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TLS signed “Houdini,” two pages, 8.5 x 11, personal letterhead, July 8, 1925. Letter to German writer and intellectual Carl Graf von Klinckowstroem (1884-1969), a historian of science, technology, and culture. He was intrigued by the occult, especially the Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, but he also showed a receptiveness to Houdini’s skepticism about false mediums. The letter, in full: “I made a special trip to Philadelphia and spoke with Remigius Weiss. He had mailed me a copy of the letter he sent you and I am awfully pleased that he is still alive and in full possession of his faculties. He has a most remarkable library. Years ago he was a feature writer for a number of newspapers and he has a number of articles written wherein he offered at the time of the Slade incident $100. for any spiritualistic effect which he could not reproduce. He told me an interesting incident of how he disguised himself by cutting off his beard and hair to obtain sittings with Slade.
Did you know that Slade was ‘perverse.’ I have heard this from two different sources and am telling you this to put it on record. Stuart Cumberland had evidence and Kilgore, the lawyer and spiritualist spoke to Remigius Weiss about Slade's ‘perversity.’ Prof. S. S. Baldwin, the spirit exposer who was also a physician related that on his return from Australia, Slade was on the same steamer. One day, Slade fainted and on taking him and undressing him, Professor Baldwin told me that he discovered that Slade was a hermaphrodite.
Incidentally, I wonder if you know the case against D. D. Home and Foster, the American medium.
It will interest you to know that I have exposed here in New York at the W. T. Stead Center, one of the best trumpet mediums in America, but as there is no law against Spiritualism in this State, the technical charge is fortune telling. I went into the room disguised and you ought to have heard the women scream when I detected Mrs. Cook with the trumpet in her mouth giving me a message from a son that I never had.
By the way, I have been selected as instructor to the Detective Department in the Police Academy here in New York City, the highest honor that has been paid to me for a long time. Am on the Committee for the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, so at the present time, I am on the most important committees in America.
Margery, the medium I exposed, has changed all of her tricks and I enclose you a copy of a letter that I have written to President Lowell of Harvard College. This letter has not been given any publicity, but as I realize you are writing on the subject, want you to have as many points as possible.
I did go to a number of mediums in Germany, but to me they were so insipid I didn't pay much attention. During my engagement at the Wintergarten, Berlin, I was in the court room and heard the evidence against Frau Rothe.
Have obtained about five hundred letters of the 1848 brand of spirit mediums. In fact I have the largest library in the world on this subject.
My home is in a library and am looking for a house, a little way out of New York City so that I can re-arrange my library to find things. If there is any information you want, I am at your service.” Houdini adds a postscript: “I have been lecturing at the various colleges in America, speaking two and a half hours on the subject of Spiritualism and next season, am going to present my entire performance — that is give a whole evening's entertainment.” In fine condition, with a rusty paperclip impression to the top edge.
One of the more interesting parts of this letter is Houdini's announcement that he has been appointed to serve as an instructor at the New York Police Academy. Houdini would teach a 3-month-long course to 100 police detectives, with his primary goal to educate detectives about some of the nefarious ways that pseudo psychics can mislead and defraud the public. New York City Police Commissioner ‘Big Bill’ Edwards was quoted about Houdini's curriculum: ‘I don't expect the men to become second Houdinis nor to be able to perform his tricks, but his lectures will certainly sharpen their powers of observation. (Isabel Stephen, A School to Teach Police How to Fight Ghosts, Oakland Tribune, September 6, 1925.)
Also in this letter, Houdini refers to more than 10 well-known mediums, mentalists, skeptics, and psychical researchers from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, whose careers spanned from the 19th century to the present day. Names include:
Remigius Weiss (ca. 1852-1941), known theatrically as Remigius Albus, was a former Philadelphia medium who collaborated with Harry Houdini to unmask charlatans.
Dr. Henry Slade (1835-1905), an American false medium who perfected the parlor trick of ‘slate writing,’ that is, producing messages supposedly inscribed by the dead. Dr. Slade conned people on both sides of the Atlantic by using double slates, swapping slates, and even scrawling in chalk with his toes. In the letter, Houdini darkly states that Dr. Slade was ‘perverse,’ later clarifying that he had it on good authority that Slade was a hermaphrodite.
Stuart Cumberland (1857-1922), a British mentalist who disbelieved in telepathy but believed in interpretive intelligence through physical cues, such as muscle reading.
Samuel Spencer Baldwin (1848-1924), known theatrically as Samri Baldwin and among audiences as the ‘White Mahatma.’ Baldwin was one of the first American magicians to perform question-and-answer tricks on stage. Baldwin wrote extensively about Slade in his memoir, ed. F.C. Florence, ‘Spirit Mediums Exposed by Prof. S.S. Baldwin’ (Melbourne: M'Carron, Bird & Co. Printers, 1879).
David Douglas Home (1833-1886), a Scottish psychic extremely popular among Victorian audiences for his perceived ability to rap, knock, and even levitate during seances.
Charles H. Foster (1838-1888), an American medium known as the "Salem Seer." Foster's eeriest séance phenomena included ‘skin-writing’ in which the names of the deceased would somehow manifest on his skin. In the letter, Houdini wrote of Home and Foster, ‘Incidentally, I wonder if you know the case against D.D. Home and Foster, the American medium…’
Mrs. Cecil B. Cook, the pastor and trustee of the William T. Stead Center of Soul Communion, whom Houdini had unmasked just six days earlier, on July 2, 1925. Mrs. Cook had been using a metal trumpet to impersonate Houdini's non-existent dead son. Of Mrs. Cook, Houdini rather begrudgingly called her ‘one of the best trumpet mediums in America.’
Mina ‘Margery’ Crandon (1888-1941), also known as the ‘Witch of Lime Street.’ Crandon was the Canadian-born wife of a prominent Boston surgeon who began experimenting with spiritualism in the early 1920s. Crandon claimed to be a conduit to the invisible world by channeling her dead brother. Ringing bells, apparent spontaneous manifestations of ectoplasm, and the unpleasant touch of disembodied hands during her seances convinced many, but not Houdini.
Anna Rothe (1850-1907), a German con artist whose act centered around apport, or the apparent transference of objects between spiritual planes. Rothe was exposed in Berlin in 1902 after investigators discovered fruit and flowers stashed on her body and in her clothes, intended to be passed off as gifts from participating spirits. The ‘blumen-medium’ was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment and a fine.
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