Category Archives: Forensics

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 REALLY CAUSED THE SALEM WITCH HUNTS

The Salem witch hunts and mass executions of innocent victims falsely accused of sorcery is an American historical black mark. Through June to October of 1692, Puritan authorities in Salem, Massachusetts hung nineteen citizens after trying and convicting them for witchcraft. They crushed another man to death with heavy stones, and let five others perish—shackled in chains. Two imprisoned souls were mere children.

Today, all Salem witch hunt victims are officially exonerated. This terrible debacle became the poster case for trumped-up accusations and wrongful convictions. In fact, the term “witch hunt” is symbolic for going after those profiled for a vengeance need or paranoid forces “out to get someone”. Even the current United States president Twitters-on about witch hunts.

This horrific travesty of malicious injustice was an American turning point. Historians call the Salem witch trials the rock upon which theocracy shattered. They were the perfect storm of isolationism, religious extremism, fanaticism and divided socio-economic structure. The witch trials were also unprecedented as bad jurisprudence and a miscarriage of justice.

Today, few educated or rational people believe in evil witchcraft or black magic. (Modern peaceful Wiccan practitioners are a different matter.) That old destructive medieval and ignorant mindset sieved from America after the Salem witch trials. But, for over three centuries, few people understood why the disaster happened. Various theories suggested Freudian mass-hysterics, a widespread fungus causing mind-altering behavior and even meddling by alien forces aligned with the dark side.

Now the truth is out there. A meticulous, scientific study by two American academics published in the book Salem Possessed wraps up the witch hunt reason. It’s not some supernatural power or psychedelic drug. The answer lies in a complex mix of sociology, geography, demography, human psychology and forensic pathology. Something far more sinister than sorcery really caused the Salem witch hunts.

History of the Salem Witch Hunts

It trigged with teenagers. In January 1692, three bored girls played a game similar to today’s Ouija Board. They cracked eggs and separated the whites in a pan of cold water, then used imagination to decipher patterns divulging hidden secrets and foretelling future events. They got carried away. Soon they were writhing in fits and cramping into twisted contortions.

The girls were relatives of Salem Village vicar Samuel Parris, a Massachusetts Bay Puritan parishioner who referred the distorted girls to a local physician. The doctor found no medical cause for the girls’ discomfort. He suggested it was work of witchcraft and turned it back to the minister. The reverend sided with Satanic superstition and went about extracting accusations from the young girls.

They implicated three Salem women for bewitching and causing their erratic behavior—Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba. Good was known for tardy church attendance. Osborne was a loose-moraled beggar. And Tituba was a Carib slave house servant. The trio were hardly credible to Salem’s upper crust and certainly suitable scapegoats not equipped to defend themselves.

Good and Osborne fervently denied being witches. Despite intensive interrogation in magistrate’s court, they held to their denials. Tituba, on the other hand, confessed. She gave wild accounts of signing Satan’s book and offered crazy tales of human hogs, great black dogs, red cats and yellow birds. Tituba also named of other Salem witches.

From there, everyone got carried away. Authorities rounded-up scores of witch suspects, hauling them before interrogatories. More people—women and men—confessed under duress and named more names. In a few months, nearly two hundred “witches” were accused, hunted down and arrested in Salem and neighboring communities. Quickly, the arrests turned to trials and mass hangings began.

The 17th Century Salem Legal System

1692 was an important year in 17th Century Salem’s legal system. It coincided with a new charter for the Province of Massachusetts Bay following the 1680s King William War. The colonists were deeply divided in Salem and the surrounding area’s social structure. It was protective Puritism vs. progressive private enterprise. The King’s newly-appointed Governor, William Phip, arrived with the charter in January,1692—just as the witchcraft accusations arose.

The spiraling sequence of accusations, arrests and confession led to mass hysteria and a “thronged” legal system. To accommodate justice, Governor Phip convened a Special Court of Oyer (hearing) and Terminer (deciding). He appointed magistrates, judges and sheriffs based on local recommendations by powerful people in the religious sphere.

