WEBVTT - S05 Episode 18: Learning to See (Pt. 1 of 2) 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.680 Please be advised the following episode contains graphic scenes of 0:00:03.720 --> 0:00:18.720 sexual assault and murder. Parental discretion is advised. On the 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:23.280 morning of Saturday, January fourth, nineteen sixty four, nineteen year 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:27.480 old Mary Sullivan woke up early on the sofa and smiled. 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:32.080 Sullivan had arrived in Boston from Cape cod after accepting 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:35.600 a job at Filene's department store down on Washington Street. 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:39.680 Being confident and personable, it didn't take her long to 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:43.600 start making friends, and after a few months, was invited 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:46.560 by two of her colleagues, Pat and Pam to move 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:51.000 in with them. Mary didn't mind that with only two 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:54.080 single beds and one bedroom, the best they could offer 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:56.880 her was a couch in the living room. She was 0:00:56.920 --> 0:00:59.360 just grateful to be moving in with two people she 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:02.120 liked and into an area that she'd come to A 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:07.200 door forty four A. Charles Street was situated on the 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:10.560 top floor of a three story building, just a stone's 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:13.919 throw from her favorite pub, a small but lively place 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:18.280 called The Sevens. The street itself cut a line through 0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:22.760 the vibrant Beacon Hill neighborhood, a picturesque Bohemian mix of 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:27.640 old moneyed wealth and new immigrant communities complete with cobbled 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:32.880 stones and ornate gas lamps. Mary's smile that morning was 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:36.880 one of contentment and new beginnings, not to mention excitement 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:40.520 of what the new year might bring. While her flatmates 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:43.120 would be spending a grueling day at the store for 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:46.840 the first weekend of the January sales, Mary who was 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:49.240 due to start a new job at a bank on Monday, 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:54.680 had the week end all to herself. At roughly the 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:58.320 same time, about seventy miles to the south, at Mary's 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:01.720 family home in Cape Cod, a letter arrived through the 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:06.320 door from Mary, addressed to her seventeen year old sister, Diane. 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:10.160 Of her four siblings, it was Diane who Mary was 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:13.560 closest to, and the letter was the first Diane had 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:17.840 heard from Mary since she left for Boston. Diane opened 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:21.360 it with excitement and was soon buried in her sister's words. 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:24.960 It was a thrill to hear how much Mary was 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:28.440 loving life in her newly adopted home, and even more 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:31.920 so to read Mary's invitation for Diane to come and 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:36.160 visit her as soon as possible. It was some time 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:39.720 around six p m. Later that evening back in Boston 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:43.880 when Pat and Pam returned home from work to find 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:48.960 the door slightly ajar. Assuming Mary had carelessly left it open, 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:52.720 The pair pushed on into the apartment, making sure to 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:57.440 lock the door behind them. Inside, the hall light was 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:01.280 on while the rest of the apartment were shrouded in darkness. 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:05.760 Pam was just about to call out for Mary when 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:09.240 she caught the shape of someone in their bedroom, lying 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:12.799 propped up on one of the beds. It was Mary, 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:18.560 sat with her eyes open, staring vacantly into space. Come on, 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:22.320 we're putting dinner on, said Pam, a little bemused that 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:27.600 Mary hadn't said hello when they came in. Mary said 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:32.960 Pam again, stepping into the room, but Mary didn't move. 