Aimee Semple McPherson: The Scandalous Rise of Pentecostalism’s First Superstar

Aimee Semple McPherson was the central figure for the Foursquare Church sect of Pentecostalism and the founder of the massive Angelus Temple in Los Angeles.  It became America's first true megachurch, attracting forty million visitors in its first seven years of operation.[1]  Many men responsible for the spreading of William Branham's ministry were either trained by, affiliated with, or working for the Angelus Temple.  LeRoy Kopp, who promoted William Branham's ministry through the video "20th Century Prophet", was the vice chairman of the Angelus Temple Evangelists.[2]  Herrick Holt, president of the Sharon Orphanage, from which the Latter Rain movement promoted and spread William Branham's ministry, was a minister trained by the Foursquare Church.[3]. Wesley Swift, the originator of Branham's "Serpent Seed" doctrine, was trained in the Angelus Temple Bible School and was a Foursquare minister.[4]  Gerald Burton Winrod, Swift's inspiration and the originator of Branham's 1933 Benito Mussolini prophecy, toured with McPherson.[5]

And now, when I first met with the Pentecostal people, I—I went to California, just the joining state here, across the river. And I was at Los Angeles. I was never lived in the days of this famous lady minister, Mrs. Semple…Aimee Semple McPherson. I got to meet her son, Rolf, a fine Christian gentleman, and—and his wife and his family. They're certainly lovely people, and Dr. Teeford and many of the staff at the Angelus Temple. And I preached the Jubilee of the Pentecostal, fifty-year Jubilee there, few years ago, and certainly had a wonderful time.[6]

Following the pattern of John Alexander Dowie, McPherson rose to almost overnight fame through a series of "faith healings" in the United States.  Though many fraudulent claims were identified during her healing ministry — in some cases doing more harm than good[7] — she was able to convince others of the self-proclaimed title of "miracle woman".  Some of the alleged miracles, such as the case of Henry Schaeffer, resulted in death.[8]  Eventually, McPherson migrated to Los Angeles to the large concentration of Pentecostals influenced by Azusa Street.  Also following the pattern of Dowie, McPherson used the power of controversy to attract a following and eventually create her own cult of personality.[9]

Like William Branham's covert strategy of introducing Christian Identity to the masses, McPherson had the public appearance of racial equality mixed with not-so-obvious support and mentoring of white supremacy.  For her cult of personality, however, McPherson was recognized for leading efforts toward racial equality.  McPherson apparently recruited a black minister to baptize her daughter Roberta to symbolize her support of all races.[10]   In what appeared to have been a staged event, McPherson de-converted two hundred members of the Ku Klux Klan in one sermon.  The group entered Angelus Temple in white robes, but after hearing McPherson's message, left in the middle of the service, disrobed, and re-entered the church in the suits beneath the robes.[11]  In 1922, however, McPherson addressed an assembled delegation of Klan members at town hall — an appeal that apparently paid off just a few years later.

In 1926, Aimee Semple McPherson faced felony charges of criminal conspiracy for staging her own kidnapping and paying others to mislead government officials.  She faced a maximum sentence of forty-two years in prison for the crime.[12] In a highly publicized trial, readers from coast to coast learned how McPherson's secretary, Elizabeth Schaffer, spread the news that McPherson had drowned in the Pacific off of Santa Monica.[13]  McPherson's mother, Minnie Kennedy, later declared that McPherson did not drown but had instead been killed by gangsters angered by McPherson's position against the re-opening of the Venice dance halls.[14]  She was not kidnapped, however, and instead had traveled to a resort in Monterey County named Carmel-by-the-Sea with Kenneth Ormiston.[15]  After a few weeks in what appeared to be a romantic tryst, McPherson reappeared in Los Angeles, claiming to have been kidnapped by two people named 'Rose and Steve'.[16]  She went so far as to re-enact her alleged kidnapping for Los Angeles investigators.  She and city officials retraced her steps in Venice — not telling them that she was at the resort.[17]

