Evangelical Preacher kills his wife and freezes her body

[divvy]

MOBILE, Ala. – An Alabama evangelist who terrorized his family while impressing audiences at revivals was convicted Friday of murdering his wife and storing her body in a freezer for years.

People who heard Anthony Hopkins' sermons in rural towns around the South sometimes called him a psychic or even a prophet. Yet a prosecutor told jurors that Anthony Hopkins terrorized his wife and young children, isolated them and used the Bible to manipulate them.

"He was the supreme commander of his own little army," said Assistant District Attorney Jill Phillips.

After deliberating for 1 1/2 hours, the jury in Mobile also found 39-year-old Anthony Hopkins guilty of rape, sodomy, incest and sexual abuse of a child between the ages of 12 and 16.

Hopkins was arrested in 2008 while preaching at a revival on charges that he killed 36-year-old Arletha Hopkins. Authorities said they were led to the body of his wife by a teenage relative that Hopkins had abused and impregnated.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_body_in_freezer

While this is not anywhere close to a representative norm which describes the group of evangelical preachers,it does highlight the danger of assuming moral authority of the group simply on the basis of a few sermons and a couple amens. There is no broadbrush here,just a simple reminder that the word "sane" is not always printed on the back of a ticket to heaven.

[RKP5637]

1. People allow themselves to be too easily lead by false prophets. n/t

[SoCalDem]

2. in the freezer for YEARS?? No one wondered where she went?

what a crazy man.. I'm glad he's locked up for good..

[divvy]

4. Evidently, she was killed in front of a witness.

The story said something about getting killed during a violent confrontation when he got caught in the act of impregnating a teenager. It made me think that she actually saw the murder.

[Are_grits_groceries]

3. Gives "Silence of the Lambs"

a colder meaning. Was he going to serve her at some point with lima beans and Ripple?

[elehhhhna]

6. Close. It was porkrinds & Fanta.

[divvy]

7. Grape Fanta?

[annabanana]

5. Anthony Hopkins?.. Really? You'd think this would have been a tipoff:

[Initech]

8. Holy shit!!!