Elizabeth O'Hare

Elizabeth O'Hare, also known as Elizabeth the Transcriber, was a Czech-born Spiritualist medium who claimed to be in contact with the Special Elected Spirit Band, "the only Astral Band of Spirits Manifesting on Earth," which included the likes of Aristotle (384-322 BC), Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), and Alfred W. McCann (1879-1931).

From 1936 through 1937, O'Hare engaged in a public feud with Joseph Dunninger, mentalist debunker, and published a pamphlet attacking him on the behalf of the spirit of Doyle, the conflict coming to a head after she was accused in a legal complaint of disorderly conduct stemming from her pamphleteering and parading at 42nd St. and Broadway in New York City in spring 1937 while wearing a placard that read alternately: This is a challenge of Conan Doyle, the Spirit, vs. Joseph Dunninger, the Liar or Is Joseph Dunninger the Debunker and Ghost-Breaker Really a Ghost-Breaker or Is He Ghost-Broken? The case was dismissed after O'Hare was warned by the judge that parading required a permit; during the proceedings, O'Hare claimed to be accompanied by her attorney, Abraham Lincoln.