It is difficult to have a dispassionate view of the individuals who sold nostrums, home-made medicines, lucky charms, or told the fortunes of other people. For those who benefitted from those contacts it would be unreasonable to suggest they had been duped or tricked. Lucky numbers, fortune tellers, and herbal remedies continue to be present in modern societies despite the scorn of professional, often highly-educated commentators. It is of interest that people of African and Asian descent participated in these activities a century or more ago, earning a living from payments from members of the larger society. It seems that there could be a belief in extra powers held by black people – as the nephew of Jamaica-born, London Hospital graduate (1914) Dr James Jackson Brown [see page 034].

Just as fortune tellers are associated with fairs, those who sought customers would visit street markets. Walker Coventry Davies and his wife visited various markets in the Manchester area, as we know from a report in the Manchester Evening News of 24 May 1907, page 3, for he narrowly escaped being charged with the manslaughter of a fellow who had purchased one of his offerings. The newspaper reported “a negro ‘doctor’”. Rufus Montague Eihegoe, aged 32, sold boxes of tooth powder and herbal remedies and had a police record for violence – he was sentenced to prison according to the Leicester Chronicle of 28 September 1912, page 10. That surname might be a printer’s error, but the forename Rufus hints at an individual who had different surnames but kept Rufus (or Rupert) as his forename. He worked as “Professor Zodiac”.

In 1911 the Metropolitan Police took action against the growing number of individuals who practiced “fortune-telling, palmistry, and occultism” in London’s West End. Their first case was against Professor Zodiac. The court heard that he felt he had been picked on because he was black but as Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper of 5 November 1911, page 2, reported, it was the beginning of a campaign against all fortune tellers. Notes of the trial were presented to the Home Secretary, who decided that further instructions were not required to put a stop to these activities (Aberdeen Press and Journal, 22 November 1911, page 2). The newspaper-reading public could see the news of Zodiac’s trial in a surprising number of newspapers including Reynolds’s Newspaper of 5 November 1911, page 5, which had a sketch of Zodiac. The Marylebone Mercury of 4 November (page 2) noted he was aged 38 and had a wife; the South Wales Argus of 6 November (page 6) reported the “fraud” and named him Robert Scott Blair. The reports were either very brief (as with the Tamworth Herald of 4 November and the Grantham Journal of 11 November) or repeated a general report, as with Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper of 29 October page 1, the Bradford Daily Telegraph of 6 November (page 4), the Central Somerset Gazette (10 November page 3) and London’s Weekly Dispatch of 12 November 1911, page 4. London’s Evening Standard of 6 November 1911 (page 16) referred to him as “‘Professor Zodiac.’ West Indian Palmist sent to prison”. He was named as Rupert Scott Blair “a well-groomed man of colour”. Most reports noted he had weekly takings of £16 – three times a decent wage in 1911 – and had been sent to prison.

The editor of the Liverpool Daily Post wrote on fortune-telling and prophecy in the issue of 14 December 1912, that Zodiac was a man of colour convicted for pretending to tell fortunes, and the six months sentence was well earned. “The sort of flatulent verbiage with which these charlatans inflate the hopes of the victims is too ridiculous” and that Zodiac had “a most unsavoury record”. The Derby Daily Telegraph (and the Lancaster Evening Post also of 14 December 1912) said the coloured man “professed to be a phrenologist, and not a fortune-teller”. The magistrate said it was “roguery”.

A man named Zenith Zodiac was reported in Dublin’s Evening Herald of 2 October 1914 (page 1) “accused of telling fortunes”. His name was Conrad Dhuleep “a West Indian”. He had been in Ireland for three weeks. Professor Zodiac advertised himself as “The Indian Phrenologist and Occult Scientist” who was available for consultations at the Flixton Hotel in Ballymena, some forty miles from Belfast in Northern Ireland, in the Ballymena Observer of 5 February 1915, page 2.

On 28 July 1919 the Dublin Evening Telegraph reported on its front page “Sentence of Soothsayer who Practiced in Dublin”. Making his appearance in Bottle, Lancashire, Rupert Eric Costello de Monmorency [sic] “a gentleman of colour from Jamaica” pleaded guilty when charged with telling fortunes. His fees were from one shilling (5% of £1) to one guinea (£1.05). He admitted to previous convictions over sixteen years, in London, Liverpool, Manchester – and was sent to prison for three months. On the same day the Liverpool Echo (page 5) reported Rupert Eric Costello de Montmorency [sic] aged 45 “from America” at Bootle court. He admitted convictions in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Brighton, Leicester, and Dublin. He told the court that he often worked for charity and had raised over £50 for the Lancashire Fusiliers in August 1915.

The reports have Zodiac aged 38 in 1911 and 45 in 1919, so we might agree that de Mon[t]morency and Blair were the same person. The man in Ireland in 1914-1915 might be another fellow, but we know very little of the self-confessed sixteen year career of Professor Zodiac, a black man working in the margins of British society.

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