The Salem witch trials occurred long before the United States Constitution was a gleam in revolutionary eyes. Rules of evidence stemmed from English common law and principles based on religious doctrine. For witchcraft cases, evidence came from accusatory mouths of uneducated and manipulated common folk, not from corroborated independent and credible witnesses.

Once a citizen claimed their loss or discomfort was witchcraft caused, they laid a complaint against the accused before an appointed magistrate. If the complaint appeared credible by the magistrate’s standard, the accused was arrested and brought in for mandatory interrogation. This was well before the right to remain silent.

Interrogations were public events. Open questions by a panel and audience members given standing were standard procedure. Every effort pressed the accused to confess and reveal other witches. It was a Puritanical purging of Salem’s evils and a chance to rid society of undesirables. Once a grand jury heard interrogation evidence, they preferred an indictment and the ‘witch” was set on trial.

Witch trials depended on what’s called “spectral evidence”. This was testimony of the afflicted who claimed to see the apparition of the accused witch appear in a ghostly form while performing witchcraft upon them. Theologically, the court evidence relied on whether or not the accused gave the Devil permission to use their shape. The Salem witch courts contended the Devil could not perform evil acts using a person’s shape without that person’s expressed permission—therefore, if the afflicted complainant had seen the accused’s shape—it was in facto proof the accused was guilty of witchcraft and complicit with the Devil. According to Puritan law, the witch must die.

This convoluted logic resulted in immediate hangings and a compression death through layered stoning. It also caused deaths of those awaiting trial while shackled in dungeons. In three months, twenty-four innocent people were dead and many more awaited similar fates. That’s until someone accused Governor Phip’s wife of being a witch.

Suddenly, the executions stopped. Phip ordered an evidentiary review. It determined spectral evidence was inadmissible, noting it was not credible and highly prejudicial to the accused. Phip stayed the remaining execution warrants and commuted sentences, essentially freeing all those facing witchcraft allegations. Within three years, the Province of Massachusetts Bay officially exonerated all accused witches and ordered a consolidating day of fast and remembrance.

Cause of the Salem Witch Hunts

Many historians and writers pondered how normally rational people got so swept by the wind of witchcraft craze. Certainly, there was a mass psychological hysteria and paranoia. But the actual reason—the root cause—of why so many witch accusers and so many accused witches behaved so bizarrely was unknown. For years, suspected causes for bewitched symptoms like convulsing and hallucinating fell on the Claviceps purpurea fungus found in Puritan bread. It’s known for LSD-like side effects.

But a bread acid trip didn’t cut current standards, even though the mass hysteria was long-explained by archaic superstitions of wanton witchcraft and the Devil’s demons. Everybody ate Puritan bread in Salem, and only a few presented weird symptoms. No, a rational look at the Salem witch hunts needed further investigation by reasonable and independent thinkers.

That rationality came from two Harvard-educated history professors at the University of Massachusetts who wrote the intriguing book Salem Possessed. Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum’s work took an in-depth look at the social, economic and geographical factors affecting Salem’s citizens back when the witch hunts started. They also took a forensic approach to the psychological and pathological influences causing the complainant’s symptoms.

Boyer and Nissenbaum came to an astounding social conclusion. However, they weren’t the first to arrive there. In 1867, New England historian Charles W. Upham produced an accurate map of how Salem Village appeared in 1692. Then he plotted the houses where witch accusers and accused witches lived. Astonishingly, almost all accusers lived on the west side of Salem Village. The accused lived on the east side.

Salem Possessed’s authors concluded that if the Devil had come to Salem, he was being very choosy about which homes he visited. No, they concluded. The reason for the witch hunts had to lie in Salem’s history, and they were right.

Salem is one of the oldest European settlements in North America’s New England region. As the crow flies, it’s less than twenty miles northeast of downtown Boston. English immigrants of the Puritan faith first occupied Salem to establish a community based on their conservative views to protect old ways threatened by the age of Enlightenment and the then-liberal Anglican Church.

