Apparent Danger: The Pastor of America s First Megachurch and the Texas Murder Trial of the Decade in the 1920s

The Reverend Doctor J. Frank Norris was many things: a pastor who led the nation's first megachurch, a provocative publisher, and a pioneer broadcaster. At his apex during the roaring twenties, Norris preached to a congregation of 10,000 at First Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. With the flair of a great showman, he railed against vice and injustice. Rev. Norris was also a killer. To those who dared to challenge him, J. Frank Norris was a formidable foe, as demonstrated with swift brutality in 1926, when he shot an unarmed critic to death. The killing and subsequent trial became a national media sensation. Using more than 6,000 pages of newspaper articles, court records, and a variety of other published works, author and minister David Stokes vividlyrecreates the story of the fundamentalist movement's most controversial figure. Mesmerizing in its vivid details, Apparent Danger skillfully explores the events leading up to one of the most intriguing, yet least known, true crime dramas in America's legal history. --from publisher description