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Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. Evangelist Amy Simple McPherson disappeared while out for

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Speaker 1: a swim on May eighteenth, nineteen twenty six, so ninety

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Speaker 1: eight years ago today if you're listening on the day

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Speaker 1: this episode came out, So for today, we have our

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Speaker 1: episode on her and her disappearance as Today's Saturday Classic.

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Speaker 1: This originally came out on November nineteenth, twenty fourteen. Enjoy

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production

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Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hello One, Welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Holly Frye and I'm Tracy V.

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Speaker 2: Wilson, and we're going to talk about an evangelist today,

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Speaker 2: an evangelist who broke all kinds of barriers and rose

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Speaker 2: to incredible popularities in the nineteen twenties and then vanished.

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Speaker 2: And there are still mysteries surrounding that disappearance, but they

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Speaker 2: might not be the mysteries you would expect. Just in

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Speaker 2: the interest of expectations management, we're not really going to

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Speaker 2: dig particularly deep into this evangelist's religion and doctrines. We'll

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Speaker 2: talk about it as it relates to the events of

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Speaker 2: her life and sort of how she became famous and

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Speaker 2: then had this sort of huge public turning point. But

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Speaker 2: in the interest of time and sticking to history rather

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Speaker 2: than theology, we're not going to break down her views

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Speaker 2: in relation to other Christian views. And there were certainly

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Speaker 2: some debates and disagreements within the church about sort of

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Speaker 2: how she handled things versus how other sects handled things,

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Speaker 2: and we're not really digging into that. She's also a

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Speaker 2: person whose life is extremely well documented. So if you

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Speaker 2: have heard of this person and you may know her story,

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Speaker 2: you may be like, hey, they didn't mention X, Y

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Speaker 2: or Z. That's because this podcast runs very long already,

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Speaker 2: and we're kind of just trying to cover what sort

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Speaker 2: of led, as I said, to her fame and sort

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Speaker 2: of how that built up and then how her life

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Speaker 2: shifted pretty suddenly. So if we've left anything out, it's

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Speaker 2: really for the interest of time and kind of trying

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Speaker 2: to keep the story on track, because there are many,

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Speaker 2: many different things we could talk about in relation to her.

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Speaker 2: But the person we're talking about, in case you were

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Speaker 2: wondering or maybe even guest, is Amy Simple McPherson, and

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Speaker 2: she was absolutely a really extraordinary figure in early twentieth

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Speaker 2: century religious landscape. She preached both in the US and abroad,

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Speaker 2: and at a time when most women were expected to

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Speaker 2: stick to the roles of wife and mother, Amy dedicated

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Speaker 2: herself above all to her ministry and opened the door

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Speaker 2: for other women to be religious leaders on that sort

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Speaker 2: of huge scale public level. So first we will talk

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Speaker 2: about sort of her origins.

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Speaker 1: Amy Elizabeth Kennedy was born on October ninth, eighteen ninety

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Speaker 1: in Ontario, Canada. Her parents were James Morgan Kennedy and

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Speaker 1: Mildred Pierce Kennedy, and they were very religious. James was

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Speaker 1: the organist and choir director of their Methodist church, and Many,

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Speaker 1: as her mother was called, had been raised by Salvationists

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Speaker 1: after being orphaned as a child, and Amy was a

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Speaker 1: little bit rebellious by nature. Early on in her life,

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Speaker 1: she kind of went through a phase where she eschewed

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Speaker 1: her parents' religion. Dad appears to have been brief.

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Speaker 2: And kind of just one of those developmental phases where

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Speaker 2: like young adults sort of test their parents in their boundaries,

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Speaker 2: because later she rebelled even more vehemently against the teaching

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Speaker 2: of evolution in her school. She really spoke out against

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Speaker 2: the theory of evolution a lot throughout her life. That's

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Speaker 2: another thing that we're not going to go into depth in,

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Speaker 2: but if you wanted to research that, there's certainly a

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Speaker 2: wealth of information about it. By the time she graduated

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Speaker 2: high school, though, Amy was very devoted to her faith.

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Speaker 1: When Amy was just seventeen, she got married for the

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Speaker 1: first time. Her groom, Robert Semple, was an Irish Pentecostal

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Speaker 1: missionary that she'd met at a revival that had been

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Speaker 1: really pivotal in cementing her commitment to her religion. He

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Speaker 1: was ten years older than she was, and the two

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Speaker 1: of them got married on August twelfth, nineteen oh eight,

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Speaker 1: and the Kennedy's Apple Orchard. Robert's missionary work took them

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Speaker 1: to Stratsford, Ontario, and then London, Ontario, and eventually Chicago,

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Speaker 1: Illinois in early nineteen oh nine, and there they were

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Speaker 1: both ordained as ministers. They started touring the United States

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Speaker 1: and Canada on evangelical tours, and back when Robert and

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Speaker 1: Amy were still courting, they had actually hatched this dream

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Speaker 1: together of serving as missionaries in China, and after their

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Speaker 1: were datement and their early faith tours in North America,

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Speaker 1: they really felt like they were ready and it was

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Speaker 1: time to make their move. Into international ministry, so in

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Speaker 1: nineteen ten, they left Chicago. In her autobiography The Story

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Speaker 1: of My Life, Amy described the final exchange in their

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Speaker 1: decision to leave for Asia as her husband putting his

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Speaker 1: arm around her and saying, Darling, I feel the time

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Speaker 1: has come for us to leave for China, and her

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Speaker 1: reply was I am ready, Robert, anywhere in the world

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Speaker 1: with you.

