MRS M'PHERSON’S TRIAL

Otago Witness, Issue 3801, 18 January 1927, Page 33

MRS M'PHERSON’S TRIAL

CRIMINAL CHARGE DISMISSED. CHIEF WITNESS HOPELESSLY UNRELIABLE. NEW YORK, January 10. A message from Los Angeles states that the charges of criminal conspiracy against Mrs Aimee ATPhenson, her mother (Mrs Kennedy), Kenneth Ormiaton, and others, arising out of the evangelist’s disappearance, were dismissed by the Superior Court to-day on the motion of the District Attorney. Mr Keyes, who stated-: “The evidence laid •before me tends to show that after Mrs M'Pherson had gone to Carmel and returned with an unreasonable story of kidnapping, she and others induced Mrs Wiseman Seilaff- to produce false testimony or evidence in the nature of an alibi for the Carmel episode. The chief evidence laid before me was the testimony of Mrs Seilaff. Without her testimony, proof of the alleged conspiracy is now impossible. Since the preliminary hearing Mrs Seilaff has changed her story almost daily, until now it contains so many contradictions and inconsistencies that she has become a witness for whose truth or credibility’ no prosecutor could vouch.”

STARTS ON EVANGELISTIC TOUR. NEW YORK, January 11.

There were several narrow escapes from injury at Pasadena, California, when a train carrying Mrs Aimee M'Pherson on an evangelistic tour throughout the States, backed into a crowd gathered around the rear platform to bid her farewell.

Mrs Aimee . Semple M'Pherson, the Baptist evangelist, disappeared -from Los Angeles on May 18 under mysterious circumstances. Miss Emma Schaffer, her secretary, .iccompanied her to the beach for her daily afternoon swim, Mrs M'Pherson going into the surf, while, the former waited ashore. Almost immediately she disappeared from sight and Miss Schaffer, becoming alarmed after watching for some time, notified the police. Legions of Mrs M'Pherson’s followers flocked to the beach and prayed that she might be found alive; At midnight, however, her death was announced by radio from a powerful radio station which was connected with the Angelas Temnle, Mrs M'Pherson’s so-called “Million-dollar Soul Factory.” In this temple, which she called “The House that God Built,” Mrs M'Pherson ■had conducted daily meetings which were attended by thousands. During the previous three years she had conducted a Bible school, training scores of men, women, and girls as missionaries to preach het “four-square” gospel in all parts of the world She possesses great personal magnetism, is an accomplished swimmer, and cnee officiated at a “surf wedding” near tae spot where she was supposed to have been drowned.

The trustees of the Angelus Temple decided to offer a reward of £lOO for the finding of Airs M'Pherson’s body. They also appointed her fifteen-year-old daughter, Roberta, to carry on her work Shortly after the disappearance doubts whether Mrs M'Pherson had been drowned were freely expressed. Finally, on June 23, the missing woman arrived at Douglas, Arizona, on the Mexican border. She said she had escaped from two men and two women who had kidnapped her from the Ocean Park Beach The kidnappers demanded £lOO,OOO ransom.

(See Photographs .in Illustrated Pages of This Issue.)