Dr. Richard R. Schleusner and apparatus for restoring youth to the aged

 

• Photograph shows Dr. Schleusner standing next to his youth machine.
• Kennedy, Arthur, copyright claimant
• c1921.
• https://www.loc.gov/item/2012649418/
  

[Houdini makes spirit hands]

 

Houdini's 150th birthday today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Houdini

• [ca. 1923]
• -  In this sequence of photographs Houdini demonstrated how spirit hands that appeared at seances were made by less ethereal beings. In "A magician among the spirits" Houdini described the mediumistic fraud known as "finger-printing a spirit." A mold of a dead person's hand would be carefully prepared and, during a seance with the believed relatives, fingerprints of the deceased would appear on a lampblacked trumpet. In his book Houdini stated the following: "There are two cases on record where fortunes were at stake because of this sort of fraud. In one case five hundred thousand dollars changed hands upon the recognition of the finger prints of a man who had died two years before."
  https://www.loc.gov/item/96519247/
  

The Pangboche Hand

 

Mummified hand of a Yeti in Nepal. Actor Jimmy Stewart helped smuggle pieces out of the country. DNA tests said it was human.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangboche_Hand

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/saga-of-the-yeti-hand

The Highgate Vampire

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highgate_Vampire

On the night of Halloween 1968 a graveyard desecration by persons unknown occurred at Tottenham Park Cemetery in London. These persons arranged flowers taken from graves in circular patterns with arrows of blooms pointing to a new grave, which was uncovered. A coffin was opened and the body inside "disturbed". But their most macabre act was driving an iron stake in form a cross through the lid and into the breast of the corpse.

https://www.grunge.com/402692/the-bizarre-true-story-of-the-highgate-vampire-feud/ 

https://www.vice.com/en/article/akwkgj/highgate-vampire-history-sean-manchester

Helen Duncan

 

From Wiki - a Scottish medium best known as the last person to be imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act 1735 for fraudulent claims. She was famous for producing ectoplasm which was proven to be made from cheesecloth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Duncan

In 1926 she developed from clairvoyant to physical medium by offering séances in which she claimed to be able to permit the spirits of recently deceased persons to materialise, by emitting ectoplasm from her mouth.

In 1928, the photographer Harvey Metcalfe attended a series of séances at the house of Duncan. During a séance he took various flash photographs of Duncan and her alleged "materialization" spirits including her spirit guide "Peggy" The photographs that were taken reveal the spirits to be fraudulently produced, such as a doll made from a painted papier-mâché mask draped in an old sheet.

https://www.curiousarchive.com/helen-duncan-ectoplasm-medium-britains-last-witch/

Willard Fuller: The Psychic Dentist

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willard_Fuller

Fuller was born in Grant Parish, Louisiana. In 1946 he graduated in theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He formed his own healing ministry known as the Lively Stones World Healing Fellowship. He worked in Palatka, Florida.

It was alleged that Fuller could cause dental fillings to appear spontaneously, change silver into golden fillings, straighten crooked teeth or produce new teeth. However, magicians and skeptics have found these claims dubious, unsupported by any solid evidence. One dentist examined some patients of Fuller. In one case miraculous gold fillings turned out to be tobacco stains. In another case a female patient who reported a miraculous new silver filling admitted she had forgotten that the filling was already there.

Science writer Kurt Butler has written:

As explained by James Randi in The Faith Healers, he convinces many that the miracles happen because people aren't very observant about their own teeth, regular amalgam can appear yellowish with a dim flashlight, and because they want to believe. When they later realize that no miracle occurred, Fuller's circus has left town or they are too embarrassed to complain, or they blame their lack of faith for the fading and erasure of the miracle."

https://www.loc.gov/item/2016851329/

 - Header image 1920.

Borley Rectory

 

Borley Rectory was a house famous for being described as "the most haunted house in England" by psychic researcher Harry Price. Built in 1862 to house the rector of the parish of Borley and his family, it was badly damaged by fire in 1939 and demolished in 1944.

