19 Facts About Doris Stokes

Doris Stokes was recognized as a practising clairaudient medium by the Spiritualists' National Union in 1949.

Doris Stokes returned to her psychic work, and in 1975 became the resident medium at the Spiritualist Association of Great Britain.

Doris Stokes first came to public attention in 1978 during a visit to Australia, when she appeared on The Don Lane Show.

Doris Stokes was the first medium to appear at the London Palladium; the tickets sold out in two hours.

Doris Stokes was especially believable because of her smiling, down-to-earth manner, which avoided the traditional trappings of the seance and gave her performances almost "the ordinariness of a transatlantic telephone call".

Doris Stokes was condemned by the Church of England and other Christian denominations, which objected to spirit communication as an offence to God.

Doris Stokes died in Lewisham, London on 8 May 1987.

Doris Stokes was accused of using various forms of deception to achieve the effect of communicating with the dead.

Doris Stokes's death coincided with the publication of Catholic author Ian Wilson's 1987 book, The After Death Experience, in which he presented a detailed expose of her methods.

Doris Stokes described her as providing "slick, sure-fire answers" to the questions of life after death.

Doris Stokes attended one of Stokes's Palladium performances in November 1986, when she claimed to contact the dead relatives of four consecutive audience members, with a sequence of convincing and poignant details.

The manager of the Palladium explained that Doris Stokes routinely booked the front three rows of the theatre for her own use.

Doris Stokes was given a message supposedly from her husband, who had died less than a month earlier, telling her that he supported her decision to turn off his life support machine.

Doris Stokes had spoken to Dawn by telephone, offering commiseration and asking to be updated with the results of the tests that would determine whether Dawn's husband lived or died.

In 1987, Dawn described a number of personal details which Doris Stokes had given unprompted to her mother on the phone.

Doris Stokes received a personal phone call from Stokes, offering her front-row seats for the Palladium performance.

However, Detective Chief Superintendent Wilfrid Brooks of the Lancashire Constabulary stated that Doris Stokes made no contribution whatsoever to the detection of either murderer.

Former magician and high-profile sceptic, James Randi, contacted the Los Angeles Police Department, who informed him that all of the information supplied by Doris Stokes had been available to the media at the time.

Doris Stokes was unable to provide any new information to the police and the case remains unsolved.