
District attorney's investigators said a woman identified as the evangelist Mcpherson visited a Long Beach hotel where Kenneth G. Ormiston was registered under the alias Frank Gibson, ten days before her disappearance, citing a garage claim check and the identification of Mcpherson by two garage men. Told of the disclosures, Mcpherson said she had no recollection of being at Long Beach or of having lunch at the Hotel Virginia, said she certainly was not there with Ormiston, and called the account "pure bunk".
District attorney's investigators say new evidence ties the evangelist Mcpherson, held with two others on conspiracy charges after her reported drowning, to a hotel where the fugitive radio man Ormiston was registered under an alias.
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 8. - (AP) - Ten days before the now famous disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson, a woman identified as the evangelist visited a Long Beach hotel at which Kenneth G. Ormiston, fugitive radio man, was registered under an assumed name, district attorney's investigators said today in disclosing new evidence in the case. The visit, accoring to the officers, probably lasted for more than three hours.
The evidence consists of a garage claim check for the evangelist's automobile and the identification of Mrs. McPherson by two garage men as the woman who was driving a car left in their establishment. The hotel register previously had been checked by district attorney's investigators, showing that Ormiston was registered there May 7, 8 and 9, as Frank Gibson, an alias used by him, according to the testimony given during the preliminary hearing of the evangelist, her mother, Mrs. Minnie Kennedy, and Mrs. Lorraine Wiseman-Sielaff, which resulted in their being held on conspiracy charges.
The story told by Elton Cole, driver and attendant at the Virginia hotel garage, and W. R. Thompson, owner and manager of the establishment, is that the woman, who they say was Mrs. McPherson, arrived at the garage at 10:30 in the morning of May 8. Long Beach city ordinance requires that the claim check on a car left more than 12 hours must contain the automobile license number and the owner's name and address.
"I am only going to the Virginia hotel for lunch," the woman is quoted by the garage men as saying, and she made the plea that a formal claim check would be unnecessary. After she left, Cole said he told Thompson that the motorist was Mrs. McPherson. The garage owner was skeptical, so the license number was checked against regulation lists and the formal claim check made out to the evangelist.
The evangelist had left the garage by a doorway leading directly into the hotel, the witness said, and records showed she returned for her car at 2 p. m., being checked out by another garage employe.
The garage men are said to have described the woman driving the car as carrying a brief case bearing the initials "A. S. M." in gold.
At the recent preliminary hearing two witnesses told of seeing the evangelist at a Los Angeles hotel where Ormiston was a guest and that she then carried a brief case on which was her name in full.
Informed of the Long Beach disclosures, Mrs .McPherson tonight said: "I have no recollection of being at Long Beach on May 8, neither do I have any recollection of having lunch at the Hotel Virginia, and I certainly was not there with Ormiston. It's all pure bunk. The district attorney is all wet."
Having made this statement, she hurried away from the Angelum Temple with a large group of her Bible students, bound for a weinerwurst roast at a nearby beach.
Ormiston, who has been sought vainly by police and the district attarney's investigators since shortly after Mrs. McPherson vanished May 18, supposedly drowned, and has been hunted with renewed vigor since he was named codefendant in the conspiracy case, is regarded as a key witness in the affair. The conspiracy charges were brought after Mrs. Wiseman told the district attorney that she had been coached and financed by Mrs., Mc-Pherson to manufacture evidence to clear the evangelist of suspicion of being the mysterious and begoggled woman companion of Ormiston at a Carmel cottage immediately following the evangelist's disappearance.
Reproduced unchanged from Douglas Daily Dispatch, November 9, 1926, page 8.
This text reflects the language, attitudes and errors of its time. A Century Late publishes it as a historical document.
Text: read from the Library of Congress scan by A Century Late, within the article boundaries of American Stories (Dell et al., 2023), DOI 10.57967/hf/0757.
November 8, 1926. The original articles, with the text exactly as it appeared and scans of the original newspaper pages, from that day’s editions of the following publications:Evening Star, The Bismarck Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The Indianapolis Times, The Alaska Daily Empire, New Britain Herald, and Brownsville Herald.
