Gerbic got into the sting racket because of her mentor, James Randi, the famous skeptic who started his career as a magician, the Amazing Randi. On a 2009 voyage to Mexico, Gerbic met Edward, who was on board as the skeptics’ entertainment. He once posed as an undercover clairvoyant to infiltrate the Psychic Friends Network, which became popular as late-night infomercials that offered psychic readings over the phone in the 1990s. For another Psychic Friends spinoff radio program, he climbed the heights of the organization and became the backup to the show’s Master Psychic. Browne told Lynda McClelland’s daughters that their mother, who had disappeared, was alive and in Florida.

Source: New York Times February 26, 2019 10:00 UTC