Whatever happened to The Amazing Kreskin?

By Kevin Pang | Tribune staff reporter
6:34 PM CST, January 6, 2008

Young George Joseph Kresge -- anyone from the 1970s would know him as The Amazing Kreskin -- read comic strips during his New Jersey youth. His favorite was about a superhero named Mandrake the Magician. The "magician" title, though, was just a convenient alliteration device, for Mandrake's skill set was more in channeling his hypnotic abilities to solve crimes and defeat evildoers.

Now in 2008, Kreskin is inserting himself back in the news, this time with Mandrakian intentions.

He has offered to help investigators in the search for Stacy Peterson, the Bolingbrook woman missing since October.

While it whiffs of publicity baiting (the Illinois State Police turned him down), Kreskin believes he offers something law enforcement officials can't -- his decades of experience reading minds and discerning liars from truth-tellers, he said.

Detective work is a relatively new venture for a man better known for his public acts of prognostication. (Fittingly, or redundantly, he claimed to have predicted the winner of the Lifetime reality series "America's Psychic Challenge.") "If publicity leads to the solution of a crime, then maybe the publicity wouldn't be a negative thing," he said. (A question: Do we call him Mr. Kreskin? Mr. The Amazing? "No," he insists, "just Kreskin.")

Nearly four decades after the name Kreskin entered the cultural vernacular, the 72-year-old still performs more than 200 shows a year.

He also pops up annually on New Year's Eve news programs to make predictions for the following year. On Dec. 31, 2002, for instance, he predicted on CNN that Rudy Giuliani would run for president in 2008 -- and win.

About 18 months ago, Kreskin began teaching a course called ICOPS, which stands for Intuitive Cops Observational Preparedness Seminars, for law enforcement groups. Its name and association with the Kreskin brand name might suggest attendees walk away with psychic abilities.

Here is where Kreskin becomes adamant, and frankly, somewhat annoyed to be lumped in with psychics: He insists he possesses no paranormal or clairvoyant powers, can't see ghosts and can't channel the great beyond.

Rather, the course focuses on psychological methods such as jogging lost memories through relaxation techniques or detecting lies through body language and voice inflections. He also says he can improve one's interrogation techniques.

"Bottom line is that the mind is a remarkable tool," Kreskin said. "We all pick up a lot more than we're consciously aware of." "I think Mr. Kreskin has no more abilities to solve cases than the investigators," said James Randi, the country's foremost skeptic of paranormal claims. "If it's of any use, I would applaud it."

On Kreskin's Web site, amazingkreskin.com, he takes credit for helping break a missing persons case last year involving Scott Javins, a 22-year-old Indiana State University student from Terre Haute, Ind. Javins disappeared in 2002 after a night with friends. There had been no trace of him for five years.

"Kreskin Helps Precipitate Breakthrough in Five Year Old Missing Persons Case," the Web site reads, describing how a group brought Kreskin to Terre Haute for a May fundraiser for families and law enforcement involved in missing adult cases. Publicity surrounding Kreskin's appearance, the Web site asserts, resulted in someone "with potentially important information" about the Javins case contacting a Kreskin representative and then the police.

"It's my understanding that he tried to elicit information from the audience to help with the case," said Max Jones, editor of The Tribune-Star newspaper in Terre Haute. "But then, he also did card tricks."

In October, Javins' remains were found in a car submerged in a local river. Last month the county coroner ruled the Indiana State University student's death was an accidental drowning.

"I was really close to the case, and as far as I know, he [Kreskin] didn't tell us anything at all that helped us in the investigation," said Chief Deputy Jake Compton of the Vigo County Sheriff's Department. "He can take the credit he wants to take."