| dbo:abstract
|
- May Otis Blackburn (born August 2, 1881, Storm Lake, Iowa; died June 17, 1951, Los Angeles, California) was the founder and self-appointed Queen and High Priestess of the 1920s Los Angeles new religious movement, "The Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven." The organization was also known as the "Blackburn Cult," the "Cult of the Great Eleven," and the "Great Eleven Club." She is notable as an ultimately successful defendant in an unusual legal case turning on whether her failure to publish and print a promised book was knowingly fraudulent as contended by the complaining witness, Clifford Dabney. According to the Supreme Court of California, "The issue concerning the guilt or innocence of the defendant of the crime of grand larceny in obtaining said sums of money from Dabney, and appellant's defense thereto, turned largely upon the question of good faith and actual belief of the defendant in the truth of the representations made to Dabney, and which induced Dabney to pay over the money. There was substantial evidence in favor of the prosecution, but also there was substantial evidence in favor of the defendant upon that issue." The Supreme Court of California further stated that, "Criminal statutes which prescribe punishment for false representations primarily were intended to protect persons against those who report falsely with respect to their earthly and material possessions. Any legislative attempt to limit or regulate persons in their claims to the possession of exceptional spiritual power or knowledge would be rejected as a dangerous invasion of the state into the realm of religious freedom and privilege, which, from the beginning of our government, has been guarded by constitutional barriers." The court implied that "mentally healthy" people are responsible for their decisions to associate themselves with religious orders and "chimerical delusions" such as the one created by May Otis Blackburn. (en)
|
| dbo:wikiPageID
| |
| dbo:wikiPageLength
|
- 8472 (xsd:nonNegativeInteger)
|
| dbo:wikiPageRevisionID
| |
| dbo:wikiPageWikiLink
| |
| dbp:wikiPageUsesTemplate
| |
| dcterms:subject
| |
| gold:hypernym
| |
| rdf:type
| |
| rdfs:comment
|
- May Otis Blackburn (born August 2, 1881, Storm Lake, Iowa; died June 17, 1951, Los Angeles, California) was the founder and self-appointed Queen and High Priestess of the 1920s Los Angeles new religious movement, "The Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven." The organization was also known as the "Blackburn Cult," the "Cult of the Great Eleven," and the "Great Eleven Club." She is notable as an ultimately successful defendant in an unusual legal case turning on whether her failure to publish and print a promised book was knowingly fraudulent as contended by the complaining witness, Clifford Dabney. (en)
|
| rdfs:label
| |
| owl:sameAs
| |
| prov:wasDerivedFrom
| |
| foaf:isPrimaryTopicOf
| |
| is dbo:wikiPageWikiLink
of | |
| is foaf:primaryTopic
of | |
