Rutherford Exposed: The Story of Berta and Bonnie (redux)

And then, it was all gone.  Through some software quirk, the thread became corrupted and would no longer load.  But a number of participants in the thread had the foresight to download the thread and save copies of it -- though in varying degrees of completeness.  Fortunately, it was enough to recover virtually all the content from the original thread.  Last fall, I spent a week reconstructing the thread by creating tables in Microsoft Word that simulated the formatting of JWD, and by cutting and pasting content into the appropriate cells.  After this painstaking work, I produced a PDF that has both the look and feel of the original thread.  This PDF (13.7 MB in size) can be downloaded here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?gjslw10zzmw

I have also included an appendix containing similar material from earlier threads in JWD.  Please use the bookmarks panel in your PDF program to easily navigate from page to page in the thread.

So what did the original essay claim?  In short, here are several of its main revelations:

• A JWD poster named larc (Carl Thornton) is the nephew of a woman named Berta Peale who was a close associate of JF Rutherford from 1937 to his death in 1942. (Verified by public records that show that the Berta who was an associate of Rutherford was indeed larc's aunt)
• Berta told larc's relatives regarding Rutherford: "He was like a husband to me in every way". (Unverified, but larc's wife also testifies to this)
• Rutherford was married and had a son, but he was separated from his wife.  (Verified by public records, which show that Rutherford and his wife lived separately from the mid-1920s onward)
• larc reveals that Berta herself abandoned her husband of 15 years to go to Bethel in 1938.  Her husband Alfred Peale, a resident of Ohio, filed for divorce on the grounds of abandonment, which was granted in 1940 (Berta's marriage to Alfred is verified with public records, larc had a copy of the paperwork from Alfred's filing)
• Berta was a friend of Rutherford's personal secretary Bonnie Boyd who travelled with Bonnie and Rutherford to Europe the summer before 1938. (Verified with actual ship records) Unlike nearly everyone else who came to Bethel, Berta started at the top.
• Berta lived thereafter with Rutherford as his personal dietician, despite not having any training in nutrition.  Rutherford already had a qualified dietician at Bethel, yet Berta assumed this job quickly after arriving to Bethel in 1938 (Verified with data from the Moyle trial transcript and public records)
• A few months before Berta came to Bethel, Bonnie Boyd married William Heath, a Coca-Cola heir from Atlanta, GA.  This was very controversial at Bethel at the time, as it broke rules on marriage with non-Bethelites (Verified with public records and the Moyle trial transcript)
• Prior to Berta's arrival to Bethel, Bonnie had been one of Rutherford's closest associates, working for many years as his private secretary.  Bonnie publically claimed to have been Rutherford's adopted daughter, even though she was not.  (Verified with public records) 
• Farkel points out the following similarities between Berta and Bonnie: (1) Both women were among to "closest" people to Rutherford while he was president, (2) Both women were constant traveling and living companions, (3) Both women broke the organization's rules on marriage but were in Rutherford's good graces, and among other things, (4) Both were quickly propelled to the top of the organization.
• Finally, there are a few other unverified stories that add to the suspicion of Rutherford's infidelity.  Farkel reported an account, previously posted by AlanF, that once when Rutherford was staying at a hotel, the person who straightened up his room found a lady's hairpin in his bed.  According to AlanF, this occurred in 1928 and the incident led to the stumbling of a number of Bible Students in the Buffalo, New York, area.  Both claim that M. James Penton has been doing research on this incident.  Moreover another poster, cyberguy, was friends with an elder from Long Beach, CA who knew Berta.  He related that Berta had a bedroom adjoining Rutherford's in the train car they used in their travels, with a directly connecting door between the two rooms.  He learned this when Berta met with the elders before she died and gave them a full confession, showing them home movies of the two of them together.   

