ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — The St. Augustine man charged Thursday with 15 counts of possession of child pornography is a well-known psychiatrist associated with treating the woman who inspired the Oscar-winning film "The Three Faces of Eve," records show.
Tony Anastasios Tsitos, who practiced adult and child psychiatry for more than 50 years in Virginia, was arrested after police said they found thousands of sexual images of children — including some as young as 1 — involved in various stages of abuse on his personal computers and other equipment.
Years earlier, in 1970, Tsitos was recognized and credited for successfully treating Christine Costner Sizemore for multiple personality disorder — which is now known as dissociative identity disorder. Sizemore's case was highly publicized, inspiring both a book and movie in 1957.
'The Three Faces of Eve'
Even though "The Three Face of Eve" closed with a happy ending, The New York Times noted that the conclusion was premature and Sizemore continued to struggle with a fragmented identity, seeking help from multiple specialists over the years. She credited her four years with Tsitos, her eighth doctor who treated her after the movie, for helping her "integrate" her divergent personalities, The Washington Post reported.
"Dr. Tsitos pushed me into situations in which I had to confront myself. I was very angry with him many times. But he knew what he was doing," Sizemore, who died in 2016, told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in a 1989 interview. Sizemore, who was portrayed in the movie by Joanne Woodward, moved to Florida in the 1980s.
Tsitos, a 88-year-old husband, father and grandfather, was in South Florida when he turned himself in after learning of a nationwide warrant for his arrest, the St. Johns County Sherriff's Office said. He was booked into the Broward County jail before being transported back to St. Johns County on a $150,000 bond.
Phone and email messages left with Tsitos for comment weren't immediately returned.
Noted psychiatrist
Tsitos' Facebook page lists himself as a "psychiatrist practicing in Northern Virginia." The Times-Union was able to independently verify that he is the same doctor who worked with Sizemore through a mix of public records including matching the phone number and email addresses listed on his Florida voter registration to his former Virginia medical practice as well as matching the date of birth on his driver's license with public records from his time living in Fairfax, Va.
Psychiatrist Richard Kluft, who knew both Tsitos and Sizemore at the time of his treatment of her, described the doctor to The New York Times as "a very savvy clinician who could see that more was going on than the typical picture of different personalities, that not all of them were apparent, and that the differences were sometimes very subtle."
Though Tsitos' medical license is active until 2022 according to the Virginia Department of Health Professions, his old practice is closed and the building now houses a law office. No medical professionals with the last name Tsitos are registered as practicing in Florida. And no other Tsitos is listed as a doctor in Virginia.
Public records show Tsitos has been living in Florida for at least 20 years, based on when he first obtained both his state driver's license and voter registration.
As previously reported by the Times-Union, the Sheriff’s Office said its Internet Crimes Against Children unit began searching in late October for whoever was using the internet to download, trade or transmit child sexual-abuse imagery from a computer within St. Johns County. A detective traced it to a home and secured a search warrant, joining the St. Augustine Police Department and seizing multiple electronic devices, the Sheriff's Office said.
Emily Bloch is an education reporter for The Florida Times-Union. Follow her on Twitter or email her.
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