Running From the Law

Hello and welcome to another episode of the William Brannum Historical Research Podcast. I'm John Collins, the author and the founder of William Brannum Historical Research at William-Branum.org and with me I have my co-host, researcher, minister and friend Charles Paisley, the founder of Christian Gospel Church.org. And together we're examining the history and the intersections in history between William Brannum and other key figures that either influenced or were influenced by the post-World War II healing revivals. Charles, I'm excited about today. We had such an exciting experience last week and for the listeners who aren't aware of everything that goes on

behind the scenes, we actually had to halt production and we're inserting an episode right in the middle of our plan strategy of episodes. Yeah, I know we got talking last time about Mr. Wathen and I know a few of the things we said on the call, we decided to actually fact check ourselves and I know you went out to Mr. Wathen's house. We just wanted to make sure we weren't we weren't crazy. Of course we got out there and surprise surprise we weren't.

Unbelievable. For the viewers who are watching this on YouTube there is in the background of when we're talking you're going to see the video of the trip that I made down to Wathen's place but it was a surprise to me because you were mentioning something that a fact that I did not know, I did not realize that he said he was on the hill looking and he could see where the bridge was and so I thought I would just travel down there and see myself because I'd never thought of it from that angle and the surprise the biggest surprise for me was

the house that I had been told which Wathen's house was not where it was. Believe it or not. I drove up to the place where I thought it was and I knew that Wathen's house had burned. I had stumbled across that about 2000 and I drove up to the house that I was told was Wathen's house and I actually knocked on the door and this guy comes out. He was a I guess you'd call him an amateur historian. He was fascinated with Wathen's history and he says no this isn't Wathen's house.

house, but I know exactly where it is, and I'll drive you there. And so we drove up there, and he gave me a little bit of history, some of which I knew, some of which I did not know.

And because he was an amateur historian, I obviously had to fact-check what he said. But I started taking this video that you can see in the background if you're watching the YouTube feed, and I'm literally standing on the hill at Watten's place, and I start panning around to where I can see the river, and I keep going, and there's this huge landmass in between the hill and the bridge. So there's absolutely no way he could have ever seen it, right?

No, no, it's miles away from the bridge. Miles and miles away. Even if there wasn't anything in between, I mean, it's so far you. Yeah. I don't even know if you could see it with binoculars. The distance is so great.

Well, I did some experimentation. So first, let me tell you a little bit about the history that he gave me. This was, it actually used to be, it wasn't just a house as we think of today. This was the mansion, and it was on the Watten farms. It was actually called Riverview Farms, and behind the mansion, there was a horse track where you could gamble on the horse races.

I did not realize that it was right there, and there was the stables, you know, for the horses for the races. He was like a pleasure paradise kind of man. He has hands in all of the, what would you call it, the pleasures of life. The things to attract the pleasure seekers of the day. He had it all and had his hands in it all. Right. So here is the liquor kingpin, the guy that Al Capone literally comes to see in Jeffersonville. This is the big man.

In the Marvel universe, this is the kingpin, right? This is the big one. And on the grounds of this place where everybody is, you know, working the casinos and the liquor in the industries, right on these grounds is William. Branham and his family. He's got some, he's got like some houses in his backyard where his key workers, Watten's key workers live, and Branham's family lives in one of these homes on his land. Yeah, it's a huge, huge place, right? I know it. I had seen this house many times. I take my boat, you know, right past this

all the time. It's at a place called Duffy's Landing. And Duffy's Landing is a very old, broken down marina. It's still used. People back their boats into it, but all the docks are, you know, falling apart. But the house used to be owned by a Mr. Duffy and then Richard Watten bought the house, and Otto Watten lived on the Duffy.

mentioned it was called Riverview Farms, and all of his casino and liquor workers lived on the grounds when William Brownham's family lived on the grounds. It almost called it a compound, almost, right? Exactly. It's a self-contained little compound with all of the men and tools and resources to run his little criminal ring in the Jeffersonville Louisville area.

And I've got to dig it up. I've not had time yet to do this to confirm, but this is a puzzle piece that I did not have. I am almost positive. I have seen Charles saying that he worked as a laborer on a farm of some sort, so he was on the grounds, which makes sense. He lives there, right? It's true. And he said, and he also said in his recordings that his father's farm was on Utica Pike, which is where it's Mr. Walton's house. Utica Pike, right? It's the same place. Yeah.

