OCR Text |
Show DEAD "HEALER" HELD MPOSTER Coast Resident Identified As Man Convicted in Fraud Case LOS ANGELES, Oct If. A man I who said ho waa Francis Schlatter, H formerly termed "the king of divine, H healers." visited the Los Angeles ! Times Wednesday night and declared j the man who recently died in St. ; Louis, Mo., under that name and rep- I B utation was an "Impostor." I The Times' visitor said ho was that I Francis Schlatter who was sentenced ! In the United States district court here In 1917 to serve IS months in the federal penitentiary at McNeil ' island, Wash, for using the malls to j defraud in connection with receiving J fees for "blessing" handkerchiefs ! which wore purported to hn' t power 1 lki.ll In )ol SITS ON PARK BENCH According to the Time Its call' r Is the original of photographs It has on file Of tho man convicted here In 1917. He said his former affluence wus gone, that lie lived In a cheap lodging lodg-ing house and passed much of his time in a park sitting on a bench dreaming of his old days of prestige as a "healer," "heal-er," or giving an occasional extent-J extent-J poraneous lecture on healing "The papers say 1 am dead." he said. "Thle Is not. true. 1 am merely In poor olrcu instances The papers I say I have a wife In SI Louis. My B wife has br n dead lot years " Francis Schlatter's former companion compan-ion Jn "healing" and alleged accomplice accom-plice in using the mails to defraud "Prince" August Schrader, died In the, I Los Angeles county hospital of pneu monia during the government's investigation in-vestigation of the case. ORGANIZED CULTS. They wore flowing beards, silk hars and frock coats and were said to have j organized cults in California New j Mexico and Arizona and to have mail j customers for "blessed" handkerchiefs I In all parts of the United States and Canada. One of the witnesses acalnxt Schlatter Schlat-ter at his trial hero was Mrs Cora Duncan, wife of a 1-xlngton, Mo., miner, She had been blind for 25 ears. She declared she could ill afford af-ford the money she, paid for "bl I8S-ed" I8S-ed" handkerchief she obtained In tho belief it would restore her sight |