Aimee Semple McPherson

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. 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. 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.

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". 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, the Los Angeles District Attorney opened a criminal investigation. It was then learned that real estate agents gave McPherson a ten percent cut of any lot sold, with nine hundred lots allegedly available. Damages were estimated at $150,000, which, in today's money, is over 2.6 million dollars.

Aimee Semple McPherson:
https://william-branham.org/site/research/people/aimee_semple_mcpherson