Indicted For Grand Theft
In 1929 group leaders were indicted in Los Angeles for grand theft and investigated in the disappearances of several members. These indictments created a media sensation at the time the background on the grand theft was revealed to the public. May Otis Blackburn was charged with twelve counts of grand theft, and articles at that time referred to Blackburn as a "cult leader."
According to TIME Magazine article "California Cults", the Blackburn Cult was also known as "The Great Eleven", and May Otis Blackburn was referred to as "Heel of God." The cult later collapsed after May Otis Blackburn was imprisoned for stealing $40,000 from Clifford Dabney.
Read more about this topic: Blackburn Cult
Famous quotes containing the words grand and/or theft:
“A garden has this advantage, that it makes it indifferent where you live. A well-laid garden makes the face of the country of no account; let that be low or high, grand or mean, you have made a beautiful abode worthy of man.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Men are not therefore put to death, or punished for that their theft proceedeth from election; but because it was noxious and contrary to men’s preservation, and the punishment conducing to the preservation of the rest, inasmuch as to punish those that do voluntary hurt, and none else, frameth and maketh men’s wills such as men would have them.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)