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Pierre L.O.A. Keeler

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Pierre L.O.A. Keeler
BornPierre Louie Ormand Augustus Keeler
1855
New York
DiedAugust 4, 1948
W. C. A. hospital in Jamestown, New York

Pierre L.O.A. Keeler (1855-1948) was an American spiritualist medium.

Biography

Keeler was most well known for his materialization, pellet reading and slate-writing mediumship. He was investigated in 1885 by the Seybert Commission who suspected his phenomena was fraudulent.

Henry R. Evans sat with Keeler in April, 1895 suspected that he had written the 'spirit' messages on the slates himself. According to Evans "I was sure he was writing under the table; I heard the faint rubbing of a soft bit of pencil upon the surface of a slate... several times I saw him put his fingers into his vest pockets, and he appeared to bring up small particles of something, which I believe were bits of the white and coloured crayons used in writing the messages."

Hereward Carrington, who visited Keeler at Lily Dale in 1907, caught him cheating by substituting slates commented "for not only did I see Keeler make the exchange, but the slates I received at the conclusion of the seance were different from those I examined... Keeler is a clever trickster, and the degree of perfection he has attained certainly seems to indicate that he must have been in the habit of practising these tricks continuously for a number of years."

He was exposed as a fraud by the magician Harry Houdini who had his niece Julia Sawyer attend a séance. During the séance she invented a non-existent sister and spoke of deceased relatives who were alive. Keeler unaware of the trap, claimed to 'channel' the spirits of the sister and relatives.

Keeler's brother William M. Keeler was a medium and spirit photographer.

References

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  • The Jinx, No. 52, January 1939, P. L. O. A. KEELER, by Charles Nyquist, page 376
  • The Linking Ring, Vol. 27, No. 7, September 1947, A Magician Visits Lily Dale, N. Y., by John Booth, page 85
  • Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology, Vol. 1, (A-L), by Dr. John Gordon Melton, Keeler, Pierre L. O. A., page 853
  • http://psychictruth.info/Medium_Pierre_L_O_A_%20Keeler.htm