In previous posts in this intermittently appearing "Spookiest Years" series on this blog (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here) I had looked at some very spooky events reported between 1848 and 1872. In this installment I will look at accounts of spooky events occurring during the year 1873.
In a letter to The Times of London in January of 1873, quoted on pages 67 to 71 of the February 1873 magazine here, Alfred Russel Wallace (co-founder of the theory of evolution) stated the following about his investigation of paranormal phenomena:
"I began the investigation about
eight years ago, and I esteem it a fortunate thing that at that
time the more marvellous phenomena were far less common and
less accessible than they are now, because I was led to experiment
largely at my own house, and among friends whom I could trust,
and was able to establish to my own satisfaction, by means of a
great variety of tests, the occurrence of sounds and movements
not traceable to any known or conceivable physical cause....Although I have heard a great many accusations of imposture, I have never detected it
myself; and, although a large proportion of the more extraordinary phenomena are such, that, if impostures, they could only
be performed by means of ingenious apparatus or machinery—
none has ever been discovered. I consider it no exaggeration to
say, that the main facts are now as well established and as easily
verifiable as any of the more exceptionable phenomena of nature
which are not yet reduced to law. They have a most important
bearing on the interpretation of history, which is full of narratives of similar facts, and on the nature of life and intellect, on
which physical science throws a very feeble and uncertain light;
and it is my firm and deliberate belief that every branch of
philosophy must suffer till they are honestly and seriously investigated, and dealt with as constituting an essential portion of
the phenomena of human nature."
Around this time there were many claims of people having photos done in which unexplained figures seemed to appear, who the people being photographed said they recognized as some deceased person they had known. Such cases were often cited as examples of "spirit photography." The average person should ignore all such reports unless they are first-hand testimony. The account below signed by a doctor and his secretary appeared on page 292 in the July 4, 1873 edition of the publication Medium and Daybreak:
"While in London I visited the photograph rooms of F. A. Hudson 177 Palmer Terrace, Holloway Road, being a perfect stranger to that gentleman. I was accompanied by my secretary, Mr. T. R. Poulterer. We sat for pictures. The first spirit that came was Mr. Poulterer's mother ; the second, unknown ; the third, apparently only clouds: but an account of which will be given hereafter, as a prophecy has been made in regard to this picture ; the fourth was distinctly recognised by both Mr. Poulterer and myself as the spirit of my former partner, E L. Hamilton, M.D. So distinct was the picture, that we recognised it from the negative. We would recommend Mr. Hudson to those investigating the spiritual philosophy."
J. Wm. Van Namee MD
T. R. Poulterer, Sec."
The report above is hard-to-explain through any hypothesis of fraud, as the photographer apparently did not know the two men. Rodger I. Anderson's Psychics, Sensitives and Somnambules notes that Hudson "was never caught in any overt act of deception," although the authenticity of his photos was widely debated by those believing in other paranormal phenomena. A book on Hudson and his photos (one I have not read) is the one here.
In the previous post in this series ("Spookiest Years: The Year 1872") I had quoted quite a few newspaper articles from 1872 that had documented the evolution of the phenomena at seances of Florence Cook. The phenomenon reported in 1872 would typically consist of something like this: (1) Florence Cook being tied up in a small wooden cabinet with a circular hole at its front, often with the knots being sealed; (2) the appearance of phantom faces at the cabinet hole, often a "Katie King" face looking different in several aspects from that of Florence; (3) the later opening of the cabinet door to reveal Florence in an entranced state, with the knots still undisturbed and the seals undisturbed. The reports seemed to show a progression of the phenomenon, with witnesses reporting things such as hands of the mysterious Katie King phantom protruding from the cabinet hole.
In the March 1, 1873 edition of The Spiritualist, page 119, we have an account by G. R. Tapp describing a seance of Florence Cook. Tapp reports the figure of Katie King coming out of the cabinet, and walking around and talking. He says, "The resemblance of her features to those of Miss Cook
(which has so often formed the subject of discussion and comment) was not now perceptible." This is one of the earliest reports of a full-body appearance of the Katie King phantom, one that would be repeated many times in the coming months by many other witnesses. A similar account appeared in the March 15, 1873 edition of the same publication, by a B. W. Pycock describing on page 134 in great detail a seance of March 3, 1873. On page 133 of the same edition we have a similar account by J. C. Luxmore describing the same seance of March 3, 1873. He states this:
"When Katie appeared in full length outside the cabinet, her feet and legs were bare, whereas, of
course, Miss Cook had on boots and stockings. Again, that
Katie was clothed in a long and rather full white robe, such
as Miss Cook could not possibly have concealed about her
person, especially as her figure happens to be very small.