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:46.800 Pam flicked on the light, then screamed. Mary Sullivan had 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:50.320 been strangled to death with a stocking tied tightly around 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:54.160 her neck. Two other pairs of stockings were also found 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:58.320 tied tightly around it. Ejaculate was said to have been 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:01.000 found in her mouth and on her body, while a 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:06.200 broom was left inserted three inches into her vagina at 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:09.080 the end of the bed by her right foot. A 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:13.040 card had been placed that read simply Happy New Year. 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:18.919 To the police called in to investigate, it was clear 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:24.240 there was only one culprit. As it happened, Mary was 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:27.559 the eleventh woman in eighteen months to be found dead 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:32.080 in similar circumstances in and around the wider Boston area, 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:37.039 apparent victims of a single vicious serial sex offender and murderer. 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:41.799 Dubbed the Mad Strangler by the press. In the course 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:45.080 of those eighteen months, the Boston police had made little 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:49.680 headway in their efforts to apprehend him. Throughout the city, 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:53.400 dog pounds struggled to keep up with demand for guard dogs, 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:57.520 while home security devices were flying off the shelves. So 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:00.599 lacking was the local faith in law enforcement to put 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:04.719 an end to the horror. Previous possible victims of the 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:08.599 so called Mad Strangler ranged in age from twenty to 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:13.320 eighty five. The fact that Mary Sullivan, the youngest victim, 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:17.640 was only a teenager, provoked particular fury from the public. 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:24.040 As a result, recently elected Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:30.240 stepped in personally to take over the floundering investigation. Within days, 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:34.120 he set up a dedicated Strangler task force to concentrate 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:39.000 solely on the case, appointing Assistant Attorney General John Bottomley, 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:42.640 to oversee the day to day running of it. After 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:46.320 looking closer at the case history, Brooke was alarmed by 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:49.800 just how little progress had in fact been made, and 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:53.200 resolved to leave no stone unturned in his efforts to 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:58.080 find the perpetrator. Even still, few could have guessed that 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:01.039 the force would become so desperate they would turn to 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:05.760 a supposed psychic to help crack the case. Yet incredibly, 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:11.560 that's exactly what they did. It isn't known precisely who 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:14.919 suggested it, but not long after the task force was 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:19.279 set up, the name Peter Herkos began cropping up in 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:26.480 their regular meetings. Herkos, whose nineteen sixty biographical documentary One 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:30.880 Step Beyond had catapulted him into the public eye along 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:34.360 with a series of public performances over the last few years, 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:38.400 was already somewhat of a celebrity. By the time Brooks's 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:41.960 team got in touch. There were even rumors that a 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:45.880 Hollywood biopic was in the pipeline, with Herkos set to 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:51.799 be played by Glenn Ford. Attorney General Edward Brooke received 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:56.680 widespread condemnation for allowing a self described psychic anywhere near 0:06:56.720 --> 0:07:01.120 the case. 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Again, save 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:35.840 twenty percent with promo code unexplained at onmolecule dot com. 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:44.360 That's o n molecule dot com. On the morning of 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:48.720 May twenty first, nineteen eleven, another scream echoed through the 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:51.920 halls of the red bricked terrace house on vondel Strut 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:55.640 in the center of door Direct, an industrial port town 0:08:55.880 --> 0:09:00.120 just south of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Inside the bed, 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:04.800 Propped up on the bed, Apollonia herk screwed her eyes 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:08.640 up at the pain as another wave of contractions rose 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:13.880 up from inside her. Gripping her husband Jacobus's hand, she 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:18.560 let out another guttural cry, straining with everything she had 