The New York Times on April 27, 1922, told of a John Cornyn, in San Francisco, who shot and killed two of his boys, one seven and the other eight, because, according to the police, he had been in “communication” with his wife who had been dead a year and she “had asked him to send all of their five children to her.”
The following story in the New York Times of April 22, 1887, comes from Philadelphia:
“The jury in the case of Mrs. Sarah Patterson, an alleged medium, charged by the County Medical Society with practising medicine and surgery without being registered as a physician, this afternoon returned a verdict of guilty. The defence set up by the defendant’s counsel was that Mrs. Patterson was a medium and under the control of Spirits, and was not therefore responsible for what she did in a trance. The defendant’s counsel are both Spiritualists and the case has attracted considerable interest, the court room being crowded since the trial began.”
These are the sort of things for which Spiritualism is responsible that are being told of in the papers frequently. To these few examples I could add hundreds from my files and they are constantly growing.
A hoax which usually creates a sensation, but which is apt, ultimately, to have a decidedly bad effect on believers’ nerves, consists in allowing some person to touch or even fondle a materialized Spirit. One such demonstration occurred in a Southern city, where there lived a medium known as Mrs. M——. Her seances were always well attended and largely made up of the elite of the town. On one particular night a Spirit came forth and called for Andrew, saying in the most austere tones:
“I am the Spirit of ‘Josie’ and I want to see my beloved whom I left twenty years ago. I know that he is present and that he wants to hear from me, and more important, I know he still loves me, for in those twenty years he has never married.”
With trembling knees and shaking hands the man climbed to the stage and in the midst of sobs recognized and embraced his sweetheart. It was a very touching and pathetic scene and the believers were greatly affected, and at some one’s suggestion an ex-minister and editor of a Spiritualistic magazine, who was present, married the Spirit bride to the live groom. It was a sensational proof of mediumship and Mrs. M—— was headlined in all the local papers. Unfortunately, however, for the cause of Spiritualism, my old friend, Professor Harry Cook, happened to be in the neighborhood and on hearing about it hired a hall, challenged the medium to a test, and with a lady assistant performed and exposed the miracle.
I recall another instance where one of my friends was investigating a materialization seance. It was claimed that the Spirit of his deceased wife was manifesting and he asked permission to kiss her. This was graciously granted and he told me later that she must have forgotten to shave for she had a stubble beard. Incidentally I might add that while he attended the seance his real wife waited for him at a nearby theatre.
Such an eminent scientist as Sir William Crookes evidently fell for the materialization hoax, judging from what he tells us about his experience at a seance where Florence Cook was the medium and Katie King the phantom. I will quote the story in his own words as he tells it in his book “Researches in Spiritualism.”
“Several times she took my arm and the impression I received that it was a living woman at my side and not a visitor from the other world was so strong that the temptation to repeat a recent and curious experiment became almost irresistible.