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Peter Hurkos

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Psychic/Fraud

The Resume

    (May 21, 1911-June 1, 1988)
    Born in Dordrecht, Netherlands
    Birth name was Pieter van der Hurk
    Psychic detective
    Claimed to have developed ESP after waking from a coma following a fall from a ladder (1941)
    By 1969, claimed to have solved 27 murders in 17 countries

Why he might be annoying:

    In public demonstrations, he frequently resorted to cold reading, which he justified by claiming he could not control when his psychic abilities were 'on.'
    Police in many of those 27 cases he claimed to have solved said that he provided no accurate information that was not available in newspapers and, in some cases, that he took no part in the investigation at all.
    While investigating a string of murders in Michigan, he saw that the killer was 5'7 and blonde. And a few days later, he saw that the killer was brown haired and over six feet tall.
    During the Boston Strangler investigation, he was convicted of impersonating a police officer.
    He predicted he would die on November 17, 1961, which was off by nearly 27 years.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He served with the Dutch resistance during WWII.
    He was an artist who had a painting displayed at New York's Museum of Modern Art.
    His story about gaining psychic powers after coming out of a coma may have inspired the plot of Stephen King's 'The Dead Zone.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 17 Votes: 52.94% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 9 Votes: 44.44% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 17 Votes: 52.94% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 17 Votes: 58.82% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 31 Votes: 54.84% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 15 Votes: 73.33% Annoying