Dr. William Jackson Crawford

Dr. William Jackson Crawford was an engineer and psychical researcher who became fascinated by Kathleen Goligher, a young Irish medium from Belfast whose supposed supernatural abilities he investigated between 1914 and 1920. Their unusually intimate experimental relationship has attracted considerable speculation, with later writers suggesting Crawford harbored a sexual fascination with Goligher. His investigations involved examining her underwear, which he sometimes dusted with colored powder to trace the supposed movement of ectoplasm. Crawford also reportedly had a peculiar fixation on underwear, purchasing an enormous supply of woollen undergarments for his family shortly before his death. In 1920, at the age of 39, Crawford died by suicide after ingesting cyanide. Although some speculated that he had discovered Goligher's deception, his final letter attributed his collapse to overwork and insisted that his psychic research was genuine.