I carefully examined every portion of the cabinet, and
nothing of the sort was in it."
In the same edition we have seven named witnesses (all giving their names and addresses) stating that they saw a full-sized phantom of Katie King during a seance with Florence Cook in which she was tied up in a small cabinet, with the knots sealed:
"This evening, March 12th, 1873, we, the undersigned, were
present at a seance at Mr. Cook’s. In the first part of the
sitting, the full form calling herself Katie came out of the cabinet, draped in white, while Miss Cook’s hands were
securely bound together with tape and sealed....At the close of each sitting the tapes and seals on Miss
Cook’s hands were intact, and were then cut off and taken
away by two of the visitors."
We have here testimony meeting very high standards of evidence. The account has been published on March 15, 1873, and describes events witnessed only three days earlier, on March 12. The account is dated on the same day the witnesses saw the events, meaning the report is of something just observed. In addition, there are seven named witnesses. The testimony typically given in today's scientific papers (typically passive voice accounts of observations made by one or more unspecified witnesses claiming to have seen something at an unspecified date) usually are inferior from the standpoint of meeting highest standards of witness testimony.
In the April 1, 1873 edition of The Spiritualist, on page 152, we have this account:
"Spirit Forms—Last Sunday week, at a seance at Mr.
Henry Cook's, at Hackney, Mrs. Bassett and Miss Cook were
the mediums, and they sat in the cabinet for spirit forms.
The observers present were Dr. J. E. Purdon, Sandown, Isle of
Wight; Mr. Bassett, Thornham-Grove, Stratford; Mr. G. II.
Tapp, Queen Margaret’s-grove, Mildmay-Park ; and Mr. and
Mrs. Blyton, 74, Navarino-road, Dalston. Miss Cook's spirit guide 'Katie,' came out of the cabinet at full length, robed in
white, in a good light. On giving her subdued light she was
able to walk round the room, and to touch each sitter in turn.
Mrs. Bassett told the company that Miss Cook had been entranced all the time, with her head lying on her (Mrs. Bassett’s) lap; that Katie appeared suddenly, and frequently,
entered and left the cabinet; finally, she came in again, stood
by Miss Cook, and slowly faded away."
In the May 15, 1873 edition of The Spiritualist, page 200, we have a long account of attempts to photograph the mysterious phantom Katie King. We have an assertion signed by five witnesses (Amelia Corner, Caroline Corner, J. C. Luxmore, G. R. Tapp and William H. Harrison) stating on May 7, 1873 that what they describe as "the spirit 'Katie King' " was successfully photographed, and they she walked around and talked at length. We are given an artwork and told that this is a copy of one of the photos taken. The artwork is below (the rather poor visual quality apparently being due to a photo being taken of the old newspaper):
A matching artwork (also identified as a copy of a photograph) appears at the front of Epes Sargent's 1876 book The Proof Palpable of Immortality, which has many pages dealing with the Florence Cook seances discussed above, and similar sessions of the next year. The artwork is below:
The portrait above from the May 15, 1873 edition of The Spiritualist (along with a smaller woodcut in the same edition) seem to be the first images of Katie King to appear in print. In the June 1, 1873 edition of The Spiritualist, page 217, we are told this:
"Last Wednesday evening, at a seance at Mr. Henry Cook’s,
Haekney, four more positive photographs on glass were taken
by the magnesium light, of the materialised spirit form of
Katie King. One of the Daily Telegraph correspondents, the
author of the Unorthodox London letters, bound the hands of
Miss Cook (the medium) together with tape, sealed the knot
between the wrists with wax, stamped by his signet ring,
then he fastened her to the floor inside the cabinet with thc
long end of the tape from the wrists, and brought the same
end of the tape out of the cabinet, and tied it to a chair. The
tapes and seals were perfect at the close of the seance. The
witnesses were also Dr. J. M. Gully, of Malvern ; Miss
Katherine Poyntz (whose vocal abilities are so well known) ;
the two Misses Withall, of Brixton ; Mr. II. Withall, Mr. G.
11, Tapp, and Mr. Harrison."
In the November 1, 1873 edition of The Spiritualist, page 381, we read more about recent seances with Florence Cook, involving the appearance of the mysterious phantom Katie King.