None of this proves beyond doubt that Rutherford had "improper" relationships with other women, but when taken together the evidence is especially suggestive.  Various posters in the previous thread held different opinions on the matter, but larc effectively presents the case along these lines:

Jim Penton also presented much of this evidence in his recent book Jehovah's Witnesses and the Third Reich: Sectarian Politics Under Persecution (the foreword of which was written by larc).  On pp. 102-103, Penton wrote:

"There is also strong circumstantial evidence that he [Rutherford] was somewhat of a womanizer and may have had a mistress in the last years of his life.  Regarding Rutherford's possible womanizing, Peter Moyle has written: 'It has also been known, albeit 'carefully covered,' that Rutherford liked his women and his whiskey.' In support of this allegation, family members of Rutherford's female dietician and nurse are convinced she was his mistress.  The woman in question, a Mrs Berta Peale, was a close friend of Bonnie Boyd, Rutherford's stenographer.  She accompanied Boyd to a Watch Tower convention in Europe at some point in the mid or late 1930s.  At that convention she evidently met Rutherford.  Thereafter, in June 1938, she abandond her non-Jehovah's Witness husband of fifteen years and moved to the Brooklyn Bethel where at least outwardly she became Rutherford's dietician and nurse.  In November 1939 her husband, Albert Peale, filed for a divorce from her.  It was granted in March 1940.  Naturally, these facts raise serious questions.  Why did Rutherford accept her at Bethel when she had openly deserted her husband? Such behaviour was in clear violation of biblical teachings as understood by Jehovah's Witnesses.  Why did the judge make her his nurse and dietician when he already had a male nurse and when she had no formal training as either a dietician or a nurse? And why, finally, did he take Mrs Peale, an attractice southern belle, with him wherever he went?  That was something he did not do with his male nurse, Matthew Howlett.

"Another strong indication that Rutherford may have been sexually adventurous is that his wife obviously felt quite bitter toward him.  She had not lived with him for many years.  His excuse was that she was an invalid and could not give him his 'marital dues'; however, there was more to the matter than that.  He seldom if ever bothered to visit her.  So when he was dying of cancer, both she and their son Malcolm practically ignored him even though both were living nearby in southern California.

"Despite Peter Moyle's assertion, the facts surrounding Rutherford's highly questionable relationship with Mrs Peale, his alienation from his wife and son, and various rumours that circulated among disillusioned Bible Student-Witnesses that raise questions about his conduct, there is no direct proof that he was sexually immoral.  Still, with so much evidence to suggest he was, it is difficult to believe he was not."

However, Farkel's thread gave us all an opportunity to check out the claims and dig up new evidence.  The field of inquiry widened beyond simply the question of Rutherford's likely infidelity, but towards understanding who these people were in this era of Watchtower history....what do we know about the families and lives of Bonnie Boyd, Berta Peale, the Balkos (the caretakers of Rutherford's mansion, Beth Sarim), Malcolm and Mary Rutherford, William P. Heath, etc.  In the course of this research, we uncovered a number of new revelations.  Among other things:

• The caretakers of Beth Sarim, August and Blanch Balko, had two children born around the time Beth Sarim was built: Princess Bonnie Balko and Prince Joseph Balko.  It is striking that they named their two children after the two other major residents of Beth Sarim: Bonnie Boyd and Joseph Rutherford.  But here is the weird thing: Bonnie Balko was born and named "Bonnie" in 1929, before the Balkos moved out to California to live with Rutherford and Boyd.  So what connection did the Balkos have with Bonnie Boyd and Rutherford BEFORE they took their jobs at Beth Sarim?  There may have been a link with Bonnie's mother Victoria, who lived part of her life in Texas -- the same state the Balkos came from.
• William Pratt Heath, himself wealthy from his family's interests in Coca Cola, had a sister Susette (also a converted JW) who married Eugene R. Black.  Black was the president of the World Bank from 1949 to 1962.  Prior to this he was a very successful New York investment banker.  Such a close family connection with Bonnie Boyd is striking in light of Rutherford's constant vitriol against "Big Business" and international bankers.
• We also discovered that William P. Heath himself had been married to another woman, Dorothy Smith Heath, whom he divorced just one week before he got a "quickie" wedding with Bonnie Boyd in Las Vegas.  Divorce was still quite scandalous in the 1930s, yet we see that two divorces occurred around the same time with two of Rutherford's closest associates, William divorcing his wife to marry Bonnie and Alfred divorcing his wife Berta because she abandoned him to become Rutherford's dietician.  Because of the timing of the divorce, William would have courted Bonnie while he was still married.
• A big unexpected surprise was the finding that Malcolm Rutherford and his wife Pauline accompanied his father Joseph Rutherford, Bonnie Boyd, William Heath, and Berta Peale on the S. S. Mariposa, headed to Honolulu, HI.  This calls into doubt the assumption that Rutherford had no contact whatsoever with his son.  It is unknown however what happened between them and on what terms they left things when they parted. 
• The most significant discovery is that Bonnie Boyd's age varied widely (and maddingly) in the different records she was mentioned, especially immigration-customs records.  This suggests that she falsified her age in government documents such as her passport.  There was also a pattern in her age discrepency.  In 1924, a year after she came to Bethel, she claimed she was 27 years old and born on 7/17/1896.  This birthdate gradually drifted upward through the years, to 7/17/1898, then to 7/17/1899, then 7/17/1900, 7/17/1901, 7/17/1902, 7/17/1903, until finally she claimed an age of 34 and a birthdate of 7/17/1904 in 1938.  This made her 19 years old when she came to Bethel in 1923.  Finally, in the interview with a San Diego newspaper in 1942, she claimed that she was 16 years old when she first became a companion of Rutherford, as his "adopted daughter".  This duplicity has made it almost impossible to determine when Bonnie was actually born, although I suspect that 7/17/1896 is probably the original birthdate, not the later more recent ones.  What makes this intriguing is that a similar pattern of age misrepresentation surrounded Rose Ball, with whom Charles T. Russell was accused (by his wife Maria Russell) of having an improper relationship.  In defending Russell from criticism in the press, Rutherford argued that Russell could not have acted untoward with her because Rose was only a little girl when she came to the household and, being an orphan, was treated like an adopted daughter.  This claim turns out to have been false, as Rose was neither an orphan or a juvenile at that time (as public records demonstrate).  Since Rutherford used this age deception as a means of defending the president of the WTB&TS from rumors of sexual immorality, the question is raised if the situation was similar with Bonnie Boyd's claims about her age and relationship with Rutherford.

I have started this new thread to continue the discussion and research.  There are still many avenues worth pursuing in discovering new details about these persons from the Watchtower Society's past.  I also hope the talents of some of the newer members of JWD may be applied to this subject.

Finally, it must be mentioned that sadly larc passed away a few years ago.  He was a friend of many here and is greatly missed, and this thread is dedicated to him.

In my next post, I will repost Farkel's original "Rutherford Exposed" essay.

What did she say about Judge Rutherford?

She said, "He was like a husband to me in every way."

Before we get down to the details, let us review what we KNOW about Judge Rutherford as this gets to PATTERN of attitude and conduct:

He was a false prophet.

He was a tragic alcoholic.

He was a hypocrite who lived and traveled like royalty.

He was cruel, ruthless and vindictive.

It is my non-medical opinion that he was a narcissist and I will make comments based upon that assumption. Even if he wasn't clinically a narcissist, he exhibited a lot of traits associated with narcissism.

He had no genuine and close friends.

He was a man of hate, bitterness and revenge.

He was a federal lawbreaker who drank and had booze smuggled for him during Prohibition.

He was a man who scorned, even despised people who wanted to improve their own character and ethics.

He was an instigator who intentionally used his followers as pawns to start riots which hurt them but helped him get the publicity he craved.

