Aimee Semple McPherson was the most famous evangelist in America in the 1920s. She was known as “the Queen of Heaven” and had thousands of followers. Her International Church of the Foursquare Gospel opened a huge temple in Los Angeles. It could hold 5,000 worshipers. They would be serenaded by an 80 piece xylophone band. On May 18, 1926, she disappeared while swimming in the Pacific. There were several ransom notes. On June 23, she crossed the Mexican border into Douglas, Arizona told a tale of escaping kidnappers. Suspicions arose immediately, partly because of her unscuffed shoes. Reporters uncovered evidence of a rented cottage (“the honeymoon cottage”) where she stayed with a married ex-employee for ten days in May. An employee at the temple reported that the kidnapping was a cover-up for the affair. In September, McPherson was arrested for “conspiracy to commit acts injurious to public morals”. Before the trial, the temple employee was arrested for bad checks. It also was discovered that he had spent time in a mental hospital for telling big lies. The D.A. dropped the charges. McPherson went on a “Vindication Tour” on the East Coast, but the publicity had ruined her reputation. She died at age 53 from an accidental barbiturate overdose. Uncle 4 pp. 90-91
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