Gerard Croiset born Gerard Boekbinder (March 10, 1909July 20, 1980) was a Dutch parapsychologist,

psychometrist Psychometrics is a field of study within psychology concerned with the theory and technique of measurement. Psychometrics generally refers to specialized fields within psychology and education devoted to testing, measurement, assessment, and ...

and

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, ...

. He was often asked to help police detectives trace

missing person A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, de ...

s, though authenticated successes were few, and compared against the failures, his success rate was ruled no better than chance.

Biography

Croiset was born in Laren,

North Holland North Holland ( nl, Noord-Holland, ) is a province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevoland. In November 2019, it had a ...

, in March 1909. He said he began to become aware of his gifts while a youth working for a watch repairer, and that on one occasion he held a ruler belonging to his employer and saw events which he related to his employer and which his employer confirmed were accurate.

Early work

After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Croiset was sometimes consulted by Dutch police authorities for cases involving

s, or

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

. On one occasion he was said to have examined the property of a murdered woman, and provided accurate information relating to her murder, and also gave the name of her murderer. The name matched a man who was being held in connection with the

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definit ...

. He gained a reputation as a reliable consultant in the area of missing persons, and his fame extended beyond the Netherlands, as anecdotes about his abilities came to be discussed in other countries. He also gained a reputation as a

psychic healer Energy medicine is a branch of alternative medicine based on a pseudo-scientific belief that healers can channel "healing energy" into a patient and effect positive results. Practitioners use a number of names including various synonyms for m ...

, and would allow people to visit him in his clinic for healing sessions.

Missing persons cases

In 1966, he was invited to Australia to aid in an investigation relating to the disappearance of the three

Beaumont children Jane Nartare Beaumont (born 10 September 1956), Arnna Kathleen Beaumont (born 11 November 1958) and Grant Ellis Beaumont (born 12 July 1961), collectively known as the Beaumont children, were three Australian siblings who disappeared from Glen ...

, who had disappeared without trace from a beach in Adelaide, South Australia. Although police were skeptical, his expenses were paid by the wealthy property tycoon Con Polites, who was interested in the case, and publicity was such that Croiset's ideas were thought to be worthy of consideration. During his brief stay in Australia, he attracted widespread publicity but failed to find any trace of the missing children. In January 1970, Croiset participated in the investigation of the kidnapping of Muriel McKay, the wife of publishing tycoon

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...

's Deputy Chairman Alick McKay. Croiset was asked by a McKay family friend, Eric Cutler, to help locate her. Croiset said that she was in a white farmhouse in the north or north-east of London, and that nearby to her was another farm and an abandoned aerodrome. He claimed that if she was not found within 14 days she would be dead. Her body was never found. Brothers Arthur and Nazimoodeen Hosein were convicted of her murder—the first case in British history of a murder conviction without a body. In 1978, the Chief Constable of

Devon and Cornwall Police Devon and Cornwall Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the ceremonial counties of Devon and Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly) in England. The force serves approximately 1.8 million people over an area of . Hi ...

hired Croiset to investigate the

disappearance of Genette Tate The disappearance of Genette Tate is a missing person case in which a 13-year-old girl disappeared while delivering newspapers in Aylesbeare, Devon, England, on 19 August 1978. Despite extensive searches, Tate's body has not been found and the c ...

, but he provided no information of value. Croiset died in Utrecht in 1980, aged 71.

Evaluation

Croiset claimed he helped to solve the case of an assault of a girl in

Wierden Wierden (; Tweants: ''Wierdn'') is a town and a municipality in the eastern Netherlands, in the province of Overijssel. The municipality of Wierden also includes the following towns, villages and townships: Enter, , , Notter, Rectum, and . T ...

, the Netherlands. The Chief of Police of Wierden stated however, that the information by Croiset was inaccurate and his communications were not used in the case. He was investigated under controlled conditions by The Belgian Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Phenomena Reputed to be Paranormal and they did not find any evidence of psychic ability. The skeptic James Lett has written: The Dutch parapsychologist has written Croiset had genuine psychic powers due to the information he had given in police cases. However it was discovered that much of Tenhaeff's data was fraudulent.Hoebens, Piet Hein (1981). 'Gerard Croiset: Investigation of the Mozart of "Psychic Sleuths"'. ''

Skeptical Inquirer ''Skeptical Inquirer'' is a bimonthly American general-audience magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) with the subtitle: ''The Magazine for Science and Reason''. Mission statement and goals Daniel Loxton, writing in ...

'' 6, nº 1: 18–28. Hoebens, Piet Hein (1982).
Croiset and Professor Tenhaeff: Discrepancies in Claims of Clairvoyance
. ''

'' 6, nº 2: 32–40.

References

External links