Friday, February 12, 2010

"Unprintable acts."

Why I love my job, reason #5,021:
I'm researching a man named Oscar W. Brecher, whose wedding suit is in our collection. A quick google search brings up this article in the New York Times archives: "To Take Boy from Sun-Worshippers." In 1910, our friend Oscar was part of an attempt to rescue the boy-heir to a Philadelphia fortune from a cult of sun-worshippers who were planning to do something (probably nefarious, knowing those sun-worshipping types) with the boy and his money. Oscar was appointed his temporary guardian while the courts tried to figure out what to do with him and his mother, who had been implicated in the kidnapping plot.

Ten years later the leader of the cult, Zar Adusht-Hanish, was arrested on charges of "unprintable" acts against five children in Los Angeles, so unfortunately the story becomes much more serious. But still... SUN-WORSHIPPERS.

Sun-worshippers! Cults! Young boys with excessive amounts of money! Wedding suits! It reads like a late 19th century pulp novel, only it's my morning.

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