Among the new characters of the next season of The Gilded Age, there is a medium, Madame Dashkova (Andrea Martin), who, as shared, “claims to be able to communicate with the dead”. Wow, who will want to consult with her?

This esoteric part of the story will be interesting because, in the period in which the series unfolds, there was what historians called a “spiritual crisis” that covered no less than 30 years, between 1865 and 1895. Dubbed the “religious renaissance”, it was a time in which curiosity and fear of the supernatural grew, and with them, scams too.

That’s right, I already said here that we must be very careful with Madame Dashkova because we still don’t know which psychic she may have been inspired by. You’ve already learned your lesson from Maud Beaton’s passing, haven’t you?

Actress Andrea Martin, who appeared in Only Murders in the Building and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, will be the psychic whose origins we’ll try to find in today’s post. There are many possibilities!

She is probably inspired by Ann O’Delia Diss Debar, or Editha Salomon, a con artist who made history, gaining notoriety when Harry Houdini, who specialized in unmasking mediums, considered her “one of the most extraordinary false mediums and mysterious con artists the world has ever known.”

She worked in New York, with her “spiritual paintings,” which were engravings made with chalk during spiritualist sessions. She claimed that the soul from beyond was the one who drew, but what the believers didn’t see was that she had a hidden sponge with which she cleaned the chalk. Boldly, she claimed that artists like Rembrandt used her as a means to create “new” paintings. I know it sounds absurd, but she convinced her audience.

Among her most frequent clients was the lawyer Luther Marsh, who paid her large sums for each consultation, and there were many. Marsh was so devoted (and naive) that he even organized an exhibition of spiritual paintings.

Soon after, Ann O’Delia was arrested on fraud charges. During the trial, she showed how she worked her scam, and everyone who fell for her trick was left embarrassed. But not even prison reformed Ann; years later, she returned to the streets, now disguised as a mystic or foreign princess. In time, the records became scarce and her final fate is unknown, but unfortunately, she left a long list of people who were deceived and harmed by having their faith exploited.

Before acting as Ann O’Delia, she used other names such as Baroness Rosenthal and Mrs. Munnell. It is estimated that she managed to steal almost 250 thousand dollars from the rich, with William H. Vanderbilt as one of her clients. She convinced him that she could help him contact his late father for investment advice, and it was only after a year that he discovered the truth, by chance. He suspected that his rival, the tycoon Jay Gould, had a spy in his team to break the scheme established with the medium.

To unmask him, he hired the Pinkertons, only to discover that the person who was stealing was none other than Mrs. Munnell, in a scheme that had been going on for more than a year. As soon as he found out, the millionaire broke up with her. In the following years, under the name Ann O’Delia Diss Debar, she began to do spirit paintings and operated in New York and Newport, among others. It was only with Luther Rawson Marsh that the scams came to an end. Marsh had recently been widowed and had lost a young daughter shortly before that. He was looking to contact his spirits on the other side. Thus the two connected and he was completely captivated. By the time she was unmasked, the lawyer’s reputation was already in tatters.

After going through a trial and arrest, Ann traveled to Europe but was soon discovered in her scams and was deported back to the United States. In 1891, she announced that she was going to take her own life. She jumped off a Staten Island ferry and disappeared beneath the waves. Nobody was found and Ann O’Delia Diss Debar was never heard from again. At least in New York.

The same year that Ann disappeared, in Boston, the medium Eleanor Morgan began to gain rich and famous clients. Yes, it was her. She was soon recognized and had to flee, adopting the name Vera P. Ava was settling in Chicago. She also stayed there for a short time before being recognized once again and moving to Cincinnati. In every city, she was charged to conduct spiritual sessions.

Ann O’Delia Diss Debar continued to be active for many decades until we stopped hearing about her in the 1930s. Can we imagine if Oscar Van Rhijn (Blake Ritson) will hire her to find Maude? Let’s hope not!

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