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Speaker 2: And the Simples did not go directly to China. They

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Speaker 2: first went to Belfast, Ireland to visit Robert's home and

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Speaker 2: his family, and from there they traveled to London. They

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Speaker 2: also traveled to the Suez Canal before eventually making their

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Speaker 2: way to Asia, and they arrived in Hong Kong in

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Speaker 2: June of nineteen ten, and at this point Amy was pregnant.

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Speaker 2: She was very pregnant. She was into her third trimester.

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Speaker 1: Just a few weeks after they got to Hong Kong,

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Speaker 1: both Amy and Robert got sick, and they had both

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Speaker 1: contracted malaria. While Amy recovered, Robert eventually died from his

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Speaker 1: illness on August nineteenth, nineteen ten. So young missus Semple

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Speaker 1: found herself pregnant and penniless in a foreign country and

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Speaker 1: a widow at the age of nineteen, and because at

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Speaker 1: this point she was so late in her pregnancy and

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Speaker 1: she was still in a week in state from her

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Speaker 1: own bout of malaria. She had not recovered fully, but

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Speaker 1: she was close to recovery. Amy had to stay in

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Speaker 1: Hong Kong even after Robert had died, and so she

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Speaker 1: gave birth to her daughter, ROBERTA. Starr, just a month later,

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Speaker 1: still in Hong Kong, on September seventeenth. And although Robert

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Speaker 1: was gone, he continued to be a really significant influence

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Speaker 1: in her life. Yeah, there have been some discussions if

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Speaker 1: you read in various autobiographical accounts of hers and also

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Speaker 1: biographies written by others, that kind of hinted the fact

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Speaker 1: that because Robert died when they were still very early

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Speaker 1: in their marriage and she was very young, and he

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Speaker 1: became a little bit idealized in her head and kind

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Speaker 1: of became this model of perfection. And there have been

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Speaker 1: some debates among historians about if Robert had lived, would

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Speaker 1: she have still held him in the same high esteem

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Speaker 1: for the rest of her life, or would they have

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Speaker 1: settled into a more mundane sort of equals relationship instead

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Speaker 1: of sort of the hero worship that she carried with her,

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Speaker 1: but not long after the arrival of her daughter. About

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Speaker 1: a month after Roberta was born, Amy made her way

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Speaker 1: back to the United States, and this time she settled

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Speaker 1: in New York City and her mother joined her there,

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Speaker 1: both to help the new mother out and because Many

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Speaker 1: had an interest in working with the Salvation Army, Amy

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Speaker 1: also did the same thing, and they both worked to

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Speaker 1: collect money, like they would go into movie theaters and

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Speaker 1: collect money, and they also served food and the rescue

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Speaker 1: mission there. It wasn't long before she met an accountant

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Speaker 1: named Harold Stewart McPherson in the city, and the two

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Speaker 1: of them became friends and then gradually started courting. Many

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Speaker 1: wasn't really enthusiastic about the relationship. She was concerned that

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Speaker 1: Amy's involvement with Harold would lead her away from her

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Speaker 1: religious calling. Yeah, all of their work with the Salvation

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Speaker 1: Army had really cemented, certainly for Minni and to Amy

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Speaker 1: as well, that you know, ministry of one form or

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Speaker 1: another was going to be her her life's work. And

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Speaker 1: even though Minni did not oppose Harold as a person,

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Speaker 1: since she didn't find anything wrong with him, she was

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Speaker 1: just worried that, like falling in love again was going

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Speaker 1: to kind of derail the vision that Amy had for

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Speaker 1: her life, and in fact that kind of came true

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Speaker 1: for a bit. In nineteen eleven, Amy moved with her

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Speaker 1: daughter Roberta, to Chicago, where she married Harold on October

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Speaker 1: twenty fourth of that year, and less than a year

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Speaker 1: into their marriage, the McPherson's moved to Providence, Rhode Island,

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Speaker 1: and on March twenty third of nineteen thirteen, the couple

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Speaker 1: welcomed their son, Ral Potter McPherson. He eventually his middle

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Speaker 1: name changed from Potter, which had been I believe the

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Speaker 1: doctor who delivered him, to Kennedy, which had been her

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Speaker 1: maiden name, and away from Potter. Amy had been involved

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Speaker 1: with their church in Chicago, but her religious fervor really

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Speaker 1: intensified after Roth was born. She made a go of

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Speaker 1: a life as a housewife and Providence for several years,

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Speaker 1: but to be really blunted, she was unhappy. Harold had

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Speaker 1: hoped that she would find fulfillment in motherhood and life

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Speaker 1: as his wife, but it just didn't work out that way.

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Speaker 2: And at one point. One thing that comes up repeatedly

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Speaker 2: throughout any biography of hers is that she sort of

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Speaker 2: had like a long series of just odd health struggles.

