Aieee! A pair of related religious nuts, and dangerous ones at that. Shown here is Mrs. May Otis Blackburn and Ruth Angeline Wieland A.K.A Ruth Rizzio. Tell me, did you ever hear of the Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven? No? Count your blessings.
This mother and daughter team of freaky prophets attracted over 100 converts to the same neck of the woods as Charlie Manson 75 years earlier, and it appears they baked at least one of them to death.
Let's start with the Angels. No, not the baseball team, nor the ones who flutter down in white feathered wings to grant wishes. I mean the "Angel Michael" who spoke to May in 1922 while Ruth was working as a taxi dancer (read "hooker"?) and dictated to her "The Lamb's Book of Life." It took 42 months. I presume Ruth helped but took time off for a few close, slow dances with Mr. Lonely Heart, but that is a guess. It must have been a good book, for soon Ruth had 100 cult members living with them a stone's throw from where Charlie would set up camp decades later. What is it about the Santa Susanna mountains? I don't know if Charlie had an agenda other than sending hippie chicks out on murderous creeps and touching off a race war... but this mother and daughter team of gospel grifters seemed only to be seeking God's reward on earth! However, like the Mansonites, the cult did dance around naked.
You can wiki up the Blackburn Cult and A good account of the sleazy sect is found HERE
A Post also on old time religion the BLOG