Receive the original news from the press of 100 years ago, daily, weekly or monthly. Subscribe by December 1, 2026 and get
20% off for life!
November 9, 1926. The original articles, with the text exactly as it appeared and scans of the original newspaper pages, from that day’s editions of the following publications:Douglas Daily Dispatch, Imperial Valley Press, Daily Kennebec Journal, Brownsville Herald, Evening Star, The Indianapolis Times, and The Daily Worker.
District attorney's investigators said a woman identified as the evangelist Mcpherson visited a Long Beach hotel where Kenneth G. Ormiston was registered under the alias Frank Gibson, ten days before her disappearance, citing a garage claim check and the identification of Mcpherson by two garage men. Told of the disclosures, Mcpherson said she had no recollection of being at Long Beach or of having lunch at the Hotel Virginia, said she certainly was not there with Ormiston, and called the account "pure bunk".
District attorney's investigators say new evidence ties the evangelist Mcpherson, held with two others on conspiracy charges after her reported drowning, to a hotel where the fugitive radio man Ormiston was registered under an alias.
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 8. - (AP) - Ten days before the now famous disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson, a woman identified as the evangelist visited a Long Beach hotel at which Kenneth G. Ormiston, fugitive radio man, was registered under an assumed name, district attorney's investigators said today in disclosing new evidence in the case. The visit, accoring to the officers, probably lasted for more than three hours.
The evidence consists of a garage claim check for the evangelist's automobile and the identification of Mrs. McPherson by two garage men as the woman who was driving a car left in their establishment. The hotel register previously had been checked by district attorney's investigators, showing that Ormiston was registered there May 7, 8 and 9, as Frank Gibson, an alias used by him, according to the testimony given during the preliminary hearing of the evangelist, her mother, Mrs. Minnie Kennedy, and Mrs. Lorraine Wiseman-Sielaff, which resulted in their being held on conspiracy charges.
The story told by Elton Cole, driver and attendant at the Virginia hotel garage, and W. R. Thompson, owner and manager of the establishment, is that the woman, who they say was Mrs. McPherson, arrived at the garage at 10:30 in the morning of May 8. Long Beach city ordinance requires that the claim check on a car left more than 12 hours must contain the automobile license number and the owner's name and address.
"I am only going to the Virginia hotel for lunch," the woman is quoted by the garage men as saying, and she made the plea that a formal claim check would be unnecessary. After she left, Cole said he told Thompson that the motorist was Mrs. McPherson. The garage owner was skeptical, so the license number was checked against regulation lists and the formal claim check made out to the evangelist.
The evangelist had left the garage by a doorway leading directly into the hotel, the witness said, and records showed she returned for her car at 2 p. m., being checked out by another garage employe.
The garage men are said to have described the woman driving the car as carrying a brief case bearing the initials "A. S. M." in gold.
At the recent preliminary hearing two witnesses told of seeing the evangelist at a Los Angeles hotel where Ormiston was a guest and that she then carried a brief case on which was her name in full.
Informed of the Long Beach disclosures, Mrs .McPherson tonight said: "I have no recollection of being at Long Beach on May 8, neither do I have any recollection of having lunch at the Hotel Virginia, and I certainly was not there with Ormiston. It's all pure bunk. The district attorney is all wet."
Having made this statement, she hurried away from the Angelum Temple with a large group of her Bible students, bound for a weinerwurst roast at a nearby beach.
Ormiston, who has been sought vainly by police and the district attarney's investigators since shortly after Mrs. McPherson vanished May 18, supposedly drowned, and has been hunted with renewed vigor since he was named codefendant in the conspiracy case, is regarded as a key witness in the affair. The conspiracy charges were brought after Mrs. Wiseman told the district attorney that she had been coached and financed by Mrs., Mc-Pherson to manufacture evidence to clear the evangelist of suspicion of being the mysterious and begoggled woman companion of Ormiston at a Carmel cottage immediately following the evangelist's disappearance.
