Victoria Helen McCrae Duncan (née MacFarlane, 25 November 1897 – 6 December 1956) was a Scottish medium best known as the last person to be imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act 1735 (9 Geo. 2. c. 5) for fraudulent claims. She was famous for claiming to produce ectoplasm, which was proven to be made from cheesecloth.

Early life

Victoria Helen MacFarlane was born in Callander, Perthshire on 25 November 1897, the daughter of Archibald McFarlane, a slater, and Isabella Rattray. At school, she alarmed her fellow pupils with her dire prophecies and hysterical behaviour, to the distress of her mother (a member of the Presbyterian church). His photographs reveal that the spirits were fraudulently produced: Duncan's equipment included a doll made from a painted papier-mâché mask draped in an old sheet.

In 1931, the London Spiritualist Alliance (LSA) examined Duncan's methods. An early examination of pieces of Duncan's ectoplasm revealed that it was made of cheesecloth, paper mixed with the white of egg and lavatory paper stuck together. One of Duncan's tricks was to swallow and regurgitate some of her ectoplasm, and she was persuaded to swallow a tablet of methylene blue before one of her séances by the LSA committee to rule out any chance of this trick being performed, and because of this, no ectoplasm appeared.

Harry Price's investigation

A piece of ectoplasm from one of Duncan's early séances was obtained and secured in a bottle of distilled water. It was given to the psychical researcher Harry Price, who was originally enthusiastic about the sample. However, when he gave the sample to a chemist for an analysis it was discovered that it had been made from egg white mixed with chemicals. Price later duplicated Duncan's ectoplasm with similar substances.

In 1931, Price paid Duncan £50 (almost £4,300 in 2024) to conduct a number of test séances. She was suspected of swallowing cheesecloth, which was then regurgitated as "ectoplasm". Price had proven through analysis of a sample of ectoplasm produced by Duncan that it was made of cheesecloth. She reacted violently at attempts to X-ray her, running from the laboratory and making a scene in the street, where her husband had to restrain her, destroying the test's controlled nature. According to Price, in a report of the mediumship of Duncan: Psychologist William McDougall, who attended two of the séances, pronounced her "whole performance fraudulent" in an appendix to the report.

Following Price's report, Duncan's former maid Mary McGinlay confessed in detail to having aided Duncan in her mediumship tricks, and Duncan's husband admitted that the ectoplasm materialisations were the result of regurgitation.

Duncan frequently had nosebleeds during séances; William Brown suggested that this was another of Duncan's hiding places for her fake ectoplasm. In 1936, psychical researcher Nandor Fodor offered money to Duncan if she would be filmed with an infrared camera during a séance; she refused.

1933 conviction

In a séance on 6 January 1933 in Edinburgh, the spirit of a little girl called Peggy supposedly emerged in the séance room. A sitter named Esson Maule grabbed her and the lights were turned on and the spirit was revealed to be made from a stockinette undervest. The undervest was used as evidence which led to Duncan's conviction of fraudulent mediumship at the Edinburgh Sheriff Court trial on 11 May 1933.

The spiritualist journal Light endorsed the court decision that Duncan was fraudulent and supported Price's investigation that revealed her ectoplasm was cheesecloth. Duncan's husband was also suspected of acting as her accomplice by hiding her fake ectoplasm. The ectoplasm proved to be made from a length of artificial silk. In 2018, the sample was displayed at the Spellbound exhibition on the history of magic at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

HMS Barham sinking

During World War II, in November 1941, Duncan held a séance in Portsmouth at which she claimed the spirit materialization of a sailor told her HMS Barham had been sunk. This proved to be Duncan herself, in a white cloth which she attempted to conceal when discovered, and she was arrested.

Researcher Graeme Donald wrote that Duncan could have easily found out about HMS Barham and she had no genuine psychic powers. According to Donald:

A leak concerning HMS Barham was later discovered. A secretary of the First Sea Lord had been indiscreet to Professor Michael Postan of the Ministry of Economic Warfare. Postan said that he believed he had been told officially, and was not arrested.

Duncan was found to be in possession of a mocked-up HMS Barham cap-tally. This apparently related to an alleged manifestation of the spirit of a dead sailor on HMS Barham, although Duncan apparently did not know that after 1939 sailors' cap-tallies carried only 'H.M.S.' and did not identify their ship. There were also concerns that she was exploiting the recently bereaved, as the Recorder noted when passing sentence. Duncan was barred by the judge from demonstrating her alleged powers as part of her defence against being fraudulent. The jury brought in a guilty verdict on count one, and the judge then discharged them from giving verdicts on the other counts, as he held that they were alternative offences for which Duncan might have been convicted had the jury acquitted her on the first count. Duncan was imprisoned for nine months, Brown for four months, and the Homers were bound over.

