FATHER DIVINE ARRESTED

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 83, 24 April 1937, Page 7

FATHER DIVINE ARRESTED

■ Telegraph— PresB Assn.

"Peace, It's Wonderful!" • • • He Exclaims " ^ . . 1 . ... i WANTS T0 STAND TRIAL

(By

-rCppyright.Jj

NEW-YORK, April 23.. Father Divine was arrested hiding iu . the basement of a residenc'e 'at' Milford; Connecticut'. He was 'sent to gaol as a fugitive' fronx justtce, with the charge. . pending until the, arrival of New York detectives. He was unarined and surrendered quietly. He declined to maka a statement to the district attorney, whoi.n he urged should waive extraditicin proceedings and permit his Immediate return to faee his trial. The police said that when Father Divine was found behind a furnace ha raised his right hand and, exclaimed; "Peace, it's wonderful." He faces new trouble in an investigation concerning coal stolen from Pennsylvania fields and allegedly used by his Harlem heavens. A follower, Blessed Thomas, who has heen arrested, • admitted loading the coal, but denied knowing it was stolen. It is disclosed, that Father Divine 's wife is dying in a hospital of heart and kidney disease. Faithful Mary is paying the hospital bills. Meantime, Father Divine '» followera have ousted Mary from one of the tenements which she managed, and have refused .to allow her to enter Father Divine's kingdom of heaven. White Follower Indicted, John Hunt, a wealthy white follower of Father Divine, was released at Los Angeles on a 25,000-dollar bond after indictment under the Manu Act. Last month John Hunt, a wealthy white follower of "Father Divine," the so-called "St. John the Divine," was sought by the police under the Mann Act on a charge of transporting Deliglit Jewitt, a Denver schoolgirl, aged 17, to make her the new "Virgin Mary." Protests by Lionel Barrymore and other screen celebrities caused the police recently to disperse 200 followers of Hunt, who used his home at Beverley Hills under the name of the "New Bethlehem."