VOODOOISM IN AMERICA.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 115, 18 May 1927, Page 18

VOODOOISM IN AMERICA.

KILLING OF GIRL BALKED. (From Ou* Own Correspondent.) SAN FRANCISCO, April 21. Selected as the victim for a human sacrifice, the polioe asserted, Beatrice Chisholm, seven-y«<ar-old daughter of Everett Chisholm, a prominent American resident in Havana, Cuba, was rescued by a girl employee of the Chisholm household and several neighbours when an attempt was made to abduct her. The blood of the child was prescribed by a witch doctor, Trino Fernandez, as the only cure for a sick negress, Luisa Pedra. Two youths, Francisco Hernandez and Eugenio Cortez, were ordered to obtain the victim. The child was standing on the sidewalk near her parents' home in Vedado when an automobile occupied by the two youths and driven by a third, pulled up close by. They seized the child and endeavoured to force her into the automobile. She struggled and screamed and the servant maid rushed to her aid, together with several neighbours Forced to release the child, the youths ran, but two Were captured. They made a full confession to the police Hernandez led the police to the headquarters of the witch doctor in a cluster of shack houses occupied mostly by negroes. The police broke into the doctors house, where many negroes had gathered, awaiting apparently the delivery of the victim. The sick woman was also present. All were loaded into the police waggon and taken to gaol, followed for a distance by a threatening