However, with each passing hour the boys seemed to fade while the tiny girl grew stronger. All four infants clung tenaciously to life, the boys mote and more weakly and the girl more strongly, until finally the three male infants—apparently at the same hour—succumbed. The girl took nourishment with enthusiasm, grew pink and active. Her spindly limbs rounded into healthy baby arms and legs, and in due course she was carried from the hospital by her father.
In honor of a leading evangelist of the era, and of a crusader for spiritualistic causes, the girl was named Aimee Doyle Akeley.
Aimee traveled between San Diego and the spiritualist center of Noblesville, Indiana, with her parents. The George Akeleys spent their winters in San Diego, where George Goodenough Akeley served as Radiant Father of the Spiritual Light Brotherhood, which he had founded in a burst of religious fervor after meeting Aimee Semple McPherson, the evangelist whose name his daughter bore; each summer they would make a spiritualistic pilgrimage to Noblesville, where George Akeley became fast friends with the spiritualist leader and sometime American fascist, William Dudley Pelley.
Aimee Doyle Akeley married William Pelley's nephew Hiram Wesley Pelley in 1959. In that same year Aimee’s mother died and was buried in Noblesville. Her father continued his ministry in San Diego.
In 1961, two years after her marriage to young Pelley, Aimee Doyle Akeley Pelley gave birth to a daughter who was named Elizabeth Maude Pelley, after two right-wing political leaders, Elizabeth Dilling oflllinoisand Maude Howe of England. Elizabeth Maude Pelley was raised alternately by her parents in Indiana and her grandfather in San Diego.
In San Diego her life was relatively normal, centering on her schooling, her home, and to a lesser extent on her grandfather’s church, the Spiritual Light Brotherhood. In Indiana she was exposed to a good deal of political activity of the right-wing extremist nature. Hiram Wesley Pelley had followed in his uncle’s footsteps in this regard, and Aimee Doyle Akeley Pelley took her lead from her husband and his family. A number of violent scenes are reported to have transpired between young Elizabeth Pelley and the elder Pelleys.
Elizabeth Pelley returned permanently to San Diego where she took up residence with her grandfather. At this time she abandoned her mother's married name and took up the family name as her own, henceforth being known as Elizabeth Akeley. Upon the death of George Goodenough Akeley, Elizabeth succeeded to the title of Radiant Mother of the Spiritual Light Brotherhood and the pastorhood of the church, as well as the property on Pleasant Street and a small income from inherited securities.
Vernon Whiteside read the report carefully. Through his position as sexton of the Spiritual Light Brotherhood Church he had access, as well, to most church records, including the taped archives of Sunday worship services and Wednesday message services. He followed the Radiant Mother’s report to the congregation, in which she referred heavily to the seance ofjune 13, by borrowing and listening carefully to the tape of the seance itself.
He also obtained a photocopy from agency headquarters of the latest issues of the Vermont UFO Intelligencer. These he read carefully, seeking to correlate any references in the newsletter with the Akeley family, or with any other name connected with the Akeleys or the content of the seance tape. He mulled over the Akeleys, Phillipses, Wilmarths, Noyes, and all other references. He attempted also to connect the defunct or at least seemingly defunct Starry Wisdom sect of the New England region, with the San-Diego based Spiritual Light Brotherhood.
At this time it appears also that Elizabeth Akeley began to receive additional messages outside of the Spiritual Light message services. During quiet moments she would lapse involuntarily into her trance or trancelike state. Because she was unable to recall the messages received during these episodes, she prevailed upon Marc Feinman to spend increasing amounts of time with her. During the last week of June and July of 1979 the two were nearly inseparable. They spent every night together, sometimes at Elizabeth’s house in National City, sometimes at Marc’s apartment on Upas Street.
It was at this time that Vernon Whiteside recommended that agency surveillance of the San Diego cult be increased by the installation of wiretaps on the church and the Pleasant Street and Upas Street residences. This recommendation was approved and recordings were obtained at all three locations. Transcripts are available in agency files. Excerpts follow:
July 25, 1979 (Incoming)
Voice #1 (Definitely identified as Marc Feinman): Hello.
Voice #2 (Tentatively identified as Mrs. Sara Feinman, Marc’s mother, Bronx, New York): Marc.
Voice #1: (Pauses.) Yes, Ma.
Voice #2: Markie, are you all right?
