The Trial of the 'Swiss Chalet' Messiah
A courtroom is packed as Josua Klein, who allegedly held young women under his sway in a remote mountain chalet, begins his trial for assault.
The story, cleaned up
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Before an audience which completely filled the large courtroom of Judge Easterday's department of the superior court, Josua Klein, the mysterious expositor of occult science whose arrest and imprisonment has caused world-wide attention, was put on trial this morning charged with attempting to kill Miss Dora Culbertson. An unusually large crowd attended court this morning, more particularly to see the mysterious man who is alleged to have kept in bondage two young Tacoma women in a Swiss chalet, by the power of his science, than to hear the testimony to be brought out. Klein sat quietly at his attorney's table, scarcely moving a muscle during the whole proceeding. He was dressed in a suit of sober black, with a high clergyman's collar and black cravat. Several veniremen, upon examination, stated that they considered Klein a fraud and a grafter, but the prisoner showed no emotion or resentment. He will be represented throughout the case by Attorneys George and Garretson, and Wesley Lloyd.
“The mysterious man who is alleged to have kept in bondage two young Tacoma women in a Swiss chalet, by the power of his science.”
This trial highlights the early 20th-century preoccupation with 'occult' figures and the vulnerability of followers in isolated 'intentional communities,' a theme that echoes in contemporary true-crime fascination with modern-day cults.
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