Pierre Louis Ormond Augustus Keeler (1855-1942), best known as Pierre L. O. A. Keeler, was an American spiritualist

medium Medium may refer to: Science and technology Aviation *Medium bomber, a class of war plane * Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Communication * Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data * Medium of ...

.Anderson, Rodger. (2006). ''Psychics, Sensitives and Somnambules: A Biographical Dictionary with Bibliographies''. McFarland. p. 234.

Career

Keeler was best known for his materialization, pellet-reading, and slate-writing mediumship. He was investigated in 1885 by the

Seybert Commission The Seybert Commission was a group of faculty members at the University of Pennsylvania who in 1884–1887 investigated a number of respected spiritualist mediums, uncovering fraud or suspected fraud in every case that they examined. Establishment ...

, which suspected his phenomena was fraudulent. The magician

Henry R. Evans Henry Ridgely Evans (1861–1949) was an American amateur magician and magic historian.Pritchard, William Thomas. (1958). ''This is Magic: Secrets of the Conjurer's Craft''. Citadel Press. p. 112 Biography Evans worked in Baltimore, Maryland as ...

sat with Keeler in April 1895 and suspected that he had written the 'spirit' messages on the slates himself. According to Evans "I was sure he was writing under the table; I heard the faint rubbing of a soft bit of pencil upon the surface of a slate... several times I saw him put his fingers into his vest pockets, and he appeared to bring up small particles of something, which I believe were bits of the white and coloured crayons used in writing the messages." Psychical researcher Hereward Carrington, who visited Keeler at Lily Dale in 1907, caught him cheating by substituting slates and commented "for not only did I see Keeler make the exchange, but the slates I received at the conclusion of the seance were different from those I examined... Keeler is a clever trickster, and the degree of perfection he has attained certainly seems to indicate that he must have been in the habit of practising these tricks continuously for a number of years." He was exposed as a fraud by the magician

Harry Houdini Harry Houdini (, born Erik Weisz; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-American escape artist, magic man, and stunt performer, noted for his escape acts. His pseudonym is a reference to his spiritual master, French magician ...

, who had his niece Julia Sawyer attend a séance. During the séance she invented a non-existent sister and spoke of deceased relatives who were alive. Keeler, unaware of the trap, claimed to 'channel' the spirits of the sister and relatives. He was also exposed by the psychical researcher

Walter Franklin Prince Walter Franklin Prince (22 April 1863 – 7 August 1934) was an American parapsychologist and founder of the Boston Society for Psychical Research in Boston.Berger, Arthur S. (1988). ''Walter Franklin Prince: A Portrait''. In ''Lives and Letters ...

, who made comparisons of the 'spirit' messages to the handwriting of the deceased to discover they were inaccurate. Keeler was once arrested in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

for giving fake materialization séances. He was chased by the police and escaped out of a window but was eventually arrested.

Lincoln slate

Keeler was alleged to have channelled the spirit of

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

by producing a signed message on a slate. The slate is located at the Lily Dale Museum. Skeptical investigator Joe Nickell, who made a detailed examination of the slate, concluded it had no resemblance to Lincoln's handwriting and described the message as "bogus".

William M. Keeler

Keeler's brother William was a medium and spirit photographer. He was also exposed as a fraud by Walter Franklin Prince. Mulholland, John. (1938). ''Beware Familiar Spirits''. C. Scribner's Sons. p. 156. "After long and vain efforts to get even a sample of Keeler's handwriting, the late Doctor Walter Franklin Prince, then of the American Society for Psychical Research, managed to trick the man into sending a signature and a holograph note, and with the assistance of a handwriting expert he came to the well-buttressed conclusion that the amanuensis was William M. Keeler in person."

References

External links

Abraham Lincoln: An Instance of Alleged ‘Spirit Writing’
Joe Nickell. {{DEFAULTSORT:Keeler, Pierre L. O. A. 1855 births 1942 deaths American fraudsters American spiritual mediums

Career

Lincoln slate

William M. Keeler

References

Further reading

External links