Voice #1: Yeah, Ma.
Voice #2: Are you sure. Are you really all right?
Voice #1: Ma, I’m all right.
Voice #2: Okay, just so you’re all right, Markie. And work, Markie? How’s your work? Is your work all right?
Voice #1: It’s all right, Ma.
Voice #2: No problems?
Voice #1: Of course problems, Ma. That’s what they pay me to take care of.
Voice #2: Oh my God, Markie! What kind of problems, Markie?
Voice #1: (Pauses, sighs or inhales deeply) Were trying to integrate the 2390 remote console control routines with the sysgen status word register and every time we run it against—
Voice #2: (Interrupting) Markie, you know I don't understand that kind of—
Voice #1: (Interrupting) But you asked me—
Voice #2: (Interrupting) Marc, don’t contradict your mother. Are you still with that shicksa? She's the one who’s poisoning your mind against your poor mother. I’ll bet she’s with you now, isn’t she, Marc?
Voice #1: (Sighs or inhales deeply) No, Ma, it’s Wednesday. She's never here
Wednesdays. She’s at church every Wednesday. They have these services every Wedn—
Voice #2: (Interrupting) I'm sure she's a lovely girl, my Markie would never pick a girl who wasn’t a lovely girl. I wish you’d kept up your music, Markie. You could have been a great pianist, like Rubenstein or even Lazar Berman that red. You still have that crazy Boxer car, Markie?
Voice #1: Yes, Ma.
Voice #2: That isn’t what I called about. I don't understand, Markie, for the money that car must have cost you could have had an Oldsmobile at least, even a Buick like your father. Markie, it’s your father I phoned about. Markie, you have to come home. Your father isn't well, Markie. I phoned because he isn’t home now but the doctor said he's not a well man. Markie, you have to come home and talk to your father. He respects you, he listens to you, God knows why. Please, Markie. (Sound of soft crying.)
Voice #1: What's wrong with him, Ma?
Voice #2: I don’t want to say it on the telephone.
July 25, 1979 (Outgoing)
Voice #3 (Definitely identified as Vernon Whiteside): Spiritual Light Brotherhood. May the divine light shine upon your path.
Voice #1: Vern, this is Marc. Is Liz still at the church? Is the service over?
Voice #3: The service ended a few minutes ago, Mr. Feinman. The Radiant Mother is resting in the sacristy.
Voice #1: That’s what I wanted to know. Listen, Vern, tell Lizzy that I'm on my way, will you? I had a long phone call from my mother and I don’t want Liz to worry. Tell her I’ll give her a ride home from the church.
Feinman left San Diego by automobile, driving his Ferrari Boxer eastward at a top speed in the 140 MPH range, and arrived at the home of his parents in the Bronx, New York, some time during the night of July 27-28.
In the absence of Marc Feinman, Akeley took agent Whiteside increasingly into her confidence, asking him to remain in her presence day and night. He set up a temporary cot in the living room of the Pleasant Street house during this period. His instructions were to keep a portable cassette recorder handy at all times and to record anything said by Mother Akeley during spontaneous trances.
On the first Saturday of August, following a lengthy speech in the now-familiar m
ale New England twang, Akeley asked agent Whiteside for the tape. She played it back, then made the following long-distance telephone call.
August 4, 1979 (Outgoing)
Voice #4 (Tentatively identified as Ezra Noyes): Vermont Bureau. May we help you?
Voice #5 (Definitely identified as Elizabeth Akeley): Is this Mr. Noyes?
Voice #4: Oh, I’m sorry, Dad isn’t home. This is Ezra. Can I give him a—
Voice #5: (Interrupting) Oh, I wanted to speak with Ezra Noyes. The editor of the UFO Intelligencer.
Voice #4: Oh, yes, right. Yes, that’s me. Ezra Noyes.
Voice #5: Mr.Noyes, I wonder if you could help me. I need some information about, ah, recent occurrences in or around Townshend.
Voice #4: That's funny, what did you say your name was?
Voice #5: Elizabeth Akeley.
Voice #4:I thought I knew all my subbers.
Voice #5: Oh, I’m not a subscriber, I got your name from—well, that doesn’t matter. Mr. Noyes, I wonder if you could tell me if there have been any unusual UFO sightings in your region lately.
Voice #4 (Suspiciously): Unusual?
