The hand of Eva Fay
USA (ca 1900), acquired in the USA

Eva Fay was the wife of John Cummings 'Fay', who in turn was the son of Anna Eva Fay, the celebrated American medium active around the turn of the century.
Eva Fay performed the same show as her mother-in-law, although her presentation was different. She also made a major addition: Eva had a spirit rapping hand designed by 'Martinka' that allowed her to answer questions asked by the audience. The spirit invoked during the séance used the hand to answer the questions asked.
However, the spirit that communicated through the hand gradually became jealous of her husband and caused his death - although the coroner's official verdict was death by accidental shooting.
(see The Fay Family Fight by Barry H.Wiley).

The sound of soft, repeating noises could be heard emanating from the small brown box carried by the medium. He set the box on the table next to a kind of dummy hand whose index finger had once been broken and inexpertly repaired. He then opened the box, in which we saw another - albeit different - hand.

"I will NOT, under any circumstances, demonstrate the power of this spirit rapping hand," he said pointing to the hand with the damaged finger. "It caused a number of mysterious deaths and 'accidents' during the 20th century". Spirit rapping hands were mainly used by stage mediums in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Usually, the audience would ask the medium questions and the hand would answer by rapping on a piece of wood or glass. Of course, nearly all of these experiments involved trickery of some kind.

The Museum's collection includes a number of 'magic hands': the Demon Hand talisman, the hand of Cleopatra, the  Quena Ollantay, the yeti pawi and two or three spirit hands. The Martinka model (the one with the broken index finger) is named after the the first American magic shop, whose shareholders included Harry Houdini, and which at one point was owned by the famous Al Flosso. The other model (ca 1920-1930) was manufactured by Owen in the United States. The specific feature of these hands was that they worked for both conjurors and genuine mediums.
We will be pleased to demonstrate their fascinating powers at an exhibition, but under no circumstances will we use the deadly hand of Eva Fay.

There was a longstanding dispute between Anna Eva Fay, the original medium and mother of John, and Eva Fay (true name: Eva Dean) wife of John. Eva Fay copied her mother-in-law's show almost exactly, although she did add the spirit rapping hand through which her spirit would communicate. This spirit, cajoled by the medium, slowly became jealous of John.
Now, John was not what one could call a very intelligent man. He loved firearms and very nearly blew his own head off in 1903 while carelessly handling a loaded pistol. On 20 December 1908, a gunshot was heard coming from a room at the St Mark's Hotel in Oakland. John was discovered dead, a bullet in his head. His death was pronounced an accident. The spirit rapping hand with the broken index finger was found next to the gun, but nobody paid any attention to that. Except Eva, who quietly disposed of it. It went on to cause other accidents before the Curator recovered it from correspondents in America.