In March 1948, 11-year-old Florence "Sally" Horner shoplifted a five-cent notebook from a Woolworth's in Camden

 In March 1948, 11-year-old Florence "Sally" Horner shoplifted a five-cent notebook from a Woolworth's in Camden, New Jersey, on a dare to join a girls' club at school. As she left, a man grabbed her arm and told her he was an FBI agent. In reality, he was Frank La Salle, a 50-year-old convicted child molester. He told Sally she needed to periodically "check in" with him or he would tell her mother and send her to prison.



In June 1948, La Salle intercepted Sally on her way home from school and forced her to call her mother, claiming she was going on a weeklong beach trip with a friend's family. Instead, he took her to Atlantic City and held her captive for 21 months, moving her from Baltimore to Dallas to San Jose, sexually assaulting her repeatedly while posing as her father.


In March 1950, Sally finally managed to call home from California. She was rescued on March 31, 1950, and reunited with her mother and sister at Philadelphia International Airport. La Salle was sentenced to 30 to 35 years in prison.


Tragically, on August 18, 1952, just two years after her rescue, Sally died in a car accident near Woodbine, New Jersey. She was only 15 years old. La Salle sent flowers to her funeral from prison, which her family refused to display.


Many scholars believe Sally's ordeal inspired Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel "Lolita." Nabokov even mentioned the case directly in the book and kept a notecard with the details of Sally's death among his possessions.

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