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:24.200 until finally the baby's head began to emerge. With one 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:28.319 final push, the head was free, followed soon after by 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:30.840 the rest of the baby as it slipped into the 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:36.000 grateful arms of the midwife. But as Apollonia lay back, exhausted, 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:40.000 she saw the look of concern on Jacobus's face, and 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:42.920 then looked down in horror at the wriggling body in 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:48.679 the midwife's hands, at the strange membranous material completely covering 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:53.600 its head. The midwife urged Apollonia to stay calm as 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:56.920 she clawed desperately at the membrane, then shouted for the 0:09:57.000 --> 0:10:02.000 doctor to come and help. Finally, after what seemed like hours, 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:05.800 the doctor succeeded in uncovering the baby's mouth, and its 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:11.120 cries soon flooded the room. Peter Cornelis van der Herk 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:14.040 was borne with his head covered by part of the 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:18.480 amniotic sac, the vessel in which the fetus develops in 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:24.199 the womb, surrounded by amniotic fluid. Most commonly, the sac 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:28.560 breaks open prior to birth. However, for roughly one out 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:32.320 of eighty thousand births, the baby will be borne either 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:36.000 still inside the sack or at least partially covered by it. 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:40.600 Due to the rarity of the phenomena. Sometimes known as 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:43.680 being born with the veil or with the helm, as 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:47.080 it is known in the Netherlands, cultures the world over 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:49.720 have often tended to see it as a sign of 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:54.720 good luck. Some believe babies born this way are destined 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:59.679 for greatness, others that they will never drown, and some 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:04.679 say those born with the veil will be gifted with 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:14.880 the power of second sight. For the first six months 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:17.680 of his life, due to the complications of his birth, 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:21.680 Peter was unable to open his eyes and left effectively 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:25.800 blind as a result, though this would eventually be resolved 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:30.920 and Peter's sight restored. Shaking the circumstances of his birth, however, 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:36.880 would be a different matter altogether. To his siblings, he 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:40.600 was always somewhat of a strange child, prone to sudden 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:44.439 bursts of intense emotion, who would run away for days 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:49.160 on end whenever he got too upset. Sometimes he would 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:52.760 disappear into the nearby woods, hiding out among the trees 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:56.720 until he was ready to return. Other times, he would 0:11:56.720 --> 0:11:59.080 take a canoe and head off down one of the 0:11:59.160 --> 0:12:03.359 many rivers waterways that snaked their way around his hometown. 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:08.880 In nineteen twenty five, at the age of fourteen, Peter 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:11.560 threw a pot of ink at his teacher and was 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:16.079 promptly expelled from school. He ran away again soon after, 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:20.280 except this time he kept on running all the way 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:22.599 to the docks, where he took the first job he 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:26.319 could find as a cook's assistant on board a merchant ship. 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:31.200 After twelve years at sea, Peter returned home in nineteen 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:34.720 thirty nine and settled down after meeting a woman named 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:37.800 Bia van der Burgh, with whom he had two children. 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:41.560 The pair moved close to Peter's old home in Door 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:45.960 Direct with plans for a life together. The following year, 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:51.760 the German army invaded the country. By this time, Peter 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:55.840 was working for his father painting houses. With the German 0:12:55.880 --> 0:13:00.400 government now effectively controlling the Netherlands, much of local production 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:03.960 and industry was refocused to support the German war effort. 