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Hello and welcome back to Cult Leader. I'm your Cult Leader Spencer Henry and this is part two of the St. Auburn Street massacre. See, I told you last week I promised you would not leave you on any cliffhangers.

So I feel like we should just get right into it in today's episode part two. The finale we are going to be going over all of our suspects. Talk about possible connected crimes in the area and a whole bunch of other stuff. If you want to see pictures from each week's episode follow along online at Cult Leader Podcast and feel free to rate and review.

I'm going to insert one more clip from last week's so we can kind of just pick up right where we left off. The following days and weeks after these murders you can imagine there was a ton of press reporting in real time about the investigation in which six main suspects that I found continuously popped up.

I've gathered an article for each of the six individuals that I feel like best encompasses their tie-in. So we're going to go through our suspects list next week together and then afterwards we'll kind of recap and omit who I think had nothing to do with it and try and theorize the ones who are most likely to have been involved.

That seems like a good place to pick up. Wouldn't you say? Alright so as mentioned this week we were talking about the suspects as well as some eerie aftermath. Now one of the first suspects to be arrested was Angelo to Poli. And article came out on July 4th of 1929. The day after the murders were discovered and it just kind of tells us why. So the headline said arrest.

Explanation point. Neighbor of beheaded cult chief in Detroit. Angelo to Poli is held by the police after the murder of the evangelist. Quote discovery of a stained razor edge knife and a short axe as well as a pair of freshly washed shoes in the barn of Angelo to Poli 34 led to his arrest late last night in connection with the slaying of many evangelist.

The body of evangelist with the head severed lying on the floor beside the chair on which it was slumped was found in his home yesterday by Vincent Elias real estate dealer who called on a business

there and police summoned by Elias discovered the bodies of Mrs. Evangelist and her children all in bed horribly mutilated arms of one of the children were amputated and the heads of all were almost severed to poli held for investigation admitted acquaintance with the family but denied connection with the murders.

Study of the strange cult which evangelist headed and the fact that money jewelry and papers in the house were untouched led police to believe the slangs were the work of a religious fanatic. The evangelist cult was known as the Union Federation of America and apparently was founded by evangelist 20 years ago.

Flaiming the quote power of God evangelist practiced divine healing and gave readings in a dingy room of the basement of his home where there was an altar dedicated to eight or Chan wax figures hideous and grotesque to the extreme each representing one of the celestial planets among them was suspended a huge glass eye electrically lighted from the inside which evangelist referred to in a Bible he wrote as the son.

To poli denied connection with the cult but police said neighbors of evangelist told them to poli was a frequent visitor of the home and that's where we'll end that article.

Alright so here's my takeaways from this one we now know a little bit more about the wax figures they're possible meaning which makes more sense now right the wax figures represented the planets the glass eye acted as the son again this article came out on July 4th which is the day after the bodies were discovered and I was actually surprised at how quickly they were able to bust this out.

My second big takeaway from this article is that the article states that nothing in the house was touched which is a very important detail when we're talking about cases because it means that it was most likely personal or there was some ulterior motive here whether this was a cult member or cult rival perhaps we'll get into that once we reach the 30s towards the end of the story but anytime there's cash and whatnot just left out in plain sight I feel like it automatically omits any possibility of it just being a burglary turned moida.

I do think Angelo Di Poli is a major suspect in this because he was brought up in several articles but a lot of people saw him coming and going from the house on a semi frequent basis and I do believe that he had a lot to do with the cult but after the bodies were discovered after this murder happened it the cult pretty quickly disbanded and nobody really wanted to act like they were a part of it which will get into more a little bit later on.

The next suspect that I want to look at is John Reign and just FYI I'm going in chronological order of when the news articles came out because that's genuinely how I found them and then I was like okay this works.

So this article came out on July 7th of 1929 three days later and the headline was police still seek clues in cult murder.

Nothing new found still hope perpetrator of killing a family of six may be apprehended Detroit Michigan July 5th six fresh mounds of clay Saturday nights spurred Detroit detectives on in a widespread search for the slayer of many evangelist 43 year old cult leader in his family of five evangelist a former student of York, Pennsylvania scene of recent quote hex murders was found be headed in the study of his east side home last Wednesday and upstairs his wife three daughters and infants son were found hacked to death with the burial of the family.

Saturday police authorities still clung to hope that the perpetrator may yet be apprehended simple funeral services preceding the internment where held that San Francisco's Roman Catholic church the church evangelist had scorned for the weird cult he conceived the tiny Italian church became the focal point for a throng of hundreds of men women and children hours before the two blue and four white caskets were wheeled into the edifice.

The first of the curious gathered in the morning the church bells were ringing merrily as a wedding party with galley decked automobiles confetti and bright streamers brought bridal guests a few hours later the same bells toiled a funeral dirge for the murdered family more than 3000 persons milled in and about the church squads of detectives and police officials mingled in the throng and the faint hope that the slayer might return to see the end of his handiwork and by some gesture or unusual action betray his guilt.

The next day, John Ryan 29 of Dearborn Michigan whose actions at the church were characterized by detectives as peculiar so what does it mean?

Like literally what does it mean? I've seen this in a lot of lifetime movies. I remember oh shit I'm pretty little liars they did it all the time.

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