariana’s incidents allegedly occurred. There were no independent witnesses to innocent occurrences, and nothing whatsoever to indicate anything but direct involvement by Liza Nellis. It was time to bring Liza Nellis in and confront her.

At this point, there was no need to arrest the Mother From Hell. Sure, we had a decent circumstantial case, but what we really needed was her confession. For that, we had a game plan. We knew it wouldn’t be easy if we wanted to get an inculpatory statement that was admissible in court.

I phoned Liza Nellis, asking her to come into the police office for an interview. We made an appointment, and she was punctual. She also brought along her husband, Kerry Nellis. The pair couldn’t have been nicer. I explained the situation and read Liza Nellis her rights. “No need for a lawyer,” she said. “I haven’t done anything wrong. All I want is what’s best for the child.”

“The child.” “The child?” That statement hit me between the horns. Now, at this time, I had two little kids of my own—Emily and Alan. In my life, I’d never referred to either Emily or Alan as “The child”. This showed me some kind of emotional detachment from a parental instinct, regardless if the kids were adopted. No, something was wrong here. Seriously wrong.

As with every controlled criminal interview (I try to avoid the interrogation-word), I video and audio recorded Lisa Nellis’ time with me. I methodically laid out the information, evidence if you’d like to call it, and asked for her responses. Often, she’d tear-up and defer to her husband who held her on a high-horse pedestal as to how anyone could think this beautiful person could do such a horrid thing.

That wasn’t the question. The question was how to get Liza Nellis into a denial box where she had no option but to uphold her honor. For help, I turned to the Behavioral Science Unit and our polygraph section. They’d reviewed every bit of information including the psychological profile we’d amassed on Liza Nellis.

The profile portrayed Lisa Nellis as a prima donna. She’d spent a lifetime grooming a persona of perfection establishing her surface perception as beyond approach. Her husband bought it. Her church bought it. But her in-laws didn’t buy it one bit. We uncovered a nasty culture within Lisa Nellis’s inner life where her blood relatives didn’t exist. She’d long been ostracized from her birth family, and the extended Nellis side saw right through her. They viewed Liza as a despicable bitch constantly striving to be the center of attention.

My interview with Liza Nellis ended in a stalemate—exactly where we wanted it. It ended with my invitation for her to take a polygraph examination. Kerry Nellis was quick to the mark. “What about her accusers taking a polygraph?” We were a step ahead. We’d already polygraphed the Childrens Hospital eyewitness and the one who saw something suspicious. That cut the Nellis’ off at the knees.

We were ready to go with the polygraph. I have no doubt Kerry Nellis was totally sucked in with his wife’s “innocence”. We explained that polygraph procedure required an attentive subject and, unlike the structured interview, Kerry Nellis would have to wait in the lobby while we polygraphed Liza. Now, she was trapped between a rock and a hard place.

Lisa Nellis peaked the points, as they say in the polygraph biz. On one the key questions— regarding if she’d intentionally harmed Mariana in order to instigate medical reports—Liza Nellis nailed it. She was so clearly deceptive that the polygraphist didn’t have to do a quantitative scoring. He moved in for the interrogation kill.

To make a long story short, Liza Nellis confessed in the “post-test interview”. She admitted to prolonged and systematic injury infliction, not just to Mariana, but to Michael as well. It was an emotional, sob-filled breakdown we call “venting the tank”. That’s where a guilty subject releases pent-up stress. It usually comes with a full confession providing corroborative verification that they’re truthful.

In homicide cases, corroboration is often leading cops to the body and/or the murder weapon. It’s also revealing corroborative evidence like other witnesses who know something. But, that wasn’t the case with the Mother From Hell. There was no body, no smoking gun and no independent witnesses. We knew that and had another angle planned for corroborating her confession.

After Liza Nellis confessed, we brought in her husband. Our plan was to have Liza repeat to Terry exactly what she said to us—how she’d committed countless counts of child abuse on their kids. We assumed she’d been broken and would be truthful. That was a giant mistake.

There are laws about privileged communication. Sacred is lawyer-client communication. There’s no way the state can listen into a lawyer and client conspiring about defense strategy. Nor, can the state eavesdrop on wife-husband conversations like what Liza was about to tell Kerry Nellis in that private post-confession room.

Kerry Nellis came out swinging. Not only did Liza tell him the cops forced her into a false confession, she accused the polygraphist of coming on to her. There was no way of rationally dealing with how fast she turned the tables. It was out of control, and we had one decision. That was to arrest Liza Nellis… or let her go.

