Image / Gale Banks with her two daughters, members of Divine Order of the ...

Gale Banks with her two daughters, members of Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven in Los Angeles, Calif., 1929

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Title: Gale Banks with her two daughters, members of Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven in Los Angeles, Calif., 1929
Date Created and/or Issued: October 8, 1929
Publication Information: Los Angeles Times
Contributing Institution: UCLA, Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library
Collection: Los Angeles Times Photographic Archives
Rights Information: US
UCLA Library Special Collections, A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library, Box 951575, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575. Email: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu. Phone: (310) 825-4502
Description: Handwriting on negative states "Mrs. Gale Banks, baby Iris & Grace"
Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven was founded by May Blackburn and her daughter Ruth Wieland Rizzio in the 1920s. The two women believed they were high priestesses who were charged by Angel Gabriel to write two books that would "reveal all the mysteries of life and death and heaven and earth." The cult was investigated for the death of a child Willa Rhoads and the disappearance of some of the cult's members. All of these investigations were started by a complaint made by Clifford R. Dabney, who charged that he gave Blackburn $40,000 to finish writing the books but the books never materialized.
Type: Image
Format: b&w glass negative
Identifier: uclalat_1429_b3692_G282
ark:/21198/zz0002nf0z
Language: No linguistic content
Subject: Religion
Cults--California--Los Angeles County
People
Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven
Source: Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection

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