The Puritans were agricultural people. Naturally, they chose to settle in the best farmland which lay to the west of Massachusetts Bay. Over the course of eighty years—roughly four generations back then—the Puritans built a religious and agricultural society centered around what they called Salem Village. Today, the area is known as Danvers, Massachusetts which is a different jurisdiction from present-day Salem.

During the mid-1600s, a harbor community developed on Massachusetts Bay, east of the village. It became known as Salem Town. Commercially progressive settlers occupied Salem Town and focused on making money rather than praising the Lord and preserving old ways. As Salem Town grew, it pressed westward and crossed the border into the village. That didn’t sit well with the Puritan villagers.

Boyer and Nissenbaum uncovered a tangled history of feuds, jealousy, mistrust and hostility between the west Salem villagers and their eastern invaders. West Salem had two tightly-knit prominent families who married within. The easterners were a mix of newcomers who married outside family lines. For some reason, everyone who displayed physical symptoms of being witch victims came from the two prominent Puritan families.

From a socio-economic and religious point, it’s clear the impact of commercial capitalism and the shifting role of the church left the backward Puritans threatened by their modern newcomers. It led to unbearable tensions which broke once the first bewitched symptoms showed in January of 1692. That opened a floodgate of superstitious opportunity to kill the eastern Salem villagers.

Salem Possessed makes a powerful argument that human personality partially caused the Salem witch hunts. If that be the Devil in humanity, then so be it. However, the Devil isn’t a good forensic reason for why the teen girls experienced peculiar symptoms like mood swings, cramps and hysterical contortions. Something else was at work, and the pathology points at genetics.

Putting it bluntly, the Puritans were inbred. Their closed circle was more than religious and economic. They married within and secluded their gene pool. Huntington’s Chorea or Huntington’s Disease is common in people with dysfunctional genes. It’s a hereditary neurodegenerative illness with physical, cognitive and emotional symptoms exactly like the west Salem village girls experienced. The gene mutation creates a protein that kills cells in the brain’s cerebral cortex.

Many adults in the Puritan community already had some stage of Huntington’s Disease. That impaired their thought processes as well as their offspring’s. Because of longevity in the Salem region and that power still clung to the Puritan Church in the late 1600s, Puritans made up the judicial force that persecuted the alleged witches. Their personality and pathology dysfunction is what really caused the Salem witch hunts.

For three centuries, lore held that the witches of Salem were hung from scaffolding in the center of today’s Gallows Park. That’s not correct. Several years ago, the Gallows Project funded by the University of Massachusetts did a thorough research based on historical records and advanced forensic techniques like GPS analyzation and ground penetrating radar. They conclusively identified the execution spot as a tree at Proctor’s Ledge. It’s right beside a Walgreens and the community built a small memorial honoring the wrongfully-accused witches of Salem.

RFK ASSASSINATION — THE SECOND GUNMAN EVIDENCE

It’s been 50 years since United States Senator Robert Francis (Bobby) Kennedy’s murder in the kitchen of Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel. Bobby Kennedy just won the California Democratic nomination as their presidential candidate. Kennedy left the hotel ballroom after his acceptance speech and cut through the pantry where he suffered three bullet wounds, one of them fatal. Caught red-handed—holding a smoking gun—was Christian Palestinian immigrant Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, later convicted of RFK’s assassination.

Despite overwhelming evidence that Sirhan intentionally shot at Bobby Kennedy, there’re dark doubt shadows looming over the case. They indicate Sirhan didn’t act alone. Problems with witness statements, autopsy findings and ballistic testing suggest evidence that a second gunman conspired in RFK’s shooting. Mistakes and incompetence in the original police investigation also amplify suspicion of a second gunman accomplice.

A highly-credible medical team recently reviewed the original RFK medical and autopsy evidence. For the first time in history, independent professionals looked at the facts and circumstances surrounding Kennedy’s injuries and treatment. In June 2018, they published findings in a medical field’s leading gazette, the Journal of Neuroscience. This clear and concise report examines what happened from a medical perspective and whether there’s any pathological basis providing evidence that a second gunman helped shoot Bobby Kennedy to death.

