Even for hardened police officers, it must have been a gruesome sight.
On July 2, 1929, police were called to the house on St. Aubin Street in Detroit, Michigan that real-estate entrepreneur and "divine prophet" Benny Evangelist shared with his wife and four children. Evangelist's headless body had been discovered by one of his real-estate associates who had gone to the house to discuss a business deal. But that was only the beginning of the horrors that waited to be discovered by officers arriving on the scene.
Though the body of the 44-year-old Evangelist was still sitting slumped in a chair, his head was lying nearby. While he was fully dressed and obviously waiting for his business meeting, the bodies of his wife and four children all lay upstairs where they had apparently retired for bed already. The body of 33-year-old Santina Evangelist was found lying in her bed, her head horribly mutilated and nearly severed from her body. Lying in bed with her was 18-month-old Mario Evangelist whose head had been badly lacerated. In an opposite bedroom, connected to their mother's room by a single door, police found the bodies of the three other children, seven-year-old Angeline, five-year-old Margaret, and four-year-old Jean. All three girls had been killed by axe blows to the head and one of them had her arm nearly severed from her body.
Based on their investigation, police concluded that the robbery was not the motive for the murders given that nothing was stolen from the home. Though the deaths bore a disturbing resemblance to another family killing that had taken place in a Detroit suburb two weeks earlier, there was no apparent connection between the Evangelist family and the previous victims. Instead, investigators decided to focus on Benny Evangelist himself and his colourful history.
Born in Naples, Italy in 1885, Beniamino Evangelista (as he was then known) had little formal education and, like many other young Italian men of his generation, emigrated to the United States in 1904. While working as a carpenter and construction worker, the man who now called himself Benny Evangelist later claimed to have received a series of divine inspirations that led him to found his own cult which he called the "Union Federation of America." Originally established in Philadelphia, Evangelist eventually moved to Detroit to take advantage of the better business opportunities there.
Cultivating a reputation as a psychic and a religious figure, Benny Evangelist also self-published a four-volume work titled "The Oldest History of the World: Discovered by Occult Science.” Literally intended as a rewriting on the history of the world as described in Genesis, Evangelist's book described the early wanderings of a prophet named "Miel" who spread God's word with the aid of two disciples. It was also filled with references to the author's own divine mission and began with a preface reading:
"My story is from my own views and signs that I see from 12 am to 3 am. I began on February 7, 1906 in Philadelphia, PA and it was completed on February 2, 1926 in the City of Detroit, County of Wayne, State of Michigan. On the new earth, the last one was created by God, the Father Celestial and the great Prophet Miel. We call it today the Great Union Federation of America. I am with the power of God and I respect this nation. In this book, I shall express all my views of the past 20 years. In this great continent, we are all the generations."
Beginning with a description of God's creation, Evangelist continued his great work through the creation of the world, eternity, light, the sun, the moon, and the creation of the ruler he called Eldom who, along with seven other "commanders" then united to rule the Earth. The book proceeds through the various ages of Biblical history and continued up to the dawn of what he termed the Third World (at the birth of Christ). Evangelist apparently had grandiose schemes of continuing his great work considering that this was only the first volume and that he intended to write three more.
It was a bizarre work that did little else but serve as a "Bible" for Evangelist's cult. As cults go, it didn't seem to have been that popular and Evangelist largely supported himself and his growing family by working as a carpenter and presiding over a respectable real estate business.
Still, Benny Evangelist was much more than a real estate entrepreneur. With business cards stating that he was as a "divine prophetil (sic), author, and private history writer", he had a prosperous side business giving "readings" and "spiritual healing" sessions to paying clients. Certainly nobody was in any doubt where Benny's real interests lay (even his otherwise reticent neighbours described him as a "confirmed religious fanatic." Certainly the police was agog at what they found in the Evangelist house during their investigation.
Though the first two floors of the house seemed normal enough, their search of the basement turned up a special room that Evangelist had apparently used as a "religious sanctum." The room itself was lined with light, green cloth which bulged out as if it were a padded cell. There was also a window with a large sign visible from the street that read, "Great Celestial Planet Exhibition." The "celestial planets" in question were the eight to ten grotesque wax figures that were hanging from wires over the elaborate altar at the centre of the room. Among them was a huge eye, electrically wired to give off light, which apparently represented the sun.
