One of the worst things I can imagine happening in my world is the death of a student. These are our charges, we get to know them and feel responsibility for them, and the pain of loss is deeply felt. Even worse is when students die violently. They’re young, and should have a long life ahead of them.
The second worst thing would be for a teacher to be falsely accused of killing a student, especially when there is no evidence suggesting such a thing. It’s more than a civil and criminal accusation, it’s morally villainous.
In 2022, four students at the University of Idaho were brutally murdered. This was a heinous act without excuse. The man who did it was arrested, confessed, convicted, and was sentenced to life in prison. In the wake of the murders, though, a woman named Ashley Guillard was riding high on social media, claiming to know who the killer was on the basis of her psychic powers and making TikTok video after TikTok video declaring that the tarot cards told her that a history professor at the University of Idaho, Rebecca Scofield, had been having an affair with one of the victims and had had them all killed.
Before authorities arrested Kohberger in late December 2022 in connection with the victims’ brutal stabbing deaths, Guillard published videos on the TikTok platform baselessly alleging Scofield had engaged in a romance with one of the four people slain.
Guillard – who is a resident of Houston, Texas, and described herself as a psychic crime solver on her TikTok account – accused Scofield on camera of ordering the quadruple murder to hide her relationship with one of the victims. She cited tarot card readings as evidence to support her unfounded theory.
It was a ludicrous accusation. Flipping cards in Texas will not tell you who the perpetrator of a crime in Idaho was, but apparently making inflammatory accusations without evidence was Guillard’s only claim to fame, and she profited off the attention she got for lying about people. Her slanders finally caught up with her, though: Scofield sued and won a $10 million award from her.
In a June 6, 2024, order, a federal judge sided with Scofield, ruling that the internet personality’s statements were defamatory and based “only” on her “spiritual intuition about the murders” — not “any objective basis.”
The judge also noted that Guillard’s social media posts continued even after the Moscow Police Department issued a press release in December 2022 stating that Scofield was not a suspect in the murder investigation.
Now Guillard is crying and calling the ruling Unfair!
. Too bad. Slap her down hard, teach her that you can’t profit off false accusation. If she wants to complain about anything, it’s that TikTok has incredibly lax policies about enforcing rules and rights online. If you enthusiastically charge into a wild wild West of lawlessness and you get gunned down in a shootout, you don’t get to blame someone else.
Let’s extend the verdict. Anyone making factual claims on the basis of tarot cards, psychic powers, or Bible prophecy are charlatans who ought to face the full weight of the law when their claims harm people. Stupid people babbling on social media are small potatoes — go after the people who claim that politicians have divine favor because a god whispered in their head that they must be supported in even their most damaging actions. Prosecute those who claim to wage holy war first of all.
Not much of a psychic if she didn’t see that lawsuit coming
(One of the linked articles)
Who needs legal training when you can just ask the cards for the perfect legal argument?
If she uses the cards to find $10 million (maybe a lottery ticket?) that she can use to pay off Scofield, she’ll make herself famous and relieve her debt at the same time. It’s win-win!
She also filed her own appeal — red flag for kookery right there (hmm, who else do we know who did that?). The filing (couldn’t resist looking) just claims that the case was fraudulent and the witnesses all lied. IANAL, but surely you need to say more than that to have an appeal granted? Or else the courts would be endlessly tied up with baseless appeals.
Guillard … described herself as a psychic crime solver …
Let’s not rush to judgment here. What psychic crimes has Guillard solved?
It mostly sounds like mental illness to me, rather than lying for clicks.
She must use some damn good tarot cards to get such precise information!
Mine were always a bit vague…
“Will it rain tomorrow?” Eight of Swords!
“What are this weeks lottery numbers?” The Star!
So Eric Cartman was an inspiration for this crook?
I like the X-file episode where an insane killer goes after various alleged psychics.