As far as we were concerned, we had admissible evidence of Liza Nellis committing serious indictable offenses—repeatedly assaulting her two-year-old daughter to the point of endangering her life. We could have legally held her and thrown her in jail. But we’d bide our time, deciding to let her go, present our evidence to the Attorney General’s prosecutor and ask for an indictment. Then, we’d let the courts sort it out.

The courts never settled it. The Mother From Hell went on an offensive rampage invoking the power of the church, the muscle of special-interest activists and the reach of mainstream media who love a controversial story, despite the plight of innocent and abused children. I was turned into the demon.

Before I tell you how this sad situation finally played out, let’s look at Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSbP) from a clinical and symptomatic angle. Factitious Disorder Inflicted on Another (FDIA), or Pediatric Condition Falsification (PCF), is rare. Really rare. According to the Cleveland Clinic which is a leading authority on MSbP, FDIA, PCF or however you want to acronym it, happens to 2 in 100,000 American children. Most are younger than 4 because of their vulnerable inability to tell what’s happening to them.

Here are more statistics on Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. The DataCenter records there are 20 million kids in America under 4 years old. That means about 400 American children suffer abuse related to dangerous people like the Mother From Hell. And the Open Medicine Journal says that mothers are the big MSbP offenders, not fathers. Studies show 93% of MSbP offenders are female. Why? No one seems to know.

You’re probably wondering where the name “Munchausen” originated. The disorder dates back to 1700s Germany where Baron Karl Friedrich von Munchausen was diagnosed as a notorious liar and fabricator of fictitious exploits and exaggerated injuries. The Munchausen name stuck as a syndrome for people making up their own illnesses. It extended to Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, those who make up illnesses about others—including cases like the Mother From Hell who intentionally harm their kids for self-attention.

Deferring to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 5 (DSM-5), the official designation is now Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another (FDIA). It’s no longer Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, however, many still call it Munchausen’s. Here are the official DSM-5 criteria for diagnosing FDIA:

  1. Falsification of psychological or physical signs or symptoms, or induction of disease or injury in another, associated with identified deception.

  2. The individual presents another individual (victim) to others as injured, ill, or impaired.

  3. The deceptive behavior is apparent even in the absence of external incentives.

  4. The behavior is not better explained by another mental disorder.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Munchausen’s or FDIA is any case where “the patient’s caregiver fabricates the signs or symptoms of the disease or complaint in question. It accompanies seemingly inexplicable findings or treatment failures”. The AAP lists five leading examples of MSbP/FDIA:

  1. A mother taking her child to the doctor for frequent evaluations of sexual abuse, despite the absence of objective evidence or credible abuse history.

  2. A mother insisting her child be treated for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder although there is no evidence to make the diagnosis.

  3. A mother starving her child while claiming multiple food allergies.

  4. A mother reporting hematologic disorders after intentionally bruising her child.

  5. A mother purposely suffocating her child and deceptively claiming sleep apnea.

Returning to the Cleveland Clinic report on MSbP/FDIA, there are common characteristics that offenders display and warning signs evident for those trained to recognize them. In no particular order, they include:

  1. The offender is, or appears, medically knowledgeable and clearly articulates symptoms.

  2. The offender is reluctant to leave their child’s side during examination and treatment.

  3. The offender appears unusually calm in the face of apparently serious difficulties.

  4. The offender is insistent of medical intervention including seeking second opinions.

  5. The offender is, or has been, employed in the healthcare industry.

  6. The offender has other children with similarly reported difficulties.

  7. The offender has distant relationships with extended family members.

  8. The offender becomes highly defensive when their reports are challenged.

  9. The offender seeks external support with religious or social activist groups.

  10. The offender resorts to media attention as a defense mechanism when confronted.

*   *   *

Okay, back to what eventually happened with the Mother From Hell. We filed criminal charges against Liza Nellis. There’s no specific offense for committing “Munchausen by Proxy” so the most-fitting law was a blanket count of assault causing bodily harm pertaining to Mariana. After a preliminary hearing (like a Grand Jury procedure), Nellis was indicted to stand trial.

Meanwhile, another hearing took place. That was a custody matter regarding both Nellis children. By this time, it was a media circus instigated by Liza Nellis and a loyal band of special interest supporters. The Baptist Church congregation picked the courthouse and lobbied the police chief. He gave them the obstruction of justice option. The friendly local pediatrician rallied the medical community who, in turn, took on the legal system… and the political one, too.

Vancouver radio and TV talk shows gave the Nellis case high priority by dragging my name and my colleagues’ as low as could go. Then there was newspapers and op-eds. Thankfully, this was the days before online social media or I would have been really in-famous.

The “system” buckled under the force of special “mis-interest” pressure. The prosecutor’s knees bent and he folded. He’d had a second look at the evidence, he said, and now felt there was little likelihood of convicting Liza Nellis. He felt her confession wouldn’t stand the admissibility of evidence test at trial—even though the preliminary hearing court had no issues with it after watching the post-polygraph interview recording.

