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{{short description|American fraudster}}
'''Arthur Worthington''' (?- 1917) was an American-born Australasian alternative religious leader, bigamist and fraudster in late nineteenth century Christchurch, Melbourne and Tasmania.
{{Other people|Arthur Worthington}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Arthur Bentley Worthington<ref name="teara">{{DNZB|title=Arthur Bently Worthington|first= Richard S.|last= Hill|id=2w32| access-date=21 January 2023}}</ref>
| image = Family Photo of Arthur Bentley Worthington 1910.png
| alt = family photograph of Worthington in 1910
|caption = A family photo of Worthington with one of his wives Evelyn Maud Jordan and their children, taken in 1910.
| birth_name = Samuel Oakley Crawford<ref name="census">New York State Census (1 June 1855), Saugerties, Entry 353.</ref>
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1847|03|01}}<ref name="teara"/>
| birth_place = ]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1917|12|13|1847|03|01}}<ref name="teara"/>
| death_place = ]
| occupation = Alternative religious leader
| known_for = Fraud
| other_names = Eugene Samuel Bouvier Walton, Major Eugene Bouvier, Eugene Bonner, E. R. Bannerton, Mons. Bennateau, Major Horace Oakley Wood, Arthur Wood, W. D. Wood, Arlington Buckingham Wadsworth, Dr A. B. Worthington<ref name="detectivereview">{{cite magazine| last=Sampson | first=W. S. | title=Criminal Details of Worthington | year=1891 | magazine=The National Detective Review of the United States| oclc=155227683}} (Reprinted in {{cite book | last=Hosking | first=John | title=A Christchurch Quack Unmasked | year=1893 |publisher=Weeks Printers |location=Christchurch, New Zealand |pages=3 & 10| oclc=154152424}})</ref><ref name="lyttelton-death-notice">{{cite news | title=A. B. Worthington Dies in Prison |page=6|date=17 December 1917|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/LT19171217.2.41| work=Lyttelton Times |access-date=22 January 2023}}</ref>
}}
'''Arthur Bentley Worthington''' (born '''Samuel Oakley Crawford''',<ref name="census"/> 1 March 1847<ref name="teara"/> – 13 December 1917<ref name="teara"/>) was an ] ]ster, alternative ] leader and ]. Active in the ], ] and ] just before the turn of the 20th century, he variously claimed to be a ] ], a ], a ]er, a ], a ], a ], a ] consultant, a ], or a ], and used at least eight known aliases. In 1890 he briefly founded a new religious movement in New Zealand.


==Early life==
==Early Alternative Religious Period (1890-1895)==
Samuel Oakley Crawford was born on 1 March 1847, in ], the son of a storekeeper and ]. He was the third child in a family of four.<ref name="census"/> He enrolled as a ] during the ] in the ] between 1864 and 1865 and was wounded in the left leg.<ref>{{cite archive | collection=Civil War Muster Roll Abstracts of New York State Volunteers, United States Sharpshooters, and United States Colored Troops 1861-1900 |institution=New York State Archives |location=Albany, New York |type=microfilm |page=1178}}</ref> He studied law at ] and graduated with a ] in 1867. In 1868 he married Josephine Erricson Moore and moved to ].<ref>{{cite archive |item=Certificate Number 2392, Marriage ID 2220779212 |collection=New York State Marriage Index | institution=New York State Department of Health |location=Albany, New York}}</ref> Their first child Susan was born in 1869. He soon left Josephine, and they never divorced, so all of his subsequent marriages were ]. It is said that he ] his parents by not repaying loans.<ref name="detectivereview"/>{{rp|3}}


==Career in America (1870–1889)==
Arthur Worthington's documented life began when he settled in Christchurch in 1890, after emigration from the United States. He began to lecture at a local Oddfellows Hall, and rapidly amassed a follwing, given his views on matters such as metaphysics, natural philosophy and the human mind. Worthington's externally professed sexual ethics were surprisingly conservative and he preached celibacy and the value of the institution of marriage. He established an alternative religious faith entitled the "Temple of Truth."
In 1870 he was ] of ] money from a ] and spent three years in the ] ].<ref name="detectivereview"/> After his release in 1873 he married Gabrielle "Gay" Finefield (1859-1946). In 1875 he married again in ] and swindled $3000 from his new father-in-law. In 1876 as Eugene Bouvier he married again, and practiced ] in ] until a ] ] of $50 was posted for his ]. He then returned to ] in May 1876 as Eugene Samuel Bouvier Walton and posed as a ] ]. In 1877 he was in ] as Major Eugene Bonner, and defrauded a Miss Langley of $2000 before fleeing to ] where he posed as a ] preacher. After "borrowing" $2000 from a Mormon elder for a fictitious ] he fled to ], posing as a lawyer. In September 1878 as Eugene Benneteau he married Eliza Hunton. At the end of that year he left her to join the Helen Blythe Dramatic Company in Toronto, Canada, where he married an ] later known as Mrs Hudson.<ref name="detectivereview"/>{{rp|10–14}}