McPherson's case was sent to the Grand Jury, and her defense team faced an impossible mound of evidence.  Newspapers had funded an estimated $500,000 investigation into her claims.[18] McPherson weaponized her sermons against the court system and jury pool, insinuating that she was the target of a Roman Catholic plot, and began appealing to the Ku Klux Klan for assistance.[19] Sermons transitioned to that of an impending invasion by the 'alien religion' of Los Angeles investigators and targeted Southern and Eastern European immigrants who were changing the culture of America.  Eventually, McPherson claimed, it would result in America's downfall.  Not long after, key figures in the case against her were 'suicided'.  Such was the case of one A. M. Waters, mentioned in association with her alleged kidnapping plot, who took his own life with poison.  Only a few months before his death, Waters had told city officials that he was attacked by unknown assailants. Whether or not his killing was at the hands of Klan operatives, knowing that the Invisible Army supported McPherson would have been a strong deterrent for any other witnesses who took the stand.  Several key witnesses in the case changed their testimonies, resulting in the case being dismissed.[20]

At the height of her fame in 1928, McPherson was caught in a get-rich-scheme in which she sold non-existent lots of property in a fictional "Tahoe Cedars" neighborhood adjacent to a new Foursquare temple to be erected on the banks of Lake Tahoe.  It was advertised in a pamphlet depicting her in a sailor suit on the lake with the caption "Vacation With Sister".[21]  McPherson fraudulently claimed that the non-existent neighborhood was the centerpiece of her "new ministry" and began peddling them to her own converts.  When certain members of her sect learned that this "neighborhood" was instead plots of undeveloped land,[22] the Los Angeles District Attorney opened a criminal investigation.[23]  It was then learned that real estate agents were giving McPherson a ten percent cut of any lot sold, with nine hundred lots allegedly available.  Damages were estimated at $150,000,[24] which in today's money, is over 2.6 million dollars.[25] 

Aimee Semple McPherson's kidnapping hoax was one of the most widely publicized criminal acts in early Pentecostalism.  Though she evaded prosecution with the help of the Ku Klux Klan, the subject matter and details of the case were difficult for even the most devout members of her cult of personality to ignore.

Interestingly, Aimee Semple McPherson died of a medication overdose in September 1944 for a medicine not prescribed to her at the same time that Roy E. Davis began mounting his charge against the City of Los Angeles for his criminal trial in Los Angeles.[26]  Semple's wavering position towards the Ku Klux Klan agenda would have been perceived as a threat to the organization.

Full Text of Criminal Complaint:

In the municipal court of the city of Los Angeles, county of Los Angeles, state of California.  The People of the State of California, plaintiff, vs. Aimee Semple McPherson, Minnie Kennedy, Lorraine Wiseman Sheilaff, Kenneth G. Ormiston, John Doe, Richard Roe, Sarah Moe, defendants — Complaint Criminal.

State of California, County of Los Angeles— ss.

Personally appeared before me this 16th day of September 1926, Charles Reimer, of the county of Los Angeles, who being first duly sworn on oath, complains and says:

That on or about the 19th day of May 1926, at and in the county of Los Angeles, state of California, the crime of criminal conspiracy to commit acts injurious to public morals and to pervert and obstruct justice, and to obstruct and pervert the due administration of the laws of California, was committed by Aimee Semple McPherson, Minnie Kennedy, Kenneth G. Ormiston, Lorraine Wiseman Seilaff, and John Doe, Richard Roe and Sarah Moe, whose true names are to this complaint unknown, and did then and there unlawfully, wickedly, fraudulently, and feloniously, conspire, combine, confederate and agree together, and each with the other, to commit acts injurious to public morals, and to pervert and obstruct justice, and to obstruct and pervert the due administration of the law sof the state of California, and in pursuance of said criminal conspiracy and in the furtherance thereof and to effect the object thereof, Aimee Semple McPherson, on or about the 18th day of May, 1926, went to Venice in the county of Los Angeles, state of California, and surreptitiously disappeared therefrom, and on or about the 23rd day of June 1926, appeared at about the hour of 2 a. m. in the morning of said day behind a slaughter house in Sonora, Mexico, and falsely and fraudulently and wickedly and designedly and with the intent to carry out said criminal conspiracy and in pursuance thereof, and with the intent falsely and maliciously to procure another to be charged, arrested and indicted for the crime of kidnaping and well knowing at the time that she had not been kidnaped, falely and fraudulently represented and pretended that she had been kidnaped at Venice on the 18th day of May, and kept in an unconscious condition for upward of thirty (30) days, well knowing that she had not been kidnaped and well knowing that she had voluntarily and with intent to carry out the purpose of the criminal conspiracy absented herself from her usual habitation at the city of Los Angeles, and from the 19th day of May, up to and including the 29th day of May, 1926, resided and remained concealed and disguised with goggles and other devices and contrivances at Carmel-by the Sea, from which place she departed with Kenneth G. Ormiston, one of the conspirators herein named, with the full knowledge, acquiescence and consent of Minnie Kennedy;

