What Joy to the Troubled Heart!

the tale of William H. Mumler, spirit photographer

In 1862, William H. Mumler took the first known photograph of a ghost. Maybe. What unfolded next was an epic story of fraud and self-deception...

Categories: Biography, Footsteps into the Unknown, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, People & Places, Series 13

Tags: Abraham Lincoln Arizona art crime criminal law extra sensory perception ghosts Joseph D. Townsend Mary Todd Lincoln paranormal Phineas Taylor Barnum Presented by #13 pseudo-science religion Spiritualism William Howard Mumler

Published: August 7, 2023

Spirit Princess

one woman, thirty aliases, forty years and too many crimes to count

The greatest and most notorious Spiritualist swindler of all time was a woman from Kentucky who looked a bit like Lola Montez (if you squinted).

Categories: Biography, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, Series 3

Tags: "General" Joseph Hubert Diss Debar "Prince" Michael Keyfor Mills Ann O'Delia Diss Debar Baltimore, MD Boston, MA Canada Catholicism Chicago, IL crime cult David Livingston Mackay Detroit, MI dime museum Dr. Cyrus Reed Teed "Koresh" Florida Fort Myers, FL Freeman Bernstein Harmony Society Illinois Joseph D. Townsend Koreshan Unity London, England Massachusetts Michigan New York, NY Presented by #13 religion Spiritualism Theosophical Society Theosophy United Kingdom Windsor, ON

Published: March 23, 2020