Repeal of the Witchcraft Act

In 1944, Duncan was one of the last people convicted under the Witchcraft Act 1735 (9 Geo. 2 c. 5), which made falsely claiming to procure spirits a crime. She was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment. When convicted, she cried out "I have done nothing; is there a God?"

On her release in 1945, Duncan promised to stop conducting séances, but she was arrested during another one in 1956. She died at her home in Edinburgh a short time later.

Death

Duncan died at her home in Edinburgh, on 6 December 1956, a short time after another seance. However, some spiritualists continued to defend her. According to Jenny Hazelgrove,

Psychical researcher Simeon Edmunds also noted that spiritualists had a history of ignoring the evidence of fraud in the Duncan case. He criticized the spiritualist press such as Psychic News for biased reporting and distorting facts.

The naval investigation and subsequent trial were dramatised in a radio play, The Last Witch Trial, by Melissa Murray, starring Joanna Monro as Duncan and Indira Varma as the undercover investigator. It was broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on 4 June 2010.

Descendants and supporters of Duncan have campaigned on several occasions to have her posthumously pardoned. Petitions for a posthumous pardon were rejected by the Scottish Parliament in 2001, 2008 and 2012. Duncan's supporters maintain a website and online petition where they continue to campaign for her pardon.

<gallery mode="packed" heights="150px">

Image:Helen Duncan with roll of cheesecloth.png|Duncan with a roll of cheesecloth

Image:Helen-duncan-cheesecloth.jpg|Duncan with cheesecloth and a cut out newspaper face

Helen-duncan-platexi.jpg|Duncan with ectoplasm made from a rubber glove

Image:Helen Duncan fake ectoplasm B.jpg|Duncan with alleged ectoplasm figure made from a coat-hanger, cloth and a mask

</gallery>

Notes

References

  • Mary Armour. (2001). Helen Duncan: My Living Has Not Been in Vain. Pembridge Publishing.
  • Maurice Barbanell. (1945). The Case of Helen Duncan. Psychic Press.
  • Gena Brealey, Kay Hunter. The Two Worlds of Helen Duncan. Saturday Night Press Publications.
  • Manfred Cassirer. (1996). Medium on Trial. PN Publishing.
  • Simeon Edmunds. (1966). Spiritualism: A Critical Survey. Aquarian Press.
  • Robert Hartley. (2007). Helen Duncan The Mystery Show Trial. HPR Publishing.
  • Alan Crossley. (1976). The Story of Helen Duncan: Materialisation Medium. Arthur H. Stockwell Ltd.
  • Malcolm Gaskill. "Britain's Last Witch". History Today 51 (2001).
  • Malcolm Gaskill. (2001). Hellish Nell: Last of Britain's Witches. Fourth Estate.
  • Renée Haynes. (1982). The Society for Psychical Research 1882–1982: A History. MacDonald & Co.
  • Jenny Hazelgrove. (2000). Spiritualism and British Society Between the Wars. Manchester University Press.
  • "Hellish Nell". The Daily Mirror. 6 December 2006: 24.
  • Paul Kurtz. (1985). A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology. Prometheus Books.
  • Georgess McHargue. (1972). Facts, Frauds, and Phantasms: A Survey of the Spiritualist Movement. Doubleday.
  • Helena Normanton. (1945). The Trial of Mrs Duncan. London: Jarrolds.
  • Harry Price. (1931). Regurgitation and the Duncan Mediumship. (Bulletin I of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, 120pp with 44 illustrations.)
  • Harry Price. (1933). The Cheese-Cloth Worshippers. In Leaves from a Psychist's Case-Book. Victor Gollancz Ltd.
  • Harry Price. (1936). Confessions of a Ghost-Hunter. Putnam.
  • Harry Price. (1942). Search for Truth: My Life for Psychical Research. Collins.
  • Mary Roach. (2007). Six Feet Over: Adventures in the Afterlife. Canongate Books Ltd.
  • Nina Shandler. (2006). The Strange Case of Hellish Nell. Da Capo Press.
  • Roy Stemman. (1976). The Supernatural. Danbury Press.
  • Paul Tabori. (1961). The Art of Folly. Prentice-Hall International, Inc.
  • Paul Tabori. (1966). Harry Price: The Biography of a Ghosthunter. Living Books.
  • Donald J. West. (1946). The Trial of Mrs Duncan. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 48: 32–64.
  • Inside story: 301 Copnor Road by Roger Wilkes
  • Article in World War II magazine about Duncan and HMS Barham
  • The Harry Price Website – Psychical researcher Harry Price's 1931 examination of Helen Duncan's séance room practices.
  • Campaign to have Helen Duncan posthumously pardoned