RELIGIOUS FRAUD.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 June 1923, Page 4

RELIGIOUS FRAUD.

COFFIN M VST Id? V OK THE "HOCSE OK DAVID.” NEW YORK. April 20 .Mi' Benjamin Purnell, the longhaired, bearded “king” ol the House of David—a religious colony establish ed 2U years ago at Renton fTartiour, -Michigan—was adjudged "a gigantic fraud” yesterday by the I".S. Dislriei Court. An action for damages which resultoil in this finding was brought against the king by .Mr Joint \Y. Hansel, formerly a lamer of Nashville, Tennessee. v.-!to with bis wife and children joined the colony in lid 2 and laboured in it without wages until the monarch ejected them hist autumn oil charges of inciting disaffection among their unbelievers. The court awarded Air Hansel fd.Oim. ■ 'Evidence was given of l lie practice of "group marriages'" among the young men and women of the colony Prides drew husbands bv lottery. Rut a more sinister aspect of the trial relate - to the burial ol colonists v, hn (bed. (.' loliiSts were taught that d they obeyed the iniunet ions of their him/ limy would achieve immortality. Win n deal h o'eiirred ii was ascribed ill the tie a that "ciiir brother has ..in. lied.” and the death rlmiulier w:i- immediately abandoned to the undertaker, and on the authority of a certificate signed by an aged colonist, who has a doctor’s degree, the corpse veio- pieced in a box and thrown into a pii without ceremony or witnesses. A gravedigger yesterday confessed Li the authorities that in the summer of .11)21 he buried a collin supposed to contain the body of a woman oi O, As he pushed ii into the grave its top was .-hollered and he saw the body of a ;•' r! of i i. v, ho appenre 1 to have i..s-u -i i ■ oi■ i!e 1 (. An order lor the exhumation of this body was issued. Mr Purnell has been missing since Christ mu -. Tile House ol David owns extensive pi-ojierl io- ill Mieliigan. It has run. dueled a large business in agricultural produce, and its baseball team and liras- hand arc known thioughoui the Stale. .Mrs .Margaret Pry-on. a nntiie of ’ ’an !, w.i ■ i-r. • cl' the chic! wit - ifligbar < o!„av at its English herd I COT. V,:-- A | i„ S,- | loud bv a • cm is- ary of the House of David, win warned her tiini he was ’ lie lasi i f Hilee tiger .- •!!.; i. v Cod to gall or ill the elect, lie exhorted her Immediate !. i i e-’U!" to l.oii lon. v. hieli she did. ’i : 'f > A wa . informed that London v.o'dd ' J-1 ro\i.- I by a Hood in dtl days, and that the only way to stive her life wi!< l,i i d," refuge In (be "Ark, ’ ulitoli wa- at Renton llarhour. I" Mir'd* hi. ,'.in| sic al once weal t* i his a: it. M.is Bryson stated that all the married couples at the House of Havel Here iorboldeti to have chihlie-'.