Gerard Croiset

The Psi Encyclopedia has just published an article on Gerard Croiset (1909-1980), who is claimed to have used psi to locate many missing persons:
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...rd-croiset

The article notes that "His reputation was later damaged by posthumous revelations that [Professor W. H. C.] Tenhaeff exaggerated and sometimes falsified accounts of claimed successes."

Coincidentally, I am currently reading "Murder in the 4th Estate" (1971) by Peter Deeley and Christopher Walker, a book about the kidnapping and presumed murder of Muriel McKay in the UK in 1969. Croiset was requested to help by Mrs McKay's family, and his activities are dealt with on pages 80-84, 109 and 138. According to the authors (who had apparently interviewed Croiset), a family friend went to see Croiset taking a photograph of Mrs McKay and a map of London and its suburbs. Croiset told them he got an impression of a white farm and around it were trees and a green barn. He also described another nearby farm, mentioning a deserted airstrip, a concrete building and an old motorcycle half-submerged in a shallow pond. He said the kidnappers' route had taken them on a road heading north-north-east out of London, which he apparently indicated on the map. The police investigated and were led by this information to a deserted building on the Essex-Hertfordshire border, but they found nothing there. Croiset's interpretation was that the police had found the nearby farm he had indicated, but hadn't gone on to the farm used by the kidnappers, which was a few miles away.

Unfortunately the authors don't identify the building the police searched, but the kidnappers' farm was about a mile from the Essex-Hertfordshire border, and it is indeed north-north-east of London (a bearing of about 30 degrees from the centre), so on the face of it Croiset's description was quite accurate.

However, if the authors got that description from Croiset after the event, it wouldn't have much evidential value. It seems likely they did get it from Croiset, as for obvious reasons it wouldn't have been released at the time.

I note that a book entitled "The Outline of Parapsychology," by Jesse Hong Xiong, claims that Croiset said that the kidnappers were "two colored men living on an old farm," which would be remarkable if accurate - they were Trinidadians of Asian ancestry, and the farm dated from the 17th century according to Deeley and Walker. Xiong's source is apparently Brian Inglis, "The Paranormal," p. 39 (1985):
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ILFP...EC&pg=PA98

To my surprise, the police files on the McKay case are at the National Archives and are open. Some time I may have a look at them, to see if there's any record there of the police having investigated Croiset's description.

I've now finished the book, and in the "Epilogue" section (page 191) it says:
"At his home in Utrecht, Gerard Croiset, the Dutch clairvoyant keeps a large file on the McKay Case and a tape-recorded account of all his dealings with David Dyer and Eric Cutler." [Dyer was Mrs McKay's son-in-law and Cutler was the family friend who visited Croiset in Utrecht]

The Psi Encyclopedia article links to a newspaper report from 2017 which said that Croiset's personal archive had been indexed (except for several hundred audio tapes) and was to be made available to researchers at the Utrecht Archives.

The Psi Encyclopedia has just published an article on Gerard Croiset (1909-1980), who is claimed to have used psi to locate many missing persons:
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...rd-croiset

The article notes that "His reputation was later damaged by posthumous revelations that [Professor W. H. C.] Tenhaeff exaggerated and sometimes falsified accounts of claimed successes."

On Tenhaeff's role, the paragraph on his death has now been amended:
"Tenhaeff died in 1981, when Hoeben’s first article was in press.  He had asserted that he kept meticulous files of tapes and affidavits documenting Croiset’s successes, but these were never found. However, shortly after Tenhaeff’s death all his correspondence and papers were burned by his long-time assistant Nicky G. Louwerens. Hoebens asserted that  he gave Tenhaeff prior notice of the results of his investigations but that he had declined several invitations to offer specific counterarguments."

I note that a book entitled "The Outline of Parapsychology," by Jesse Hong Xiong, claims that Croiset said that the kidnappers were "two colored men living on an old farm," which would be remarkable if accurate - they were Trinidadians of Asian ancestry, and the farm dated from the 17th century according to Deeley and Walker. Xiong's source is apparently Brian Inglis, "The Paranormal," p. 39 (1985):
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ILFP...EC&pg=PA98

Inglis does say that (or approximately that) and makes various other claims about the case, but as far as I can see he doesn't state a source for the information:
"Croiset, consulted, correctly said that she [Mrs McKay] was no longer alive, and that two coloured men who were in an old farm dwelling were involved in the crime; and he gave the route that the kidnappers had taken. It petered out before it led the detectives in the case to the farm, leaving them unimpressed. Members of the victim's family, however, pointed out how accurate his account had been; in particular, his claim that at one point on the route there was an aeroplane which he described as 'pre-war' or 'not of this decade'. No such aircraft was found, which helped to cast doubt on his story; only subsequently was it realized that a cinema at the time had been showing the film, Battle of Britain, and for promotional purposes a full-size mock-up of a Spitfire was exhibited on the roof."