Episode 16: The Hypnotist Principal

Tina leads this episode about the principal who hypnotized his school. Yes, seriously. And unfortunately, 4 people died as a result. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Hey, Triquine Divas.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

And I am Sarah. And I'm Tina, and I guess we're singing the intro now. I just I sing my name every time. You didn't notice? I didn't notice. I always go Sarah. Oh, okay. I just feel like singing as soon as there's a microphone in front of me. I I can't sing, but you could totally sing. Anyway. Welcome back to the podcast where we sip the tea, spill the facts, occasionally yelling curse into the microphone and at each other, but in agreement.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Because what is actually wrong with people? Literally, literally, uh, what is actually wrong with people? And today's case is no different. It truly reinforces the fact that you cannot trust anybody with your children, not even their school officials. Because today we are talking about the principal who hypnotized his school.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

I'm kind of glad that we started doing podcasts after my kids grew up. Right. I would be so freaked out.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

So paranoid all the time. And yes, this case is exactly as unhinged as it sounds. And just in case any of you are curious, you can watch the documentary I pulled this story from on HBO and ID. It is season two, episode five of The Curious Case of, which, as everybody probably already knows by now, is one of my favorites. So check it out. We've done a few of those now, haven't we? Yes. Now, on to the story. So we are in Northport, Florida, small town, tight-knit community, Friday night football type vibes. And right at the center of it all is Principal George Kenny, also known as Dr. Kenny. Now, let me just say this up front. He is not an actual medical doctor. He has a doctorate in education, but that doctor title, oh, it absolutely gave people the impression that he was some kind of licensed medical professional, but he was not at all. I I kind of felt like it was like a nickname. Yeah. Yeah. But also it kind of made me.

SPEAKER_02 2:30

You know, like I had a princess and you're a queen, like that. And we're divas. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

In any case, the students at Northport High loved Principal Kenny. Their parents trusted him. And he was everywhere. School events, games, even in the stands, playing the flugel horn at football games. Which I'm sorry, a flugel horn, but okay. I mean, at least he seems dedicated to his school and the students, which is more than I can say for some principals. Yeah, that's true. So But I think I'd take the other principals over this one. Knowing what we know about it. Right, right. So one person even described Dr. Kenny's following as cult-like. And honestly, that word is going to age very well as the story goes on. So around 2009, Kenny starts introducing hypnosis to students. He visits one of their psychology classes and basically says, hey, this isn't that weird movie stuff where the guy likes holds up a pocket watch and goes all woo-woo. It's safe, it's helpful, and nothing bad can happen to you. Immediately, no. Red flag.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

Nothing bad can happen to you. Famous last word.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

No, literally, but the students bought into it. They adored this man and they trusted him, and they never thought that he would steer them in the wrong direction. So now we hear from a man named Paul Balcombe. He was a football player at Northport High and he was class of 2011. He says that most people may not realize it, but playing high school sports can be extremely difficult and stressful. He actually struggled with anxiety as a result, and he wanted help performing better.

SPEAKER_02 4:19

I don't think that surprises me that much because it's something I noticed between having gone to school in England and here is the emphasis they put on sports and the stress they put on the athletes is actually to me quite shocking when they're in school to learn and get an education and to hopefully qualify for college. Of course, here you can qualify for college by being a good athlete. Right. And and the whole scholarship thing is what puts the pressure on them, but it makes the coaches, the principals, the parents, everybody does put pressure on them. And so that is something that I notice big time, having not gone to high school here, is that they do make it very, very stressful and intense for these kids that are trying to just play a game that they love. So it doesn't surprise me at all.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

It can definitely be the highest of stakes for some of these students because they're hoping for a scholarship. And otherwise they don't get into college because college costs a trillion fucking dollars in the United States. Oh, yes, it does. So anyway, Paul he goes to the principal and he starts getting private hypnosis sessions. And I'm sorry, but that sentence alone should have shut the entire school down. That gives me the craze. Yeah. But no, Paul ends up being hypnotized around 50 times. 50. And there's even a video of him slept over in a chair while Kenny is tapping and rubbing his head. And I'm just gonna say it looks creepy as hell. But Paul, oh, Paul says it was amazing. Life-changing, a miracle. Paul, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_02 5:59