He was a man who despite the fact he had no legitimate claim to the somewhat lofty title, insisted upon being called "Judge" for the entire time he ran the WTS.

He was a pathetic, rotten husband and father who was at least despised by his own son and probably by his own wife, neither of whom cared enough about him to go to his own funeral.

He was so disliked by his fellow Bethelites that only four of them attended his funeral.

He was a man whose prolific writings were so worthless that none of them are now being printed.

Narcissistic people consider themselves to be exempt from all the rules that should universally apply to everyone.

As a narcissist, he was a man who considered himself "above the law of the land" when Prohibition outlawed the possession and consumption of alcohol.

As a narcissist, he was a man who considered himself "above his OWN law" when he told people they could only gain salvation by preaching from door to door when he never did it himself as leader of the WTS.

As a narcissist, he considered himself "above the Christian law" of decency and honesty when he wrongly and intentionally vilified and libeled Olin Moyle and Walter Salter.

As a narcissist, he considered himself "above the Christian law" to be "no part of this world," when he meddled in politics in 1934 and praised Hitler while condemning the very government which allowed him to freely get away with his shennanigans.

In fact, the question could rightly be asked, "what (if any) rule or code of ethical conduct that he demanded of his followers did he himself actually obey?"

We are now down to the real question I'm going to ask: given the gross and unethical conduct of Rutherford I've just outlined, would he be more or less inclined to break yet another law, the Christian law against the commission of adultery? As a true narcissist, did Rutherford consider himself to be above the law against adultery?

The best evidence for or against this question would of course come from eyewitnesses, but most or all potential eyewitnesses are now dead.

Newly Revealed Evidence for Rutherford's Sexual Infidelity

The evidence comes from a man who is a long time poster on this board. He posts as "larc" and many of you like myself know him and have spoken with him. A number of you have personally met him. He not only knew the woman in question (she's now deceased), he has met her numerous times. She was a relative, being the aunt of his own mother.

Up until recently this secret of her year's long sexual affair with Rutherford was kept by the family. They were ashamed of what she had done. On the other hand, "larc" has stated that no one in the family ever spoke poorly of her.

Obviously, this is evidence that no family member is or was out to "get" her. They have no reason to lie about a secret they've kept for so long.

This woman was a good friend of Bonnie Boyd before coming to Bethel in 1938. Bonnie Boyd was Rutherford's personal secretary. When this woman arrived at Bethel, she was immediately given a job as Rutherford's personal dietician, although she had no experience or training in that field and Rutherford already had a man in this position at that time.

Nearly all women have to start out in Bethel as maids or work in the laundry, which are the lowest of jobs. Why was she so lucky to get a top-notch job immediately upon coming to Bethel?

Why did she get to go everywhere Rutherford went, including traveling first class to Europe six to eight weeks a year and spending winters in the Beth Sarim mansion? Why did she become Rutherford's personal dietician WHILE TRAVELING when Rutherford already had a man as his personal dietician at Bethel?

Was it merely just because she was so beautiful and Rutherford had a fondness for beautiful women? Or is there more?

Her maiden name was Berta Teel. Her married name was Berta Peale. But before we discuss more about her, we will spend a little time talking about Bonnie Boyd. Bonnie Boyd and Berta Peale had some strange similarities and circumstances in their relationships with Rutherford.

Bonnie Boyd-Heath

Bonnie Boyd came to Bethel with her mother in 1923 and worked as a stenographer for W.E. Van Amburgh, a top-ranking Watchtower official. Yet that same year she then became a stenographer for Rutherford. In about 1931 she became Rutherford's personal secretary. According to her testimony in the Moyle vs. Franz trial on page 1367 she stated she took all dictation for all books and Watch Tower articles authored by Rutherford. Her husband William Heath testified that ONLY Bonnie saw Rutherford's writings until they were turned over for proofreading and publication.

