There is no Death. There are no Dead.
SEASON 4 : EPISODE 50
DECEMBER 5, 2025
The Fox sisters are credited with igniting the Spiritualist movement. At its height, by the late 1800s, upwards of 8 million people across the US and Europe were said to subscribe to spiritualist beliefs. But, in 1888, the Fox Sisters admitted that it was all fake. They were not mediums and none of that was real. Every message, knock, or rapping from the other side was all manufactured by them.
Follow along on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube @agoodnightforamurder.
The bonus content on Patreon for this episode is about fraudulent mediums who were actually prosecuted for their crimes, unlike the Fox sisters.
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ARTICLES
How a Hoax by Two Sisters Helped Spark the Spiritualism Craze
The Fox Sisters and the Rap on Spiritualism
A Mentalist Explains: The Fox Sisters And The Birth Of Spiritualism
Lily Dale Assembly: How the World’s Largest Spiritualist Center Came to Be
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INTRO
Hello everyone, welcome to A Good Night for a Murder, a Victorian true crime podcast.
My name is Kim, and it’s been a minute since we last talked!
What happened?
Well, here’s the thing, I’ve a said before that this podcast is entirely a one-woman show
I do all the research, writing, recording, editing, social media, website… everything…
And when I started it, I thought as my son got a little bit older, that I’d actually have more time to work on it
But it turns out, the opposite is actually true
The schedule I set out for myself for season 4 just turned out to be too demanding
So I took a little break to get caught up a bit
There will be some changes to Patreon memberships as well, and we’re just going to have to see how the rest of the season unfolds!
Please be patient with me!
The bottom line though is: That I do have an episode for you tonight!In the spirit of the holiday season, which Victorians considered the pinnacle of spooky season, our story tonight does deal in the supernatural realm
This episode is titled, “There is no Death. There are no Dead.”
And it is the story of the Fox Sisters
But first, a Victorian society tip.
TIP
Tonight we’re going to talk about Victorian parlor games popular at Christmas time
I’m always amazed at how even though so much has changed since the Victorian era, there’s also so much that has stayed the same…
And parlor games is another example
First off, the parlor of the home is probably what we’d refer to as the living room
It’s the common space or gathering area of the house
When friends and family gathered indoors for their holiday celebrations, they could count on several lively rounds of parlour games to be played
But which would they play?
Well, I came up with a short list of some of the most popular Victorian parlor games and many of you probably already know most of the rules!
First up is charades
Charades became popular in the earlier part of the 19th century
Generally charades is played by two teams where an actor from each team must act out a word, title, or phrase without speaking, and their team must guess the word, title, or phrase before times run out
If they’re able to guess, they get a point
Teams take turns until each player has had a chance to be the actor, at which point, a winner is declared
Next is blind man’s bluff
In this game, one person is blindfolded, spun around several times to disorient them, then turned loose in the room
The blindfolded player had to feel their way around the room until they captured someone, at which point they had to try and guess who they had found
Those hiding from the blindfolded player could make noises and sounds and even call the blindfolded players name to further confuse them
The version common in the Victorian era was actually called blindman’s BUFF, b-u-f-f, and was named so as part of the game was to gently push or spin the blindfolded player around the room away from you
This was a watered down version of the medieval rules where players would forcibly hit or strike the blindfolded player - to literally buffet them…
The next game is called questions and commands, which we call truth or dare!
And the rules are the same
If a player refused a question or command they were likely either forced to pay money, or have their face rubbed in soot
There were few more games I realized we still play today including Fly, Feather, Fly
Where players huddle close together and throw a large feather in to the air
The goal is to keep the the feather from hitting the ground by fanning at it or blowing in to the air
My kid played this in pre-school except with a balloon
They called it “keepy uppy” - which is a name I’m pretty sure came from the TV show Bluey
So, there you go, Bluey - inspired by the Victorians
Moving on, another popular Victorian parlor game was called The Sculptor
In this game, one person is chosen to be the sculptor and everyone else is meant to be statues
The sculptor’s job is to walk around and pose people in to various positions,
But the statues, as the name implies, cannot laugh or move or break character
The first one to do so becomes the next sculptor and the game starts over until everyone has had a turn
I used to play this game with the kids I was babysitting
I think I learned it from Girl Scouts, and I would suggest we play it when I needed the kids to settle down a bit
I’d tell them they were a lump of clay, and they had to be still and quiet while I molded them, then they had to guess what they were, and the game would start over
One game I’d never heard of before is called Pass the Slipper
In this game, players sit in a circle and one player stands in the middle and closes their eyes
The players in the circle have to pass a slipper, or really any small object, around the circle, all the while keeping a close eye on the player in the center who could open their eyes at any time
Once the player in the center opened their eyes, the passing stopped, and they had to guess who was hiding the slipper
If they guessed correctly, the person caught holding the slipper was now in the middle
If they were wrong, the game continued
Another circle game is called Change Seats
It’s sort of like musical chairs, but with verbal cues
Players sit in a circle with one player in the middle
The person in the middle calls on another player and asks them, “Do you love your neighbor?”