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Speaker 2: And at one point during this time, Amy became very

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Speaker 2: very ill. She required a hysterectomy, she had to have

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Speaker 2: surgery for an appendicitis. Her condition was very grave. They

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Speaker 2: had called her mother to the hospital because they thought

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Speaker 2: she was going to die, so Harold had made sure

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Speaker 2: the family note was going on. And during this time,

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Speaker 2: when she was you know, lingering near death, Amy describes

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Speaker 2: being called to by a voice, which she believed to

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Speaker 2: be God, saying now will you go, and she felt

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Speaker 2: that she would answer with yes, she would indeed go.

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Speaker 2: She knew it would either be to the afterlife or

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Speaker 2: to ministry, and at that point she just gave herself

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Speaker 2: over to whatever was going to happen. And she immediately,

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Speaker 2: she said, felt the pain leave her body. And after that,

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Speaker 2: over the course of the next several weeks, she made

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Speaker 2: a full and rather rapping into some description's almost miraculous recovery.

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Speaker 1: Her health turnaround convinced Amy that the only path for

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Speaker 1: her was full time ministry. She packed up the kids

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Speaker 1: and left Harold while he was out one night in

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Speaker 1: June of nineteen fifteen. First she went to her parents'

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Speaker 1: farm in Canada, where she dropped off the children, and

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Speaker 1: then she sent Harold a telegram that read, I have

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Speaker 1: tried to walk your way and have failed. Won't you

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Speaker 1: come now and walk my way. I'm sure we will

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Speaker 1: be happy. Amy had basically chosen the ministry over Harold,

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Speaker 1: and in turn, Harold, when he received this note, decided

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Speaker 1: he would choose Amy over life. In Rhode Island, he

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Speaker 1: followed her, and he joined her in her ministry, traveling

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Speaker 1: from tent revival to tent revival, and he would travel

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Speaker 1: ahead of her to the new sites and make sure

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Speaker 1: that they had all the required permits to have these revivals,

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Speaker 1: and that you know, tents were set up and all

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Speaker 1: the needs are arranged, so that her ministry could just

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Speaker 1: run smoothly and she could focus on the religion and

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Speaker 1: her message and not have to worry about all the sundry,

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Speaker 1: mundane sort of nuts and bolts of setting up these events.

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Speaker 1: After the first two years of traveling revival ministry, Amy

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Speaker 1: also started up a magazine called The Bridal Call to

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Speaker 1: spread her messages and her teachings through the written word,

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Speaker 1: so much as a modern day personality might try to

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Speaker 1: expand their reach using social media to engage with an audience.

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Speaker 1: Amy's magazine drew her new followers.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it was very popular. And while she felt that

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Speaker 2: she was following her calling and doing all of this,

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Speaker 2: Harold really always felt like he was just following Amy.

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Speaker 2: He continued to hope that she would somehow find happiness

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Speaker 2: in their family and fulfillment in their marriage, but his

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Speaker 2: hopes never manifested. You know, he sort of recognized that

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Speaker 2: he was just kind of a secondary part of her life.

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Speaker 2: And Amy remained devoted to her ministry, agree to her

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Speaker 2: deceased first husband who had really sparked this passion for

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Speaker 2: evangelical preaching in her, and those elements combined with this

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Speaker 2: life on the road, which was really rudimentary. You read

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Speaker 2: about them kind of washing their clothes and streams and

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Speaker 2: sleeping outside at night and having to deal with, you know,

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Speaker 2: bugs out in camping situations and just you know, it

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Speaker 2: was not a life of luxury by any means, and

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Speaker 2: it really started to take a toll on their marriage.

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Speaker 2: So Harold eventually returned to Providence and they were divorced

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Speaker 2: late in the summer of nineteen twenty one.

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Speaker 1: From nineteen nineteen on, Amy's ministry really took off, and

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Speaker 1: her approach had always been really entered denominational, but she

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Speaker 1: wound up being credentialed by a number of churches as

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Speaker 1: though she was actually affiliated with their official ministries, even

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Speaker 1: though she had never sought out those credentials. She was

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Speaker 1: very well liked and gained a devoted following, so a

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Speaker 1: lot of churches just wanted to have her associated with

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Speaker 1: them in some way, And in addition into being welcoming

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Speaker 1: to all people, her revivals and sermons were different from

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Speaker 1: a lot of what had come before in that they

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Speaker 1: were very positive in tone. She focused on the loving,

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Speaker 1: accepting image of Jesus rather than preaching as many ministers

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Speaker 1: did at the time, and had for many years of

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Speaker 1: sort of the more vengeful fire and brimstone vision of God.

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Speaker 1: And faith healing was also an important part of her ministry,

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Speaker 1: and her sort of uplifting spirituality and her passionate but

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Speaker 1: upbeat and cheerful approach to the whole thing was incredibly

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Speaker 1: appealing in post World War One America. It was different

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Speaker 1: and it was fresh, and people were really drawn to it.

