45. SAM to FM, 29 May 1963, DE; “My Friends, Sybil Dorsett,” FRS Box 26, File 702; Lee Moss, “Putting ‘Sybil’ together,” Ithaca (N.Y.) Journal, 18 February 1977, copy in FRS Box 34, File 1072; FRS Box 37, File 1094, Tape 14.
CHAPTER 12
1. FRS Box 12, File 294, Robert D. Moulton to Cornelia Wilbur, 27 September 1973, and Box 37, Files 1084, 1085; SAM to Wyelene Frederickson, n.d. but by content December 1964, DE; author telephone interview with Robert Moulton’s daughter, Miranda Marland, of Falmouth, ME, December 2010.
2. FRS Box 37, File 1094, Tape 11, and File 1103.
3. FRS Box 37, File 1096.
4. SAM to FM, marked as received 15 August 1963; 16 August 1963; received 10 September 1963, all in DE.
5. Ibid.
6. SAM to FM, received 10 September 1963, DE.
7. STERN.
8. Ibid.
9. Stratton L. Douthat, “Weston—Besieged by overpopulation,” Charleston (WV) Gazette, 20 December 1965; N. S. Ludington, “Weston Hospital not like Lakin,” Beckley (WV) Register, 11 November 1965.
10. FRS Box 37, File 1095, Tape 130, 12 or 13 August 1970; File 1086.
11. Ibid.
12. Ludington, “Weston Hospital”; author telephone interview with Dr. Mildred Bateman, Charleston, WV, December 2009.
13. STERN; FRS Box 37, File 1096, Tape 12.
14. As recounted in Schreiber, Sybil, 1st ed., p. 400.
15. Author interview with Brenda Burwell Canning, Cornelia Wilbur’s niece, in An-caster, Ontario, Canada, April 2009. See also photograph of Dr. Cornelia Wilbur in Pylon (1967), yearbook of the medical college at West Virginia University.
CHAPTER 13
1. FRS to Cornelia Wilbur, 23 July 1965; FRS Box 37, File 1102, August 1965; Box 37, File 1102.
2. Ibid.; FRS Box 37, File 1095, Tape 128.
3. Cornelia Wilbur to FRS, FRS Box 37, File 1102, 4 August 1965.
4. Truman Capote, “In Cold Blood,” The New Yorker, 25 September, 2 October, 9 October, and 16 October 1965.
5. George Plimpton, “The Story Behind a Nonfiction Novel,” New York Times, Book Review, 16 January 1966, p. 2.
6. Gerald Clarke, Capote: A Biography (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1988).
7. Liz Meegan, “Sybil: Not an ordinary girl,” Moline (IL) Daily Dispatch, 2 August 1973; and Peoria Journal Star, 2 August 1973. Both articles as clippings in FRS Box 1, File 4.
8. FRS Box 33, Files 1035–1038; FRS, “The Johnson Girls: A Study in Contrasts,” Family Weekly, 1 May 1966.
9. SAM to Luella Odden, December 1966, MC; SAM to FRS, n.d., FRS Box 34, File 10.
10. Shelby Young, “Sybil unrest: How a shattered woman who became a media sensation found a new beginning in the Mountain State,” Charleston (WV) Gazette–Mail Putnam Edition, 19 April 2006. Additional information about Shirley’s tenure at the Lakin hospital from author telephone interview with Mildred Bateman, of Charleston, WV, former head of West Virginia’s Department of Mental Health, December 2009; and SAM to unknown recipient, December 1966, DE.
11. SAM to Cornelia Wilbur, 4 July 1966, FRS Box 37, File 1102.
12. FRS to Cornelia Wilbur, 15 August 1966, FRS Box 23, File 624; and Box 37, File 1103.
13. Information about problems at Weston Hospital from “Situation at Weston has been studied,” Charleston (WV) Daily Mail, 7 December 1967; “Director of Weston State Hospital quits,” Weirton (WV) Daily Times, 31 August 1967; “Smith might want Dr. Bateman out,” Charleston (WV) Gazette, 24 December 1965; Cornelia Wilbur to FRS, 31 January 1966, FRS Box 37, File 1102.
