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Archives at Cornell

Richard H. Hoffmann papers

 Collection — Box: 1
Identifier: 3039

Scope and content

Professional and personal papers of Richard H. Hoffmann include a scrapbook with clippings, letters, programs, invitations, and magazine articles about his books, medical opinions, and testimony in legal cases in New York State such as the Creighton-Applegate murder, the Lindbergh kidnapping, the Miriam Brandt divorce case, and the Eleanor Morgan Slaterlee will case. Hoffmann also testified in cases where medical opinions were sought about hyper insulinism, sex offenses, and detection of criminals by facial characteristics. Manuscript material includes a typescript copy of "The Passions," a history of a patient, and notebooks with miscellaneous quotes and ideas. Also family photographs of his first wife, Janet Beecher, and son, Richard Wyndham Hoffmann, and several sketches by different artists.

Dates

  • 1927-1963.

Creator

Biographical / Historical

Richard H. Hoffmann (Cornell University M.D. 1908) was a psychiatrist, neurologist and criminologist. Born in Vienna, he received his M.D. from Cornell University Medical College, and also studied in Berlin, Munich, and Vienna, eventually specializing in nervous and mental diseases. He was associated with the Neurological Institute and Post Graduate Hospital on Randall's Island; wrote several books including THE STRUGGLE FOR HEALTH, 1929, THE GIRL IN POISON COTTAGE, 1953, and CONQUEST OF TENSION, 1961; and wrote for newspapers and magazines including the SUNDAY GRAPHIC, the NEW YORK REVIEW, TRUE CONFESSIONS, ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE and THE AMERICAN WEEKLY. He became president of the Institute for Human-Animal Relationships, an organization concerned with the tranquilizing and beneficial effects animals have on the elderly and infirm. He also testified in many famous legal cases including the Creighton-Applegate murder trial, the Two-Gun Crowley murder trial, and examined Bruno Hauptmann in the Lindbergh kidnapping trial and John LaMarca in the Peter Weinberger kidnapping trial. He maintained that the criminal nature could be detected through facial characteristics. He died in 1968.

Extent

1.0 cubic feet. (1.0 cubic feet.)

Language of Materials

English