RFK’s Deadly Road Towards the Presidency

In 1968, Bobby Kennedy seemed certain to win the Democratic Party’s nomination for United States President. Riding on his experience as his brother John F. Kennedy’s attorney general, sympathy over JFK’s assassination and the famous Kennedy name, RFK was well on his road to winning the American presidency. Lyndon Johnson declined a second term, and other Democratic candidates ran a distant second to RFK’s popularity.

Despite being admired, Bobby Kennedy had his enemies. As AG, RFK took on the mob and the communists as well as volatile groups like the Teamsters Union and the Ku Klux Klan. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover hated the Kennedys, and the high profile name made Bobby a target for right-wing activists and lefty nut cases alike. Without a doubt, there were many sights gunning for Robert F. Kennedy.

Unlike today’s tight reins, there was little security for presidential primary candidates back in 1968. The Secret Service had no detail for political candidates, and they did little or no threat assessment or background checks on anyone thought dangerous to candidates. RFK’s security team consisted of a retired NFL linebacker, a former Olympic Medalist and a hired part-time security guard carrying a .38 Special. That’s all the protection Bobby Kennedy had when he arrived at the Ambassador Hotel in downtown LA.

Securing the California primary significantly strengthened RFK’s run for the White House. Democratic runner-up, Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, fell further behind as did former Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon seemed certain to be Kennedy’s challenge for the Oval Office. Had Kennedy lived, Nixon might have lost, and Watergate would never have happened.

That’s not how history went down. On June 4, 1968 Bobby Kennedy won the California Democratic nomination and gave a rousing acceptance speech to a packed house of enthusiastic supporters. Just after midnight, at 12:15 am on June 5, Kennedy stepped from the podium and exited to the kitchen where a smaller crowd of hotel staff and assistants wished him well. RFK moved through the packed pantry, shaking hands and acknowledging folks.

Sirhan laid in wait at the galley’s west end. As Kennedy approached, Sirhan whipped out a .22 caliber, 8-shot Iver Johnson Cadet revolver and emptied it towards RFK. Bullets struck Kennedy three times and collaterally wounded five bystanders. Bobby Kennedy fell to the floor, semi-conscious but mortally wounded with a gunshot wound to the brain. Kitchen staff jumped Sirhan. They wrested the now-empty gun from his hand.

RFK lay motionless for 17 minutes before first responders arrived. A dispatch communication mistakenly sent Kennedy to the nearby Central Receiving Hospital instead of the larger Good Samaritan Hospital which was far better equipped to handle cranial gunshot wounds. Assessing Kennedy’s grave condition, Central’s staff transferred him directly to Samaritan. The delay took nearly an hour post-shooting, however, the 2018 medical review determined it made no difference to RFK’s fate. Despite heroic surgery attempts, his brain wound was untreatable.

Robert Francis Kennedy died at 1:44 am on June 6, 1968. The nation mourned another Kennedy assassination. RFK’s road to the presidency ended in violence, and his dream of furthering civil rights and middle-class prosperity died with him. Sirhan stood trial as the lone gunman. He was convicted, sentenced to death, but later commuted to life in prison. Today, Bobby Kennedy rests under the grounds of Arlington and Sirhan sits behind bars in San Diego.

The RFK Conspiracy Theories Start

Like most high-profile deaths, there are those refusing to buy official conclusions despite how solid evidence seems. John Kennedy’s assassination is the mother of all conspiracy theories, but little brother Bobby’s fate is no exclusion. In fact, there are three deeply disturbing discrepancies in the RFK murder worth investigating.

The big problems with the RFK assassination lie in the true number of shots fired as well as the position and distance of Sirhan relative to Kennedy in the kitchen. Officially, Sirhan fired all 8 shots in his revolver from the front and approximately 2 to 3 feet ahead of RFK. Unofficially, more than 8 shots went off with some bullets allegedly fired from behind Robert Kennedy. That suggests a second gunman.