And that in pursuance of said criminal conspiracy so stated aforesaid, and for the purpose of carrying out its purpose, the said Aimee Semple McPherson, on or about the 10th day of July, 1926, voluntarily appeared before the grand jury of Los Angeles county, ten duly and regularly empaneled, and having jurisdiction to investigate and inquire into the alleged crime of kidnaping, did take her corporeal oath, and then and there, after being duly and regularly sworn under oath, falsely, wickedly, maliciously and with intent to carry out the purpose of said conspiracy, swear that she had been kidnaped, and described the alleged kidnapers as "Rose" and "Steve," and falsely and wickedly represented and pretended that they had kidnaped her, and that they had held her captive from the 18th day of May up to and including the time when she appeared in a spectacular manner behind the slaughter house; well knowing that said fact was false and untrue, and made for the purpose of concealing her true whereabouts during that time, and made for the purpose of deceiving the grand jury of Los Angeles county and inducing them to return an indictment wherein and whereby others would be charged with said crime; and that aftergiving said testimony as aforesaid under oath before the grand jury of Los Angeles county, and for the purpose of bolstering up said false testimony therein given, and to carry out the criminal conspiracy so formed as aforesaid, the said Aimee Semple McPherson hired and employed  and paid and coached one Lorraine Wiseman Seilaff to impersonate the said Aimee Semple McPherson, and to so arrange her hair and general appearance as to become a double for the said Aimee Semple McPHerson, and hired and employed and paid the said Lorraine Wiseman Seilaff to be photographed in poses with the said Aimee Semple McPherson for the purpose and with the intent that the said Lorraine Wiseman Seilaff might deceive divers witnesses who had seen Aimee Semple McPherson while she resided in Carmel-by-the-Sea in Monterey county, From the 19th day of May up to and including the 29th day of May, and to hinder and obstruct justice and to hinder and obstruct the due administration of the laws of California; and caused and hired and persuaded and coached the said Lorraine Wiseman Seilaff to imitate and counterfeit the handwriting of Aimee Semple McPherson with the intent to hinder and obstruct justice and to obstruct the due administration of the law, and hired and persuaded and paid for the services of Lorraine Wiseman Seilaff to falsely, fraudulently and wickedly prepare false evidence towit, to make an affidavit in words and figures.

(Inserted here in the complaint was the affidavit of Lorraine Wiseman Seilaff made at Monterey, August 15, in which she stated her sister, "Miss X," and Ormiston were at the Carmel cottage).

And hired, and employed and paid the said Lorraine Wiseman Seilaff to read an affidavit, prepared in pursuance of said conspiracy by Kenneth G. Ormiston, which said affidavit is in words in figures. 

(Here was inserted the affidavit of K. G. Ormiston, made at Chicago, relative to his stay at Carmel with "Miss X.")

That she, the said Lorraine Wiseman-Seilaff, might be able to prepare an affidavit in corroboration thereof, which was to be signed by a mythical character, and which was to be used in the furtherance of said conspiracy, and to obstruct justice and hinder the due administration of law, and which said affidavit was well known by the said Aimee Semple McPherson and the said mythical personage to be untrue and false, and which said mythical personage is herein referred to in this complaint as Sarah Moe, and which said affidavit is in words and figures.

(The "Miss X" affidavit was inserted here in the complaint.  It was prepared in Monterey on August 15.)