Voice #5: Well, these wouldn’t be your usual run-of-the-mill flying objects. Flying saucers. I hope that phrase doesn’t offend you. These would be more like flying creatures.
Voice #4: Creatures? You mean birds?
Voice #5: No. No. Intelligent creatures.
Voice #4: People, then. You mean Buck Rogers and Wilma Deering with their rocket flying belts.
Voice #5: Please don't be sarcastic, Mr. Noyes. (Pauses.) I mean intelligent, possibly humanoid but nonhuman creatures. Their configuration may vary, but some of them, at least, I believe would have large, membranous wings, probably stretched over a bony or veinous framework in the fashion of bats’ or insects’ wings. Also, some of them may be carrying artifacts such as polished metallic cylinders of a size capable of containing a—of containing, uh, a human—a human—brain.
(Sounds of distress, possible sobbing.)
Voice #4: Miss Akeley? Are you all right, Miss Akeley?
Voice #5: I’m sorry. Yes, I’m all right.
Voice #4: I didn’t mean to be so hard on you, Miss Akeley. It's just that we get a lot of crank calls. People wanting to talk to the little green men and that kind of thing. I had to make sure that you weren’t—
Voice #5: I understand. And you have had—
Voice #4: I’m reluctant to say too much on the phone. Miss Akeley, do you think you could get here? There have been sightings. And there are older ones. Records in the local papers. A rash of incidents about fifty years ago. And others farther back. There was a monograph by an Eli Davenport over in New Hampshire back in the 1830s. I’ve got a xerox of it... .
Shortly after her telephone conversation with Ezra Noyes, Elizabeth Akeley appealed to Vernon Whiteside for assistance. “I don’t want to go alone,” she is reported as saying to Whiteside. “Will you help me, Vernon?”
Whiteside, maintaining his cover as the sexton of the Brotherhood, assured Akeley. “Anything the Radiant Mother wishes, ma’am. What would you like me to do?”
"Can you get away for a few days? I have to go to Vermont. Would you book two tickets for us? There are church funds to cover the cost.” “Yes, ma'am.” Whiteside lowered his head. “Best way would be via Logan International in Boston, then a Vermont Lines bus to Brattleboro and Newfane.”
Akeley made no comment on the sexton’s surprising familiarity with the bus service between Boston and upper New England. She was obviously in an agitated state, Whiteside reported when he checked in with his superiors prior to their departure from San Diego.
Two days later the Negro sexton and the Radiant Mother climbed down from the bus at Newfane, Vermont. They were met at the town’s run-down and musty-smelling station by Ezra Noyes. Noyes was driving his parents’ 1969 Nash Ambassador station wagon and willingly loaded Akeley’s and Whiteside’s meager baggage into the rear cargo deck of the vehicle.
Ezra chauffeured the visitors to his parents’ home. The house, a gambrel-roofed structure of older design, was fitted for a larger family than the two elder Noyes and their son Ezra; in fact, an elder son and daughter had both married and departed Windham County for locales of greater stimulation and professional opportunity, leaving two surplus bedrooms in the Noyes home.
Noyes was eager to offer his own services and assistance to Akeley and Whiteside. Elizabeth informed Ezra Noyes that she had received instructions to meet a visitor at a specific location near the town of Passumpsic in neighboring Windsor County. She did not explain to Noyes the method of her receiving these instructions, but Vernon Whiteside’s later report indicated that he was aware of them, the instructions having been delivered to Miss Akeley in spontaneous trance sessions, the tapes of which he had also heard.
It must again be emphasized at this point that the voice heard on the spontaneous trance tapes was, in different senses, both that of Miss Akeley and of another personage. The pitch and accent, as has been stated, were those of an elderly male speaking in a semi-archaic New England twang while the vocal apparatus itself was unquestionably that of Elizabeth Akeley, nee Elizabeth Maude Pelley.
Miss Akeley’s instructions were quite specific in terms of geography, although it was found odd that they referred only to landmarks and highway or road facilities known to exist in the late 1920s. Young Noyes was able to provide alternate routes for such former roadways as had been closed when superseded by more modern construction.
Before retiring, Elizabeth Akeley placed a telephone call to the home of Marc Feinman’s parents in the Bronx. In this call she urged Feinman to join her in Vermont. Feinman responded that his father, at the urging of himself and his mother, had consented to undergo major surgery. Marc promised to travel to Vermont and rendezvous with Akeley at the earliest feasible time, but indicated that he felt obliged to remain with his parents until the surgery was completed and his father’s recovery assured.
