The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1906-08-17
!unNtD tOUSE UN
The WORLD AGAIN
Famous Woman Crater, Ann
Dis Debar, Released
From Prison.
swlN0LE
Her "Theocratic Unity" Cult Was I'M
moral, and Under Various
Names She Married and
Cheated.

London. Aug. A O'Della DIS
Debar who under the name of Laura
Jackson, was sentenced on December
20, 1901. to seven years penal servi-
tude for connection with an immoral
u known as the ''Theocratic Unity"
of which her reputed husband. Theo-
dore Jackson, was the head, has been
liberated from Aylesbury prison under
ticket of leave. having obtained the
maximum reduction of sentence by
good behavior.
Mme. Dis Debar has been known I'M
der many names in the United States
and Great Britain, but her greatest no
toriety was achieved is the perpetrator
of a socalled sp~iritualistic deception by
which Luther r. Marsh. of New York,
was in his old age stripped of his for
tune he had accumulated in the prac-
tfce of law. Though claiming to be the
daughter of King Louis 1. of Bavaria
and Lola MonteZ, she was, in fact, the
daughter of Professor John C. F. Sala-
mon, once of Washington and Ken
lucky.
She Bilked a Lawyer.
She became the wife of General Jo-
seph H. Dis Debar in the '70s later
travelled about the country represent
ing herself as the personif1cation of oc-
cult powers and the revealer of hidden
truths. spiritualistic and others. and
in this way while living in Washing
ton square, New York city, she met
Marsh and by means of alleged spirit
matertalizations 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 Dis Debar left
n adventures, who went to live at
h Marsh home and also hired apart
r,nNto yHNro IL 80 ~
ess OF s~piritualism and won great no.
toriety.
Suit was brought to show her up as
an impostor and she was charged with
conspiring to defraud Marsh. Her trial
resulted In her conviction, and she
was sentenced to a term Of im%prison-
ment. On her release she went to Eu-
rope, then returned to this country,
and. going to the west, got into more
difficulties through her representations
OF bogus ~spiritualism.
Many Names and Many Deeds.
Under the name Of Vera P. Ava she
fell into the hands of the Chicago po-
lice; who sent her to the %penitentiary
at Joliet for two years. Released from
that institution, she married William
j. McGown in 1895 at Chicago. MI.
McGown, like Marsh, was a man of
wealth, but this did not deter her from
the practice OF fraud In 1899 she was
AAAf Ouk VI OI1CallS MIll l1leOQOT6
Jackson, whose wife she then said she
was.
A year later she turned up in Cape
town, South Africa, where she called
herself Helena and Jackson called
himself Horos. Occultism and hypno-
tic performances were the order there,
and n of her South African dupes, q
wealthy contractor, gave his money to
the woman to establish a colony of
brotherly love.
Soon afterwards the pair went TIC
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 excluded
from their columns all reports of the
proceedings in court.
Justice Bigham summed up strongly
against the prisoners, saying it was
difficult to conceive of more revolving
and abominable conduct than that
which a been attributed to them. The
jury quickly returned a verdict of
guilty. whereupon the Justice SEN
fenced Jackson to fifteen years penal
servitude nj his reputed wife to sew
en- years penal servitude.