And back then, it wasn't part of Jeffersonville. It was just, you know, just to the side of the limits. Right. And I'm almost positive. I also saw, I think it was his brother Jesse worked on the horse track. I've got to look that up. I think he even, William Brownham may have mentioned on recording. But anyway, I did some experimentation. So he says he's on the hill, and he looks, and he sees where the bridge is built. I did some experimentation. And obviously there's this landmast. There's no way possible he could have seen it. So I walked all the way down to the river.

And this would have pre-existed some of the things that are there today. So I just stayed on the bank. And I looked, they're still, you might have seen maybe a millimeter in your site's view of the end of the bridge on the Louisville side because the bridge spans. And then the river curves and you cannot see even, you know, if I saw it, it was just such a little tiny piece. And his eyes would have had to been like Superman's eyes. Right. You're exactly right. The river takes a very sharp bend at Jeffersonville and Watham's house is way up the bend. Right. And even if,

even if it wasn't on a bend, I mean, that is, I think that's at least four miles there, John. Right. And there's just no way, the way I always learned, I heard Brother Brownham's story growing up, you know, on the tape that I listened to. He always said I was standing right on the bank of the river, right there by the river. And I looked out and I saw the bridge come up out of the river and here on that exact same spot, that bridge was built. And there's just no way that that's true.

And I know that that's exactly what you're looking at when you when you went up there. Yeah. So here is the experiment that I did. So back then it was river, river view farms.

And what is a public Duffy's landing now back then was part of Riverview Farms So there was no need to have all of the docks for public boating to go up there however docks now exist and I walked out onto the docks So I'm literally standing on top of the river where William Brannum could not have stood and and interestingly there was a person there with black skin who was very surprised to hear that in Jeffersonville this whole clan operation created this church that everybody in Jeffersonville is familiar with so I asked him do you mind if I stand here next to you while you're fishing and he

said yes so I did some video recording to show the viewers that you can see the bridge right there just a faint hint of it but there the remember there's other bridges there there is the bridge that actually was the you know the bridge where men fell and then if you look beyond this now there are two bridges in between that did not exist at that time beyond that the bridge also is at a different angle so it's it's angled away from your view and it's yeah and it's probably a little easier to see nowadays because they painted a yellow about what two or three

years ago I don't think it was historically yellow I mean it was always kind of a blue gray for yeah it was it started it's probably even unfinished you know to begin yeah so that yellow will maybe to help it pop a little bit there in your picture but you're right there even if he was looking that way there would at that day would have been another bridge in the way walking the view right so yeah there's no way he so I'm standing on the water where he cannot stand unless you know there are followers that claim that this man is just like Jesus Christ maybe

they believe he walked out on the water right the only way you can see it so then I did the opposite experiment I went all the way to the I went on to the first bridge that you see they're not the actual bridge of the prophecy but the first bridge that's obstructing the view yeah I did the reverse view and I'm looking like line of sight where where it matched the end on the Louis side of the municipal bridge cannot see Duffy's landing I mean with a pair of binoculars I might have seen just a little hint of it so all of this said I mean that was that was exciting but that's

actually not the exciting part as I'm standing there on the hill and I'm starting to piece all of these things together I'm realizing number one I'm standing where the liquor kingpan the basically the Jeffersonville mob kingpan lived I'm looking at the grounds where all of the mob henchmen lived and suddenly realizing, wait a minute, this isn't what I pictured when I'm hearing all of these wonderful childhood stories.

And the thought suddenly occurred to me. The timeline that we've been given was incorrect. We found this out on the last few episodes. And I started in my head, it just suddenly hit me.

I cannot believe I never realized this, but there was a point in time, which we'll get later into the episode whenever the clan rates Jeffersonville, the still, the whiskey still, where they're running this illegal liquor operation to supply the Chicago mob, gets basically taken down by the clan.

And William Brannum, who was working that still, was of age that he could have, and probably should have been convicted, and according to his sermons, he left town. So I want to examine that in this episode.

That's why we've inserted this episode because this is significant. It would mean literally that his ministry started because he was running from the law. It's an interesting concept, John, and you're definitely right. We're gonna get into some evidence here as we look at this line of thought.

