Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-07-18
TALES OF 6 S|FTED
in MCPHERSON CASE
Testimony That Evangelist
Was Seen by Several Probed.
Ornliston Heard From.
By tho Associated Press.

by Inc AeSoctated Press.
Los ANGELES. July 17.-Police
and district attorneys investigators
tonight were slowly piecing together
the route of phantom trail which
evidence indicates may have been
travelled by Aimee Semple Mcpherson,
evangelist, with or without her con-
sent, after she disappeared at the
Santa Monica Beach near here
May is.
The Angelus Temple religious lead
er has told investigators and the grand
jury that she was kidnapped. drugged
and imprisoned in two shacks, pre-
sumably in Mexico, and escaped and
Travelled II miles afoot across the
desert under a blazing sun to Douglas,
Ariz., which she reached June %.
Six witnesses have declared they
saw her after she was believed to
have drowned at the beach and prior
to her dramatic reappearance at
Douglas, travelling in an automobile
away from the beach through Culver
City, Los Angeles suburb: travelling
Ariz., and getting into an automobile
at Aqua Prieta, Mex, in front Of
a resort there.
Tonight Investigators were seeking
to establish or disproye reports from
Jacumba Hot Springs, San Diego
County resort, that a yelled woman,
accompanied by two men, who spent
a day and night there shortly after
May IS. was the evangelist.
Spiritualist Sent Wire.
OAKLAND, Calf. July II o.
Mrs. Henrietta Walther, q spiritual
list, today told police here that she
was prompted to send to Mrs. Minnie
Kennedy, mother of Aimee Semple
Mcpherson, a telegram three days
after the evangelist was missing.
In her statement, obtained at the
request Of District Attorney Reyes
of Los Angeles, Mrs. Walther said
her telegram to Angelus Temple was
similar to the Aimee o. K" message
sent from Oakland by a man as yet
unidentified. Giving the revelations
of trance as her inspiration for the
telegram, Mrs. Walther said she saw
Mrs. Mcpherson bound and appar-
emily in distress In a cabin.
B. I. Waugh. manager Of the ia
cumba Hot Springs Co., and several
of his employees were so impressed
with the general likeness of the mys
terious woman of the hidden face to
Mrs. Mcpherson that they revealed
their suspicious to the police, and OH
GERS We're sent to look into evidence.
The nebulous trail, Culber City-Ja'
cumba -Tuscon-Agua Prieta, leads di
rectly from the Santa Monica surf to
the desert across the Mexican border
from Douglas.
Accusing Mayor Attacked.
Ernesto Bubion. mayor or presi
dente OF the Mexican town, who had
Indicated previously that he seriously
doubted the evangelist's tale OF her
17-miie desert hike without food OF
water, today drew the legal fire OF
Mrs. McPherson's attorneys. They
made public an affidavit. said to have
been signed by William Appel. inter
prefer Of Aqua Prieta. charging
Bubion. with attempting to extori
money from the evangelist as tht
price of his silence on evidence which
he said he possessed controverting hei
statements.
Kenneth G. Ormiston, formerly Mrs
McPherson's radio operator and hel
friend, who has been sought far and
near as possible source of informa
ton in the mystery. was heard from
indirectly at two Eastern points today