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:07.800 For Peter and his father, that meant being forced to 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:13.400 paint the newly occupied government buildings. On July tenth, nineteen 0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:17.080 forty one, a by then thirty year old Herk was 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:20.440 stood high up a ladder painting the facade of a 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:23.600 four story building in the Hague, the seat of the 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:29.880 newly installed Reich Commissariat for the occupied Dutch territories. Peter 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:33.439 was stretching over to apply some more paint when the 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:38.760 ladder suddenly gave way beneath him. After a sudden sensation 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:45.120 of free fall, everything went black. Moments later, he was 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:50.280 basking in bright, warm sunshine, skipping through rich, verdant fields 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:55.600 under bright blue skies, when suddenly all color drained away. 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:01.200 Peter opened his eyes to find himself rounded by the cold, 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:05.720 sterile walls of a hospital room, unable to move as 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:09.240 a doctor soon explained, despite cracking his head on the 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:13.640 pavement from four stories up, he'd somehow survived the fall 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:17.720 and the subsequent operation to relieve pressure on his brain. 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:24.080 He'd been unconscious for five days. Peter took a moment 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:28.320 to adjust to his surroundings, with the light seeming especially bright. 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:32.360 As he averted his eyes from the window, more light 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:36.040 seemed to be seeping in from somewhere, followed by a 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:40.760 strange swirl of sound. It was muffled at first, then 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:45.960 soon grew into a chaotic cacophony. Peter clasped his head 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:48.720 in his hands and yelled for the doctor to make 0:14:48.760 --> 0:15:00.720 it stop. And that was when it all began. One morning, 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:04.760 while he was convalescing, Peter's wife, Beer, came to visit 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:10.160 him in hospital. Peter later claimed his mind became flooded 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:14.440 with horrific images of their young son Benny, screaming at home, 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:20.080 surrounded by roaring flames, he scolded Beer for leaving Benny 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:25.800 at home. Shocked by Peter's behavior, Beer eventually calmed him down, 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:29.720 insisting that their son was being well looked after by relatives. 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:34.560 Later that afternoon, she returned home to find all as well. 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:39.680 Five days later, while herk was still in hospital, a 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:44.080 fire broke out at his and Beer's home. After becoming 0:15:44.120 --> 0:15:47.520 trapped by the smoke and flames, Benny had to be 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:53.800 rescued by emergency services. A few days earlier, something equally 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:57.880 strange had apparently occurred when a man that Peter didn't 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:02.360 recognize came into his room to wish him a quick recovery. 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:05.440 The man had also been convalescing at the hospital and 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:08.640 had seen Peter come on to the ward. When the 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:12.280 two men shook hands, Peter claimed later that he was 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:16.040 suddenly overwhelmed with grief and the utter conviction that the 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:20.920 stranger would soon lose his life. Two days later, Peter 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:24.120 saw a picture of the same man, identified as a 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:27.920 British agent in a newspaper. He had been captured and 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:33.440 killed by German soldiers, and still the cacophoner's sounds and 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:36.880 bright lights continued to plague him as though he were 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:41.600 suffering a perpetual migraine. It had also become apparrot that 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:46.320 Peter was suffering from severe amnesia, another common consequence of 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:51.480 a serious head injury. Over time, both the chaos in 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:57.560 his mind and the amnesia began to improve. After returning home, however, 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:01.560 Peter's situation only got worse when he was picked up 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:05.600 by German occupying forces and sent to Camp Foote, a 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:10.480 concentration camp in southern Netherlands. Not much is known about 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:13.439 his time at the camp, only that Peter succeeded in 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:16.800 