So you don't have permission to touch my body when I'm alone with you in your office, period, let alone when I'm unconscious.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Exactly. Exactly. So now let's rewind to 2007. There's a senior lock-in at Northport High, and that is an overnight celebration that they hold for the seniors that have just graduated to keep them out of trouble, basically, from going out and partying. Right. And at like two or three in the morning, Kenny brings 15 to 20 students on stage in the gym and hypnotizes them in front of everyone. And he had football players putting on wigs and lipstick and strutting around on the stage in front of all of their classmates like beauty queens. And everybody thought it was just hysterical. It was a whole show. But the students remember nothing. Zero. Humiliating. Yeah. If photos hadn't been taken, they wouldn't have even believed it happened. And I bet they wish those photographs weren't taken. Right. They probably wish they did not exist. Right? So enter Mark Gilliland, assistant principal at the time. Gil Gilliland, yeah. And thank God for this man, Mark, because he was the only one acting like a sane adult in this situation. He sees this whole scenario and says, yeah, absolutely not. He reports Kenny to the school board in 2007. The school board then tells Kenny that he can only do hypnosis in classrooms and only with parental permission, which in my opinion is not sufficient at all. I think there was definitely some kind of bias there with the principal, or that school board was just totally negligent. Right.

SPEAKER_02 7:48

What they should have said was you don't ever do hypnosis ever, everything.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Because you're not licensed to do hypnosis and you're not a doctor. And because these are children and because you're their principal. I mean, there's a thousand reasons, right? But anyway, of course, Kenny doesn't comply with any of that whatsoever. He continues doing private sessions behind closed doors with his students for years. And in fact, at Northport High, hypnosis becomes routine, especially for athletes. Before games, go see the principal for hypnosis. I'm sorry, what? Like if my high school boyfriend told me he couldn't hang out with me because he had to go get hypnotized by the principal, I would call the police and my mom and probably a fucking priest. Because what the fuck? But yeah, here, this was totally normal to the students.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

Maybe they just didn't know any better, the students.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Yeah, he obviously that was the normal. Right. So now we meet Marcus Freeman. He was the football quarterback. He was popular, he was kind, he was loved by everyone, especially by his girlfriend Carly. Did he light up a room? He yeah. Unfortunately. Unfortunately, he did. And you can tell that Carly absolutely adored him when she's being interviewed about this. Now, on March 25th, 2011, everything changed. Marcus and Carly were driving on the interstate, and out of nowhere, Marcus goes completely rigid. His arms lopped straight out in front of him on the steering wheel, his head tilted all the way back, and his eyes closed. He was completely unresponsive, but still driving at 100 miles an hour on the interstate. So Carly is, of course, screaming his name, but she cannot get any kind of response out of him whatsoever. Nothing. And then the car veers and crashes.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

Which you shouldn't have been driving at 100 miles an hour in the first place, just saying.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

Which I can't really say anything. Yeah, considering my driving. So next thing Carly knows, she wakes up in the hospital and they tell her that Marcus is dead. He died from a broken neck. The autopsy shows that he had no drugs in his system. There was no aneurysm. There was no stroke, no seizure. There was just no explanation for why he went rigid and unresponsive and then drove off the road. Carly says that he looks like he was in a trance, like he wasn't himself demonic.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

She's lucky to be alive.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

She is so lucky to be alive. And then this is where it gets really disturbing because Marcus is not the only one. Now we learn about Miss Thornton. She was a teacher at Northport High. She was also hypnotized. And she also died in a car crash. And now there's Wesley McKinley. He was musical, kind, and close with his family. He also attended Northport, Northport High. And he actually had potential to go to Juilliard. He had an audition coming up. And that's hard. That's hard. That is hard. That's a really hard school to get into. So on the day that he died, he comes home and completely ignores his mom, doesn't speak, doesn't react, just walks past her like she doesn't exist. And obviously that's not normal behavior for him. I mean, his mom describes that they were a really close family. Later, he dies by suicide. And his family says that that was totally out of character. Like their family was really close. He was excited about the Juilliard thing.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

You've got Juilliard coming to audition you. I mean, that would be such an exciting time in your life.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Exactly. And so now we learn about Brittany Palumbo. She was described as sweet, shy, and funny. And she loved Taco Bell and watching CSI. She was a teenager. I know exactly. Which honestly, same. And she has some standardized testing coming up, and she's really anxious about it. So she goes to Principal Kenny for anxiety. And at first her mom is like, no, I don't want you to do that. But Brittany was really insistent that she wanted to go. So her mom was like, Fine, okay, we'll go, but I'm going to be there with you. Which, why is this the first responsible parent out of this whole story so far?

