Ownbey

Critics pointed out the experiment was flawed as Ownbey acted as both the sender and the experimenter, nobody was controlling the experiment so Ownbey could have cheated by communicating with Zirkle or made recording mistakes.

Ownbey was accused of strangling and sexually assaulting the victim without her consent and knowingly causing her great bodily harm, and sexually assaulting her with both his person and a clothes hanger.

She said at one point she tried to leave the house but Ownbey caught her on the back porch and then beat her with the leg from a shower chair that was nearby and later pushed the hollow end into her leg and abdomen.

For the experiment Turner would think of a symbol and write it down whilst Ownbey would write her guesses.

Martin Gardner wrote the possibility of sensory leakage during the experiment had not been ruled out: error The Turner-Ownbey long distance telepathy experiment was discovered to contain flaws.

Panther. pp. 172-174 Mr. Zirkle and Miss Ownbey.

The door separating the two rooms was open during the experiment, and after each guess Zirkle would call out his guess to Ownbey who recorded his choice.

The Ownbey-Zirkle ESP experiment at Duke was criticized by parapsychologists and skeptics.

The scores were highly successful and both records were supposed to be sent to J. B. Rhine, however, Ownbey sent them to Turner.