Horner was relieved to avoid an arrest. In this universe, he satisfies his fascination with lolitas or young teenagers. Sally Horner, who was kidnapped at the age of 11, may have been the inspiration for Vladimir Nabokovs Lolita. Hands book Curious Toys, a historical novel featuring Henry Darger, is coming from Mulholland Books next year. Sallys beach trip became a cross-country odyssey as Frank La Salle, a convicted pedophile, took her on the lam, posing as her father in public and raping her repeatedly behind closed doors. Generator vs power station: Which one is right for you? She kept quiet about the sexual abuse. This dark and very tragic story inspired Vladimir Nabokov to write one of the most famous literature novels of all times:Lolita(1955). 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. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. A twisted version of the story played out in the novel Lolita, which later became a film starring Sue Lyon (left) and James Mason (in chair). The sheriff questioned Sally gently, asking if her captor had been intimate with her. The man threatened to send Horner to reform school, and the young girl wept and pleaded to be let go. 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. They seemed happy and entirely devoted to each other, one neighbor said to investigators. The government ordered him to keep me and take care of me, thats what he said.. Leah's parents, Linda and Tim Henry, were then notified about her recovery and she was taken to a Kerrville hospital. Sally died in a car accident when she was 15. She wrote to Frank La Salle in Dallas and told him that he should come to California because work was plentiful. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? However, aFrench publisher who specialized in pornographic content decided to go ahead and publish the book. Nabokov never admitted to Sallys role in the Lolita backstory. 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.. He said the girl told him she had been with the man at the cabin since Tuesday, the day she disappeared in Houston, about 260 miles east of here. Lolita challenges the boundaries of our morality, and our fascination with sex crimes is at least as strong today as it was in the 1950s. The news spurred him to hit the road again. frank la salle biography But the unavoidable truth is that pedophilia plotline in the 1955 novel Lolita was not an original concept. 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.. On April 3, 1950, he pleaded guilty and was immediately sentenced to 41 years in prison. Whats heartbreaking about this true story is how it ends for Horner. Horner gave testimony that he held her captive and forced her to have sex with him. fanatics size chart youth SU,F's Musings from the Interweb. Few books tell a story with so many contradictions. Sally believed he was an FBI agent: she felt his power and feared it, even though it was false. However, its very easy to surrender to the story, where were shown nothing else than a pedophile kidnapping an 11-year-old. Nabokov was notably dismissive of such investigative efforts on the part of journalists or readers. He held her captive for 21 months until she managed to escape and call her family. He had just been released from prison for raping five girls aged from 12 to 14. Our understanding of Stockholm syndrome has changed how we think about victims who have stayed with their abductors even when there were opportunities to flee. 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. function MM_openBrWindow(theURL,winName,features) { //v1.2 SMOJ. She wouldnt see her daughter again for almost two years. Just like any other girl her age, she was fearless, trustful, and very naive. Current affairs have raised questions as to what constitutes inappropriate behavior with minors. But the unavoidable truth is that pedophilia plotline in the 1955 novel Lolita was not an original concept. Local deputies took the terrified 12-year-old to a childrens shelter, while other officers staked out La Salles mobile home. We even have a television show devoted to them: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, about to start its 20th season. And even James Mason regretted accepting the part. 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. Nabokov even referred to Sally by name in the novel. He told her things had changed and that the government insisted she accompany him to Atlantic City. He spun a web of lies about the law to frighten her, and the naive girl had no reason to doubt his supposed authority. La Salle was arrested and charged under the Mann Act of 1910; a law against human trafficking. However, its not easy for these types of men to hold back the predator that lives inside them. You did great. 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. [2], Florence Sally Horner was born on April 18, 1937, in Camden, New Jersey, to Russell Horner (19011943) and Ella Horner (19061998, ne Goff). They always told people they were father and daughter. Ive been afraid to call before. La Salle spent the rest of his life in prison. At this point, Ella contacted the police, who investigated the sender address in Atlantic City on August 4, but found the home empty, safe for two packed suitcases and a studio photo of Horner sitting on a swing. It wasnt until they landed in San Jose, California that a neighbor noticed something was off with the girl. We see Nabokov juggling teaching, writing, and driving around the United States to catch butterflies. We are intrigued; we wonder about dark impulses and taboo urges; we are horrified; we cannot look away. On March 21, when La Salle left to seek work, Janisch invited the girl over. The main character lacks Humbert Humberts seductive, first-person narrative voice that can captivate readers, making them complicit in his crimes. If I went back home, or they sent for me, or I ran away, Id go to prison, Sally eventually told investigators. Today we would have an interview on 60 Minutes and commentary from psychologists about her condition. "[12] La Salle sent a bouquet of flowers to the funeral from prison, which was not displayed at the wishes of Susan and Al Panaro. frank la salle biography She was to trick her mother with a cover story about a family vacation with a friend. Just after midnight on Aug. 18, speeding along a dark two-lane highway, he plowed into the back of a broken-down truck. If she refused she would be sent to the reformatory. After reading about the kidnapping of Sally Horner that helped inspire Lolita, read about the true story of the John Paul Getty III kidnapping. In addition to the parenthetical aside in Lolita, handwritten notes on an index card Nabokov used for the book one of the few to survive his regular purges refer to the death of 15-year-old Horner in a car crash two years after La Salle was captured, just as Dolores Haze dies just a few years after her escape from her stepfather. This seems odd, at the least. 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. Some school friends convinced the 11-year-old girl to steal a notebook (worth about a nickel at the time) from the local Woolworth's in her town of Camden, N.J. 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. But there are flashes of the sinister beauty that illuminate the darkest moments in Lolita, and events (like the death in a car accident of The Enchanters protagonist) that prefigure central scenes in Nabokovs masterpiece. What Horners mother couldnt have known was that she was sending her daughter on vacation with a 50-year-old mechanic with a rampant pedophilia problem. Were she alive today, Sally Horner might have been encouraged to write a memoir of her abuse and escape, or perhaps a novel. 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