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Speaker 1: On top of her traveling ministry and her magazine, Amy

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Speaker 1: also started publishing books in the late nineteen teens. She

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Speaker 1: was a prolific writer and produced numerous volumes about herself

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Speaker 1: and her teachings over the years, including This Is That

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Speaker 1: and Divine Healing Sermons.

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Speaker 2: In nineteen twenty one, Amy decided that it was really

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Speaker 2: time to find a permanent home for her ministry, and

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Speaker 2: she bought land near the Echo Park neighborhood in Los Angeles, California,

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Speaker 2: to begin fulfilling a mission that she believed God had

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Speaker 2: given her, which was building the Angelus Temple there. And

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Speaker 2: this was a time when Los Angeles was growing at

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Speaker 2: a really incredible rate, so Amy was sort of smart

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Speaker 2: slash fortunate one or the other or both to secure

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Speaker 2: the land for the temple. When she did, she kind

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Speaker 2: of got in just as the real estate market was

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Speaker 2: really about to explode. To raise funds for the construction,

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Speaker 2: she spent the next two years on a rigorous tour,

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Speaker 2: first driving back and forth throughout the United States, traveling

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Speaker 2: as was usual, with her mother and children in the car.

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Speaker 2: Then she expanded her ministry and the financing of the

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Speaker 2: temple with a tour of Australia. And it was while

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Speaker 2: she was touring the US in nineteen twenty two, so

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Speaker 2: during this sort of fundraising tour that Amy, while she

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Speaker 2: was giving a sermon in Oakland, California, was inspired to

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Speaker 2: envision what would eventually become the Four Square Church, which

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Speaker 2: she found, and this was based on the four identities

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Speaker 2: of Jesus that she was preaching about as a savior,

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Speaker 2: as a healer, as a baptizer in the Holy Spirit,

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Speaker 2: and as the coming King. Finally, on New Year's Day

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Speaker 2: of nineteen twenty three, the Angelus Temple was dedicated. It

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Speaker 2: could seat five three hundred people, and the Four Square

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Speaker 2: Church was founded there, although it took several years for

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Speaker 2: that to be formally incorporated, and later in nineteen twenty three,

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Speaker 2: she also founded the Lighthouse for International Four Square Evangelism

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Speaker 2: Bible College so that she could educate others to be evangelists.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen twenty four, she gave a sermon on the

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Speaker 1: radio for the first time at Los Angeles station KFSG.

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Speaker 1: Later she'd become the first woman to be issued a

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Speaker 1: license to operate a radio station. And yeah, she was

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Speaker 1: really reaching out into new markets. She often talked about

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Speaker 1: as something of a contradiction because in many ways she

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Speaker 1: was preaching really like you know, old school values, but

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Speaker 1: with a very sort of modern approach to how she

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Speaker 1: was spreading this word, and so like the magazines and

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Speaker 1: the books and the radio appearances, it was all sort

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Speaker 1: of Some people found it hard to reconcile her traditionalist

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Speaker 1: values and her modern approach to spreading them. But basically,

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Speaker 1: her popularity was soaring, and just as it reached a

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Speaker 1: fever pitch, she was one of the most famous people

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Speaker 1: in the United States, and indeed she had a pretty

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Speaker 1: big global following, she vanished. And before we talk about

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Speaker 1: what happened and sort of how that all played out,

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Speaker 1: do you like to take a word from a sponsor.

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Speaker 1: I would.

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Speaker 2: By the mid nineteen twenty she was preaching up to

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Speaker 2: twenty sermons a week, and her writing was regularly published.

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Speaker 2: She was overseeing the training of her ministerial proteges, and

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Speaker 2: she was sort of running the business of the church,

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Speaker 2: and she was, as we said before the ad break,

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Speaker 2: just incredibly popular.

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Speaker 1: On May eighteenth, nineteen twenty six, Amy, who was working

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Speaker 1: on a sermon, went to the beach at the urging

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Speaker 1: of her mother to take a much needed break from working.

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Speaker 1: She went with her secretary, Emma Schaeffer, so that she

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Speaker 1: could keep working on her sermon. In reviewer notes, Amy

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Speaker 1: decided she needed a break and she went into the

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Speaker 1: water for a swim.

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Speaker 2: And she did not return from that swim. At the

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Speaker 2: services that were scheduled that evening for Amy to prechat,

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Speaker 2: she did not appear, and instead her mother, Minnie, gave

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Speaker 2: the sermon in her place. And at the end of

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Speaker 2: the service, many quietly announced what had already been rumored

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Speaker 2: throughout the city all afternoon, and it was now appearing

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Speaker 2: in the local evening papers. Sister, as Amy was called

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Speaker 2: in her ministry, had gone to the beach at Ocean

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Speaker 2: Park and had vanished while swimming. Sister is gone, Many

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Speaker 2: announced to the congregation, we know she is with Jesus.

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Speaker 1: The next day, a full tilt investigation went into year.

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Speaker 1: There were dozens of reporters and hundreds of onlookers that

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Speaker 1: appeared on the beach to see what was happening. As

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Speaker 1: the investigation got underway.

