Los Angeles herald., 1906-08-26

was suffering from senile dementia and
that the sohemers held him under hyp-
notic control, the New York Bar asso-
citation took the matter in hand. After
q bitter fight that was the sensation
of the time In the United States,
Marsh's property was restored to him
and Mrs. Dis Debar was sent to the
penitentiary for one year, and the Ger
ry society took charge Of her two
children.
While the spook compeller was in
prison her husband died. on COM
pleting her term of imprisonment, she
went on the stage as assistant to Herr
mann, the magician, to produce spirit
painting" In public, but that not prov
ing a lucrative business, the Dis Debar
pretended to commit suicide from a
Jersey City ferryboat, and until she
was arrested in Chicago three years
later for swlndling, she was thought to
be dead.
Under the name of Vera p. Ava she
fell into the handsMof the Chicago po-
lice and was sent to the Joliet peni-
tentiary for two years. Released from
durance vile. she met William J. Nc
Gowan In 1895, In Chicago, and married
him. MCGOWAN, like Marsh, was
man OF wealth, but that did not stop
her career Of sharp practices, Later
she was arrested on the usual charge
in Rome, Italy, but escaped convic-
tion. After operating extensively in
Europe, she returned to New York and
then INDUCED in her fancy for starting
colonies of faddists.
In company with Frank Jackson, a
dapper young Chicago real estate deal
er of about her age and averdupois, she
advertised the new altruistic, cereal.
istic and spiritualistic "Order of the
Crystal Star" and started colony in
Florida in connection with the motor
ious DR.. Cyrus Teed's "Koresh" re-
ligious cult. Jackson, who was not
then married to her, sold orange
groves of daubtful value to the dupes,
but after a quarrel with Teed the cou-
pie migrated to New Orleans where
they were married. There, taking ad-
vantage of the general belief in vou-
dooism, the pair practiced their arts
of "black magic" coupled with i'm
moral rites of a pretended mystic and
religious character until threatened
with coats of tar and feathers. Their ne
farious practices in New Orleans re-
suited In the ruin of many women be-
longing to excellent families and drove
not few into the insane asylum.
When the mayor ordered her out of
the city Mrs. Jackson, always vain,
appeared before him in gorgeous or
lCllIdl lOUco dAlu PlOCleiIllCu SOAL bAiO
daughter of the king of Bavaria. The
investigation which ensued revealed
shocking state of affairs. Dozens of
women patients" inmates of the
Jackson home, told stories of assault
under hypnotic influence, and of be-
ing relieved of large sums Of money.
One wealthy woman, who, with her
daughter, had been caught in the tolls
of the swindlers, had been relieved of
100000 besides all her family jewels.
The Jacksons defied arrest, threatening
to make revelations which would in
volve the good names of many Of the
foremost families of Louisiana, and the
most that could be done was to force
a partial restitution of the money they
had secured.
Through all these practices ran a vein
of religion and mysticism, and Dis
Debar seemed to have the power of in
ducing intelligent people to believe that
they could indulge in the most revolt
ing forms Of vice, yet by fixing their
minds in rapt contemplation Of celestial
things be free from all sin.
Ordered out Of the city by the mayor,
to whom she had had the effrontery to
offer bunch of violets, Dis Debar .es.
tablished herself among the gamblers
and depraved dregs Of humanity in
lawless community on Lake Ponchar-
train, known as Bucktown. Bucktown
was not squeamish. but the Jacksons'
methods were little too much for it,
and the gamblers and thugs held an
indignation meeting, wherein attention
was called to the fact that their county
held the record for lynchings.
These warnings being made sufficient
ly clear and convincing, the couple fled
to Mobile, and being driven from
there, repaired to Cape Colony, South
Africa, where, under the name of Heros.
they opened colony Of brotherly love
and college of Occult Sciences"
financed by wealthy contractor, whom
they fleeced.
Later they turned UP in London, and
after working various blackmailing
schemes against wealthy women and
men, including Lord Aberdeen and Lord