He next settled as a lawyer in ] from 1879 to 1882. He married again and had three children, only one of whom survived: Katherine Benneteau (1881-1977), later Mrs Patrick. He was in court in December 1881 for ] a ] worth $400: his ] H. E. Macomber and one James F. Ramsay posted ] of $500, but he fled in January 1882, leaving them to pay the bail.<ref name="detectivereview"/>{{rp|15–16}}
Unfortunately, not even this professed social conservatism was enough to avert the suspicions of Reverend John Hosking, a fundamentalist minister at St Asaphs Free Methodist Church. Hosking investigated Worthington's background, and uncovered ample evidence of Worthington's commitment to the institution of marriage.


During 1882{{ndash}}83 he posed as an ] ], defrauding ] and shopkeepers along the ]. He was in Boston 1883-5 as E. R. Bannerton, defrauding wealthy widows: one Mrs Sargent lost $3000. In 1885{{ndash}}86 he was in Charleston, West Virginia, where he defrauded a ] ] J. E. Dana of $3000.<ref name="detectivereview"/>{{rp|14}} In April 1886, posing as 'Major' Horace Oakley Wood, he married Lizzie Hill, daughter of a wealthy citizen, and converted her father's wedding present into cash to set up a bank: having raised $4600 in ] for the bank, he disappeared. In July 1887 he was in ], as Arlington Buckingham Wadsworth, floating another bank scheme. On 18 October he contracted his seventh bigamous marriage to a Miss Cannon, then fled with her money to New York. In November 1887 he married a Miss Emma Terry, heiress to $150,000. In 1888 he was in ], practicing law as 'General' Ward. Forced to flee, he went to ], then to ], ], where he was recognized by a ], causing him to flee to ], then ].<ref name="detectivereview"/>{{rp|15–16}}
==Worthington and Bigamy==


In March 1889 he appeared in New York as Arthur Bently Worthington and posed as a ] faith healer. Mrs Mary Plunkett, editor of the International Magazine of Christian Science, fell in love with Worthington and claimed to have converted him to "righteousness". Her husband, John T. Plunkett, a prominent Christian Scientist, agreed to an ], giving her ] of their two children. He then investigated Worthington's past career, and exposed him as a bigamist and fraudster.<ref name="detectivereview"/>{{rp|5–6}} However, Mary remained devoted to Worthington, and they fled to ], before taking ship for ].{{fact|date=January 2024}}
Hosking found that Worthington had contracted at least five bigamous marriages- to Miss Josephine Moore (New York, 1868), Miss Groot of Albany, New York, Mrs Lizzie Cowell (Troy, Michigan), Miss Joy Winfield (Chicago)and May Barlow (Xenia, Ohio). He had eloped with already-married Mary Plunkett to Christchurch, and had several pseudonyms employed in the previous recorded instances. Nor did Worthington stop his romantic dalliances with Mrs Plunkett, for he soon eloped with Miss Evelyn Jordan, a follower at the Temple of Truth, leaving Mrs Plunkett to deal with the adverse publicity and debts that Reverend Hosking's exposure of his past matrimonial and financial fraud had generated in Christchurch. Mary Plunkett revealed all about her erstwhile lover before taking herself to Sydney.


