Jennie and Nelson Holmes
After news of Katie King had spread abroad, the American mediums Jennie and Nelson Holmes also claimed to have materialized her. Robert Dale Owen, the politician and avowed Spiritualist, had experienced this materialization and wrote about it in an article for the Atlantic Monthly in January 1875.
Just as the article was going to press, however, a woman named Eliza White stepped forward and claimed to have masqueraded as Katie. White's face matched that of "Katie King" in photographs sold by the Holmeses and their agents. Both the Atlantic Monthly and Owen admitted in public to being duped. Arthur Conan Doyle maintains that this "exposure" did more damage to Spiritualism than any other exposure of the period (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 269-277).
Investigations conducted by leading Spiritualist Henry Steel Olcott in 1875 re-established the credibility of the Holmeses in the eyes of many Spiritualists. The story eventually accepted by most Spiritualists was that Eliza White had been hired to pose as Katie King for a photograph to sell to the public. The Holmeses had not wanted to photograph the real Katie King, since bright light would have ruined the materialization. Once involved, Eliza White first extorted money from the Holmeses, and then sold the story to the press. (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 269-277).
Read more about this topic: Katie King (spirit)
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““No, no; the real name,” said Holmes sweetly. “It is always awkward doing business with an alias.””
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