Florence Sally Horner

Florence "Sally" Horner[2] (April 18, 1937 – August 18, 1952) was an American girl who, at the age of 11, was abducted by serial child molester Frank La Salle in June 1948 and held captive for twenty-one months. It is believed that Vladimir Nabokov drew on the details of her case in writing his novel Lolita, although Nabokov consistently denied this.[3][4]

Sally Horner
Studio portrait of Florence Sally Horner sitting on a swing.
Photograph of Sally Horner taken in 1948, by her captor, Frank La Salle [1]
Born
Florence Horner

(1937-04-18)April 18, 1937
Camden, New Jersey, U.S.
DiedAugust 18, 1952(1952-08-18) (aged 15)
Woodbine, New Jersey, U.S.
Known forKidnapping victim

Background

Florence Horner was born on April 18, 1937, in Camden, New Jersey, to Russell Horner (1901–1943) and Ella Horner (née Goff, 1906–1998). Russell committed suicide when Horner was five years old, leaving Ella to raise her daughter as a single parent, helped by Horner's older half-sister, Susan Panaro (née Swain, 1926–2012), who was seven months pregnant at the time of her sister's kidnapping. Horner was a 5th grade student at Northeast Elementary School, where she was noted as an honors student.[5][6]

Frank La Salle

Frank La Salle was a 51-year old[lower-alpha 1] mechanic and convicted sex offender, also known by several aliases, including Frank Warner, Frank Patterson, Frank Johnson, Frank LaPlante, Frank Robinson, Frank O'Keefe, Frank Fogg, Harry Patterson and Jack O'Keefe.[7][8] He already had an extensive criminal record, dating back to June 1938, when he was suspected of kidnapping and sex trafficking in St. Louis, Missouri, and included enticing a minor, indecent assault, bigamy, check fraud, assault and battery, hit-and-run, statutory rape, and "desertion and non support" of his second wife and daughter.[7][8][9]

La Salle made varying claims about his life. In his Social Security applications and prison intake forms, depending on his current identity, he gave differing information on his parents' names, hometown, and birth date, though most commonly the first names Frank and Nora, Chicago or Indianapolis, and the date May 27, with a birth year between 1890 and 1901 respectively. He claimed to have served a sentence between 1924 and 1928 for bootlegging in Leavenworth Penitentiary under a false name.[8]

On July 31, 1937, 41-year old La Salle, as 36-year old Frank Fogg, was listed as having married Dorothy May Dare in Elkton, Maryland, when she was 17 years old. Her father, David Dare, tried to have La Salle arrested when he discovered his false identity and the fact that he was still legally married, but the charges were dropped by police when he provided a marriage certificate. In 1944, La Salle was convicted for the molestation and sexual assault of five underaged girls in 1943.[3][8][10] Dorothy Dare subsequently filed for divorce the year of his conviction.[8] He was released on January 15, 1948, after partially serving a five-year sentence at Trenton State Prison.[9]

Abduction

In March 1948, 10-year-old Horner attempted to steal a five-cent notebook from a local Woolworths as part of a dare by schoolmates[11] and was caught in the act by Frank La Salle.[12] La Salle approached Horner and told her that he was an FBI agent, threatening to have her sent to a reform school unless she reported to him periodically.

On June 15, 1948, he abducted Horner.[13] La Salle instructed her to tell her mother he was the father of two of her school friends and she had been invited on their week-long family vacation to Atlantic City to see the Jersey Shore. Initially, Horner was made to send letters to her mother in which she was informed that the "vacation" would last longer than expected, until July 31, 1948, when the last letter was received by Ella Horner. At this point, Ella contacted the police, who investigated the sender address in Atlantic City on August 4, but found the home empty, except for two packed suitcases and a studio photo of Horner sitting on a swing.[3] According to Horner, they were first accompanied by one "Ms. Robinson", whom La Salle referred to as his 25-year old secretary and paid her a weekly salary of $90, but left after they arrived in Atlantic City.[14]

Over the course of 21 months, La Salle traveled through several U.S. states with Horner under various aliases, claiming to be the girl's father, and according to charges later brought against La Salle, it was during this period that he raped her repeatedly. They first stayed in Baltimore, Maryland, where Horner was enrolled at a Catholic grammar school under the name "Madeleine La Plante".[15] During this time, La Salle would carry a handgun on his person to dissuade Horner from attempting escape.[14]

