Adam Purple (born David Lloyd Wilkie; November 10, 1930 – September 14, 2015) was an activist and urban Edenist or "Guerrilla Gardener" famous in New York City for his "Garden of Eden". His birth name was David Lloyd Wilkie, although he went by many others, including "Rev. Les Ego". Early life Born in Independence, Missouri, to Richard and Juanita Wilkie as the middle child of seven, his father was a machinist, carpenter and blacksmith while Juanita was a seamstress, gardener and bookkeeper. In 1945, Richard was trying to put out a fire when he was electrocuted and died. Adam served in the U.S. Army and graduated with a master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. He taught at high schools and junior colleges in California and South Dakota. Making his way east, he was a reporter for The York Gazette and Daily in York, Pennsylvania, eventually ending up in New York City in 1968. Family and move to Australia He had at least four biological children and two stepchildren. With his first wife, Ann, he had two daughters, Jenean and Lenore. His second wife, Romola, had two daughters, Dorothy and Diane. A later partner, known as "Eve", gave birth to a girl, Nova Dawn. He also had a son with a later partner, according to accounts of his life published in two parts in The Villager (NYC) in January 2016, which contain quotes from the eldest four girls about their lives with Purple, and his sexual abuse of all of them in Australia. In 1964, Wilkie and his wife, Romola, and their "blended family" of four girls emigrated to Australia, by boat. They traveled on the Orsova, docking in New South Wales after a three-month voyage. Wilkie worked as an English and literature teacher. The family lived in Kurrajong Heights, near Sydney. Wilkie was convicted of child molestation and deported in the late 1960s or early 1970s. He moved to the Haight-Ashbury area of San Francisco, California. The Garden of Eden Purple's "Garden of Eden", built by him single-handedly over five years starting in 1975, was a well-known open, community garden on Forsyth Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The garden began when the city and the neighborhood were blighted with urban decay. A building was razed in 1973 on Eldridge Street behind Purple's apartment, and he decided to plant something with his companion, Eve. The