A Psychic Investigation: Murder at the Booher Farm

It has always been a macabre part of society to be intrigued by the darkness within a human's soul. Stories and movies abound about serial killers and family tragedies. Most infamous is likely Truman Capote's novel "In Cold Blood" that detailed the murders of the Clutter family. Likewise, Netflix is constantly putting out new shows and documentaries looking at serial killers, most notably its new series "Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story." My own hometown was infamous for a horrific murder where a young woman, Patty Colombo, and her lover killed her family, including her young brother. She is still serving her 200 year prison sentence and numerous books have been written about the slaying. There is another family tragedy, however, which has been relegated to just a footnote in history and that is the story of the Booher Family and the mind reader who helped crack the case.

Tragedy at the Booher Farm

The Booher family lived in a farm outside of Alberta, Canada in the 1920s. Rose (some sources list her name as Eunice) and Henry Booher had four children. The oldest two were their sons, Fred and Vernon, followed by two daughters Dorothy and Algerto. On July 9, 1928 the Royal Canadian Mounted Police received a terrifying phone call: a mass murder had happened at the Booher's farm.

When police arrived they found Rose Booher dead at the kitchen table after having been shot in the head. In the kitchen was her oldest son, Fred, shot three times in the face. After searching the property the bodies of two of the family's hired hands were also found shot dead: Gabriel Grombey and Wasyl Rozak. Luckily, Rose's two daughters were not at home. Her husband and second son, Vernon, were both out on the farm, though not together, when the murder occurred. Although they heard the gunshots it was a common noise in the country so they didn't think anything of it.

An Investigation Begins

The initial working theory was that Rose Booher had been shot first because she was hulling strawberries at the time and clearly would not have remained sitting at the table with her work had her son been shot first. Frank likely heard the gunshot and came into the kitchen to investigate where he was then killed. The investigators believed the killer then went outside and killed the two hands, either because they had or may have seen something to implicate the murderer.

The weapon used was the same type of gun the family's neighbor had recently reported stolen. The investigators surmised it was likely the murderer was someone familiar with both families, if not a part of one of them. The two daughters could easily be eliminated as suspects as they were not present when it happened. Henry Booher was overtaken with grief at the loss of his family and his demeanor was enough to make investigators believe he was not involved. However, they quickly noticed that Vernon was not bereft with grief as his father was. Even though he'd just lost his mother and brother he seemed indifferent to their deaths. Furthermore, investigators uncovered that Rose had recently made Vernon end a relationship because she did not approve of the girl he was seeing. Vernon went around town telling anyone who would listen how he hated his mother.

Soon after the massacre took place Vernon Booher arose as the focus of the investigation and was taken into custody. When he refused to make a statement the investigation was at a standstill and without succeeding in getting a confession from Vernon investigators felt they needed to take their investigation in a new, and unique, direction.

Drawing A Psychic Map

Fearing their investigation would go cold without a confession from Vernon the head of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation at Edmonton brought in someone new to assist the case: Maximilian Langsner. Langsner was far from an investigator, rather he was a psychic who claimed to be able to read the minds of the guilty because they produced "signals" in the brain, caused by the stress of having committed the crime, which he could read.

Langsner met Vernon and quickly declared him to be guilty but this was, of course, not enough to charge him, actual evidence was needed. He sat in front of Booher's cell for hours and eventually was able to draw a map that showed the murder weapon was in a bush near a white building with red shutters: the Booher Farm. Investigators found the rifle where Langsner had claimed it to be in his map!

Vernon Booher

A Confession

Since it was no secret Booher had hated his mother he had a solid motive. Combined with the evidence of the rifle, he eventually confessed to murdering Rose because of his hatred toward her, killing Fred because he'd walked in after killing her, and killing the two farmhands in a sloppy attempt to coverup the murders as a robbery gone wrong. He showed remorse only for killing his older brother. Vernon Booher was convicted of quadruple homicide and sentenced to death. On April 24, 1929 he was hung outside Fort Saskatchewan Prison. Despite his help in solving the crime Maximilian Langsner never solved another crime with his "psychic" abilities.