==Worthington in Australia (1897-1904)== ==Career in New Zealand (1890–1895)==
Worthington moved to ] in 1890 with Mary Plunkett as his wife, and her two children. Claiming the degrees of ] and ] (though he had neither), Worthington first gave free lectures on ], ] and ], and held ] for children, before establishing a new church which combined elements of ] and ] with ].<ref>{{cite news |title=Important Lecture |work=Lyttelton Times |location=Christchurch, New Zealand | date=15 February 1890 | page=5 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/LT18900215.2.25 |access-date=21 January 2023}}</ref> Worthington later claimed 400 adult followers and 300 ] children.<ref name="worthington-lectures">{{cite book |title=The Worthington Lectures | publisher=Students of Truth |year=1891 |first=Arthur Bentley |last=Worthington |location=Christchurch, New Zealand |url=https://natlib.govt.nz/records/21923951?search%5Bi%5D%5Bsubject_text%5D=New+Zealand+truth&search%5Bpath%5D=items}}</ref>


His devoted converts to "The Truth" paid for the erection of an impressive "Temple of Truth" on the northern side of Latimer Square at the corner of Madras and Armagh Streets, along with a large house for his family. Music played an important part in the appeal of his services, which were accompanied by an orchestra and pipe organ.<ref name="press-1892">{{cite news |title=Temple of Truth |work=The Press |location=Christchurch, New Zealand |page=5 | date=12 August 1892 | url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP18920812.2.7.12 |access-date=21 January 2023}}</ref> One observer, the lawyer and later judge ], soon concluded that he was a fraud, but a very clever one. According to Alpers, Worthington exuded sincerity, and quoted from a wide range of authors, from ] to ]. He had the gift of making the most banal and vague platitudes sound as if they were new and original insights.<ref>{{cite book |first=Oscar |last=Alpers |title=Cheerful Yesterdays |year=1930 |publisher=Whitcombe & Tombs |location=Auckland, New Zealand |pages=86–91}}</ref>
Worthington then fled to Australia, where he settled in Tasmania (1895-1897). Unfortunately, he found that its rural and mining frontier society held little promise for an alternative religious entrepreneur, and returned to Christchurch in 1897, only to find that his estranged ex-lover had revealed all, and that the former Temple of Truth had closed down. He attempted to revive it, but faced a riot from Reverend Hosking and his own supporters, which was narrowly averted by police attention.


While in Christchurch he published a volume of his sermons, ''The Worthington Lectures'',<ref name="worthington-lectures"/> a pamphlet on 'sexology', and a journal, ''The Comforter''. Pastors of mainstream churches saw their pews empty as young couples flocked to the Worthingtons' marriage guidance sessions, which apparently advocated ] and ].<ref name="rice">{{cite book |title=Christchurch Crimes and Scandals | first=Geoffrey W. |last=Rice |publisher=Canterbury University Press |year=2013 |pages=170–192}}</ref>{{rp|175}}
As a consequence of this hostile reaction, Worthington resettled back across the Tasman, in Melbourne. He refounded a new Temple of Truth, attracted new followers, and even found an "]" to compliment his newfound identity as a reincarnation of ], an ancient Egyptian deity. Unfortunately, this relationship foundered when he tried to defraud this wealthy widow out of her spousal inheritance. He was then imprisoned for seven years.


In 1891 Worthington was condemned by the ] for advising the parents of a boy with ] to pray rather than seek medical assistance. By the time a doctor was called it was too late and the boy died. The society declared Worthington's teachings "a direct menace to the Public Health".<ref>{{cite archive |institution=Cotter Medical History Museum | location=Christchurch, New Zealand | item=Minute Book |collection=Canterbury Medical Society | year=1891 |pages=230, 234}}</ref> The boy's father, a house-painter named Duggan, had been persuaded by Worthington that in a previous life he had painted the doors of ]. Despite this and other criticisms in the local papers, the Temple of Truth attracted a congregation of several hundred devoted followers.<ref name="worthington-lectures"/>
After he served his sentence, Worthington returned to the United States, allegedly had an evangelical religious experience and became a Presbyterian Church minister, until his incorrigibility reasserted itself. He was imprisoned after expulsion from the ministry, on the basis of financial fraud. He died in prison in 1917.


