Several former followers also sued the Purnells saying they’d been duped.
Benjamin Purnell was charged but disappeared, avoiding arrest four years. Police raided the Shiloh house on colony grounds several times but never found him. They believe he was always tipped off ahead of time and hid underground in secret tunnels.
In his interview, Dalager said as a teenager, he was often entrusted to guard the gate of the entrance to the colony, to keep an eye out for police because quote, "We all knew Benjamin was there, inside (the Diamond House)."
Finally in 1926, officers raided “the Diamond House," a building located on the southside of colony grounds.
They found Purnell in his 2nd floor bedroom sick and frail and arrested him.
The 66-year-old Purnell was put on trial. He was carried into the courtroom on a cot and could barely speak. He was found guilty of "religious fraud" but died of tuberculosis in December 1927 before being sentenced. However, his conviction was later overturned by the Michigan Supreme Court. The higher court ruling the judge was not eligible to preside over the court proceedings.
Purnell's body was placed in a hermetically sealed glass top casket, preserved and kept in the Diamond House. However in the late 1980's, teenagers robbed the house and broke the sealed casket, stealing expensive jewelry Purnell was
wearing. His body is now cared for by church members.
wearing. His body is now cared for by church members.
Infighting split the colony in 1930, with half of the members, about 350 people, joining Purnell’s widow Mary, as she created Mary’s City of David, an identical religious colony located only 100 yards down the road from the original House of David.
“It was bitter. It divided families,” says Myers.
The colonies have been the focus of dozens of books and documentaries.