Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1906-08-16

London, Aug. 15.-Anp ODelia Diss
DebaG, who, under the name of
Laura jackson, was sentenced Deem
Der 20, 1901, to seven years Of penal
seTvitude for connection with an inn
moral cut known as Theocratic Unity,
Of which her reputed husband, Theo.
dore Jackson, was the head, has been
liberated from Aylesbuly prison uu,
der ticket of leave, having obtained
the maximum reduction of sentence by
good behavior.
SprituaIistic Adventures.
London, Aug. 15.-Madame Diss De
bar has been known under many
names in the United States and Great
Britain, but her greatest notoriety
was achieved as the perperator OF the
so-called spiritualistic deception by
which Luther r. Marsh of New York
was in his old age stripped of the for,
tune he had accumulated in the prac-
tice of law. Though claiming to be
the daughter of King Louis | of Ba-
varia and Lola Montez, she was in fact
the daughter of Professor John c. +.
Saloman, once OF Washington, later of
Kentucky.
She became the wife of General Jo-
seph II. Diss Debar in the seventies
and later travelled about the country
representing herself as the personih-
cation of occult powers and a reveal
er of hidden truths, and in this way,
while living in Washington Square,
New York, she met Marsh and by
means Of alleged spirit materializa.
tons and spirit-painted pictures so
infatuated him that he gave her large
sums of money and decided to her his
home in Madison avenue. About this
time General Diss Debar left the ac.
tress, who went to live at the Marsh
home, and also hired apartments
where she oficiated as a priestess of
spiritualism and won greater notori-
ETY..
Served Terms in Prison.
Suit was brought to show her up
as an impostor, and she was charged
with conspiring to defraud Marsh. Her
trial resulted in conviction and she
was sentenced to term of imprIson-
ment. On her release she went to
Europe, then returned to this country,
going to the west Under the name
of Vera Ava she fell into the hands
of the Chicago police, who sent her
to the penitentiary at Joliet for two
years. Released from that institu-
ton, she married William j. McGown
in 1895 at Chicago. McGown like
Marsh, was a man Of wealth, but this
did not deter her from practicing
fraud. In 1899 she was run out Of
New Orleans with Theodore Jackson,
whose wife she then said she was. A
year later they turned up at Cape
town, south Africa, where Madame
Diss Debar called herself Helena, ana
Jackson called himself Horos. De-
Cultism and hypnotic performances
were the order there, and one of her
south African dupes, wealthy con
tractor, gave his money to the woman
to establish a colony of brotherly
love. Soon afterwards the pair went
to London, where they promoted the
Theocratic Unity organization, scan
dals in connection with which led to
their arrest in September, 1901. The
trial, which continued at intervals
through three months, developed facts
of such a loathsome character that
several of the London papers exclui-
ed from their columns all reports Of
the proceedings in court.
Mr.. Justice Bigham summoned up
strongly against the prisoners, saying
it was difficult to conceive more re.
voting and abominable conduct than
that which mad been attributed to
them. The jury quickly returned
verdict of guilty, whereupon the JUS
tice sentenced Jackson to Is years
of penal servitude and his reputed