The following morning Elizabeth Akeley set out for Passumpsic. She was accompanied by Vernon Whiteside and traveled in the Nash Ambassador station wagon driven by Ezra Noyes.
Her instructions had contained very specific and very emphatic requirements that she keep the rendezvous alone, although others might provide transportation and wait while the meeting took place. The party who had summoned Elizabeth Akeley to the rendezvous had not, to this time, been identified, although it was believed to be the owner of the male voice and New England twang who had spoken through Elizabeth herself in her trances.
Prior to departing Windham County for Windsor County, a discussion took place between Akeley and Whiteside. Whiteside appealed to Elizabeth Akeley to permit him to accompany her to the rendezvous.
That would be impossible, Akeley stated.
Whiteside pointed out Elizabeth’s danger, in view of the unknown identity of the other party. When Akeley remained adamant, Whiteside gave in and agreed to remain with Ezra Noyes during the meeting. It must be pointed out that at this time the dialogue was not cast in the format of a highly trained and responsible agent of the federal establishment, and an ordinary citizen; rather, the facade which Whiteside rightly although with difficulty maintained was that of a sexton of the Spiritual Light Brotherhood acting under the authority of and in the service of the Radiant Mother of that Church.
Whiteside did, however, succeed in convincing Akeley to wear a wireless microphone disguised as an enamel ladybug ornament on the lapel of her jacket. Akeley, of course, was garbed in ordinary street clothing at the time, reserving the ecclesiastical vestments for use during official functions of the Church.
The microphone transmitted on a frequency which was picked up by a small microcassette recorder which Whiteside was to keep with him in or near the Nash station wagon; additionally, an earphone ran from the recorder so that Whiteside was enabled to monitor the taped information in real time.
The Nash Ambassador crossed the county line from Windham to Windsor on a
two-lane county highway. This had been a dirt road in the 1920s, blacktopped with federal funds administered by the Works Progress Administration under Franklin Roosevelt, and superseded by a nearby four-lane asphalt highway during the Eisenhower presidency. The blacktop received minimal maintenance; and only pressure from local members of the Vermont legislature, this brought in turn at the insistence of local residents who used the highway for access to Passumpsic, South Londonderry, and Bellows Falls, prevented the state from declaring the highway closed and striking it from official roadmaps.
Reaching the town of Passumpsic, Akeley, who had never previously traveled farther east than Indianapolis, Indiana, told Ezra to proceed 800 yards, at which point the car was to be halted. Ezra complied. At the appointed spot, Akeley left the car and opened a gate in the wooden fence fronting the highway.
Noyes pulled the wagon from the highway through the gate and found himself on a narrow track that had once been a small dirt road, long since abandoned and overgrown.
This dirt road led away from the highway and into hilly farm country, years before abandoned by the poor farmers of the region, that lay between Passumpsic and Ludlow.
Finally, having rounded an ancient dome-topped protruberance that stood betwen the station wagon and any possible visual surveillance from the blacktop highway or even the overgrown dirt road, the Nash halted, unable to continue. The vegetation hereabouts was of a peculiar nature. While most of the region consisted of thin, played-out soil whose poor fertility was barely adequate to sustain a covering of tall grasses and undersized, gnarly-trunked trees, in the small area set off by the dome-topped hill the growth was thick, lush and luxuriant.
However, there was a peculiar quality to the vegetation, a characteristic which even the most learned botanist would have been hard pressed to identify, and yet which was undeniably present. It was as if the vegetation were too vibrantly alive, as if it sucked greedily at the earth for nourishment and by so doing robbed the countryside for a mile or more in every direction of sustenance.
Through an incongruously luxuriant copse of leafy trees a small building could be seen, clearly a shack of many years’ age and equally clearly of long abandonment. The door hung angularly from a single rusted hinge, the windows were cracked or missing altogether, and spiders had filled the empty frames with their own geometric handiwork. The paint, if ever the building had known the touch of a painter’s brush, had long since flaked away and been blown to oblivion by vagrant tempests, and the bare wood beneath had been cracked by scores of winters and bleached by as many summers’ suns.
Pyrate Cthulhu: Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, Volume 1 (4.0) Page 12
