Category: Crime
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Conan Doyle for the Defense, by Margalit Fox, tells the gripping story of Oscar Slater, a German-born Jew who was arrested in Glasgow for the brutal murder of an elderly, wealthy woman, Marion Gilchrist. Sentenced to death, Slater won a reprieve at almost the last minute when his sentence was changed to life imprisonment at…
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Continuing the discussion in my last post, I’d like to look at one particular serial killer — David Berkowitz, aka the Son of Sam, who terrorized New York City in 1976 and 1977 — and see if the spirit-possession hypothesis fits the facts of the case. First, here are the relevant parts of Berkowitz’s biography,…
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Without doubt, we humans took an important step forward when we stopped attributing every unexplained phenomenon, whether in the world around us or in our own psyches, to the action of supernatural forces. But is it possible that we've carried this undeniably successful and productive approach too far? Perhaps in some cases, especially cases of…