Further, the eye-witness evidence appears clear that Sirhan maintained some distance, firing from the front on a level and downward angle. The medical and autopsy evidence seems clear that RFK’s fatal brain wound came from a near point-blank gunshot occurring behind his right ear and from an upward angle. Again, that suggests a second gunman.

On the surface, this conflicting evidence is more than troubling. There was also trouble during Sirhan’s trail with inaccurate testimony and confusion by police forensic experts over identifying the RFK murder weapon. There were so many errant issues raised that the United States government appointed a 1975 commission to reinvestigate the RFK assassination. It was supported by the FBI who took no role in the original murder case as the Los Angeles Police Department maintained primary jurisdiction.

The RFK reinvestigation struggled with inconsistent witness statements, confusing forensic evidence and now-missing pieces to the puzzle. Despite perceived problems with proof and procedure, the commission ruled Sirhan Bishara Sirhan acted alone. They found no credible evidence of a second gunman. That was despite being unable to explain a few troubling issues.

Many people don’t accept Sirhan’s original trial verdict or the commission conclusions. This takes in members of the Kennedy family like Robert F. Kennedy, Junior. As well, some of the victims wounded in the Ambassador Hotel shooting and various eyewitnesses present at the time are convinced of a second gunman. Like other conspiracy theorists, they point to the perceptual problems associated with the number of shots and the location of RFK’s fatal wound.

No sensible spectator or serious student of the RFK assassination suggests Sirhan didn’t fire 8 shots. That evidence is overwhelming. But, there’s a lot of information published pointing to more than eight bullet strikes in the Ambassador kitchen. How credible that information is—is the question.

The other major issue—according to conspiracy promoters—is the head wound. By all official accounts, Sirhan never got within a few feet of RFK and remained facing him from the front. The medical and autopsy evidence clearly shows stippling from gunpowder residue burns on Kennedy’s skin and hair at the bullet entrance wound. That evidence seems consistent with the fatal firearm being discharged within inches of RFK’s head, not several feet.

The 2018 independent review published in the Journal of Neurosurgery examined RFK’s hospital treatment and autopsy evidence. They didn’t deal with the “more-than-8-shots” issue. The expert panel left that for the conspiracy theorists and those wanting to research RFK crime scene examination evidence.

The 2018 Journal of Neurosurgery (JNS) Review

Three prominent neurosurgeons and trauma practitioners privately reviewed RFK’s medical records and autopsy report. This was independent of any government agency or special interest group. First, they outlined the history of Robert Kennedy’s campaign and the circumstances bringing him in contact with Sirhan.

Next, the review panel outlined RFK’s emergency treatment and follow-up surgery as well as post-op care. Then, the panel focused on the so-called “perfect autopsy” performed by the famous Los Angeles coroner and forensic pathologist, Dr. Thomas Noguchi. Finally, the experts reassessed Kennedy’s medical care to see if anything more could have been done to save RFK’s life.

Robert F. Kennedy suffered 3 separate .22 caliber gunshot wounds. Two were superficial and non-life-threatening. The third was ultimately fatal. One entered the right side of his back. This bullet was recovered intact inside RFK’s body. The second non-lethal bullet entered his right armpit and exited his shoulder. It was not recovered. The fatal bullet entered RFK’s skull behind his right ear. It fragmented, sending lead shrapnel and bone chips deep into RFK’s brain, remaining in the gray matter.

The JNS report outlines the brain injury and medical treatment in impressive detail. The doctor panel concludes so much cranial damage occurred that it was a miracle RFK lived as long as he did. They credit the 1968 medical intervention as first-rate. They report even with today’s medical advancements, if RFK was shot this way in 2018, no modern trauma team would be able to save him.

The JNS panel confirmed Dr. Noguchi’s autopsy findings of close-contact gunshot residue (GSR) stippling identified at RFK’s headshot entrance wound. They correctly observed in the autopsy report Noguchi made no reference to the distance the firearm’s muzzle was from RFK’s skin at discharge. Rather, they reported “a discrepancy between eyewitness reports that Sirhan came no closer than 12 to 18 inches from Kennedy when the shooting occurred and Noguchi’s later writings, stating the gun was no more than 3 inches of the right ear when fired”.

