(ORDO NEWS) — Truth serum is an attribute of almost every self-respecting action movie. Remember at least The Matrix and the famous scene when the Agents interrogate Morpheus to extract from him the secret access code to Zeon.
After watching such blockbusters, the viewer asks the question: why in real life are investigators still looking for evidence in the old fashioned way, interviewing witnesses, conducting a “duel of nerves” with suspects…
After all, one injection is enough and the interlocutor will tell the truth, only the truth and nothing more than truth. However, in reality, with the “truth serum” everything is very difficult. Experts have serious doubts that such drugs are really effective. And they don’t work the way you think.
From the history of the question
The simplest truth serum is alcohol. As the ancient Romans rightly noted, the truth is in wine, and in the Russian interpretation this proverb sounds even more frankly: “What a sober man has on his mind, a drunkard has on his tongue.” En masse, this “serum” was used, for example, at the assemblies of Peter the Great.
During these ceremonies, participants were required to drink themselves insane. And when the tongues of the nobles were untied, the sovereign’s servants sought to find out the hidden thoughts.
Actually, according to this principle, the “truth serum” works, only the drugs that are used in this case depress consciousness even more and inhibit the nervous system in order to deprive the subject of self-control.
It is believed that the godfather of the modern “truth serum” (many different drugs coexist under this brand) is the American obstetrician Robert House.
He noticed that pregnant women who were given a drug called scopolamine during childbirth behaved very strangely. They became talkative and answered any questions without hesitation. House thought that this method could be used in forensics to determine if a person is guilty or not.
- How they tried to solve the assassination of John F. Kennedy…
“Truth Serum” was at first enthusiastically tested by the police and intelligence services of different countries, but then the enthusiasm diminished sharply. A strange feature of these drugs was revealed – in most cases, this method of interrogation did not give concrete results.
Today, such means of investigation are in the “grey zone”. Courts generally do not recognize evidence obtained with the help of “truth serum”. However, in exceptional cases, intelligence officers may officially use such interrogation tactics.
In 1967, insurance agent Perry Russo was questioned as part of an investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He claimed to have heard Lee Harvey Oswald discuss the details of the conspiracy with businessman and CIA agent Clay Shaw.
However, these testimonies were confusing, contradictory, and Rousseau failed the polygraph test twice. As a result, the court acquitted Clay Shaw (he was accused of organizing the assassination of the president). Rousseau’s testimony was seen as a combination of truth, fantasy and lies.
In 2008, drug interrogation was used by Indian investigators against Amjal Kasab, he was the only survivor of 10 terrorists who killed 166 people during a terrorist attack in Mumbai. Kasab admitted his guilt even earlier and told how the crime was planned.
However, the investigation believed that Amdzhal could hide some important details. In the published transcript of the interrogation, the killer talked about how they were prepared and what role his father’s desire to earn money played in his decision.
- …and the crime of the century in India
In 2008, India was shocked by the brutal murder of a 13-year-old teenage girl, Aarushi Talwar. She was the only daughter of a couple of dentists, Rajesh and Nupur Talwar. Also, Khemrai, a 45-year-old servant of the family, was killed in the house.
The plot of the crime was twisted so famously and mysteriously that “Murder on the Orient Express” by Agatha Christie seemed like a banal story in comparison. At first, the girl’s parents were suspected – their bedroom was across the wall from Aarushi’s room, but they did not hear how their daughter was killed with a golf club at night.
The motive is that the father found his daughter when she was having sex with Hemrai, and in anger killed both of them. The parents were interrogated using “truth serum” – they denied everything. In addition, the beautiful Aarushi and the elderly, battered servant were clearly not a couple.
Then the friends of the murdered servant began to suspect: they could enter the house through his room and try to rape the poor thing. Three suspects were given a pharmacological interview – they confessed to the murder. However, this further confused the matter.
Not only did all three tell a completely different story, but even the same person, being interrogated several times, described the crime differently during each interrogation. The murder of the girl and the servant has not yet been solved.
Question – RIB!
- Where did “Thirty-five thousand one couriers” come from?
Apparently, the “serum” does not force people to tell the truth. Losing control over his thoughts, a person is able to tell not only what he is asked about.
In a state of altered consciousness, he does not see the difference between real events and fictional ones, between performances inspired by films, gossip, newspaper publications and false memories.
After all, Khlestakov’s invented “35 thousand couriers alone” and “with Pushkin on a short leg” – all this really existed in the imagination of the hero Gogol when he was pushing a speech to officials.
Alison Winter, professor of the history of science and medicine at the University of Chicago, believes that the concept of “truth serum” is based on outdated ideas about how our brains work.
“The understanding of memory has changed a lot in recent years,” explains Professor Winter. – By asking a leading question, you can theoretically get reliable information, but at the same time a stream of consciousness will pour out on you that you simply will not be able to identify.
However, the idea that the truth sits somewhere in a special compartment inside the human body, waiting to be surgically removed, is so strong that experiments in this area will continue for a long time to come.
What the CIA and dissidents say
Approximately the same conclusions are set out in an internal CIA circular, which fell into the hands of journalists in 1993: “There is no such magic elixir as truth serum is presented.
Barbiturates (this group of drugs is used during pharmacological interrogations – author), by violating the defense mechanisms of consciousness, can sometimes be useful during interrogation, but even in the best conditions they will give results polluted by deceit, fantasies, distorted speech, etc…
Any a person who can withstand a normal, intense interrogation is able to resist interrogation with a “truth serum”.
In a short time (seconds) after the injection, the subject enters a short state of intoxication, similar to alcohol, then turning into a deep sleep.
The principle is rather banal: “a drunkard’s tongue is untied”… We competently declare: the method of “disinhibition” (as it is officially called) is ineffective, do not be afraid of it, control your state (it is possible), and the effect of “untying” your tongue will fail.”
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