Houteff's predictions and going to "the Kingdom." The Shepherd's Rod fractures Victor Houteff unexpectedly died at age 69 on February 5, 1955, in the midst of the hunting campaign. His death caused an immediate power struggle and fracturing of the Shepherd's Rod organization into several factions. Victor's widow Florence Houteff, the Association's Secretary, immediately sought to eject E. T. Wilson, who had personally been appointed Vice-President of the Association by Houteff during the 1934 organization process, and would have become acting President by default. Florence Houteff convened an Executive Council meeting the day after her husband's death, with Wilson missing because of illness. In Wilson's absence, Houteff successfully convinced the Executive Council to appoint her Vice-President and remove Wilson. Her argument rested on the assertion that these actions "were in harmony with recommendations made by Brother Houteff prior to his death". This request seemed so unusual that, in a meeting the next day, an Executive Council member challenged her to provide evidence for her claim. Despite acknowledging that she could not provide any proof, the Executive Council yielded and continued to uphold her request. Once established as Vice-President, Mrs. Houteff announced that she had some procedural changes in mind, and increased the veto power of the Vice-President. Several months after Victor Houteff's death, Shepherd's Rod member Benjamin Roden began to claim that he had received new revelations from God and that he should be recognized as the new leader of the Shepherd's Rod. Mrs. Houteff and the Executive Council rebuffed Roden's claims. Houteff published a prediction that the forty-two month period told of in Revelation 11:3–6 would begin in November 1955 and terminate on April 22, 1959. This prediction has been allegedly attributed to Victor Houteff, but no statement from his writings has ever been produced supporting this interpretation. Roden opposed Houteff's prediction and founded the Branch Davidian organization several months later . The Branch Davidians differed from the original Davidians in several areas, such as the requirement that the Feast days must be kept and that the Holy Spirit is a female being. The name is an allusion to the anointed "Branch" mentioned in Zechariah 3:8; 6:12. On April 9, 1959, a group of Branch Davidians sent a protest letter to the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists clarifying their opposition to Mrs. Houteff's predictions and their rationale for doing so. Houteff and the Executive Council published an open challenge