escaping it and managed to return home when he later 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:21.119 joined the Dutch underground resistance movement, helping in a series 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:26.280 of disruptive campaigns blowing up bridges and railroads. It was 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:29.440 around this time too, that Peter changed his name from 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:34.480 Herk to Herkos. At the end of the war, Peter 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:38.359 received a medal from Queen Juliana for his participation in 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:42.920 the resistance and found work in a coffee house back 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:45.760 home and or Direct. Though he may have been hoping 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:48.760 to live the quiet life door Direct was not an 0:17:48.760 --> 0:17:52.399 easy city in which to disappear, and rumors about his 0:17:52.440 --> 0:18:03.600 apparent unusual powers were beginning to run rife. It was 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:06.600 some time toward the end of nineteen forty five, with 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:09.840 the country slowly beginning to emerge from the fog of war, 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:13.000 that Peter and his family were woken by the door 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:17.160 bell at three am in the morning. Staggering to the door, 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:21.080 Peter opened it to find a woman standing alone on 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:25.040 the street, clearly in some distress as she went on 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:28.399 to explain her husband had gone out a few nights 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:32.960 before but had failed to return home. Having heard about 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:36.080 Peter's apparent gift, she wanted to know if he would 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:40.000 help her find him. Peter looked to the clock in 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:44.400 the hallway, then back to the woman. Realizing just how 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:47.320 desperate she was, he told her to go home and 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:50.320 find an item of her husband's clothing to bring back 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:54.359 to him. Half an hour later, she returned with her 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:59.280 husband's jacket. Peter invited her inside to sit with him 0:18:59.440 --> 0:19:01.800 as he took hold of it and ran it through 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:07.040 his hands, then sat back deep in thought. I see 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:11.359 a football, he said, Yes, said the woman, her eyes 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:14.880 lighting up in response as she went on to explain 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:18.360 her husband was a talented footballer, but had a few 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:22.080 days ago discovered he was suffering from a degenerative disease 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:26.920 that would eventually leave him paralyzed. He'd gone out drinking 0:19:27.200 --> 0:19:31.760 to drown his sorrows when he found out. Suddenly, Peter's 0:19:31.760 --> 0:19:35.719 lips turned into a frown. What is it, the woman 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:42.080 asked anxiously, Your husband is dead, he said flatly, I'm sorry, 0:19:43.280 --> 0:19:47.679 But how she asked As he explained she didn't have 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:50.000 to take his word for it, but if his vision 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:53.119 was to be believed, she would find her husband's body 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:56.520 submerged in an anti tank trench in the outskirts of 0:19:56.560 --> 0:20:01.639 the city. Later that morning, Peter reportedly escorted the woman 0:20:01.720 --> 0:20:05.040 to the nearest police station to deliver his theory about 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:08.720 what had taken place. Peter is said to have then 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:12.160 led police to the deep water filled ditch he'd seen 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:16.040 in his mind, where after a short time looking, they 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:20.560 found the missing man's cap caught in a nearby bush. 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:24.560 After several days of dredging the ditch, the man's body 0:20:25.000 --> 0:20:34.520 was found at the bottom of it. As his reputation 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:38.080 as a possible psychic started to grow around the world, 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:41.600 Peter Herkos, who became known as the Man with the 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:45.320 radar eyes and the X ray Brain, began offering his 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:48.919 services to a number of police departments throughout Europe, to 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:53.919 various degrees of success. In nineteen fifty six, he was 0:20:53.960 --> 0:21:01.000 contacted by American parapsychologist doctor Andrea Puharich. The early fifties, 0:21:01.280 --> 0:21:05.040 Puharich served as a captain in the Army Medical Corps, 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:08.240 where at some point he developed a fascination in the 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:14.640 potential military application of paranormal phenomena. In nineteen fifty five, 0:21:15.119 --> 0:21:19.119 after leaving the Army, he founded the round Table Foundation 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:23.720 in Glen Cove, Maine, in order to study the possibilities further. 