That player has three options
They can say yes, and then nothing happens
the player in the middle moves on to another player
If they say no, the people sitting on either side of the chosen player must quickly swap seats before the person in the center can steal one of their chairs
If they lose a seat, they’re in the middle now
Or, the third option is to say, yes, I love my neighbor, except if they’re… wearing blue, or have brown eyes, or are named… Thomas… or whatever
They make something up that applies to many or maybe one other player
At that point, everyone who is… wearing blue, for example, must jump up and change seats before the person in the middle sits down, then they’re in the one in the middle
The last Victorian parlor game we’re going to talk about is called snap dragon
In this game, brandy was poured over a bowl of raisins, then the brandy was lit on fire!
Players had to grab the flaming raisins out of the bowl and pop them in their mouths without getting burnt
That’s it. That’s the entire point of the game
So, now that you’ve learned about some Victorian parlor games, leave me a comment and let me know which you plan to add to your holiday festivities
Please pass on playing snap dragon though
ANNOUNCEMENTS
CONTENT WARNING
A Good Night for a Murder is a true crime podcast that does cover stories including death, violence, sexual assault, and other adult themes.
Please take care while listening.
EPISODE
The Fox family started out in or near Consecon, which was a tiny village in Prince Edward County, Ontario, where father, John Fox, owned a farm
I could not find John’s age but about 1813 he married Margaret Smith, who was 16…
Shortly thereafter, and the couple welcomed their first baby, who was a daughter that they named Leah
They had another daughter, Maria, in 1817 and a son, David, in 1820
Then they took a 13 year break from having children before welcoming 2 more daughters
The first in 1833 named Margaretta, who they called Maggie
And the second in 1837 named Catherine, who they called Kate
In 1847 the Fox family moved to Hydesville, New York
For those curious, Hydesville is no longer the name of the town
Today it’s called Newark, New York and is a about a 45 minute drive east of Rochester in Wayne county
At this time, the 3 older siblings, Leah, David, and Maria were married and out of the house
So it was just parents, Margaret and John, and their two younger daughters, Maggie and Kate, aged 14 and 10 respectively, who moved in to the tiny house in Hydesville
Now accounts differ a bit at this point about the house
Some say it already had a reputation for being haunted
There was a rumor that a peddler had met an untimely death while visiting the house and may even have been buried in the basement
Others say that the murdered peddler story was manufactured later to support the events that are about to transpire…
Either way, fairly quickly after moving in, mother, Margaret, started to hear unusual thumps and bangs around the house…
Margaret mentioned these goings on to her neighbors who ominously responded, “Oh… maybe you have a ghost…”
Margaret voiced these concerns to her husband who dismissed the idea,
But then, on March 31, 1848, daughters Maggie and Kate revealed to their mother that they had been communicating with a spirit in the house at night, who would respond to their questions by making various rapping and banging sounds on the walls and furniture…!
Margaret had to test this for herself, and when she stood in the room that the girls shared with their parents, she asked aloud how many children did she have?
And without hesitation came back 5 loud knocks
The next day Margaret went back to the neighbor who first mentioned she might have a ghost in her house and said, “You gotta see this…”
The neighbor came to the Fox’s home after dark and entered the small family bedroom
While the girls huddled on their bed, Margaret ordered, “Now count five.”
And… allegedly… the room shook five loud, heavy thuds
Then she said, “Count fifteen.”
And… 15 bangs rang out.
