Case file · High strangeness
'Margery' the Boston medium and Houdini
In 1924 Mina Crandon, 'Margery', wife of a Beacon Hill surgeon, competed for a Scientific American prize for proof of mediumship; Harry Houdini, on the judging committee, denounced her as a fraud.
1924 CE · 42.36, -71.07 · status: hoax
The account
She claimed to channel her dead brother Walter, and Arthur Conan Doyle championed her. The American Society for Psychical Research was split by the case.
The sceptical view
Houdini published an exposé of her methods, and a 'spirit' thumbprint of Walter was later matched to a living man, her dentist.