You’ve probably heard of the book Lolita (1955), and even if you’ve never read it, you know it’s controversial. And that’s because it’s about an underaged girl and a much older man. Well, scandalous books aside, the story is actually based on a real girl and a real case. In 1948, 11-year-old Sally Horner was kidnapped by an ex-convict named Frank La Salle.
He held her captive for nearly two years, made her pretend to be his daughter in public and had his way with her in private. So, how did this creep get his hands on Sally? Well, it all began with a game of Truth or Dare… and Sally chose dare.
A Summer Vacation That Nightmares Are Made Of
In June 1948, Sally kissed her mother goodbye before getting on a bus in Camden, New Jersey, bound for Atlantic City. Ella, her mother, later said how the trip was for her daughter to “get a little vacation.” Little did she realize that she was sending her daughter on the trip nightmares are made of.
She handed Sally over to a man she knew and trusted named Mr. Warner, the father of a school friend who invited her to join their family vacation on the Jersey Shore. Why would Ella have any reason to worry?
Sure, Mr. Warner, Take My Daughter
Let’s not forget that this was a different era, and Warner was especially charming when he called Ella to explain that he and his wife had “plenty of room” for Sally in their beach house. But summer vacation was not what Mr. Warner had in mind. Ella didn’t see her daughter for close to two years.
You see, there was no Mr. Warner. There was, however, a man named Frank La Salle. A convicted rapist, Frank had his eye on Sally. 11-year-old Florence Sally Horner was living in Camden with her older sister and her widowed mother, Ella. Ella supported her daughters by working long hours as a seamstress.
A Life-Changing Dare
Frank had actually been watching Sally for a while before the “summer vacation” began. In fact, it was in March of 1948 that the bookish fifth grader took a dare from a group of popular girls in her class. They dared her to steal something – anything – from the local Woolworths.
So, Sally sneaked a five-cent notebook into her school bag. A moment later, she was grabbed by a harsh-looking older man. He told her, “I am an FBI agent, and you are under arrest.” Needless to say, young Sally was freaked out. She was taught to obey authority and listen to her elders.
The Epitome of a Boogeyman
Sally had no clue that this “FBI agent” was really a 53-year-old ex-convict, fresh out of state prison. The man was convicted on five counts of statutory rape for “forced intimacies” with 12 and 14-year-old girls. He was exactly the kind of man every parent wants away from their children.
And here he was, grabbing Sally by the arm. He told her that he had a colleague in the FBI who could send young thieves to the reformatory with the flip of a switch. That was when Sally burst into tears. So, Frank offered to make her a deal…
He Let Her Go for a While
Frank made her a deal: if she promised to obey him whenever he would come and check in on her, he would let her go… this time. And he did. He let her go, only to show up a few months later to “check up” on her.
In June, he reappeared as she was walking home alone from school. This time, he was serious and wasn’t going to just let her go on a warning. He told her the government wanted her in Atlantic City, and she was going to need to lie to her mother to go there.
The Cover Story
The plan was to trick her mother with a cover story – a family vacation with a friend from school. Sally later told investigators, “If I went back home, or they sent for me, or I ran away, I’d go to prison… The government ordered him to keep me and take care of me, that’s what he said.”
That’s right – he did tell her that. And she believed it. After Ella’s phone conversation with “Mr. Warner,” she let her daughter get on that bus and head out to what she thought would be a nice brief vacation (and perhaps one less mouth to feed for a little while).
At First, She Called and Wrote
On June 14, Sally and Frank checked into a rented room in a boardinghouse a few blocks away from the beach. Soon, the two were presenting themselves as father and daughter. He made sure to let her call her mother and send her letters, at least for the first six weeks.
Then, on July 31, Sally wrote to her mother, telling her that she was heading to Baltimore. She promised, though, that she would be home soon. Worryingly, Sally wrote that she “didn’t want to write anymore.”
It Was Too Late
It was at this point (no judgment) that Ella started to really worry. So, she called the Camden police. On August 4, the cops went to visit the return address on Sally’s letters. They found the room the pair was staying in, which still contained two packed suitcases and a photo that Ella had never seen before.
The picture showed Sally on a swing, smiling, wearing a dress, bobby socks, and a pair of shiny patent-leather shoes. It was clear to the cops that Frank and Sally left the room in a rush, with no time to take their stuff with them.
The Girl on the Swing
“He didn’t even stop long enough to get his hat,” the authorities reported. The next day, an eight-state police search began, and that photo of the girl on the swing was showing up in papers across the country.
Abduction charges were filed against Frank La Salle – a convict who obviously should not have been released from prison. Meanwhile, Sally and her “dad” just got to Baltimore, where he could carry out his sick and twisted plans. It was in Baltimore that the rapes began.
