Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1989, Page 6
4. (In some cases) repeated claims of seemingly incontrovertible, scientific proof of the
victim‟s guilt.
5. (In some cases) repeated reminders about aspects of the victim‟s history which would
tend to diminish his confidence in his ability to accurately remember the occurrence of
the crime.
6. Collective development by the police and the victim of an ad hoc explanation that seems
to account for why the victim does not remember the crime.
7. (In some cases) straightforward demands that the victim publicly accept the ad hoc
explanation.
8. (In some cases) tactics designed to induce fear that if the victim does not immediately
comply with the interrogator‟s demand for a confession, the most severe of the possible
punishments for the crime will result.
These interrogation procedures placed the victims in a position in which they became so
unsure of themselves and so confused that they were unable to carry out ordinarily
reasonable, rational evaluations of their situations or the information and choices the
interrogators placed before them.
Tom Sawyer
To illustrate the steps through which this system of influence and belief cultivation can
produce belief in guilt and an elaborate false confession, consider what happened to Tom
Sawyer in November 1986 in Clearwater, Florida. (The following description will only
mention the most blatant of the influence tactics used against Mr. Sawyer.)
Tom Sawyer‟s next door neighbor was murdered by manual strangulation. Her nude body
was found in her bed. She had been bound hand and foot and there were indications of her
having been tortured. The police believed that she had been sexually assaulted. Her car
was found at the local airport and her apartment had been arranged to give the appearance
of having been broken into. The attempt to leave a false trail was clumsy and didn‟t fool
anyone.
Mr. Sawyer knew the murder victim only slightly. He had had a small number of
conversations with her. A few nights before her death, she had spent part of an evening
watching television at his apartment. They had never dated. He had never been in her
apartment or in her car.
The police had no viable suspects in the killing. Both the married man and the unmarried
man she had been dating had alibis for the evening of her murder. The jealous homosexual
lover of her homosexual former husband also had an alibi.
The police became suspicious of Mr. Sawyer solely because he seemed to them to be
nervous when they spoke with him during routine interviews of the murdered woman‟s
neighbors. The detectives who became suspicious of Mr. Sawyer were unaware that he
suffered from long-standing, severe social anxiety, which started when Mr. Sawyer was 14
years of age. His anxiety attacks caused him to blush a deep red and sweat profusely in
response to the simplest social interaction. Several attempts to treat this condition had
failed.
The detectives decided to lure Mr. Sawyer to the police station, to attempt to trap him into
making some form of admission that would link him to the crime, and to attempt to get him
to confess. They had absolutely no evidence against him at the time this decision was
made. It was based solely on their “expertise” at reading demeanor.
4. (In some cases) repeated claims of seemingly incontrovertible, scientific proof of the
victim‟s guilt.
5. (In some cases) repeated reminders about aspects of the victim‟s history which would
tend to diminish his confidence in his ability to accurately remember the occurrence of
the crime.
6. Collective development by the police and the victim of an ad hoc explanation that seems
to account for why the victim does not remember the crime.
7. (In some cases) straightforward demands that the victim publicly accept the ad hoc
explanation.
8. (In some cases) tactics designed to induce fear that if the victim does not immediately
comply with the interrogator‟s demand for a confession, the most severe of the possible
punishments for the crime will result.
These interrogation procedures placed the victims in a position in which they became so
unsure of themselves and so confused that they were unable to carry out ordinarily
reasonable, rational evaluations of their situations or the information and choices the
interrogators placed before them.
Tom Sawyer
To illustrate the steps through which this system of influence and belief cultivation can
produce belief in guilt and an elaborate false confession, consider what happened to Tom
Sawyer in November 1986 in Clearwater, Florida. (The following description will only
mention the most blatant of the influence tactics used against Mr. Sawyer.)
Tom Sawyer‟s next door neighbor was murdered by manual strangulation. Her nude body
was found in her bed. She had been bound hand and foot and there were indications of her
having been tortured. The police believed that she had been sexually assaulted. Her car
was found at the local airport and her apartment had been arranged to give the appearance
of having been broken into. The attempt to leave a false trail was clumsy and didn‟t fool
anyone.
Mr. Sawyer knew the murder victim only slightly. He had had a small number of
conversations with her. A few nights before her death, she had spent part of an evening
watching television at his apartment. They had never dated. He had never been in her
apartment or in her car.
The police had no viable suspects in the killing. Both the married man and the unmarried
man she had been dating had alibis for the evening of her murder. The jealous homosexual
lover of her homosexual former husband also had an alibi.
The police became suspicious of Mr. Sawyer solely because he seemed to them to be
nervous when they spoke with him during routine interviews of the murdered woman‟s
neighbors. The detectives who became suspicious of Mr. Sawyer were unaware that he
suffered from long-standing, severe social anxiety, which started when Mr. Sawyer was 14
years of age. His anxiety attacks caused him to blush a deep red and sweat profusely in
response to the simplest social interaction. Several attempts to treat this condition had
failed.
The detectives decided to lure Mr. Sawyer to the police station, to attempt to trap him into
making some form of admission that would link him to the crime, and to attempt to get him
to confess. They had absolutely no evidence against him at the time this decision was
made. It was based solely on their “expertise” at reading demeanor.
