The magician Joseph Rinn and his debunking of Leonora Piper

I am not sure if many readers on this forum will know Joseph Rinn. He was a magician and life-long friend of Harry Houdini. But never received much recognition like Houdini.

Rinn had coached Houdini as a teenager at a running club. It's possible he influenced Houdini's interest in magic.

In 1950, Rinn published a book entitled Sixty Years of Psychical Research: Houdini and I Among the Spiritualists . The book is out of print now, but well worth hunting down.

The book includes the tricks of many fraudulent mediums such as the Fox sisters, Eusapia Palladino and features the only exposure of a medium named May S. Pepper. The book is also controversial because Rinn claimed to have observed the medium Leonora Piper and he dismissed her as a fraud after claiming to have caught her in a trap, he also accused her of muscle-reading.

In recent years, Daniel Loxton has highly praised Rinn's book, describing it as a classic skeptic book in the field (Loxton, 2013).

The book however, was heavily criticized in a review for the American Society for Psychical Research (which Rinn had at one time belonged to) by a reviewer known as "L. A. Dale". The reviewer accuses Rinn of never actually meeting Leonora Piper or attending a séance with her. The review basically claims Rinn was a charlatan and liar.

Here's what part of the review says:

Quote:

Mr. Rinn claims to have met Dr. Hyslop in 1888. “In the course of conversation we found out that we were both members of the Society for Psychical Research . . . This fact led to our working together in psychic investigations for many years.” This is indeed a curious statement, since Dr. Hyslop himself did not become a member of the Society until 1891, nor Mr. Rinn, as we have already pointed out, until 1897. It is also curious that, since Mr. Rinn and Dr. Hyslop “worked together in psychic investigations for many years,” not a reference to the former appears anywhere, as far as we have been able to ascertain, in Dr. Hyslop’s voluminous writings. Throughout the book Mr. Rinn repeatedly states that he was a member of both the British and the American Societies for Psychical Research. He says he joined the American Society in 1885, after having heard a lecture given by Sir William Barrett ; a search of the membership lists of both societies discloses, however, that Mr. Rinn first joined the (then) American branch of the S.P.R. in 1897 — a discrepancy of only 12 years! He was never at any time a member of the English Society, and remained a member of the American branch for only four years, that is, until 1901, at which time his name ceased to appear in the membership list... Mr. Rinn at this point goes on to describe in detail a sitting with Mrs. Piper that Dr. Hodgson arranged for himself and Dr. Hyslop. It is alleged to have occurred “late in 1896.” Mr. Rinn was “not favorably impressed [with Mrs. Piper] because of her thin lips and rather hard, shrewd face.” Needless to say, all the participants in this sitting, with the exception, of course, of Mr. Rinn, are made to appear in the worst possible light. Mrs. Piper's fingers “began writing on the pad but the sentences were disconnected and meaningless, although Dr. Hodgson guided her hand and interpreted many of the sentences. Some names were given piece-meal, often in a tentative form that made no sense. The writing ‘eb-s-t-gl-nm-thl’ was interpreted by Dr. Hodgson as meaning ‘Billings.’ At the end of the sitting Mr. Rinn explains to Dr. Hodgson and Dr. Hyslop that the whole affair was nonsensical. “Dr. Hodgson did not invite me to any more seances with Mrs. Piper. Wishing to have the endorsement of Professor Hyslop, [however], he invited him to many of her seances.” Actually, it can be proved that no such sitting ever took place. Dr. Hyslop, as stated above, had his first sitting with Mrs. Piper on May 20, 1892. He [Hyslop] writes in his Report (footnote 9, p. 298) : “So far as I am aware, I never saw Mrs. Piper again or had any communication with her till I went out to Arlington Heights on December 23rd, 1898.” Possibly, however, Dr. Hyslop was suffering from still another painful attack of amnesia at the time of writing this report, which would account for his “forgetting” that he had gone up to Boston with Mr. Rinn “late in 1896” and taken a sitting with Mrs. Piper! If the objection be raised that possibly Mr. Rinn was guilty merely of an innocent lapse of memory as to the correct date of the sitting, and not of making up “an awful whopper,” we can again refer to Dr. Hyslop’s report. Between December, 1898 and June, 1899 he had 12 sittings with Mrs. Piper, all recorded in detail. None remotely resembles the “Rinn sitting,” nor was Mr. Rinn present at any.

The entire review can be found online in full here:

http://ift.tt/20Pta2j

So what do we think?

1. Rinn was a liar, he never met the medium Leonora Piper or James H. Hyslop.
2. Hyslop is the liar and Rinn had actually met Piper.
3. The person who wrote this review has made the mistake and got the facts wrong.

For my own point of view I just find it hard to believe Rinn invented meeting Piper, and entirely invented his séance sitting. Rinn's book has nearly 100 pages that discuss Piper. I find it hard to believe he invented all these details, some of them are very specific.

Rinn in his book also claims to have attended various experiments at Hyslop's house that involved a psychic medium. Rinn noted that the psychic was obviously fraudulent but Hyslop who was not well educated in conjuring methods was easily duped. I find it hard to believe Rinn invented these stories.

Any takers? What do you think of this?

via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1qSZAwF