It is true that girls can talk to the dead

Late one night, near midnight in late March 1848, two girls Katie and Maggie Fox suddenly burst into tears and called their parents from the bedroom of their sisters at the house in Hydesville, New York. The mysterious sounds that echoed in the room made the girls wake up.

The Fox family lit candles and searched the house but could not find the cause of the noise. The next night, those sounds resounded. And the whole night after that - and all nights during the next 2 weeks. Every night this sound lasts about a few hours and it makes the Fox family always live in fear, anxiety and fatigue.

On March 31, two girls went to bed early because they were too tired. And that sound almost immediately resounded. This time, Kate responded to the noise with applause. Surprisingly, this way is effective with that sound. Maggie quickly followed suit and everything seemed to be asking for the noise "to do what I do". She clapped her hands 4 times and the knock also responded 4 times.

Margaret, Kate and Leah Fox.(Photo: WikiCommons).

For the next few hours, the two girls continued to interact with the source leading to that sound. Through this request and response, the two girls understand that this is an "invisible intellect" - the soul of the assassinated street vendor named Charles B.Rosna with the body still buried under the throne. home. Apparently this soul only contacted Katie and Maggie.

The next night, Margaret invited neighbors around to see her daughters talking to this soul. At first, neighbors were skeptical and asked a series of personal questions about themselves for what was supposed to be the ghost. With the help of Katie and Maggie, the soul answered every question (with "yes" or "no" sounds) correctly.

The neighbors feel very shocked, surprised and scared, but others still find it necessary to have more evidence. A few volunteers volunteered to dig into the Fox family's cellar to search for the body of "Charles Rosna".

Although the water sprayed up prevented them from digging, the failure to find this evidence did not prevent people from believing in the mystery. They were convinced that a soul existed in this small town and that two Fox girls could talk to the dead.

Around the middle of the 19th century, the Fox sisters became famous people - they went around the world talking to mysterious ghosts. By the 1880s, more than 8 million believers believed that the Fox sisters could talk to the deceased. Katie and Maggie's abilities are highly respected and viewed as a religious phenomenon can become a form of animism.

Over the years, animism has inspired Arthur Conan Doyle, bringing hope to the widow of President Lincoln - Mary Todd Lincoln, and causing the great magician Harry Houdini to be furious with the essays. The tune that everything is just a scam.

Illustrations from the 1897 Hours with the Ghost book show that scientists investigated the claims of a grandmother.(Photo: WikiCommons).

Knowing that the special ability of Katie and Maggie would not be properly recognized in the small village of Hydesville, Mrs. Margaret sent her two daughters to live with their sister Leah in Rochester, New York. . At that time, the city was a fertile land for political activities, religious freedom, and industrial innovation.

There are wealthy people in Rochester that Leah is sure they will be willing to pay for this special ability of their two sisters. Leah started acting. She organized two girls to perform a soul call in Rochester and invited names to attend such as Isaac and Amy Post; she was in the same place as Maggie and Katie when one of the two could not do it.

On November 14, 1849, the Fox sisters (in this session, Maggie and Leah) held the first large and public soul call at the famous Corinthian Hall in Rochester. Local newspapers advertised the event and information about the event spread throughout the city. Hundreds of people came, some were surprised while others simply came to mock.

But in the end, no one was mocked, at least according to Rochester Daily Democrat: "Those present . can't help but acknowledge the evidence of the soulful call that the ghost was actually there" .

Maggie, Katie and Leah became international celebrities. Stars of the time, such as Horace Greeley, William Cullen Bryant, Sojourner Truth and William Lloyd Garrison came to witness their soul call. The Fox sisters traveled all over the world, from London to New York City, making everyone have the opportunity to witness them being able to communicate between real life and the afterlife.

Often, those who approach their abilities have both experienced grief and hurt because they have lost their loved ones. For example, Mary Todd Lincoln, who is still in the pain of not only losing her husband but also losing her son, attended the Fox's soul call.

Those who carry such pain are always willing to spend almost any amount of money to be able to talk to their family members again. And Leah, who manages most of the Fox sisters' financial activities, was extremely happy to receive this.

Mrs. Fish and the two Fox sisters: the first cohorts of mysterious noises in western Rochester, New York.(Photo: Library of the US Congress).

When Maggie and Katie grew up, the two grew more and more frustrated with their sister. Several times they wanted to escape soul calls but Leah said that was impossible. Although money continues to flow, Maggie and Katie seem to have only a very small part.

When Maggie fell in love and secretly married Elisha Kent Kane, the explorer - although this may seem illegal - she hid Leah for the first time. But very quickly Leah discovered and scolded Maggie and her lover. Even so, Maggie and Kane still loved each other until he died suddenly in Havana, Cuba, in 1857. Maggie suffered severe depression and began to become addicted to alcohol. By October 21, 1888, Maggie felt she had nothing to lose.

That night, in front of thousands of people at the New York Academy of Music, Maggie Fox - tired, severely depressed, and almost drunk - went to the middle of the stage. In front of the audience and Katie beside her, she revealed an information that shocked everyone - it was the Fox's story that was just a hoax.

She said - both on the stage and in a signed confession in the New York World - that this deception began when they were little girls . The "sound" that appears at their home in Hydesville is not a mysterious sound, but just a sound of falling fruit.

"At night, when we go to bed, we often tie an apple to a string and pull it up and down, causing the apple to hit the floor, or we drop the apple to the floor, making a strange noise" , Maggie explained.

To continue this scam, the two girls managed to create noises or knocks by breaking their toes, fingers and joints. Maggie proved to be a talented performer when removing shoes, socks on stage and making her toes make a sound.

She also explained many other ways the sisters she used to trick people - such as tapping on a specially designed table, and learning how to write on a stone with only her feet. The New York Herald described the scene that night: "There was a moment when it was ridiculous, but then it became incredible."

Every newspaper in the country calls this "death for animism" because the person who helped bring it to become a phenomenon all over the world reveals himself to be a fraud.

In fact, animism continued - it was truly revived after World War I - but the Fox sisters were seen as grandmothers. Believers blame Maggie for being drunk, or even claim that bad spirits have infiltrated her and forced her to denounce her abilities.

The painting in 1887 by Richard Bergh's "Soul of the Soul".(Photo: WikiCommons).

Finally, Maggie also compromised; a year later, she rejected her confession and said: " I was too in need of money and everyone . took advantage of the situation. Excitement also caused my mental imbalance. When making those terrifying statements, I was irresponsible to my words. "

All three Fox sisters were lost in oblivion and died in poverty, beginning with Leah's departure in 1890. In July 1892, Katie died of terminal alcoholism. Less than a year later, Maggie also died of alcohol-related complications. But there is a strange ending to this story.

In 1904, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote that the students had snuck into the Fox family's old house, then known as "Spook House" . There, they found bone fragments on a crumbling wall, and were then tested by a local doctor and thought it was about 50 years old - about the age of the character's death "Charles B. Rosna" by Maggie and Katie. Later, many people said that besides the skeleton they found the tin of the street vendor.

After all, will the Fox sisters really talk to the dead? Or is the story of bone fragments just another scam? We will probably never know for sure without the help of a real maternal grandmother.