And Rutherford's death was quite appropriate. Cancer of the anus.
About Rutherford's family
by possible-san 43 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
-
-
possible-san
Black Sheep, Lady Lee, cattails, gubberningbody.
Thank you for your replies.Black Sheep.
That photograph of Rutherford is interesting.
That photograph seems to express his inside/mental.
What is the source of that picture?possible
-
Farkel
With regards to Rutherford's family life, I think the following fact speaks volumes about the man:
Only FOUR people attended the "Greatest Living Bible Scholar's" funeral. Knorr didn't attend. Fred Franz didn't attend. Most importantly, Rutherford's wife and son Malcolm didn't even bother to attend. Rutherford affected countless hundreds of thousands of lives, but in death, they all got their chance to finally speak back to him about what kind of person he was.
By the way, Rutherford died of colon cancer, not cancer of the anus. This doesn't mean he still wasn't an asshole, though.
Farkel
-
dozy
The irony is that no brother who was separated from his wife and had a child that had "left the truth" would ever have been considered for appointment as a ministerial servant or elder - yet Ratherflawed was the top dog , ruling the Org with an iron fist.
-
Leolaia
Was he divorced?
No.
What happened to his children?
Malcolm Rutherford worked in the legal profession and died I believe in the '80s. He had little to do with his father, but it looks like there was an attempted reconciliation in 1938 when he joined his dad, Bonnie (Boyd) Heath, and Berta Peale on a cruise to Hawaii.
Did they live in beth Sarim together?
No, it was just Rutherford, Bonnie Boyd, Donald Haslett, and the Balkos who lived there (Berta Peale joined towards the end).
Was Rutherford happy?
Who knows. He had a lot of resentment for what happened to him in 1918. But he worked out a nice little profession for himself, becoming something of a celebrity.
Since he was lonely, did he drink alcohol every day?
Why do you think he was lonely? He drank a lot of alcohol, which was prescribed by his San Diego chiropractor to ease the pain of his ankylosis (whether or not that was just a cover story for his drinking). Since the pain was chronic, his drinking was probably chronic too, and there is little doubt about him being an alcoholic.
-
Leolaia
For more info see Farkel's thread: http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/scandals/77915/1/Rutherford-Exposed-The-Story-of-Berta-and-Bonnie
And see also my compliation of all available info about Rutherford and his closest associates:
-
JWoods
I have always thought that the whole of the WTS leadership at least up through Franz had chronic family issues.
Certainly Russell had an ugly divorce complete with charges about young girls. This family stuff about Rutherford is just plain disfunctional.
It has been speculated numerous times that the Knorr marriage was a celibate oddity done mostly for appearances.
Franz, of course, a lifelong bachelor - surely oversaw some of the most ridiculous sex laws over married people ever seen in a religion.
A pretty ugly record on family values from the WTBTS top for about a century, IMHO.
-
-
Lady Lee
Just to be clear so we aren't accused of spreading rumors:
Certainly Russell had an ugly divorce complete with charges about young girls.
Leolaia, VM44 and others debunked this myth with their solid incontrovertable proof that the "girl" in question was not a child. I think it was Leolaia that census records to seal the deal. Rose Ball was not a child
-
Leolaia
Yeah, I dug up the info on that, but Barbara Anderson also uncovered the same info in her own research as well.
Rutherford misrepresented Rose Ball's age in his Battle in the Ecclesiastical Heavens pamphlet, making her younger than she really was. In reality, she was in her 20s at the time of the alleged incidents. She was one the directors of the WTB&TS at the time! (p. 56 in 25 April 1894 special issue of Zion's Watch Tower).
Curiously enough, Rutherford's personal secretary Bonnie Boyd also misrepresented her age, making herself younger (by almost a decade) than she really was. Boyd claimed to have been Rutherford's adopted daughter (in the 18 February 1942 issue of the San Diego Union), Rutherford (falsely) claimed that Rose Ball was an orphan that the Russells took into their household and treated as "their own child". The parallels are uncanny.