"At a seance held October 7th, Mr. C. Blackburn and Miss
Blackburn of Manchester, also Dr. Gully, were present. Miss
Blackburn and another lady thoroughly searched Miss Cook
(who requested that they should do so) in a bedroom, after
which they accompanied her to the cabinet which had been
thoroughly searched just previously. Her hands were then
secured with tape, by which also she was fastened to the floor
in the cabinet. All the knots were sealed, with signet rings.
The spirit came out of the cabinet with bare feet, robed from
head to foot in white, as usual, in a good light. She talked
for about an hour as usual, entering and leaving the cabinet
occasionally; once she walked about a yard from the cabinet,
towards the centre of the room."
We then read this, indicating that very many named witnesses saw effects like those described above:
"Last Tuesday there was a seance at Mr. Luxmoore's house,
16, Gloucester-square, Hyde-park. Among the guests were
Mr. and Mrs. Mankiewiez, Pembridge-gardens, Bayswater ;
Mr. and Mrs. Cook, of Hackney ; Mr. H. M. Dunphy, Barrister-at-law, Essex-court, Temple ; M. Alexandre Aksakof,
of St. Petersburgh ; Mrs. Whyte, 33, Richmond-road, Bayswater ; Mrs. Corner, Miss Corner, and Mr. T. Corner, of
Connaught-square, Haekney ; Mr. Stanhope Templeman
Speer, M.D., of Alexandra-road, St. John's-wood ; Mr. G. R.
Tapp, 18, Queen Margaret's-grove, Mildmay-park ; Mr. J. M.
Gully, M.D., Streatham ; and Mr. W. H. Harrison, Hernehill. The darkened back drawing-room was used as a cabinet,
a curtain being suspended between the two rooms. Miss
Cook was bound and sealed as usual, a seal belonging to Dr.
Speer being used ; the medium was fastened to the floor, with
sealed tape, just behind the curtain. The seance proceeded as
usual, Katie in one instance turning round to show her back
to the company...The tapes and seals were intact at the close of each seance,
and the tapes were stretched before use. "
In the November 14, 1873 edition of The Spiritualist, page 396, William Oxley (in a statement dated November 4, 1873) describes a similar seance ("at the house of Mr. Cook") involving Florence Cook on October 31, 1873. We read this:
"Miss Cook, the medium, was securely fastened by tapes
going round each wrist, and knots sealed with my signet; the
tape round the waist ' ditto,' and brought through a strong
staple in the floor of the cabinet, thence conveyed across a
side table, so that any movement by the medium would have
been instantly detected. A lamp was burning the whole
evening, with the exception of once, when it was accidentally
turned out by Mr. Tapp. The light was sufficient for all
present to see each other and every thing that was in the
room.
That Miss Cook and Katie King are not the same person
was evident to my mind from the following facts :—Katie
appeared full three or four inches taller than Miss Cook ; the
arms, hands, and feet, which were all bare, were also longer and
stouter in proportion. Katie, I particularly noticed, had hair
of a lightish brown tint, and which projected beyond the
encircling head-dress quite straight, and half-way down the
back, while Miss Cook's hair is very dark and arranged in long
profuse curls and ringlets. As I saw Katie two minutes before
Miss Cook came out of the trance state, and was liberated by
cutting the tapes, the seals on which were intact, I am sure
any lady will bear me out in the assertion that it would not be
possible in so short a period to change the hair from straight
to ringlets or long curls. Katie came out of the cabinet into the midst of the circle at
least six or seven times, and conversed with most of those who
were present. On one occasion she went to the side-table, and
taking up some paper in the presence of all, wrote two
messages, one of which she presented to me, and which is now
in my possession; this was done in a good light and witnessed
by all who were present.
On one occasion, while Katie was in the centre of the room,
we heard a slight moan inside the cabinet, when immediately
she returned, saying it was necessary to keep her medium
asleep. Mr. Luxmoore put his hands and arms inside the
cabinet and adjusted the medium, who had slightly fallen on
one side of her chair ; this done I was summoned by Katie to leave my seat and go and examine the tapes. I did so, and
felt the tapes inside the cabinet; these were all tight. I was
astonished during this episode to find that Katie had vanished,
for we could see inside the cabinet, while Mr. Luxmoore was
adjusting the medium, but before I had time to resume my
seat, Katie asked me if I had examined the tapes, and if I was
satisfied. Of course my reply was in the affirmative."
