Observations placeholder
Croiset, Gerard - Larceny in Leiden, 'This man is a much bigger criminal'
Identifier
022878
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
We think he was in this case just reading Mr D’s mind
A description of the experience
Croiset the Clairvoyant - Jack Harrison Pollack
CASE 4-Larceny in Leiden
Leiden, the birthplace of Rembrandt, Jan Steen, and other Dutch painters, is a scenic university town. Its academic rivalry with the University of Utrecht is comparable to that of Harvard and Yale, Oxford and Cambridge.
The Leiden inspector of home taxes on liquors, Mr. D., suspected two of his clerks of accepting bribes from a liquor dealer. In desperation, one day in October 1950, Mr. D. visited Professor Tenhaeff in Utrecht hoping to secure some particulars from Croiset about the suspects.
"I warned Mr. D. that I did not expect much because I knew that Croiset wasn't very interested in solving business thefts," reported Tenhaeff. "But because Mr. D. was persistent, I decided to let the consultation take place, anyhow."
Shortly afterwards, Mr. D. showed Croiset a group photogaph of his staff of sixty persons. Immediately, the Utrecht paragnost pointed to two men in the picture, and nonchaIantly shrugging, said, '"They're the two people who took the bribes." [Later investigation proved these two men did.] Croiset gave some correct details about them, but was obviously disinterested in their crime.
However, Croiset's hypnotic eyes sharpened upon a third man in the group photograph who interested him far more.
'This man is a much bigger criminal," he exclaimed excitedly.
"I see he's the legal guardian of a war orphan, and has been stealing money from this boy's trust fund all along! In fact, you have just found a notebook belonging to this dishonest man. It shows exactly how much money he has stolen from that poor orphan!"
The astounded, embarrassed Mr. D. admitted that Croiset’s revelation was true. Yes, he had recently stumbled upon the incriminating notebook and was wondering whether to notify the police.
How could Gerard Croiset pick this crooked custodian of an orphan's funds out of a group photograph of sixty persons? "It is understandable when we remember that Croiset had an unhappy time with his foster parents during his own childhood," explains Professor Tenhaeff. "Another paragnost would probably not have received such a spontaneous impression."