Palm Reader Cons Woman Out Of $71K And Some Bed Sheets By Promising To Exorcise Her Daughter

Guess she didn't see prison time coming.

Psychics aren't the worst people in the world. There are child molesters, genocidal maniacs, certain audibly tan presidents of the United States of America. But psychics are up there. I'm not talking about your friend who talks about crystals and Mercury being retrograde a whole lot and thinks she has certain "abilities," or even about people who charge $100 or whatever to do a tarot reading at a party. I'm talking about the ones whose primary magic power is conning desperate people out of thousands and thousands of dollars.

Like this lady, palm reader Tracey Milanovich of Somerset, Massachusetts, pictured above, who was recently charged with six counts of obtaining property over $250 by trick, larceny over $1200, and intimidation of a witness.

Tracy The Palm Reader, you see, convinced a client that her daughter was possessed by an evil demon that could only be banished if the woman gave her $71,000 and also bought her a bunch of household items like towels and bed sheets.

 
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I have some questions.

First of all, since when do palm readers do exorcisms? I am not a woo expert at all, but I feel like palm reading is an entirely different make-believe skill set from exorcisms. Second, why the bed sheets and towels? Is it because Tracey The Palm Reader wanted to redecorate, or because she was going to exorcise the child in her own bed and didn't want to get pea soup on all of her linens? Third, why not get a priest to do the exorcism for free? Hell, they even do them over the phone these days. Not that I believe in exorcisms, but if you're going to go down that road anyway, at least try the free option first, no?

I suppose we shall never know.

It's really easy, in these situations, to say, "OK, but what kind of an idiot actually believes their child is possessed by a demon and then gives someone $71,000 and a Bed, Bath & Beyond shopping spree to take care of it?" But anyone who does that is obviously in a truly desperate and vulnerable situation. Maybe her child has mental health issues that they don't know how to deal with, and that haven't been helped by psychologists. Maybe she has issues of her own. Whatever the case, taking advantage of someone like that is just an unbelievably cruel thing to do.

I try really hard these days to not be snide about people thinking they have magic powers if they are not hurting anyone — both because I am trying to be a nicer person and because I have found that this way I am significantly less likely to get cornered at a party by someone intent on proving to me that they or their crystals have magic powers. But "psychics" like Tracey Milanovich, like that god-awful Sylvia Browne when she was still alive, like all the psychics that prey on families with missing kids? They can go screw.

[ Somerset PD ]

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