14. Author interviews with University of Kentucky Psychiatry Department current and former faculty and staff: Dr. Billie Ables, Dr. Robert Aug, Dr. Lon Hays, Dr. Otto Kaak, Dr. Robert Kraus, Cathy Martin, Dr. Daniel Nahum, Dr. Jim Norton, Richard Welsh, in Lexington, KY, August 2010.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Author telephone interview with Dr. German Gutierrez, of Lexington, KY, April 2010. See also STERN. For mirror gazing research, see Giovanni B. Caputo, “Strange-face-in-the-mirror illusion,” Perception 39 (2010): 1007–1008.
19. Cornelia Wilbur, “Symposium 44: Recent advances in psychotherapeutic techniques,” reprinted from Excerpta Medica International Congress, Series No. 274, Psychiatry (Part II). Proceedings of the V World Congress of Psychiatry, Mexico, D.F., 25 November–4 December 1971. Copy archived in STERN; and Cornelia Wilbur, “Dual and Multiple Personalities,” read at the Annual Meeting of the Southern Psychiatric Association, Charleston, SC, 4 October 1971, copy archived in STERN.
20. Author interviews with University of Kentucky doctors and staff (see n. 14). See also Arnold M. Ludwig et al, “The control of violent behavior through faradic shock: A case study,” Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 48:6 (1969): 624–637; Nancy D. Campbell et al., The Narcotic Farm: The Rise and Fall of America’s First Prison for Drug Addicts (New York: Abrams, 2008); Arnold M. Ludwig et al., LSD and Alcoholism: A Clinical Study of Treatment Efficacy (Springfield, IL: Thomas, 1970); James Galvin and Arnold Ludwig, “A case of witchcraft,” Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 133 (1961): 161–168; Arnold Ludwig and Jerome Levine, “A controlled comparison of five brief treatment techniques employing LSD, hypnosis, and psychotherapy,” American Journal of Psychotherapy 19 (1965): 417–435.
21. Arnold M. Ludwig et al., “The objective study of a multiple personality. Or, are four heads better than one?” Archives of General Psychiatry 26:4 (1972): 298–310.
22. Ibid.
23. Author telephone interview with Prof. Ray Matura, University of Rio Grande & Rio Grande Community College, Rio Grande, OH, February 2010.
24. Information about Flora Schreiber’s affair with Leonard Reisman from author telephone interview with Ben Termine, 23 February 2010. Termine lives in Clearwater, FL. For more on Reisman, see Gerald Markowitz, Educating for Justice: A History of John Jay College of Criminal Justice (New York: John Jay Press, 2004); and Ruth Lonsdale audiotaped interview with Flora Rheta Schreiber, 2 August 1984, John Jay College Library Special Collections.
25. Ruth Lonsdale interview, op. cit.; SAM to FRS, 10 January 1968, FRS Box 37, File 1102.
26. SAM to FRS, 10 January 1968, FRS Box 37, File 1102.
27. FRS Box 32, File 1023.
28. FRS Box 9, File 249; Box 23, Files 626–628; Box 24, Files 681–682; Box 31, File 976; Box 34, File 1070.
29. Gladys Carr to Patricia Schartle, FRS Box 37, File 1103, 29 October 1969.
30. FRS to Patricia Schartle, FRS Box 37, File 1104, 6 January 1970; Patricia Shartle to Cornelia Wilbur, 16 February 1970, FRS Box 37, File 1104.
31. FRS Box 26, File 694.
CHAPTER 14
1. As transcribed in Schreiber, Sybil, 1st ed., pp. 52–53.
2. FRS to Cornelia Wilbur, 23 July 1965, Box 37, File 1102.
3. Barbara J. Nelson, Making an Issue of Child Abuse (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984).
4. Ibid.
5. Lisa Aversa Richette, The Throwaway Children (New York: Delta, 1969).
6. Cornelia Wilbur to FRS, n.d., FRS Box 37, File 1100.
7. FRS Box 37, File 1093, Tape 66; File 1096, Tape 132; Rieber donation to FRS, Tape 1.
8. FRS Box 37, File 1082.
9. FRS and Melvin Herman, “Should Police Use Hypnosis?” Science Digest, May 1966, pp. 17–19. Copy in FRS Box 7, File 166.