It was the prosecutor’s decision that there was no public interest in prosecuting Nellis, and he withdrew the charge. Later I learned the true direction came from the Attorney General’s office. Who knows what led them to jump ship. Liza Nellis was free from criminal court jurisdiction, but she had one more hurdle. That was regaining custody of her kids.

With criminal proceedings stopped, the family courts reassessed their position. Forgetting that he’d watched the Nellis confession, listened to the Childrens Hospital witnesses and now seeing the crowded courtroom of supportive faces, the family court judge ruled the Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy “theory” was unsubstantiated evidence based on the balance of probabilities. He returned Michael and Mariana to Liza Nellis, wishing her Godspeed and good fortune.

About six weeks went by after the end of criminal and family court matters. Then I got a call to drop by the Sheriff’s office. “Sorry to do this to you,” the Deputy said as he served me the summons. Liza Nellis sued me for defamation and harassment. Now I was the one facing court.

The civil court case dragged over two years. First, it was filing motions and then my statement of defense. I wasn’t singled-out, though. Nellis also sued the polygraphist, the police department and the witnesses at Childrens Hospital. She made a run for the prosecutor’s throat, but he was protected by a point in law.

We went through the examination for discovery process during the civil lawsuit. During it, we played the damming confession video and filed the graphs and the charts and the witness statements and the expert opinion evidence linking Liza Nellis’ documented behavior as a classic case of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. She was the poster girl of the Mother From Hell.

And finally, it stopped. I was told the police force settled out of court. How much Nellis got, I don’t know. That was a matter of non-disclosure, but I suspect it was hefty. My bills were covered as I’d been sued while in an act of duty. One-by-one, the other defendants settled their civil case with Liza Nellis and it was finally over.

*   *   *

Moving forward five years. One day, I was off duty and at a playground with my kids. They were about 12 and 10 by now, and integrating with another girl and boy about their ages, as children do. I was at a picnic table. It was a sunny fall day, and I was enjoying watching the four kids laugh, squeal and delight with each other.

Then… the mood changed. Something was wrong here. Seriously wrong. You know that feeling you get when someone’s watching you and wanting to kill? That neck-hair-stand, spine-shiver, gut-creep thing like a cross between fingernails-on-blackboard and an embedded-tapeworm shocked from deep sleep? I turned. And there she was—at the next table—firing eye-daggers straight at my soul.

It was the Mother From Hell.

WHAT MAKES CONSPIRACY THEORISTS TICK?

A1A conspiracy theory is the belief that a plot by powerful people or organizations is working to accomplish a sinister goal—the truth of its existence secretly held from the public. Conspiracy theorists see authorities—governments, corporations, and wealthy people—as fundamentally deceptive and corrupt. Their distrust of official narratives runs so deep that they connect dots of random events into what they believe make meaningful patterns, despite overwhelming conflicting evidence, or absence of supporting evidence, to their conclusions.

Aside from a lack of common sense, what makes these guys tick?

A3First, let’s look at what Time magazine identified as the prominent conspiracy theories believed by the American public. These were identified in a recent poll. I’m not kidding you. Some people actually swallow these crazy concoctions.

From lowest to highest percentage they are:

10. The Reptile Elite — Among us are flesh-eating, blood-drinking, shape-shifting, extraterrestrial reptilian humanoids bent on enslaving the human race. The British Royals and the Bush family are part of the group, as was Margaret Thatcher.

9. The CIA and AIDS — Thinking is that the Central Intelligence Agency was out to destroy homosexuals and blacks so they invented the deadly HIV virus and injected it in place of hepatitis vaccinations.

A148. Holocaust Revisionism — Most deniers accept that the internment camps existed, but claim the numbers of people murdered are greatly exaggerated. General Eisenhower saw this coming when he forced hundreds of civilian witnesses to tour the camps and bear the truth to the world.

7. Jesus and Mary Magdalene — These folks claim Jesus and Mary Magdalene were a married couple, but Jesus occasionally shared her with his disciple, Peter. They attribute this to the Gnostic Gospels which were discovered in 1945 and claim it’s being covered up by the Vatican. Mainstream scholars dismiss as the Gnostic Gospels as even being authentic.

6. The Moon Landings Were Faked — According to this crowd, none of the Apollo missions happened. They were filmed on a Hollywood lot, or possibly at area 51. Watch this clip of Buzz Aldrin punching conspiracy theorist Bart Sibrel in the face. Click Here

A95. Secret Societies Rule the World — If you’re a member of the global elite, then you’d already know this. And you might belong to one or more of many groups; the Illuminati, Freemasons, Skull & Bones, Opus Dei, Bilderberg Group, or maybe even have a seat on the Council of Foreign Relationship. Sorry, your Costco card won’t cut it.

