“RAISING THE DEAD” CULT

Hokitika Guardian, 30 November 1929, Page 3

“RAISING THE DEAD” CULT

GIRL’S BODY KEPT IN ICE.

NEW YORK, Oct. 9. - The Los Angelos authorities are

puzzled as to what action to take against a cult called the “Divine Order of the 1 .Royal fOnWrUof: ifithe Eleventh Branch of t Hie-' i\ 'Headstone of the Seventh iGlimrclh 'of; J Josi'ah-,?' whoso - members v have': IcoiiOealettl; fRR Three years. ..the body ?of olio ', of. their

girl devotees who’ died, frdm diphtheria in spite of the cult treatments. During those-three years the body of the girl, Willa Rhoads, has been in a specially constructed coffin at her home. Her parents, as members of the cult, believed that its high priests and priestesses could revive the dead and would one day resurrect their daughter. The girl’s father, Mr. William Rhoads, a' cabinet-maker, made the: coffin and special caskets for seven dogs which' were put' to death to be buried next to Willa.

The police have detained the girl’s parents and Mrs Otis Blackburn, the so-called high priestess of the order. Mrs Blackburn, besides" being a material witnesss in the Rhoads case, is charged with obtaining moneV under false pretences from Mr Clifford Dabney, the oil magnate, who says that he gave her more than £B.OOO to write a book to he known as “The Sixth Seal,” which was to reveal the secret of the Resurrection of the Dead. Mr Dabney is listed among the incorporators of the cult with the other persons, each of whom contributed sums ranging from £3,000 to £6,000 to aid in the publication of the 'book.

It was the investigation of Air Dabney’s complaint which caused the amazing revelation concerning X\ ilia Rhoad’s body.

Her mother explained that for a year after death AY ilia’s body was kept in ice, using a special process devised by a member of the cult. Airs Rhoads tearfully told the police that she wanted her daughter’s physical body preserved until “Gabriel sounded seven notes on his trumpet.” The seven dogs in a row in the small caskets, she said, represented “the seven concords of life, including the trumpet’s seven tones.”