She Became Madeleine LaPlante
“The first time was in Baltimore right after we got there,” Sally told the police. “And ever since, too.” Frank rented an apartment in a three-story brick row house. He even found a job for himself and enrolled Sally in a Catholic grammar school.
She was placed in sixth grade and given a fake name: Madeleine LaPlante. Frank told nosy neighbors a cover story of his own – that he divorced his degenerate wife to give his little girl a more stable home right here in Baltimore.
Happy 12th Birthday, Sally
Back in Camden, detectives were working on Sally’s case. By March 1949, prosecutors indicted Frank “in absentia” for kidnapping. He was facing 30 to 35 years in prison. Frank, who heard the news, decided it was time to hit the road again.
Sally, in her naïveté, still believed Frank was an FBI agent. She didn’t think it was suspicious that they now had to relocate to a new case out west. In late April, they found themselves in Dallas. On the way there, Sally turned 12.
Starting a New Trailer-Park Life
All the while, the two were still posing as father and daughter. Now in Dallas, they moved into a trailer park, where Frank claimed to be a widower named Planette. Sally ditched Madeleine and started going by her given name, Florence.
Frank started working as a mechanic while Sally started seventh grade at a Catholic school. She would cook their meals and even baked goods. They “seemed happy and entirely devoted to each other,” an anonymous neighbor told investigators. Another neighbor, on the other hand, wasn’t so sure…
The Concerned Neighbor
Ruth Janisch made her own comments to the police. “He never let [Sally] out of his sight, except when she was at school,” she stated. A woman with natural maternal instincts, Ruth tried to pry the truth out of the young girl, but to no avail.
Ruth eventually ignored her internal alarm bell. She and her family gave up, moved on, and took their trailer to San Jose, California. There, Ruth wrote to Frank about some job opportunities. In February 1950, 20 months after kidnapping Sally, he pulled her out of school yet again.
She Finally Confided in a Friend
Before they left Dallas, Sally decided to confide in a new friend at school, telling the girl what Frank had been doing to her for the last year and a half. Her friend’s reaction was quick and stern: It was “wrong, and I ought to stop,” Sally later explained.
“I did stop, too.” And so, with a new perspective on her situation, Sally started to snub Frank’s advances. Soon enough, they were in San Jose, where they stayed with the Janisches, their former neighbors, at the El Cortez Motor Inn.
The Truth Comes Out
On March 21, when Frank left the house to search for work, Ruth invited the girl over. Finally, Ruth got the truth out of her. Sally told Ruth about how Frank took her, threatened her, and how much she missed her mother.
For whatever reason, she didn’t tell Ruth about the sexual abuse. Regardless, Ruth helped Sally make a long-distance call to Al Panaro, Sally’s brother-in-law. “I’m with a lady friend in California. Send the FBI after me, please!” Sally shouted over the staticky, cross-country line.
The Jig Was Up
As the cops were headed for the trailer park, Sally was beside herself. “What will Frank do when he finds out what I have done?” she voiced to Ruth. Local deputies showed up and took the terrified 12-year-old to a shelter.
Meanwhile, officers staked out Frank’s mobile home. As soon as he returned, he quietly surrendered. The jig was up – there was no denying what he had done. When it came time to talk to Sally, the sheriff had to ask her what everyone feared…
Interesting Choice of Words, Mom
The sheriff gently asked the girl if her captor had “been intimate” with her. At first, she denied it, but finally came out with the truth. At the children’s shelter, where she was placed after the arrest, she “fretted a lot about whether her folks would want her after what happened,” according to the matron at the home.
Back in Camden, Ella said, “Whatever she has done, I can forgive her.” (If anyone is forgiving anyone, it should be Sally forgiving her mother.) Either way, the story made the national news.
A Tearful Reunion
The entire nation was captivated by the story, and the press was following Sally’s every move. On March 31, 1950, they took photos of Sally boarding the plane to take her home. In Philadelphia, she reunited with her mother in a tearful reunion.
As for Frank La Salle, he was extradited to New Jersey. On April 3, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced immediately to 41 years in prison. His victim was spared the torment of having to testify against him in court.
An (Un)Welcome Back
Needless to say, the damage was done. Her entire hometown knew what had happened to her. Tragically, in those days, rape victims bore a badge of shame. Going back to Burrough Junior High was an ordeal of its own.
If getting kidnapped and being the victim of repeated rapes wasn’t enough, she was treated awfully at school. “They looked at her as a total whore,” Carol Starts said of her friend’s harsh welcome back to junior high. Back then, there weren’t any victim support groups or trauma counseling.
