Mina Crandon

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[edit] Biography

Mina "Margery" Crandon (1888-1941) was the wife of a wealthy Boston surgeon and socialite, Dr. Le Roi Goddard Crandon. Dr. Crandon served as a lieutenant commander and headed the surgical staff of a New England Naval hospital during the First World War. Mina was a civilian volunteer and ambulance driver who transported casualties to the hospital. In 1917 she entered a Dorchester, Massachusetts, hospital for an unspecified operation, [1] or most likely appendicitis. [2] Dr. Crandon was her surgeon. Mina sued for divorce from Earl P. Rand for non-contested cruelty, on January 1918. A few months later she became Crandon's 3rd wife and moved into the house on Lime Street, with her son, John. [3]

[edit] Scientific American

On July 23, 1924 she attempted to win a prize offered by Scientific American magazine for showing authentic telekinetic ability. Margery appeared honest in the public eye and was supported by the educated upper class of Boston and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. (Doyle and Mina's husband Dr. Crandon corresponded often. Both claimed Houdini would be harmed by the spirits if he exposed Mina.) [4] She was so popular nationwide that her prayers were read by the US Army. The prize committee consisted of William McDougall, professor of psychology at Harvard, Harry Houdini, the famous professional magician and escape artist, Walter Franklin Prince, American psychical researcher, Dr. Daniel Fisk Comstock, who introduced technicolor to film, and Hereward Carrington, amateur magician, author, and manager for the Italian medium Eusapia Palladino.[5]

[edit] Conjuring

Only Carrington voted in favor of Mina. Carrington was having an affair with her. [6] Member Harry Houdini duplicated and explained her skills before the Scientific American committee and published a pamphlet exposing her methods. Later Houdini would present her effects on stage using different methods. After observing some of Mina's trickery, which was visible in the dark, when she used luminous objects, Joseph Banks Rhine refused to test her. An English teacher, Grant Code, a visitor to the Crandon home, became enthralled by Mina's later astonishing performances, then improved, and learned how to duplicate them. Code's exchange of letters with Walter Franklin Prince are in the archives of the ASPR. [7]

After an elaborate investigation, the Harvard committee pronounced Mina as being fraudulent. On 30 June 1925 one of the Harvard investigators saw Mina draw three objects from the area of her vulva. One was shaped like a glove or flat hand, one resembled a baby's hand, and third was not described. [8]

[edit] Robert Wood

The Society for Psychical Research wanted further investigation. A committee of three Professors: Knight Dunlap, Henry C. McComas and Robert Williams Wood were sent to Boston. Mina had a luminous star attached to her forehead, indentifying the location of her face in the dark. After a few minutes a narrow dark rod appeared over a luminous checkerboard which had been placed on the table opposite Mina. It moved from side to side and picked up an object. As it passed in front of Wood he lightly touched it with the tip of his finger and followed it back to a point very near Mina's mouth. Wood thought it probable she was holding the rod by her teeth. He took hold of the tip and very quietly pinched it. It felt like a knitting needle covered with one or two layers of soft leather. Though the committee were warned that touching the ectoplasm could result in the illness or death of the medium, Mina nor the "ectoplasm" rod gave any evidence of Wood's actions. At the end of the sitting Wood dictated his actions to the stenographer. Upon hearing this Mina gave a shriek and fainted. She was carried out of the room and the committee was asked to depart. Wood was never invited again. [9]

[edit] Mystery

Mina's amazing production of the second teleplasmic hand that appeared in photographs has never been fully explained. Yet it was touched and recognized, as being without life or movement, and resembling sewn tracheae. Some conjuring historians of Houdini and medium-ship suggest that Mina's surgeon husband altered her vagina and this is where she concealed her teleplasmic hand as she performed in the nude. She refused to wear tights, and refused to be internally searched. Internal searches by women aiding psychic investigations in which objects: flower petals, birds, snakes, etc., were produced were normal procedure. The Crandons had no children. Her son John from her first marriage was later adopted by Le Roi Crandon. Proof that Mina had been surgically altered has never been found. [10] [11] See: Fisting

Mina was finally discredited when a fingerprint left on wax ostensibly by her channelled spirit, her deceased brother, Walter, was discovered to belong to Mina's dentist. He also divulged he had taught Mina how to make these prints.[12]

The book "Inamorata" by Joseph Gangemi is based upon this event, using Mina as one of the main characters.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Mediums, Mystics, & the Occult by Milbourne Christopher, Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1975
  2. ^ The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Super Hero by William Kalush and Larry Sloman, Atria Books, 2006
  3. ^ Mediums, Mystics & the Occult by Milbourne Christopher, Thomas Y. Crowell Co, 1975
  4. ^ The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Super Hero by William Kalush and Larry Sloman, Atria Books, 2006
  5. ^ Mediums, Mystics & the Occult by Milbourne Christopher, Thomas Y. Crowell Co, 1975
  6. ^ The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Super Hero by William Kalush and Larry Sloman, Atria Books, 2006
  7. ^ Ibid
  8. ^ Ibid
  9. ^ Doctor Wood by William Seabrook, Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1941. Chapter 17, Wood as a Debunker of Scientic Cranks and Frauds-and His War with the Mediums
  10. ^ Mystics, & the Occult by Milbourne Christopher, Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1975. There are photos of the alleged teleplasmic hand and its position on page 237. It appears to be coming from Mina's groin.
  11. ^ Margery by Thomas R. Tietze, Harper & Row, New York, 1973
  12. ^ Ibid

[edit] External links

See: http://www.forteantimes.com/gallery/seance.shtml Compare this with other photos

[edit] Further reading

Margery by Thomas Tietze, Harper & Row Publishers, New York, 1973.

A Review of the Margery Case. The American Journal of Psychology Volume 37, pp. 431-41 by Franklin Walter Prince

Houdini by Kenneth Silverman, Harper Collins Publishers, New York, 1996.

Ghosts I have Talked With by Henry C. McComas, Williams and Wilkins Co., 1937

Final Seance by Massimo Polidoro, Prometheus Books, New York, 2001.

Secrets of the Psychics by Massimo Polidoro, Prometheus Books, New York, 2003.

The Secret Life of Houdini, by Kalush and Sloman, Atria Books, New York, 2006.

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