A 16-year-old "princess" of the cult, Rhoads had died under mysterious circumstances. Police found her body 14 months later, under the floorboards of her parents' house. She was practically mummified, her body wrapped with spices and salt, and surrounded by the corpses of seven dead dogs that had been sacrificed, presumably to help ensure her resurrection.

Accompanying these chilling episodes were additional claims and accusations: sex scandals, animal sacrifices, "whirling dervish" ceremonies, and the disappearances of several other cult members. Yet what ultimately landed May Otis Blackburn behind bars, however briefly, had little to do with the otherworldly. In 1929, Clifford Dabney, a former member of the Blackburn Cult, charged Blackburn with defrauding him of $50,000 that he had given her to help her write her book.

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The district attorney launched an investigation, uncovering additional fraud claims from Blackburn’s other followers and eventually bumping up the bill to $200,000. What’s more, the investigation unearthed many of the strange events and disappearances outlined above. Ultimately, Blackburn was convicted of eight counts of grand theft. She appealed the ruling, which found its way before the California Supreme Court in 1931. The California Supreme Court overturned the original verdict on the grounds that the evidence relating to the cult's bizarre activities had no bearing on the charges of grand theft, and that it was impossible to prove whether Blackburn had, in fact, taken the money in bad faith.

May Otis Blackburn was then released from prison, but the Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven was effectively finished. Blackburn went on to publish The Origin of God in 1936, and eventually died in Los Angeles in 1951. It's possible that the secrets of the Blackburn Cult died with her.

The Weird and Twisted History of the Blackburn Cult

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