Johann Georg Schröpfer

Johann Georg Schrepfer, or Johann Georg Schröpfer (1738? – 8 October 1774 in Leipzig), was a German charlatan, independent Freemason and necromancer. He performed ghost-raising séances for which he secretly used special effects, possibly including magic lantern projections of ghosts on smoke, which inspired the phantasmagoria shows popular in Europe from the 1790s to the 1830s.

Little is certain about Schrepfer's life. Many accounts stem from either adherent or opposing Freemasons and Schrepfer himself was an impostor who told many lies about himself. Provided by Wikipedia