CHAPTER IX
CONCLUSIVE PROOF FROM MANY SOURCES

This concluding chapter contains a number of plain, straight statements from those possessing first-hand knowledge of the Crewe Circle. Such positive and definite evidence is of far more value from an evidential and scientific standpoint than the mere opinions of those who have never investigated. Owing to the exigencies of space it has been necessary to abbreviate most of these accounts and also to omit many others, equally convincing. For evidential reasons each report or contribution contains the full name and address of the communicator.

The Evidence of GEORGE H. LETHEM, ESQ., JUSTICE OF THE PEACE FOR THE COUNTY OF THE CITY OF GLASGOW

I first heard of the Crewe Circle in the autumn of 1918. At that time I was editor of the Daily Record, Glasgow, and had made the acquaintance of Mr. Peter Galloway, President of the Glasgow Association of Spiritualists, through an article on spiritualism which he contributed to that paper.

Mr. Galloway told me that the Crewe Circle were coming to Glasgow, and he invited me to attend their first sitting. This I agreed to do; I bought a packet of quarter-plates at a City shop, took note of the wrapper markings and kept the packet safe, with the cover unbroken.

My wife accompanied me to the sitting, which was held in a large, well-lighted attic room some distance from the house where the members of the Circle were lodging. I saw them arrive, saw them unpack their photographic outfit, and saw them borrow a dark cloth (which I examined) for use as a background. Obtaining permission, I examined the camera, the slide, the lens, the bellows (for pin-holes) and all the accessories, without finding anything suspicious. I treated the sitting as a test and took every step, so far as I knew, to provide against conscious or unconscious deception.

Including Mr. Hope and Mrs. Buxton, there were nine or ten people present. To all of these, except Mr. Galloway, I was quite unknown, and I was introduced simply as a “friend.”

I had time to complete my examination—in which I included the little adjoining dark room—before the proceedings began. All present then sat round a table, on which my packet of plates was laid within my reach and in my sight. There were hymns and a prayer, then the packet was lifted and held for a few seconds between Mr. Hope’s hands, with the hands of all the others—my own included—above and below. The packet, which was never out of my sight, was then returned to me and I satisfied myself by the markings that it was mine, that the wrapper was intact, and that, therefore, there could have been no tampering with the plates.

Putting the unopened packet in my pocket, I followed Mr. Hope into the dark room, taking with me the slide from the camera. In the dark room Mr. Hope stood in the far corner and I stood close by the door, leaving a clear space between us. Mr. Hope said, in explanation of this arrangement, that he did not want to touch the plates but only to see that I handled them properly.

Taking the packet from my pocket, I broke the cover, extracted two plates and put the packet back in my pocket. Keeping the plates within Mr. Hope’s view but quite out of his reach, I wrote my name on each of them and put them into the slide, which I carried out of the room before handing it to Mr. Hope. Up to this point, Mr. Hope had quite certainly not touched the plates. Having seen the slide placed in the camera, I sat down beside my wife, facing the lens.

The camera had been previously focussed and an exposure was made—Mr. Hope standing on the right and Mrs. Buxton on the left and joining hands (Mr. Hope’s left, Mrs. Buxton’s right) above the camera. In this attitude Mr. Hope pressed the pneumatic bulb with his right hand and so made the exposure, which was longer than for an ordinary photograph. Then the slide was turned and a second exposure was made on other two members of the party.

When the second exposure was completed, Mr. Hope took the slide out of the camera, carried it into the dark room, and emptied the plates into my hands in front of the red glass window. Making sure that my signature was on each of the plates, I placed them in a shaded receptacle, signed other two plates and put them into the slide with the same precautions as before. Then, seeing Mr. Hope out of the room, I shut the door and stood before it whilst two other exposures were made. Re-entering the dark room, I received the plates from the slide as before and proceeded to develop the four plates with material supplied by Mr. Hope, who remained in the room but stood as far from the developing dish as possible and left the whole of the handling to me.

Standing before the red window, I saw the images come up on the plates and noticed that on three of them there were figures other than the ordinary representations of the sitters. When development was finished, I carried the plates from the dark room and, before anyone else was allowed to touch them, I examined them individually and satisfied myself beyond doubt that they were the four identical plates on which I had written my name and that the normal figures on these plates corresponded with the four exposures I had seen made.

That each of the four plates bore my signature, clear and characteristic, I accepted as proof that these were the plates I had placed in the slide and no others, for it was impossible that my signature could have been forged: therefore, I reasoned, there had been no substitution of prepared plates.

Looking through the negatives, I could see that, in addition to the normal figures of the sitters, there were distinct “extras” on three of the plates, each “extra” being distinct in form from the others.

On No. 1 plate—that for which my wife and I had been the sitters—there was the clear representation of a face looking out from an arched veil. This “extra” was superimposed on the image of the sitters and partially obscured them, as if the “something” it represented had come between them and the lens.

As soon as the plate was dry, a rough print was obtained by placing a sheet of printing paper over the negative and holding it up to the window, through which the sun was shining. That rough print showed the normal figures and the “extra” as they were afterwards printed by Mr. Hope.

Five possibilities are, therefore, ruled out in seeking to account for this particular “extra”:

• 1. The plates were not faked before exposure.
• 2. There was no substitution of plates.
• 3. There was no double exposure.
• 4. There was no double printing.
• 5. The plate was not faked after development.

As soon as the rough proof of plate No. 1 was obtained, the face of the “extra” was recognised by my wife and myself as an unmistakable likeness of our elder son, who had been killed in the war, and this recognition was corroborated fully and completely later on by other members of the family, and is therefore beyond dispute.

In considering this likeness and its recognition, I take note of certain facts, namely: (1) That Mr. Hope did not know me and did not know my son, or even that I had a son; (2) that neither Mr. Hope nor anyone in the room, save my wife and myself, had ever seen my son, and that it is unlikely that any one of them had seen his photographs; and (3) that although the likeness is unmistakable, the image of the face is not a reproduction of any normal photograph.

In view of these facts, it seemed to me then, and seems to me still, that it was quite impossible that Mr. Hope could have consciously produced that likeness either by skill or trick or both.

I was afterwards present at several of Mr. Hope’s sittings and was allowed on at least two other occasions to accompany him into the dark room and to watch the whole of his procedure. I kept a keen look-out for tricks—with many of which I was acquainted, but I saw none.

Also I have discussed the details many times with photographic experts and I have read the accusations brought against Mr. Hope, and I am quite satisfied that—whatever may have happened on other occasions—none of the suggestions of trickery put forward can account for the “extras” I have described, and particularly for that in which I am most directly interested.

(Signed) George H. Lethem.

Hazeldene, Harehills Lane, Leeds.