Background
Monck was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire.
Monck was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire.
He claimed to have psychic experiences as a child. On 3 November 1876 in Huddersfield a sitter H. B. Lodge stopped the séance and demanded that Monck be searched. Monck ran from the room, locked himself in another room and escaped out of a window.
A pair of stuffed gloves was found in his room, as well as cheesecloth, reaching rods and other fraudulent devices in his luggage.
After a trial Monck was convicted for his fraudulent mediumship and was sentenced to three months in prison. William Barrett also caught Monck in fraud with "a piece of white muslin on a wire frame with a black thread attached, being used by the medium to simulate a partially materialised spirit." In his séances Monck placed a musical clock on a table, covered it with a cigarbox, and claimed spirits caused it to play.
lieutenant was exposed as a trick as Monck had hidden a small music box that he would play in his trousers.