Laszlo Kreizler

Dr Laszlo Kreizler is the enigmatic child and forensic psychologist who leads the team of five investigators in solving crimes around New York in the 1890s.

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The Basics

Essentials

Laszlo Kreizler Name: Dr. Laszlo Kreizler
Birth Date: Approx. 1854
Birth Place: Europe
Personality: Enigmatic, iconoclastic, complex, deep, intelligent, kind, stubborn, proud, opinionated, determined, emotionally distant, moralistic, honorable
Appearance: "As usual, his suit and coat were black, and as often he was reading the music notices in the Times. His black eyes, so much like a large bird's, flitted about the paper as he shifted from one foot to the other in sudden, quick movements. He held the Times in his right hand, and his left arm, underdeveloped as the result of a childhood injury, was pulled in close to his body. The left hand occasionally rose to swipe at his neatly trimmed moustache and the small patch of beard under his lower lip. His dark hair, cut far too long to meet the fashion of the day, and swept back on his head, was moist, for he always went hatless; and this, along with the bobbing of his face at the pages before him, only increased the impression of some hungry, restless hawk determined to wring satisfaction from the worrisome world around him." (A 38)

Family

Father: German, a wealthy publisher and 1848 republican.
Mother: Hungarian.
Siblings: One sister, now married to "a baronet or some such" (A 264) and living in England.
Emigrated: Came out to America at an unknown age (although assumed to be a young child) as his parents fled monarchist persecution in Europe.

Working Life

Education: Columbia Medical College in 1871 (Medicine), Harvard in 1877 (Psychology)
Occupation and Places of Work: After working as a Junior Assistant at the Lunatic Asylum on Blackwells Island prior to 1877, he became a Forensic Child Psychologist as an independent. He conducts his clinical work and research at The Kreizler Institute which was founded in 1885 and located on 185 – 187 East Broadway. He also works as an expert witness and consultant for several other mental facilities around New York.
Research: How social and environmental ‘context’ impacts on child development. One of his research papers is entitled; "The Relationship of Hygiene and Diet to the Formation of Infantile Neural (Pathways)".

Private Life

Status: Bachelor.
Home: 283 East Seventeenth Street.
Transportation: Horses called Frederick (a black gelding) and Gwendolyn (a brown mare). These horses pull either his Calash or Barouche carriages.
Past/Present Servants: Cyrus Montrose, Stevie Taggert, Mary Palmer, Mrs. Leshko.
Friends/Associates: John Moore, Sara Howard, Marcus and Lucius Isaacson, Theodore Roosevelt, Adolf Meyer, Franz Boas, Albert Pinkham Ryder.
Past Love Interests: Frances Blake (as a young man), Mary Palmer (in his 40s).