McPHERSON CASE

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 28, 31 December 1926, Page 9

McPHERSON CASE

ANOTHER development,

LETTER RESENTED

TERMED IMPERTINENT

(By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.)

Received December 31, 10.20 a.m

NEW YORK, Dec. 30. A Los Angeles message states that Aimee McPherson said that she was surprised that an ordinary friendly letter she wrote to Mrs Ormiston in Sydney last May should have been termed by her os impertinent, as quoted in the Sydney Despatch.—A. and N.Z. cable.

. The “most-talked-of” woman evangelist in the world, Mrs Aimoe McPherson, who disappeared after bath-*-ing at a beach in California, and told an amazing story of .kidnapping , for ransom, has become involved in a case in which she is alleged to have been a party to a gigantic hoax, mention being made of a woman engaged to impersonate a mysterious “Miss X.” The action of the District Attorney at Los Angeles, in issuing warrants for the arrest of Mrs McPherson, her mother, Kenneth Ormiston (a radio operator), and two other people, caused a sensation throughout the United States. Her ardent admirers declare that the whole thing is a fiendish plot to discredit a woman whose good works and inspired preaching have put a distinct check to the unrestrained viciousness of the film colony’s “first four hundred.” Mrs McPherson remained away for several weeks, despite a most exhaustive search, finally turning up in hospital at' Douglas, Arizona. MRS MACPHERSON’S STORY. Mrs Macpherson, describing her “abduction,” in a statement before her arrest, said: . One moment, sunlit skies, singiug, preaching, thronging thousands of the dearest friends; the next, horror, wild fear, rough hands, the roar of a car, and I prone upon the floor. A smothering, suffocating mass of blankets over me —a hand holding something that felt like a sponge on my face —a sticky, sweet odour, a gasp, a struggle, a firm hand at the back of my head, the roar of a motor, and it grew dark. When next my eyes opened I was lying in a white iron bed, desperately nauseated. A woman was bending over me—the same woman who had pleaded the cause of a dying baby. Without answering my 'question definitely, the woman who, later, when I asked her name, told me I might call her Rose, called two men from the adjoining room. They answered my question, but the answers seemed •to freeze the blood in my veins.

Day after day, night after night, this one room was my habitation. I lost all track of day and date.

Where had I been taken in that car while I lay unconscious under the smothering blankets?, In what lonely hidden placo was I a prisoner? I saw my face growing thinner and the lines deepening. I saw that the face in the mirror never smiled. I saw that the eyes that looked back at me were dark with weariness and ..despair. Now and then during those days that are not yet clear in my mind the men came into my room to talk to me, to tell me of their demands for ransom which they expected to receive from my mother and the church.

When they said they were holding me for 500,000 dollars I refused to answer their questions, saying that I would rather die than cripple the church to such an extent. “Oh, your folks have plenty,” they scoffed. One night Rose awakened me and told mo to get up and dress. Evidently they had suddenly decided to move. I was blindfolded and taken out and put in the car. • Then began a long trip. During the trip I was gagged. I was helpless, lying there with my hands' and feet tied. The day passed and darkness had once more fallen. I was taken from the car blindfolded and hurried into a room in some house or shack. Rose went out and I heard a car start. The engine sounded like that of a small car with a light motor. There were no voices outside and I was quite sure that the men had not returned. It was the first time that I had been left alone. At any rate, now was my great opportunity for escape if only I was strong enough. WITH TIN EDGE. My ankles had been crossed in the tying. It was impossible for me to walk, even with short steps. I rolled from the cot and across the floor; There by the wall stood a square tin can like an oil can. The top had been cut away in such a manner as to leave a sharp edge. Lifting myself with difficulty to a sitting position, I managed to turn my, back to the can and press the bands that bound my wrists against the sharp edge. Awkwardly but persistently I sawed the bonds against its edge until at last one strand parted. My wrists became chafed and bruised, but it was done, and in a moment my hands were free.

Loosing my feet and chafing my ankles I stood up. I could walk. I reached the window and climbed out, and like the man in the Bible days, “I stood not on the order of my going.” I ran straight ahead—ran and ran. I was in a desert. Was I on the Californian desert or in the region of Imperial \ alloy ? But there was no time for speculation.

1 determined to head for a certain dark hill which stood out above the rest and which I later learned to be Niggorhead Mountain. Possibly here would be water or shelter.

After more weary miles I saw lights away off at my right. I shouted, but my voice sounded so little and thin in the vastness of the desert.

Dogs were barking 1 To my right ar dark blotch outlined itself against the sky. It was a building, and a large one, too. I pressed on towards it.

By this time I the high wire fence, which mer proved to be tire line between Mexico and Arizona. As I stood and clung to the fence, trembling with mingled joy and exhaustion, a light was struck in the house which stood at the rear of the large building, and a man came to the other side of the fence. He peered through and demanded: “What do you want i*’ MEXICAN RACES. • “I want the police,” I Janswered. “The police? What hWe/you done?” “Nothing, but I wanCc the police. Have yon a telephone ?” mW -- “What do you want ml * for?” „ i I took another look at t»,/e decided to stay Von my jt tvas o “y e 7 fence, for he had\told me'P. n yi a mile to the n$ treat h o ,ito a j /i On I went untin, J camAwaa house. The-last I

when I fell nr than my body, and I iva s wOiF P alf out of the fate. I how ” lire next faces Mexij, can, but J;nw and j*«xious.