In June 1893 Worthington's previous criminal career in the United States was revealed by a ] preacher, Dr John Hosking, and the Temple of Truth was subjected to ']' by his ]ioners, who rapped against the door with sticks and threw a stone onto the roof to disrupt Worthington's services.<ref>{{cite news | title=The Worthington Affair; Yesterday's Services |work=Star |location=Christchurch, New Zealand | date=5 June 1893 | page=3 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS18930605.2.31 |access-date=24 January 2023}}</ref> Mrs Plunkett now developed her own following, the Order of the Temple, and called herself 'Sister Magdala'. Tired of Worthington's numerous ] with his female followers, she advocated ] within marriage. Worthington repudiated Mary, sending her to live with her children at Coker's Hotel in Christchurch.<ref name="rice" />{{rp|178–179}} She signed the ] in 1893 as Mrs Worthington.<ref>{{cite archive| institution=Archives New Zealand |item=The Women's Suffrage Petition |year=1893 |item-url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/suffragist/mrs-m-worthington |collection=He Tohu |access-date=21 January 2023}}</ref>
⚫ ==Bibliography==


In 1894 Mrs Elizabeth Mary Ingram, a ] and member of the ], sued the ]s of the Temple for the interest owing on six ]s worth £400. This case revealed many details about the financing of the Temple.<ref>{{cite news |title=Students of Truth |work=Star |location=Christchurch, New Zealand | date=5 July 1894 |page=2 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS18940705.2.24 |access-date=21 January 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Students of Truth |work=Star |location=Christchurch, New Zealand | date=6 July 1894 |page=3 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS18940706.2.52 |access-date=21 January 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Students of Truth |work=Star |location=Christchurch, New Zealand | date=16 August 1894 |page=3 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS18940816.2.37 |access-date=21 January 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Students of Truth: Building Fund Debuntures |work=The Press |location=Christchurch, New Zealand | date=6 July 1894 |page=3 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP18940706.2.22 |access-date=21 January 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=The Students of Truth |work=The Press |location=Christchurch, New Zealand | date=13 July 1894 |page=6 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP18940713.2.67 |access-date=21 January 2023}}</ref> One of Worthington's most generous supporters had been ], manufacturer of Edmond's "Sure to Rise" baking powder. There were dozens of other debenture holders who were unable to recover the interest owing to them. The case dragged on through various appeals until January 1895, when the Temple of Truth was put up for auction and bought by a Mr Weber as agent for A. B. Worthington.<ref>{{cite news |title=Meeting of Debenture Holders |work=The Press |location=Christchurch, New Zealand | date=22 January 1895 |page=5 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP18950122.2.28 |access-date=21 January 2023}}</ref>
⚫ *John Dunmore: ''Wild Cards: Eccentric Characters from New Zealand's Past'': Auckland: New Holland: 2006: ISBN 18966132X

In August 1895 Worthington married a young woman named Evelyn Maud Jordan,<ref>{{cite news |title=The Marriage at the Registrar's Office |work=Star |location=Christchurch, New Zealand | date=5 August 1895 |page=2 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS18950805.2.25 |access-date=21 January 2023}}</ref> who went on to bear him four children. This marriage divided what remained of Worthington's flock: one of his earliest converts, city councillor George Simpson, seceded, taking half the congregation with him.<ref>{{cite news |title=Students of Truth: Another Split in the Camp |work=Star |location=Christchurch, New Zealand | date=5 August 1895 |page=2 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS18950805.2.23 |access-date=21 January 2023}}</ref> When John Marryat Hornsby published a detailed account of Worthington's previous career in his short-lived newspaper The Sun, Worthington sued him for ], and won the case on a ], but was awarded only £10 ].<ref>{{cite news |title=The Worthington Libel Case: The Plaintiff Takes a Nonsuit |work=The Press |location=Christchurch, New Zealand | date=10 December 1895 |page=2 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS18950805.2.23 |access-date=21 January 2023}}</ref> Hornsby was ill and bankrupt, and The Sun was wound up.

Worthington suddenly departed for ] in December 1895, ostensibly to raise funds for his Temple of Truth, but when he returned in 1897 the trustees refused him entry to the building. He hired the Oddfellows' Lodge Hall and announced a series of Sunday lectures. On 26 September over a thousand people filled the hall, hissing and booing, and the police were called to keep order. Yet more people in the street blocked his departure, until Magistrate Beetham climbed onto a cab to read the ], its first and only reading in Christchurch.<ref>{{cite news |title=Disturbance in Lichfield Street: The "Riot Act" Read |work=The Press |location=Christchurch, New Zealand | date=27 September 1897 |page=5 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP18970927.2.36 |access-date=21 January 2023}}</ref>