Then she asked the mysterious presence to count out how old her neighbor was
And the spirit answered with 33 raps, which was her correct age
Margaret finally stated, “If you are an injured spirit,” she continued, “manifest it by three raps.”
Upon which 3 raps were heard
After this, word spread about town, and it caused a bit of an uproar.
Maggie and Kate’s parents very sensibly said, “You know what… we’re not sure what’s going on, but let’s get the girls out of here for a little while, and maybe this whole thing will just blow over.”
From my research, it sounds like they initially separated the girls, sending the older of the two, Maggie, to go live with her brother for a bit, and sending Kate to live with their sister, Leah, in Rochester, New York
Eventually though, they both wound up with Leah in Rochester
Unsure where their parents went though
Some sources say they deserted the house in Hydesville - which sounds very dramatic - and others fail to mention the parents much after this point at all
Either way, the move to Rochester didn’t do much to extinguish the activity and rumors surrounding the Fox sisters
The mysterious rappings seemed to have followed them
The area they had moved to had recently gained a reputation for reform and religious activity
This was the same region where Mormonism and Millerism, the precursor to Seventh Day Adventism, were born only about a decade before
So the folks that these movements had attracted in past years were primed and ready for new ideas and doctrines.
A short while after their move, Amy and Issac Post, who were family friends and community leaders that once source described as “radical Quakers,” heard about the phenomena and invited the girls to test their abilities in their house
The demonstration was a wild success where Isaac recounted hearing - quote - “very distinct thumps under the floor… and several apparent answers.”
I’m not sure if it was at this gathering, or a later one, but apparently, it would come out that the eldest sister, Leah, also possessed psychic medium abilities and made contact with the Post’s recently deceased daughter…
Fully convinced that these experiences were genuine, the Posts rented the largest assembly hall in Rochester and organized a public showcase of the Fox sister’s abilities
Nearly 400 people attended the event held in November of 1849 where the sisters entertained questions that were answered by otherworldly knocks and rapping sounds
Afterwards, the sisters were accompanied by Amy Post to a private chamber where they agreed to undress and be examined by a committee of skeptics, who found zero evidence of a hoax.
Newspapers began to pick up the Fox sisters’ story and they began making public appearances in and around New York City
Living in New York at the time, was a man by the name of Andrew Jackson Davis
Davis, born in 1826 and the son of a shoemaker, was no one special,
Except, since the age of 14, he claimed to be able to diagnose medical problems through clairvoyance
In his late teens, Davis became inspired by a lecture he heard on animal magnetism,
Animal magnetism was a theory promoted by German physician Franz Mesmer
Mesmer believed that all living things possessed an invisible natural force that governed their physical and spiritual selves.
And he believed that if we could harness this animal magnetism using a technique he named after his self called “mesmerism,” we could essentially heal our bodies and connect with those in spirit form
Mesmerism did indeed inspire the practice of hypnosis we’re more familiar with today
Around the same time, ideas belonging to Swedish philosopher Emaual Swedenborg pertaining to the spirit realm and after life gained popularity
At the age of 53, Swedenborg had a spiritual awakening upon which it was revealed to him that after dying, human spirits moved on to an afterlife comprised of 3 heavens, and 3 hells, where they passed their time more or less the same way as they did while alive
Love for others would elevate you to the heavenly circles, whereas love only for one self would cast you in to circles of hell
All of this was revealed to him in one night during which he claimed that Jesus Christ had appointed him to write The Heavenly Doctrine to reform Christianity, after which he could move freely between the circles of heaven and hell and interact with the angels, demons and spirits that resided in each…
…MAYBE IT’S TRUE, but listen, I want to take this time to point out that mental illness, such as mania that can include things like hallucinations or delusions of grandeur, was greatly misunderstood during this time
and also that substance such as opium and cocaine, known for inducing hallucinations, were present in everything from toothpaste to cough syrup…
But anyway, Davis was fan of Mesmer and Swedenborg, and when he heard that lecture on animal magnetism, and considered his own abilities to diagnose illness through clairvoyance, he came to the realization that he himself possessed remarkable powers
Davis leaned in to his abilities and during a series of mesmeric trances, claimed that the spirit of Swedenborg spoke to him
He published these lengthy transmissions from Swedenborg, and in one documented that - quote - “It is a truth that spirits commune with one another while one is in the body and the other in the higher spheres… all the world will hail with delight the ushering in of that era when the interiors of men will be opened, and the spiritual communication will be established.”
