Nobel Prize-winning scientist William Crookes believed in ghosts. He attended the séances of the medium Florence Cook. The medium would usually sit behind a curtain in the living room, have the lights turned off, and enter a trance. The curtain would then be lifted and a ghost (ectoplasm) would “appear,” claiming to be called Katy King, but strangely similar to Florence Cook. Moreover, she was not a transparent ghost, but a person who could be touched! Crookes had his doubts, but never checked. A few years later, on May 9, 1880, Florence was caught red-handed: when the curtain was lifted where she was supposed to be, no one was there.
