THE M'PHERSON CASE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19947, 15 November 1926, Page 10

THE M'PHERSON CASE

"MOST AMAZING HOAX.” EEMARKABLE STATEMENTS. LOS ANGELES, October 30. The preliminary hearing of the charges of subornation and perjury laid against the evangelist, Mrs Aimee MTherson, is approaching an end. The judge will then announce whether Mrs MTherson and her mother, Mrs Kennedy, must stand their trial in a higher court. Meanwhile, the district attorney, Mr Asa Keyes, has announced that he has new evidence of Mrs MTherson's duplicity. This, he states, is contained in endearing letters written in code and exchanged recently between herself and Kenneth Ormiston, formerly the radio operator at her Angelus Temple, and whose whereabouts are at present a mystery. "Besides the tell-tale contents of a trunk belonging to Ormiston filled with feminine finery, including silk pyjamas and the evangelist’s dressing grown,” Mr Keyes says, "we have a letter written by Mrs MTherson which absolutely clinches our charge of conspiracy.” Handwriting experts, Mr Keyes said, declared that there was no doubt that she wrote the letter, which, when decoded, read: —“Poor darling man, this is from the girl who loves you with all her heart. Putting up a noble fight here now. For my sake, keep cool. Don’t lose your head and come forward. That would be awful. If I were sure you would get this I would send 1000 dollars. Have you all you need? Are you taking care of yourself? Oh, I love you, dear darling man, I love you with all my heart. Your own darling woman that’s always yours. (Signed) Jackie.” Mr Keyes asserts that this letter was written on September 27, the day on which Mrs MTherson first appeared in court to undergo the preliminary examinetion in what the district attorney alleges is the most amazing hoax in American history. Ormiston’s trunk, to which Mr Keyes referred, has arrived from New York, where it was recently seized by detectives. They also seized and decoded ’two more letters, which Mr Keyes asserts are in the handwriting of Mrs MTherson. Mrs MTherson has accused the newspaper interests of persecuting her. She said that reporters had stolen articles of her clothing and had placed her dresses in a trunk which was hidden in New York ready for seizure by the prosecuting authorities.