LOS ANGELES MYSTERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19383, 19 July 1926, Page 12

LOS ANGELES MYSTERY.

\ EVANGELIST THAT RETURNED MRS. McPHERSON'S STORY. KIDNAPPED WHILE BATHING. Details of the story told by Mrs. Aimee McPherson, the evangelist at Los Angeles, who reappeared after having been missing for about five weeks, are published in newspapers received by yesterday's mail. A despatch from Douglas, Arizona, dated June 23, states that Mrs. McPherson was taken to a hospital, there by Mr. James Anderson, who said he had found her in a state of collapse at Agua Prieta, across the Mexican border. She escaped, she told W. F. McCafferty, editor of the Douglas Dispatch, who recognised her, by sawing the thongs with which she was bound, on a can while her abductors were away.

The story of the abduction, as told by the evangelist in the hospital to Mr. McCafferty and the police, was that she had been lured to an automobile while swimming in Ocean Park beach, on the plea of a woman who asked her to minister to a sick baby. Going with the woman, she said, she was thrown into the car, drugged and knew nothing further until she awoke the following day, violently ill, and attended by the woman who was called "Rose." Here the trio informed her, she said, that she was being held for ransom of half a million dollars (£100,000). Fingers Burned With Cigars. " Efforts were made by the two men, one of whom was known as "Steve," to compel her to reveal the answers to a set of questions propounded by Mrs. Kennedy to prove that the evangelist was alive, but this, she said, she refused, even though they burned her fingers with cigars in attempts to force the information from her. They also cut her hair, which was closely shorn when she reached the hospital, to send to her mother, in efforts to collect the ransom.

After many days, according to the story, the men took Mrs. McPherson to another shack, from which she escaped by sawing the rope with whioh she was bonud while the trio were away. Leaving the cabin she ran until she was on the verge of collap&e, but following the reflection of lights from copper smelters she managed to stagger through the night. At dawn she reached a Mexican cabin, where she was refused help. It was then, she said, she staggered into Agua Prieta, where Mr. Anderson is said to have found her.

Aside from a description of the captors, all of whom were Americans, Mrs. McPherson could furnish no clue to their identity, further than to say' that one of them was known as "Steve" and the woman was "Rose," she declared she never had seen any of them before they seized her at Ocean Park, but would recognise them easily now. Diagram Aids the Search.

Mrs. McPherson said that she believed she was at the last place about four days, and that after escaping she travelled about 20 miles. A diagram' she drew indicated that she had gone about ten miles through sagebrush and cactus toward a mountain which the police and Mexican officers believe to be Niggerhead Mountain in Sonora, Mexico.

"From what I overheard my abductors saying," tho evangelist said, " I was being held at some place in Mexic.ali, if there is such a place by that name. The woman, Rose, treated me very nicely and the men did not molest me with any undue attention. I prayed constantly and talked to them of God. I'll bet they were very tired of hearing my preahcing. After spending four hours searching the desert wastes to Douglas, police officers returned and obtained one of the shoes worn by Mrs. McPherson and returned to the scene of the search where they said they definitely established the identity of tracks found. Decoy Fails to Trap Men.

One paper says that if Mrs. McPhersoii's memory plays her true, several San Francisco police detectives may have been within striking distance of her kidnappers in the Palace Hotel lobby there on Saturday, May 29. In her story of being held captive in a.,hut "somewhere in Mexico," she recalls having heard her captors discussing a narrow escape from arrest while trying to make arrangements to collect a half-million dollars in ransom money, in San Francisco. from remarks I overhead," said she, " I learned that they had almost been captured in San Francisco when trying to make arrangements to get the money. . . Checking back this remark against the known facts, investigators in San Francisco recalled the effort made there to trap the persons who had sent from San Francisco to Angelus Temple in Los Angeles the following letter, dated here May 24:

Temple Angelus; Los Angeles. We have with us your beloved Aime McPherson, and will free her on payment of 500.000 dollars in currency to be paid at once in this manner. She has injured us and must pay in money or blood. Select your man and have him take a seat in the Palace Hotel lobby next Saturday and wear this badge on the lapel of his coat and he will be apjftoached by one of our men and instructed what to do. He must be secretive, or we will not be responsible for his life. No dicks must follow him. Get busy at once. We mean business. Saturday at 11 o'clock. REVENGERS.

The ransom note, written in an angular hand, such as is taught in many Latin-American schools, was delivered to " Mother" Minnie Kennedy, Mrs. McPherson's mother, at Angelus Temple. She in turn gave it. over to Detective Captain Herman Cline, of the Los Angeles police, who sent a copy to Detective Captain Duncan Matheson, at San Francisco, with the request that he attempt to catch the writers.

Inasmuch as no badge was enclosed in the letter, two of the " Four-Square Gospel" badges, such as are worn by Angelas Temple adherents, were sent to Captain Matheson from Los Angeles. Wearing these, two San Francisco police detectives, carrying a package made to resemble wrapped currency, were seated in the Palace Hotel lobby on the directed day. But although they waited for hours, no one approached them. Other detectives were'posted about the lobby to aid in the arrest if any of the conspirators communicated with the men with the fake money package. A Theatrical Ofler. A move to make a theatrical use of the evangelist's unusual disappearance was made at Los Angeles as soon as Mrs. McPherson returned. Mr. Merle Armitage business executive of the Los Angeles Grand Opera Association, telegraphed to Mrs. McPherson making her a flat offer of £2OOO or a percentage of the " gate " for her first public appearance. Declaring that Angelus Temple. is too small for her to address all of her followers, Mr. Armitage proposed that Mrs. McPherson speak at the Hollywood Bowl and tell the story of her abduction. Mr. Armitage's message read, in part:— " I hereby make you the following offer for one appearance at the Hollvwaad Bowl provided it is yon* first public appearance in Los Angeles after you have regained your strength and poise: I will guarantee you either a flat sum of 10,000 dollars for the appearance of I will give you the first 5000 dollars taken in at the gate, reserving the next 5000 dollars for expenses and splitting all the balance with you or with any charity you name."

A cablegram published early this month stated that the police had found a cabin 15 miles from the Mexican border where Mrs. McPherson had evidently been held captive.