Davis had heard of the Fox sisters, and upon learning the precise date they had revealed their abilities to their mother in their bedroom, turned to that page in his diary where he had recorded, “About daylight this morning, a warm breathing passed over my face and I heard a voice, tender and strong, saying ‘Brother, the good work has begun—behold, a living demonstration is born.’
Davis firmly believed that the Fox sisters were the incarnation of that earlier prophecy conveyed to him by the spirit of Swedenborg.
Davis then invited the Fox sisters to his home in New York City to witness their medium capabilities for himself
Of course, the sisters delivered, which cemented Davis’s support, as well as the trajectory of the Fox Sisters storied career and their role in the birth of the spiritualist movement.
With the elder sister Leah as their chaperone and manager, the sisters launched their professional career
The trio set up shop in a suite at the Barnum Hotel at the corner of Broadway and Maiden Lane in New York
The hotel, ironically, was owned by P. T. Barnum, co-founder of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus., described by Wikipedia as a, “showman, businessman, and politician remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes…”
Anyway, at the Barnum Hotel, the sisters would conduct their sessions three times a day in the hotel’s parlor, with up to 30 people in attendance at a time
Admission was $1 which is close to about $40 in today’s money
They would occasionally take private meetings as well
Horace Greely, founder and editor of the newspaper the New York Tribune, was a frequent attendee, and he took it upon himself to be sort of a mentor for the girls, introducing them to prominent figures including William Cullen Bryant, George Bancroft, James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Parker Willis, Sojourner Truth and William Lloyd Garrison.
Their popularity skyrocketed, and soon crowds flocked to see the sisters in cities all over the US including Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, St. Louis, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia.
All to hear the sisters ask questions into the ether, and be answered with ghostly spirit knocks and bumps…
I want to take a sidebar for a minute, though, to talk about if people actually believed all of this…
Spiritualism appealed to people because it offered answers about what was on the other side, and allowed them to believe they were active participants in their own fate
For those following Christianity, the plan was to do your best in life to be a good person, and in the end, God would decide your fate
If you’re human, you know it’s hard to be good 100% of the time
You could be the most Godly man or woman that ever was but maybe you see someone having more success or better health than you, and you get a little bit mad or jealous about it
And now you’re worried that’s a mark against you getting in to heaven or not
The allure of spiritualism was that you had the power to ask, “Am I on the right path?”
And then get real answers! One knock for yes, two for no!
It also comforted people to believe that they could still reach out to their loved ones after they passed,
or, that when they died, they could still help their loved ones from the other side!
But so far as the question as to whether people truly believed this or not:
No, not everyone believed
Many were skeptics who wanted to see for themselves what was going on
Some thought of it more like attending a magic show
But many did buy in, and I think the biggest reason so many people believed is simply because they wanted to
Now, down the line, closer to the 1860s, 1880s, during the industrial revolution, the Civil War, advances in technology such as electricity, the telegraph, microscopes…
It created this atmosphere that almost anything was possible, but also a lot of uncertainty that people would ever see their loved ones again
And that is when spiritualism really took off
That’s why I think people really cleaved on to spiritualist ideas the way they did,
and while we may think it’s silly that people used to pay the equivalent of nearly fifty bucks to go hear knocks in a room, there are still plenty of psychic medium shows today
Folks like John Edward, Theresa Caputo, the Long Island Medium - they’re almost household names
Even Miss Cleo did big business back in the day!
So, I always like to say we’ve come a long way since then.
But also, Victorians! They’re just like us!