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Speaker 2: The Coast Guard had boats traversing the coastline. They were

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Speaker 2: looking for something, anything that might offer a clue as

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Speaker 2: to what had happened to this beloved evangelist. Teams of

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Speaker 2: divers scoured the waters in search of a body or

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Speaker 2: of clues, and one diver actually lost his life in

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Speaker 2: the search effort. There was also another fatality when a

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Speaker 2: young woman who had been a member of the Church

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Speaker 2: of the Four Square Gospel, who was just grief stricken

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Speaker 2: at the loss of their spiritual leader, actually drowned herself.

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Speaker 2: On Memorial Day, which was twelve days after the disappearance,

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Speaker 2: the Angelus Temple was packed. More than twenty five thousand

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Speaker 2: people showed up at the beach where Amy had vanished

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Speaker 2: to grieve and set out remembrances. Police were concerned at

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Speaker 2: what might happen if her body were to be found

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Speaker 2: that day, so they worked on action plans for handling

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Speaker 2: that kind of grim discovery. It did not happen, but

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Speaker 2: they were definitely like ready to kind of address potential

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Speaker 2: crowd control issues, and eventually, you know, this was now

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Speaker 2: a couple weeks in church members finally accepted that Amy

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Speaker 2: must have died, and in effort to recover the body,

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Speaker 2: they actually the church actually paid to have the bay

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Speaker 2: dynamited in the hopes that the body would surface somehow,

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Speaker 2: but it did not.

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Speaker 1: Some members of the church believed that she would be resurrected,

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Speaker 1: and so they prayed and waited for her to return,

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Speaker 1: and Minnie her mother arranged a memorial service at the temple,

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Speaker 1: and that was scheduled for June twentieth, and more than

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Speaker 1: seventeen thousand people showed up, far too many than they

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Speaker 1: could fit in the building. While all of that morning

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Speaker 1: was going on, there had been a whole other school

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Speaker 1: of thought about what had happened to Amy. Rumors began

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Speaker 1: to circulate that Amy had probably not died, but had

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Speaker 1: instead purposely removed herself from the public eye for some

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Speaker 1: possibly nefarious person reason. There were whispers of plastic surgery,

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Speaker 1: talk of affairs, a pregnancy that she might intend to abort,

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Speaker 1: and all of these rumors made their way around California

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Speaker 1: and eventually the country. Really a detective claimed to have

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Speaker 1: spotted her at a train station, and more sightings started

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Speaker 1: to crop up after that. This will no doubt sound

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Speaker 1: familiar if you've listened to our Judge Creater episode or

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Speaker 1: any other missing person story. Almost every day throughout the

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Speaker 1: United States, papers ran stories of the latest Amy sightings.

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Speaker 2: There were also two ransom letters that came about. The

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Speaker 2: first one that Minnie Kennedy Amy's mother received, made it

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Speaker 2: clear that police should not be involved and that she

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Speaker 2: should turn over fifty thousand dollars if she wanted to

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Speaker 2: see her daughter again. The second letter, which came a

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Speaker 2: bit later, said that Amy was going to be sold

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Speaker 2: into slavery if a ransom of half a million dollars

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Speaker 2: wasn't paid, but they really thought she was dead at

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Speaker 2: this point and that these might be hoaxes. Three days

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Speaker 2: after her mother memorial service, Amy Simple McPherson emerged from

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Speaker 2: the Mexican desert in Agua Priezza, Sonora, a small Mexican

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Speaker 2: town just south of the border from Douglas, Arizona. She

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Speaker 2: collapsed after telling a couple that she had escaped from

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Speaker 2: kidnappers and had been traveling on foot for hours. Amy

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Speaker 2: was of course rushed to the hospital and after that

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Speaker 2: a phone call was made to her mother, and authorities

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Speaker 2: working with her mother were able to confirm the evangelist's

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Speaker 2: identity based on information Many provided about a scar that

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Speaker 2: was on Amy's finger, and after Amy was able to

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Speaker 2: provide the name of her pet pigeon, which Mini wanted

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Speaker 2: for validation that it was the correct person. So at

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Speaker 2: this point the lost beloved administer was found.

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Speaker 1: After she was able to recuperate, she gave an account

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Speaker 1: of what had happened to her. She said she'd been

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Speaker 1: lured by a couple to their car as she got

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Speaker 1: out of the water from swimming. They told her they

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Speaker 1: had a sick baby that they wanted her to pray over,

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Speaker 1: and when she leaned into the back seat to see

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Speaker 1: the child, which was not there, she was pushed down

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Speaker 1: into the floorboards and then drive it away.

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Speaker 2: And according to her account, she had been held by

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Speaker 2: a woman named Rose, a man named Steve, and another man.

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Speaker 2: And she said that she had been drugged and tortured

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Speaker 2: and kept in a shack, and that she had eventually escaped.

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Speaker 2: She wriggled out of the ropes that she had been

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Speaker 2: tied with and ran through the desert and estimated twenty

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Speaker 2: miles before she reached Agua Prieta Douglas, Arizona, where Amy

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Speaker 2: was hospitalized, became the focus of national attention. Reporters and

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Speaker 2: followers poured into the town. The telegraph lines were overloaded

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Speaker 2: with well wishes, and her story was headline news. But

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Speaker 2: for some people the tide actually turned. Similar to how

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Speaker 2: there were people that didn't think her disappearance quite added up.