10. Cornelia Wilbur to FRS, 4 August 1965, FRS Box 37, File 1102.
11. FRS Box 37, File 1094, Tape 112, 23 July 1970.
12. Rieber donation to FRS, Tape 1; FRS Box 37, File 1097, Tape 24.
13. FRS Box 37, File 1094, Tape 119, “Dr. Wilbur, Sylvia, FRS,” 9 August 1970.
14. Ibid.
15. See, e.g., FRS to Mankato Chamber of Commerce, 22 June 1970, FRS Box 37, File 1103.
16. FRS to Gladys Carr, 7 May 1970, FRS Box 26, File 694.
17. FRS Box 37, File 1103.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
> 20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. Otoniel Flores’s death data in records of the Minnesota State Historical Society, see http://people.mnhs.org/dci/Search.cfm; and reminiscences by his daughter Virginia Cravens, audiotaped interview by Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen and Peter Swales 1998, copy in author’s possession.
23. FRS Box 37, File 1103.
24. Author telephone interview with the Winseys’ daughter Chris Winsey-Rudd, of Sarasota, FL, April 2010.
25. Information and quotations regarding the Winseys’ meeting with Flora are taken from FRS Box 37, File 1094. Date of Winsey-Schreiber meeting taken from FRS Box 37, “Tapes of Interviews of Dr. Wilbur.”
26. Author interview with Tom Davis, of Yonkers, NY, December 2009.
27. FRS Box 37, File 1095, Tape 119.
28. Ibid.
29. FRS Box 37, Files 1078, 1097, Tape 142.
30. FRS Box 37, File 1089, “Synopsis of Tape 15.”
31. STERN.
32. FRS Box 37, File 1089, “Synopsis of Tape 15.”
33. All so-called diary material is from FRS Box 37, File 1080.
34. Shirley Mason’s so-called diaries in FRS Box 37, File 1080, were viewed and analyzed by questioned-documents examiner Gerry LaPorte, of Reston, VA, in 2010. He concluded that the ink used was ballpoint and the material was written in 1945 or later. In 2009, questioned document examiner Peter Tytell, of New York City, viewed the diaries written in ink, as well as a typewritten set dated 1942. He concluded that the typewriter used to create that set was not manufactured until the early 1960s.
35. Schreiber, Sybil, p. 11.
36. Ibid., p. 198.
37. Ibid., p. 156.
38. Ibid., p. 138.
39. Ibid., p. 156.
40. Ibid., p. 160.
41. Ibid., p. 37.
42. Ibid., pp. 80–81.
43. Ibid., pp. 196–198.
44. Ibid., p. 325.
45. STERN.
46. Cornelia Wilbur to FRS, n.d., FRS Box 37, File 1100.
47. For Regnery and Plotnick’s work on Sybil see Felicia Antonelli Holton, “Philosophy vs. money: a publishing house divided,” Chicago Tribune, 12 June 1977. About Plotnick rejecting the book at first, see FRS to Abelman, 5 January 1977, FRS Box 30, File 940.
48. Schreiber, Sybil, p. 297.
49. Ibid., pp. 339, 344.
50. FRS to Cornelia Wilbur, 24 March 1972, FRS Box 37, File 1102.
51. Dominick Abel to FRS, 24 November 1972, FRS Box 12, Files 294–295.
52. Dominick Abel to FRS, 11 September 1972, FRS Box 12, File 294.
53. Connie Wilbur to FRS, greeting card n.d., FRS Box 37, File 1100.
54. For number of first-edition copies published, see Charlotte Phelan, “Flora has a good friend—‘Sybil,’” Houston Post, 16 September 1973, copy in FRS Box 12, File 283; for Warner promotional efforts, see FRS Box 13, Files 312 and 315; Box 12, File 296.
55. Patricia Myrer to FRS, 19 April 1973, FRS Box 23, File 634.
CHAPTER 15
1. Dick Cavett Show, 14 and 15 May 1973. Copy archived at The Paley Center for Media, New York City.
2. Patricia Myrer to FRS, 1 March 1973, FRS Box 23 File 634
3. “James S. Gordon, “The many selves of Sybil,” New York Times, 17 June 1973.
4. Time, 30 June 1973, available online at
5. D.W. Harding, “Crazy mixed-up kids,” New York Review of Books, 14 June 1973.
6. Nancy Ellis, “Sybil bizarre but true,” Omaha World-Herald, 15 July 1973.
7. Author telephone interview with Flora Schreiber’s cousin Stanley Aronson, in Providence RI, January 2010. For Nobel Prize see FRS Box 13, File 317.