Back to the Fox Sisters though
Maggie, who is 19, and Kate, who is only 15, have embarked on a cross country tour, appearing in sold out venues to deliver messages from the other side
Now Leah, who was 20 years older than her sisters, was often noted as being the girls manager and chaperone, but from what I researched… not so much…
By the time her parents and younger sisters had moved to the house in Hydesville, Leah was already out of the house and married with a child
At the point that her sisters had come to live with her though, her husband had unfortunately abandoned her
So while she did accompany her sisters to New York City, and, no, I do not know who was caring for her child, she did not accompany them during their travel across the country
In 1851, Leah got married again to a long time friend, Calvin Brown and they moved to Manhattan the following year
While they were in New York, Leah would participate in the seances held at the Barnum Hotel, but when they were not, she stayed in Manhattan with her husband and would hold seances out of their home
Unfortunately her second husband passed away only 2 years after their marriage, but Leah would go on to marry again in 1858, this time to a fellow spiritualist, Daniel Underhill
Despite their shared interest in spiritualism, Leah would retire from holding seances around this time
Sources say the two adopted a daughter, and the couple did stay together for the rest of their lives, passing only within 9 months of one another
Also around 1852, 19 year old Maggie met 32 year old Elisha Kent Kane while on tour
Kane was a United States Navy medical officer and Arctic explorer
And he… did not believe her act…
But… he liked her…!
He encouraged her to leave this life of fraud behind, get an education, and become his wife
And… she did
She would later say they were married in 1853, but it sounds like - at least at first - that they only appeared together as husband and wife and were not actually married
She did retire from making mediumship appearances though, began to attend school at Kane’s expense, and ultimately abandoned spiritualism
Fairly quickly after their commitment to one another though, Kane was called away
Back in 1845, there was British expedition to the Arctic attempting to traverse the Northwest Passage, and they got lost
If you’re a fan of strange history, you may be familiar with the story already
In fact there was a fictionalized Netflix series about it called The Terror
The series is indeed based on true events
The British expedition seemed to have disappeared and multiple rescue missions were launched to recover the lost party, after which 2 American-led expeditions were launched
Maggie Fox’s new husband, Kane, was enlisted to lead the second American expedition
They left on May 31, 1853 and while they did not recover the lost party, they did set a new record for traveling further north than anyone had before
In May of 1855, Kane’s party finally abandoned their icebound ship and walked over the ice for 83 days towards the west coast of Greenland before they were rescued by a sailing ship
Kane was welcomed home to New York in October of 1855 a hero, but he was not well
The expedition had taken a significant toll on his health, but he wanted to honor his promise to report back to Lady Jane Franklin in England, the wife of the man in charge of the missing expedition
Before departing for England, he and Maggie did marry in a private ceremony with friends and family
However, Kane’s family, who did not approve of Maggie or the marriage, refused to recognize it
Kane did travel to England to give his final report, then, under the advice of his doctor, he sailed to Havana to recover his health, though he did not survive long thereafter and died in Havana on February 16, 1857.
Despite he himself being Presbyterian, Kane had always expressed to Maggie he thought she should convert to Catholicism
He thought the faith’s ornate iconography and “sense of mystery” would appeal to her
To honor his memory, Maggie did convert to Catholicism, took Kane’s last name, and vowed to, quote - “wholly and forever abandon Spiritualism.”
This was also partly in response to Kane’s family who attempted to deny a bequest from Kane she believed he meant for her
She threatened to take the Kane family to court, after which they settled with her
Now, widowed at 24, her only livelihood abandoned, Maggie also developed a drinking problem
Meanwhile though, Kate Fox continued to develop her said “mediumship” powers and her fame only grew
She began communicating two messages simultaneously, one via writing and one via speaking
She would also transcribe messages in reverse script… which is a thing only ghosts do… I guess…
She also began asking spirits to identify themselves by writing their name on a blank card
Slowly, names would appear on the cards out of thin air
Unlike her sisters, Kate rode the wave of spiritualism all the way through the Civil War in the 1860s
She began a downward spiral in 1865 following the death of both of her parents when she started abusing alcohol
In 1871, Kate traveled to England to spread her spiritual gifts as missionary work
The entire trip was paid for by a wealthy New York banker
In 1872 she met and married H. D. Jencken, a London barrister, legal scholar, and enthusiastic Spiritualist.
Together, they had two sons
In 1876, Maggie joined her sister in England, but the reunion really only fostered an environment of enablement
After Kate’s husband died of a stroke in 1881, the two sisters fell deeper and deeper in to alcoholism
For some time now, Leah and others in the spiritualist community who the sisters had previously counted as friends had started to condemn Maggie and Kate for their bad habits
Things boiled over in 1888 when Leah and others accused Kate of being an unfit mother to her children
To which Kate and Maggie both responded, “Oh yeah, all of you on your high horses… well you’re all a bunch of FRAUDS!”
