tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5034791890201777099.post5206185556814005312..comments2024-02-23T03:38:04.874-05:00Comments on The Public "I": HAVING FAITH Part Four INTENTKimit Mustonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03809428003905885379noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5034791890201777099.post-63132540066590290422014-03-06T06:50:22.781-05:002014-03-06T06:50:22.781-05:00Dear Steamchip: Thanks for the very informative ad...Dear Steamchip: Thanks for the very informative add on. You are correct on the Mr. Hersey's first name. My error. And the info you present on his testimony added to my understanding. . However, the attempts to disparage his testimony did not convince me he was not credible. On this matter we must disagree. As far as Ms. Tovey, she was with Ormiston in Santa Barbara, but left his company there, and he was a a philander. Again it comes down to which testimony you are willing to accept, and which you are not. A personal choice. Trying to nail facts of history is a difficult job, and I made a decision some time ago that I would include the humanity in my blog, including my own. I will strive to be as accurate as I can, but people in history were still people, and argumentative and selfless, selfish and foolish and as biased as anyone you know today. I try not to judge my subjects harshly, but I do make judgments about their actions. I think I would have liked Sister Aimee, had I known her. But I do not believe her kidnapping story because of the watch. And I was very clear about that in this series. This is the PUBLIC "I", as in my opinion. I take responsibility for what I say. And it is my opinion, based on what research I am able to do in the time and resources available to me. I love that you have researched this story, and applaud you on the effort and time. You came away with an opinion. Good for you! Trying to understand the present without understanding the past is like reading poetry without learning the language. And thinking that anybody, including yourself, can know the "Who, What, When, and Why" all at once is folly. But always worth the effort. Thanks for the very thoughtful note. <br />Kimit Kimit Mustonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03809428003905885379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5034791890201777099.post-27175596657604579962014-03-05T14:07:42.040-05:002014-03-05T14:07:42.040-05:00Yes, Aimee Semple McPherson was vigorously attack...Yes, Aimee Semple McPherson was vigorously attacked in the press, on radio, by pamphlet and other publication by "Fighting Bob" (though whose view of the evangelist softened over the years, he ended up being a guest speaker at her Angelus Temple) but also by many in government and other civic organizations. You may wish to address some errors in your article. For example:<br /><br /> It is true the newspapers printed that a Hershey, (retired engineer and former acting mayor of Santa Barbara ) was on the witness stand, though his name was "Ralf" and not "John":<br /> ie :<br />"Oxnard Daily Courier, Oxnard, (California) Wednesday, September 22, 1926 LOS ANGELES,-- Ralph Hershey of Santa Barbara today to District Attorney Keyes that he had positively identified a woman he thought was at Carmel-by-the-Sea with Kenneth Ormiston as Aimee Semple McPherson. He said he saw the two walking in a lane and that he saw them clearly as he had to stop his car to let them walk around him."<br />However...once it got into the grand jury inquiry, Hershey's story changes. His new story no longer includes a man and a woman nor did he stop for them as earlier conveyed:<br /><br />First week in September 1926 grand jury inquiry --(gathered from Court transcripts pp37-38, 45, 59 through page 72 and from various biographies concerning McPherson) Ralph Hershey a retired engineer identified a woman from his car at 15 miles an hour on a street corner, at the approximate time of 4:30 in the afternoon of May 25, 1926 driving westward (toward the setting sun with its presumed glare on the windshield ) as Mrs. McPherson. It should be noted in the preliminary hearing transcript (p17) that Hersey wore glasses for 12 years and as he put it , had stigmatism. <br /><br />Upon cross examination Hersey reveals he was about 100 feet away and the woman he saw wore a tight fitting hat over her head and was on Ocean View and San Antonio Street at Carmel-by-the -ea. At first Hersey thought the woman a " Mrs Liston, a local, and related such to his friend Paul Compton, with whom he was traveling to visit. Gilbert, McPherson's lawyer, caught the discrepancy and asked "Who?" Hersey spelled out the name, L-i-s-t-o-n . Asked when he decided he saw McPherson instead of Liston, Hersey testified about " two months and a half" later, when Mr. Moore of the Morning Press interviewed him. <br />Gilbert asks Hersey: "Mr. Moore was a newspaper man looking for news, wasn't heHersey: " He was I suppose."<br /><br />His curiosity whetted as the result of the interview, Hersey decided to confirm his identification by later visiting the Angeles Temple on August 8, 1926. "I made a trip to the Temple, so-called, to see Mrs. McPherson (Gilbert later pounces on the statement as indicative of the witness' hostile state of mind)." There, at a distance of approximately 100-150 feet he saw Mrs McPherson. <br /><br />Gilbert asks, "Over a hundred feet away, she had no hat on, you saw that lady preaching a sermon and you made up your mind it was the same lady you had seen months before as you drove past her and glanced at her head covered with a tight, low had? Hersey answers 'Yes." He said it was the large open brilliant eyes which clenched the identification. <br /><br />Gilbert states at the conclusion of Hersey's examination "I will ask, if your honor please, that sometime during the examination, to have this witness with the court and counsel find out the door where he claims to have stood and seen Mrs. McPherson and ask someone to stand where she was for the purpose of showing that it was a physical impossibility for him to have seen the shape of her eyes, little less their color, peculiar or otherwise. That is all."<br /><br />"Mrs X" is eventually identified by Kenneth Ormiston :(story breaks in January 1927) as Elizabeth Tovey," a trained nurse of Seattle, WA.<br /><br />With their witnesses discredited, other evidence demolished, all charges were dropped against McPherson<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com