Boy Victim of Cult is Lost; The Zoroastrian Connection

1912--

BOY VICTIM OF CULT IS LOST

William Lindsay is Stolen From the Custody of Court Officer

CHICAGO, Jan. 4.—A second disappearance of William Lindsay, 13 years old, heir to the fortune of his uncle, Charles R. Lindsay of Philadelphia; the appearance on the witness stand of a cult leader, and the introduction of testimony controverting the latter's assertion that the boy and his mother held places in the cult different from other members, were the features of today's hearing in the juvenile court involving the Rev. Dr. Ottoman Zar Adusht Hanish, head of the Mazadazuan cult here.

The proceedings are the outgrowth of the uncle's attempt to remove the boy from the cult's "temple" here, where he was living and where, with his mother, he was receiving "treatment" in accordance with the Mazdaznan belief.

Attorney Oscar Brecher, to whom the boy has been entrusted by the court, reported that an abduction plot had made it impossible for him to keep his promise to have the boy present today.

Hanish denied knowledge of the whereabouts of the boy or of his mother. He declared himself of royal descent, and said that he was known by the term "master" to his followers; said he became a doctor at a Chicago medical school and was characterized as "reverend" by his own society. He told of trips about the country with the Lindsay boy at the mother's expense; told of visiting Mrs. Lindsay at her New York apartment and denied that any improprieties took place at the temple.

Mrs. Alma Reakirt of New York, sister of Mrs. Lindsay, said her sister had told her Dr. Hanish was considered the reincarnation of Christ. She also described mystic rites of adoration performed before pictures of Christ and Hanish by Mrs. Lindsay and the boy. Mrs. Lindsay, she said, told her Hanish said she was a princes of France and that the boy was the "lost orphan of Louis XVI."

Mrs. Asenth Cochran of New York, a friend of Mrs. Lindsay, said the latter had told her of the discovery of Christ in Hanish and gave as proof the statement that the cult leader "told her all about herself."

--The Billings Gazette, Billings, Montana, January 5, 1912, page 1.