HOUDINI EXPOSES A MEDIUM.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LI, Issue 16781, 14 July 1925, Page 9

HOUDINI EXPOSES A MEDIUM.

VOICES PRODUCED AT A SEANCE. CLEVELAND, U.S.A.—Harry Houdiui, the famous “magician.” lias been responsible for unmasking George Renner, a spirit medium. Renner has been before the Cleveland municipal court, fined £5 and costs, and has been placed on probation. The magistrate said lie wished the case to stand out as a warning to all others engaged in similar duplicity. The exposure of Rennie was a dramatic one. lie was holding a spiritualist seance, which Houdini, a police officer, and a newspaper representative attended in disguise. The room, which was in pitch darkness, contained two trumpets for the spirit voices. INDIAN CHIEF. Voices, soon began to float into the air. A father held a conversation with his son in the room; an Indian chief spoke; an opera singer, Louis Dubois, sang “Nearer, My God, to Thee”' and “Jerusalem.”

In the meantime Houdini had released himself from the circle of listeners, and had smeared the trumpets with lampblack. In the middle of the seance lie flashed an electric torch—and Renner stood revealed, his face and hands covered w ith lampblack. He had been manipulating the trumpets himself, and the seance broke up with Houdini pointing his finger at the medium, and shouting, “Air Renner, you are a fraud!”