Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1894-10-02
CRANKY Howard,s Career.

Mr.. Joseph Speoht, of st. Lonis, the
owner of Gunston Hall, Va, the victim
Of CRANKY Stanton Howard aud the de-
fendant in divorce suit growing out
OF the Gunston Hall mysteries and his
connection with Howard, has been hav-
ing some first-class detective work done
with view to exposing Howard and
disillusionizing Mrs. Specht OF her reli-
gious infatuation for the prince of IA
kris. Mr.. Specht has thus accumulated
mass OF evidence and testimony that
throws Howard more and more into
bod relief as modern Cagliostro.
Howard is now under indictment by
the Fairfax county authorities for
graud larceny and other offenses alleged
to have been committed while acting as
high priest of the Hindoo mysteries at
Gunston Hall. He is still in Canada,
however, and is apparently no nearer
arrest than before.
The additional evidence gathered by
Mr.. Specht's detectives makes up re-
cital that in the hands of a clever ro-
mancer would equal the bold flights Of
the imagination stamped upon the
works of the elder Bulwer. Indeed,
Howard made pretensions in his deal
inss with calculating shop-keepers and
cold -blooded business men generally,
for which no prototype in fiction exists
Outside of the preteDsions of the Hin
doc myslic in Bulwer's short novel,
''The Haunted House." Other evil
dence is that while he had himself re-
ported dead in India among people in
terested in his life at st. Louis, he was
working the gullible villagers of towns
in the interior of Missouri under an as
sumed name. He appears alternately
in the West and in the East, his trail
winds through parts of New York, Mis-
souri,, New Jersey, Virginia and Cana
da. Everywhere the evidence is the
same. In the East he is charged with
iusuling the lives of young men
and then collecting the insurance
moneys on substitutes" Three
insurance companies have joined in eff
forts to run him to ground. His main
hold was to induce people to contribute
largely to fund for the maintenance of
his new religion. He played brilliant
engagement in Vandalia, and Mexico,
Mo-, for about year and a-half pre-
vious to 1885. While in Vandslia
Howard sailed under the name of Rich
mond.
Mr.. Specht gives brief sketch Of
DR.. Howard and the Sat-B' 'hai-Kooha,
in which he says that DIR. Howard is an
Epglishman, descended from the How
arcs of Norfolk by his father, and one cf
the thirty barons of England by right.
His mother was Hindoo, from whom
he claimed the title of Prince of Praa-
gayu. He had been member of Par
lament, had commanded the Seven
teenth Lancers, and had served in the
Sepoy rebellion. He had been a special
Queens commissioner to the Confeder-
ate States of America in 1861, and was
member of the Royal Yacht Club.
He claimed to have taken all the de-
grees of masonry in Great Britain,
Canada and the United States, as we'll
as score of degrees in India, clear be-
yond anything which the brash and un-
tutored Occident has ever heard of. He
had trotted across America in the suite
Of the Prince of Wales, and was well
come guest at Balmoral and Windsor.
AS to wealth he had handled millions.
His Northumberland estate covered
10000 acres. He had sunk millions in
Maxmllan's Mexican bonds. He had
a crown grant in Canada as big as
principality. AS to orders and deco
rations, he had them all.
An interesting chapter of informa-
ton about the great fakir is supplied
by st. Louis business man. He says:
"Richmond's first act in st. Louis was
to attempt through me the organization
of lodge of Hindoo masonry. Ofcourse
we were curious, and desiring to learn
all we could about masonry, we ap-
pointed an interview with him at a
store under Druid's Hall. But six per-
sons were present.
sWe wanted Richmond to explain the
workings of this Order of Masonry.
! which was new TO US, and he gave us a
pamphlet entitled The Mystery of
Opex and of the Sat-B'hai,' which set
forth that 'the Ovan Mysteries taught
the power of perfect numbers, or Round
Masonry, in contradiction to the York
Rite, which is denominated Square Ma
sonry.
''He claimed to possess kind of odic
force, and said if he concentrated his
mind on the death of any person, that
person would die. If he desired the
death of the Car of Russia, all he had
to do was to think of it real hard and a
mental dart" would leave his mind
and penetrate the heart of the Gar,
causing instant and painless DEATH. No
evidence of how the Gar met his fate
would be discovered, except little
red abrasion under the left arm, where
the thought missile had entered to do
its deadly work.
This was drawing it pretty strong;
but when he said he could change him
self into any shape he wanted to, and,
by the mere exercise Of his will, trans
port himself to another country in a
moment, no matter how distant, we be-
gan to marvel nightly, and to wonder
what we had struck. Finally he would
transmit all these powers to us in con-
sideration of our entering a novitiate
and becoming subject to him. He
wanted seven of US, as that was the sa-
cred number among the Hindoos. There
were also to be seven circles, seven de-
I'D oa,,ay,