4. Paul McCartney is Dead — Supposedly the Beatles covered-up the real Sir Paul’s death in 1966 and an imposter has been in his place ever since. Maybe I’m Amazed, because I saw a recent clip of Paul McCartney in front of tens of thousands at Hyde Park takin’ a swing at Pretty Woman with Bruce Springsteen. If he’s an imposter, he’s some good at it.

3. Area 51 and Aliens — There’s a real Air Force base at Groom Lake, 150 miles north of Las Vegas, where all sorts of black op aircraft are tested. Like most military installations, public access is restricted, but you can get a good look at it on Google Earth. The resolution is excellent but I couldn’t find any saucer-shaped craft or ET-looking creatures. Oh, right… they keep them inside… or maybe back at Roswell.

A42. 9/11 Cover-Up — Apparently 42% of Americans believe the attacks on the New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania were orchestrated by some arm of the U.S. Government. Sad.

1. The JFK Assassination — The mother of conspiracy theories.  Times’ poll reports that only 32% believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. So two-thirds of Americans truly think their 35th President’s murder is unsolved? How can that be?

Well, it comes down to mindset.

I’m not saying that conspiracies don’t happen—even at a mass scale. The Holocaust was a massive conspiracy to exterminate the Jews. The Nazis totally believed the Jews were a threat to their existence. It was an article of faith within the Third Reich.

A159/11 was a monstrous conspiracy—by Bin Laden and al-Qaeda. The Russian Revolution was a conspiracy. So was the American Revolution—fifty-six men signed the Declaration of Independence. Nixon conspired to hide Watergate. Abraham Lincoln was murdered through a conspiracy. So was Julius Caesar. And don’t forget Stalin, the Mexican Drug Cartels, and Scientology.

If some conspiracies are true, then how do you determine which ones are false? The more these characteristics apply, the more likely the theory is wrong:

  • “Proof” of the conspiracy emerges through dot-connecting without any hard, physical evidence.
  • Execution requires large and complex elements.
  • The agents require nearly super-human powers.
  • Everyone maintains secrecy.
  • There is a grandiose ambition for control.
  • The plot ratchets from small to large events.
  • Everything has a sinister overtone.
  • Facts and speculation are mingled without assigning degrees of probability.
  • The theorist is extremely suspicious of authority—government and private.
  • The theorist refuses to consider alternative explanations, seeking only confirmation of the theory.

I understand the mindset of real conspirators. It’s all about self-preservation. But what about the tin-foil crowd?

A12In American Conspiracy Theories, political scientists Joseph Uscinski and Joseph Parent conducted an “extensive empirical study” on the subject and found: Conspiracy Theorists are often caricatured as a small demographic composed primarily of middle-aged white male internet enthusiasts who live in their mother’s basements—but that’s wrong. Conspiracy theories permeate all parts of society and cut across age, gender, race, income, political affiliation, educational level, and occupational status.

What gives? How does a cross-section of otherwise normal people get so distorted in their thoughts and believe in really weird things?

A13Quassim Cassam is a professor of philosophy at the University of Warwick. He’s embarking on a study on why people believe in outlandish theories. Part of this work is to answer why people get pushed to extremes like joining ISIS.

Professor Cassam says: It seems to be because of the kind of thinker they are, or to put it bluntly, because there’s something wrong with how they think. It’s the peculiarities of their intellectual constitution—in a word, their intellectual character. It’s what social psychologists call a conspiracy mentality.

Cassam goes on: The gullible rarely believe they’re gullible and the closed-minded don’t believe they’re closed-minded. Closed-mindedness is the toughest intellectual vice to tackle because it’s in its very nature to be concealed from those who have it. There’s no reasoning with those kinds of people.

A5I found an article in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology where Dr. Jan-Willem van Prooijen of the University of Amsterdam summed it: Conspiracy theorists tend to have one thing in common—they feel a lack of control over their lives.

Part of my John F Kennedy Assassination book research was checking the online chat boards on the JFK forums. Lemme tell you—there are some whacko, nut-jobs out there.

I believe there are four reasons why people believe JFK’s murder was a conspiracy. These reasons probably apply to most conspiracy theories and theorists.

  1. A17They don’t have the correct information to understand the case facts.
  2. They haven’t got the personal knowledge, or experience, to properly interpret the evidence.
  3. They simply want to believe in a conspiracy.
  4. They don’t have the mental capacity for objectively processing thoughts.

There’s no reasoning with those kinds of people.