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.[14] Eventually, Horner began to open up to a neighbor, Ruth Janisch, who had become suspicious of La Salle's demeanor and possessive tendencies towards his supposed daughter, but she would not fully admit to the true circumstances. Unknown to her, La Salle also regularly molested her five-year old daughter while Horner was at school, which only came to light following his death.[8] In early March, 1950, Janisch and her husband moved to San Jose, California, in search of work, with her asking La Salle to do the same, in hopes that she could keep in contact with Horner.

After several more weeks, Janisch was able to convince Horner to tell her the truth and then allowed her to phone her family from her residence. She first attempted to call her mother, but the line disconnected, as Ella Horner, having lost her job as a seamstress a month earlier, was unable to pay her phone bill. Horner then placed a collect call to her sister Susan, giving her location and asking her to send the FBI.[8] When arrested on March 22 by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office, La Salle continued to insist that he was Horner's father. However, authorities in New Jersey confirmed that Horner's real father had died seven years previously. Horner was reunited with her mother on April 1 at Philadelphia International Airport.[2][16] La Salle was extradited to New Jersey, where he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to 30 to 35 years in Trenton State Prison under the Mann Act on April 3.[17][18]

Death

Horner died in a car accident near Woodbine, New Jersey, on August 18, 1952.[19] Her cause of death was determined to have been from a broken neck.[20] 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."[21]

La Salle sent a bouquet of flowers to the funeral from prison, which was not displayed at the wishes of Susan and Al Panaro. La Salle died on March 22, 1966, exactly 16 years after his arrest, from arteriosclerosis, aged 69.[8] He is buried in Cavalry Cemetery, Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

Cultural references

Critic Alexander Dolinin proposed in 2005 that Frank La Salle and Florence Sally Horner were the real-life inspirations for Humbert Humbert and Dolores "Lolita" Haze from Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.[22]

Sarah Weinman's 2018 book The Real Lolita deals with the Horner case and also alleges that Horner's ordeal inspired Lolita.[23][24]

Although Nabokov had already used the same basic idea—that of a child molester and his victim booking into a hotel as father and daughter—in his then unpublished 1939 work Volshebnik (Волшебник),[25] it is still possible that he drew on the details of the Horner case in writing Lolita. An English translation of Volshebnik was published in 1985 as The Enchanter.[26] Nabokov explicitly mentions the Horner case in Chapter 33, Part II of Lolita: "Had I done to Dolly, perhaps, what Frank Lasalle, a fifty-year-old mechanic, had done to eleven-year-old Sally Horner in 1948?"

See also

Further reading
  • Weinman, Sarah (11 September 2018). Murray, Brian; Restivo-Alessi, Chantal; Nevins, Larry; Bunrham, Jonathan (eds.). The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World. New York City, New York, United States of America: HarperCollins. ISBN 9780062661920. OCLC 1129542049. Retrieved 5 August 2021 – via Google Books.
  • Greenwood, Tammy (7 August 2018). Witte, George (ed.). Rust & Stardust: A novel. New York City, New York, United States of America: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9781250164193. LCCN 2018001891. OCLC 1056491849. Retrieved 5 August 2021 – via Google Books.

Notes
  1. La Salle's age at the time of the kidnapping has been alternatively given as 50, 52, 53 or 54 by various local newspapers at the time. United Press incorrectly reported his age as 56 in 1950, while Associated Press reported it as 52. His death certificate lists his date of birth as May 27, 1896. The same document gives his full name as "Frank La Salle III", though his name is engraved without the suffix on his headstone.