==Career in Australia (1899–1904)==
Worthington was now thoroughly discredited in ], and next to nothing is known of him during 1898. He reappears in ] in 1899. In 1902 he was ] in ] of having defrauded a wealthy widow, Mrs Miranda May de la Juveney. He had convinced her that she was a reincarnation of the ] ], and he, of course, was ].<ref>{{cite news |title=The Worthington Case: Career of the "Apostle of Truth" |work=Evening Post |location=Wellington, New Zealand |date=13 September 1902 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19020913.2.138 |page=7}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=A. B. Worthington Again: Alleged False Pretenses |work=Otago Witness |date=17 September 1902 |page=14 |location=Dunedin, New Zealand |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW19020917.2.30 |access-date=22 January 2023}}</ref> The sentencing ] declared him "one of the most dangerous imposters ever to come to Australia".<ref>{{cite news| title=News from Australia; A Former New Yorker Convicted for Swindling |work=New York Times |date=14 December 1902 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1902/12/14/archives/news-from-australia-a-former-new-yorker-convicted-for-swindling.html |page=4 |access-date=22 January 2023}}</ref>

==Later years, death and legacy==
After spending seven years in prison, he collected his wife and children from ] and took them back to ]. He was appointed a ] ] in ] in 1910, but was later exposed and expelled. He was arrested for fraud in 1917 and died in prison at ], on 13 December, allegedly after being confronted by his last victim.<ref name="lyttelton-death-notice"/><ref>{{cite news |title=Worthington Dead; Career Ends in Gaol |work=Press |date=17 December 1917 |page=6|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19171217.2.43|access-date=22 January 2023|location=Christchurch, New Zealand}}</ref>

Mary Plunkett had also moved to ] but returned to ] in 1899 to set up a School of Mental Science, and in March 1901 married John Staines Atkinson,<ref>{{cite news |title=Marriage: Atkinson-Plunkett |work=Lyttelton Times |date=23 March 1901 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/LT19010323.2.2.2 |access-date=22 January 2023 |location=Lyttelton, New Zealand}}</ref> the brother of a former ].<ref>{{DNZB|id=1a10|last=Bassett|first=Judith|title=Atkinson, Harry Albert|access-date=22 January 2023}}</ref> The marriage was not a success, and she committed ] by drowning in June 1901.<ref>{{cite news| title=A Painful Tragedy; Mrs Plunkett Found Drowned |work=Star |date=7 June 1901 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS19010607.2.48 |access-date=22 January 2023 |location=Christchurch, New Zealand}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title=A Tragic Occurrence; Sad End of Mrs Plunkett |work=Press |date=8 June 1901 |location=Christchurch, New Zealand |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19010608.2.46 |access-date=22 January 2023 | page=7}}</ref>

Not recorded under Religious Denominations in the 1891 ],<ref>{{cite report | url=https://www3.stats.govt.nz/historic_publications/1891-census/1891-results-census/1891-results-census.html |title=1891 Census Results |publisher=Statistics New Zealand |location=Wellington, New Zealand |date=5 April 1891}}</ref> the 'Students of Truth' numbered 340 in the 1896 Census.<ref>{{cite report | url=https://www3.stats.govt.nz/historic_publications/1896-census/1896-results-census/1896-results-census.html |title=1896 Census Results |publisher=Statistics New Zealand |location=Wellington, New Zealand |date=26 April 1897}}</ref> However, by 1901 their numbers had shrunk to 33,<ref>{{cite report | url=https://www3.stats.govt.nz/historic_publications/1901-census/1901-results-census/1901-results-census.html |title=1901 Census Report |publisher=Statistics New Zealand |location=Wellington, New Zealand |date=1 October 1902}}</ref> and to 18<ref>{{cite report | url=https://www3.stats.govt.nz/historic_publications/1906-census/1906-report-on-results-census/1906-report-on-results-census.html |title=1906 Census Report |publisher=Statistics New Zealand |location=Wellington, New Zealand |date=20 November 1907}}</ref> in 1906. In the 1911 Census there were just 6.<ref>{{cite report | url=https://www3.stats.govt.nz/historic_publications/1911-census/1911-results-census.html |title=1911 Census Results |publisher=Statistics New Zealand |location=Wellington, New Zealand |date=30 December 1912}}</ref> There was no entry for 'Students of Truth' in the 1916 Census.<ref>{{cite report | url=https://www3.stats.govt.nz/historic_publications/1916-census/Report%20on%20Results%20of%20Census%201916/1916-report-results-census%20.html |title=1916 Census Results |publisher=Statistics New Zealand |location=Wellington, New Zealand |date=7 October 1920}}</ref>

