Douglas daily dispatch., 1926-07-09
MANY INyEsTIGATo

| Mcpherson of her asserted kidnapping
and imprisonment is now under way.
/ A private detective agency, specia
investigators and an unknown number
of attorneys have been retained by the
4 the investigation.
The offices of the Los Angeles dis.
trict attorney and the United States
federal attorney are both engaged il
comprehensive Investigations d
With all these forces at work it is
reasonable to expect that the evange-
! lists story will be either irrevocably
substiantiated or disproved.
Great Reader Interest.
| The story of the disappearance and
reappearance of Mrs. Mcpherson has
attained a position of news interest
second in recent years, perhaps, only
to the death of the late President Har-
ding. Many, like Will Rogers, know
only what we read in the papers" and
have been interested to note some of
the peculiar little quirks4 of human ma
ture which the circulation of the story
has brought to light.
Almost coincidentally with the sud-
den temperance of Mrs. Mcpherson,
the public formed it's own opinions re-
garding the veracity of her story. 1t
was natural enough that the ardent
followers of the evangelist should give
her story immediate; acceptance and it
was also natural enough. that her open
antagonists should go on record as be-
lieving the whole thing a hoax. How
ever, one somehow wonders at the re-
action. of the many thousands of peo-
pie, neutral in religious beliefs and
their attitudes toward the evangelist,s
teachings, who also promptly declared
themselves to believe Mrs. Mcpherson
an imposter of the sorriest sort.
Americans always tell foreigners that
in America one is always innocent un-
til proven guilty, and this democratic
ideal is circulated as being our Unborn
attitude. And yet, the moment Mrs.
Mcpherson appeared that morning IN
Douglas, and before her complete story
had had time for general circulation,
stories from self appointed investiga-
tors tending to discredit her story be-
gan to pour in.
BeIated Stories.
Even at this late date, belated yarns
are being told by persons who declared
they saw Mrs. Mcpherson i1l Aqua
Prieta and endless other places prior
to her reappearance. All of these peo-
pie declare they harbor no prejudice
toward the evangelist, and a few ad-
nit that they never heard of her prior
to her disappearance. Yet they all seem
to be sure she is an impoSter.
= foxr
woman was accused of murder. Even
before her arraignment the public had
arrived at it's own conclusions. FLOW
ers and delicacies were semi daily to
her cell and thousands of letters OF
sympathy found their way to her. De-
spite the fact that the district attor-
new had enough of a case against the
woman to cause her to stand two trials
she was acquitted. The district attor-
ney once intimated afterward that IN
his opinion, the jury at the second trlal
had SO become imbued with the gem
eral attitude of sympathy for the de-
fendant that the second trial might as
we'll have never been held.
During the two weeks past since Mrs.
McPherson's temperance, no single
instance has come to notice of anyone
having put themselves to any great
pains to come forth with any evidence
which would aid the evangelist mate
rally in establishing the veracity OF
her story.
What is the answer?
Sister Mcpherson, we'll aware of the
status of general opinion, attributes
this attitude to the Vaccinations of the
devil, but her more prosaic brethren,
the psychologists, call it psychology
Of the crowd" or mob psychology.
One hears often of this expression
but not until the present instance was
IT ever fully realized just how diff
cult it is to satisfactorily account for
likes and dislikes, beliefs and disbe-
| lliefs.
LOS ANGELES, July r. United
States postoffice officials, gathering
| their evidence for the grand jury in
quiry, uncovered clues today which may
lead to discovery of the authorship OF
the S50O,00O ransom letter mailed TO
Angelus temple.
The federal officers made the dis
covery that the writing on the en-
velope was made with different type
writer than that used in the letter 1t"
| self.
From this, they deduced that the let
ter originally mailed in the envelope
was probably removed by someone, and
Eanother letter, demanding $5OO,OOO ran
some substituted after the communica-
ltfon reached Los Angeles.
The letter was aboard train or
June 1S, either at Tucson, Ariz., or E
Paso. 1t arrived at Angelus temple
with special delivery stamp. When
given to Chief Cline the special stamI
had been removed and two-cent
stamp put in it's place, postal inspectors
said.
! "Our investigation will not stop with
anv one phase of the case," said Dis
trict Attorney Keyes. There will bt
no covering of anybody. There will be
tno whitewash.
IF Mrs. Mcpherson was kidnapped
and imprisoned as she says, we want
to find her kidnapers and send then
to prison. If the publis has been the
victim of a hoax, the public is entitled
to know the truth. We are in this
thing to find out just one thing-tht