Claude Alexander Conlin (June 30, 1880 – August 5, 1954) --also known as Alexander, C. Alexander, Alexander the Crystal Seer, and Alexander the Man Who Knows--who was an American spiritual author and vaudeville magician who specialized in mentalism and psychic reading acts, dressed in Oriental style robes and a feathered turban. He often used a crystal ball as a prop. In addition to performing, he also worked privately for clients, giving readings. He was the author of several promotional books, New Thought pamphlets, and psychology books, as well as texts for stage performers. Offstage, Alexander's life was filled with deception, including seven marriages (sometimes to more than one woman at a time), murder, extortion, and bootlegging. Alexander invested a great deal of money into the production and printing of beautiful chromolithograph posters for his stage show. When he retired from the stage, he kept these in storage and eventually sold the unused posters and all of his stage equipment and props to a magic dealer, Robert Nelson, in Ohio in 1944.