The Temple of Truth in Christchurch was sold to property developers and in 1898 it was renamed the Choral Hall,<ref>{{cite news |title=In a Nutshell |work=Star |location=Christchurch, New Zealand |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS18980111.2.19 |access-date=22 January 2023}}</ref> becoming a popular venue for concerts, traveling shows and political speeches. It later became known as the Latimer Dance Hall. The building was demolished in 1966 and the site has been a corner car park ever since.<ref>{{cite book |title=Lost Christchurch |first=John |last=Wilson |publisher=Te Waihora Press | year=1984 |page=17}}</ref>

Descendants of Worthington and Evelyn May Jordan are still to be found in New York State.

⚫ ==Bibliography==
⚫ *]: '''': Auckland: New Holland: 2006: {{ISBN|1-86966-132-X}}
*{{DNZB|title=Arthur Bently Worthington|first= Richard S.|last= Hill|id=2w32|access-date=23 April 2017}}
⚫ *Hosking, John: '''': Christchurch: H.F.Weeks: 1893.
⚫ *'''': Christchurch: Weeks: 1891.
*{{cite book |title=Christchurch Crimes and Scandals | first=Geoffrey W. |last=Rice |publisher=Canterbury University Press |year=2013 |pages=170–192 |isbn=9781927145517 |url=https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/engage/cup/catalogue/books/christchurch-crimes-and-scandals-1876-99.html |author-link=Geoffrey Rice}}


==References==
⚫ *n.a, ''Criminal Details of Worthington'': Christchurch: Weeks: 1891.
<references />


{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}
⚫ *John Hosking: ''A Christchurch Quack Unmasked'': Christchurch: H.F.Weeks: 1893.


{{DEFAULTSORT:Worthington, Arthur}}
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Latest revision as of 23:54, 12 September 2024

American fraudster For other people named Arthur Worthington, see Arthur Worthington (disambiguation).
Arthur Bentley Worthington
family photograph of Worthington in 1910A family photo of Worthington with one of his wives Evelyn Maud Jordan and their children, taken in 1910.
BornSamuel Oakley Crawford
(1847-03-01)1 March 1847
Saugerties, New York
Died13 December 1917(1917-12-13) (aged 70)
New York
Other namesEugene Samuel Bouvier Walton, Major Eugene Bouvier, Eugene Bonner, E. R. Bannerton, Mons. Bennateau, Major Horace Oakley Wood, Arthur Wood, W. D. Wood, Arlington Buckingham Wadsworth, Dr A. B. Worthington
OccupationAlternative religious leader
Known forFraud

Arthur Bentley Worthington (born Samuel Oakley Crawford, 1 March 1847 – 13 December 1917) was an American fraudster, alternative religious leader and bigamist. Active in the United States, New Zealand and Australia just before the turn of the 20th century, he variously claimed to be a Methodist minister, a lawyer, a banker, a faith healer, a spiritualist, a real estate agent, a mining consultant, a temperance preacher, or a military veteran, and used at least eight known aliases. In 1890 he briefly founded a new religious movement in New Zealand.

Early life

Samuel Oakley Crawford was born on 1 March 1847, in Saugerties, New York, the son of a storekeeper and Deputy Sheriff. He was the third child in a family of four. He enrolled as a private during the American Civil War in the 5th New York Heavy Artillery Regiment between 1864 and 1865 and was wounded in the left leg. He studied law at Columbia College and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1867. In 1868 he married Josephine Erricson Moore and moved to Philadelphia. Their first child Susan was born in 1869. He soon left Josephine, and they never divorced, so all of his subsequent marriages were bigamous. It is said that he bankrupted his parents by not repaying loans.

Career in America (1870–1889)

In 1870 he was convicted of swindling money from a Dutchman and spent three years in the Albany Penitentiary. After his release in 1873 he married Gabrielle "Gay" Finefield (1859-1946). In 1875 he married again in Ohio and swindled $3000 from his new father-in-law. In 1876 as Eugene Bouvier he married again, and practiced law in Kansas City until a sheriff's reward of $50 was posted for his arrest. He then returned to Peoria, Illinois in May 1876 as Eugene Samuel Bouvier Walton and posed as a temperance preacher. In 1877 he was in San Francisco as Major Eugene Bonner, and defrauded a Miss Langley of $2000 before fleeing to Salt Lake City, Utah where he posed as a Mormon preacher. After "borrowing" $2000 from a Mormon elder for a fictitious library he fled to Sherman, Texas, posing as a lawyer. In September 1878 as Eugene Benneteau he married Eliza Hunton. At the end of that year he left her to join the Helen Blythe Dramatic Company in Toronto, Canada, where he married an actress later known as Mrs Hudson.

