(Signed) E. E. Fournier d’Albe.
21 Gower Street,
W.C.1
Poor Dr. Crawford! He committed suicide in Belfast in 1920 and left a note saying that his research into Spiritualism had nothing to do with his self-murder. I am very sorry indeed that this sincere investigator became his own judge because what he had written had been done in good faith.
A short time after Dr. Crawford’s death his literary executor requested Dr. d’Albe, early in 1921, to undertake a further series of researches with the same medium and circle in order, if possible, to obtain an independent confirmation of his results and theories and to collect more data concerning the nature of these manifestations. d’Albe tells in his book how he caught Katie Goligher manipulating and how he saw against the dim, red background of the wall the stool held by Katie’s foot and a portion of her leg. In some of these manipulations the people around the table assisted.
When he left Belfast he wrote a very nice letter in which he intimated that the result of his three months’ experience with the Goligher Circle did not furnish any definite proofs of the psychic origin of the numerous phenomena witnessed by him, and as they were of no scientific value he had decided to have no more sittings. It was suggested that Katie Goligher give twelve more sittings under test conditions, but she refused on the ground that her health would not permit her to entertain such a proposal for at least a year.
I sat with d’Albe at one of Mlle. Eva’s seances. I liked his methods and believe him to be a sincere investigator. I have the following note from him in answer to a letter of mine.
Kingston-on-Thames.
October 10, 1922.
“Dear Houdini:
“Yours of the 26th ult. just received. Yes, the Goligher legend has lost its glamour. I must say I was greatly surprised at Crawford’s blindness....
“Sincerely yours,
“d’Albe.”
In 1920, Capt. C. Marsh Beadnell, of London, published a pamphlet in which he offered twenty pounds if Dr. Crawford’s mediums would produce a single levitation under conditions which would preclude trickery. I am certain that any magician with a circle of six of his own choosing and with only one observer of the Crawford type could, under the same conditions, produce effects much more startling than any of those recounted by the trustful doctor.