As for Benny Evangelist's office where his body was later found, the furnishings were a little more sedate, including a crucifix mounted on the wall behind his desk (along with a wooden cross and a picture of the Last Supper). Police also found two swords ( testing determined that neither one had been used in the murders) as well as a wig and a beard which Evangelist apparently wore to impress his clients during his "readings". As well, there were three large pictures of a child in a coffin found strewed on the office floor, The child was later identified as Benny's son who had died some years earlier and the photographs had apparently been taken post-mortem. though nobody knew what this meant. Aside from some bloody footprints and a single fingerprint, no other meaningful clues could be found.
While the house itself didn't provide any additional clues about who could have killed the family, investigators continued to turn up surprising new information on Benny Evangelist, himself. Evangelist's physician, Dr. Alf E. Thomas considered Evangelist to be completely insane and, interestingly enough, had apparently not been married to Santina all that long (all the children were reportedly hers from a previous marriage.) The doctor also said that Evangelist had been planning to make a motion picture describing the history of the world as laid out in his Bible. As for Evangelist's lawyer, Anthony Esperti, Evangelist had been involved in multiple lawsuits over his various real estate deals though nothing that seemed like a reason for mass murder.
As for Evangelist's criminal history, he had no prior offences despite his bizarre ministry - just one misdemeanor charge for improperly installed plumbing. Even Evangelist's side business of selling "love potions", herbal remedies, and "spiritual invocations" was considered perfectly legal by city officials (he had a permit to practice medicine so long as he "didn't use drugs or prescribe medication"). As for his neighbours, most of them were Sicilian immigrants who were reluctant to say anything to the police but, overall, they largely regarded Evangelist as harmless despite his tendency to engage in frequent religious demonstrations on the street.
Still, whatever people may have thought of Evangelist while he was alive, the gruesome murder of his family exerted a powerful fascination for the public. Just about every police official of any importance came down to the crime scene and a squad of officers were needed to keep back the hundreds of spectators who had gathered to watch the bodies being sent to the morgue. As for the funeral which was held for the family on July 4, over 3000 people showed up, mostly due to the notoriety of the murders. Police carefully examined everyone present in the hope that the killer might have been present but nothing really came of it.
In the months that followed, the actual investigation slowly ground to a halt as police failed to find any real clues to who might have been responsible. Hundreds of people were questioned and numerous arrests were made, usually involving people known to have been living in the area at the time and who had a history of mental illness, but they were all eventually released. Police even checked Evangelist's client list to see if he had any disgruntled customers Not surprisingly given the notoriety of the murders, several people tried confessing but police ruled them out as well. Much like today, psychics continued to offer their "services" to the police and newspaper but nothing conclusive ever came of it. Police even offered a $1000 reward for information leading to an arrest but there were no takers.
One plausible suspect that police briefly investigated was an escaped mental patient named Aurelius Angelino. Born in the same town as Benny Evangelist, Angelino reportedly immigrated to the United States at about the same time as Evangelist and they apparently knew each other quite well while living in York, Pennsylvania around the same time. Also, by all accounts, both Angelino and Evangelist were both religious fanatics and may even have belonged to the same cult. In 1919, Angelino was confined to a psychiatric asylum after killing his two children with an axe and, after escaping in 1923, was never seen again. As part of their investigation, police found that Benny Evangelist's fingerprints matched the bloody fingerprints that had been found on the walls in Angelino's home near the bodies of his children.
Had Evangelist framed Angelino for the murder of his children and had Angelino or a family member finally tracked him down for revenge? Another theory that the police seemed to favour for a while was that Evangelist was Angelino and that he had successfully changed his identity until his past later caught up with him. Despite their investigation, police could find nothing further to link the Evangelist murders to that earlier murder in York, Pennsylvania.
Eventually, the Evangelist murders slowly faded into local legends and the house was finally demolished after being on the market for years (nobody seemed interested in buying a place where a family had already been murdered). Even today, there are stories about the vacant lot where the house once stood, including claims of ghostly screams at night. Those stories, along with the availability of Evangelist's book on the Internet, and the occasional newspaper story about the case seem to be the only remaining legacy of Detroit's most notorious unsolved murder.
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