“Margery” Lady: The Medium Who Spat Out Ectoplasm, Exposed by Houdini

In the 1920s, there was a doctor's wife in Boston named Mina Crandon, stage name “Margery,” who was the most popular medium in America at the time. When she summoned spirits, there would be knocking sounds in the room, tables would move by themselves, bells would ring, and horns would float in the air. Sometimes, a white, soft substance would emerge from her mouth, called “ectoplasm,” said to be the soul manifesting through her body.

In 1924, Scientific American magazine offered a reward of two thousand five hundred dollars: whoever could, under strict conditions, let the judges see genuine psychic phenomena with their own eyes would get the money. There were five judges in total, including the magician Houdini. Margery was invited to take the test.

Houdini was in this line of work. After watching a few sessions, he concluded she was using her feet. So he designed a wooden box for her to sit in, with only her head and hands exposed. As a result, that night, the bell on the table did not ring once.

Margery’s “spirit,” who claimed to be her deceased brother Walter, spoke through her mouth, saying that Houdini would not live long. In 1926, Houdini passed away, and her supporters brought this up for many years.

Margery and her supporters retaliated, claiming Houdini had rigged it himself, secretly placing a folding ruler in the box to frame her. The two sides argued for a long time, and the magazine ultimately awarded the prize to no one.

Later, several researchers from Harvard also observed her, and some tested the “ectoplasm” she spat out, believing it to be animal tissue. Others discovered that the fingerprints left by Walter were the same as those of her dentist.

She died in 1941 without ever admitting to fraud.

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