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Speaker 2: There were some people that thought her reappearance also had

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Speaker 2: some suspicious elements to it. The Coachee County sheriff was

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Speaker 2: suspicious of her story. He thought that the condition of

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Speaker 2: her clothing was far too tidy to have been through

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Speaker 2: what she claimed it happened. Additionally, police from both Douglas

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Speaker 2: and Agua Prieto were unable to find any traces of

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Speaker 2: the kidnappers or a shack in the area that she

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Speaker 2: had described. She even accompanied search teams into the desert,

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Speaker 2: but was unable to find the shack herself. McPherson had, however,

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Speaker 2: received multiple threats through the years as her fame grew,

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Speaker 2: so some people sort of held that up as you know,

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Speaker 2: evidence that this was entirely plausible. There had been people

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Speaker 2: threatening to do things to her, to kill her, and

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Speaker 2: even to kidnap her for a while. Just a year

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Speaker 2: prior to the disappearance, a plot to kidnap amy had

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Speaker 2: been discovered and foiled by the LAPD.

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Speaker 1: Before we talk about what happened after she got home,

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Speaker 1: let's have a brief word from a sponsor. As Amy

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Speaker 1: and her mother headed back to Los Angeles from Arizona,

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Speaker 1: the train that they were in was basically greeted all

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Speaker 1: along the way by well witchers, so whether they stopped

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Speaker 1: or not, sort of every town that they went through

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Speaker 1: there were people by the sides of the tracks kind

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Speaker 1: of waving, throwing flowers, et cetera. But even as they

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Speaker 1: got back to Los Angeles, the media circus around her

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Speaker 1: alleged kidnapping was really just beginning. Not only did papers

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Speaker 1: have new suspicious persons to mention on an almost daily

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Speaker 1: basis that they thought could be, you know, the possible

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Speaker 1: perpetrators of this kidnapping, but speculations about Amy's own possible

436
00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:44,440
Speaker 1: involvement in some sort of deception were also abundant. An

437
00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:48,000
Speaker 1: engineer at the radio station owned by Angelus Temple had

438
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:50,679
Speaker 1: disappeared at the same time as Amy, which led some

439
00:24:50,800 --> 00:24:53,000
Speaker 1: people to speculate that the two of them had been

440
00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:57,680
Speaker 1: having an affair. The man in question, Kenneth Ormiston, was married,

441
00:24:57,800 --> 00:25:02,240
Speaker 1: so this would definitely have been scandalous. Eventually, he admitted

442
00:25:02,240 --> 00:25:04,879
Speaker 1: that he was cheating on his wife, although he was

443
00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:09,840
Speaker 1: adamant that the mistress was not McPherson. Police dusted a

444
00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:14,000
Speaker 1: cottage in Carmel where Ormison and a woman had been spotted,

445
00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:17,520
Speaker 1: but none of the prince matched Amy's and there was

446
00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:21,879
Speaker 1: even a case assembled to press charges against McPherson for

447
00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:26,600
Speaker 1: conspiracy and obstruction of justice. So there was a trial

448
00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:29,440
Speaker 1: that was arranged for January of nineteen twenty seven, but

449
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:32,520
Speaker 1: the charges were dropped before then as the Los Angeles

450
00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:36,520
Speaker 1: District Attorney named Asa Keys started to realize that many

451
00:25:36,520 --> 00:25:38,840
Speaker 1: of the witness accounts that he had built his case

452
00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:42,679
Speaker 1: upon were really not credible. And then, as another side

453
00:25:42,680 --> 00:25:44,719
Speaker 1: story that sometimes comes up when you're looking at this,

454
00:25:44,840 --> 00:25:47,360
Speaker 1: he had his own sort of legal problems bubbling up.

455
00:25:48,680 --> 00:25:52,160
Speaker 1: But so basically the whole thing fell apart. No arrests

456
00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:55,800
Speaker 1: were ever made in the kidnapping, which remains unsolved, and

457
00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:58,960
Speaker 1: no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Amy McPherson

458
00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:02,119
Speaker 1: has ever come to light. She wrote about the event

459
00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:05,080
Speaker 1: in her nineteen twenty seven book In Service of the King,

460
00:26:05,200 --> 00:26:09,280
Speaker 1: The Story of My Life, And once the furor of

461
00:26:09,320 --> 00:26:12,639
Speaker 1: the kidnapping and the alleged conspiracy had died down, Amy

462
00:26:12,680 --> 00:26:15,199
Speaker 1: could still be found at her ministry. She had in

463
00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:18,000
Speaker 1: fact been there all along, throughout all of these headlines

464
00:26:18,040 --> 00:26:21,280
Speaker 1: and investigations. Basically she went right back to work as

465
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:24,240
Speaker 1: a minister and an evangelist and a faith healer when

466
00:26:24,320 --> 00:26:28,080
Speaker 1: she returned home from Arizona. One of the things she

467
00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:31,679
Speaker 1: became famous for is her work feeding the needy. In

468
00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:35,479
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty seven, the Angelus Temple Commissary opened its doors,