SPEAKER_02 12:38

She may just be the only parent whose kid went to her and said, I want to do this. Can I have permission? Because a lot of the stuff at school, when they ask you to do something or they suggest it, or they tell you this is what we're going to do now, you don't go, well, wait a minute, let me go ask my mom. Right. Just trust teachers.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

Especially principals. Exactly. You're exactly right. So her mom does attend one of these hypnosis sessions with her. And her mom's immediately like, no, absolutely not. It freaked her out. Yeah, it freaked her out. She says, You're not going back. You're not doing that again. But Brittany does anyway, without her mom knowing. And a few months later, Brittany also dies by suicide. So we're at a headcount of four now. Yeah, we're at four. Damn. So let's just line this up. You've got Miss Thornton, Marcus, Wesley, and Brittany. Every single one of them was hypnotized by George Kenny shortly before they died. This is not a coincidence. I don't care what anybody says. And it's just no way.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

You've only got um two causes death, right? You've got two car eggs and two suicides.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

Two suicides. Yep, exactly. Also just put this into perspective: Principal Kenny was doing these sessions behind closed doors with minors, often without parental knowledge. And he was also recording them without consent. And Florida is a two-party consent state. So that also is illegal.

SPEAKER_02 14:12

Meaning that both parties have to consent to being recorded.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

Exactly. And here's the part that made my skin crawl. Students would be unconscious, and their heads would be placed in his lap. He would rub them, he would touch them, sometimes out of camera view. And even Paul, Dr. Kenny's biggest fan, admits, yeah, it looks bad. Looks bad? Like, Paul, you need to wake the hell up, buddy. Yeah. So later on, Wesley's mom finds out that she technically consented to this hypnosis, but only because her son handed her the permission slip to sign for it. But he lied and said that it was for a track and field field trip. So she signs it without reading it closely. Bad mistake, mom's never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever do that. Never ever ever ever. Ever, ever. But I mean, normally it's gonna be something like, oh, a bad report card or a field trip to somewhere else, or just it ain't just a sneak in.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

If they give you something to sign, you read every single damn word.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

Read the fine print. But I mean, I guess they had like a really trusting relationship and and she trusted people.

SPEAKER_02 15:25

I think she said that she was like sleepy or something and he was trying to wake her up and she was like, uh just give it to me.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

And what parent thinks it's gonna be for a hypnosis from a prince?

SPEAKER_02 15:35

Well, I wouldn't assume it was gonna be for that, but I read it- You know what you know why I read everything so completely in depth when it was my kids? It's because I I used to sign my mom's name. Really? Yeah, I signed my mom's name all the time all the way through high school. Wow. Did you get in trouble a lot? Um eventually she found out and I got in trouble.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

But why were you signing her name? Was it notes saying Sarah was very bad today and she's a little brat? I honestly don't remember.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

I just know that I know her signature, my first husband's signature, and my aunt's signature by heart. I can actually copy a signature in about five seconds while Jesus, do you know mine?

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Uh if you gave it to me in about five minutes, I could do it. I want to do no, we can't do a test right now because we're recording. But I want to, I really want to test it. I am very, very good at signatures. Um, okay, so anyway, and the permission slip was like shady as hell. It was basically just a few sentences that said, I give permission for my child to be hypnotized by this fucking weirdo. I mean, that's really basically all it said. It was very vague and generic. It literally looked like something that you would find on Craigslist under discount doctor services. I love that age. So now let's talk about Kenny's training. He trained at a hypnosis center for one week. One week, seven freaking days. And that's the same level of training as someone entertaining you on a cruise ship after you've had three margaritas. And this man is out here treating kids for anxiety and depression. Absolutely not. Yeah, those kids are fragile.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

They're very yeah, their mental state is fragile, and you can't play around with that.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

Mm-mm.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

So in 2012, Principal Kenny is charged with two misdemeanor calfs and unlicensed practice of hypnosis. And his punishment was one year of probation, community service, and a$100 fine. I'm sorry. What? Yeah. Four people are dead. Three of them were students, and he gets a$100 fine and community service. Give me a break. So obviously, the families are not satisfied with that slap on the wrist and they sue the school district. Each of the families settled for$200,000 each, but Wesley's mom said that obviously there's no amount of money that fixes this. There's no amount of money that brings her child back.

