false. People soon began to ask if Creffield could really "live in the same locked house with a number of young girls, and do nothing in the world but be religious." In January 1904, twenty vigilantes called the White Caps tarred and feathered Creffield, and told him to leave town and never come back. The next day Creffield and Maud Hurt were married in a room where "the odor of [pine] tar was noticeable." In February Creffield was accused of having adulterous relations in Portland with Maud’s aunt, Donna Starr. Adultery was a criminal offense, so a warrant was put out for his arrest. A statewide manhunt went on for months. Meanwhile, many of his followers fasted and spent their days lying flat on the floor praying. Most were committed to either the Oregon State Insane Asylum or the Boys and Girls Aid Society in Portland. In July, one month after Sarah Hurt was committed, Creffield was discovered nude and starving under her house. Creffield said he was innocent, but was found guilty and served seventeen months in the Oregon State Penitentiary. When released, he claimed he was Jesus Christ risen from the dead, his resurrection being his emergence from prison. Creffield said he was responsible for the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and his followers, all of whom had been released from the asylum, believed him. "Creffield is Jesus Christ," Cora Hartley said. "He condemned the city of San Francisco and brought the earthquake; he has condemned the city of Corvallis and an earthquake will destroy this place." She and the others obeyed his order to evacuate to the coast. Assassination In April, Louis Hartley, a wealthy mine owner, followed his wife, Cora, and daughter, Sophie, when they went to Newport to meet up with Creffield and the others. As the group boarded a ferry, Hartley fired a revolver four times at Creffield. The gun snapped harmlessly because the centerfire cartridges were wrong for the rimfire gun. Others were also gunning for Creffield, so he fled to Seattle with Maud. There, George Mitchell, Esther's brother, found him and, in front of witnesses, killed him. Multnomah County’s district attorney, John Manning, sent King County’s prosecuting attorney, Kenneth Mackintosh, a letter saying, "I investigated many, many charges against him [Creffield] while he was on his Holy Rolling tour in Oregon, the character of which were perfectly awful, in so far as being