Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-09
'CULT PROBE HINTS
AT DEATH Of four
Los Angeles Officials DeIve
Into Disappearance of
Woman Members.
By the Associated Press.

by the ASSOCIdLeO HTeSS.
LOS ANGELES, october 9.-Los An
geles authorities today attempted to as
certain whether four missing women,
all purported members of the religious
cult known as THE Divine Order of the
Royal Arm Of the Great Seal" are
dead, and. If so. what caused their
deaths and what disposal was made OF
their bodies.
The body of 16-year-old Villa Rhoads.
described as a prieSteSS of the
sect, was found Sunday in a casket
under the flooring of a house occupied
by her foster parents, Mr.. and Mrs.
William Rhoads, cult members. Inves-
tigation of the circumstances of her
death and burial has indicated she died
of natural causes, but chemical analy-
sis of the body is being made.
Members of a colony maintained by
the religious order in the Santa susanna
hills, north of here, were being Ques-
toned regarding the reported deaths of
Frances Turner, Harlene SartoriS, Kath-
crime Bolz and Addie McGuffin. Inves-
tigators say they have evidence to in
dictate the women are dead and are at
tempting to learn in what manner they
died and where they were buried.
Four Are Held in Jail.
Mrs. Turner and Mrs. Sartoris were
said by investigators probably to have
been buried in Ventura. Calf. Mrs.
McGuffin, 66-year-old widow, was re-
ported to have left the colony three
weeks ago. Police said they could find
no trace of her. Mrs. Bolz apparently
has been unheard from since 1927.
Mrs. May Otis Blackburn, head of the
cult; her daughter, Mrs. Ruth Angelina
| Wieiand-R izzio, and Mr.. and Mrs.
RhoadS were held in the Los Angeles
County jail pending completion of the
investigation of the reported deaths. the
burial of Villa Rhoads and charges of
enlightenment made by Clifford Dab
| ney, Long Beach, Calf, oil man. and
other cult members against Mrs. Black
burn and Mrs. Wieland-Rizzi
The enlightenment charges against
Mrs. Blackburn and her daughter, the
latter identified as a cult priesteSs, re-
cite that they obtained $4,000 from
Dabney and others through representa-
| tons that book they were to write by
| divine order would reveal by use of
''lost measurements. the whereabouts
| Of all mineral wealth remaining in the
! earth.
| Objects to Removing Body.
| Mrs. Rhoads told police that her
| foster daughter. Villa, would be resur-
| rected when the book, The Sixth Seal"
was completed, and she objected hys-
terically to removal of the girls body
from beneath the Rhoads' home in
| Venice, Calf. She said the young wom-
ans body was not buried until more
than two years after her death on New
Year eve, 1925, but was preserved with
ice. and that when finally buried, it was
embalmed with spices as in ancient
times, in belief that such treatment
least would interfere with her expected
resurrection.
! Police chemists were baf1ed by the
embalming process used, in view of the
Gate of the girls death as given by the
foster parents. They described the body
as in remarkable state of preservation.
! Discovery CT druggist who remembered
| ccncocting an embalming fluid from a
| formula brought him by Mrs. Rhoads
I three months ago gave rise to a theory
! that VILLAS death may not have &C.
CURED until recently.
! Mrs. Blackburn told police she was
| responsible for the unrecorded burial
, OF the girl, stating that the "Archangels
! Michael and Gabriel had revealed to
her that the young woman was to arise