Bonnie Boyd had a VERY important position in the WTS. She also lived in the lavish surroundings and manner as her boss. The same Moyle case has her testifying that she went on six to eight week annual trips to Europe with Rutherford and had done so for twenty years. (page 1382) Yet Boyd came to Bethel as a GIRL in the Fall of 1923 with her mother and Rutherford died in 1942, nineteen years later. A few weeks after Rutherford's death, the San Diego Union on February 18, 1942 quoted her as saying she was the "adopted daughter" of Judge Rutherford, and had been with him continuously since she was 16.

Why would Rutherford take a 16 year old GIRL as a constant companion? Rutherford considered women as inferiors who should keep their proper place as indicated by his oft stated comment that women were only "a stack of bones and a hank of hair." (September 15, 1941 WT, page 287) Once again, if Rutherford thought so little of women WHY did he have as a "constant companion" a 16 year old GIRL? Because he was generous and caring? No one knew him to be that.

Bonnie Boyd was one of the four or so "witnesses" who signed the deed to Beth Sarim in January of 1930. If she was only 16 in the Fall of 1923 when she came to Bethel, she would only be about 21 years of age when she signed the very significant deed to Beth Sarim. What did she, a very young women do to deserve such an honor of having her name attached to a deed of that importance?

In 1938 Bonnie Boyd married William Heath, an heir to one of the founders of the Coca Cola company. Heath was very, very rich. She continued to accompany Rutherford along with her new husband everywhere he went. But there was ONE thing that had changed. Her husband was heir to part of the Coca Cola fortune and she no longer was compelled to depend upon Rutherford to live and travel in his luxury, or worry about being tossed out of Bethel and back into the Great Depression.

From Olin Moyle's letter to Rutherford:

"Here again is shown unequal and discriminatory treatment. One brother left Bethel some time ago for the purpose of getting married, and, so I am informed, was refused the privilege of pioneering in New York, apparently as an official disapproval of his action in leaving Bethel. On the other hand when Bonnie Boyd got married she didn't have to leave Bethel. She was permitted to bring her husband into Bethel in spite of the printed rule providing that both marrying parties should have lived there for five years."

Why did Bethel break one of its ever-so-rigid rules and make an exception for a "lowly" women named Bonnie Boyd? What made her so SPECIAL that she was able to avoid the Bethel rules? Was it because of her husband's great wealth? Women are the lowest form of life at Bethel and were worse than that in Rutherford's time! Did Bonnie "have something" on Rutherford that caused her to be treated so differently? Was it her new husband's money that caused Rutherford to break his own rules for her?

The person reporting this testimony from another eyewitness stated:

"And according to Worth Thornton (a dear friend of mine, now deceased, was Knorr’s 'secretary,' wrote the Informant -- now KM), Bonnie had slept with half of the Bethelites in the 1950’s. The big-shots at the time evidently knew of the scandal but chose to sweep it under the rug."

Coincidentally, (or is it?) just a MONTH after Bonnie Boyd was married, Rutherford had a NEW, beautiful and female traveling companion who was much younger than himself: Berta Peale

Berta Peale

Berta met Bonnie Boyd sometime in the early 1930's. This was confirmed by her niece, "larc's" mother. It was also confirmed in the Olin Moyle trial transcript on pages 1299-1301. At the time, Berta was a full time pioneer and a member of the "anointed." During this time she traveled to Europe with Bonnie Boyd to attend a European convention of Jehovah's Witnesses.

There she met Rutherford. Her family had very little money. They moved from North Carolina to Akron, Ohio and her older brother struggled to support Berta and nine other people including himself during this time. This was the Great Depression and hardly anyone had money to eat, let alone to travel abroad.

Who paid for her expensive trip to attend a convention overseas where she met Rutherford for the first time? Since we know Rutherford financed Bonnie Boyd's trip, can't we also assume he likely financed Berta's trip?