He next settled as a lawyer in New Lisbon, Wisconsin from 1879 to 1882. He married again and had three children, only one of whom survived: Katherine Benneteau (1881-1977), later Mrs Patrick. He was in court in December 1881 for forging a note worth $400: his law partner H. E. Macomber and one James F. Ramsay posted bail of $500, but he fled in January 1882, leaving them to pay the bail.

During 1882–83 he posed as an English tourist, defrauding hoteliers and shopkeepers along the Northern Pacific Railway. He was in Boston 1883-5 as E. R. Bannerton, defrauding wealthy widows: one Mrs Sargent lost $3000. In 1885–86 he was in Charleston, West Virginia, where he defrauded a coal magnate J. E. Dana of $3000. In April 1886, posing as 'Major' Horace Oakley Wood, he married Lizzie Hill, daughter of a wealthy citizen, and converted her father's wedding present into cash to set up a bank: having raised $4600 in stock for the bank, he disappeared. In July 1887 he was in Spokane, Washington, as Arlington Buckingham Wadsworth, floating another bank scheme. On 18 October he contracted his seventh bigamous marriage to a Miss Cannon, then fled with her money to New York. In November 1887 he married a Miss Emma Terry, heiress to $150,000. In 1888 he was in Grand Forks, North Dakota, practicing law as 'General' Ward. Forced to flee, he went to Minneapolis, then to Montreal, Canada, where he was recognized by a private investigator, causing him to flee to Winnipeg, then Chicago.

In March 1889 he appeared in New York as Arthur Bently Worthington and posed as a Christian Science faith healer. Mrs Mary Plunkett, editor of the International Magazine of Christian Science, fell in love with Worthington and claimed to have converted him to "righteousness". Her husband, John T. Plunkett, a prominent Christian Scientist, agreed to an amicable separation, giving her custody of their two children. He then investigated Worthington's past career, and exposed him as a bigamist and fraudster. However, Mary remained devoted to Worthington, and they fled to London, England, before taking ship for New Zealand.

Career in New Zealand (1890–1895)

Worthington moved to Christchurch, New Zealand in 1890 with Mary Plunkett as his wife, and her two children. Claiming the degrees of MA and LLD (though he had neither), Worthington first gave free lectures on science, metaphysics and religion, and held magical entertainments for children, before establishing a new church which combined elements of theosophy and Christian Science with faith healing. Worthington later claimed 400 adult followers and 300 Sunday School children.

His devoted converts to "The Truth" paid for the erection of an impressive "Temple of Truth" on the northern side of Latimer Square at the corner of Madras and Armagh Streets, along with a large house for his family. Music played an important part in the appeal of his services, which were accompanied by an orchestra and pipe organ. One observer, the lawyer and later judge Oscar Alpers, soon concluded that he was a fraud, but a very clever one. According to Alpers, Worthington exuded sincerity, and quoted from a wide range of authors, from Plato to Ralph Waldo Emerson. He had the gift of making the most banal and vague platitudes sound as if they were new and original insights.

While in Christchurch he published a volume of his sermons, The Worthington Lectures, a pamphlet on 'sexology', and a journal, The Comforter. Pastors of mainstream churches saw their pews empty as young couples flocked to the Worthingtons' marriage guidance sessions, which apparently advocated contraception and joyful sex.

In 1891 Worthington was condemned by the Canterbury Medical Society for advising the parents of a boy with diphtheria to pray rather than seek medical assistance. By the time a doctor was called it was too late and the boy died. The society declared Worthington's teachings "a direct menace to the Public Health". The boy's father, a house-painter named Duggan, had been persuaded by Worthington that in a previous life he had painted the doors of Noah's Ark. Despite this and other criticisms in the local papers, the Temple of Truth attracted a congregation of several hundred devoted followers.

