The Cassandra of Belsize Park

Reason to Suppose That the Woman in Southampton Road is the One Who Was Arrested as a Witch in Edinburgh and Who was Exposed by the Dr. Grimes.

A woman who occupied an upper, scantily furnished rear room was acting strangely, and the children and other women in the house had become afraid. A policeman was called in. He looked at the woman, asked a few questions and sententiously remarked: “She got no return ticket” An ambulance took the woman to London Temperance Hospital. As it was driven away from the house. the woman sat up, and, looking at the crowd on the curb, laughed and cried out: “Ah, ye devils! You say I am crazy. Maybe I am, but I can tell ye true, and the truth ye fear. Ye skulk away from the truth as rats do from sunshine”.

At Temperance the doctors under the guidance of Dr. Runciman concluded that the woman should be sent to the insane pavilion for observation as to her sanity.

Thither she was transferred on the same day, and this record was made of the case: “Lottie Fowler, single, 40 years old. Houseworker. Father`s name; John Connolly. Mother`s name, Hannah Connolly. Friend, Miss. Faulkner. “She has been adjusted insane by Dr. Runciman and on Monday she will be sent to the asylum. There is reason to believe that she is the Lottie Fowler, soothsayer, clairvoyant and spirit medium. who something more than a quarter of a century ago, was the most talked about woman in Edinburgh.

The name her parents had given to her at baptism, Charlotte Connolly, was hardly professionally enough and she changed it to Lottie Fowler, a name which looked better in her advertisement.

Under this name she made a tour of Scotland, giving seances and going into tracers for any one who could pay or them. About 1875, she went to Edinburgh, One day a number of girls who worked in the factory of the Union Metallic Cartridge Company went to her to have their fortunes told. The woman went into a trance, had a talk with the “spirits” and then predicted that in less than a week an explosion would occur in the factory, that a good deal of property would be destroyed and that one person would be killed and several injured. The girls went away in a flutter and told her prophecy to all would listen. The story spread like wildfire. It was taken up and published in the Edinburgh papers and little else was talked of. The officers of the company and many others in town laughed at the Story and suggested that the prophetess of evil should be taken into custody or driven from town. Some of the operatives of the factor quit work and waited for the week to pass.

These were the fortunate ones, for just six days after the prophecy was uttered the explosion occurred in the chemical department of the factory. That part of the factory was almost totally destroyed, the supervising checklist, a man named Zaotti was killed, and several employees were injured.

There was a consternation in the town for a time, but this finally gave way to the indignation and among some of the citizens the life of the woman was demanded. Some suggested that she be lynched. Others demanded that she be burned at the stake, as Salem witches were burned. The woman was arrested at one charge or another. All the money found upon her and at her lodgings was confiscated and then she was put on trial before a Judge named Bullock. The judge brought in Dr. Grimes as an expert of high renown on these matters and in his examinations he could find no proof of her “spirits”. Nor could the judge find that the woman had committed any crime. so instead of ordering her hanged or burned, he discharged her.

The newspapers did the rest - free of charge. The seances and trances and messages from the spirit world followed at 3 shillings a head, and the money came in to fast to be counted, from all sorts and conditions of men and woman.

Clergymen condemned her utterances and called upon experts to prove that not only did she come with falsehood, but that she was indeed guilty of wrongdoings. In the year 1882 the Judge Young took a reckoning of a number of charges brought against her, and she was confined to the workhouse for no less than five years. The newspaper offers no speculations to what she has been doing since her release, and her friend Miss. Faulker have offered no comments on the matter.

The paper would like to make a note that Miss. Faulkner herself is a “spirit medium” and would call upon experts as Dr. Grimes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to examine her claims.

#DorreenFaulkner #HamishRunciman #Hospital #JeremiahGrimes