The death of Eusapia Palladino

Eusapia Palladino, an Italian medium, died on 16 May 1918. Investigators reported phenomena at her sittings, while the 1895 Cambridge series found her cheating.

Eusapia Palladino, an Italian spiritualist medium, was born on 21 January 1854 and died on 16 May 1918, according to Wikipedia. The Psi Encyclopedia gives one account that names nephritis as the cause. It says Obituaries appeared in the New York Times and in The Times.

Palladino claimed she could levitate tables and talk with the dead through a spirit guide called John King. La Biennale di Venezia records that the weekly Fanfulla della domenica printed, on 19 August 1888, a letter from Ercole Chiaia, an entrepreneur and spiritualist. It invited the criminologist Cesare Lombroso to judge her feats. The letter described a woman of thirty from Puglia who could shift objects, rise into the air and signal the dead through noises, with her tied to a chair throughout.

Investigators gave mixed results. The Psi Encyclopedia says striking phenomena were reported during the sittings at Île Roubaud. It says the 1895 Cambridge series, with Myers, Lodge and others, was a failure, and that observers repeatedly saw her cheat. Her peak of attention came when, in 1909 and 1910, she gave a run of sittings in New York.