The Séances of ‘Hellish Nell’: Solving the Unexplained
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SI July August 11_SI new design masters 5/25/11 12:16 PM Page 17 [ INVESTIGATIVE FILES J OE NI CK E L L Joe Nickell, PhD, is CSI’s senior research fellow and author of numerous books, including Looking for a Miracle. His website is at www.joenickell.com. The Séances of ‘Hellish Nell’: Solving the Unexplained s the Allied Forces prepared for mill worker to unwed mother to wife of a pair of black velvet curtains that hung D-day toward the climax of Henry Duncan, who would father seven from the ceiling and framed an armchair. A World War II, Britain’s highest more children with her while allowing The scene was dimly lit with a red light criminal court was trying celebrity spir- her to support their family with her that produced an “unearthly glow” itualist Helen Duncan as a mediumistic séances. (Keene 1997, 101). The medium was first fraud under the 1735 Witchcraft Act. Today, Helen Duncan would be rec- strip-searched by women in an anteroom, Some thought she really was channel- ognized as having a fantasy-prone per- then confined in a large cloth sack that ing spirits from the Beyond. But was sonality (given her imaginary ghost was closed at the neck with a drawstring, the trial even about her questioned friends, claimed magical powers such as and finally bound to the chair with the powers, or was it an attempt to silence clairvoyance, “trance” communications knots sealed with wax. her visionary revelations of top-secret with higher entities, and so on [see Wil- Soon, Duncan was in an apparent naval events? son and Barber 1983]). However, being trance, seemingly evidenced by her loud The case is treated in depth else- fantasy-prone does not preclude also snoring. In time, “ectoplasm” might be where (e.g., Shandler 2006), yet these being fraudulent if one wishes to con- seen creeping from the cabinet. Then treatments maintain an essential mys- vince others that he or she really does Duncan’s “spirit guide,” one “Albert tery of the affair: the precise nature of have special powers—which brings us to Stewart,” would take over, engaging in Duncan’s séance materializations are ectopolasm. banter with the sitters. An ectoplasmic left unexplained. Do clues remain that Materializations blob might appear and be regarded as a may help solve this very cold case? baby’s head; a shrouded figure, then an- ‘Hellish Nell’ Ectoplasm is an imagined substance other, might appear. At times, a sitter supposedly emanating from a medium would be permitted to touch the ecto- Today it is easy to see Helen “Nell” Dun - in a trance state. Repeated exposés have plasm. It would often be described as can (1897–1956) as a successor to both revealed that ectoplasm is typically sim- feeling like soft cloth. One witness the biblical Witch of Endor (1 Samuel ulated with chiffon or cheesecloth. Eas- complained that the spirits were “fat and 28: 7–20) and a pair of nineteenth-cen- ily compressible, these light fabrics are clammy, undoubtedly human,” perhaps tury schoolgirls, Maggie and Katie Fox, ideal for hiding and could—by inviting like Duncan draped in muslin. who launched modern spiritualism in imagination in the near-dark—simu- At the end of the séance, Duncan 1848. However, forty years later the sis- late the spirit of a baby in a dress or, un- might wander out from behind the cur- ters confessed that their otherworldly folded further, a person in a transparent tain, “Albert” having been kind enough communications had no more substance shroud. to free her from the tied sack. Yet the sack than the alleged spirits themselves Originally, spirit conjurers, such as would be undamaged and the knots in- (Nickell 2001, 194). In the 1940s, spiri- the Davenport Brothers, would be tied tact and still sealed. It was as if Duncan tualists still produced “materializations” up in a special “spirit cabinet” in which had been dematerialized to pass through (appearances of spirits in the near-dark were placed musical instruments. After the sack (Shandler 2006, 91–92). of séances), al though these were repeat- “spirits” were glimpsed outside the cab- Secrets edly exposed as fraudulent. inet and music was heard playing, the- Born Victoria Helen MacFarlane, ater lights would eventually come on, Duncan was arrested on the evening of the controversial medium had been a and the brothers would be found still January 19, 1944. Well into the séance, schoolgirl with “psychic” tendencies, securely tied, “proving” no trickery was bright lights came on. Although spiri- earning her the sobriquet “Hellish involved (Nickell 2001, 18–27). tualists claimed light could be fatal to a Nell.” She progressed from adolescent