User:SteamWiki/sandbox/Aimee Semple McPherson, reported kidnapping errata:

Aimee Semple McPherson, reported kidnapping errata

This draft article is primarily set up to explore some of the issues raised by the 1926 kidnapping (which may provide information to be incorporated into the section which should eventually be its own article taken from the Aimee Semple McPherson "Reported kidnapping")

These three books are probably the most reliable and comprehensive non-official Foursquare Gospel Church sources on the life of Aimee Semple McPherson:

--Epstein, Daniel Mark (1 July 1994). Sister Aimee: The Life of Aimee Semple McPherson. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-15-600093-2. OCLC 26300194.

--Sutton, Matthew Avery (31 May 2009). Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America. (at Harvard University Press). ISBN 978-0-674-03253-8. OCLC 77504335 Supplemental article bears some reference as well: "Between the refrigerator and the wildfire": Aimee Semple McPherson, pentecostalism, and the fundamentalist-modernist controversy (1). - Free Online Library" http://www.thefreelibrary.com/%22Between+the+refrigerator+and+the+wildfire%22%3A+Aimee+Semple+McPherson,...-a098978379

--Blumhofer, Edith L. (1993). Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody's Sister. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8028-0155-5. OCLC 29184439.

They are, however not necessarily extensive in discussing the 1926 reported kidnapping.

This article placed by the Foursquare Church in Lodi News-Sentinel - Nov 20, 1976 sums up critical information biographers tend to leave out:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2245&dat=19761120&id=4GszAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mjIHAAAAIBAJ&pg=3833,2151220:

A comprehensive account (a tedious read at times, though very informative) is Cox, Raymond L. The Verdict is In.(1983) Cox refers heavily to another book (Lately, Thomas The Vanishing Evangelist: the Aimee Semple McPherson Kidnapping Affair (Viking Press, 1959)) which in many ways is easier to read and has photographs but has several omissions and errors corrected by Cox (EG some trial testimony and details about witnesses).

Even McPherson's own book, In Service of the King, 1927 (she leaves out the exact names of the witnesses questioned in her examples, though Cox has them in his book).

Checking newspapers of the 1926 era; EG:

--T. F. Sims, deputy U. S. marshal for Arizona, Harold L. Henry, newspaperman of Douglas, Leslie Gatliff, police officer of Douglas, corroborating the other's testimony dealt with footprints believed to have been made by the evangelist in her reported flight from kidnapers, which they found as far as 15 miles distance in the desert in Mexico, from Douglas. (The Independent Record from Helena, Montana · October 23, 1926 Page 1) (The Gaffney Ledger from Gaffney, South Carolina · October 26, 1926 Page 5)

--Possible prison shack discovered 21 miles below Douglas, Az. The evangelist herself was to be one of the witnesses, identifying photographs of the building. (Emporia Gazette, - October 22, 1926, newspaper, Emporia, Kansas, p. 1) (The Miami News - Oct 21, 1926 (Associated Press, Los Angeles, Oct 11)), (Cox, pp. 184, 214.)

--The secretive "Miss X" thought by many to be McPherson was at last identified 2 January, 1927, by the "tight lipped" Ormiston as Elizabeth Tovey, a trained nurse from Seattle Washington. The case against McPherson and various parties was dropped about a week later on January 10, . (Sandusky Register Sunday, January 2, 1927) (The Coshocton Tribune from Coshocton, Ohio January 3, 1927· Page 8) (The Havre Daily News from Havre, Montana , January 2, 1927· Page 1)

The reported 1926 kidnapping touched on lot of issues US courts struggle with today.

The Court of Historical Appeals which "retried" the case and found no substantial evidence against her story, calls the case issues "both serious and fascinating."

Among the various issues (not specified from the Court of Historical Appeals "retry"): (this section needs supportive cites).

1--methods of evidence collection

2--secure custody of such collected evidence

3--methods of witness interviewing

4--Secrecy of grand jury inquires, and how much information should be released to the public

5--defendants who have charges dropped against them or are exonerated often have hefty legal bills they still have to pay

6--The use of the press in "prosecuting" the accused; EG "trial by media," or "court of public opinion"

7--period stereotypical expectations of women:

EG: the tendency to disbelieve/ dismiss women who report a crime against their person, especially if there is anything unusual about the story(may need some good links or references for this)

EG: Asa Keyes stated publicly of McPherson's estimated 20 mile trip; it is practically an impossibility for anyone, particularly a woman to walk over the desert in Mexico in the broiling sun from noon until practically midnight without water. An article by Louis Adamic states: "The only way she can convince me that she made that fifteen or twenty-mile hike across the desert without a drink of water and without getting sunburned, without wearing out her shoes and tearing her clothing, is to do it all over again, and let me ride behind her in an automobile equipped, among other things, with a huge canteen of water; and if she asks me for a single drink or a lift, I’ll give it to her and then laugh right in her face."

As an aside, witnesses from the area around Douglas, Arizona dismissed such concerns citing their experiences in the desert which included a rider who trekked 20 miles back to town without water after his horse expired. The rider went back to work the next day. One searcher, did tear his pants as he tried to travel through the heavy brush with his horse. McPherson noted that the brush grew in clumps and could easily be stepped around.

McPherson did offer to make the trip again without water but the prosecution did not take her up on it (need cite, probably from her book In Service of the King).

Other

--Prior to 1932, kidnappings were not investigated by the FBI, but handled locally, FBI would bring a certain amount of impartially which was notably absence by local officials in her case and possibly also the 1932 Lindberg baby kidnapping (which in part prompted the congressional act to get the FBI involved in kidnapping cases.) McPherson was found in a foreign country(Mexico) which required her to be moved across state lines from California to get there.

(An area of study might be to collect information on persons who traveled through similar conditions a half day and half night for 20 miles in the desert and what condition they and their clothing were actually in after such a trip. For military infantry movements a 20 mile road march could be done in about 6-7 hours with objective marches of a 100 miles or so being accomplished in several days. If footgear and clothing were as fragile as implied by McPherson's prosecution in outdoor conditions, the desert being no worse than forests or fields, it would be impossible for quartermasters to have enough clothing in stock).

External links

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