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FILE 061 · VOL X · You Already Said Yes
Hypnosis Caught the Kidnappers. Then It Convicted an Innocent Man.
Memory is not a recording. In a trance, it becomes whatever you need it to be.
Based on: The Chowchilla Kidnapping and Hypnosis
Intake record
| Recovered from | Retired detective's home office, Central California |
|---|---|
| Contents | Three hypnosis session transcripts, a training index card, a prisoner's letter, a DNA report summary |
| Finder | Detective's son |
| Status | The prisoner was released after nineteen years. The detective died before he could apologize. |
Recovered file
On July 15, 1976, three masked men stopped a school bus in Chowchilla, California, and kidnapped twenty-six children and their driver, Ed Ray. They were driven for hours and sealed inside a moving truck buried in a Livermore quarry. After about sixteen hours, Ray and some of the older boys dug them out. Every child survived. [1]
Under hypnosis, Ray recalled most of the license plate of one of the kidnappers' vans. The kidnappers were caught and convicted. This case demonstrates the value of forensic hypnosis in recovering memories unreachable by ordinary interview. [1] [2]
OKERLUND: You're safe. You're relaxed. Go back to the parking lot. Tell me what you see.
PRUITT: Dark. The light's broken. I'm getting my keys.
OKERLUND: What happens next?
PRUITT: Someone behind me. I can smell cigarettes.
OKERLUND: Can you see him?
PRUITT: No. A shape. Just a shape.
OKERLUND: That's fine. That's fine. Let it come in its own time.
[Detective's note, handwritten: Good subject. Nothing yet. Suspect in mind: D. Ellis, 24, thin, long hair, prior record, seen in area.]
The rest of this file is sealed. The ending, the sources and the archivist's note unseal with the file.
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