Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Fraudulent Færies

Subject: A Conan Doyle, circa 1920.
Genuine, for certain real, not fake,
Lumière KinemaColour fauxtograph
on loan to SleuthSayers, courtesy
British Museum collection.

Doyle and Houdini and science and such,
Séance and fairies concern overmuch.

The words physics and psychics come to from Greek via Latin. The spelling might seem similar, but physics in Greek related to physical things, especially nature, whereas psychics suggested soul. Bless me, but I'm in the former camp.

My classmate Lela with kindness told me I was a ‘rational bigot’. She’s not wrong and I cherish her evaluation. When it comes to psychic phenomena, I side with the Amazing Randi: provide evidence, unambiguous proof. Unlike, well, this brings us to an embarrassment in our profession. When it came to spiritualism and the supernatural, the wonderful and prolific Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was dismayingly gullible. He was so unlike Sherlock Holmes that it hardly seems credible he could so wonderfully depict his coldly rational protagonist.

Doyle was, you might be surprised to learn, once a close friend of Harry Houdini. The famed magician went to lengths to dissuade the author from his utter belief in the occult, efforts that eventually broke their friendship.

From the Mouths of Babes

Thus we set the stage for a pair of Yorkshire cousins who, aided by flitting fairies, fooled much of the adult world, including Sir Conan Doyle. For proof, they proffered photographs of petite figures hovering in the air.

To be sure, young girls had fooled adults before. The Fox sisters, Leah, Maggie, and Kate, introduced the world to séances. After a hundred eighty years and eventual admission by one of the sisters, séances still have believers.

Much earlier in 1692, the Salem witch trials began with antics and accusations by three pre-teen girls, 9yo Elizabeth (Betty) Parris and her cousin, 11yo Abigail Williams. Ann Putman, age 12, became a prolific accuser who, along with a number of teenagers, claimed nearly half the village were practicing witches. And adults believed them.

Back in England

The Christmas 1920 issue of The Strand carried photographs of fairies photographed by two young cousins in Cottingley, West Yorkshire. There were doubters, buy many more were believers.

A few months later, the same magazine published a followup by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was couched as a reasonable exploration of the issue, but it’s clear Doyle not only accepted the evidence of fairies, but also supernatural phenomena in general. (As a side note, Doyle was also taken in by the Piltdown Man hoax.)

Without further ado, here’s the original article and here’s Doyle’s defence.

No fairies were harmed in the making of this article.

Even though I don’t believe in fairies, I’m setting out a dish of cookies. Just sayin’.