Kate Cocks: Pt IV: The Crusade Against Psychic Exploitation.

Kate Cocks: Pt IV: The Crusade Against Psychic Exploitation.

 1917, the Great War was devouring people and resources. South Australian women were scared for their sons, brothers and husbands fighting for the war effort. Women were doing anything they could to try and find out how their loved ones were doing on the war front, and whether they were alive, wounded, or dead.

Women were turning to psychics in droves in the hope of divining some knowledge about their loved ones, and unfortunately a lot of “rogue” psychics began to spring up around the State, ready to look deep into their crystal balls, and part distraught women from their money, with fanciful tales divined for dollars.

 So bad was the trend, that one fortune-teller told an anxious mother, worried about her son, that he would be hung if she, the fortune-teller, did not intervene. To stop it happening, the mother would have to pay money to the psychic to prevent the tragedy!

Disgusted by this turn of events, Kate Cocks and her Women’s Police Department went on a crusade to stop the onslaught of “Occult Houses” that had started opening around Adelaide. Cocks had the law behind her, as The Police Act of 1916, Section 67, clearly laid out the law against Fortune Tellers (you can learn more about the laws at a previous post here: http://hauntedadelaide.blogspot.com/2017/10/trading-in-sorrow-criminal-clairvoyants.html )

Cocks said of the trend:
“Current events largely determine the exploitation of simple-hearted people by callous adventurers.' observed Miss Cocks. 'As an example, I quote the flood of fortune-telling that swept over the country in wartime. 'It was a cruel thing, apart from its ridiculous aspect. Women opened 'occult' apartments. and undertook to read the future for varying amounts of payment, according to the financial position of their clients. These were mostly women of the nervy type who were living at high pressure on account of having loved ones at the war. 'It was a frightful thing to exploit such anxiety, and we did not pause in our ruthless cleaning of those crystal-gazers until they were no more.” (The Advertiser, October 1936)

 Cocks crusade against psychics really took off in 1917, when she was involved in a number of stings bringing down fake psychics around Adelaide. The 25^th case in the succession of cases against fraudulent psychics was a young Adelaide man who had put an advertisement in the local newspapers, asking for anyone wanting fortunes told, to send him penny stamps through the mail to a Sydney address.
 The scammer had set up his rouse at the Adelaide Post Office so that any mail addressed to “Hubert, Box 440” in Sydney, leaving from Adelaide, be held for a few days so he could pick it up.
 On receiving a letter, he replied asking for money for more psychic insights.  What he wasn’t counting on was the ingenuity of Cocks, who caught the rogue psychic out. He ended up with 3 months gaol, and 25 pound fine for his efforts and was recorded as a “rogue or vagabond” in his court records.

A little over a decade later, in 1929, Cocks was still pursuing psychics under Section 67. At the Royal Adelaide Show, she had set up a sting and had her fortune read by a number of palm readers, and crystal ball psychics.
5 psychics were arrested and charged under Section 67, being; Frances Alexander, George Mereno, Mary Stanley, Julia Stanley and Alick Alexander. All pleaded guilty but in ignorance of the law. Each psychic was fined 10 Shillings for their crime and 10 shillings court costs. ($77 AUD total costs each in today’s money).

Today the Police Act 1916, Section 67 is no longer used, instead, we have a newer law meant to stop fake psychics. The law is now known as The South Australian Police Act, Section 40 Part 8, and is enforceable (even though I am not aware of anyone who has been arrested under the act, even though I am aware of several fraudulent psychics!)

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.

You can also report fake psychics to scam watch!
https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/types-of-scams/buying-or-selling/psychic-clairvoyant

NEXT WEEK: Kate Cocks: Pt V(a): The Stolen Generation

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2018

Bibliography on the final post

Kate Cocks: Pt.1: The Early Years

Kate Cocks: Pt.1: The Early Years

Ms Fanny Kate Boadicea Cocks (M.B.E.) was born in Moonta, South Australia on the 5^th of May 1875 to parents Anthony Cocks, a miner and Elizabeth (nee George) a school teacher (Kate also had two brothers). 

 Mr Cocks sunk his money into a farming property near Quorn, but hard times fell upon the family and he was forced to go back to mining to pay off his debts.

 It was at this time, while the mid-north was in drought, that Kate learned valuable lessons about poverty that would remain with her into her adult life. It was also during this time that Kate prayed to God for rain, as the farm and its animals were suffering. That Friday rain came; this event cemented her strong Methodist beliefs that stayed with her for life.

 In her teens, Kate’s father went to New South Wales to work as a miner. The rest of the family moved to Riverton, where Elizabeth worked as a school teacher.
 Eventually Anthony returned home, and it was decided they would move the family to Parkside. Anthony opened a store and bakery to supplement their income.

 Kate, now an adult began to look to the future, and chose her career. She decided to follow in her mothers’ footsteps and become a school teacher. She ended up getting the second job she applied for, at Edwardstown and became the School Teacher and Sub-Matron of the Receiving Home for State Children. 

 Kate spent the next three years working with the under-privileged. She said of her experiences there;

“Sheltered in a good home I had not known anything of vice or cruelty and I never bathed a neglected baby, or tended a sad-faced dirty child, without realising that I had been led by Providence to have my vision adjusted to see life in reality and try to alter some of its in justices. How responsive to my love all those tiny ones were, and. often. I would creep away and shut myself in my wardrobe and cry a little. The wardrobe was the only private spot I could find. I am not prone to tears ordinarily, but I defy any woman, worthy of the name, to go through those three years without occasionally seeking the relief of tears.  
 The 'foster-mother system. I could see, needed more oversight, and my great ambition centred upon becoming an inspector. Our ordinary duties were concerned with children, from infants to girls of 21, and boys up to 18 years. But, once again, my plans were thwarted, and looking back, I see it was all part of my discipline.”

 Her position at the Receiving Home, and being overlooked for another position, led to Cocks becoming interested in the state probation system for juvenile delinquents’. She studied the system and found it inadequate for the offender’s rehabilitation. Cocks soon became a Juvenile Court Probation Officer.

Next Week: Kate Cocks: Pt.2: Juvenile Court Probation Officer.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2018

Bibliography on final post.