Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions - James Randi [22]
In his book, Gardner concentrates very heavily on the characters of the two girls and of the Wright family. Like Doyle, he felt that the actual evidence was secondary to the personalities involved, their backgrounds, and their integrity. Neither man could imagine that "common folk" were able to deceive, especially young girls. And to a man like Gardner, it was not in the least surprising that he was not allowed to be present when the girls took photos a second time in 1920. He simply accepted the conditions, however suspicious—a defect characteristic of many of those who profess to investigate such matters.
Now we come to the girls. Frances Griffiths, ten years old, was a visitor from South Africa. She arrived in Yorkshire speaking a strange variety of English and was the butt of jokes and other childish cruelties at the local school she attended. Thus her summer holidays at Bradford with her older cousin were anticipated with enthusiasm, and it may be deduced that Elsie had great influence over Frances. To ask her to pose with some cutout fairies, and then tell an innocent white lie to her parents, was surely not too complex a scheme for Elsie to work out. And how the giggling must have echoed through the glen.
Elsie was the chief plotter and culprit. A look at her background provides much food for thought. She had worked for several months at a photographer's studio nearby, retouching photographs. There was great demand for such work during World War I; every family with a boy in uniform was in the market for a portrait, in many cases taken by photographic process out of a family group and isolated. This required much clever brushwork and faking. In other cases, photos of the young men were inserted into family groups to complete them, a feat achieved through similarly delicate fakery. But Elsie did not need such technical skill to produce the Cottingley photos. It is merely of passing interest that she had experience in such matters at her job—a factor minimized in Gardner's investigation.
Elsie, at the time Gardner met her, was working at a factory where greeting cards were made. It is apparent that she was a clever artist. As this is written, Elsie Hill, as she is now known, has just seen produced a beautiful chess set that she designed. Her artistry continues—from cutouts at Cottingley to chess pieces. Her mother told investigators in 1920 that her daughter was "a most imaginative child, who has been in the habit of drawing fairies for years." The implications of all this are clear.
The Cottingley Fairies were simple fakes made by two little girls as a prank, in the beginning. Only when supposedly wiser persons discovered them were they elevated to the status of miracles, and the girls were caught up in an ever-escalating situation that they wanted out of but could not escape. When asked to repeat the performance, they did so under pressure, probably by then enjoying the hoax somewhat. Today they find it impossible to tell the same story they did some years ago, preferring to bounce the ball around a bit without committing themselves either way. That Elsie is sparing the reputation of Frances is obvious, for Frances is now employed in a position that she might well lose if the truth were known for sure.
Perhaps I have "overkilled" this matter. But the long explanation of the Cottingley Fairies controversy is excellent preparation for the presentation of twenty