The quest for Dean Bridgman Conner

Introduction

The search for Dean Bridgman Conner in Mexico under the clairvoyant instructions of the famous medium, Mrs. Leonora E. Piper, and under the guidance of Dr. Richard Hodgson, secretary of the American Branch of the Society for Psychical Research, was in many respects one of the strangest quests ever undertaken by a newspaper man or anybody else. But the full significance of the unravelling of the mystery was not so clearly comprehended at the time as it is today. Nor were the full bearing and significance of the investigation, in its relation to Psychical Research and psychic phenomena, so clearly understood; for through this case Dr. Hodgson and others confidently expected that the "Spiritistic" theory of immortality, which had been suggested as the only solution of Mrs. Piper's strange mediumistic powers, would be completely demonstrated.

And this would, in all probability, result in the promulgation of a new religion — a religion that would rest on a basis of conviction supported by facts obtained through laborious investigations and by scientific methods. Naturally it was expected that such a religion would

Introduction

supersede the religions based on spiritual exaltation, prophecy and faith. J

It was a case that had all the elements of a great mystery. A young American dies — or is supposed to have died — in Mexico; later, his father in Burlington, Vt., has a vivid dream in which the son assures him he is not dead but that he is alive and is being held for ransom. Mrs. Piper, in the trance state, and under the auspices of Dr. Richard Hodgson, substantiates the father's dream. Then follow two investigations in Mexico which only make the mystery more mysterious, and finally I am sent to clear the thing up one way or the other — to solve the mystery if possible.

One important thing about the case was the fact that in it were focalized some of the most important matters that had been under investigation by the Society for Psychical Research. There was a vivid dream; there was clairvoyance, automatic writing, telepathy over long distances, and finally there was a supreme test of the "spirit controls" that spoke through Mrs. Piper. These were the same "spirit controls" that had been investigated by Prof. William James, Professor Hyslop and others in this country; by Sir William Crookes, F. W. H. Myers, Edmund Gurney, Sir Oliver Lodge, Professor Sidgwick, Alfred Wallace and others in England; Professor Richet and

[vi]

Introduction

Paul Bou^rget in France, and many other eminent scientists. Mrs. Piper's extraordinary powers had amazed them all and had led some of them to the conclusion that the spirits of dead people spoke through her. And finally there was the adventure of attempting to prove all this, one way or the other, under unusual circumstances in a foreign land; besides the further adventure involved in the rescue of a young man who was supposed to be held captive in a strange institution in a remote part of Mexico.

In the whole course of my newspaper experience I never worked harder nor more conscientiously on a problem than on this mystery in which the death of Dean Bridgman Conner in Mexico was involved. My studies and researches covered a period of five months, during which time I travelled more than eleven thousand miles in the United States and Mexico.

As a piece of newspaper work, at the time it was so far removed from the beaten path of general news that it was regarded by many people as a fake — or as fiction — which after all only emphasizes anew the fact that truth in the affairs of life is very often much stranger than fiction.

For a long time I refrained from writing out a full narrative of my experiences in the case,

f vii 1

Introduction

because of the embarrassment it might cause a number of people, but so many have urged me on the ground that it would be a most important contribution to Psychical Research, that I decided to do it. And curiously enough — so deep an impression did everything connected with the case make on me — I found the facts were as vivid in my mind as when I worked on the mystery. It is the sort of thing one does not cease thinking about nor easily forget, and time has only enabled me to see more clearly many things which were rather vague eighteen years ago. Time has also vindicated my conclusions in the case. It was due to the enterprise of Gen. Charles H. Taylor of the Boston Globe that the mystery was cleared up. He felt that it should be cleared up and he paid the bills.

A. J. P.

viii ]

Chapter I

I might as well introduce myself to the reader by means of the following letter, the necessity for which will appear later:

Department of State Washington

To the Diplomatic and Consular Officers

of the United States in Mexico: Gentlemen :

I take pleasure in herewith introducing Mr. A. J. Philpott, who is visiting Mexico for the purpose of ascertaining, if possible, the whereabouts of Dean Bridgman Conner, a young man formerly a resident of Burlington, Vt. You will extend to Mr. Philpott all possible official assistance for the successful prosecution of his efforts.

