Dead Cats Found in Woman's Home

Inspectors have allegedly discovered 60 dead cats in the Beacon Hill apartment of a former Harvard Extension School student who, according to many who knew her, had a history of trouble with colleagues and employers at Harvard. Professors and a former boss in the psychology library said the woman, Heidi Erickson, was difficult to work with and filed many lawsuits against the University.

Last Wednesday, police said they found another dozen dead cats and 52 sickly ones at a Watertown apartment also owned by Erickson.

Though she has not yet been arrested or charged with any crime, Erickson will likely face criminal charges “along the lines of animal cruelty,” Lt. Michael Lawn of the Watertown police told The Boston Globe last week. Lawn said he is awaiting veterinary evaluations of the surviving cats and the necropsy results on dead cats before filing charges. If convicted, Erickson could be fined up to $1,000 or face up to a year’s imprisonment for each animal cruelty charge.

And according to spokespeople for both the Boston Police Department and the Suffolk County District Attorney, the Boston police are also investigating to determine whether they will seek a criminal complaint against Erickson.

Erickson has denied the allegations to the media, insisting that she took excellent care of her cats. She has claimed that the inspectors photographed someone else’s dead cats or that they mistakenly identified 150 pounds of beef kidneys as cat carcasses.

Though her reasons for possessing so many cats is unclear, court filings in Middlesex Superior Court say she once told a customer she was “very busy breeding the imperfections” out of Persian cats, according to a report in The Boston Globe.

Erickson did not return a message left at the phone number listed on her website.

According to media reports, on April 28, the Boston Inspectional Services department responded to complaints about foul smells emanating from Erickson’s Beacon Hill apartment and discovered what appeared to be a laboratory. Inspectors said the apartment contained 60 dead cats stored in Erickson’s refrigerator and freezer, along with five living cats and a Great Dane which, according to the inspectors, were all apparently malnourished. The apartment was also strewn with syringes and veterinary medications, the inspectors reported.

The Boston Housing Court ruled last Tuesday that Erickson could not return to her Beacon Hill apartment and forbade her from keeping cats anywhere in Boston. Erickson has appealed that ruling. Her Watertown apartment was also condemned last Thursday, according to media reports. But as of Saturday night, Erickson had not left the apartment, and Watertown police had not been called to remove her, according to a report in the Boston Herald.

Erickson has a history of erratic behavior, according to those who knew her during her time at the University.

Richard E. Kaufman, Erickson’s boss in Harvard’s Psychology Library from 1994 to 1996, said she was a “nightmare” to work with.

“Her record at Harvard was like Sherman’s march to the sea—she left a path of destruction which some people have not yet recovered from,” Kaufman said.

Still, he said, he was surprised to hear about Erickson’s recent newsmaking.

“I couldn’t even have imagined that, as distorted as I thought she was, she would hurt animals,” he said.

Erickson attended classes at the Harvard Extension School from 1990 to 1993, according to school records.

On her website, whitepersians.org—which is no longer accessible on the Internet—Erickson uses her experience at Harvard to present herself as an expert in behavioral genetics, claiming to have “progressed the research into the genetics of behavior under Dr.s [sic] Jerome Kagan and Evan Balaban of Harvard University,” among others.

But Kagan, who is the Starch research professor of psychology at Harvard, and Balaban, a former Harvard faculty member, said they remembered Erickson but were surprised to hear that she had listed them as references.

“I had no idea my name was being used. That’s really weird,” said Balaban, now at the City University of New York College of Staten Island. “She never did any research with me, so I don’t know on what basis she said that.”

Balaban said his connection to Erickson was that she had been an aide to one of his students, Christina V. Oleson ’92. Oleson wrote in an e-mail that Erickson was “very reliable,” but that she had not spoken to her in many years.

Kagan also denied that Erickson “progressed the research into the genetics of behavior” under his guidance.

“She did work for us for a few weeks many, many years ago, as a research assistant,” Kagan said. “And then I never saw her again.”

Balaban said Erickson listed him as a reference once before, shortly after she left Harvard.

“She I think had some kind of altercation with a landlord...and for some reason gave my name as a person for them to contact,” Balaban said. “They did, and I basically said I didn’t really know her.”

Many at Harvard also said that Erickson has a record of frequently suing her employers.

Erickson has filed a “voluminous” number of lawsuits against the University in both state and federal court, according to Mary Ann Mendes, spokesperson for the Harvard’s Office of the General Counsel. She said they were all “resolved favorably for the University.”

Kaufman speculated that Erickson’s suits have cost the University hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. Mendes said she could not estimate the figure.

Kaufman said Erickson filed a complaint against him with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD). The complaint was eventually dismissed.

Kagan said he had a similar experience with Erickson after dismissing her only weeks after hiring her as a research assistant. He said he recalled that Erickson filed a discrimination suit which was dismissed.

According to the Boston Herald, Erickson has filed suit with the MCAD 21 times since 1996, losing the 14 cases that have been heard.

—Staff writer David B. Rochelson can be reached at rochels@fas.harvard.edu.