Minister, Wife Tried on Sex Charges
June 24, 2009 | 8:00
am
Photograph by the Los Angeles Times June 24, 1939: The Rev. Joseph Jeffers and his wife, Zella, sit at the defense table during their sensational morals trial, in which prosecutors showed a film of them taken during a raid on their apartment. The Times said that if the film were shown anywhere except a courtroom, the exhibitors would be arrested. |
June 24, 1939: The morals trial of the Rev. Joseph Jeffers and his wife, Zella, gets underway after they were arrested in April 1939. Their immoral act was so horrifying that prosecutors said they were looking for a "shock-proof" jury consisting exclusively of married people. During the trial, The Times reported that spectators fled the courtroom in horror at what was described. And this is their crime, which was considered so obscene that The Times couldn't describe it. |
seems like evangelicals always get themselves into pickles like this.
Posted by: peachy | June 24, 2009 at 08:51 AM
This would be hilarious if real people hadn't had to endure a public trial for such a ridiculous charge. Thank the gods that times change.
Posted by: Diane Warren | June 24, 2009 at 08:59 AM
Were they not in the privacy of their own home?What were the cops doing there?
Posted by: Larry Howard | June 24, 2009 at 09:23 AM