Faits Divers
It’s fairly obvious that Leopold and Loeb’s “Crime of the Century” of two years before provided inspiration for the “Avengers” ransom letter in the McPherson case:
What else? There’s a whiff of Upton Sinclair (author of The Jungle) in the story about having “inside workers” at the Angelus Temple, along with the anti-religious sentiment. Indeed, there are a number of interesting connections between Pasadena’s socialist sage and the Aimee McPherson story which might be worthy of exploration. I find it noteworthy that, based on the timing, George Hodel likely worked for Sinclair aficionado Burton Knisely at the Record. From Rob Leicester Wagner’s history of the Los Angeles newspaper wars, Red Ink White Lies:
Given his literary predilections, it also seems likely that young Mr. Hodel at least associated with the Pemmican group — which included his future nemesis, the devoutly Catholic progressive journalist Ted Le Berthon.1
Another thread in the Avengers letter is the perhaps jocular threat to sell off Sister Aimee to white slavers south of the border. Antecedents for this are not hard to find in the papers of the era. They make for amusing, Sax Rohmer-ish reading today:
[11/6/21]: Steve Hodel has just published The Early Years: Part I, which reproduces a glowing letter of reference George Hodel received from Burton Knisely dated December 19, 1924, mentioning that he’d been with the paper for the “better part of a year.” This confirms that he worked to Knisely and likely associated with the P&P Club.