Title supplied by cataloger.; Photograph was edited for publication purposes and has creases. Delight Jewett was a 17 year-old high school student from Denver. John Hunt was a California millionaire and disciple of Father Divine's International Peace Mission cult in Harlem. Calling himself John the Revelator, he met 17-year-old Delight Jewett in December, 1936, and took her back to California without her parents' consent. Renaming her "Virgin Mary," he began sexual relations with her. Father Divine summoned the pair to New York, separated the couple and reprimanded Hunt. The Jewetts, finding their daughter brainwashed into believing she was literally the Virgin Mary, demanded compensation. After the movement's attorneys refused, the outraged Jewetts offered their story to William Randolph Hearst's New York Evening Journal, a critic of the cult. After a manhunt, Hunt was charged, under the Mann Act, with taking a minor across state lines for "immoral purposes." The White-Slave Traffic Act, also known as the Mann Act, is a United States federal law, passed June 25, 1910. The act makes it a felony to engage in interstate or foreign commerce transport of "any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose." Hunt was convicted and sentenced to three years and adopted a new name, the "Prodigal Son." Photograph caption dated June 22, 1937 reads "Delight Jewett, 17-year-old girl who charges that John Wuest hunt betrayed her after telling her she was the 'Virgin Mary' who was to bring to the world a 'new redeemer,' is shown with members of her family when she arrived at federal court here today for Hunt's trial on Mann Act charges. Left to right, Norman V. Jewett, her brother ; Norman J. Jewett, her father ; Mrs. Jewett, seated, her mother ; Laine Jewett, her sister, and Delight. Delight alleges Hunt brought her to his Beverly Hills cult mansion from her Denver home. Hunt also assertedly took her on several trips around the country." The family is standing in front of windows with blinds, and the mother is seated behind a desk with a telephone and papers.
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;21 x 26 cm. Photographic prints
Jewett, Delight Jewett, Delight--Family Jewett, Delight--Trials, litigation, etc Hunt, John Wuest--Trials, litigation, etc United States.--Mann Act of 1910--Cases International Peace Mission Families--California--Los Angeles Victims of crimes--California--Los Angeles Crime--California--Los Angeles Cult members--California--Los Angeles Cults--United States Young women--California--Los Angeles Women--California--Los Angeles Men--California--Los Angeles Trials (Sex crimes)--California--Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (Los Angeles, Calif.) Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express photographs Herald-Examiner Collection photographs
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