Word: leonski
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Dates: during 1942-1942
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...Army verdict was that Leonski was a "fiend," whose barehanded strangulation of three Melbourne women "cast a foul blot on the service." But there were two other theories about Leonski, one of which may still save him from the gallows...
Theory A. To alibi his murders, Leonski talked to tentmates of his split personality. When he had a few drinks he even walked wolflike on his hands and knees to build up his own theory that there was another Eddie Leonski, a being apart, who was responsible for the horrors he committed. This theory the medical board quickly exploded. Leonski was not a schizophrenic...
Theory B. The second theory was advanced by Dr. Frederic Wertham, New York criminal psychiatrist, on new research presumably not available yet in Australia. In Dr. Wertham's psychiatric terminology, the Leonski case was that of catathymic crisis resulting from the same mother fixation which plagued Shakespeare's Hamlet, which for centuries has driven certain types of thwarted men to kill the thing they love the most. Leonski, according to Dr. Wertham, was a lonely, heartsick tenement boy suddenly deprived of all sense of comfort and personal love. Under these circumstances the inhibitions piled up from the time...
Victim No. 1. Leonski met Mrs. Ivy McLeod, 40, on May 3. This is the story he told investigators...
Victim No. 2 was Mrs. Pauline Thompson, 31, whom Leonski met on May 9. "I remember a woman singing in my ear," Leonski said. "She had a nice voice. We came to a long flight of stone steps, and I grabbed her by the throat. I wanted her to keep on singing. I choked her. How could she keep on singing when I choked her?" Later he said: "Fancy my being a murderer! I guess that Thompson girl was the hardest. She was strong and, oh boy, could she drink gin squashes! She told me I had a baby face...