The Stars Are Right: The Irish Rose: Our Nightmare Ordeal!

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Front page of the Sunday, August 21, 1932 Detroit Evening Times

Gangs Embroiled In International Intrigue

Frank Lovejoy, Staff Writer

Following the daring midnight raid on a Macomb County farmhouse (reported EXCLUSIVELY in the Tuesday edition of the Detroit Evening Times), the two rescued children were taken by Dr. Gregory Parkhurst to an undisclosed location where they could heal among the familiar sights and sounds of the community from which they had been so violently ripped eleven months before. While the good doctor was understandably concerned about exposing his young charges to further strain and worry, he did allow them to meet with The Times for a short interview regarding their harrowing experience.

Jason, nine, and Olivia, ten, seem little the worse for wear, though a shadow fell over them several times during the course of our conversation, leaving them sad, silent and wan. Though clearly not related, they bear the mark of their infection, with the bright, gemlike eyes and delicate elfin beauty of the necrophagic. Though braver than adults thrice their age, they both insisted on being held while being interviewed, and so this is one of the few interviews this reporter has conducted with someone seated on his lap. Olivia did most of the talking; Jason, whether due to lingering trauma or natural reticence, remained silent.

Neither child was able to identify the people who first abducted them, but it is clear that the Purple Gang is but the latest in a chain of slavers stretching from Egypt to Los Angeles, doubtless tapped for their expertise in smuggling contraband across the Canadian border. Whether they masterminded the abduction, or were merely dupes of some unknown international cabal, they remain a dark stain on Detroit’s reputation. We have been willing, if not happy, to turn a blind eye to their violations of the Volstead Act; we have even joined with the police in washing our hands of the occasional assault on gangs from Chicago and points south. At the smuggling of children, however, we must rebel. Will this be the outrage that finally compels Mayor Murphy, Chief Hart and the Detroit Police Department to take action? Citizens of Detroit, let your voices be heard! Write to the mayor and police chief, care of Box 13, and tell them to take our city and children back from the hijackers and slavers that have almost swallowed it whole!

Don’t miss tomorrow’s EXCLUSIVE interview with Gregory Parkhurst!

"OUR NIGHTMARE ORDEAL!"

Kidnaped and Experimented On, Then Sold Into Slavery

A Detroit Evening Times Exclusive

Olivia: Are you going to rescue Ricky?

Detroit Evening Times: Who’s Ricky?

Olivia: They took Ricky, too. Are you going to rescue him?

Question: With your help we will. Do you remember what happened when you were kidnaped?

Olivia: People came to our house and there was a big fight. They put something on my face and I fell asleep. When I woke up I was someplace else.

Question: Where was your house?

Olivia: It was in England. We lived right outside a little town called Bailey. I was the first, you know!

Question: The first what?

Olivia: The first child.

Question: Now you’ve got Jason and Ricky. Well, Jason and we’ll find Ricky soon.

Heroic Doctor Known To Kidnapers

Olivia: I bet Dr. Parkhurst finds him right away.

[Her young eyes shine with hero worship. Parkhurst has won at least one young fan with his daring actions.]

Question: How do you know Dr. Parkhurst?

Olivia: Oh, the people who were taking care of us were always talking about him.

Question: You mean the people who kidnaped you?

Olivia: No, they didn’t kidnap me, that was somebody else. They were just taking care of us afterwards. They said that he was very important to the other people who were sick like us.

Question: How long were you kidnaped?

Olivia: Almost a year! I know because I’d just had my birthday when they took us, and that’s in September, and it’s not September now, so it hasn’t been a whole year yet.

Question: That’s a long time.

Olivia: Ricky and Jason and I tried to escape once, but they caught us and got really mad.

Both children grow quiet and still, lost in the grip of memory. Their faces for a moment look distressingly adult -- child survivors of the Great War often had the same cast; tragedy has aged them too soon. But it passes, sooner rather than later, and we continue.

Question: Did they ever say why they kidnaped you?

Olivia: I used to think it was because I was the oldest, but now I don’t know. They took lots of our blood. I don’t know why but I don’t think they were trying to help cure us or anything. They gave us shots and then took our blood out like they were testing us for something. It didn’t hurt much but they kept moving us around.

Intrigue Among the Egyptians

Question: Where were you?

Olivia: Lots of different places. We almost got rescued in Egypt!

Question: Who tried to rescue you?

Olivia: I don’t know, but they said they thought one of their friends told the people who tried to rescue us about us. Some of the community got killed.

Question: The community? Were they the ones who tried to rescue you?

Olivia: No, those were people like you, people who weren’t sick. After we left Egypt, they were really, really upset, because in Thebes [the Egyptians] set our house on fire. They thought we were demons! We were in Thebes, and the Thebans -- who were all small and dark and wore dresses, even the men -- they came to the house and they said we were demons and we had to come out and be punished and then they set the house on fire.

Question: How did you escape?

Olivia: The people who tried to rescue us later helped us, but I don’t think they knew we were there. They chased away the Egyptians.

Question: But who were they, the people who tried to rescue you?

Olivia: I heard them talking about it later and they were very impressed about one of them named Paige Saint Mar and she made all the Egyptians see a big demon coming out of the house so they all ran away. They made us go into the basement until the fire was all burned out so we could leave. That was when they tried to rescue us and there was a lot of shouting but it didn’t work. After that they brought us over here and then you rescued us!

Published August 21, 1932