In the December 1873 edition of The Spiritual Magazine on page 555 we have this account of a seance at the house of J. C. Luxmoore, Esq., 16, Gloucester
Square, Hyde Park, on November 18th, 1873:
"The fourteen ladies and gentleman who
formed a horseshoe circle in front of the cabinet could see each
other the whole evening. A low chair was placed in the
cabinet, upon which Miss Cook, the medium, was seated, and
Mr. Luxmoore invited Mr. B., of Manchester, and myself to
witness the tying and securing of Miss Cook. Her hands were
first tied together with a piece of tape, the ends of which were
sewn and sealed with wax, and then the tape was passed round
her waist and tightly knotted and sewn and sealed again. The
tape was then passed through a staple in the floor, leaving a
slack of about a foot, and there knotted again, which restrained
Miss Cook from standing up to her full height, and then the
same piece of tape was brought into the room m which we were
seated, nearly up to our feet, where it remained undisturbed to the last.
In this way the most satisfactory proof was given that whoever the figure of Katey may be, it was not Miss Cook, who lay
during the whole stance, as we had proved to us by the undisturbed line of tape, and by Mrs. Honywood being invited to
enter the cabinet by the spirit the instant she, Katey disappeared;
which Mrs. Honywood did, and there she saw Miss Florence
Cook asleep, leaning over nearly to the floor,— the ties on her
hands and waist sealed as they had been left at the commencement of the sitting, from which, as soon as she awoke, she was
relieved by cutting them.
Here we all saw within an instant or two, this young girl
recovering from her trance, dressed in black, wearing stockings
and spring boots, having just lost sight of Katey, the spirit,
who was clothed in pure white garments, and whose feet were
naked."
In accounts such as these we have quite a few characteristics of very good evidence. The accounts are extremely explicit, giving all relevant details. The accounts are firsthand accounts by named witnesses (giving their addresses also) in dated statements mentioning when the event was witnessed. In most cases we can see that the account was written on the same day as the witnessed events or only a few days after the witnessed events, and that the account was published in a newspaper or magazine within a few days after the account was written. Accounts such as these have much higher value as evidence than accounts of people recalling something they saw months or years ago. The smaller the time interval between an account and when the event account occurred, the more reliable the evidence is. People are often sentenced to long jail terms on the basis of much weaker evidence, such as someone recalling in a court something he saw months ago or years ago. Another strong aspect of good evidence here is that quite a few different witnesses on different dates and in different homes report seeing the same thing: (1) Florence Cook being tied up in a "cabinet" (usually a small wooden cabinet, but sometimes a sealed-off area of a room), with seals placed on the knots; (2) the appearance of a mysterious Katie King phantom who comes out of the cabinet, having an appearance different from Florence; (3) the disappearance of this Katie King followed by an opening of the cabinet, with Florence still tied up in the sealed knots. These three things are reported occurring in not just one home, but different homes.
In the December 12, 1873 edition of The Spiritualist, we have a description of what happened at a December 9, 1873 seance involving Florence Cook. We read this:
"This evening at Miss Cook’s seance, during the appearance
of what purported to be the spirit ' Katie,' a man, named
Volckman, rose up, grasped her round the waist with both
arms, and tried to throw her down with his feet. Mr. Tapp
and Mr. Comer seized the man who thus broke the conditions
which we were all admitted on the understanding we would keep. 'Katie' instantly extricated herself from his clutches, and
aided by Mr. Luxmoore, was in a moment back in the cabinet.
After a delay of about five minutes, during which Katie gave
earnest instructions to the sitters, the cabinet was opened and
Miss Cook found in black dress, and boots, with the tape
tightly round her waist as at the beginning of the seance, the
knot sealed as at first with the signet-ring of the Earl of
Caithness, and sewn underneath the seal with thread, as it
had been sewn before the seance by Mr. Luxmoore."
In the next edition (December 26, 1873) William Volckman gives his account of the incident:
"In reply I have to state, that having for forty minutes carefully observed and scrutinised the face, features, gestures, size,
style, and peculiarities of utterance of the so-called spirit, the
conviction irresistibly forced itself upon me that no ghost, but
the medium, Miss Florence Cook, herself, was before the
circle. I perceived also an occasional tip-toeing by the young
lady as if to alter her stature, and was much struck by the
utter puerility of her remarks throughout the seance. I am
confirmed in my conviction, as above stated, by the facts that
the struggling ghost had to be forcibly extricated from my
grasp, and afterwards to be 'aided' into her cabinet by a
Justice of the Peace."