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:29.320 After reading about Peter's apparent abilities, Puharich was convinced he'd 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:33.000 found the perfect subject for his experiments and invited him 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:38.919 to have his unique skills tested under laboratory conditions. Peter, 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:42.720 who had by then separated from his first wife, Bea, 0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:46.720 took up the invitation and arrived in nineteen fifty six 0:21:47.040 --> 0:21:51.320 to begin the study. In total, he would spend seven 0:21:51.440 --> 0:21:55.720 years visiting Puharich at his foundation to undergo a series 0:21:55.760 --> 0:22:01.400 of unusual tests. Days would often begin with Peter being 0:22:01.480 --> 0:22:04.639 strapped down into a chair and his head covered in 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:07.960 a mesh of wires and electrodes to monitor his brain 0:22:08.000 --> 0:22:13.639 function as Pooharich put him through his paces. In one test, 0:22:14.000 --> 0:22:18.680 doctor Pooharich bombarded Herkos with strobe lighting, then showed him 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:22.480 a series of envelopes in which various objects had been placed, 0:22:22.880 --> 0:22:26.200 such as a butterfly or a safety pin, and invited 0:22:26.280 --> 0:22:30.679 him to guess what was in them. According to Pooharich, 0:22:31.080 --> 0:22:34.680 under the strobe lighting, Peter guessed the correct object every 0:22:34.720 --> 0:22:40.240 single time. Intriguingly, according to Pooharich, when no strobe lighting 0:22:40.320 --> 0:22:43.160 was used but Peter was allowed to touch the envelope, 0:22:43.600 --> 0:22:46.960 his success rate was still a remarkably high eighty percent. 0:22:48.040 --> 0:22:51.159 When only allowed to look at the envelope, this dropped 0:22:51.240 --> 0:22:56.600 markedly to forty percent. By then, Peter was attracting the 0:22:56.600 --> 0:23:02.359 attention of other well known parapsychological research, most prominently doctor 0:23:02.480 --> 0:23:09.359 Joseph Ryan, who was responsible for coining the term extrasensory perception. Ryan, 0:23:09.680 --> 0:23:13.520 who ran a laboratory at the prestigious Duke University, was 0:23:13.600 --> 0:23:16.679 arguably the most credible scientist working in the field at 0:23:16.680 --> 0:23:20.720 the time, and made frequent requests to test Peter himself, 0:23:21.520 --> 0:23:25.560 but her Coos refused his offer, claiming later that he'd 0:23:25.600 --> 0:23:29.000 been offended by Ryan's insistence that he sit a lie 0:23:29.000 --> 0:23:39.520 detective test as part of the study. In October nineteen 0:23:39.640 --> 0:23:43.920 fifty eight, Peter, who was then living in Miami, received 0:23:43.960 --> 0:23:46.880 a call from the Miami Police on behalf of its 0:23:46.920 --> 0:23:52.480 head of homicide, Detective Lieutenant Tom Lepp. Detective Leip's team 0:23:52.560 --> 0:23:55.840 had hit a dead end in a murder investigation, and, 0:23:55.920 --> 0:23:58.320 after hearing that her Coos was living in the city, 0:23:58.800 --> 0:24:02.960 decided to reach out to him. Without being told anything 0:24:02.960 --> 0:24:06.160 of the crime. Her Cos was invited to sit inside 0:24:06.160 --> 0:24:09.800 a bloodstained cab and simply tell the police if anything 0:24:09.840 --> 0:24:14.240 came to him. The cab had once belonged to sixty 0:24:14.240 --> 0:24:18.320 three year old Edward Sentner, who, unbeknownst to Peter, had 0:24:18.359 --> 0:24:20.840 been shot dead in it with a point to twenty 0:24:20.840 --> 0:24:24.840 two bullet. A little irked by the whole thing, Peter 0:24:25.160 --> 0:24:29.400 nonetheless got inside the vehicle, then sat back and waited. 0:24:30.560 --> 0:24:34.800 After a short pause, he began to speak. He had 0:24:34.800 --> 0:24:37.520 a vision of a tattoo on a man's right arm. 0:24:38.119 --> 0:24:43.480 Not the victims, the murderers. He was tall and slim too, 0:24:43.640 --> 0:24:48.480 and had a peculiar loping walk. A sailor, perhaps, he said, 0:24:48.960 --> 0:24:53.200 who was often in Detroit and Havana. Then a name 0:24:53.320 --> 0:24:58.159 came to him, Smitty, he said, And there was something else, 0:24:59.000 --> 0:25:05.520 another man set dead in the Florida Keys. The officers 0:25:05.600 --> 0:25:09.000 present turned to each other in confusion, unsure of what 0:25:09.160 --> 0:25:13.679 Peter could possibly be talking about. Clearly they thought it 0:25:13.800 --> 0:25:17.840 had all been one big charade. Then the news came 0:25:17.880 --> 0:25:21.960 in a few days later, a Navy commander named John 0:25:22.040 --> 0:25:25.280 Stewart was found shot to death in an apartment in 0:25:25.440 --> 0:25:29.359 Key Largo. He'd also been shot with a point twenty 0:25:29.359 --> 0:25:33.320 two bullet identical to the bullet used to kill the 0:25:33.359 --> 0:25:38.680 cab driver. As police investigated further, a man was eventually 0:25:38.720 --> 0:25:42.040 identified as a potential suspect for what was now a 0:25:42.119 --> 0:25:48.320 double murder investigation. His name wasn't Smitty exactly, but Charles Smith, 0:25:48.760 --> 0:25:52.960 a merchant seaman who, incredibly, as it turned out, often 0:25:53.080 --> 0:25:57.440 shipped into Cuba and had spent time in prison in Detroit, Michigan. 0:25:58.720 --> 0:26:03.040 About the same time, a restaurant server in Miami contacted 0:26:03.040 --> 0:26:06.440 police to say that she'd overheard a man boasting one 0:26:06.560 --> 0:26:11.199 night about killing two men. After receiving a picture of 0:26:11.200 --> 0:26:14.720 the suspect from Michigan authorities, the police showed it to 0:26:14.760 --> 0:26:19.800 the server. She recognized the man instantly, who it turned out, 0:26:20.240 --> 0:26:23.400 was tall and slim with the tattoo on his arm, 0:26:24.000 --> 0:26:29.240 just as Peter had seemingly predicted. 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