Insurance, Missing Burial Casket
Give New Turn to 'Slavery' Case

By Gene Potes

Originally Published in The Tulsa World on Friday, March 31, 1944

The weird case of the "Hex House" and the mesmerized slave girls took an even more bizarre turn Thursday as authorities hinted at the possible existence of an insurance policy racket and said they would reopen the case 10 years dormant of the peculiar death of the husband of the alleged religious hypnotist, Mrs. Fay H. Smith.

At the same time, two Tulsa World staff members unearthed the embalmed remains of a pet dog the two girls said they had buried. The steel casket and vault which they bought, but never paid for, for the interment of the dog was not in the grave, giving rise to new and significant speculations.

These developments Thursday gave a new twist to the already lurid circumstances which the two young Tulsa women exploded into the open earlier in the week:

County Atty Dixie Gilmer found that Mrs. Smith had taken out a $25,000 annuity on her husband only a short time before he was found dead, supposedly the victim of self-inflicted gun wounds in 1934. He was found shot through the heart on the north Sand Springs road, with a note which indicated suicide.

Mrs. Smith admitted in a statement to Gilmer that she has not been married since the death of Smith. Earlier she had been known as "Mrs. Richard B. Fontaine," and contended her husband was in service in the South Pacific. The girls said the "phony" name was selected from a phone directory.

Gilmer also learned that Mrs. Smith also had collected on an insurance policy she had taken out on Mrs. Beulah Walker, a nurse who was killed by a car in 1934 in what appeared as an accident. Mrs. Smith then said Mrs. Walker was her cousin, but Gilmer said this had since been disproved.

The county attorney also said that Mrs. Smith recently applied for a policy for her supposed nephew, Bobby Gene Folger, 12, who has been living with her; that she was the beneficiary of a $2,000 policy on Willetta Horner, 29, one of the victimized girls; on the other hand, he said, he had not yet learned of any policy having been taken out on Virginia Evans, 31, the second victim of Mrs. Smith's "spell."

The World staff members, suspecting that something besides a dog might have been buried in the baby's casket, located the grave in a flower bed in the yard of the mystery house 10 East 21st, and, with the consent of county authorities, opened it.

Four feet down they found the embalmed body of the dog, but the steel casket was lacking. The body was wrapped in a bedsheet and its coffin was a paper suit box.

The two girls had stated that when the dog died, they had the body embalmed, bought a baby's casket for it, and buried the pet at a moonlight ceremony.

The Tulsa undertaker who embalmed the dog's body declared he personally saw the dog placed in the casket, then sealed in an airtight vault which was buried at the described spot. He was astonished at being told the vault and casket were missing.

What became of the casket and to what purposes it was eventually put was becoming a matter of intense speculation. Gilmer declared himself "intrigued" by the development and said, "some more digging will be done around there."

Meanwhile, the first definite, although more prosaic threads were at last being extracted from the complex and fantastic story of cruelty, slavery, poverty, and starvation related by the two girls.

Gilmer said that he would file three charges against Mrs. Smith Friday. He said he would charge her with conspiracy to defraud in connection with her influencing Miss Evans to assist in swindling her father, Tom Evans of Stroud, of $17,000 for non-existent nurses' fees and medical bills.

A second charge will be that of obtaining money under false pretenses in connection with the obtaining of $10,000 of Miss Horner's pay over a period of seven years, as the girl alleged in a civil suit, through hypnotism, false and fraudulent statements, threats and coercion."

A third charge will be subornation of perjury, in connection with Mrs. Smith's alleged inducing of the two girls to testify falsely against Andrew Milek, 3107 Woodward boulevard, in an assault and battery case which Mrs. Smith persuaded Miss Horner to file against Milek, their former neighbor. Milek was fined a total of $60 on the assault charge and two related charges alleging deceit and malicious mischief.

Gilmer continued to speak in defense of the two girls involved. "They were merely innocent victims," he contended. "No charges will be filed against them."

Also taking note of rumors that the strange occurrences involved sexual delinquencies, Gilmer said flatly, "There is no sex angle. It was just cold cash."

The case first broke into the open when Miss Horner accused Mrs. Smith of bringing her and Miss Evans under her influence by hypnosis and forcing them under the illusion they were performing a religious duty to undergo extreme privations, suffer beatings and mental cruelty, turn over all their earnings to her, and force them to near-starvation circumstances while Mrs. Fontaine herself lived in luxury off a "take" of approximately $27,000 over about seven years.

Miss Evans continued until Thursday to be under some psychological influence which authorities said, appeared to make it impossible for her to believe she had been swindled and mislead. Thursday morning, however, she gave Gilmer a statement which he said tallied completely with Miss Horner's statement.

