This chilling true crime doc investigates a high school principal who hypnotised three students before their deaths.
An ITV true crime doc investigates a teacher who hypnotised three students before their deaths.(Image: BLUMHOUSE)
ITV’s next true crime doc delves into the deaths of three students who were hypnotised by a teacher.
Look Into My Eyes was first released in the US three years ago and now it’s finally made its way to the UK, landing on ITVX today, Tuesday, August 18.
The True Crime Story doc explores the story of former North Port High School principal Dr George Kenney in Sarasota, Florida who was hypnotising his students.
He reportedly “put them under” to help teens with their athletic performances and anxiety ahead of taking exams and is believed to have hypnotised around 70 students in a five-year span.
But in 2011, Kenney was under investigation as he admitted to hypnotising three students who all tragically died within months of each other.
Star quarterback Marcus Freeman, 16, died in a car accident, and the following two months, fellow teens Brittany Palumbo and Wesley McKinley also died by suicide.
The four-part special takes a look at Kenney’s interventions and their role in the students’ lives. The official description further explains that it “investigates events leading up to these untimely deaths and the tragic aftermath as victims’ families, eyewitnesses, experts, and people involved attempt to unpack what really happened.
In the trailer for Look Into My Eyes, a parent of one of the deceased teens is heard tearily saying: “This man has ruined my life”, while another man stated: “This man just wanted to help.”
Kenney pleaded no contest to two misdemeanour counts of the unlawful practice of hypnosis without a license. He was sentenced to one year of probation, 50 hours of community service and resigned from his position as principal at North Port High School, according to the docu-series.
NBC reported that Freeman, McKinley and Palumbo’s parents sues Sarasota County school board for the wrongful deaths of the teens, stating that the school should have stopped Kenney from performing hypnosis.
In October 2015, each of the families reached a maximum sum of $200,000.
Look Into My Eyes is available to watch on ITVX.