I am, Gentlemen,

Your obedient servant,

Richard Olney.

Mr. Olney was then Secretary of State under President Cleveland, and the letter is introduced here so that there will be no misunderstanding in regard to the mission on which I went to Mexico, to dispel any doubts regarding the seriousness of that mission and to make clear the importance attached to it.

But before this letter was penned by the Secretary of State — for nearly two years before — the case of Dean Bridgman Conner had been a great mystery and had been the cause of much uneasiness and anxiety for two very different reasons. But the astounding thing about the mystery was that it all practically began with a dream.

It was on a night some months after the reported death of Dean Bridgman Conner in the American hospital in the City of Mexico that his father, Mr. W. H. H. Conner, in Burlington, Vt., had this vivid dream in which the son appeared and said he was not dead, but was alive, and held a captive in Mexico.

That was startling enough. But a little later the dream attained additional importance, wider interest and more significance, when it was substantiated by Dr. Richard Hodgson, secretary of the American Branch of the Society for Psychical Research, and by the eminent trance medium, Mrs. Leonora E. Piper.

The dream had been tested by Dr. Hodgson, considered the ablest psychical investigator in America at the time, and he was aided in his test by Mrs. Piper, whose remarkable clairvoyant powers have astonished many of the foremost investigators and scientists of Europe and America.

This verification of the dream resulted in three separate investigations and searches, in the Republic of Mexico, for Dean Bridgman Conner, by persons sent especially for the purpose; and they worked largely through the instructions of Dr. Hodgson, under the clairvoyant guidance of Mrs. Piper. I conducted the third of these investigations.

Dean Bridgman Conner was a respected young man, about twenty-seven years old, when he went from the United States to the City of Mexico, in the latter part of 1894, to work in Orrin's circus and theatre as electrician and manager of the lights. After his arrival in the city he worked about ten weeks when he was taken seriously ill with typhoid fever. After the first week of his illness he was removed, on the Slst of February, 1895, from the house in which he lodged to the American hospital on the outskirts of the cityc

Twenty-three days later the American Consul- General in the City of Mexico sent word to

Mr. W. H. H. Conner in Burlington, Vt., that his son. Dean Bridgman Conner, had died in the American hospital and had been buried in the American cemetery, near the hospital.

The American Consul-General at the time was Ex-Governor Thomas T. Crittenden, of Missouri. When Mr. Conner was first notified of his son's illness he wired the Consul-General urging that no expense be spared in the matter of care and medical attendance.

Soon after the funeral Consul-General Crittenden forwarded the baggage and personal effects to the parents at Burlington, Vt., and wrote a letter which deeply impressed them; for it showed that he was a kindly gentleman who had done all that was possible for their son during his illness at the hospital and in providing for the interment in the American cemetery. He said he had attended the funeral and had placed a flower, moistened with tears, on the young man's grave. And he said that Dean had been buried under the Stars and Stripes.

It is no wonder then that Consul-General Crittenden should, in the language of diplomacy, "consider the incident closed."

But it wasn't closed.

The father's vivid dream opened it all up anew — opened up every circumstance and incident in the life of Dean Bridgman Conner in Mexico, and caused the Consul-General and others considerable trouble and anxiety for several years thereafter; to say nothing of three of the strangest quests ever undertaken to discover the whereabouts of a person whose death and burial had been officially registered, but who, in spite of that fact, was reported to be alive and held captive in some remote part of Mexico.

While Governor of Missouri Thomas T. Crittenden had gained some notoriety through his connection with the death of the noted outlaw, Jesse James. It was because of the reward offered by the Governor that Jesse James was shot and killed under unusual circumstances. Although the method rather shocked the public at the time, yet the dastardly character of the bandit was considered sufficient excuse for so unusual a proceeding.

