About the mystery of Katie King

(from p. 109-112 in the book "Researches in the phenomena of spiritualism" 1874 by William Crookes:)

 

 

THE LAST OF KATIE KING.

THE PHOTOGRAPHING OF KATIE KING BY THE AID OF
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT.

HAVING taken a very prominent part of late at Miss
Cook's seances, and having" been very successful in
taking numerous photographs of Katie King by the aid
of the electric light, I have thought that the publication of
a few of the details would be of interest to the readers of
the Spiritualist.

During the week before Katie took her departure she
gave seances at my house almost nightly, to enable me to
photograph her by artificial light. Five complete sets of
photographic apparatus were accordingly fitted up for the
purpose, consisting of five cameras, one of the whole-plate
size, one half-plate, one quarter-plate, and two binocular
stereoscopic cameras, which were all brought to bear upon
Katie at the same time on each occasion on which she
stood for her portrait. Five sensitising and fixing baths
were used, and plenty of plates were cleaned ready for use
in advance, so that there might be no hitch or delay during
the photographing operations, which were' performed by
myself, aided by one assistant.

My library was used as a dark cabinet. It has folding
doors opening into the laboratory ; one of these doors was
taken off its hinges, and a curtain suspended in its place to
enable Katie to pass in and out easily. Those of our friends
who were present were seated in the laboratory facing the
curtain, and the cameras were placed a little behind them,
ready to photograph Katie when she came outside, and to
photograph anything also inside the cabinet, whenever the
curtain was withdrawn for the purpose. Each evening there
were three or four exposures of plates in the five cameras,
giving at least fifteen separate pictures at each seance ;
some of these were spoilt in the developing, and some in
regulating the amount of light. Altogether I have forty-
four negatives, some inferior, some indifferent, and some
excellent.

Katie instructed all the sitters but myself to keep their
seats and to keep conditions, but for some time past she
has given me permission to do what I liked — to touch her,
and to enter and leave the cabinet almost whenever I
pleased. I have frequently followed her into the cabinet,
and have sometimes seen her and her medium together, but
most generally I have found nobody but the entranced
medium lying on the floor, Katie and her white robes
having instantaneously disappeared.

During the last six months Miss Cook has been a frequent
visitor at my house, remaining sometimes a week at a time.
She brings nothing with her but alittle hand-bag, not locked ;
during the day she is constantly in the presence of Mrs.
Crookes, myself, or some other member of my family, and,
not sleeping by herself, there is absolutely no opportunity
for any preparation even of a less elaborate character than
would be required for enacting Katie King. I prepare
and arrange my library myself as the dark cabinet, and
usually, after Miss Cook has been dining and conversing
with us, and scarcely out of our sight for a minute, she walks
direct into the cabinet, and I, at her request, lock its second
door, and keep possession of the key all through the seance;
the gas is then turned out, and Miss Cook is left in darkness.

On entering the cabinet Miss Cook lies down upon the
floor, with her head on a pillow, and is soon entranced.
During the photographic seances, Katie muffled her me-
dium's head up in a shawl to prevent the light falling upon
her face. I frequently drew the curtain on one side when
Katie was standing near, and it was a common thing for
the seven or eight of us in the laboratory to see Miss Cook
and Katie at the same time, under the full blaze of the
electric light. We did not on these occasions actually see
the face of the medium because of the shawl, but we saw
her hands and feet ; we saw her move uneasily under the
influence of the intense light, and we heard her moan
occasionally. I have one photograph of the two together,
but Katie is seated in front of Miss Cook's head.

During the time I have taken an active part in these
seances Katie's confidence in me gradually grew, until she
refused to give a seance unless I took charge of the arrange-
ments. She said she always wanted me to keep close to
her, and near the cabinet, and I found that after this confi-
dence was established, and she was satisfied I would not
break any promise I might make to her, the phenomena
increased greatly in power, and tests were freely given that
would have been unobtainable had I approached the subject
in another manner. She often consulted me about persons
present at the seances, and where they should be placed, for
of late she had become very nervous, in consequence of
certain ill-advised suggestions that force should be employed
as an adjunct to more scientific modes of research.

One of the most interesting of the pictures is one in
which I am standing by the side of Katie ; she has her bare
foot upon a particular part of the floor. Afterwards I
dressed Miss Cook like Katie, placed her and myself in ex-
actly the same position, and we were photographed by
the same cameras, placed exactly as in the other experi-
ment, and illuminated by the same light. When these two
pictures are placed over each other, the two photographs of
myself coincide exactly as regards stature, &c, but Katie is
half a head taller than Miss Cook, and looks a big woman
in comparison with her. In the breadth of her face, in
many of the pictures, she differs essentially in size from her
medium, and the photographs show several other points of
difference.

