What does everyone think of the few people who have been invited back several times to participate in segments of Unsolved Mysteries? Several that come to mind are:

Dr. William Roll- I remember him on a few of the Ghosts segments. He seems alright. He has good insights into the cases. He must be well know in the paranormal field because I remember him doing some segments on "Sightings".

Sylvia Brown- Physic who was done some Ghosts and I believe some Missing Persons/Murder cases. I don't think I have seen her in any other TV shows, maybe she has been on Sightings as well.

These are the only two I can recall. Do you think they give help in the cases?

Sylvia Brown has been a repeat guest on the Montel Williams show...although, I don't know if that show is still on. I'm not sure whether she's psychic or not. I do believe that there are some genuine psychics, I'm just not sure all self-professed psychics are genuine. Regardless, I still find her to be sort of entertaining. I've also seen her as a guest on Larry King.

I remember John Philpin being a guest commentator on at least two stories. He is a criminal profiler and was interviewed on the Amber Swartz case because he had written a book about Tim Binder called "Stalemate". He was also interviewed on one of the earlier stories about the women murdered in New Hampshire (remember the creepy scene where the murderer was chasing and stabbed a pregnant woman?)
I'm not sure if he wrote a book about that one or not.

Isn’t Sylvia the one that sounds like a cross between Lucille Ball and Harvey Weinstein?

Originally posted by Opal
Isn’t Sylvia the one that sounds like a cross between Lucille Ball and Harvey Weinstein?

Haha! Yes!

Don't forget Cyril Wecht. He is a prominent forensic pathologist. He has been interviewed on some UM segments including, but not limited to, the 1987 death of a Pennsylvania college student and the death of Kurt Cobain (of Nirvana fame).

By the way, nohwheregirl, The Montel Williams Show is still in production.

Wow, I forgot about a few of those. Sylvia Brown made the segment a little more fun. I remember her always coming on the show and coming up with names of Ghosts or details of crime cases.

When Dr. Roll came onto the segments, I usually assumed he would try and justify some of the Ghosts stories, but he usually came up with a scientific answer to a story. He suggested that some kind of chemical reaction was happening to the Ghosts story of the 3 cowboys who went to sleep and awoke to loud crashing sounds and loud footsteps in their ranch.

If I remember correctly, Sylvia Brown has/had a website and charged around the figure of $200 for a reading.

Don Devereaux was interviewed on 2 segments, although the two stories were somewhat intertwined. If you recall from one of the earliest seasons, he was the journalist from Phoenix that investigated the Charles Morgan death case. (Morgan was shot to death in the Arizona desert, most likely because he found out too much information regarding several organized crime divisions.) In the segment, Devereaux smartly pointed out how absurd it would be for a man to put on a bullet proof vest, drive out to the desert and shoot himself in the back of the head. Not to mention, Morgan's business papers were never found after his body was discovered. He was clearly on the run the last couple months of his life.

Just a couple months after Unsolved Mysteries aired the Charles Morgan case, another Phoenix man was shot to death, right accross the street from Don Devereaux's house. His name was Doug Johnston and it is believed that the bullet that killed him was actually meant for Devereaux because he drove the exact same model of car. Devereaux had uncovered too much info regarding the Charles Morgan case and the killer/killers were probably furious when they saw him being interviewed on Unsolved Mysteries. A case of mistaken identity though ended with Johnston's death. Devereaux came back for another segement to talk more about the cases and how he is most likely being targeted for knowing too much.

Side note - One of the police officers that was interviewed about Doug Johnston's murder also was interviewed in the Genie Tovrey segment, she was also murdered in Phoenix.

Sylvia is another in a long line of charlatans. There was a piece about Sylvia Browne in Salon magazine in 2003 (http://www.salon.com/2003/01/08/psychic/).

Never believe any "psychic" who charges that much. Never pre-register for a reading -- they use the information you give them to investigate and dig up things about you that they then purport to reveal under spirit guidance. There is a book out called The Psychic Mafia by Lamar Keene that I wish Stack had done a piece on. Keene takes you inside the most prestigious Spiritualist institutions and shows you the rampant fraud and corruption that go on in the name of "contacting spirits".

I think if psychic phenomena exist they're usually a much more personal kind of thing -- like the lady whose son left her messages after he died.

Great article, Bluejay. She sure is a piece of work, huh? I guess that's why i sort of find her fascinating. I have to agree that any "psychic" who claims to hold the keys to the universe (i.e., spirit guides, etc) probably isn't anything more than a circus act.



Sylvia is another in a long line of charlatans. There was a piece about Sylvia Browne in Salon magazine (http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:0B-verTRDYcJ:archive.salon.com/mwt/feature/2003/01/08/psychic/+salon.com+Sylvia+Browne&hl=en) some time ago. (That's cached, so you don't have to be forced to eyeball their stupid ad. Scroll down a bit when you hit the blank area)

Never believe any "psychic" who charges that much. Never pre-register for a reading -- they use the information you give them to investigate and dig up things about you that they then purport to reveal under spirit guidance. There is a book out called The Psychic Mafia by Lamar Keene that I wish Stack had done a piece on. Keene takes you inside the most prestigious Spiritualist institutions and shows you the rampant fraud and corruption that go on in the name of "contacting spirits".

I think if psychic phenomena exist they're usually a much more personal kind of thing -- like the lady whose son left her messages after he died.

Dr. Michaeline Mayer - she investigated some of the ghosts stories for UM that William Roll wasn't on. She's on at least 3 stories that I know of. Instead of coming up with a scientific explanation for the hauntings like Dr. Roll did, she would usually bring in a psychic to help her investigate. She did the General Wayne Inn segment & the Bill Bailey segment & one other segment that escapes me at the moment.

When Dr. Roll came onto the segments, I usually assumed he would try and justify some of the Ghosts stories, but he usually came up with a scientific answer to a story. He suggested that some kind of chemical reaction was happening to the Ghosts story of the 3 cowboys who went to sleep and awoke to loud crashing sounds and loud footsteps in their ranch.

Dr. Roll is on several of the segments featured on the Ghost Stories DVD. The explanation that he came up with in the case that you mentioned above is very interesting because a psychologist at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario has postulated the same explanation for all paranormal experiences for many years now. This psychologist, named Michael Persinger, has been featured on A & E's The Unexplained and the old Leonard Nimoy "In Search Of" series.

If I remember correctly, Sylvia Brown has/had a website and charged around the figure of $200 for a reading.

I'm a person that really doesn't fit into any stereotypes, so with that being said, I would love for Sylvia Browne to give me a reading, just so I could see how wrong she ended up being. :lol:

William Roll is awesome. I could listen to that man speak about paranormal stuff for hours. Cool accent too.