Arthur Bentley Worthington (born Samuel Oakley Crawford,[2] 1 March 1847[1] – 13 December 1917[1]) 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.
Samuel Oakley Crawford was born on 1 March 1847, in Saugerties, New York, the son of a storekeeper and Deputy Sheriff.
[2] 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.
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.
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.
[3]: 15–16 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.
According to Alpers, Worthington exuded sincerity, and quoted from a wide range of authors, from Plato to Ralph Waldo Emerson.
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.
[12] 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.
[14] 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.
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.
[20] In August 1895 Worthington married a young woman named Evelyn Maud Jordan,[21] 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.
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.
[38] The Temple of Truth in Christchurch was sold to property developers and in 1898 it was renamed the Choral Hall,[39] becoming a popular venue for concerts, traveling shows and political speeches.