And we have certain facts that are undeniable. And for we'll get through this, we'll look at all those facts. And it's very definite. William Brannum was involved in something in these years. He did not want us to know about.

Right. His story does not match what's in all of his biographies, what happened in these years. So I'm excited, John, to talk about this little more. So you take the lead. Well, and it makes sense too, right?

Because as I showed in the video, the last episode, if you're listening on our audio feeds, you can go watch the video. But I showed basically the tour guide is given by the cult.

Watten's place is not on it. And that was another thing that just made my curiosity. Alerts go off. Why in the world did they not? This is a significant part of his life. Yeah, that's really true.

Because he's always very clear in his stories that they live in Watten's backyard. And he even gives the street and everything where they're living at through all of those years. And they live there a good, almost 20 years, John, right?

In Watten's backyard. And why wouldn't they take people there? This is where the bridge vision really happened. This is where the angel spoke to him, don't defile your body or any of this stuff.

All of this happened in Watten's backyard, right? So why don't they take people there? That's a good question. What don't they want people to see or realize from that spot? What are they hiding?

I mean, think of this again, like in the Spider-Man universe, this is the kingpin in this type of world, in this criminal world, what you see publicly is not what's really going on. They have a farm, people are working the farm, they've got a racetrack, but they have this massive liquor operation running under the, you know, behind the scenes.

Even the years that William Brannum and his family can place into the history books or phone records, you know, another house. That doesn't mean that they actually were living and operating in that house.

They could have still been on these wathened farm running this thing. But let's get to the history because I think we'll show that this is a much deeper connection than people realize. So as I said, the house was built by Captain James Duffy and his daughter married into the wathened family.

Duffy had family in Chicago, which is another one of these strange Chicago connections, which will explore as we go on into the series. But so Duffy's family married into the wathened family and there was also, I noticed some people with the last name of Howard, which is really weird if you look at the evidence because William Brannum had a brother named Howard Duffy Brannum.

And you know, it's a strange coincidence that I can't, you know, I can't really say anything other than that's really odd. But this place, this river view farms is what supplied the Chicago mob with liquor.

And this was during prohibition. So if you watch the movies where, you know, you've got the old gangsters and whatnot, they were still able to produce liquor legally at his factory using a medicinal license.

Right. And according to what was reported to the government, at least from what I saw in the newspapers, because it's condensed down to only medicinal purposes, I think he only had like six workers in the actual distillery, right?

Right. Yeah. The prohibition has nearly shut down his above board business, right? Right. But he's taken some things underground, right, John? Right. Right. He's taking everything underground and, oh, one other interesting thing I forgot to mention when I was talking about the strange things.

The Wathen family was from Marion County, Kentucky. And William Brannum, whose legal name was William Marvin Brannum, whenever he chose a fake name, he chose William Marion Brannum, which is another weird connection. I can't say that they're directly related, but this is really odd.

Right. And we also know one, there was a marriage between the Wathens and William Brannum's family as well, too. Right. Right. Yeah. connections, family connections between these two groups. They were, they were, they were very Right.

Right. Yeah. Right. Right. friendly. They were, they were very close over the years, the two families, the Watkins, and the Right. Right. Right. Right. Brannems. Yeah, definitely. And so let's paint the scene a little bit. Before the 1937 flood, Right.

Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. just demolished Jeffersonville. This was, like you had mentioned, this was a play place. This was Right. Right. Right.

called Little Las Vegas. It was nicknamed Little Las Vegas. And they had the horse track. They also had this Greyhound track, which is fascinating history because I've, I've seen it right now, there's a motorcycle shop, but it used to be Greyhound grocery store. I think it was called. And that was basically where the tracks were. Right. That's true. But that's about, that's from the Tabernacle to Watkins house. It's in between there. Yeah. Well, actually, it's a little bit, it's a little bit north. You go up I 65 north and it's on the Clarksville side. But what's

interesting is they race Greyhounds and as a gimmick that just brought all kinds of crowds, they would put little monkeys on the back of the Greyhounds as jockeys. I've seen those pictures. Yeah, it's unbelievable. So it brought all kinds of, you know, entertainment into this area.

