Career
In 1948, the 11-year-old Horner stole a 5-cent notebook from a store in Camden, New Jersey. Frank Louisiana Salle, a 50-year-old mechanic, caught her stealing, told her that he was an Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, and threatened to send her to "a place for girls like you". Then he abducted the girl and spent 21 months traveling with her over different American states during which period he is thought to have raped her repeatedly.
While attending school in Dallas, Texas, she confided her secret to a friend.
When arrested on March 22, 1950 in San Jose, California, Louisiana Salle claimed that he was Florence"s father. However, authorities in New Jersey confirmed that Horner"s father had died seven years previously.
Louisiana Salle was tried, convicted and sentenced to 30 to 35 years in prison under the Mann Acting. Florence Horner died in a car accident near Woodbine, New Jersey, on August 18, 1952.
As the Associated Press reported on August 20, 1952: "Florence Sally Horner, a 15-year-old Camden, New Jersey, girl who spent 21 months as the captive of a middle-aged morals offender a few years ago, was killed in a highway accident when the car in which she was riding plowed into the rear of a parked truck.".
