In 1848, the adolescent sisters Kate and Margaret Fox of Hydesville, New York, made quite a commotion when they told people of the strange rapping sounds they heard throughout their house. In the ensuing months, they began to communicate with “Mr. Splitfoot,” the devilish name they gave to the spirit that they said was the source of the knocking.
Author: Pam Grossman
Pam Grossman is the creator and host of The Witch Wave podcast. She is co-founder of the Occult Humanities Conference at NYU, and her art exhibitions and magical projects have been featured in The New York Times, Artforum and the New Yorker. Her writing has appeared in such outlets as Sabat Magazine and HuffPost. For her work as the Director of Visual Trends at Getty Images, she was chosen as one of Adweek’s Creative 100 and Marie Claire’s “20 Women Changing The Ratio.” She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two feline familiars. You can find her at PamGrossman.com, on her Phantasmaphile blog, and as @Phantasmaphile on Twitter and Instagram.