THE CAST OF CHARACTERS
Esther Mitchell
If any of the Holy Rollers
could be said to have had wretched childhoods, it would have been the Mitchells.
In 1894, when Esther was six,
their mother, Martha, died of typhoid in Newberg, Oregon, and their father, Charles, essentially
abandoned his family.
Charles Mitchell was described, on the one hand, as a “nothing,” and, on the other, as “a man of strong peculiarities and eccentricities.” He was a Quaker not known for his peaceful ways, a man who “could not argue, or debate, or reason with anyone without flying off the handle.” After his wife died, he joined the Salvation Army, and soon it consumed his every waking thought. He was intoxicated with the Salvation Army, so much that his seven children would have been little worse off had he spent his evenings drinking at a saloon, and his days sleeping off a drunk. Nothing could keep him from his religious devotions--not even taking care of his children, five of whom at the time of his wife’s death were between the ages of six and fifteen. Eventually Charles Mitchell returned to Illinois, where the family had migrated from. He remarried, but he never brought any of his brood out to live with him.
Esther Mitchell, fifteen in 1903, was the youngest Mitchell, a piano
player for the Salvation Army, and was said to not be “in complete harmony with
this wicked world.” She was considered to be gentle and kind, but she rarely
smiled, had “a far away look in her eyes,” and “a dreamy, absorbed expression.”
She was also “given much to silent thought”--especially that summer she spent with the Holy Rollers and Edmund Creffield on Smith Island.
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Photos on the right are stills from How the Fire Fell, Edward P. Davee’s movie based on the Holy Rollers.
Most were taken by Destiny Lane.
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Brighid Thomas as Esther Mitchell
Brighid Thomas, Jason Haines, Tim Crabtree, and Ed Vilderman
as Esther, George, Perry & Fred Mitchell
Jason Haines, Tim Crabtree, Ed Vilderman & Brighid Thomas
George, Perry, Fred and Esther Mitchell
Brighid Thomas as Esther Mitchell
Brighid Thomas as Esther Mitchell
Brighid Thomas & Maren McGuire as
Esther Mitchell & Maud Hurt Creffield
Chapters from
Holy Rollers: Murder & Madness in Oregon's Love Cult
Part 1: The Seduction
Chapter 1: Trust Me, Brothers And Sisters
(Life Before Creffield [B.C.])
Chapter 2: God, Save Us From Compromising Preachers
(Creffield's Preachings)
Chapter 3: The Flock
(Profiles of the Holy Rollers Were)
Chapter 4: The Holy Rollers
(Things Start to Get Wild on on Kiger Island)
Chapter 5: Housecleaning
(There's a Sacrificial Bonfire)
Chapter 6: Community Concerns
(Officers Visit)
Chapter 7: Esther, The Chosen One
(Creffield Plans to Marry 16-Year- Old)
Chapter 8: Tar and Feathers
(The Men of Corvallis Act)
Chapter 9: Sane People Don’t Go Bareheaded
(Holy Rollers are Committed to the Asylum)
Chapter 10: More Beast Than Man
( Creffield is Arrested)
Chapter 11: God Will Plead Creffield's Case
(Creffield in Court)
Chapter 12: Scandal
(Shocking Testimony at the Trial)
Chapter 13: Calm Before the Storm
(The Holy Rollers Resume their Lives)
Chapter 14: Giving Up The Ghost
(Men are Gunning for Creffield)
Part Two: The People V. Creffield
Chapter 16: The Widow Creffield
Chapter 19: An Inherited Streak of Insanity
Part Three: The Madness
Chapter 23: Seeking Reconciliation
Chapter 24: Another Holy Roller Page One Murder
Chapter 25: What Can Papa Do For You?
Chapter 26: Human Life is Too Cheap In This Community
Chapter 30: The Final Chapter
(What Happened to Everyone Afterwards)
The Epilogue
(Heaven's Gate)
Newspaper Articles about Creffield & the Holy Rollers
1897-1903: B.C. (Before Creffield)
October to December 1903:Holy Rollers Burn Furniture & Pets
January to March, 1904: Holy Rollers Tarred and Feathered
April to June 1904: Holy Rollers are Committed to the Asylum
July 1904: Creffield is Found & Arrested
September 1904: Creffield's Trial
April 1906: Men are Gunning For Creffield
May 1906: Creffield is Murdered, Murderer is Considered a Hero
May 1906: Holy Rollers Found Starving Near Heceta Head
June 1906: George Mitchell's Trial Begins
July 1906: Hurt Testifies of Debauched Wife and Debased Sisters
July 1906: Esther Mitchell Kills Her Brother
August to October 1906: Seattle Prepares for another Big Trial
November 1906: Maud Hurt Creffield Commits Suicide
April 1909-August 1914: Esther Leaves the Asylum
1953 Stewart Holbrook's Murder Without Tears
1951Startling Detective Magazine, Nemesis of the Nudist High Priest
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