Chapter II

From the day word was received of Dean Bridgman Conner's death there had been an undercurrent of suspicion and doubt about the matter in the minds of sev^eral people — relatives and friends — in Burlington, Vt. At first there was nothing particularly tangible on which to base these suspicions aind doubts except possibly a feeling or "hunch" which seemed to possess both Mr. and Mrs. Prentiss C. Dodge from the moment when they heard of Dean's illness.

Mrs. Prentiss C. Dodge had known Dean Bridgman Conner from his childhood and had always entertained a very tender regard for him. Her husband, Prentiss C. Dodge, also thought a great deal of the young man. In fact, he was regarded almost as a member of the Dodge household, and was always welcome there.

Mrs. Dodge could not bring herself to believe that he was dead. She felt there was something wrong — some mystery — about his reported death, and she communicated her suspicions and fears both to her husband and to the young man's father, W. H. H. Conner, who was at that time assistant postmaster of

Burlington. Letters they received in response to inquiries from people in Mexico did not tend to allay their suspicions, but rather to increase them. No responsible person, as far as they could learn, had actually seen the body of Dean Bridgman Conner after death.

Some importance was also attached to the fact that a jewel, or jewels, of an unknown value, the property of the young man, had not been returned with his effects from Mexico. The Consul-General's explanation regarding these missing jewels was not considered wholly satisfactory. And, by that curious process of mental indirection which associates unrelated things, their attitude toward the Consul-General was probably tinctured by their feelings regarding the Jesse James homicide.

So all that was needed about this time was that vivid dream of the young man's father to bring these vague suspicions and doubts to a focus.

But how prove the dream?

The dream simply strengthened Mrs. Dodge and others in their suspicions, for these suspicions and doubts had become so strong and dominant that even "the fabric of a dream" looked like real evidence. Still it was not the kind of evidence that would be accepted by the average person, loath as most people are to believe that there is not something in dreams.

One thing that gave Mr. Conner's dream some immediate standing and dignity in Burlington, Vt., was the fact that he himself was not the kind of a man who had ever been regarded as a dreamer or a visionary. He was regarded as a practical man.

But this was an unusual dream, and under the circumstances it was both startling and dramatic. To Mrs. Dodge and others it seemed like an occult demonstration — a voice out of oblivion — that gave weight and authority to existing doubts and suspicions. It was of especial significance to Mr. and Mrs. Dodge, who were more than academically interested in the mysterious phenomena associated with spiritualism. The dream fitted perfectly into the fabric of their feelings and suspicions about Dean Bridgman Conner.

Yet the dream ought to be proved or substantiated in some way. But how.^^ Every age has its dream interpreters as well as its dreamers; its visionaries and prophets as well as its pessimists and doubters. At this particular time the Society for Psychical Research, which included in its membership many eminent scientists and scholars of Europe and America, was busying itself — or themselves — with the study of dreams, delusions, illusions and all kinds of subnormal and abnormal mental phenomena.

There were two branches of this Society, the English and the American. Dr. Richard Hodgson was secretary of the American Branch and he was indefatigable in his pursuit and investigation of strange mental phenomena, including dreams, illusions, spirit communications, etc. He was a terror to fake spiritualists, fake mediums, fake clairvoyants and fakers of this kind generally. So, naturally, when he put the stamp of his approval on any kind of mental manifestation, whether it was a dream or a spiritualistic phenomenon, that meant a great deal — it was in a large measure authoritative.

It was Rev. Minot J. Savage who advised Mr. W. H. H. Conner and his friends to submit the dream to Dr^ Richard Hodgson. Mr. Savage was an eminent Unitarian divine who had been interested in the study of dreams, visions and such phenomena. At this particular time, however, he had given up such studies largely because the American Branch of the Society for Psychical Research had taken up this line of investigation and had more and better facilities for pursuing it.