Edward C. Burks. city editor of the Tulsa World, said Thursday night that both Miss Evans and Miss Horner at one time worked in the World library. Miss Evans, he said began work last August in a part-time capacity at night, declaring herself to be a psychology student at the University of Tulsa. After three weeks she failed to appear for work and was replaced, Burks said. Later she returned and begged to be re-hired, declaring her husband was dead and she needed the job to go to school. She gave her home town as Shawnee. It has since developed that she was not a student at the university but was employed in the daytime at a downtown department store.

Earlier, Burks said, Miss Horner had worked in the library for one night, quitting because she said the work was too hard. She gave the name of Janet B. Sherman, a pseudonym she used during much of the time she was under the sway of Mrs. Smith to "purify" herself by disassociating herself with her past.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Smith remained in the county jail awaiting the filing of charges, but her attorneys, Harold McArthur, and Luther Lane, entered a habeas corpus action which District Judge S. J. Clendinning agreed to hear at 9:30 a.m. Friday.

Authorities had a statement from Mrs. Smith in which she admitted most of the allegations made against her by the girls but denied she had used hypnotism or had been guilty of cruelty in her dealings with the young women. She continued to contend that she had treated them like daughters and made strong insinuations of ingratitude.

Gilmer added that the prosecution would not stop with the state charges, but that there are numerous other angles in which the federal government would have jurisdiction. He said he would confer Friday with George Hill, post office inspector, and Whit Y. Mauzy, federal district attorney, regarding the question of using the mails to defraud in connection with the obtaining of money from Evans. He said also he would consult OPA officials regarding the obtaining of ration books using fictitious names--one of them, the dead dog, Bon-Bon, which was registered under the name of "Bonnie Ruth Fontaine."

Bureau of internal revenue officials Thursday were probing the question of Mrs. Smith's income tax payments but had made no statement regarding their findings.

Meanwhile, the "Hex House" at 10 East 21st Street, just off Boulder park, had become an object of intense interest to Tulsans, as heavy traffic passed the house throughout the day, passengers of the cars craning their necks to get a look at the imposing brick duplex residence where Mrs. Smith allegedly presided over her miserable household.

In the two-story house itself, sheriff's officers, appointed by Clendinning as receivers of the tied-up property, spent a busy day assorting and invoicing an expensive hoard of jewelry, perfumes, clothing, and silver which would run into thousands of dollars.

No estimate on the value of the "loot" was available. Even the officers themselves were staggered at the pile of valuables. They found closets full of expensive clothing, little of which had ever been worn; a pile of women's hats, never worn; forty-five pairs of expensive shoes, never worn; a cache of expensive perfume, including two $50 bottles; a heap of expensive silverware and plate; high-priced and scarce foods, and numerous knick-knacks of doubtful value. Officers observed that Mrs. Smith apparently had a mania for buying, without regard for utility. The house was full of various petty decorative items.

One diamond pin found among the hoard contained 268 small diamonds.

The impounded items were taken late Thursday to a bonded warehouse where they will remain under the care of Sheriff A. Garland Marrs until the case is settled.

Behind, however, there remained a still luxurious manor, even without its expensive baubles. The luxuriousness of the house was in sharp contrast to the sordid side of the case, which became even more apparent when officers opened the basement, and the outside storage room of the house.

In a tiny closet off the storage room slept the Horner girl. Four orange crates set together, covered by cardboard and a single folded blanket comprised her bed--a bed so short it would cramp even a midget. Her head lay next to a toilet stool.

Slightly better quarters were indicated in the basement of the house where she and Miss Evans formerly lived. Only pitiful and crude furniture, including a bed and a chair or two compromised the furnishings of the girls, who augmented their contributions in salaries by borrowing from loan companies.

In another part of the basement were the two small built-in laundry tubs where the girls claimed they were forced to bathe, instead of being permitted to use the bathroom upstairs. A toilet stool was in a closet in one corner. Also in the basement was the washing machine which the girls said they were not permitted to use, although, they lived in filth because they were denied even water for their own laundry.

None was more astonished at the strange tale related by the girls than the neighbors. The house stands in a modern, fashionable neighborhood of well-spaced and attractive residences.

Neighbors related that they knew practically nothing about the occupants of the Hex House. Its occupants kept strictly to themselves and were seldom seen, it was said. In fact, one neighbor said that when the occupants did appear they were "snobbish or eccentric, or something," and would not speak.

None of the neighbors, however, had seen or heard any evidence of wild parties or strange orgies, reported in rumors which swept the city. Gilmer said he had heard nothing to indicate any scandalous conduct of that nature, and he also discounted rumors that the dope trade was in some way involved.

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