A Peculiar Coincidence

[campion]

   Arguably the most famous full moon of the year is the Harvest Moon. Police Officers and Hospital Administrators are among the staunchest believers in the Full Moon lunacy effect. They claim to see more crimes, hospital admissions, suicides, homicides, car accidents and other strange events during a Full Moon than at any other time during the Month. In the UK, a number of Police Departments even added extra Police Officers during nights with a Full Moon in order to deal with higher crime rates.

   According to modern research though, this general paranoia over Full Moon effects is fictitious, but the Full Moon effect is endorsed by various Horror Movies portraying Full Moons and subsequent crimes. Humans also remember events better than lack of events, referred to by the Illusory Correlation Explanation. If something strange happens during a Full Moon, a person is more likely to remember it and also something about it. If nothing happens the night is forgotten. This accounts for how the myth is kept alive today, but does not explain how it began.

   On the 29th September 1985 a Farmers son was arrested and charged with the murders of five members of his family. The only other Full Moon to fall on the 29th September was in 1966. There are no other instances from 1940 to 2012. .................. References from Moon Phases info   

[Blodwynflower]

Good afternoon all

That's an interesting observation Campion.

[wichfinder]

that's because of the werewolf's.

[campion]

   Ruling out Werewolf's and other apparitions, is some form of auto suggestion intended to occur !   

[campion]

   An interesting addition of dates, a full moon Wednesday 24th July 2002.   

[campion]

  Intriguingly July's Full Moon is referred to as a Blood Moon !   

[grahameb]

that's because of the werewolf's.

Go away I'm changing.

[grahameb]

  Intriguingly July's Full Moon is referred to as a Blood Moon !

The family were killed in August though.

[campion]

   This has nothing to do when event happened, this is about subjective auto suggestion and illusory correlation. When an arrest is made, conditions, are influencing Public perception as to the authenticity
of the Police's choice of suspect. An illusion is created that pacifies lack of confidence in the Police gaining a result. Normal service is then resumed. For two possible misscarriages of justice arrests to have been made under these circumstances, and do factor in the time difference 1985 and 2002, it does seem a peculiar coincidence that the suspects are arrested at the time of a Full Moon. The only way to explore this is to see if a cluster pattern emerges. At the moment it is nothing more than a coincidence, one more case and the odds of probability change dramatically Grahame.