469
00:26:35,560 --> 00:26:39,000
Speaker 1: and this facility is credited with feeding more than one

470
00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:42,480
Speaker 1: point five million people during the depression, even when it

471
00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:47,159
Speaker 1: was struggling financially itself. Amy's community outreach through the Commissary

472
00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:49,920
Speaker 1: was based, as her ministry on the principle that everyone

473
00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:54,240
Speaker 1: was welcome, regardless of their position in society, their religion,

474
00:26:54,359 --> 00:26:58,920
Speaker 1: or their color, and she also organized a lot of

475
00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:03,240
Speaker 1: other charitable work through the Commissary and also just through

476
00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:06,800
Speaker 1: her ministry. But despite all of the good work that

477
00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:08,800
Speaker 1: was going on in the name of the Angelus Temple,

478
00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:12,560
Speaker 1: Amy never really regained the popularity and the positive press

479
00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:15,800
Speaker 1: that she had enjoyed in the early nineteen twenties, and

480
00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:18,600
Speaker 1: she also found that she had some troubles at work

481
00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:21,440
Speaker 1: that had not been there before. At one point, her

482
00:27:21,480 --> 00:27:24,479
Speaker 1: mother quit due to arguments over the handling of the

483
00:27:24,480 --> 00:27:29,560
Speaker 1: Angelus Temple finances. The choir also walked out. While many

484
00:27:29,800 --> 00:27:33,320
Speaker 1: and many of the choir members returned, there was ongoing

485
00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:36,320
Speaker 1: tension and strife. Some of it centering on how Amy's

486
00:27:36,359 --> 00:27:40,359
Speaker 1: style had shifted to more modern and fashionable attire rather

487
00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:42,879
Speaker 1: than the old style of dress that many felt her

488
00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:48,000
Speaker 1: position really demanded. Many who really was indispensable to the

489
00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:51,080
Speaker 1: Four Square Church resigned a second time in nineteen thirty

490
00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:54,200
Speaker 1: and just a month later, Amy had a nervous breakdown.

491
00:27:56,240 --> 00:27:59,320
Speaker 1: After the breakdown, she took a cruise to tour Asia with

492
00:27:59,359 --> 00:28:03,040
Speaker 1: her daughter. They stopped in Honolulu and they went to

493
00:28:03,080 --> 00:28:06,720
Speaker 1: Hong Kong to visit Robert's grave before eventually heading to India,

494
00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:10,280
Speaker 1: where McPherson was planning on quote studying the women's movement

495
00:28:10,359 --> 00:28:14,480
Speaker 1: in connection with the campaign for independence. In nineteen thirty one,

496
00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:17,560
Speaker 1: McPherson married a third time to an actor in one

497
00:28:17,600 --> 00:28:21,240
Speaker 1: of the Angela's Temple's plays. His name was David L. Hutton.

498
00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:24,080
Speaker 1: He was nine years younger than she was, and he

499
00:28:24,119 --> 00:28:27,479
Speaker 1: came with all kinds of baggage, including a woman seeking

500
00:28:27,560 --> 00:28:30,600
Speaker 1: legal action against him for breach of promise, claiming that

501
00:28:30,640 --> 00:28:33,919
Speaker 1: he had promised a betrothal to her before marrying McPherson.

502
00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:36,800
Speaker 1: Hearing this news was such a shock to the minister

503
00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:40,240
Speaker 1: that she passed out, hitting her head and fracturing her skull,

504
00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:44,440
Speaker 1: and after she recovered from this injury, or was at

505
00:28:44,480 --> 00:28:47,640
Speaker 1: least partially recovered, it was suggested that Amy go on

506
00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:51,120
Speaker 1: a holiday, so she took a recuperative cruise to Europe,

507
00:28:51,360 --> 00:28:55,400
Speaker 1: accompanied only by a nurse. While she was traveling, Hutton,

508
00:28:55,680 --> 00:28:59,240
Speaker 1: much to the chagrin of the church administration, began using

509
00:28:59,320 --> 00:29:04,720
Speaker 1: his status Amy's husband to promote himself in theatrical endeavors

510
00:29:04,760 --> 00:29:08,560
Speaker 1: outside the church. He also had a reputation as a womanizer,

511
00:29:08,680 --> 00:29:11,960
Speaker 1: and the whole union was viewed with just disease by

512
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:14,680
Speaker 1: the church, in part because it was frowned upon for

513
00:29:14,720 --> 00:29:17,440
Speaker 1: a divorce person to remarry so long as their former

514
00:29:17,520 --> 00:29:21,480
Speaker 1: spouse was alive. Harold McPherson was still alive, although he

515
00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:26,240
Speaker 1: had remarried. In all likelihood, if Hutton had been better liked,

516
00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:30,480
Speaker 1: this probably would not have been that big of an issue. Yeah,

517
00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:33,120
Speaker 1: People just kind of saw him as a little bit

518
00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:36,920
Speaker 1: of a con man. He was a vaudevillian, and you know,

519
00:29:37,280 --> 00:29:39,600
Speaker 1: I think there was a general distrust of his sort

520
00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:42,520
Speaker 1: of theatrical background and that he was just playing her.

