Page 86 - 2018-02-15_june_july_2009.qxd

86 Five Outrageous Psychic Scams

Greed Report: They Saw

Them Coming: Five
Outrageous Psychic Scams

Continued from Page 85

Crossroads of the World

A little bit of desperation can go a long way
toward lining the pockets of a mendacious
medium. So while few of us in our right minds
would visit a storefront fortune teller—in Times
Square of all places—hoping to solve our
problems, it somehow seemed perfectly rational
for Niall Rice, a British Internet entrepreneur
devastated by unrequited love.
"Think of a person going through
difficult times. Perhaps it's a death in the family,
addiction, they could have just been let go from
their job, even an illness or physical injury. Each
one of those people you are thinking of has the
potential to be a future victim of this crime,"
Rice wrote in a victim impact statement filed in
New York Supreme Court earlier this year.
Desperately seeking to reunite with a
woman he had met at a drug treatment facility,
in a way Rachel Lee somehow could not predict. France, the French translation of Edison’s
Rice visited the psychic shop of Priscilla Kelly
She eventually pleaded guilty to original diary was preserved intact, which
Delmaro, who milked the situation for nearly all
conspiracy, and is serving an 8-year prison included the missing final chapter.
Rice was worth. While the idea of getting ripped
sentence for a crime that proved that just about Yesterday, readers in France were able to
off by a Times Square psychic may not be all
the only things these psychics can truly see learn Edison’s thoughts about the afterlife in the
that surprising, the amount Rice lost to her is
coming are their victims. [] book titled Le Royaume de l’Au-dela (translated
eye-popping: more than $550,000.
to The Kingdom of the Afterlife). Philippe
"I just got sucked in," Rice told the New
York Times about the fraud, which continued Thomas Edison Had An Baudouin, a French radio presenter and trained
philosopher, told the Agence France-Presse,
even after the woman in question had died. Idea To Speak With The “This little-known episode in the history of
Delmaro served eight months in jail and
was sentenced to four years probation after Dead talking machines was of special interest to me,
as I’m a radio man.”
pleading guilty to grand larceny.
As the chapter goes into startling detail
about Edison, he is painted as a searching entity
Clear Cut Crime By Kevin L. Clark in the late 1870s who attempted to create a
foundation for his “spirit phone” invention by
Ralph Raines, Jr. was a psychic scamster's
The life and legacy of Thomas Edison is mired amplifying sound emanating from his
dream. A wealthy heir to an Oregon tree farm
in success, failure and controversy. From his phonographs. For those who didn’t pay attention
fortune, he had an almost childlike gullibility.
embattled competition with Nikola Tesla to his in history class, that was the device that served
He also believed in psychics.
successful business acumen, everything Edison as the direct precursor to record players and
"I'm interested in—deeply interested in
accomplished was highly scrutinized after his gramophones.
the paranormal. I have a strong interest in it," he
passing in 1931. Edison, who believed that ghosts
told American Greed. "Some of the areas I
With all of his patents and inventions existed, also deemed the otherworld as a very
believe in. Some of the areas I don't."
listed, it appears that there was one project that talkative place. He brought in audio engineer
But that belief was just enough to set up
was meant to be off the shelves. The mind William Walter Dinwiddie to make a deal with
Ralph Raines, Jr. for one of the most outrageous
behind the phonograph and thief of the light him that whomever died first “would try to send
frauds in psychic scam history.
bulb had an idea to create an instrument a message to the survivor from beyond,” said
In 2004, he visited the Bend, Oregon
designed to hear voices of deceased individuals. Baudouin. “He imagined being able to record
storefront of Rachel Lee, who had claimed in
The revelation came in the form of a chapter the voice of another being, to be able to make
TV ads to be a "world renowned" psychic.
from the inventor’s memoirs that was practically audible that which isn’t -- the voice of the dead,”
There, the 57-year-old Raines confided his
lost. Said memoirs are being published once Badouin concluded. []
biggest desire.
again this week, in France.
"I said I wished I had a family was
In short, Edison wanted to develop a
married and had a family," he recalls.
“spirit phone,” an ethereal device that would
It was all the opening Lee needed to
summon to the living the voices of the dead and
burrow into Junior's life, and into the family
record them for posterity. The Ohio-born
fortune.
inventor attempted to detail his efforts and
To pose as the woman of his dreams,
include them as the final chapter of his Diary
Rachel Lee recruited her 17-year-old daughter,
and Sundry Observations book.
who then convinced Junior he had fathered her
Despite his own thoughts behind the
son…named Giorgio Armani!
“spirit phone,” many inside the U.S. and abroad
Lee would eventually gain control of the
thought that Edison was only joking or that it
Raines family assets, including the 1,000-acre,
was part of a hoax. With no design for an
sustainable tree farm, which was sold, clear-cut,
invention of such nature uncovered, the
and subdivided for development.
evidence would support the belief that he was
The scam would go on for ten years
only fooling the public. However, in 1949 in
before authorities caught on, almost by accident,