It was through these investigations that Dr. Hodgson became interested in Mrs. Piper. Both he and Prof. William James, who had been a president of the Society for Psychical Research, had carefully tested and investigated

Mrs. Piper. Her mysterious power while in the trance state had also been investigated by such scientists as Professor Richet of Paris, Sir Oliver Lodge, Lord Crookes, Paul Bourget and others, and she had baffled them all. So successful had she been in the tests to which she had been subjected that at this time Dr. Hodgson had the greatest faith in her mysterious powers and used her as a sort of "official medium" and demonstrator of the occult for the Society.

So when the dream of W. H. H. Conner had been tested and approved by Dr. Hodgson and Mrs. Piper it is little wonder that the friends and relatives of Dean Bridgman Conner became very much excited. Who wouldn't under such circumstances?

Mrs. Piper was no ordinary medium. Some of the biggest men in the world regarded her as an oracle. People — eminent people — came from all over the world to consult her and have "sittings" with her while she was in the trance state. Her automatic writings, or her utterances, while in this trance state were regarded with as much faith as ever were the utterances of a Delphic oracle by the ancient Greeks. A new kind of religion was being built around this woman by such men as Dr. Hodgson. They had been convinced that through her sensitive mind and body spirits of the known dead had spoken and written.

Through her the age-long riddle of immortality and a spirit world had been solved to their satisfaction.

This new religion was not to be taken on faith — it was to be taken on a kind of evidence which satisfied scientific investigators. Through her the scientific mind was feeling its way by cautious experimentation and investigation into the spirit world and proving immortality by scientific methods, and by new processes of deduction. True, there was nothing inspiring in this woman when she was in the normal state, but when she was in the trance state she was different. She didn't then know what she said or did; she was simply a "medium" of communication between the spirit world and Dr. Hodgson and the others who were present at such times, who had "sittings" with her.

There were certain spirits of known and unknown dead that spoke through Mrs. Piper while in the trance state, and these were known to Dr. Hodgson and the others who had investigated her. Dr. Hodgson had always been a materialist whose materialism was based on Herbert Spencer's philosophy, until he met and investigated Mrs. Piper. She changed him — changed his whole life — made him a firm believer in a new spiritualism. He called it, and others called it, "Spiritism."

Is it any wonder that the dream in this particular case was accepted when it had such approval?

Such well-known spirits as "Phinuit" or "Dr. Phinuit" — one of the first and earliest spirits that spoke through Mrs. Piper — had verified the dream. Other known spirits had also verified the dream.

When Dr. Hodgson was appealed to he asked for some of Dean Bridgman Conner's personal effects; something tangible relating to his personality — clothes or trinkets that Mrs. Piper could touch while she was in the trance state or that should be near her at the moment. Some "effects" were forwarded to him and he had a "sitting" with Mrs. Piper.

Chapter III

At the first "sitting" Mrs. Piper's spirit "controls" could do nothing, so more "effects" were sent for. Then Mr. Prentiss C. Dodge came down from Burlington to Boston and brought with him some letters which had been written by the young man from Mexico, some photographs and personal effects. Mrs. Piper was not permitted to see either the letters or the photographs, but at the next "sitting," which Mr. Dodge attended in company with Dr. Hodgson, he had these letters and photographs with him.

At the second "sitting" Mrs. Piper gave the name of the young man, described in detail his trip by steamer from New York to Vera Cruz and thence overland to the City of Mexico; his work in the circus; his sickness in the hospital, from which she claimed he had been kidnapped the night of his reported death, while the body of a patient who had died in the next ward or room had been substituted for Dean Bridgman Conner, and had been buried in the American cemetery under Conner's name. Mrs. Piper also described the American hospital very minutely; the matron of the institution, and gave her name; the head physician, and gave his name; and explained that the young man during his illness had been confined in a room in a building at the rear of the main building. She claimed that he had been taken from the hospital at night by the "south road," and vaguely intimated that he was being held for ransom or some other dark purpose. That was all the information she could give at that time and for some months thereafter, owing to an illness during which she could give no "sittings."