Reproduced unchanged from Douglas Daily Dispatch, November 9, 1926, page 8.
This text reflects the language, attitudes and errors of its time. A Century Late publishes it as a historical document.
Text: read from the Library of Congress scan by A Century Late, within the article boundaries of American Stories (Dell et al., 2023), DOI 10.57967/hf/0757.
Reproduced unchanged from Douglas Daily Dispatch, November 9, 1926, page 8.
This text reflects the language, attitudes and errors of its time. A Century Late publishes it as a historical document.
Text: read from the Library of Congress scan by A Century Late, within the article boundaries of American Stories (Dell et al., 2023), DOI 10.57967/hf/0757.
November 8, 1926. The original articles, with the text exactly as it appeared and scans of the original newspaper pages, from that day’s editions of the following publications:Evening Star, The Bismarck Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The Indianapolis Times, The Alaska Daily Empire, New Britain Herald, and Brownsville Herald.
Receive the original news from the press of 100 years ago, daily, weekly or monthly. Subscribe by December 1, 2026 and get
20% off for life!
November 9, 1926. The original articles, with the text exactly as it appeared and scans of the original newspaper pages, from that day’s editions of the following publications:Douglas Daily Dispatch, Imperial Valley Press, Daily Kennebec Journal, Brownsville Herald, Evening Star, The Indianapolis Times, and The Daily Worker.
District attorney's investigators said a woman identified as the evangelist Mcpherson visited a Long Beach hotel where Kenneth G. Ormiston was registered under the alias Frank Gibson, ten days before her disappearance, citing a garage claim check and the identification of Mcpherson by two garage men. Told of the disclosures, Mcpherson said she had no recollection of being at Long Beach or of having lunch at the Hotel Virginia, said she certainly was not there with Ormiston, and called the account "pure bunk".
District attorney's investigators say new evidence ties the evangelist Mcpherson, held with two others on conspiracy charges after her reported drowning, to a hotel where the fugitive radio man Ormiston was registered under an alias.
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 8. - (AP) - Ten days before the now famous disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson, a woman identified as the evangelist visited a Long Beach hotel at which Kenneth G. Ormiston, fugitive radio man, was registered under an assumed name, district attorney's investigators said today in disclosing new evidence in the case. The visit, accoring to the officers, probably lasted for more than three hours.
The evidence consists of a garage claim check for the evangelist's automobile and the identification of Mrs. McPherson by two garage men as the woman who was driving a car left in their establishment. The hotel register previously had been checked by district attorney's investigators, showing that Ormiston was registered there May 7, 8 and 9, as Frank Gibson, an alias used by him, according to the testimony given during the preliminary hearing of the evangelist, her mother, Mrs. Minnie Kennedy, and Mrs. Lorraine Wiseman-Sielaff, which resulted in their being held on conspiracy charges.
The story told by Elton Cole, driver and attendant at the Virginia hotel garage, and W. R. Thompson, owner and manager of the establishment, is that the woman, who they say was Mrs. McPherson, arrived at the garage at 10:30 in the morning of May 8. Long Beach city ordinance requires that the claim check on a car left more than 12 hours must contain the automobile license number and the owner's name and address.
"I am only going to the Virginia hotel for lunch," the woman is quoted by the garage men as saying, and she made the plea that a formal claim check would be unnecessary. After she left, Cole said he told Thompson that the motorist was Mrs. McPherson. The garage owner was skeptical, so the license number was checked against regulation lists and the formal claim check made out to the evangelist.
The evangelist had left the garage by a doorway leading directly into the hotel, the witness said, and records showed she returned for her car at 2 p. m., being checked out by another garage employe.
The garage men are said to have described the woman driving the car as carrying a brief case bearing the initials "A. S. M." in gold.
At the recent preliminary hearing two witnesses told of seeing the evangelist at a Los Angeles hotel where Ormiston was a guest and that she then carried a brief case on which was her name in full.