The JNS team also referenced a public Noguchi quote where he made clear his autopsy report didn’t imply Sirhan was the lone shooter. That early quote forever fueled conspiracy fires and formed the foundation for those purporting the second gunman claim. On the record, Noguchi always maintained whoever fired the fatal gunshot into Bobby Kennedy was slightly behind him and in very close quarters.

The More-Than-8-Shots Issue

The JNS doctors steered clear of this positioning can of worms. Rightfully so. This wasn’t their field of expertise. That evidence belongs in the police and forensic investigation wheelhouse. Arm-chair detectives with a half-century of hindsight picked the position puzzle apart from every angle. So they’ve done with the number of shots.

Essentially, the Los Angeles police investigators accounted for eight crime scene bullets. They also tested Sirhan’s .22 caliber, 8-shot revolver and ballistically linked the recovered bullets to Sirhan’s gun—except for the fatal bullet from RFK’s brain. It was too fragmented to identify microscopic striations unique to Sirhan’s firearm.

Most of the “evidence” for the more-than-8-shot theory came from news media reports focused on a photo apparently displaying two bullet holes in a door frame in the Ambassador kitchen. Conspiracy theorists used the logic that if eight bullets were already accounted for, then two extra holes formed positive proof of a second gunman. After all, Sirhan’s revolver contained 8 empty shell casings. He did not have time to reload.

Conspiracy theorists also rely on varying eye and ear witnesses to support their more-than-8-shot suspicions. Many in the kitchen reported hearing 10, 12 and as many as 15 shots blasting off. The RFK case even took a scientific sound step where a media recording allegedly taken during the assassination captured the shots on audio. Various forensic experts extensively analyzed the audio but can’t conclusively agree there were more than 8 shots fired.

There’s a rabbit hole of hints, innuendo and suggestions of extra shots out there in the RFK assassination world. But, there’s one true fact not resolved by the official investigation. That’s that the fatal fragments from RFK’s brain have not been forensically linked to Sirhan’s revolver. It leaves the suspicion door open that it’s physically possible for a second gunman being involved.

Nowhere in the documented RFK assassination evidence is there any reference to forensic authorities trying other tests on the brain bullet fragments than examining for microscopic striations. Bullet lead composition analysis (BLCA) and neutron activation analysis (NAA) techniques were available in 1968. In fact, the John F. Kennedy assassination investigators employed both scientific processes. BCLA and NAA became a ballistic cornerstone establishing Lee Harvey Oswald as JFK’s lone assassin.

Every experienced forensic investigator realizes that BLCA and NAA analysis are indicative or exclusive tests rather than conclusive evidence like tool markings left by firearm rifling engravings. That means running BLCA and NAA tests on RFK’s brain fragments and comparing them to groups analyzed from the known Sirhan bullets would either eliminate or associate them as originating from the same ammunition source.

Unfortunately, there’s no record of anyone conducting these two important forensic examinations. Assuming the RFK bullet exhibits are still available, there’s no reason they couldn’t be done today. That could establish or further rule out the second gunman theory. But, there’s no apparent appetite for any official review, regardless of requests from Kennedy family members to reopen the case.

Sirhan Bishara Sirhan’s Background and Motive

Every homicide investigation team looks at their suspect’s motive and associates. It’s always necessary to establish or rule out accessories to the crime. The RFK murder is no different for investigating who Sirhan was, why he did it and if he had help.

Sirhan originated in the Middle East’s Palestinian region. He was a Christian, not a Muslim as many believe. Sirhan immigrated to America in 1956 when he was 12. His family settled in Pasadena, California where he matured. Little in Sirhan’s history shows him as a potential political assassin.

Investigation after RFK’s murder found Sirhan’s diary which was full of apparently psychotic references repeating “Bobby Kennedy Must Die”. It seems Sirhan, in some twisted way, fixated on killing RFK and sought an opportunity. That presented at the 1968 Democratic convention when Sirhan simply walked into the Ambassador kitchen through an unlocked door, hung around and then opened fire.

