Psychics, mediums, and spiritualist cons were everywhere in the late 1800s and early 1900s. For many, it was a quick way to swindle people out of their money with promises of contacting the dead and miraculous healings.
Promised to Restore Sight
Mrs. Harriet Crowe was an easy target for any swindler. After all, she was a widow and she was blind.
In 1908, Leonora Pearce approached the old woman and told her she was a spiritualist capable of restoring the woman’s sight. Out of the deal, Leonora was paid $16,800 and she also palmed the blind widow’s valuable ring.
Fortunately, Mrs. Crowe alerted the authorities when the spiritualist failed to restore her eyesight and Leonora was taken to court. She was sentenced to four years in the Colorado state penitentiary, but the money she had received for her false services was never returned to the widow. [1]
Exposed by Her Parrot
As a spiritualist was giving her seance in Osuna, Spain, her parrot flew out of hiding and landed on the table. The crowd went wild and injured the spiritualist.
Why, you might ask? Because the parrot had been trained to be the voice of a long dead nun and he would answer the psychic’s questions on cue.
You can’t make this stuff up. [2]
Caught in the Act
Mrs. Mendenhall of Indiana had a pretty good gig going on back in 1902. She would charge people to sit in on her seances where, in the pitch black room, she would walk around, tap on the table, and pretend to be the ghost of dead relatives.
Then Mrs. Kinnard came along, sat in on one of her seances, and grabbed hold of the ghost in the darkness. The women struggled to the ground before a light was turned on and everyone could see that Kinnard had captured the medium instead of a real ghost. [3]
Grabbed the Doll
Sometimes spiritualists would use dolls for their ghostly props. For instance, in 1894, Mrs. Mary Williams was giving a seance in Paris when one of those attending reached out and grabbed the ghost in the darkened room. A candle was immediately lit and the attacker discovered a doll in his hands.
Mary tried to make a run for it, but she was quickly captured by the angry group. She was forced to return everyone’s money and was told to leave the country or be thrown in jail. [4]
The Crown Prince
Bastian, an American spiritualist, thought he could pull one over back in 1884. He was invited by the Crown Prince Rudolph to give a ghostly seance. However, when the spirit “appeared,” Prince Rudolph blocked the spirit’s escape and captured Bastian in his ghostly disguise. [5]
