From the note: "San Francisco, May 18th, Temple Angelus, Los Angeles--We have with us your beloved Aimee McPherson and will free her on payment of 500,000.00 in currency to be paid, at once in this manner. She has injured us and must pay in money or blood,--Select your man and have him take a seat in the Palace Hotel Lobby..."
In 1926 evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappeared from Venice Beach in California for 5 weeks. She emerged in Mexico, claiming to have been kidnapped. A grand jury investigation indicated that she had actually been staying with a former employee, Kenneth Ormiston. The case against McPherson was finally dismissed.
Adobe hut in the Sonora desert. In 1926 the Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappeared from Ocean Park Beach. A search ensued. When she finally re-appeared in Arizona, weeks later, she claimed that she had been abducted and taken to a a hut in Mexico, from which she eventually escaped.