And all the while they had the casino on Spring Street in Jeffersonville. Right. Actually a row of casinos. They're not what we picture today because Vegas has painted this picture in our mind of casinos as massive, massive, monolithic structure. But these were old, timey little buildings that were just small casinos, right? Right. And we had Rose Island off to the other kind of right on the river there in town.

Right. Big amusement park. Then they had their pleasure cruises up and down the river. Right. Yeah, it's, it was a completely different world than what we see today. Right. And so in the, in the life stories, William Brannum talks about his making whiskey for Wath for Charles Brannum, which I learned later was essentially making it for Wathen.

But the picture that he paints in your mind is that he was this small child who was, oh my gosh, I didn't have a childhood. I had to carry water, which may have been true, who knows.

But when even the coloring books that the headquarters puts out for children are coloring books, depicting a small child who is filling these whiskey stills. And on, I'm going to be honest, that has, that basically prevented me from going down this research for almost a decade now.

Because in my mind, they've painted this picture that isn't quite true. And how it, now when he started with his father, I'm sure he was a little type, right? How maybe Right, but by the time we get to the day that the clan shows up and is shutting down the stills and his dad's going to jail William Brown, it's not a little tight anymore on that day now. No, he is according to the newspaper You know there this was a big clan raid the the Ku Klux clan had a newsletter on newspaper and Indianapolis because again

they were the largest clan operation in the United States and And they were Bragging about how the clan went in Rated Jeffersonville and basically shut down this illegal whiskey ring or liquor ring I got a copy of it right here John if you wanted to put it up for the people and this The clan runs this This newspaper article where they tell that they've come to Jeffersonville. They have Cleaned up the Jeffersonville booze ring shut it down the people arrested And John this is happening in March 1924 March 1924 March 1924 Yep, and so The clan comes in they raid now if you look at the other newspaper evidence that we have

There was later identified Or maybe it's previously identified Wathen was continuously using private individuals to to basically Produce liquor that he could illegally run to Chicago and Cincinnati mobs Right, right and and and when the newspaper talks about the Jeffersonville booze ring Talking about Wathen and in his operation, right? That's the only it's that's who it is, right? Yeah, and you're right The Wathen and his group are the booze ring that is supplying Alcapone and his his operations in Chicago and I got I did get ahead get another one John There's all kinds of newspaper articles. I just kind of printed off just a few of the key ones

But here's one of of many that talk about Wathen being caught in the drynet of the investigators When he when his group was involved in supplying liquor to Capone in Chicago, right? And that's what this is. They they've they've intercepted shipments. They've traced it back to The people connected to Wathen and Wathen and his family and his connected people are all being indicted in that newspaper article Right, and again, there's so many when we find one puzzle piece it connects so many others When I was first looking at this I I know I knew some of this from years ago

But the distilleries themselves a lot of the distilleries are in Kentucky on the Louis, you know, past Louisville in De Lexington there's a whole array of distilleries So when I'm thinking about Wathen supplying the Chicago mob and the medicinal whiskey. My mind was basically placing all of this going on in Louisville, but that fiery cross article that you referenced right there. It basically says that the liquor rates were in Jeffersonville. So while they've got the distilleries on the Louisville side, and this big operation is going on in Jeffersonville, the clang is basically cleaned house.

Yeah, and I'll throw this in for our listeners too, just a little bit of historical note. So Indiana and Kentucky are two separate states, right? And historically through the 1800s and even up into this early 1900s, it was not easy to have someone extra-dited across state lines, John. So a part of the reason, right? So I would live on one side of the river maybe and do my criminal operation on the other side. I have a very easy getaway, right? Because when the police chase you, they have to stop at the river, right? And so when you get across state lines in those days,

you've escaped, basically. So you've got a quick, easy escape when you live right on the state line, and that is no doubt why these people were living right on the state line. And also no doubt why there was basically a boat dock right there. This was the way that you cross the river very quickly.

And this was no small operation. When you think about, again, the picture that was painted in my mind of what the way William Brandon presented it, I was a small child and my dad had this liquor still, and he threw parties, and he even talks about, I mean, he's basically hinting at an orgy, had his father still. And that's why he says he hates his father. But this was women too.