But that was enough. The dream had been confirmed by the greatest medium in the world, a medium in whom the eminent scientists and investigators of the Psychical Research Society had faith. A verification from such a source was like giving the dream the substance of scientific backing, and naturally the people in Burlington, Vt., were very much elated and excited.

In the meantime the people in Burlington had been further investigating, through correspondence, the circumstances connected with the illness and reported death of the young man. A photograph of the hospital had been received from the Consul-General, on which he marked a window in the front of the main building, stating that in the marked room Dean had died, when in point of fact it was learned that the young man had been placed in the contagious ward at the rear of the main building, a fact which Mrs. Piper also corroborated. Why the Consul-General should have made this statement is a mystery, unless it was that he did it in the same spirit in which he made some other statements — a desire to satisfy the young man's parents and friends in Burlington and relieve their minds at the expense of a little fiction which seemingly would not be found out when the interested parties were over four thousand miles away.

Some things were learned about the hospital which did not tend to allay the suspicions of the people in Burlington, and when added to these came Mrs. Piper's verification of the dream, it was decided to send Mr. Dodge to Mexico at once to investigate the case and bring back the young man, if possible, from his enforced captivity.

Chapter IV

To Prentiss C. Dodge, Mexico was a land of mystery, a land in which any sort of dark deed was possible, and inhabited by a treacherous people. He was filled with suspicions from the start, and he found some things after his arrival in the City of Mexico which tended to strengthen his suspicions regarding the alleged death of Dean Bridgman Conner.

After his arrival in the City of Mexico Mr. Dodge paid a visit to the American hospital and found that, as he had learned and as Mrs. Piper had stated, young Conner had occupied a room in the contagious ward, which was in the rear of the main building. The matron, Mrs. Netterburgh, told him the circumstances of Dean's sickness, death and burial. She had not seen the body after death, but she was very positive the y^oung man had died and had been buried in the American cemetery near by. A Mexican male nurse who had attended young Conner was produced, but as he could speak very little English, he did not make much of an impression on Mr. Dodge, who, on the whole, did not like the appearance of things at the hospital. The head physician. Dr. Bray, did not impress him favorably either. Mr. Dodge thought he detected subterfuge in much that was said.

The Consul-General had not attended the funeral as he said he had — in fact, nobody but the two Mexican mozos, who carried the coffin on their heads to the American cemetery early on that March morning, and the caretakers and workmen of the cemetery had been present at the interment. No trace of the precious stones which Conner was supposed to have owned could be found.

Mrs. Piper had insisted that the body in the cemetery be exhumed to prove that what she said was correct. It was some time before Mr. Dodge could get permission to do this, however, owing to the fact that the death of the occupant of grave 559 in the American cemetery had been reported as caused by a contagious disease. But he finally got the requisite permit from the government, and in the presence of several American residents of the City of Mexico the body was exhumed after it had been in the ground for about a year. Four teeth were removed from the upper jaw of the skull, a lock of hair was cut off, and the skull photographed on the edge of the grave.

Mr. Dodge was pretty well convinced at the time that the body which was exhumed was the body of his friend, Dean Bridgman Conner, and so wired the young man's father. The grave in the American cemetery was an ordinary one, and the young man's parents had been given to understand that the grave in which Dean had been interred, and for which they had paid, was a cemented and brick- Hned grave. So Dr. Richard Hodgson was wired for more "Hght," if possible, from Mrs. Piper on the subject, and Mr. Dodge received the following telegram:

"Piper sitting yesterday. Phinuit said Dean taken along south road into country house. George went to see and said Dean had been taken to Tuxedo. No chance for another sitting. Hodgson."