The large Gothic-style rectory in the village of Borley had been alleged to be haunted ever since it was built. These reports multiplied suddenly in 1929, after the Daily Mirror published an account of a visit by paranormal researcher Harry Price, who wrote two books supporting claims of paranormal activity.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borley_Rectory

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/dec/31/books.booksnews

The Great Amherst Mystery

 

Canadian poltergeist. 1878-79.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Amherst_Mystery

The Great Amherst Mystery was a notorious case of reported poltergeist activity in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada between 1878 and 1879. It was the subject of an investigation by Walter Hubbell, an actor with an interest in psychic phenomena, who kept what he claimed was a diary of events in the house, later expanded into a popular book. The case was dismissed as a hoax by skeptical investigators.

Maggie Murphy Potato

 

Too Large to Eat! 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggie_Murphy_hoax

The Mechanical Turk, Ajeeb, and Mephisto

 

The chess playing automatons. And hoaxes. Edgar Allan Poe was involved with exposing the Turk, the most famous. Mephisto did not have a human player inside, but was controlled remotely. Eventually a device was built which could actually play chess.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_Turk

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/debunking-mechanical-turk-helped-set-edgar-allan-poe-path-mystery-writing-180964059/

https://www.history.com/news/how-a-phony-18th-century-chess-robot-fooled-the-world

Ajeeb the Wonderful - 1886.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajeeb

https://www.economist.com/1843/2016/03/23/robot-chess-with-the-victorians

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mephisto_(automaton)

http://chessforallages.blogspot.com/2018/03/mephistogunsberg-cdv.html

Second link is auction price for image above. A listing of top chess-related auction prices. Ricky Jay had a bunch of that kind of thing in his collection, and I have his book of Jay's Journal of Anomalies, which has a chapter on the Turk.

The Bangs Sisters

From the Kinja archive:

Found this in the Paranormal Hoaxes section of the Forteana - Wiki Wormhole. They produced spirit paintings. Very successful con in Chicago in the 1870s-80s. A few careful skeptics finally exposed them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangs_Sisters

Magician Milbourne Christopher has written:

Wilmar (William Marriott) had read about the marvelous paintings produced during seances by a pair of Chicago psychics, the Bangs sisters. He wrote David P. Abbott, an amateur magician and investigator of alleged psychic phenomena, who lived in Omaha, Nebraska, asking if by chance he had solved the mystery. Abbott replied that not only had he duplicated the marvel, he also had added several touches to make the feat effective onstage. Abbott described the routine in detail. 

The Cardiff Giant

 

October, 1869. Cardiff, New York. 10 foot tall petrified man discovered. Another one of history's most famous hoaxes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiff_Giant

https://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.com/2013/04/an-enormous-hoax-cardiff-giant-1869.html

https://gizmodo.com/the-brief-lucrative-afterlife-of-the-cardiff-giant-5944851

Piltdown Man

 

1912. Fossil missing link found. Unusual among history's hoaxes because it took many years for the lie to be exposed. Arthur Conan Doyle was once a suspect in the fraud.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piltdown_Man

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/08/study-reveals-culprit-behind-piltdown-man-one-science-s-most-famous-hoaxes

Enigmarelle

 

Automaton. 1905. And fake.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigmarelle

https://www.wired.com/2007/04/enigmarelle-the/

William H. Mumler: Spirit Photographer

 

Captured a photo of Abraham Lincoln's ghost. The inventor of spirit photography. In reality a double exposure hoax.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/meet-mr-mumler-man-who-captured-lincolns-ghost-camera-180965090/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Mumler

https://mashable.com/2016/06/30/mumler-spirit-photos/

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/photographer-who-claimed-to-capture-abraham-lincoln-ghost

The Curious Case of the Calaveras Skull

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calaveras_Skull

“On February 25, 1866, miners claimed to have found a human skull in a mine, beneath a layer of lava, 130 feet (40 m) below the surface of the earth, which made it into the hands of Josiah Whitney, then the State Geologist of California as well as a Professor of Geology at Harvard University. A year before the skull came to his attention, Whitney published the belief that humans, mastodons, and elephants coexisted; the skull served as proof of his convictions.”

https://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/2009/05/05/the-mystery-of-the-calaveras-s

https://archive.archaeology.org/online/features/hoaxes/calaveras.html

The Great Moon Hoax

 

August 25, 1835. The New York Sun.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-great-moon-hoax

Great Moon Hoax lithograph of “ruby amphitheater” for The Sun, August 28, 1835 (4th article of 6).

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/great-moon-hoax-was-simply-sign-its-time-180955761/?no-ist

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Moon_Hoax