Apparent Danger

The Reverend Doctor J. Frank Norris was many things: a pastor who led the nation’s first megachurch, a provocative publisher, and a pioneer broadcaster. At his apex during the Roaring Twenties, Norris preached to a congregation of 10,000 at First Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. With the flair of a great showman, he railed against vice and injustice.

Rev. Norris was also a killer.

To those who dared to challenge him, J. Frank Norris was a formidable foe, as demonstrated with swift brutality in 1926, when he shot an unarmed critic to death. The killing and subsequent trial became a national media sensation.

Using more than 6,000 pages of newspaper articles, court records, and a variety of other published works, author and minister David Stokes vividly recreates the story of the fundamentalist movement’s most controversial figure. Mesmerizing in its vivid details, APPARENT DANGER skillfully explores the events leading up to one of the most intriguing—yet least known—true crime dramas in America’s legal history.

David Stokes is a minister, broadcaster, and columnist. He has served as Senior Pastor of Fair Oaks Church in Fairfax, Virginia, since August of 1998. Prior to this, he led congregations in New York, Illinois, Ohio, and Texas during his 33-year ministry.

Along with his early ministry education in theology and divinity, he holds degrees in history and political science.

David has been married to his wife Karen for more than 33 years. They have three married daughters and six grandchildren, and divide their time between homes in Northern Virginia and Florida’s Treasure Coast.