As she states in her book, Weinman wasnt the first to point out the connections between Horner and her fictional counterpart. And its a claim undermined by the fact that we know so little about her: We dont know how she felt or how she understood her experience. On a dare from school friends, the 11-year-old Horner was determined to steal a five-cent notebook from Woolworth's. The young girl had the notebook hidden and was exiting the store when an older man grabbed her arm, stopping her. Louisiana and 1 other state had the highest population of Lasalle families in 1840. Our skimmable newsletter is delivered to your inbox each week, giving you 5 things you need to read and get smarter. Nabokov creates this name and numerous habitations as Humbert abducts Dolores Haze and takes her on a cross-country journey that mirrors that of Frank La Salle and Sally Horner. On her way home from school the next day, though, the man sought her out again. Sally believed he was an FBI agent: she felt his power and feared it, even though it was false. "We hugged for a good five or 10 minutes," he said. Hed been released from prison only six months prior to taking Sally. Claiming to be with the FBI, he said he saw her stealing but would let her go if she agreed to report to him occasionally. [11] As the Associated Press reported on August 20, 1952: "Florence Sally Horner, a 15-year-old Camden, N.J., girl who spent 21 months as the captive of a middle-aged morals offender a few years ago, was killed in a highway accident when the car in which she was riding plowed into the rear of a parked truck. San Antonio FBI officials insisted the dead man was not positively identified, but other agents who provided his name said he was a registered sex offender from Montgomery County. [9] In April, 1949, La Salle relocated them to a trailer park in Dallas, Texas, having Horner attend a school as "Florence Planette", where she confided her secret to a friend. Or literary inspiration? But Henry saved his biggest "thank you" for the heroic deputy. The controversial 1955 novel tells the story of a literature professor in his 40s who becomes obsessed and sexually involved with a 12-year-old girl who also happens to be his stepdaughter. Witnesses offer conflicting accounts, How Palm Springs ran out Black and Latino families to build a fantasy for rich, white people, Mars Voltas lead singer broke with Scientology and reunited with the band. The way we commodify young girls bodies, our social veneration of virginityand the notion that if a child is not a virgin its less of a crime to rape herall this is in the pages of Nabokovs novel. The two went to Atlantic City and La Salle rented an apartment under an assumed name. But there was also a storybehindthe story ofLolita. Camden cops visited the return address on Sallys letters on Aug. 4. He waived his right to a lawyer and pleaded guilty to all charges. However, its very easy to surrender to the story, where were shown nothing else than a pedophile kidnapping an 11-year-old. His name was Frank La Salle, and he was no FBI agent rather, he was the sort G-men wanted to drive off the streets, though Sally didn't learn that until it was far too late. A scar sliced his cheek by the right side of his nose, while his shirt collar shrouded another mark on his throat. The man was known to the police as Frank La Salle. The chain of events that followed is more harrowing than the work of fiction because they are fact. Concerned, she tried to pry the truth out of the girl, without success. The sheriff questioned Sally gently, asking if her captor had been intimate with her. Reviewed and approved by the psychologist Valeria Sabater. Send the FBI after me, please! the girl shouted over the cross-country static. More than six hours after the man's suicide, crime scene technicians still hadn't entered the cabin, Beverly said, but "it's going to be a very detailed, methodic search that takes place out there, with an eye towards not only gathering the evidence but to identify if he had co-conspirators or if there were other victims in other parts of the country.". We even have a television show devoted to them: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, about to start its 20th season. It is the story of a girl made vulnerable by the social expectation that children defer to adults. To call Sally the real Lolita is to overstate the influence of her case on Nabokov. They don't replace the diagnosis, advice, or treatment of a professional. They expect to have a match today. An entire childhood, stolen away first by evil, then a cruel twist of fate. But before leaving Dallas, Sally confided to a new friend at school what La Salle had been doing to her for the last year and a half. Hewas fresh out of prison. He was in fact La Salle, whod already served time for raping five girls under age 15. Sally Horners story is tragic, but her connection to Lolita is more tenuous than Weinman suggests. Their defense is framed in terms of evolution and biological imperative, and anyway arent there countries where girls are married at 11? He held her captive for 21 months until she managed to escape and call her family. Notable people with the surname include: Gadifer de la Salle (1340-1415), French soldier of Norman origin. The girl was shocked and told Horner that the relationship was wrong and that she should put an end to it. He told neighbors that he had divorced his dissolute wife to give his girl a more stable home. Nonetheless, the saddest thing happened two years later. A bizarre true crime case that captured the publics attention and inspired Vladimir Nabokov to pen his famous novel. The Real Lolita The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World by Sarah Weinman Ecco, 306 pp., $27.99. In March, 1948, 10-year-old Horner attempted to steal a five-cent notebook from a Woolworths in her hometown as part of a dare by schoolmates[5] and was caught in the act by Frank La Salle. Years before writing that book, Nabokov penned Volshebnik, a slender, unpublished novella, under his Russian pen name V. Sirin, posthumously translated by his son, Dmitri, as The Enchanter and first published in 1986. How did Lolita come to be so popular, such a subject of wide controversy, and so enduring? If I went back home, or they sent for me, or I ran away, Id go to prison, Sally eventually told investigators. In June 1948, 11-year-old Sally Horner was lured from her Camden . But before they were 100 yards away Billeiter said he heard a single gunshot behind them. (Constantin Joffe / Conde Nast via Getty Images), Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel, A hardcore coming-of-age novel nails the glitter and grime of L.A.s 80s metal scene, 10 books to add to your reading list this May, Aging beloved YA author Judy Blumes inevitable foil isnt so bad