The Unforeseen Aftermath
Sally had to deal with the aftermath all by herself. “She never said she was sad or depressed,” Al Panaro, her brother-in-law, said. “But you knew something was wrong.” He explained how Sally would be present one moment, then gone the next.
He also explained how the Horners discouraged any discussion of her kidnapping. The poor girl had no one to really talk it over with. There were no heart-to-hearts, no psychological examinations, no therapist – nothing. Sally was alone in her thoughts and disturbing memories…
A Trip Back to the Jersey Shore
In the summer of 1952, Sally, now 15, and her friend Carol decided to spend their weekend somewhere else. The girls took a trip to Wildwood on the Jersey Shore. Carol Taylor, the friend who went with Sally on that last vacation, said she doesn’t remember why they decided to head to Wildwood on that summer weekend in 1952.
It was the middle of August, when the heat and humidity in Camden were unbearable. People didn’t have air conditioning in their homes, so a weekend on the Jersey Shore seemed like some temporary relief.
Escaping Into a World of Her Own
At the time, the pair of 15-year-old best friends were working as waitresses at the Sun Ray drugstore in Haddonfield. The girls were only weeks away from their first year as freshmen at Woodrow Wilson High. Going down to the Shore would be a refuge from the loneliness and isolation she was feeling at home.
The two had met in eighth grade (Sally graduated in June 1952 with honors). Carol had street smarts, as did Sally; she just didn’t want to remember where she got them. Sally liked to escape into a world of books.
She Longed for a Boyfriend
Carol was all Sally had really, and Sally was grateful to have a friend who actually cared about her, despite her past. They had only been friends for a year, but she confided in Carol, especially over that summer, about how lonely she was and how much she longed for a boyfriend.
The problem was that in Camden, everyone knew about the kidnapping. Back home, Sally was viciously mocked by boys and girls alike. “That’s the way it was in those days,” Carol shared. Carol wasn’t like the others.
Ready With a Pair of Fake IDs
Carol admired Sally’s manners, her love for books, and her “sophisticated outlook.” The girls decided to save up their change and buy a bus ticket. On August 15, 1952, they took the hour and a half ride to Wildwood, which was bustling with the energy of young people making the best of their weekend.
Both Carol and Sally had a pair of fake IDs on hand. But the girls weren’t drinkers. Sally never touched alcohol, while Carol sipped the occasional beer or wine.
Easy as Pie
The reason they brought the IDs was so they could get into the dance clubs. Clubs like the Bamboo Room, the Riptide, or the Bolero all required patrons to be of age. And the girls wanted to dance. Plus, every other junior high student had a fake ID – why couldn’t they?
It was easy, as Carol later explained. All they needed to do was go to City Hall, request a card-sized version of their birth certificate, adjust the date, bleach it and then dye it green (with food coloring), and get it laminated. Easy breezy.
Sally’s Last Weekend
Friday was all about the beach and dancing the night away. Come Saturday, the friends split, which is when Sally met Eddie. Ed Baker was 20 at the time. He had no idea who Sally Horner, the “21-year-old” from Camden was. He also didn’t know he would be the last one to see her alive.
“She impressed me as a darn nice girl,” Baker later recalled. “Who asks to see birth certificates when you go out with a girl?” He also recalled the events of that weekend, which proved to be Sally’s last.
When Eddie Met Sally
Baker liked to drive down to Wildwood every summer weekend. He lived his life to the fullest, and he caught Sally’s eye. He was attractive too, a tall, dark older guy. She told him she was 17; “she looked it,” he said.
According to Carol, Sally was “bananas” for him. After meeting on the beach, they spent the rest of the day and evening together. They even went to church the next morning. If anything happened on Saturday night between them, Sally never told Carol about it.
Ah, Young Love
Sally did, however, ask her best friend for a huge favor – if it would be okay if Carol headed back to Camden on her own? Sally would go with Baker to his hometown of Vineland and catch the bus home to Camden from there.
“She really, really, wanted to go home with him,” Carol recalled. “She thought he was so nice.” Happy for her friend, Carol agreed. Did she know this would be the last time she would see her friend? Of course not.
She Died on Impact
Baker asked Sally if she wanted to go on a drive before heading back to Camden. Neither of them wanted to say goodbye just yet. Just after midnight on August 18, as Baker was speeding along an unlit two-lane highway, he crashed into the back of a broken-down truck.
The passenger side took the brunt of the impact, and Sally died instantly. Baker, on the other hand, survived to tell the tale. He broke his left knee, got 15 stitches on his right arm, and was covered in cuts and bruises.