Nothing in Sirhan’s background found him politically linked or motivated by terrorist agenda. He seemed an immigrant Arabic lone wolf version of the All-American psychopath. Like Oswald, Sirhan gained fame by shooting someone famous.

Sirhan was a rubber ball of confessions, recantations and failed recollections. Initially, Sirhan told police investigators he shot RFK because of Kennedy’s policy of arming Israelis with Phantom fighter jets to bomb Palestinian people. At trial, Sirhan denied this motive but admitted being the shooter. Later, he totally recanted his testimony. Over the decades, Sirhan molded himself into a self-serving position of failed memory due to some form of external hypnosis influence during RFK’s shooting.

One thing’s consistent about Sirhan’s statements. Although his motive remains questionable, he never outwardly accused anyone of being his accomplice. Sirhan never said there was a second gunman—at least to his knowledge. He leaves it to conspiracy theorists and authorities to explain inconsistencies like the number of shots fired, the gunshot residue, the distance from the muzzle to RFK’s skin and the relative positions while Bobby Kennedy was shot.

Reconciling the RFK Assassination Discrepancies

And, every murder investigation has evidentiary discrepancies being tough to reconcile. There’s no reason RFK’s assassination should be the exception. Experienced homicide investigators understand a value found in Occam ’s Razor. That’s the age-old problem-solving principle—when presented with competing hypothetical answers to a problem—one selects the answer making the fewest assumptions. Usually, the simplest answer to reconciling a discrepancy is the best and proper answer.

The JNS review panel dealt with Sirhan’s position relative to Bobby Kennedy’s gunshot entrance wounds with a simple observation. While eyewitnesses varied about distances between the shooter and victim, they agreed on body positions. Yes, Sirhan was to the west and ahead of RFK, but Kennedy was turned to his left, exposing his right side to Sirhan. The right side and behind the ear hits were a matter of predetermined physical geometry. So was the apparent upward angle of the fatal brain shot. Kennedy was aside of Sirhan and bent over talking to a busboy.

The JNS reviewers were cautious about distance reports. They note Noguchi made no distance reference in his postmortem exam report. He only verified gunshot residue presence on RFK’s skin and hair. It’s later media recorded comments from Noguchi that committed his estimating an RFK muzzle distance of 3 or less inches.

Again, Occam’s Razor applies to assess Noguchi’s statements. Although Dr. Noguchi was an experienced pathologist, he wasn’t necessarily an expert in GSR distances and patterns. Noguchi’s credibility has to be questioned in this case. He had a reputation as being an egotist thriving on his fame as the “coroner to the stars”.

Thomas Noguchi performed autopsies on celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood, John Belushi and Sharon Tate. Some suggest Noguchi loved the limelight and extended his realm of expertise with unqualified opinions. Interpreting gunshot residue patterns may be beyond Noguchi’s talent. He might simply be wrong about estimating GSR discharge distance in RFK’s case.

Plenty of forensic science literature in murder investigations show GSR patterns present from muzzle distances of 1 or more feet. There’s no reason GSR from a short-barreled .22 Iver Johnson revolver couldn’t have produced stippled powder burns on RFK’s skin and hair from several feet away. Note the only link with the RFK-GSR second gunman theory comes from Noguchi’s belated media opinion. There’s no other source qualifying maximum muzzle measurement.

With gunshot angles and distance discrepancies reasonably rectified, the only remaining trouble area is the number of shots fired. Again, all RFK crime scene investigation evidence accounts for 8 fired bullets. There’s no credible case for more than 8 shots in RFK’s murder. There’s only speculation based on unsupported information.

Applying Occam ’s Razor to conspiracy theories in Robert F. Kennedy case concludes Sirhan Sirhan fired all shots. He acted alone without an accomplice. There’s no credible evidence otherwise, and that’s because non-events leave no evidence. It never happened any other way.

There was no second gunman in the RFK assassination.