This needs a little explanation. "Phinuit," or "Dr. Phinuit," as he is called, is one of the "controls" or "spirits" that are said to take possession of Mrs. Piper while she is in the trance state, and speak through her. " George," or "George Pelham," is another. Those who have had many sittings with Mrs. Piper recognize almost immediately these wandering spirits from another world who speak through her, for each has distinguishing characteristics apparently, and might be said to possess distinct lines of ability in the spirit world. Dr. Phinuit was Mrs. Piper's first and only "control" for a number of years. He claimed to have been a French doctor who had lived in the south of France during the latter part of the eighteenth century. No record of such a doctor has ever been found. He tells some first-class lies on occasion, but he seems to regard a lie as a good joke. George Pelham is a later and apparently a more reliable "control."

But to come back to the telegram. Mr. Dodge found it rather hazy and could not discover any place named "Tuxedo" in Mexico. This telegram possesses some significance, however, which will be explained later.

So, after some further investigations, which resulted in little, Mr. Dodge came home with the teeth, hair and photographs of the skull and a great many doubts and fears. He could not find any "south road" leading from the hospital, in front of which there was a very ordinary street which led into the main street that runs into the heart of the City of Mexico from Tlaxpana. He found that a railroad ran from the City of Mexico somewhat to the southeast, which branched off to the city of Puebla. This railroad also went to Orizaba and Vera Cruz. He came home with many strange impressions of the country, its people and its architecture.

His non-success, however, did not discourage the people in Burlington who were interested in the case — in fact, it only appeared to intensify their convictions that Dean Bridgman Conner was alive.

The teeth were examined by a dentist in Burlington who had done work on the young man's teeth some years previously, and he pronounced them as not the teeth of Dean Bridgman Conner. The hair was examined by an eminent physician and bacteriologist of the same city, who had known young Conner, and it was compared with a sample in the possession of Mrs. Dodge and pronounced as not the hair of the young man. The photographs of the skull were also rejected.

Here, then, was the testimony of scientific experts practically backing up Dr. Hodgson, Mrs. Piper and the dream. So, whatever doubts Mr. Dodge might have had were thus smothered, and he, too, became convinced that the body in grave 559 of the American cemetery in the City of Mexico was not that of Dean Bridgman Conner. The only thing left, however, was to wait patiently for the recovery of Mrs. Piper, on whom the burden of locating the young man was now placed.

Chapter V

It was in the spring of 1896 tliat Mr. Dodge returned from Mexico and not until October of the same year was Mrs. Piper in condition to continue her clairvoyant "sittings."

These "sittings" were of a somewhat startling character, and resulted in a second visit to Mexico by Mr. Dodge in company with Dr. Sparhawk, a physician of Burlington who had known Dean Bridgman Conner intimately.

Just to show the kind of information which Mrs. Piper gives, or rather gave, while in the trance state, it might be well to give a verbatim transcript of a few of the "sittings" with Dr. Hodgson and Mr. Dodge. It should be understood that Mrs. Piper, while in the trance state, wrote on a paper pad with a lead pencil, in a scrawl which was very difficult to read. Her face usually rested on a pillow, on a table in front of her, so she could not see the paper on which she wrote. Dr. Hodgson guided the hand and removed each sheet of paper as fast as it was written upon. He later transcribed Mrs. Piper's writing and added thereto, by way of explanation, sentences and paragraphs such as will be found enclosed in parentheses in the accompanying transcript.

In parentheses will also be found the questions which Dr. Hodgson asked the "controls" during the progress of the "sitting."

"G. P.," or George Pelham, as has been said, is supposed to be one of Mrs. Piper's best "controls." Before his death he was an intimate friend of Dr. Hodgson's, who promised that if he should die before Dr. Hodgson and found that there was a future life he would use every effort to communicate with the latter. Dr. Hodgson made a similar promise, and they agreed on certain matters, known only to themselves, to be communicated for the purpose of making identification certain. George Pelham met with an accident which resulted in his death, and soon after Dr. Hodgson received a communication from him while Mrs. Piper was in the trance state. Identification, by the very test agreed upon between the men, was established, and thereafter George Pelham's spirit was not only the most powerful and reliable of Mrs. Piper's "controls," but became in a large measure the guiding spirit of the policy of Dr. Hodgson's life up to the day of his death.