SPEAKER_02 18:15

No.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

And let's not forget, remember Mark, the vice principal, he reported this in 2007. Like the school board knew and nothing meaningful was done. So yes, the school district absolutely shares responsibility here.

SPEAKER_02 18:32

Didn't that come up during the civil suit that it had been reported to them and that they didn't take uh serious enough actions and that's how they won the money? Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

That's exactly how they settled out of court because they knew that they were fucked if they did go to court. So somehow people in the Northport community still defend George Kenny and they still admire him and worship him, and they think that, oh, he was just trying to help. Probably hypnotized him. No, literally, they're probably all still hypnotized, and that includes Paul, of course, who is still out here defending this man. Paul, I need you to blink twice. Like, are you under hypnosis right now? Are you okay? Anyway, so where is George Kenny now? And sickeningly, he's doing just fine. He moved to North Carolina and opened up a bed and breakfast, and he now makes stained glass. He's living his best life while these families are destroyed forever. Must be nice. So this case is disturbing on so many levels. Kids being hypnotized without real consent, private sessions behind closed doors, physical contact, secret recordings, parents being misled, and at the center of it all, a man who had authority, trust, and access to children and abused every single one of those things. And I'll leave you with this. Was it really just hypnosis or was something else happening in those rooms? What do you think?

SPEAKER_02 20:08

So that had occurred to me, but the fact that he recorded everything, I think, may have been in his favor concerning whether or not anything else inappropriate was going on in the rooms. Because once they investigated, you they must have found the recordings, right? Right.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

But there's a That doesn't mean he recorded everything. Yeah. So there's two things about that. One, he did erase or delete or dispose of some of those tapes, and we'll never know what was on those tapes. And also in some of the recordings that officials did see, it seemed like he was kind of deliberately doing certain things out of view of the camera. He was like rubbing and touching the students, and it was out of view. So, I mean, that's a horrifying, horrifying thought. And I want to go back to Paul just so so quick, because number one, he's the only person that got interviewed that was in Principal Kenny's favor. Like they could only find this one dude that would go in public and say nice things about him. But I think that either he got paid or his views are just not in line with reality. Because if you had, say, a 16-year-old daughter and she was going into the principal's private office where there's no window on the door and they're locking the door, and he's quote unquote hypnotizing her, and he's got her head in his lap, and he is rubbing her, Paul. Are you gonna be okay with that if that's your daughter? No. I don't think he would. Something tells me he wouldn't be okay with that.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

So I've got here that he declined to be interviewed for the documentary and still denies any connection between his hypnosis. And their deaths. And he was never charged with any kind of inappropriate behaviour. It also did say in the documentary, or maybe I did research on this, I can't remember, that's why it was so hard to charge him with anything else, because you can't directly say that those children committed suicide because of his hypnosis. However, just like antidepressants say that some people may become more suicidal taking certain antidepressants, when you're messing with somebody's mind who's already fragile and has a fragile mental state, they are not supposed to be hypnotized for any reason because it can make them suicidal.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

Yeah, it can exacerbate the condition. And that is medically known. That's a fact.

SPEAKER_02 22:44

Right. So no one's saying that he hypnotized them and under hypnosis told them to kill themselves. It's more a case of he was not a medically licensed doctor who should have been hypnotizing children for their mental health. And so it'd be it would be like he was a prescribing doctor that prescribed antidepressants and anti-anxieties without really knowing what was going on and just throwing them at kids. And again, some of those can make them more likely to commit suicide. As far as the child wreck, I guess the trance is just something if you're being hypnotized on a regular basis that can happen out of the blue. Because they say, you know, when I say this word, snap out of it. When I say this word, snap into it. Maybe they hear on the radio a random word that makes them snap into the hypnotic state. Right. It's just something you don't mess with.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

No, that it's absolutely horrifying. But we'll save the rest for the after show. Yeah? Yeah, I'm surprised they didn't interview more parents. I think that as far as the victim's parents, maybe it was just too painful for them to come out. But like I said, Paul was the only one interviewed that said nice things. So, I mean, but supposedly the whole town just generally still supports Principal Kenny. But like they weren't willing to be interviewed publicly and say that, were they?

