The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe
 

Skepticast #23: December 21st 2005 (Download MP3)



Topics:

Issue #1. Victory for Science and Reason in Dover

Issue #2. Psychic Detective Jan Helen McGee



Issue #1. Victory for Science and Reason in Dover



Federal District Judge John Jones handed down a 139 page decision in the case of Tammy Kitzmiller, et al vs Dover Area School District – regarding the teaching of Intelligent Design in Dover public school science classrooms. The broad and detailed decision states that the teaching of ID violates the establishment clause of the Constitution because ID is not science but religion. Further, that ID proponents are disingenuous in their presentation of ID as science.





 

Issue #2. Psychic Detectives

'Psychic witness' helped police solve murder.

 TV show will spotlight Lebanon-area woman
Monday, November 28, 2005
BY MONICA VON DOBENECK
Of Our Palmyra Bureau


LEBANON - Lebanon County detectives thought they knew who killed Mark Arnold in 1993, but they didn't know where to find the perpetrator.

Jan Helen McGee told them the killer was at a beach, probably Ocean City, Md., or Rehoboth Beach, Del. Detective Paul Zechman called the police departments there and, sure enough, they found Robert Wise living in Arnold's stolen car at a shopping mall near Rehoboth.

Wise is serving a life sentence in state prison for the murder.

As a result of her help in finding the killer, McGee, who said she has had psychic abilities since childhood, will be featured on The Learning Channel program "Psychic Witness" on Thursday.

District Attorney Deirdre Eshleman said she's not sure she believes in psychics, but she can't dispute the results.

"To my mind, any help we can get is good, no matter how bizarre," Eshleman said.

"A lead is a lead," Zechman said.

Liza Douglass, associate producer of "Psychic Witness" for New Dominion Pictures, said the story was perfect for one of its episodes because "Zechman felt her help and insight pointed him in the right direction."

McGee said she has worked with many area police departments, but has tried to keep her psychic abilities private. She teaches piano and voice at Marty's Music in Annville and has taught drama, music and speech at the Harrisburg Academy, Harrisburg Area Community College and the Milton Hershey School.

"I'm really apprehensive," McGee said of her television appearance. "A lot of people are fearful or angry at psychics. But do you think angels and prophets died off after the Bible was written? Prophetic things have always been spoken of."

She said she is going public now because she wants to teach police officers how to use psychics properly and avoid scams. She never seeks money for her insights, she said.

On the night that Arnold, 61, was shot to death in the small building that he occupied in South Lebanon Twp., McGee had a nightmare about the murder, she said. The next morning, she read about it in the newspaper.

She said she knew details of the case that surprised investigators, such as that Arnold had a collection of black rotary phones in his home.

Police were skeptical. They should be, McGee said.

"There are more scams than good advice," she said. "Usually the good ones are quiet."

She called herself "a piece of the puzzle" who thinks differently. She has always been psychic, she said. As a toddler, she could sense where her mother was. She has warned friends to visit elderly relatives shortly before their deaths, and she told her students at HACC's Lebanon campus to leave the building just before fire destroyed it.

She said she can no more prove her psychic abilities than someone can prove love.

According to Eshleman, who prosecuted the case, Zechman didn't admit to her for several years that McGee had pointed him in the right direction. He told her only that "an anonymous source" had helped.

Zechman said this week it wasn't that he was embarrassed, but at the time, "you didn't go around bragging about it."

"I think it's more accepted now," he said. "Police are more progressive-minded and willing to use things they may not completely understand."

Eshleman said the motive for the murder was robbery.

McGee said she thinks it was something more. She said she thinks Wise, who knew Arnold, envied him and wanted to be him. That is why he stole Arnold's car, wallet and other personal items and was wearing Arnold's boots when he was found, she contends.

"What is creepy is that I can see the motivations of killers," McGee said.

Zechman said he has spoken about other cases with McGee and has referred her to other police departments. He and Eshleman said they are willing to use her again.

"If you say psychics are real, you run the risk of coming off as a harebrain," Eshleman said. "But it's not expensive or time-consuming. ... It doesn't make any difference if I believe it or don't believe it. Anything that leads to relevant evidence is fine by me."

MONICA VON DOBENECK: 832-2090 or mdobeneck@patriot-news.com

TO LEARN MORE

WHAT: Jan Helen McGee (717) 580 1076) will appear on "Psychic Witness."