Informed of the Long Beach disclosures, Mrs .McPherson tonight said: "I have no recollection of being at Long Beach on May 8, neither do I have any recollection of having lunch at the Hotel Virginia, and I certainly was not there with Ormiston. It's all pure bunk. The district attorney is all wet."
Having made this statement, she hurried away from the Angelum Temple with a large group of her Bible students, bound for a weinerwurst roast at a nearby beach.
Ormiston, who has been sought vainly by police and the district attarney's investigators since shortly after Mrs. McPherson vanished May 18, supposedly drowned, and has been hunted with renewed vigor since he was named codefendant in the conspiracy case, is regarded as a key witness in the affair. The conspiracy charges were brought after Mrs. Wiseman told the district attorney that she had been coached and financed by Mrs., Mc-Pherson to manufacture evidence to clear the evangelist of suspicion of being the mysterious and begoggled woman companion of Ormiston at a Carmel cottage immediately following the evangelist's disappearance.
Reproduced unchanged from Douglas Daily Dispatch, November 9, 1926, page 8.
This text reflects the language, attitudes and errors of its time. A Century Late publishes it as a historical document.
Text: read from the Library of Congress scan by A Century Late, within the article boundaries of American Stories (Dell et al., 2023), DOI 10.57967/hf/0757.
Reproduced unchanged from Douglas Daily Dispatch, November 9, 1926, page 8.
This text reflects the language, attitudes and errors of its time. A Century Late publishes it as a historical document.
Text: read from the Library of Congress scan by A Century Late, within the article boundaries of American Stories (Dell et al., 2023), DOI 10.57967/hf/0757.
November 8, 1926. The original articles, with the text exactly as it appeared and scans of the original newspaper pages, from that day’s editions of the following publications:Evening Star, The Bismarck Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The Indianapolis Times, The Alaska Daily Empire, New Britain Herald, and Brownsville Herald.
Receive the original news from the press of 100 years ago, daily, weekly or monthly. Subscribe by December 1, 2026 and get
20% off for life!
November 9, 1926. The original articles, with the text exactly as it appeared and scans of the original newspaper pages, from that day’s editions of the following publications:Douglas Daily Dispatch, Imperial Valley Press, Daily Kennebec Journal, Brownsville Herald, Evening Star, The Indianapolis Times, and The Daily Worker.
District attorney's investigators said a woman identified as the evangelist Mcpherson visited a Long Beach hotel where Kenneth G. Ormiston was registered under the alias Frank Gibson, ten days before her disappearance, citing a garage claim check and the identification of Mcpherson by two garage men. Told of the disclosures, Mcpherson said she had no recollection of being at Long Beach or of having lunch at the Hotel Virginia, said she certainly was not there with Ormiston, and called the account "pure bunk".
District attorney's investigators say new evidence ties the evangelist Mcpherson, held with two others on conspiracy charges after her reported drowning, to a hotel where the fugitive radio man Ormiston was registered under an alias.
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 8. - (AP) - Ten days before the now famous disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson, a woman identified as the evangelist visited a Long Beach hotel at which Kenneth G. Ormiston, fugitive radio man, was registered under an assumed name, district attorney's investigators said today in disclosing new evidence in the case. The visit, accoring to the officers, probably lasted for more than three hours.
The evidence consists of a garage claim check for the evangelist's automobile and the identification of Mrs. McPherson by two garage men as the woman who was driving a car left in their establishment. The hotel register previously had been checked by district attorney's investigators, showing that Ormiston was registered there May 7, 8 and 9, as Frank Gibson, an alias used by him, according to the testimony given during the preliminary hearing of the evangelist, her mother, Mrs. Minnie Kennedy, and Mrs. Lorraine Wiseman-Sielaff, which resulted in their being held on conspiracy charges.
The story told by Elton Cole, driver and attendant at the Virginia hotel garage, and W. R. Thompson, owner and manager of the establishment, is that the woman, who they say was Mrs. McPherson, arrived at the garage at 10:30 in the morning of May 8. Long Beach city ordinance requires that the claim check on a car left more than 12 hours must contain the automobile license number and the owner's name and address.