Thanks to the Scar
Rescue units took over two hours to free Sally’s body from the wreckage. Her head was crushed by the truck’s rear, which came through the windshield upon collision. The damage to her face was so severe that identifying her at the morgue was an issue.
Rather than traumatize Ella Horner yet again, Al Panaro went to the morgue instead. “The only way I knew it was Sally,” he said, “was because she had a scar on her leg. I couldn’t tell from her face.”
No Stranger to the News
Her fake ID was found on her. Because of it, initial news reports misreported her age (as 21). It took a moment for everyone to realize who she was and that she was no stranger to the news.
Speaking of the news, Carol woke up on the morning of August 18 by her mother yelling, “There’s someone on the phone for you!” The call was from a detective who wanted to know if she had been with Sally Horner the previous night.
“I Cried and Cried and Cried”
“Yes, I was,” Carol replied.
“And you’re aware who she was with?”
“Yes I am. Why are you asking me this?”
Carol hung up and dialed Sally’s number. Her mother answered.
“Hi, Mrs. Horner. Where’s Sally? Is she up yet?”
Ella started sobbing and told Carol about Sally’s death. Carol, who went into a state of shock at first, eventually sobbed along with her best friend’s mother. “I cried and cried and cried,” Carol remembered. A few days later, Ed Baker was in the news.
Let’s Clear Something Up
On August 21, 1952, Edward Baker was the subject of the Vineland Daily Journal’s front-page interview. Baker said he was “bewildered by publicity” over Sally’s death. “I’d never met Sally before,” he stated.
“She didn’t tell me if she had ever been to Wildwood before, but I got the impression this was probably the first time she’d ever visited the place.” He went on to clear the air about some of the rumors that started spreading. “Some of the stories that followed the accident sounded as though we were making a sinful weekend of it.”
He Has a Point
“We didn’t do anything wrong,” he continued. “We weren’t fooling around in the car, or anything. If we had been, she probably wouldn’t have been killed and I might have been.” Even more shocking to him was the whole kidnapping ordeal.
He said he was still grappling with how young she really was. “She told me she was 17 years old… Who asks to see birth certificates when you go out with a girl?” The Daily Journal spoke to Baker’s mother, Marie Young, too.
A Blameless Death
Baker had called his mom shortly after the accident. “He said he wished it was him that was killed instead of that innocent girl,” she told the paper. She said how her son would never get past that “she got killed because she wanted him to take her into Vineland.”
After getting treated for his injuries, police arrested and charged Baker with reckless homicide. The charges were eventually dropped, and a civil lawsuit was settled. Four days after her death, Sally was laid to rest.
Meanwhile, in Oregon…
One Girl’s Tragedy Is Another Man’s Inspiration
The tragic end of the lost-and-found abduction victim was the final chapter in Sally’s short life. But for the aspiring Russian American author Vladimir Nabokov, it was just the inspiration he was looking for.
When Sally was first abducted, Nabokov had been struggling for a decade with a novel he was trying to write. The working title was “The Kingdom by the Sea,” and it was about a man who was obsessed with a young girl.
The Obsessed Author
The author was mindful when writing of adolescent slang and attitudes; he would read teen magazines and even went to visit a girls’ school, saying he wanted to enroll his daughter (he wasn’t a father). He took endless notes.
By 1948, Nabokov had published two novels in English and tended to scrawl notes on index cards while writing. His wife Vera would then type up those scribbles into manuscript form before he went ahead and burned the notes. But the plot of “The Kingdom by the Sea” left him stumped.
The Cross-Country Slave
Something about his novel wasn’t right – wasn’t complete. More than once, when he lost hope of completing his story, he attempted to burn the manuscript. It was Vera who rescued the typed pages from the flames, knowing that the unfinished work was something special.
Then, one day, after it was reported that Sally Horner had died tragically in a car accident, Nabokov had an idea. He scribbled onto one of his notecards something about the “cross-country slave” of a “middle-aged moral offender” who was “branded a ‘moral leper’ by the sentencing judge.”
The Birth of Lolita
That very note is one of the few he saved. That one note set him off on a creative burst of energy that carried the author to the last pages of the book he would decide to call “Lolita” in 1953. His book parallels Sally’s story and essentially “helped him to transform a partial manuscript primed for failure” into a 50-million-copy best-seller.
The thing is, Nabokov never admitted to Sally’s role in the book’s backstory. However, he did add in a little tribute. As the book nears its end, the narrator (Humbert Humbert) asks himself: “Had I done to Dolly, perhaps, what Frank La Salle, a 50-year-old mechanic, had done to 11-year-old Sally Horner in 1948?”