WHEN: 9 p.m. Thursday. CHANNEL: The Learning Channel

DUMBED-DOWN TV

Reader Ken Wolgemuth, of Thompsontown, Pennsylvania, assures us that we are correct in re-labeling The Learning Channel as “The Dumbing-Down Channel.” Says Ken:

If an article from the Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News, describing a local "psychic" to be featured on The Learning Channel this Thursday, is to be believed (a big “if,” granted), we have here an individual who located a murder suspect and has been given credit for that feat by the "skeptical" police, does not seek publicity or take money for her "psychic" assistance, and is now going public "because she wants to teach police officers how to use psychics properly and avoid scams."

The article, gushed out by reporter Monica Von Dobeneck, clearly states that “psychic witness” Jan Helen McGee helped police a murder that occurred 12 years ago. The facts are that Detective Paul Zechman was contacted by McGee shortly after the murder was announced in the media. She told him that she’d had a bad “psychic” dream about the killing; that was apparently all that Zechman needed to call her in for consultation.

The newspaper article says that McGee told Zechman that

…the killer was at a beach, probably Ocean City, Md., or Rehoboth Beach, Del. [He] called the police departments there and, sure enough, they found Robert Wise living in Arnold's stolen car at a shopping mall near Rehoboth.

Hold on. That’s just one thing that McGee, in a long interview with the detective, came up with. Did she also suggest several other places? We’re not told, but this guess – using the expected modifier “probably” – is singled out – because it was correct! And that’s a 25-mile stretch of local beach. Note that the culprit was found living in a stolen car – obviously reported as stolen – and we don’t know if the police set out to find that person as a result of being alerted by Zechman, or if Zechman merely had his man located because he was in the stolen vehicle. Bear in mind that police knew that Wise and the murder victim were acquainted, and Wise – locally known as a “beach bum” – was already strongly suspected as being the killer, but had simply not been located. This report presents matters as if Wise, right out of the blue, had been identified and located by means of McGee’s powers.

District Attorney Deirdre Eshleman now says that Zechman didn't admit to her for several years that McGee had offered him any guesses. He’d told her only that "an anonymous source" had helped him. Does it not appear that Zechman is now recalling, selectively, what McGee told him years before – those points that now checked out! – and is choosing to attribute powers to her? We know, from other accounts of how “police psychics” have been credited with “hits,” that often this is the case. Of course, if we had access to the tape recordings Zechman made of the interview, we would know. But we’ll never have access to those tapes, I’ll bet.

And, I’m struck by this sentence from the newspaper account:

[McGee] said she knew details of the case that surprised investigators, such as that Arnold had a collection of black rotary phones in his home.

We have to wonder, did McGee specifically say, “The killer has a collection of black rotary phones in his home,” or did she mention – among dozens of other guesses – that she “saw” a black telephone somehow connected with this matter? The morphing of a generalized statement into an explicit one, often takes place in the re-telling. Certainly, if McGee did deliver her guess as stated above, I would have to take this very seriously.

McGee identifies with the celebrated prophet-without-honor of the Bible, found in Mathew 13. She says:

A lot of people are fearful or angry at psychics. But do you think angels and prophets died off after the Bible was written? Prophetic things have always been spoken of.

Reader Wolgemuth wants McGee tested by the JREF:

She says she "can no more prove her psychic abilities than someone can prove love." However, I suspect that you and your colleagues would have no problem developing a suitable testing protocol. Seems to me, she's a prime candidate for the JREF Challenge. Wouldn't you agree?

Yes, of course, Ken. But I rather think that McGee would want to reply on “The Dumbing-Down Channel” and local newspapers to support her claims, rather than actually having them looked into. As for that challenge to “prove love,” I think we could come up with a testing procedure, and we most certainly could test McGee….

Detective Zechman defends his acceptance of these mind-boggling powers. Says he:

Police are [now] more progressive-minded and willing to use things they may not completely understand.

Zechman said he has referred McGee to other police departments, and that he and District Attorney Eshleman are willing to use her again. Yes, that department did something foolish and naďve, and they want others to get on their rickety bandwagon. That vehicle will lurch into view Thursday evening, just before this page goes up on the Internet. It will be interesting to see how the story is sold. I will welcome reviews from readers who saw it.