"I am only going to the Virginia hotel for lunch," the woman is quoted by the garage men as saying, and she made the plea that a formal claim check would be unnecessary. After she left, Cole said he told Thompson that the motorist was Mrs. McPherson. The garage owner was skeptical, so the license number was checked against regulation lists and the formal claim check made out to the evangelist.
The evangelist had left the garage by a doorway leading directly into the hotel, the witness said, and records showed she returned for her car at 2 p. m., being checked out by another garage employe.
The garage men are said to have described the woman driving the car as carrying a brief case bearing the initials "A. S. M." in gold.
At the recent preliminary hearing two witnesses told of seeing the evangelist at a Los Angeles hotel where Ormiston was a guest and that she then carried a brief case on which was her name in full.
Informed of the Long Beach disclosures, Mrs .McPherson tonight said: "I have no recollection of being at Long Beach on May 8, neither do I have any recollection of having lunch at the Hotel Virginia, and I certainly was not there with Ormiston. It's all pure bunk. The district attorney is all wet."
Having made this statement, she hurried away from the Angelum Temple with a large group of her Bible students, bound for a weinerwurst roast at a nearby beach.
Ormiston, who has been sought vainly by police and the district attarney's investigators since shortly after Mrs. McPherson vanished May 18, supposedly drowned, and has been hunted with renewed vigor since he was named codefendant in the conspiracy case, is regarded as a key witness in the affair. The conspiracy charges were brought after Mrs. Wiseman told the district attorney that she had been coached and financed by Mrs., Mc-Pherson to manufacture evidence to clear the evangelist of suspicion of being the mysterious and begoggled woman companion of Ormiston at a Carmel cottage immediately following the evangelist's disappearance.
Reproduced unchanged from Douglas Daily Dispatch, November 9, 1926, page 8.
This text reflects the language, attitudes and errors of its time. A Century Late publishes it as a historical document.
Text: read from the Library of Congress scan by A Century Late, within the article boundaries of American Stories (Dell et al., 2023), DOI 10.57967/hf/0757.
Reproduced unchanged from Douglas Daily Dispatch, November 9, 1926, page 8.
This text reflects the language, attitudes and errors of its time. A Century Late publishes it as a historical document.
Text: read from the Library of Congress scan by A Century Late, within the article boundaries of American Stories (Dell et al., 2023), DOI 10.57967/hf/0757.
November 8, 1926. The original articles, with the text exactly as it appeared and scans of the original newspaper pages, from that day’s editions of the following publications:Evening Star, The Bismarck Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The Indianapolis Times, The Alaska Daily Empire, New Britain Herald, and Brownsville Herald.
Receive the original news from the press of 100 years ago, daily, weekly or monthly. Subscribe by December 1, 2026 and get
20% off for life!
November 9, 1926. The original articles, with the text exactly as it appeared and scans of the original newspaper pages, from that day’s editions of the following publications:Douglas Daily Dispatch, Imperial Valley Press, Daily Kennebec Journal, Brownsville Herald, Evening Star, The Indianapolis Times, and The Daily Worker.
District attorney's investigators said a woman identified as the evangelist Mcpherson visited a Long Beach hotel where Kenneth G. Ormiston was registered under the alias Frank Gibson, ten days before her disappearance, citing a garage claim check and the identification of Mcpherson by two garage men. Told of the disclosures, Mcpherson said she had no recollection of being at Long Beach or of having lunch at the Hotel Virginia, said she certainly was not there with Ormiston, and called the account "pure bunk".
District attorney's investigators say new evidence ties the evangelist Mcpherson, held with two others on conspiracy charges after her reported drowning, to a hotel where the fugitive radio man Ormiston was registered under an alias.
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 8. - (AP) - Ten days before the now famous disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson, a woman identified as the evangelist visited a Long Beach hotel at which Kenneth G. Ormiston, fugitive radio man, was registered under an assumed name, district attorney's investigators said today in disclosing new evidence in the case. The visit, accoring to the officers, probably lasted for more than three hours.