In June of 1938 Berta abandoned her husband of 15 years and went to Bethel. This was just ONE MONTH after Bonnie Boyd became MRS. William Heath. Among herself and her three female sisters, Berta was by far the most beautiful according to "larc", her grand nephew. He had seen her a number of times as a youngster. A picture of her will be added to this article very shortly.

Later in 1938, Berta's husband filed for divorce on the grounds of abandonment and it was granted in 1940. Copies of the divorce filing by Alfred Peale for spousal abandonment and the final decree were sent to Bethel. Yet the Watchtower Society did NOTHING to punish Berta for leaving her husband without a scriptural reason. NOTHING!

Not only was she not punished or sent home she was given one of the two or three most envious jobs conceivable at Bethel: living and traveling like a Queen with the Watchtower King himself.

Why did Rutherford make her a "dietician" when he already had one and she was unqualified for the job? The Moyle trial states that she was a Practical Nurse, but a dietician is a specialty unto itself. It was also brought out in the Moyle trial that Rutherford already HAD his own private nurse, and ridiculed the notion that Rutherford needed two of them, since he was obviously healthy enough to travel and speak so extensively. In contradiction to what was claimed in the Moyle trial, "larc" stated that Berta's only job experience prior to entering Bethel was factory work! Why was she the only of his two dietician's to travel with Rutherford and stay with him in Beth Sarim? Why did she get this meteoric rise in privilege immediately upon entering Bethel?

"Crotchless Panties"

Some years after Rutherford died, Berta continued on as a pioneer and a "member of the anointed." She paid a visit to her relatives and gave her own sister some lingerie that was purchased in France while she was still at Bethel. They were a pair of crotchless panties and a bra with which had holes in the nipple areas. The relatives were shocked by this. She was "anointed." She was still a "pioneer." She wore crotchless panties! When "larc" was 13 he saw his aunt (Berta's sister Lona) wearing that "nipple" bra. He reacted like any normal thirteen year old boy: he loved it!

"The Hairpin Story"

It has been reported before that on one of Rutherford's trips during the time Berta was working for him, a maid at the hotel found a woman's hairpin IN Rutherford's bed. His female "assistant" was staying in an adjoining room with a door that could access either room. "larc" reported to me that Dr. M. James Penton a famous WTS researcher discovered that this incident occurred in North Carolina.

Is this significant? Berta Peale was from North Carolina. Coincidence? Perhaps. But consider the following from a poster named "cyberguy":

"She was his "personal dietician." He was way-up in years, she was very young, at least half his age at the time, probably even much younger! She had a bedroom adjacent to his, with a directly connecting door to his bedroom, in the Soceity's train car that was used to "preach the kingdom" during da judge's reign. She also went wherever da judge went, including frequent trips to Europe. Where were his wife and Son? For all practical purposes, they were separated and living a long distance apart; da judge made sure of that!?

"A good friend of mine was an elder in the hall in Long Beach, California, long after da judge's death, is the source of this information. She requested that the elders (my friend being one of the elders) meet with her (she was in her 70's), because she wasn?t sure if she would receive her heavenly reward. The elders met, and she told them the relationship she had with Rutherford over a 15-year period! She even showed them movies of the two of them, hugging and kissing, shortly before dropping this "bomb shell!"

"Anyway, the elders made contact with headquarters, and Nathan Knorr met with Birda [her name was actually "Berta"], while at a District Convention in California, shortly afterward. Nathan Knorr, with some other officials present, said that they long knew of the adulterous relationship, but for some reason, never said anything to anyone about it; they also told her that because this was so far in the past, not to worry about it! (Is this a double standard or what?)"

Indeed!

"larc's" cousin Sue (the daughter of Berta?s sister) told him that when Berta was young, she was so rebellious that she was the only one of four daughters her father needed to spank.

One time, "larc's" cousin Sue was looking through a family album with him. There was a picture of a man in the photo album alongside Berta. Sue told "larc" that the man in the picture was a married naval officer. It cannot be shown that they had an affair, but it begs the questions: WHY was an anointed pioneer in a picture with a married man? And why was she in the company of a military person?