But photography is as inadequate to depict the perfect
beauty of Katie's face, as words are powerless to describe
her charms of manner. Photography may, indeed, give a
map of her countenance ; but how can it reproduce the
brilliant purity of her complexion, or the ever-varying ex-
pression of her most mobile features, now overshadowed
with sadness when relating some of the bitter experiences
of her past life, now smiling with all the innocence of happy
girlhood when she had collected my children round her,
and was amusing them by recounting anecdotes of her
adventures in India?

" Round her she made an atmosphere of life;
The very air seemed lighter from her eyes,
They were so soft and beautiful, and rife
With all we can imagine of the skies;
Her overpowering presence make you feel
It would not be be idolatry to kneel."

Having seen so much of Katie lately, when she has been
illuminated by the electric light, I am enabled to add to
the points of difference between her and her medium which
I mentioned in a former article. I have the most absolute
certainty that Miss Cook and Katie are two separate in-
dividuals so far as their bodies are concerned. Several
little marks on Miss Cook's face are absent on Katie's.
Miss Cook's hair is so dark a brown as almost to appear
black; a lock of Katie's which is now before me, and which
she allowed me to cut from her luxuriant tresses, having
first traced it up to the scalp and satisfied myself that it
actually grew there, is a rich golden auburn.

On one evening I timed Katie's pulse. It beat steadily
a t 75> whilst Miss Cook's pulse a little time after, was going
at its usual rate of 90. On applying my ear to Katie's chest
I could hear a heart beating rythmically inside, and pulsat-
ing even more steadily than did Miss Cook's heart when
she allowed me to try a similar experiment after the seance.

Tested in the same way Katie's lungs were found to be
sounder than her medium's, for at the time I tried my ex-
periment Miss Cook was under medical treatment for a
severe cough.

Your readers may be interested in having Mrs. Ross
Church's, and your own accounts of the last appearance of
Katie, supplemented by my own narrative, as far as I can
publish it. When the time came for Katie to take her fare-
well I asked that she would let me see the last of her.
Accordingly when she had called each of the company up to
her and had spoken to them a few words in private, she
gave some general directions for the future guidance and
protection of Miss Cook. From these, which were taken
down in shorthand, I quote the following : " Mr. Crookes
has done very well throughout, and I leave Florrie with the
greatest confidence in his hands, feeling perfectly sure he
will not abuse the trust I place in him. He can act in any
emergency better than I can myself, for he has more
strength." Having concluded her directions, Katie invited
me into the cabinet with her, and allowed me to remain
there to the end.

After closing the curtain she conversed with me for some
time, and then walked across the room to where Miss Cook
was lying senseless on the floor. Stooping over her, Katie
touched her, and said, "Wake up, Florrie, wake up! I
must leave you now." Miss Cook then woke and tearfully en-
treated Katie to stay a little time longer. "My dear, I can't;
my work is done. God bless you," Katie replied, and then
continued speaking to Miss Cook. For several minutes the
two were conversing with each other, till at last Miss Cook's
tears prevented her speaking. Following Katie's instruc-
tions I then came forward to support Miss Cook, who was
falling on to the floor, sobbing hysterically. I looked round,
but the white-robed Katie had gone. As soon as Miss
Cook was sufficiently calmed, a light was procured and I led
her out of the cabinet.

The almost daily seances with which Miss Cook has lately
favoured me have proved a severe tax upon her strength,
and I wish to make the most public acknowledgment of
the obligations I am under to her for her readiness to assist
me in my experiments. Every test that I have proposed
she has at once agreed to submit to with the utmost willing-
ness ; she is open and straightforward in speech, and I have
never seen anything approaching the slightest symptom of
a wish to deceive. Indeed, I do not believe she could
carry on a deception if she were to try, and if she did she
would certainly bo found out very quickly, for such a line
of action is altogether foreign to her nature. And to
imagine that an innocent school-girl of fifteen should be
able to conceive and then successfully carry out for three
years so gigantic an imposture as this, and in that time
should submit to any test which might be imposed upon
her, should bear the strictest scrutiny, should be willing to
be searched at any time, either before or after a seance, and
should meet with even better success in my own house than
at that of her parents, knowing that she visited me with the
express object of submitting to strict scientific tests, — to
imagine, I say, the Katie King of the last three years to
be the result of imposture does more violence to one's
reason and common sense than to believe her to be what
she herself affirms.

It would not be right for me to conclude this article with-
out also thanking Mr. and Mrs. Cook for the great facilities
they have given me to carry on these observations and ex-
periments.

My thanks and those of all Spiritualists are also due to
Mr. Charles Blackburn for the generous manner in which
he has made it possible for Miss Cook to devote her whole
time to the development of these manifestations and latterly
to their scientific examination.