after all, Adult friendship is hard. He had just been released from prison for raping five girls aged from 12 to 14. Sally Horner thought that was going to be the end of the affair, but the next day the man she believed was an FBI agent stopped her as she left school. So, in March of 1948, La Salle went back to his old ways after obsessing about a girl named Sally Horner. But he was no FBI agent. "This is probably when the hard work really starts," Doguim said. But Sarah Weinmans exhaustive research reveals many parallels: What Humbert Humbert did to Dolores Haze is, in fact, what Frank La Salle did to Sally Horner in 1948.. Rocco Palese, the judge in the case, said at the sentencing, Mothers throughout the country will give a sigh of relief to know that a man of this type is safely in prison.. Sally Horner, who was kidnapped at the age of 11, may have been the inspiration for Vladimir Nabokovs Lolita. But the unavoidable truth is that pedophilia plotline in the 1955 novel Lolita was not an original concept. Facebook, Murderers, Mayhem and Crime Whorrors, Facebook, New Jersey Historic Preservation Office. After she escaped La Salles clutches, she died just two years later in a car accident. Cox is also suspected in the recent abductions of young girls in San Antonio and Slidell, La., whose cases on Friday were still technically open. It took 21 months to break free of him, after a cross-country journey from Camden, New Jersey, to San Jose, California. Officials wouldn't disclose who owns the cabin but said they believe it's the same site described by the kidnapped girls from San Antonio and Slidell. "It was Labor Day . Her friends judgment was swift: It was wrong, and I ought to stop, Sally said later, I did stop, too. She began to rebuff La Salles advances. Horner was not forced to testify, and La Salle was sentenced to 30-35 years in prison. About 9:30 a.m. Friday, an unidentified citizen called the sheriff to report a suspicious vehicle parked at a secluded hunting lease off Texas Highway 16, about 4 miles west of town. Massive ranch up for sale near Texas next big state park, Family gets largest known jail-death settlement in Texas, Texas man catches giant alligator snapping turtle, releases it, 3,800-acre San Antonio-area property to become Texas state park, Texas House passes bill to decriminalize marijuana, Conroe ISD schools secured as manhunt for gunman continues, Texas college baseball player hit by stray bullet mid-game, Uber ranks Houston among most 'forgetful' U.S. cities, You can own your own cave system for a cool $875k, home included, Watch: Fire breaks out at Houston's Traders Village, Former KPRC 2 anchor Dominique Sachse to launch podcast Monday, KPRC 2 Houston names new 4 p.m. anchor, adds traffic lead, Massive Coastal Bend ranch up for sale near Texas next big state park, Family gets largest known jail-death settlement in Texas: 'We wanted justice', Texas man catches massive alligator snapping turtle, then releases it back into the wild, Property north of San Antonio set to become a new Texas state park, Conroe ISD schools secured as manhunt for Cleveland, Texas shooter continues, Texas A&M University-Texarkana baseball player hit by a stray bullet mid-game. The article he transcribed onto one of his notecards called Sally the cross-country slave of a middle-aged morals offender who was branded a moral leper by the sentencing judge. That note is one of the few the author saved with his archived papers. She must tell her parents that hes the father of a school friend and that hes invited her to accompany their family on a beach vacation. "The girl is doing fine," said Kerr County Sheriff Randy Hierholzer. Weinman reproduces the letter in full: Vra Nabokov flatly states, It [the Horner kidnapping] did not inspire the book., Weinman sets out to correct this erasure and honor Sally Horner, the triple victim: snatched from her ordinary life by Frank La Salle, only for her life to be cut short by car accident, and then strip-mined to produce the bones of Lolita.. Sally Horner (far left) was met by her mother on the day she returned home after her kidnapping ordeal. The girl had to provide a statement to the contrary. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? Author and avid lepidopterist Vladimir Nabokov with a butterfly in 1947. The Real Lolita incorporates interviews with surviving neighbors and family members of Horner and La Salle, court documents and prison records, newspaper accounts of the crime and archival material relating to Nabokovs succs de scandale. Near the end of Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov writes: Had I done to Dolly, perhaps, what Frank Lasalle, a fifty-year-old mechanic, had done to eleven-year-old Sally Horner in 1948? Jean-Baptiste de La Salle (1651-1719), Patron saint of Teachers and Founder of Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. When Billeiter arrived at the scene, the man and girl were in a car similar to one linked by the earlier kidnapping victims. As Sally, described by a teacher as a perfectly lovely girl, was leaving the store, a slender, hawk-faced man with cold, blue-grey eyes and a scar on his cheek grabbed her by the arm. Not surprisingly, Sally fretted a lot about whether her folks would want her after what happened, the matron at the childrens home told reporters. Presumably terrified that shed be arrested if she didnt cooperate, Sally went home and told her mother shed been invited to go on vacation with a school friend. Nabokov denied that his novel was inspired by the famous 1948 case, but this literary detective work reveals many parallels. Thats when Sally Horners mother learned the terrible truth. Two years after she escaped, Sally was killed in a car crash. A Camden prosecutor filed abduction charges against La Salle. That seems like an overstatementhow many people have even heard her name?but its true that tales of girls like her, abused and abducted, have a lurid fascination. The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World. Author Vladimir Nabokov undertook research of all kinds to write what's widely considered to be the most gripping and well-written study in perversion of the 20th century. On March 22, 1950 while La Salle was out job hunting, Sally Horner told her story to the neighbor, who let her use the phone to call her sister. An All Thats Interesting writer since 2013, Erin Kelly focuses on historic places, natural wonders, environmental issues, and the world of science. Humbert Humbert ends up luring his victim, Lolita, into the same universe of shadows. Join our community book club. Why is Frank McCourt really pushing it? Her mothers phone line had been disconnected, but Horner called her sister Susans house.
An Area Covered With Underground Explosives Word Craze, Richard Bramtys Brother, Articles F