Witches of New York

In 1860s New York, a city obsessed with Spiritualism and the supernatural, one man decided to put the city's fortune tellers to the test. Q.K. Philander Doesticks (the pen name of humorist Mortimer Thomson) embarked on a gleeful investigation into the thriving trade in prophecy, palm reading, and mystical consultation, visiting dozens of self-proclaimed witches, seers, and clairvoyants across the city. What he found was a menagerie of elaborate cons, contradictory predictions, and startling confidence in powers that clearly did not exist. Written with the verve of a born satirist, this book exposes the desperate hopefulness and gullibility that keeps charlatans in business, while capturing the peculiar atmosphere of a city fascinated by the occult. Doesticks receives predictions about his death, fortune, and romantic future that contradict each other wildly, and documents it all with mock-seriousness and devastating deadpan humor. It's a time capsule of Victorian-era credulity, but also a sharp reminder that the techniques of mystical grifters haven't changed a bit.