The evidence consists of a garage claim check for the evangelist's automobile and the identification of Mrs. McPherson by two garage men as the woman who was driving a car left in their establishment. The hotel register previously had been checked by district attorney's investigators, showing that Ormiston was registered there May 7, 8 and 9, as Frank Gibson, an alias used by him, according to the testimony given during the preliminary hearing of the evangelist, her mother, Mrs. Minnie Kennedy, and Mrs. Lorraine Wiseman-Sielaff, which resulted in their being held on conspiracy charges.
The story told by Elton Cole, driver and attendant at the Virginia hotel garage, and W. R. Thompson, owner and manager of the establishment, is that the woman, who they say was Mrs. McPherson, arrived at the garage at 10:30 in the morning of May 8. Long Beach city ordinance requires that the claim check on a car left more than 12 hours must contain the automobile license number and the owner's name and address.
"I am only going to the Virginia hotel for lunch," the woman is quoted by the garage men as saying, and she made the plea that a formal claim check would be unnecessary. After she left, Cole said he told Thompson that the motorist was Mrs. McPherson. The garage owner was skeptical, so the license number was checked against regulation lists and the formal claim check made out to the evangelist.
The evangelist had left the garage by a doorway leading directly into the hotel, the witness said, and records showed she returned for her car at 2 p. m., being checked out by another garage employe.
The garage men are said to have described the woman driving the car as carrying a brief case bearing the initials "A. S. M." in gold.
At the recent preliminary hearing two witnesses told of seeing the evangelist at a Los Angeles hotel where Ormiston was a guest and that she then carried a brief case on which was her name in full.
Informed of the Long Beach disclosures, Mrs .McPherson tonight said: "I have no recollection of being at Long Beach on May 8, neither do I have any recollection of having lunch at the Hotel Virginia, and I certainly was not there with Ormiston. It's all pure bunk. The district attorney is all wet."
Having made this statement, she hurried away from the Angelum Temple with a large group of her Bible students, bound for a weinerwurst roast at a nearby beach.
Ormiston, who has been sought vainly by police and the district attarney's investigators since shortly after Mrs. McPherson vanished May 18, supposedly drowned, and has been hunted with renewed vigor since he was named codefendant in the conspiracy case, is regarded as a key witness in the affair. The conspiracy charges were brought after Mrs. Wiseman told the district attorney that she had been coached and financed by Mrs., Mc-Pherson to manufacture evidence to clear the evangelist of suspicion of being the mysterious and begoggled woman companion of Ormiston at a Carmel cottage immediately following the evangelist's disappearance.
Reproduced unchanged from Douglas Daily Dispatch, November 9, 1926, page 8.
This text reflects the language, attitudes and errors of its time. A Century Late publishes it as a historical document.
Text: read from the Library of Congress scan by A Century Late, within the article boundaries of American Stories (Dell et al., 2023), DOI 10.57967/hf/0757.
Reproduced unchanged from Douglas Daily Dispatch, November 9, 1926, page 8.
This text reflects the language, attitudes and errors of its time. A Century Late publishes it as a historical document.
Text: read from the Library of Congress scan by A Century Late, within the article boundaries of American Stories (Dell et al., 2023), DOI 10.57967/hf/0757.
November 8, 1926. The original articles, with the text exactly as it appeared and scans of the original newspaper pages, from that day’s editions of the following publications:Evening Star, The Bismarck Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The Indianapolis Times, The Alaska Daily Empire, New Britain Herald, and Brownsville Herald.
Receive the original news from the press of 100 years ago, daily, weekly or monthly. Subscribe by December 1, 2026 and get
20% off for life!
November 9, 1926. The original articles, with the text exactly as it appeared and scans of the original newspaper pages, from that day’s editions of the following publications:Douglas Daily Dispatch, Imperial Valley Press, Daily Kennebec Journal, Brownsville Herald, Evening Star, The Indianapolis Times, and The Daily Worker.