A closer look
Evangeline Adams was arrested in New York City in 1914 for fortune-telling, but she ended up winning her court case by allegedly predicting the judge's exact character using only his birth date. She brought massive astrology charts into the courtroom and gave such an incredibly detailed and flattering reading of the judge's son that the judge declared she was practicing a legitimate science rather than a fraudulent scam. This single legal victory essentially legalized astrology in New York and paved the way for the massive commercialization of the practice across America. Of course, modern historians suspect the whole trial was a highly orchestrated publicity stunt, proving that the true secret to making astrology mainstream was not celestial accuracy, but rather an absolute mastery of basic legal loopholes and shamelessly flattering people in positions of power
