The first real sign of trouble came in 2013, when Vera Pratt asked her goddaughter for help paying the electric bill. As Alexander Huls writes in the Boston Globe, this made no sense. Pratt, then in her 70s, lived on Martha's Vineyard in a $2 million home and came from a wealthy family. All through her life, she had been generous with family, friends, and charities happy to share in her good fortune. But she suddenly couldn't pay her utility bills? The goddaughter got suspicious and alerted police. A detective looking into the case eventually made a jarring discovery: Pratt had given a total of $3.5 million to a Florida psychic named Sally Ann Johnson. The story unpacks the disturbing narrative. Pratt saw an ad for Johnson's services in 2006 and hired her that year. Johnson promised to rid Pratt of demons so the final chapter of her life could be her best.
Over the years, Johnson became more and more enmeshed in Pratt's life, frequently making in-person visits at great expense to Pratt. At the same time, Pratt began to withdraw from family and friends. Her brothers (Pratt never married) knew she was paying Johnson, though not how much, and expressed concern. Pratt shrugged them off. Her diary shows that while she expressed skepticism at times, she generally felt the money she was giving to Johnson was a good investment. After the police got involved, authorities went after Johnson—not for fraud but for failing to pay taxes on the money she received. She pleaded guilty in 2017, got 26 months, and was ordered to pay back taxes and $3.5 million in restitution to Pratt. Johnson is now out of prison and has paid a total of $38,000 in restitution. Pratt died in 2018 at age 82. (Read the full story.)
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