In June 1893 Worthington's previous criminal career in the United States was revealed by a Methodist preacher, Dr John Hosking, and the Temple of Truth was subjected to 'rough music' by his parishioners, who rapped against the door with sticks and threw a stone onto the roof to disrupt Worthington's services. Mrs Plunkett now developed her own following, the Order of the Temple, and called herself 'Sister Magdala'. Tired of Worthington's numerous affairs with his female followers, she advocated celibacy within marriage. Worthington repudiated Mary, sending her to live with her children at Coker's Hotel in Christchurch. She signed the petition for women's suffrage in 1893 as Mrs Worthington.

In 1894 Mrs Elizabeth Mary Ingram, a widow and member of the Rational Dress Society, sued the trustees of the Temple for the interest owing on six debentures worth £400. This case revealed many details about the financing of the Temple. One of Worthington's most generous supporters had been Thomas J. Edmonds, manufacturer of Edmond's "Sure to Rise" baking powder. There were dozens of other debenture holders who were unable to recover the interest owing to them. The case dragged on through various appeals until January 1895, when the Temple of Truth was put up for auction and bought by a Mr Weber as agent for A. B. Worthington.

In August 1895 Worthington married a young woman named Evelyn Maud Jordan, who went on to bear him four children. This marriage divided what remained of Worthington's flock: one of his earliest converts, city councillor George Simpson, seceded, taking half the congregation with him. When John Marryat Hornsby published a detailed account of Worthington's previous career in his short-lived newspaper The Sun, Worthington sued him for libel, and won the case on a technicality, but was awarded only £10 damages. Hornsby was ill and bankrupt, and The Sun was wound up.

Worthington suddenly departed for Australia in December 1895, ostensibly to raise funds for his Temple of Truth, but when he returned in 1897 the trustees refused him entry to the building. He hired the Oddfellows' Lodge Hall and announced a series of Sunday lectures. On 26 September over a thousand people filled the hall, hissing and booing, and the police were called to keep order. Yet more people in the street blocked his departure, until Magistrate Beetham climbed onto a cab to read the Riot Act, its first and only reading in Christchurch.

Career in Australia (1899–1904)

Worthington was now thoroughly discredited in New Zealand, and next to nothing is known of him during 1898. He reappears in Australia in 1899. In 1902 he was convicted in Melbourne of having defrauded a wealthy widow, Mrs Miranda May de la Juveney. He had convinced her that she was a reincarnation of the ancient Egyptian god Isis, and he, of course, was Osiris. The sentencing judge declared him "one of the most dangerous imposters ever to come to Australia".

Later years, death and legacy

After spending seven years in prison, he collected his wife and children from New Zealand and took them back to New York. He was appointed a Presbyterian pastor in Poughkeepsie in 1910, but was later exposed and expelled. He was arrested for fraud in 1917 and died in prison at Newburgh, New York, on 13 December, allegedly after being confronted by his last victim.

Mary Plunkett had also moved to Australia but returned to Christchurch, New Zealand in 1899 to set up a School of Mental Science, and in March 1901 married John Staines Atkinson, the brother of a former New Zealand Premier. The marriage was not a success, and she committed suicide by drowning in June 1901.

Not recorded under Religious Denominations in the 1891 New Zealand Census, the 'Students of Truth' numbered 340 in the 1896 Census. However, by 1901 their numbers had shrunk to 33, and to 18 in 1906. In the 1911 Census there were just 6. There was no entry for 'Students of Truth' in the 1916 Census.

The Temple of Truth in Christchurch was sold to property developers and in 1898 it was renamed the Choral Hall, becoming a popular venue for concerts, traveling shows and political speeches. It later became known as the Latimer Dance Hall. The building was demolished in 1966 and the site has been a corner car park ever since.

Descendants of Worthington and Evelyn May Jordan are still to be found in New York State.

Bibliography

References

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  2. ^ New York State Census (1 June 1855), Saugerties, Entry 353.
  3. ^ Sampson, W. S. (1891). "Criminal Details of Worthington". The National Detective Review of the United States. OCLC 155227683. (Reprinted in Hosking, John (1893). A Christchurch Quack Unmasked. Christchurch, New Zealand: Weeks Printers. pp. 3 & 10. OCLC 154152424.)
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  5. Civil War Muster Roll Abstracts of New York State Volunteers, United States Sharpshooters, and United States Colored Troops 1861-1900, p. 1178. Albany, New York: New York State Archives.
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