Bonnie and Berta - The Similarities

1) Two women who were the "closest" to Rutherford during his later life.
2) Two women who were constant traveling and living companions.
3) Two women who were quickly propelled to the pinnacle of the WT elite.
4)Two women who broke the strictest of WT rules, yet not a thing was done about it.
5) One woman became a constant companion of Rutherford's when she was only sixteen years old. She was accused by a man not afraid of identifying himself by name of "sleeping around" in Bethel in the 1950's. Another women who magically received paid passage to Europe during the Great Depression and immediately upon entering Bethel received an elite job that not only was she not qualified to have, the job had already been filled by someone else? Who needed to have TWO Dieticians back then?
6) One beautiful and poor young women brought into Bethel who immediately became a "personal assistant" and "constant companion" only one MONTH AFTER another "personal assistant" and "constant companion" became married.
7) The Great Depression where no one had any money and would die for the opportunity to live the luxurious life of Rutherford.
8) Adjacent bedrooms with connecting doors for these women and the Judge in trains and in hotels. The Judge's habit of working at night in Beth Sarim when the rest of his housekeeping staff was asleep.

Crotchless panties and provacative bras worn by an "anointed pioneer" who was also a very rebellious child.

One lonely, horny old immoral drunk with all the power and money he could ask for who viewed women as only acceptable "if they kept their proper place."

One absolute dictator who broke all the rules he set for others who considered himself above such rules.

Testimony from a named informant that Nathan Knorr and others knew of Rutherford's infidelity with Berta and did nothing about it, thus keeping it covered up.

He had the lack of moral ethics. He had the motive. He had the victims willing or otherwise. He had the opportunity. He had the alibi and he had the cover-up. He had the people to continue the cover-up.

And now we have uncovered a new story about him.

Remember what Berta said:

"He was like a husband to me in every way."

Farkel

I remember reading those accounts with a feeling of utter revulsion and anger - revulsion that such a despicable creature could call himself the mouthpiece of God, and anger in that the Society has knowingly deceived many as to the true character of Joseph Franklin Rutherford.

Sylvia

Edit:  Thank you, Leolaia.

Three cheers for Leolaia ! ! !  Excellent work (as always).

So nice that all was not lost of the original thread. A real eye-opener that was, is and, hopefully, will continue to be.

~Merry

thanks Leolaia

and thanks also to Farkel

Leolaia,

Thank you so much for this. I missed the original post. I appreciate all your hard work!

Boy, its like a soap opera isn't it? Not suprising though. Rutherford (and others since him) have not a real spiritual bone anywhere in their bodies. Its always been and still is all about the $$$$$$$$$.

Want to get rich anyone? Start a religion! Peace, Lilly

I must also thank everyone else who made all this possible....especially larc, but also Lady Lee, VM44, and one other person I forgot who thankfully preserved all our work by downloading the thread before it disappeared.

Merry Magdalene...I would like very much for you to repost your wonderful timeline in this thread.  It gives an easy-to-follow overview of all the things we uncovered.  But hold on, I need to make a few tweaks and I'll send you the text by PM.

I will also try to repost some of the key data from the previous thread to this new one.

Good work Leolaia.

Also to keep in mind when reading the above is the question, "Where was Mrs. Rutherford during this time?".

Thank you Leolaia, and everyone else that put this together.

This is great, im really want to share this with my jw brother, its the kind of thing i know he'll read.

Another question:

"When Rutherford came to California and was staying at Beth Sarim, did he ever visit his wife who was living in the Los Angeles area (Monrovia, California)?"

Thanks Leo.

I arrived here towards the tail-end of this thread, but it was invaluable and has led to one of those obsessive thoughts that get lodged in the brain !!!

Thanks Leo  You have done a great job in making this info available again.

I think your intro in Post 1 is an excellent way to present a synopsis of what the thread originally contained.

Excellent job