Although sometimes quoted by the very rare skeptics who discuss the case of Florence Cook, the incident provides nothing to discredit the Katie King phenomenon, other than one man's negative impression. If you read the long 1873 accounts of the Katie King appearances, partially quoted above and fully readable in many of the 1873 editions of The Spiritualist, you will not hear claims of Katie King being some immaterial translucent ghost who could not be grasped, but instead accounts of a mysteriously appearing solid form. For example, in the June 1, 1873 quote above, Katie King is referred to as a "materialized spirit form" not some immaterial ghost. In reports of later tests by a doctor and Sir William Crookes, we are told the same mysteriously appearing "Katie King" would have her pulse measured and her skin temperature felt. So some possible brief clutching of this Katie King by a skeptic does nothing to discredit the phenomenon. In the December 26, 1873 edition of The Spiritualist we are told by a witness that Volkman's clutching attempt was a matter of no more than about six seconds. Often the witnesses would report Katie King looking much like Florence Cook, and often the witnesses would report substantial differences in appearance.
On page 534 of the December 1873 edition of The Spiritual Magazine we have this account of mysterious appearances during a seance occurring in October 1873.
"Seance at 1, Morland Villas, Highbury Hill Park, October 23.
Present: Professor Aksakoff, Mr. Serjeant Cox, Mr. Volkman,
Mr. and Miss Shorter, Miss Ingram, Miss Houghton, Mrs.
Fisher, and Mr. and Mrs. Guppy. We sat for about half-an-hour, the door locked, all hands joined, and light extinguished;
during which several objects were thrown upon the table. On
lighting the gas, these were found to consist of a stone, a knitting needle, a potato, a turnip, a carrot, a Spanish onion, thirteen
dahlias, six apples, three pears, four walnuts, two almonds, twelve
mussel-plums, a lemon, three gold fishes, a water-mussel, a
lobster, two eels, and a knife and fork. The dahlias were wet
with the rain which had just fallen ; the fishes were all alive; the
gold fishes and the mussel were brought from an aquarium in an
adjoining room ; the rest of the things were not in the house or
grounds. A stone had been asked for by Miss Houghton, and the
one brought was wet and soiled, as if picked up from the street.
One of the eels was placed around the neck of Mrs. Guppy, and the
other was drawn over the face of Mrs. Fisher, and the screaming
which followed led to the gas being lit, and brought the seance
to an end. Mr. Volkman had asked for a vegetable marrow,
and after the seance, was over, and we had risen from our chairs,
a large marrow fell at our feet in view of all present, and in full
gaslight.
Just before the seance began, at the suggestion of Mrs.
Guppy, the room was carefully searched, so that it can be certified, from thorough examination of the room and its contents,
that these things were not then in it."
The account has no named author, which subtracts a little from its value as evidence. The same edition lists a similar occurrence at a seance of October 28, 1873. On page 431 of the September 1873 edition of The Spiritual Magazine we have a similar account of dramatic mysterious appearances inside a seance room with locked window and doors, occurring on August 14, 1873, with the author (Margaret Fisher) reporting the appearance of " six cups and six saucers, six tea spoons, two knives,
six tea plates, a jug of milk, loaf of bread uncut, basin with
sugar, plate of butter garnished with parsley, a large twelve cup teapot with tea in it ready for infusion, two beautiful
Madeira cakes, and a large dish containing several pounds
weight of beautiful English hothouse grapes." On page 453 of the October 1873 edition of the The Spiritual Magazine, we have an account by Margaret Fisher of a recent 1873 seance. The report claims that "after seeing to the perfect
security of doors and windows, we sat down to the table, extinguished the lights, and...on the large table we found seven pounds weight of plums,
and six pounds’ weight of fine grapes, and twelve pounds of pears, most tastefully garnished with leaves and flowers, and a dessert plate placed before each of our party." Margaret follows with a mention of the mysterious appearance of a horse, but the description is too vague to be worth quoting.
"It will be recollected by those who
have read my American Notes, that Miss Laura Edmonds,
daughter of Judge Edmonds, told me that her spirit
in natural form had more than once appeared to friends
at a distance; and Miss Mapes, daughter of Professor
Mapes, assured me that her friend, Miss Edmonds, had
appeared to her, and delivered messages, though bodily
they were living twenty miles apart."
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