Sylvia Browne

• In 2002, Browne informed the parents of 11-year-old
  Shawn Hornbeck, who had disappeared earlier that year, that he had been kidnapped by a dark-skinned Hispanic man with dreadlocks and was now deceased.^[21][22] Hornbeck was found alive in 2007; his kidnapper was Caucasian and short-haired.^[23] In June 2008, the UK television network ITV2 was sanctioned by Ofcom for re-airing the episode of The Montel Williams Show featuring Browne's original prediction.^[24][25]
• In November 2004, Browne told the mother of kidnapping victim Amanda Berry, who had disappeared nineteen months earlier: "She's not alive, honey." Browne also said that Berry was "in water", and that she had had a vision of Berry's jacket in the garbage with "DNA on it".^[26] Berry's mother died two years later believing her daughter had been killed. Berry was found alive in May 2013.^[27][28]
• On Larry King Live in 2003, Browne predicted that she would die at age 88. She died in 2013, at age 77.^[29][30]

Psychic detective cases

In 2000,

In 2010, the Skeptical Inquirer published a detailed three-year study by Ryan Shaffer and Agatha Jadwiszczok that examined Browne's predictions about missing persons and murder cases. Despite her repeated claims to be more than 85% correct, the study reported that "Browne has not even been mostly correct in a single case." The study compared Browne's televised statements about 115 cases with newspaper reports and found that in the 25 cases where the actual outcome was known, she was completely wrong in every one. In the rest, where the outcome was unknown, her predictions could not be substantiated. The study concluded that the media outlets that repeatedly promoted Browne's work had no visible concern about whether she was untrustworthy or harmed people.^[32]

Among the predictions examined in the study were the following:

• In 1999, Browne said that six-year-old Opal Jo Jennings, who had disappeared a month earlier, had been forced into slavery in Japan. Later that year, a local man was convicted of kidnapping and murdering Jennings. In 2003, an autopsy of Jennings' remains found that she had died within hours of her abduction.^[4]
• In 2002, Browne said that Holly Krewson, who had disappeared in 1995, was working as an exotic dancer in a
  San Diego
  as Krewson's.
• In 2002, Browne said that Lynda McClelland, who had disappeared in 2000, had been taken by a man with the initials "MJ"; was alive in Orlando, Florida; and would be found soon. In 2003, McClelland's son-in-law David Repasky, who had been present at Browne's reading, was convicted of murdering McClelland; her remains were found near her home in Pennsylvania.^[33][34]
• In 2004, Browne said that Ryan Katcher, a 19-year-old who had disappeared in 2000, had been murdered, and his body could be found in a metal shaft. In 2006, Katcher's body was found in his truck at the bottom of a pond, where he had drowned.^[35]

In a 2013 follow-up article, Shaffer reviewed more recent predictions by Browne, as well as predictions whose outcomes had been earlier classified as undetermined but were now largely resolved. According to Shaffer, Browne was mostly or completely wrong in 33 cases and mostly accurate in none.^[36]

Sago Mine disaster

On January 2, 2006, an explosion at Sago mine in West Virginia trapped several miners underground. The following day, Browne was a guest on the radio program Coast to Coast AM with George Noory. At the start of the broadcast, it was believed that twelve of thirteen miners trapped by the disaster had been found alive and, when Noory asked Browne if the reported lack of noise from inside the mine might have led her to think the men had died, she replied, "No; I knew they were going to be found." Later in the program, it was discovered that the earlier news reports had been in error; Browne said, "I don't think there's anybody alive, maybe one ... I just don't think they are alive", adding, subsequently, that she "didn't believe that they were alive ... I did believe that they were gone."^[37]

Popularity

Browne cultivated a large following. In 2007, she had a four-year waiting list for readings by telephone. That same year, hundreds of people joined Browne on a cruise, each paying thousands of dollars for psychic readings.^[4] Many of her books became staples on The New York Times Best Seller list.^[1]

Browne attracted media attention seven years after her death, when social media users claimed that a prediction in her books (End of Days and Prophecy: What the Future Holds For You) referred to the

Browne was frequently condemned by skeptics.[1]^[17] Robert S. Lancaster maintained an exhaustive record of her inaccurate predictions and criminal activity,^[15] and described her pronouncements relating to missing children as "incredibly offensive".^[4] Jon Ronson, who called Browne "America's most controversial psychic", wrote that she was often "psychically wrong" and made "a fortune saying very serious, cruel, show-stopping things to people in distress".^[4] Fox News noted that she was "often criticized for her predictions";^[44] Browne also garnered disapproval from others who claim to be psychics.^[45]

James Randi

Browne's most vocal critic within the

On May 16, 2003, in another appearance on King's show, Browne said she had not taken the test because Randi refused to place the prize money in escrow.^[48] Randi responded by mailing a notarized copy of the prize account status showing a balance in excess of one million dollars; Browne refused to accept the letter.^[48][49] In late 2003, despite challenge rules that money could not be placed in escrow, Randi announced that he was willing to do so for Browne; she did not accept or acknowledge this offer. In 2005, Browne posted a message online that she had never received confirmation of the prize money's existence, despite Randi's claim that he had a certified mail receipt showing Browne's refusal of the package.^[50] In 2007, on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360°, Browne's business manager Linda Rossi stated that Browne would not be taking Randi's challenge "because she has nothing to prove to James Randi".^[51]

John Oliver

In a 2019 segment of HBO's Last Week Tonight, John Oliver criticized the media for promoting Browne and other psychics and enabling them to prey on grieving families. Oliver said, "When psychic abilities are presented as authentic, it emboldens a vast underworld of unscrupulous vultures, more than happy to make money by offering an open line to the afterlife, as well as many other bullshit services."^[52][53][54]

Fraud conviction

During the late 1980s, the

Browne married four times. Her first marriage, from 1959 to 1972, was to Gary Dufresne.[14] The couple had two sons, Paul and Christopher. She took the surname Brown upon her third marriage, and later changed it to Browne. Her fourth marriage took place on February 14, 2009, to Michael Ulery, the owner of a jewelry store.^[57]

In March 2011, the Society of Novus Spiritus, the Gnostic Christian Church founded by Browne, announced that she had suffered a

Browne died on November 20, 2013, aged 77, at Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose, California.^[1][59] Her interment was at Oak Hill Memorial Park.

Publications

References