Trading in Sorrow – Criminal Clairvoyants
In a move they didn’t see coming a number of self-proclaimed
psychics, clairvoyants, palm readers and other meta-physicists were rounded up
by South Australia police, and charged with “Trading
in sorrow”
The year was 1917, and Australia was well and truly
entrenched in the Great War (WWI). Australian women, often with husbands or
sons fighting overseas, were anxious about the fate of their loved ones, and
were particularly susceptible to psychic’s who traded upon that vulnerability.
Psychics, claiming to possess the occult powers that could tell their clients
the where abouts, or upcoming movements of their loved ones, was a regular occurrence.
The newspapers at the time stated that women of the era were “interested in the war, such haphazard guesses
(by psychics) were apt to be singularly appropriate.”
The meaning of this statement is quite
clear. The authorities of the time were worried that these self-proclaimed
psychics were keeping up to date with war news via the newspapers, and when a
client came asking about their significant loved one at war, the psychic would
make an educated guess as to where the loved one might be; thus the client
would believe the psychic was really getting these messages from spirit, and
would return to spend more money…and on the cycle goes.
The first psychic to
face the courts was Madam Fitzsimmons, who was accused of working her charms on
a lady named Maude Wilcher.
This psychic had claimed that Maude’s husband was alive and well, and she would
see him very soon. She claimed the husband was in Egypt, not France, and
fighting among the Turks. She also claimed the couple would have, that
another baby.
Prosecutor Shierlaw laid the information
through section 67 of the Police Act 1916. The Act proclaimed that rogues and
vagabonds are liable to imprisonment with hard labour, for a period not
exceeding three months, such people as pretended to tell fortunes, practice palmistry
etc, in order to deceive the public.
This act was handed down to South
Australian War from our English ancestry. It came directly from the English
Vagrant Act of 1824 (George IV), which put in place protections against fortune
tellers.
In basic terms, the act made it illegal to practice in connection to a craft,
means or device beyond physical dexterity, to employ some invisible agency to deceive
and impose upon others. Fortune telling could only be sold as an amusement, not
as a truthful piece of information.
As it turned out, Maude Wilcher’s husband had already departed,
she was a widow, and her visit was part of a small sting operation by the Women’s
Police Department. Fitzsimmons was found guilty and fined 10 pounds. (About
$1000 in today’s money).
Other psychics found guilty in the trial included Madame
Amalia, madam Phyllis, Madam Rosa, Mrs Vear, Madam Mora, Charabella Fisher, Mrs
Hamilton, Mrs Glennie and Mrs Loftus – all of whom were find 9 pounds.
The following psychics all pleaded not
guilty, and went to further trial: Madam Luna, Professor Mernox, Madam Illah,
Mrs Kennedy, Mrs Barr, Madam Zillah, Miss Melrose, Madam Thelma, and Mrs
Duguett. (At this point I do not know the outcomes of their trials, perhaps
that will be another blog.
In South Australia, the current laws still take into account fraudulent
psychics claims.
Section 40 Part 8 of the South Australian Police Act (https://www.legislation.sa.gov.au/LZ/C/A/SUMMARY%20OFFENCES%20ACT%201953/CURRENT/1953.55.UN.PDF)
40—Acting as a
spiritualist, medium etc with intent to defraud A person who, with intent to
defraud, purports to act as a spiritualist or medium, or to exercise powers of
telepathy or clairvoyance or other similar powers, is guilty of an offence.
Maximum penalty: $10
000 or imprisonment for 2 years.
Researched and written by Allen Tiller ©2017
https://www.facebook.com/TheHauntsOfAdelaide/
1917 'FORTUNE TELLING AND CRYSTAL GAZING', Daily Herald
(Adelaide, SA : 1910 - 1924), 23 June, p. 6. , viewed 18 Sep 2017,
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article105413057
