Emanuel Tanay, M.D. who lent his expertise as an expert witness in thousands of court cases, including those of such well-known defendants as Jack Ruby, Theodore Bundy and Sam Sheppard, died in hospice care Aug. 5 of metastatic prostate cancer. He was 86.
A former professor of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences for the Wayne State University School of Medicine and adjunct associate professor of the WSU Law School, he was a distinguished fellow of the Academy of Forensic Sciences and the American Psychiatric Association, and a champion of those suffering from psychic trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. He was among those who successfully lobbied the American Psychiatric Association to recognize PTSD as a diagnosable and treatable medical condition in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Dr. Tanay's expertise in the area of psychic trauma was a direct result of his own personal experiences with post-traumatic stress disorder. As a teenage boy during World War II, he survived the Holocaust in Poland and Hungary by hiding from the Nazis and living on false papers to conceal the fact that he was Jewish. With his father confined to and later killed at the P³aszów concentration camp, Dr. Tanay became the leader of his family, saving the lives of his mother, his sister Olenka and his childhood sweetheart. He and his family were liberated in Budapest in 1945.
After the war, Dr. Tanay became a tireless defender for the rights of Holocaust survivors. Although he was a consultant for the German government in its attempts to provide compensation to survivors of the concentration camps, his main interest and concern was in the mental health of survivors. He became a visiting scholar at the Department of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Stockton College in New Jersey. He was featured in the Oscar-nominated documentary, "Courage to Care" and also in the permanent exhibit, "Testimonies" on display at the National Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
Murder was another subject Dr. Tanay built his reputation upon. The Detroit Free Press once described Emanuel Tanay as "probably the nation's premier psychiatric theorist on homicide."
After Jack Ruby's conviction for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald was overturned, Dr. Tanay was retained as a psychiatric forensic expert by the defense. In preparation for a second trial he conducted extensive interviews with the defendant and his two siblings. His work on Ruby's behalf was cited several times in the Warren Commission Report on the Assassination of President Kennedy.
In 1989, Dr. Tanay appeared on a panel of the American Association of Psychiatry and the Law to discuss his work as an expert witness in the trial of serial killer Ted Bundy. Dr. Tanay wrote about his work with Bundy, Ruby, accused wife killer Sam Sheppard, and many other clients in his book, "American Legal Injustice: Behind the Scenes with an Expert Witness."
Survivors include his wife, Sandra; son David; daughters Elaine and Anita; and six grandchildren.
Visitation will take place Sept. 13 at 11 a.m. at the Nie Family Funeral Home Liberty Road Chapel, 3767 W. Liberty Road, in Ann Arbor. A memorial service will follow at noon.