Hypnocop: True-Life Cases of the N.Y.P.D's First Investigative Hypnotist Charles Diggett  More Info

From the History of the New York Police Department 

The Police Committee was ordered in 1817 to report upon the propriety of allowing further compensation to peace officers for the arrest of felons. The report was made on November 17, and four propositions which it contained were agreed to. These were: Fist, that the Police committee be authorized to pay officers for extraordinary services in arresting criminals, such sums, not exceeding $100 in anyone case, as they might deem just; Second, that sixty-two cents be allowed to every officer who should arrest on process, a prisoner who should be committed and afterwards released or convicted; Third, that every Watchman who attended court on subpoena as required by the District Attorney, in consequence of his being a Watchmen, should be allowed $2 for each case of felony in which he so attended; and Fourth, that Marshals, when not attached to a court, and Constables should be allowed $1 for every attendance on subpoena.

Constables and Marshals when summoned, were obliged (Act March 5, 1819) to attend the sittings of the courts of Common pleas, Oyer and Terminer, General Sessions, and the jail delivery, for which services they were each paid $1.50 per day. Constables were forbidden (Act April 7, 1820) to buy or become interested in any bill or promissory note, debt, not lend any money on any debt for the purpose of getting it in his hands for collection, under penalty of fine, imprisonment and forfeiture of office. Upon warrant for the non-payment of rent, Constables and Marshals were empowered to remove defaulting tenants (Act April 13,1820). A subsequent act provided that Constables should receive reasonable compensation for services performed, and for when no special compensation had been allowed by law.

According to Alvin Katz (Continental Books), Hypnotism after detouring through medicine and show business was in process of finding a niche in police investigation with pioneer practitioners like Charles Diggett. Extraction of confessions was not it. Anything suggesting planting of ideas via suggestion was rejected by the courts. It was as an aid to the memory of witnesses, leading not to fact but to the direction of fact, that it provided a new tool. The tension between undirected recall and outside suggestion was the fine line Charles Diggett had to walk. To see whether he succeeded or not you have to read and evaluate the book for yourself.

Despite the sexy title this is a serious book by a serious trained and experienced hypnotist and police investigator. It describes many different kinds of police cases from homicide to hit-and-run where hypnotism was used, describes forms of hypnotic induction, touches on its psycho-therapeutic use, outlines Diggett's career and gives insight into the organization of the NYPD.”