SPEAKER_02 24:06

So at the beginning of the documentary, they say what a loved person he was. Like he was he wasn't your average principal, he was on everybody's level, joined in everything. And a lot of people sometimes are just in denial when they find something bad out about a person that they used to adore and they just don't want to stop. They don't want to admit that they've been fooled. Right. But I could see how they wouldn't want to be interviewed about it because then you're really in the hot seat, aren't you? This person that that you really like, but it's been proven that he did things he shouldn't have done, but not convicted of anything that bad. I mean, you want to be really careful what you say, then, don't you? Yeah, because four people are dead.

SPEAKER_00 24:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:52

We don't give a shit because we know he's a piece of scum.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

Right, exactly. It's it's clear as day.

SPEAKER_02 24:57

Right.

SPEAKER_00 24:57

So, yeah, let's save the rest for the after show. What do we have next week? Scott Peterson. I'm excited for the Scott Peterson. I love talking shit about Scott Peterson.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

That's gonna be probably a long episode like the Casey Anthony one, because there's just so much to talk about. And we're gonna include not only the original story, but everybody's jumping on this bandwagon of doing interviews years later. Yeah, with the Casey Anthony one. We had we had the actual documentary, and then we had her interview years later, and it's gonna be the same with Scott Peterson. We're gonna cover the actual documentary, the I think it's called An American Murder.

SPEAKER_00 25:36

Who's somebody that you hope comes out and does an interview from prison that hasn't in a long time?

SPEAKER_01 25:43

What do you mean? Somebody that's convicted of something? Yeah. Who would you like to hear from? I really don't want to hear from any other pieces of shit that should have gone to prison. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:55

People like um Barton McNeil. Yeah. He c I guess he kind of did do his side of the story. His but but people that have um a good chance of appeal or lots of evidence that supports them. I don't want to hear from the likes of of Casey Anthony and Scott Peterson and people that actually did it. Like I don't want to hear from them. Shut up and go away.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

I can't think of anybody specific right now, but somebody just who did something absolutely heinous but never said why. It's always that burning question, why? And I know there's at least a few of those who committed really infamous crimes and we we never got the why. And I'm always curious about the why. I'll have to I'll have to look some up and see. See, see, I don't know that I care so much about the why. I mean the why doesn't change anything, and I get that. But I'm just But you will fascinate me.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

No why is good enough. You are mentally defunct. Defunct if you committed a murder, and I don't care what your why is. At the the bottom line is at the end of the day, you did it because your brain doesn't function properly, because normal people don't do that. So because their brain isn't functioning properly, their why in their head might make no sense to anybody else.

SPEAKER_00 27:15

Right, right. Because you turned the the living room light on too many times. That's the twice, you know. Or like Lorraine Bobbitt, who I'm eventually gonna do because you didn't care if I got off or not.

SPEAKER_01 27:31

So I'll cut your dickle.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

I was talking to somebody.

SPEAKER_00 27:36

Yeah, I can't wait to do that one. I was talking to somebody about that case the other day, and he said something. Oh, you spoke to a male about it? Yeah, I did. Yeah, he said something really like off the wall. And I was like, if you say that again, I'm gonna Lorraine bother you. And he shocked me. He was like, Oh, I think kind of that guy had it coming. And I said, What? Yeah, that was my exact response. Does he want to be on the podcast? He might want to be on the podcast. But no, I'm not, I'm not saying that he had it coming. But uh obviously he was not a good husband. Obviously, that man was an asshole.

SPEAKER_02 28:16

And we've all met a few guys whose dick we want to show. That's fair. For sure, for sure. For sure. But that's for another day, indeed. So tune in next week for Scott Peterson until then. Be divas, but not deadly.

SPEAKER_01 28:33

Bye.