And they were ready to scream it from the rooftops
That’s right, the Fox Sisters, who started it all, were denouncing Spiritualism and accusing their sister Leah of exploiting them
On October 21, 1888, Maggie Fox was to appear at the New York Academy of Music to make official statement against Spiritualism
Kate would be present in the audience that evening in support of her sister
The newspaper, The New York World, paid Maggie $1,500 for an exclusive statement that was published earlier that day
It read:
My sister Katie and myself were very young children when this horrible deception began,”
“At night when we went to bed, we used to tie an apple on a string and move the string up and down, causing the apple to bump on the floor, or we would drop the apple on the floor, making a strange noise every time it would rebound.”
Mrs. Underhill, my eldest sister, took Katie and me to Rochester. There it was that we discovered a new way to make the raps. My sister Katie was the first to observe that by swishing her fingers, she could produce certain noises with her knuckles and joints and that the same effect could be made with the toes. Finding that we could make raps with our feet – first with one foot and then with both – we practiced until we could do this easily when the room was dark. Like most perplexing things, when made clear, it is astonishing how easily it is done. The rappings are simply the result of a perfect control of the muscles of the leg below the knee, which govern the tendons of the foot and allow action of the toe and ankle bones that is not commonly known. Such perfect control is only possible when the child is taken at an early age and carefully and continually taught to practice the muscles, which grow stiffer in later years. ... This, then, is the simple explanation of the whole method of the knocks and raps...A great many people, when they hear the rapping, imagine at once that the spirits are touching them. It is a very common delusion. Some very wealthy people came to see me some years ago when I lived in Forty-second Street, and I did some rappings for them. I made the spirit rap on the chair, and one of the ladies cried out: 'I feel the spirit tapping me on the shoulder.' Of course, that was pure imagination.
Later on, that evening at the New York Academy of Music, Maggie even offered a demonstration
There, under the bright lights you’d never see used in the seance room, she removed her right shoe tapped out a short series of raps
New York Herald reported, “There stood a black-robed, sharp-faced widow working her big toe and solemnly declaring that it was in this way she created the excitement that has driven so many persons to suicide or insanity.”
Maggie went on to say that their elder sister Leah knew the rappings were fake all along, and greedily exploited her younger sisters for her own gain.
Before exiting the stage she thanked God that she was able to expose Spiritualism.
This left the Spiritualist community in shambles
Spiritualism had become so engrained in to society at this point that everyone had something to say about it - both living and dead, evidently!
Apparently, the spirit of Samuel B. Brittan, who in life was the publisher of Spiritual Telegraph, communicated during a seance that Maggie was indeed an authentic medium, but quote - “the band of spirits attending [her] during the early part of her career” had been usurped by “other unseen intelligences, who are not scrupulous in their dealings with humanity.”
Pretty much saying, “No, no, she’s fine, just some bad ghosts got her ear and now she just thinks she was only tapping her toes all along…”
Whereas many earthside Spiritualists dismissed her as being bitter that she had squandered her career with her own bad decisions
Since she’d lost her credibility as a medium, she was now looking to profit from criticizing mediums
There’s not much documenting their sister Leah’s response to this confession
Given that Leah had removed herself from the community some time ago, it just doesn’t seem to have been the clap back the sisters had hoped it would be
I’m sure the confession was in part driven by their own internal conflict to get the truth out there, but at the end of the day, I think it feels a bit more like a reckless attempt to gain back control of their own narrative
Neither Maggie or Kate were really in a good place mentally or physically any more at this point, and having achieved their fame so young, I think they definitely lost themselves along the way
What’s even more evidence of this, is that a year later, Maggie recanted her confession!
She said that her skills were genuine and ever since her confession her spirit guides had been beseeching her to recant
The truth is though, that she probably needed the money mediumship had brought in
The sisters had soured their relationship and reputation in the spiritualist community though, and after this, the Fox Sisters slowly drifted away in to obscurity
Leah Fox would never reconcile with her sisters, and passed away on November 1, 1890 at the age of 77 from inflammation of the heart in her home in New York City
Kate died two years later on July 2, 1892 at the age of 55 due to kidney disease linked to alcoholism
One of her sons, Ferdinand, actually also went on to become a psychic medium!
