The Peculiar Truth about the Kidnapped Preacher

• May 18, 1926: Los Angeles’ famous radio evangelist Sister Aimee Semple McPherson and her secretary, Emma Schaeffer, enjoyed an afternoon at the beach, about one mile south of the Santa Monica Pier. They set up an umbrella and went over Sister Aimee’s notes for her upcoming sermon. Sister Aimee then sent Emma on an errand.

• When the assistant returned, she spotted Aimee swimming further and further into the Pacific. Then she vanished into the waves.

• Police were called. Divers searched the ocean. No sign of the woman. People lined the beach to pray. Some presumed her dead.

• That evening, Sister Aimee’s mother gave a sermon at her daughter’s packed temple. She declared that her daughter had gone to Heaven. Worshippers wailed with grief.

• Newspapers ran front page headlines. The famous woman preacher was gone. Or was she?

• Aimee Semple Mcpherson’s rags-to-riches tale was uniquely American - even though she was born in Canada. As a teen, she attended Pentecostal tent revival meetings. People spoke in tongues. They hooted and danced. Aimee was entranced.

• She married Robert Semple, a traveling missionary. They visited China to convert locals. Robert died of malaria. Pregnant Aimee survived and went to the US.

• Then she married Harold McPherson, an accountant, and had another child. But a sedentary life was not for her. Following in her previous husband’s footsteps, she took her kids and became a traveling missionary across the US.

• She excelled as a fire and brimstone preacher, and she gathered a following. Her journey took her to Los Angeles where she settled and formed her own church - the Angelus Temple.

• Her acclaim grew when she began sermonizing on radio. That brought her to fame and fortune. She rubbed elbows with many Hollywood celebrities and political figures. Sister Aimee was a star.

• That was why her disappearance and presumed death caused such a stir. That was also why her mysterious reappearance a month later created controversy.

• Mad events occurred during the month of Aimee’s absence. The beach was combed daily for her body, which never turned up. Across North America people made claims that they saw her, including in Canada. A grieving woman killed herself. Kidnappers in San Francisco demanded ransom, but it was a hoax. A memorial service was held for Sister Aimee.

• At 3 am on June 23, Sister Aimee was found in the border town of Douglas, Arizona. She said she’d walked in from the Mexican desert after escaping kidnappers.

• She told the authorities that on that afternoon at the beach a woman approached her. The stranger claimed her baby was dying in her car. Could Sister Aimee help? She agreed. But when she got to the vehicle, she was subdued with a sponge containing knockout gas. Then she was taken to a desert shack in Mexico. Her kidnappers, Steve and Rosie, proposed a ransom.

• One day, they left her alone in the shack. Aimee found a tin can on the floor and used the edge to cut through the ropes that bound her hands. Then she escaped through the Mexican desert.

• Yet she would have walked in 120 degree desert heat in shoes that showed no wear. She also wore her wristwatch, which she did not take to the beach. Kidnappers took her in broad daylight with some mysterious knockout gas. Her story made little sense.

• Evidence suggested Sister Aimee had gone to Monterey, CA to have an affair with Kenneth Ormiston, the married engineer of Sister Aimee’s radio program.

• The District Attorney convened a grand jury. Aimee in turn attacked him from her radio pulpit. The press turned against her.

• Yet the grand jury did not indict her. While they believed she had lied, they didn’t find enough evidence for a trial.

• Sister Aimee continued sermonizing for many years thereafter, but her fame and influence diminished.

• She died of an accidental overdose of sleeping pills at age 53, although some question whether or not it was accidental.