Charles Fulton Oursler
(January 22, 1893 Baltimore, Maryland - May 24, 1952 New York City)
Fulton was an American journalist, playwright, editor and writer. Writing as Anthony Abbot, he was a notable author of mysteries and detective fiction.
Oursler grew up in Baltimore, the poor son of a city transit worker. His childhood passions were reading and stage magic.
In the 1920s Oursler aided Harry Houdini in his crusade against
fraudulent mediumship. He even crusaded himself, under the pseudonym
Samri Frikell.He was the author of the book Spirit Mediums Exposed (1930) which revealed the techniques of fraud mediums. John Mulholland
wrote that Samri Frikell, was the pen name of Oursler when writing on
the subject of magic and spiritualism. He made it by combining the names
of two magicians, Samri Baldwin and Wiljalba Frikell.
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