Her neighbors thought Sally: Affidavits from Nelrose Pfeil, Maude Smillie, Josephine Kagamaster, included with State of New Jersey v. La Salle, A-7-54 (1954).
She’d suffered an appendicitis attack: Camden Courier-Post, March 23, 1950.
Ruth Janisch and her family: Interviews with “Vanessa Janisch,” 2015 and 2016, and “Rachel Janisch,” May 2017.
her second husband, Everett Findley: Marriage license of Ruth Douglass and Everett Findley, 1936.
She met husband number three: The 1940 census recorded Ruth, Findley, and Janisch all residing at the same home.
George and Ruth ran off: Marriage license, October 24,1940.
“He never let Sally”: Camden Courier-Post, March 27, 1950, p. 1.
El Cortez Motor Inn: Philadelphia Inquirer, March 22, 1950, p. 1; corroborated by a 1960 listing of motor courts obtained at the California Room, San Jose Public Library, July 2017.
Police in uniform shorts: “We’ll Take the High Road,” American Road Buildings Association, 1957, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnrqUHF5bH8.
The friend told Sally: Camden Courier-Post, March 22, 1950, p. 1; Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, April 2, 1950.
On the morning of March 21: Camden Courier-Post, March 22, 1950, p. 1; Philadelphia Inquirer, March 22,1950, p. 2; and other newspaper accounts.
Her brother-in-law, Al Panaro: Interview with Al Panaro, August 2014.
Hornbuckle had been elected: Howard Hornbuckle scrapbook, pp. 85–86, California Room, San Jose Public Library; Clerk-Recorder’s Office, Santa Clara County Archives, Santa Clara, CA.
“Please get me away from here”: Philadelphia Inquirer, March 22, 1950.
She started at the beginning: Camden Courier-Post, March 22, 1950.
Ella Horner was overjoyed: Ibid.; also Central New Jersey Home News, March 22, 1950, p. 8.
Later that day: “Sally’s Mother ‘Relieved,’ Admits She Was ‘Foolish,’” Camden Courier-Post, March 22, 1950, p. 1.
“machina telephonica and its sudden god”: Lolita, p. 205.
“all a-jitter lest delay”: Ibid., p. no.
“Give me some dimes and nickels”: Ibid., p. 141.
“At the hotel we had separate rooms”: Ibid., p. 142.
La Salle was charged: The White-Slave Traffic Act, or the Mann Act, is a U.S. federal law, passed June 25, 1910 (ch. 395, 36 Stat. 825; codified as amended at 18 U.S.C. §§ 2421–2424).
On the morning of March 22: Camden Courier-Post, March 23, 1950.
Commissioner Marshall Hall presided: “Sex Criminal Held as Girl Makes Charges Against Him,” San Bernardino County Sun, March 23, 1950, p. 1.
When police officers attempted: “La Salle Held Under Mann Act,” Morning News (Wilmington, Delaware), March 24, 1950, p. 1.
Even if he raised the full $10,000 bond: Camden Courier-Post, March 24,1950, p. 1.
Back in Camden: Taken from Sally’s statement reported by the Camden Courier-Post, March 22, 1950, p. 1.
A Camden grand jury: Camden Courier-Post, March 24, 1950, p. 1; Philadelphia Inquirer, March 24, 1950, p. 1.
Cohen, Dube, and Thompson flew: “Cohen Flies to Calif, to Return La Salle on Kidnap Charge,” Camden Courier-Post, March 27, 1950, p. 1.
On Thursday, Sally was released: “Sally Meets Mother Again After 21 Mos.,” Camden Courier-Post, April 1, 1950, p. 1.
Ella waited at the airport: “Sally’s Mother Waited a Long Time to Hold Kidnaped Daughter Again,” Camden Courier-Post, April 1, 1950, p. 2.
Frank La Salle wasn’t allowed: Camden Courier-Post, March 30, 1950, p. 1.
The solution was to transport La Salle: “Kidnap Victim Will Fly Home Tomorrow,” Oakland Tribune, March 30, 1950, p. 51.
Mitchell Cohen was at the train station: Camden Courier-Post, March 31, 1950, p. 1.
La Salle, Detective Thompson, and Detective Dube: Philadelphia Inquirer, March 30, 1950, p. 2.
City of San Francisco: Extrapolated from sample train timetable, Union Pacific Railroad Company, Omaha, NE, Union Pacific Railroad Time Tables, April 1948, The Cooper Collection of US Railroad History.
New York–bound General: Times corroborated at American-Rails.com, https://www.american-rails.com/gnrl.html.
the trio of men: Camden Courier-Post, March 31, 1950, p. 1.
Mitchell Cohen told the press later on Sunday: Camden Courier-Post, April 2, 1950, p. 1.
Cohen arrived at the jaiclass="underline" “La Salle Given 30 Years,” Camden Courier-Post, April 3, 1950, p. 1.
Judge Palese asked Cohen: Quoted text taken from State v. Frank La Salle, 19 N.J. Super. 510 (1952).
Because Frank La Salle pleaded guilty: Camden Courier-Post, April 4, 1950, p. 1.
Vladimir Nabokov spent the morning: VNAY, pp. 146–147.
“I have followed your example”: Letter from Nabokov to Katharine White, March 24, 1950, reprinted from Selected Letters: 1940–1977, p. 98.
But as Nabokov told James Laughlin: Letter from Nabokov to James Laughlin, April 27, 1950, ibid., p. 99.
described in their diary: Diary entry, November 17, 1958.
Robert Roper… was certainly convinced: Email to the author, August 25, 2016.
“will be given a choice”: Lolita, p. 151.
“Only the other day we read”: Ibid., p. 150.
Nabokov scholar Alexander Dolinin: “Whatever Happened to Sally Horner?,” Times Literary Supplement, September 9, 2005.
“the stealthy thought”: Lolita, p. 204.
“When she went away she was a little girl”: Camden Courier-Post, April 1, 1950, p. 2.
a family outing to the Philadelphia Zoo: Film clip provided by Diana Chiemingo, with permission.
“She has a definite ambition”: Philadelphia Inquirer, March 29, 1950, p. 3.
Ella opted for a compromise: Interview with Al Panaro, August 2014.
“they looked at her as a total whore”: Interview with Carol Taylor, August 2017.
“She had a little bit of a rough time”: Interview with Emma DiRenzo, November 2017.
Sally found refuge in the outdoors: Interview with Al Panaro, August 2014.
Vladimir and Véra left Ithaca: This chapter is largely drawn from VNAY, pp. 200–206; see also “Nabokov’s Summer Trips to the West” at http://www.d-e-zimmer.de/LolitaUSA/LoUSNab.htm.
“Silly situation… to be smitten”: Page-a-Day Diary, 1951, Berg.
The Nabokovs changed their itinerary: VNAY, pp. 217–221.
Carol Taylor no longer remembers: Interviews with Carol Taylor, December 2016 and August 2017.