521
00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:47,000
Speaker 1: And on July eighteenth of nineteen thirty three, the Chicago

522
00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:50,240
Speaker 1: Tribune ran a story entitled quote Hutton sues to divorce

523
00:29:50,320 --> 00:29:53,960
Speaker 1: Amy for baby hoax. Hutton had filed for divorce while

524
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:56,400
Speaker 1: McPherson was still out of the country, claiming that he

525
00:29:56,480 --> 00:29:59,560
Speaker 1: had been the victim of ongoing mental cruelty in the marriage.

526
00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:02,400
Speaker 1: He said that Amy had told friends before she left

527
00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:04,440
Speaker 1: for Europe that she was planning to divorce him when

528
00:30:04,480 --> 00:30:07,880
Speaker 1: she returned, and that she tortured him by pretending to

529
00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:11,040
Speaker 1: have given birth to their child while in Paris, when

530
00:30:11,080 --> 00:30:13,760
Speaker 1: in fact she had undergone an abdominal surgery. And if

531
00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:16,000
Speaker 1: you remember earlier in this episode, we talked about the

532
00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:18,920
Speaker 1: fact that she had a hysterectomy years before this, So

533
00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:21,440
Speaker 1: it's all kind of it takes on a very sort

534
00:30:21,480 --> 00:30:27,320
Speaker 1: of soap opera e crazy, he said, she said, drama turn.

535
00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:32,000
Speaker 1: At this point, Hutton was also plotting to sell emotion

536
00:30:32,240 --> 00:30:35,320
Speaker 1: picture story that revolved around a female evangelist, but once

537
00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:39,760
Speaker 1: the marriage was behind her, macpherson seemed to dismiss this

538
00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:43,120
Speaker 1: as a huge mistake. Yeah, I think she started to

539
00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:45,240
Speaker 1: see him the same way everyone else did, as someone

540
00:30:45,280 --> 00:30:47,640
Speaker 1: who was just trying to take advantage of her name

541
00:30:47,920 --> 00:30:51,160
Speaker 1: and make a few bucks off of it. And while

542
00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:55,200
Speaker 1: Amy's work carried on. You know, she continued to minister.

543
00:30:56,840 --> 00:30:59,600
Speaker 1: Media interest in her ministry really had been eclipsed by

544
00:30:59,600 --> 00:31:05,520
Speaker 1: interest in the more sensational and sometimes CD and theoretical

545
00:31:05,560 --> 00:31:08,360
Speaker 1: aspects of her life, like the ones that people were

546
00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:12,920
Speaker 1: just sort of guessing it. Amy died in Oakland, California,

547
00:31:13,040 --> 00:31:16,400
Speaker 1: in nineteen forty four at the age of fifty four

548
00:31:17,280 --> 00:31:21,400
Speaker 1: a kidney ailment that had some complications combined with the

549
00:31:21,600 --> 00:31:25,040
Speaker 1: ingestion of sikinol, which was sleeping pills, and she wound

550
00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:27,200
Speaker 1: up dying due to an accidental overdose.

551
00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:30,720
Speaker 2: With McPherson's death, the ministry passed to her son, Rolf,

552
00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:33,160
Speaker 2: who served as president of the Four Square Church until

553
00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:36,560
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty eight, at which point he retired, and the

554
00:31:36,600 --> 00:31:39,400
Speaker 2: Four Square Church remains today. It has more than nine

555
00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:43,200
Speaker 2: million members. It's still very popular, and it was all

556
00:31:43,240 --> 00:31:45,760
Speaker 2: started by this one woman who had a vision and

557
00:31:45,840 --> 00:31:48,880
Speaker 2: felt she had a calling. And it's kind of fascinating

558
00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:51,479
Speaker 2: to me to see how this sort of grew and

559
00:31:51,600 --> 00:31:56,560
Speaker 2: kind of juxtaposed against sort of modern evangelism. It's very interesting.

560
00:31:56,600 --> 00:32:05,240
Speaker 2: She was really groundbreaking in a number of ways. Thanks

561
00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:07,920
Speaker 2: so much for joining us on this Saturday. Since this

562
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:10,000
Speaker 2: episode is out of the archive. If you heard an

563
00:32:10,040 --> 00:32:12,960
Speaker 2: email address or a Facebook RL or something similar over

564
00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:15,640
Speaker 2: the course of the show, that could be obsolete now.

565
00:32:16,080 --> 00:32:21,800
Speaker 2: Our current email address is History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.

566
00:32:22,200 --> 00:32:25,480
Speaker 2: You can find us all over social media at missed Dhistory,

567
00:32:25,840 --> 00:32:28,880
Speaker 2: and you can subscribe to our show on Apple podcasts,

568
00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:32,480
Speaker 2: Google podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, and wherever else you listen

569
00:32:32,520 --> 00:32:37,640
Speaker 2: to podcasts. Stuff you missed in History Class is a

570
00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:42,080
Speaker 2: production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the

571
00:32:42,080 --> 00:32:45,600
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

572
00:32:45,640 --> 00:32:46,600
Speaker 2: favorite shows.