8. Stanley Aronson interview, January 2010; FRS Box 9, File 225.
9. FRS Box 37, File 1098.
10. Reader letters all from FRS Box 12, Files 302, 303, 304.
11. FRS Box 12, File 297, “Sybil Syndrome” film proposal.
12. Sonya Rudikoff, “Of alternative selves and disturbing multiple personalities,” Washington Post, 20 July 1973.
13. Delphine to FRS, FRS Box 12, File 303.
14. Martin Kasindorf “Primal therapy this year’s rage,” Boca Raton News, 16 June 1971; Ivor Davis, “Scream like a child—Live like an adult,” Pittsburgh Press, 25 April 1971; Arthur Janov, The Primal Scream (New York: Perigee, 1970); Arthur Janov, The Primal Revolution: Toward a Real World (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972); Arthur Janov, The Feeling Child (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1973).
15. For criticism of primal therapy, see Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology, available online at
16. For example, Ann McFeatters, “Child abuse found among rich, poor,” Pitts-burgh Press, 25 April 1973; “Child abuse: Doctor says grim figures a national disgrace,” St. Petersburg (FL) Evening Independent, 26 June 1973. Information about Mondale and child abuse legislation from Nelson, Making an Issue of Child Abuse. See also FRS copy of letter to Senator Mondale et al.; Harvey Plotnick to FRS; Walter Mondale to FRS, all in FRS Box 12, File 294.
17. Reader letters are from FRS Box 12, Files 302, 303, 304.
18. Publishers Weekly, 23 September 1974. Copy in FRS Box 1, File 3.
19. FRS Box 26, File 703.
CHAPTER 16
1. Patrick McGilligan, Backstory 2: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 1940s and 1950s (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977).
2. Ibid.
3. STERN.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid., and Examining Sybil, from Sybil: 30th Anniversary 2-Disc Special Collection (Warner Brothers DVD, 2006).
8. Examining Sybil.
9. Author telephone interview with Stewart Stern, of Seattle, WA, February 2009.
10. STERN.
11. Stewart Stern to Cornelia Wilbur, 14 May 1974, in STERN.
12. Examining Sybil, and author telephone interview with Stewart Stern.
13. Cornelia Wilbur to Stewart Stern, 28 September 1974 and 4 October 1974, in STERN.
14. Sybil: 30th Anniversary 2-Disc Special Collection.
15. Ibid.
16. Stewart Stern to Connie Wilbur, 11 November 1974, in STERN; “Comments of a Petathal [sic] Session December 1958,” FRS Box 37, File 1089.
17. Cornelia Wilbur to Stewart Stern, 7 November 1974, in STERN.
18. Stewart Stern to Cornelia Wilbur, 11 November 1974, in STERN.
19. Cornelia Wilbur to Stewart Stern, 15 November 1974, in STERN.
20. Sybil teleplay draft script, in STERN and in FRS Box 26, File 699.
21. FRS to Peter Dunne, 11 September 1975, FRS Box 23, File 637; FRS to Lawrence J. Friedman, 17 January 1975, FRS Box 12, File 283.
22. FRS to B. Franklin Kamsler, 24 January 1975, FRS Box 23, File 637.
23. Examining Sybil, and author telephone interview with Stewart Stern.
24. Scholastic Voice and Scholastic Voice Teacher’s Edition, 24 February 1977 (Vol. 61, No. 12), copy in FRS Box, 1 File 4.
25. Ibid., p. 7.
26. Saturday Night Live, 18 March 1978, available in Saturday Night Live, The Complete Third Season, 1977–1978, DVD (Universal Studios, released 2008).
CHAPTER 17
1. Anita Weeks Bird to SAM, 20 August 1975, FRS Box 37, File 1099.
2. Schreiber, Sybil, 1st ed., pp. 183–184.
3. SAM to FM, 9 May 1973, DE.
4. Author telephone interview with David Eichman, of Roseburg, OR, January 2011.
5. Author telephone interview with Muriel Odden Coulter, of Tracy, MN, April 2009; author interview with Daniel Houlihan, of Mankato, MN, May 2008.<
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