References
  1. "The Real Lolita". njmonthly.
  2. "Sally And Mother Are United Again After 21 Months". Courier-Post. April 1, 1950. pp. 1–2.
  3. Linge, Mary Kay (2018-08-04). "The girl whose tragic story inspired 'Lolita'". New York Post. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  4. Hand, Elizabeth (September 7, 2011). "The case that partly inspired 'Lolita' — despite what Nabokov said". The Los Angeles Times.
  5. "The Real-Life Lolita and Nabokov's Novel". NJ Spotlight News. August 27, 2019. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
  6. "The Salacious Non-Mystery of "The Real Lolita"". The New Yorker. 2018-09-17. Retrieved 2023-03-20.
  7. "Camden Girl Flees Kidnapper In Calif. After 21 Months". Post-Courier. March 22, 1950. p. 2.
  8. Weinman, Sarah (2018). The Real Lolita. Ecco. ISBN 978-0062661920.
  9. "Camden Girl Saved From Kidnaper in Calif". Courier-Post. March 22, 1950. p. 1.
  10. "The forgotten real-life story behind Lolita". CBC News.
  11. Vittek, Shelby (2018-09-06). "The Untold Story of The Real Lolita". New Jersey Monthly. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
  12. "Camden People - Florence "Sally" Horner". www.dvrbs.com. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
  13. Dolinin, Alexander (9 September 2005). Stothard, Peter (ed.). "What Happened to Sally Horner?: A Real-Life Source of Nabokov's Lolita". The Times Literary Supplement. London, United Kingdom of Great Britain: The Times Literary Supplement Limited (News UK/News Corp). 103 (5377): 11–12. ISSN 0307-661X.
  14. "Lived In Terror, Sally Says". Courier-Post. March 22, 1950. p. 1.
  15. "The story of the girl who is said to have inspired Lolita". gulfnews.com. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
  16. "Sally Horner returns to mother". The Decatur Daily. April 2, 1950. p. 1.
  17. Machen, Ernest (27 November 1998). Mount, Ferdinand (ed.). "Sources of inspiration for 'Lolita'". The Times Literary Supplement. London, United Kingdom of Great Britain: The Times Literary Supplement Limited (News UK/News Corp). 96 (4991): 17. ISSN 0307-661X.
  18. "LaSalle Given 30 Years". Courier-Post. April 3, 1950. pp. 1–2.
  19. Weinman, Sarah (September 6, 2018). Haskell, David (ed.). "The Last Days of the Real Lolita: What happened after Sally Horner, whose story helped inspire the novel, returned home". The Cut. New York City, New York, United States of America: Vox Media Network (Vox Media, LLC.). Archived from the original on 6 September 2018.
  20. "Crash At Shore Kills Girl Kidnap Victim". Courier-Post. August 18, 1952. p. 1.
  21. Dolinin, Alexander (9 September 2005). Edmunds, Jeff H.; Brockman, William S.; Hamilton, John (eds.). "What Happened to Sally Horner?: A Real-Life Source of Nabokov's Lolita (expanded article with newspaper articles from TLS)". Zembla. Penn State University Park: University Libraries of the Pennsylvania State University. Archived from the original on 24 December 2005. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  22. Dowell, Ben (10 September 2005). "1940s sex kidnap inspired Lolita". The Sunday Times. London: The Times Newspapers Limited. ISSN 0956-1382. OCLC 605140119. Archived from the original on 16 June 2021. Retrieved 5 August 2021 – via The Nabokovian (International Vladimir Nabokov Society).{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  23. McAlpin, Heller (11 September 2018). Lansing, John (ed.). "'The Real Lolita' Investigates The True Crime Story Of Sally Horner". NPR. Washington, D.C., United States of America: National Public Radio Inc. Archived from the original on 11 September 2018.
  24. Waldman, Katy (17 September 2018). Haskell, David (ed.). "The Salacious Non-Mystery of "The Real Lolita"". The New Yorker. New York City, New York, United States of America: Vox Media Network (Vox Media, LLC.). ISSN 0028-792X. OCLC 320541675. Archived from the original on 17 September 2018.
  25. Nabokov, Vladimir (1991). Nabokov, Dmitri (ed.). Volshebnik Волшебник [The Enchanter] (in Russian). Translated by Dmitri Nabokov (1st ed.). Moscow, Russia.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  26. Nabokov, Vladimir (1 July 1991). Nabokov, Dmitri (ed.). The Enchanter. Translated by Dmitri Nabokov (1st ed.). New York City, New York, United States of America: Vintage Books. ISBN 9780679728863. LCCN 90055704. OCLC 22957141. Retrieved 5 August 2021 – via Internet Archive.
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