Witness: Jane Mary Rust

Jane Mary Rust, a municipal midwife nurse, testified at the Old Bailey Central Criminal Court in London during Duncan’s trial. She swore under oath that her reports of her experiences conversing with her deceased husband, mother, and aunt were true. As the materialized people came very near to her, touched her, and allowed her to touch them, they showed all the physical, mental, and memory characteristics of the people she knew.
Excerpts from the trial testimony follow. A narration is available to listen to as you read the testimony.

Transcript of Excerpts from Jane Rust’s Testimony

Excerpts from the trial testimony follow.[i]

Defense Attorney: Had you any doubt about it being your husband?

Jane Rust:   No doubt whatsoever.

Defense Attorney: How close up to him were you?

Jane Rust:   As close as I am to this.

Defense Attorney: Did he speak to you?

Jane Rust:   He spoke to me.

Defense Attorney: Did you recognize his voice?

Jane Rust:   I did. I was perfectly certain.

Defense Attorney: Did he say anything to you in particular that struck you as of importance?

Jane Rust:   Just spoke about the family. He said that he was always with me, and he would be on the other side waiting for me; he would never leave me until I joined him.

Defense Attorney: Had he altered in appearance at all?

Jane Rust:   No, sir, he had not altered just a wee bit thinner, perhaps, than he was in health, but my husband was very ill for three years before he went.

Jane Rust:   He said, “Put your hand in mine, dear,” so I gave him my right hand. He took hold of it with his right and clasped my hand very tightly.

Judge:         It was flesh and blood, was it?

Jane Rust:   It was very cold, my Lord, but it was his hand. I held it firmly. I felt the knuckles. He suffered with rheumatism, my Lord, and I felt the nobbly knuckles.

Defense Attorney: Did he kiss you?

Jane Rust:  He did, sir, right on the mouth….

[My mother] came out and stood on the side of the cabinet. I wanted to be close to her, because I had never been so close before; I wanted to get right in contact. I said, “Mother, you are not going back without kissing me, are you, this time?” She said, “Come here, my child”; she beckoned me to her side. She made me stand, and I was standing facing her. She turned me to the sitters and patted my shoulder and said, “My loving daughter” introduced me, sort of thing.

Defense Attorney: Did you touch her?

Jane Rust:  I did. I kissed her.

Defense Attorney: Did she put her arms on you, or did you put your arms on her?

Jane Rust:  She put her arm around my shoulders.

Defense Attorney: Tell me a little about her voice. What was her voice like?

Jane Rust:  It was her natural voice….

                     My mother had a mole in the hollow of her chin and another over the left eyebrow, and without that it would not be my mother, and she had it there, and I was satisfied….

                     I got as close to [my aunt] as I got to my mother and my husband….

                     She said to me [words in Spanish here]. I said [words in Spanish]….

It was Gibraltarian Spanish. It was not the Spanish, possibly, that they speak in Spain itself, but the Gibraltarian Spanish.

Defense Attorney: Did you recognize the figure that spoke to you?

Jane Rust:   Yes, absolutely, sir. She was my aunt, my mother’s sister, and I recognized her because she is a replica of my own mother; they were always taken for twins, but they were not twins.

[i] Helen Duncan and C. E. Bechhofer Roberts, The Trial of Mrs. Duncan (London: Jarrolds Publishers, 1945), 171-172.