cover image The Shooting Salvationist: J. Frank Norris and the Murder Trial That Captivated America

The Shooting Salvationist: J. Frank Norris and the Murder Trial That Captivated America

David R. Stokes, foreword by Bob Schieffer. Steerforth (Random, dist.), $27 (384p) ISBN 978-1-58642-186-1

A leading fundamentalist figure in America in the 1920s, J. Frank Norris preached to an audience of nearly 6,000 in his First Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Tex. But his evangelical empire began to crumble when he shot a man and was tried for murder, a saga that minister and broadcaster Stokes unevenly cobbles together with a patchy history of the fundamentalist movement in the early 20th century. Positioning himself as the heir apparent to populist politician William Jennings Bryan, Norris favored showmanship and aggressively championed his causes, from alleging a Catholic conspiracy to a county wide ban on liquor. He was soon one of the most visible%E2%80%94and polarizing%E2%80%94public figures in Fort Worth and had no qualms about butting heads with city officials. He became even more infamous on July 17, 1926, when he shot D.E. Chipps three times in his church office. The ensuing murder trial%E2%80%94Norris claimed self-defense (though unarmed, Chipps had threatened to kill Norris)%E2%80%94became a media circus, with Norris's eventual acquittal. But Stokes leaves the roots and consequences of religious zealotry as well as the questions posed by the intersection of law and religion largely unexplored. 16 pages of illus. (July)