Victorian Urban Legend: Hypnotic Thievery March 13, 2018
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
Here is a nice French story from a period when hypnotism was given far too much credit for being able to make people do things that they did not want to do. We are in 1894.
A strange story is related of an extraordinary affair which is said to have occurred in one of the flats of a house situated in the Boulevard Haussmaun, Paris. This apartment… is occupied by married couple, who had arranged to spend an evening at the Opera. The gentleman being unwell, lady went in company with her mother, and returned alone. A few minutes afterwards piercing shrieks were heard issuing from the study, and the servants, rushing in, their mistress writhing on the floor, wrists grasped in a vice by her husband, who gazed fixedly before him, as if in a trance. Efforts were made to release the panic stricken wife; but in vain, so a doctor was hastily summoned, who took the whole situation in at a glance. The gentleman was in a hypnotic state. It was with the utmost difficulty that the medical man succeeded bringing the patient round, and as soon as the lady was released she told a very curious story. On her return home she had proceeded straight to the study to see if her husband was better. His appearance was so strange that she ran up to him, and looking round after a few moments she saw a man bending over the money-chest and abstracting its contents. On perceiving the lady this individual raised his head, and, addressing her husband in a peremptory manner, spoke some words in Portuguese. The effect was instantaneous. The gentleman rose from his chair, and, seizing his wife by the wrists, held her with iron grasp, thus allowing the thief full leisure to disappear with his booty. On his recovery the patient expressed complete ignorance of all that had occurred. The police are believed to have a clue which may lead to the arrest of the culprit, and in the meantime, as the owner had a list of all the shares and bonds kept in his money-chest, steps have been taken to prevent their sale.
Other hypnosis stories/legends from the later 19C. drbeachcombing AT gmail DOT com
Source: ‘A Strange Story from Paris’, S J G (19 Dec 1894), 10