Well knowing that she, the said Aimee Semple McPherson and Kenneth G. Ormiston were the persons who occupied that cottage, and that no such mythical personage as "Miss X" had occupied said cottage at the time mentioned in said affidavit or ever at all with Kenneth G. Ormiston, and well knowing that said affidavit so furnished by her and so given to her co-conspirator, Lorraine Wiseman-Sielaff, was false and untrue, and that it was made with the intent to hinder and obstruct the due administration of justice and to hinder and obstruct the due administration of the law, and well knowing that her co-conspirator, Kenneth G. Ormiston, had fled from the jurisdiction of the State of California, at the advice and encouragement of said Aimee Semple McPherson and the said Minnie Kennedy, with the intent to hinder and obstruct the county would be deceived thereby, and by reason thereof, the administration of justice might be defeated;

And that in pursuance of said criminal conspiracy so stated aforesaid, the said Aimee Semple McPherson and Kenneth G. Ormiston and Minnie Kennedy hired and employed and paid one R. F. McKinley the sum of $1000.00 (One Thousand Dollars) to produce impostors who would assume the character of the alleged "Rose" and "Steve," and would falsely and fraudulently make affidavits for her, the said Aimee Semple McPherson, under her direction and coaching, to the effect that they had kidnaped said Aimee Semple McPherson, and after the death of said R. F. McKinley, which occurred on or about the 26th day of August 1926, the said Aimee Semple McPherson, for the purpose of carrying out said conspiracy, by divers acts, wiles and persuasions, attempted to induce one Bernice Morris, the said secretary of the late R. F. McKinley, to carry out said criminal conspiracy, and brought the said Bernice Morris, on or about the 10th day of September, 1926, to her home in the city of Los Angeles, where she coached the said Bernice Morris as to what the persons should say and how they should act in order that she might further carry out said general, criminal conspiracy, and cover up and conceal the deceit and falsity and perjury, contrived by herself and co-conspirators, and thereby to pervert and obstruct justice and the due administration of the law, and to falsely and maliciously procure others to be falsely charged with crime.

SECOND COUNT

For the second count and cause of complaint against said Aimee Semple McPherson, Minnie Kennedy, Kenneth C. Ormiston, Lorraine Wiseman-Sielaff, John Doe, Richard Doe and Sarah Doe, being a different offense of the same class of crimes or offenses, and connected in its commission with the offense set forth in count No. 1 hereof, the complaint further complains and says:

That on or about the 15th day of August 1926, the above named defendants did willfully, unlawfully, feloniously, wickedly and fraudulently conspire, combine, confederate and agree together, and each with the other, to commit a felony, to-wit: the violation of Section 134 of the Penal Code of the State of California entitled, "Preparing False Evidence," and that in furtherance and to effect the object thereof did, on or about the date last named, prepare and cause to be made an affidavit in the words and figures.

(Inserted here was the affidavit of Lorraine Wiseman, made at Monterey on August 15, the same as appearing in count No. 1 of complaint)

With the unlawful intent to produce said affidavit and allow the same to be produced, read and used before the grand jury of Los Angeles county in a proceeding authorized by law, they then and there having jurisdiction to investigate the said matter, and for the fraudulent and deceitful purpose of inducing the said grand jury to believe the same to be true.

All of which is contrary to the form, force and effect of the state in such case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity fo the people of the State of California.  Said complaint therefore prays that a warrant may be issued for the arrest of the said Aimee Semple McPherson, Minnie Kennedy, Kenneth G. Ormiston, Lorraine Wiseman-Seilaff, John Doe, Richard Roe, and said Sarah Doe, and that they may be dealt with according to law.

CHARLES REIMER.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 16th day of September 1926.  SAMUEL R. BLAKE, Judge of Municipal Court, City of Los Angeles, State of California, due administration of the laws of the State of California;

And that the said defendants and each of them, in pursuance of said general criminal conspiracy to hinder and obstruct the due administration of justice, and the due administration of the laws of the State of California, endeavored to present to the grand jury of Los Angels the affidavits herein mentioned and set forth, and the testimony of divers witnesses, well knowing that said witnesses, if permitted to testify by the said grand jury, would testify to facts which were false and untrue, and which witnesses had been coached, paid and hired by the said defendants for that purpose, with the intent that the said grand jury of Los Angeles[27]