Douglas daily dispatch., 1926-11-09
KEYES CLAIMS AIMEE
WAS AT LONG BEACH
TO VISIT ORMISTON

LOS ANGELES, Nov. s. - up - Ten
days before the now famous disappear
ance of Aimee Semple Mcpherson,
woman identified as The evangelist
visited a Long Beach hotel at which
Kenneth G. Ormiston, fugitive radio
man, was registered under an assumed
name, district attorneys investigators
said today in disclosing new evidence
in the case. The Visit, accoring to the
officers, probably lasted for more than
three hours.
The evidence consists of a garage
claim check for the evangelists auto
mobile and the Identification of Mrs.
Mcpherson by two garage men as the
woman who was driving car left in
their establishment. The hotel regis
ter previously had been checked by
district attorneys investigators, show
ing that Ormston was registered there
May Z, s and 8, as Frank Gibson, an
alias used by him, according to the
testimony given during the preliminary
hearing of the evangelist, her mother,
Mrs Minnie Kennedy, and Mrs. Lor-
raine Wiseman- -Sielaff, which resulted
in their being held on conspiracy
charges.
The story told by Elton Cole, driver
and attendant at the Virginia hotel
garage, and w. r. Thompson, owner
and manager of the establishment, is
that the woman. who they say was Mrs.
Mcpherson, arrived at the garage at
1880 in the morning of May 8. Long
Beach city ordinance requires that the
claim check on a car left more than II
hours must contain the automobile IL
cense number and the owners name
and address.
Il am only going to the Virginia
hotel for lunch, the woman is quoted
by the garage men as saying, and she
made the plea that formal claim
check would be unnecessary. After sheI
left, Cole said he told Thompson that!
the motorist was Mrs. Mcpherson. The
garage owner was skeptical, so the IL
cense number was checked against reg
ulation lists and the formal claim
check made out to the evangelist.
The evangelist had left the garage
by doorway leading directly into the
hotel, the witness said, and records
showed she returned for her car at 81
p. M, being checked out by another
garage employee.
The garage men are said to have de-
scribed the woman driving the car as
carrying a brief case bearing the ini-
tials "A. S. NJ" in gold.
At the recent preliminary hearing
two witnesses told of seeing the evan
gelist at a Los Angeles hotel where
Ormiston was a guest and that she
then carried brief case on which was
her name in full.
Informed of the Long Beach dis
closures, Mrs Mcpherson tonight said:
81 have no recollection of being at
Long Beach on May s, neither do Ii
have any recollection of having lunch
at the Hotel Virginia, and l certainly
was not there with Ormiston. It's all
pure bunk The district attorney is all
wet"
Having made this statement, she hur-
ried away from the Angelum Temple
with a large group of her Bible stu
dents, bound for weinerwurst roast
at nearby beach
Ormiston, who has been sought vain
ly by police and the district attarney's
investigators since shortly after Mrs.
Mcpherson vanished May 1S, supposed
ly drowned and has been hunted with
renewed vigor since he was named CO.
defendant in the conspiracy case, Isl
regarded as a key witness in the af-
fair The conspiracy charges were
brought after Mrs. Wiseman told the
district attorney that she had been
coached and financed by Mrs. Nc
Pherson to manufacture evidence to-
clear the evangelist of suspicion of be-
ing the mysterious and begoggled
woman companion of Ormiston at Il
Carmel cottage Immediately following
the evangelists disappearance.