The Booher Family Murders: Solved by a Psychic?

Vernon Booher's Mugshot

On this day in 1928, police were called to the Booher family farm in Mannville, Alberta, Canada at the behest of Dr. Harley Heaslip. Upon arriving at the property, they found Rose Booher, who had been shot in the back of the head, slumped over on the dining room table. Her son, Fred, laid dead on the kitchen floor. He had been shot in the face multiple times. After searching the rest of the farmhouse, investigators moved on to the bunkhouse and barn, where they found two more bodies. The bodies belonged to two farmhands who, police surmised, had heard the shots that killed Rose Booher and her son Fred. The killer had most likely shot them to eliminate witnesses. Rose Booher's husband Henry was working on the farm when he heard the gunshots but thought nothing of it because gunshots were a common occurrence in the rural area where the farm was located. Rose's younger son, Vernon, had also been working on the farm, though in a different area from where Henry had been working. Rose's two daughters had been in town at the time of the murders so they were immediately ruled out as suspects. Investigators determined that nothing had been stolen from the Booher farm which led them to the conclusion that the murders were personal in nature.

While Henry Booher was utterly devastated by the loss of his wife and eldest son, investigators observed that Vernon was indifferent to his mother's demise. They soon learned that his mother had made him end a relationship with a girl that she did not approve of. This angered him so much that he mentioned to several members of the Mansville community that he absolutely hated his mother. Investigators also learned that the weapon used to kill Rose Booher, her son Fred, and the two farmhands - a .303 Lee Enfield rifle - was the same type of gun that Charles Stevenson, a neighbor of the Boohers', had reported as stolen. Stevenson had always kept the rifle well-hidden so police determined that someone familiar with the Stevenson home had stolen the weapon. Vernon Booher soon became the focus of the investigation into his mother's murder. He was taken into custody but refused to make a statement.

After traditional interrogation techniques had failed to elicit a confession from Vernon Booher, investigators were afraid that the case would soon grow cold. Inspector James Hancock, head of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation at Edmonton, took it upon himself to summon a man by the name of Maximilian Langsner to assist with the investigation. Langsner had garnered a reputation for solving crimes across Europe by reading the minds of the guilty parties. He had studied psychology with Freud in Vienna, Austria, and had observed yogis in India to learn their mind control techniques. He claimed that when a person is under stress, their brain would produce "signals" that could be detected by someone with his training. Inspector Hancock hoped that Langsner would be able to detect these signals from Vernon Booher. Upon meeting Booher, Langsner claimed that he knew the man was guilty of murder. He was informed by Inspector Hancock that investigators needed actual evidence, particularly the stolen rifle that Booher had used to commit the murders. Langsner sat in a chair in front of Booher's cell and stared at the accused murderer for several hours, undeterred when Booher started screaming at him. Finally, Langsner drew a map in front of Vernon Booher and showed it to Inspector Hancock. He told Hancock that the rifle could be found in a bush near a white building with red shutters. Hancock realized that he was talking about the Booher family farm. Investigators took Booher back to his family's farm and soon found the rifle where Langsner said it would be.

With his father and sisters as witnesses, Vernon Booher confessed to murdering his mother because he hated her so much. He said he only killed his brother Fred because the young man had rushed into the house to help Rose Booher. He said that the murders of the two farmhands were an attempt at a coverup in order to make the murders look like a robbery gone wrong. Vernon Booher was hanged on April 26, 1929.

After solving the murders of Rose Booher, her son Fred, and their two farmhands, Maximilian Langsner went on to study the indigenous peoples of Northern Canada and Alaska. The Booher case is the last known crime to have been solved by Langsner.