The Liverpool Echo today runs a charmingly-sympathetic feature on local corpse-finder and celeb-séancer Joe Power.
For those of you with good memories for niche outré pieces of pop-culture tat (and why the hell wouldn’t you?), Joe was the chap who chatted with a posthumous John Lennon back in 2006. The reason why many of you wouldn’t have known that – coincidentally the same reason that all of modern science wasn’t turned entirely on its head, causing scientists and philosphers the world over to fall to their knees, beating their breast and cursing their wasted lives in pursuit of damned reason – was that he didn’t actually talk to John Lennon. John Lennon’s dead, he’s not talking to anyone these days, least of all Joe Power (his name gets better the more you say it aloud. Joe Power. Joe Power). More details on that can be found all over the internet. Go ahead, check, I’ll wait.
These days Joe tends to use his ‘powerful gift’ (because his name’s Joe Power. Good punning, Liverpool Echo) to help police with their investigations – the latest being his help in locating Madelaine McCann. Joe Power says:
“I believe I have seen the face of the person who abducted Madeleine and it is not dissimilar to the sketch which the detectives released after help from Jane Tanner”
So his psychic ability appears to have led him to confirm the information police came up with on their own and which they have been working on for a while now. Handy. Coincidentally, my own psychic ability leads me to predict that the River Mersey is wet, that the sky is blue, and that Joe Power is a fraud. If he can retrodict, so can I.
This isn’t Joe Power’s first foray into the world of psychic detection. In the past Joe Power (who’s name really does get better each time you say it out loud) has made similar claims, including having played pivotal roles in the investigations into the death of Sarah Payne and the disappearance of Shannon Matthews – two high-profile cases that were solved without a mention of psychic intervention.
“The police never like to admit they have come to ask me but I have kept all their emails on past cases,” says Joe Power
If that’s the case, then this sceptic is more than satisfied – simply go on record with the emails, Joe Power, show the world that they exist and I will doff my cap, bend my knee, eat my words and personally carry you to the door of the JREF to collect your $1million. But, it seems, the police are indeed reticent to give Joe Power the credit Joe Power deserves – after claims of psychic involvement in the investigation of Lynsey Quy’s murder in 1998, the following official statement was issued by Detective Superintendent Sloan:
“I wish to state, categorically, that as the Senior Investigating Officer on the Lyndsey Quy murder, I made a policy decision not to use psychics on the investigation. Joe Power has allegedly made claims that he assisted the enquiry but this is not the case.” Source – Skeptic Report, January 2007
This seems pretty cut and dry – an emphatic denial of the use of psychics in the police force. As Greg O’Keefe mentions in his article:
“…you don’t hear of many psychics who are regularly contacted by Metropolitan police detectives for help cracking grisly murder cases.”
Too true Greg, too true. In fact, I’d go further – you don’t hear of ANY psychics who are regularly contacted by any police for help psychicly cracking anything. As Scotland Yard themselves will confirm:
“There is no recorded instance in England of any psychic solving a criminal case or providing evidence or information that led directly to its solution.” Source: JREF Encyclopedia
So Joe Power – despite his media-friendly local-boy-come-good life story, his dead-celeb hob-nobbing, and his entirely awesome name (it sounds best in a superhero voice, I’ve discovered) – is not a psychic detective. He is not even a psychic OR a detective. Joe Power is little more than, well… I believe it was Greg O’Keefe himself who mentioned a ‘publicity-seeking psychic personality’…
*Joe Power will be signing copies of his book at Waterstone’s, Bold St, Liverpool at noon on Saturday, June 6. I’m just mentioning. I’m not in any way suggesting anybody should attend. And say his name. In superhero voices. Incessantly.
** Update: Joe Power has his own Facebook fan page, which you can visit. I’ve left my thoughts there, if you decide to follow suit please be kind, many of the people there have suffered real losses which have sadly lead them to believe Joe Power is magic. Also, BadPsychics has an excellent archive on Joe Power, as well as on all of the other psychic-claimants – definitely well worth checking out.