But he would be the last in the Fox family lineage to practice mediumship
He married and had a son and a daughter, but passed away from tuberculosis at the age of 34
On March 8, 1893 Maggie died at the age of 59, also due to health problems linked to alcoholism
Maggie and Kate are buried in the Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, whereas Leah and many others of the Fox family are buried in the Green-Wood Cemetery in Greenwood Heights, New York
The Fox Sisters were a pillar of the spiritualist movement and far-reaching network of believers of life after death that continues until this very day.
But wait, there’s more…
Remember that this all started when the girls claimed to be communicating with the spirit of a peddler who had been murdered in their home…?
Over a decade later, some children were playing in the now empty Hydesville home and claimed to have found a partial skeleton seemingly stuffed in between the walls!
Suspicious…!
A doctor examined the bones and estimated them to be about 50 years old
Years later, what was described as a “peddler’s tin box” was found in the basement of the home!
However, this put almost too neat a bow on the sister’s story
When a second doctor was asked his opinion, he said the bones were just fragments and included a few chicken bones,
So he could neither confirm nor deny their true origin,
bbuuutttt… he had also heard that a man living in the area had planted them there as a practical joke
The remains and the box are now on display at the Lily Dale Museum, where skeptical researcher Joe Nickell concluded that quote - “at least part of the bones were those of animals…”
Honestly this sounds like a solvable problem in the year 2025…
Can we not tell if a bone is of human origin or not?
I’m actually going to Google, right now: can you tell if a 200 year old bone is from an animal or human?
Generating…
“Yes, experts can tell if a 200-year-old bone is from an animal or a human using a variety of methods, including macrostructure analysis, histology, and DNA analysis.”
Amazing, any archeologists listening… I’ll help you draft a letter to Lily Dale Museum
Give us the bones!
As amazing as it would be to confirm or deny the origin of the bones in the Fox family’s wall, I do kind of think we know the answer here…
There has never been any evidence that said “peddler” ever existed, and the space in the wall where the bones were found was obviously due to an expansion of the foundation…
What about the Hydesville house itself though?
Well, what was once Hydesville is now Newark, NY, and the foundation of the Foxs’ house, which was built in 1814, does still exist inside Hydesville Memorial Park
They’ve put kind of a little hut around it that they call an “enclosure” with a bunch of windows that you and kind of peek in, it looks like
The house itself was moved to Lily Dale, New York in 1916
For those of you that may not know, Lily Dale is a community that was and is very closely aligned with the spiritualist movement
Sadly, the house was burned in 1955
The property was purchased and a replica home was built that was also burned some time in the 80s!
I’ll let you guess who burned it… and it wasn’t the spiritualists…
Unfortunately, the only thing left now is the stone base from the 1916 move
However, it sounds like several items from the Fox family are on display in the Lily Dale Museum, and there is also a memorial garden dedicated to the family
Now, if you’ve made it this far you may be saying to yourself, “I thought this was a true crime podcast. The Fox Sisters admitted to fraud, which is a crime! Were there ever any charges pressed against them?”
The answer is no, there were not.
Despite openly confessing that their entire career was one big hoax, and taking a lot of people’s money, they were never charged or prosecuted with any crime
Prosecuting fraudulent mediums was extremely difficult as the entire premise of psychic mediumship itself is based on invisible forces.
Prosecutors would essentially have to prove something that they already couldn’t see was not there
And the case of the Fox sisters was so far reaching, it would basically be an exercise in futility
While the Fox Sisters were never charged with any crime, there were plenty of fraudulent mediums who were!
And that is what the bonus content for Patreon members for this episode is about
Listen through the outro music to hear a short preview of this Patreon bonus content
Also, I’m curious to know what you think about the Fox Sisters
Could their abilities have been real?
What do you think about their sister Leah?
If you’re listening on Spotify, you can comment on the episode there
Or if you head on over to Instagram, TikTok or YouTube @agoodnightforamurder, you can let me know what you think there as well.
I’ve also posted some photos of the Fox sisters and their home.
You can also see the photos and source links for this episode on the episode blog and learn more about Patreon on my website at agoodnightforamurder.com
Also follow me on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube @agoodnightforamurder
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Thank you for listening,
And I will talk to you again soon