Helen Duncan’s cabinet consisted of medium in the entranced state, Duncan Skeptical Inquirer | July / August 2011 17 SI July August 11_SI new design masters 5/25/11 12:16 PM Page 18 was only dazed. She, her assistant, and rocket strike on the prison in the sum- can’s arrest in 1944, no trace of white the couple who ran the spiritualist mer of 1944, but she did escape injury cloth had been discovered. Un for tunately, church in Portsmouth were charged (Shandler 2006, 206, 270). while the séance room was thoroughly under the Witchcraft Act, which stated: Duncan’s trial provoked a curt note combed, the detective in charge chose “If any person shall pretend to exercise or from Churchill (1944) to the Home not to have the attendees searched— use any kind of witchcraft, sorcery, en- Secretary, wishing to know “why the Duncan, her husband, her attendant, the chantment, or configuration, or under- Witchcraft Act of 1735 was used in a couple who ran the affair, and the sitters. take to tell fortunes, every person so of- modern Court of Justice” and officials Other detectives tried to catch Duncan fending shall suffer imprisonment by the “kept busy with all this obsolete tom- flagrante delicto by capturing her ectoplas- space of one whole year without bail” foolery.” It has been claimed that Dun- mic cloth. Psychical investigator Harry (qtd. in Shandler 2006, 102). can’s was the last witchcraft trial in Price had a doctor probe her orifices, but The charges against Duncan really Britain, but there was one more convic- when he planned to take X-rays, the resulted from belated assertions that tion under the act before Parliament re- medium ran away. Price wrote a book she was giving away wartime secrets: placed it in 1951 with modern legisla- (1931) suggesting that Duncan swal- twice, it was said, she revealed the sink- tion in the form of the Fraudulent lowed and regurgitated the cloth. Later, ing of a warship—on May 24, 1941, the Mediums Act (Shandler 2006, 217). however, watching a famous regurgitator, Kanich chka, the Human Ostrich, who gagged loudly and brought up only small materials, Price may have harbored doubts about the hypothesis (Shandler Duncan’s trial provoked a curt 2006, 165–66). And what about Duncan’s escape note from Churchill (1944) to the from the bag she was confined in or, on occasion, from a specially designed Home Secretary, wishing to séance suit? Recall that “Albert” freed her from the tied sack whose knots were still know “why the Witchcraft Act sealed. Once in the early 1930s psychical investigators placed her into a special suit of 1735 was used in a that was stitched up the back; at the close of the séance, “Albert” pulled it off and modern Court of Justice.” flung it into the group of spectators, who found it intact while the medium shiv- ered naked behind the curtains (Shandler 2006, 67–69). More Secrets Revelations great battleship the Hood and again on November 25 of that year, HMS Bar - Not everything was made clear by Materializations are largely a thing of ham. (A rumor claimed she material- Helen Duncan’s trial. True, there was the past, although in recent times I have ized the spirit of a sailor whose cap bore evidence enough of her trickery, includ- sat in dark-room séances including a the latter ship’s name [Shandler 2006, ing the results of a disastrous séance in “direct voice” scenario in which various 40].) Some officials were concerned by 1933. Duncan was observed creating a voices—all sounding like versions of these violations of Prime Minister “Little Miss Peggy” who peeped from a the medium’s—speak through a sup- Winston Churchill’s order to keep all nearby sideboard and lisped a nursery posedly levitating tin trumpet (Nickell naval losses secret. Were Dun can’s rev- rhyme. Duncan created the fake spirit 2004a, 42–43). As a magician and elations merely the lucky result of after- child and could be observed kneeling mentalist, I have studied séance magic the-fact matching of pronouncements behind a cupboard, manipulating what for years, performing some feats myself and events? Or was she a true medium? proved to be “a woman’s stockinet un- and experimenting with many others Or perhaps a spy? (Surely, if the last dervest” as if it were a sock puppet. As (Nickell 2001, 267–75). Once, under- were true, she was an especially fool- Shandler (2006, 172) describes it, “A cover, I was able to gain access to an hardy one!) dutiful sitter aimed a beam from a out-of-the-way historic séance room at Whatever the case, officials seemed handheld lamp at Duncan. Flooded the spiritualist camp at Cassadaga, to be unwilling to take chances with D- with light, the medium doubled over, Florida, where séances like Duncan’s day approaching.