The whole idea behind tarot cards is that they are vague and allusive enough that you can project all kinds of meanings on them, based on what’s floating around in your mind at the time. It’s a way of randomly generating symbols and ideas, then your mind does the rest interpreting them to make sense of the pattern. No two readers will reach the same conclusions, and that’s the point.
Mind you, glomming on to a horrible murder and using it for publicity is a new one.
Why did Guillard pick Scofield as her target? Did she have some beef with her or did she just pick a name randomly out of university’s faculty directory?
About supernatural stuff…
FYI Trump has just deleted the drawing of himself as Jesus healing a sick man. There was a lot of outrage among Christian conservatives. After more than ten years, they are discovering he is “weird”.
Cartomancer @ 9
So they are just a genteel kind of Rorschach ink blots.
I’m going to repeat this one more time with emphasis:
social media is a deadly disease
Also, superstition of any kind, including religion, is a sign of gross ignorance.
I won’t participate in either of those foolish, irresponsible entities.
Even though it is not a logical connection, notice how close the spelling is: ‘psychic’ and ‘psychotic’
[OT]
Same root word, shermanj — psyche, but divergent suffixes: ‑ic (pertaining to) vs ‑osis/‑otic (pathological condition/relating to that condition).
Quite logical.
(psychometry is another one. and psychosomatic, too. patterns!)
—
“Also, superstition of any kind, including religion, is a sign of gross ignorance.”
Not necessarily. What do you imagine self-affirmation is?
Ughhhh! Google for psychic detectives active in the U.S.. There seems to be a fair number of these cranks who various sensationalist media claims they are oh so very successful. Where is Joe Nickell now that we need him? “It must be true, I seen it on TV!”
cartomancer@9–
This is the first example I’ve heard specifically involving tarot cards, but this is not the first time psychics have misspoken about murders and disappearances, often with devastating results for the family and the baselessly accused.
“I stayed up one night playing poker with Tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died.”
— Steven Wright
[OT]
In the Major Arcana, Death and Judgement represent the deck’s psychopomp aspects: transition (change of condition within the same order) and eschatological translation (change of condition into a different order).
(I quite like the word; there’s a story by Lovecraft with whippoorwills as psychopomp predators that I also like)
While a $10M judgement seems too low (to me), I’d be amazed if even $100k could be actually collected from this kook.
@15. John Morales : “Not necessarily. What do you imagine self-affirmation is?””
A form of cognitive therapy designed to improve confidence and help people struggling with unjustly low self-esteem and depression?
Or at least it can be for some people anyhow.
Ah, but what is its form, StevoR? :)
That’s the relevant bit.
“Self-affirmation theory contends that if individuals reflect on values that are personally relevant to them, they are less likely to experience distress and react defensively when confronted with information that contradicts or threatens their sense of self.” (Wikipedia)
Like religion or stroking a rabbit’s foot. Or feeling racially superior.
Ritualised self‑soothing is still superstitious, and not just functionally.
Doesn’t change reality, it changes how one perceives oneself.
She should get the same sentence that Scofield would have gotten if convicted. False accusations combined with the wrong prosecutor and jury can ruin someone’s life.
AAhh the old what I like to call Idiot to Arsehole spectrum. ‘Psychics’ either believe in it or they don’t or they are somewhere in between. If you believe in it, you are an idiot. If you don’t you’re an Arsehole. Or you’re somewhere on the spectrum. In any case, it’s a bad place to be.
skeptico@1 It’s a well known fact that psychics can’t use their own powers on themselves. It’s why none of them never just find the numbers for the winning megalotto ticket and get ultra wealthy without ever revealing their psychic powers to the world. Just ask them.
Anyone making factual claims on the basis of tarot cards, psychic powers, or Bible prophecy are charlatans who ought to face the full weight of the law when their claims harm people.
Let them prove the effectiveness of their methods. I seem to remember an ancient story involving a soothsayer and a king who proposed that the soothsayer predict the day and method of his death. When the royal guard. Who were waiting under the soothsayer’s window, caught him climbing down, he was impaled the next day – his final prediction of death at an old age surrounded by friends and loved ones, was wrong.