Yeah, women. This was not a, this was not a small operation in 19, what was it? 1920, I think. They were the Wathen liquor ring was caught transporting 1,000 cases of liquor. Right. Right. And you're, you're spot on, John. There's tons of liquor moving through there. And and you're right, William William. Brandon told us these things on tape. I mean, so we're not even really saying anything.

He didn't say here. He pretty well told us point blank. There were prostitutes on that property. He told us they were making vast quantities of whiskey on that property. And he was helping them do the whiskey, right? And and when you, when you know all that's there and you realize he's saying in his life story that this is where the angel comes to him and said, now don't ever drink or defile your body in any way in all of this stuff, right?

He was surrounded by whiskey and prostitutes and all of this stuff where he was living right there in the middle of it. And and you know, and again, I'm not saying he and indulged in any of that, right? But it it just adds up why he even felt like he needs say I was not involved. I never did any of this stuff, right? Because the angel told me not to, right? Yeah. And also, you know, his timeline, which we're going to explore the reasons why here in a minute, but his timeline fluctuates so greatly. Sometimes he's, he's very young when

this alleged angel met him and said to basically stay disconnected from all of this stuff. The newspaper article, I had, I had not caught it. You're the one that, that showed this to me, even though my website has the newspaper article. He was 16 years old when he got arrested.

Right. Right. 16 years old. Right, John. And, and what I will, uh, one, one really awesome thing about your website and your listeners, you don't got to take our word for all of this, right? Like all of the newspapers are on your article. I've just got a couple, got one more to show, but there, there are hundreds of these and they're all on your website and out in chronological order. You can just sit down and start reading these articles in chronological order one by one.

This is what I did, John, because I didn't believe anything you said a few years ago. I sat down and I read all of these newspaper articles myself, because I thought you're, you're out of your mind, right? But no, this, these stories are just, just read in the newspapers, you come up with this stuff. I mean, it, and it's so obvious when you read it and you're right, John, the newspaper said that William, so when this happened when the clan attacks Jeffersonville and they shut down the booze operation ring, which Wathen and his family was running on the

Wathen farm in Jeffersonville, William Brannum, right, was 16 years old. 16 years old, also according the newspaper articles. And here is just one of a series of articles about William Brannum and what's happening with his family also in March 1924, which I will talk to maybe just a little bit more about that one as we get going along, John. Yeah, well, I mean, even to paint the picture, let's, let's pause and let's do that. Because think of this, you've got, this was for people who aren't in the United States listening to this, the Ku Klux Klan was a domestic terrorist organization.

They were vigilantes. They were armed. They were militants. Right. If you did something that violated one of their principles, you were, you were at risk of death. You were at risk of men with white hoods with rifles coming and, and killing you. And what's interesting about that article is it's not only William Brannum who's injured. There are others in his family that are suffering. Right. And, and, and right before I show this article, let me throw in one other thing. So who were the leaders of the mob? What was their religion, John? They were Catholics.

They were Catholics. Right. So not only were they boozers, they were Catholics. These were the Klan's arch enemy. Okay. Okay, the heads of the clan, the heads of the mob were Catholic. Capone was Catholic.

We've been looking into Woth and trying to confirm, but it looked like he was Catholic too. And William Brannem and his family, what were they? So there we have a question, okay? Because William Brannem's told so many different stories.

You know, one time he's talking about, he says, well, my family was all Catholic. Another time he tells it, my family was all Baptist, right? Another time he tells it, well, my family wasn't nothing, right?

So what, I don't know, right? But in at least one of his many versions, his family's all Catholic too, right? Yeah. And so they're Catholic. They're working with Catholics who are helping Catholics, who are sending liquor up to the mob.

So it's entirely possible and it's hard to say. It's entirely possible. His family was also Catholic at that time too. Yeah. But anyway, yes, John, you're right. So March, in March 1924, the clan attacks Jeffersonville.

They, it's spelled out in this article, the things that they've done. The Jeffersonville booze ring, which is ran by Wathen, is shut down, multiple people arrested. The clan has taken responsibility in this article in the newspaper.

They're bragging up what they've done. And so we have very solid evidence that happened in Jeffersonville in March 1924. Well, in March 1924, here's one other article, Family Ask for Aid. This is one of multiple newspaper articles that ran in the Jeffersonville evening news in the month of March.

And this is, but this one is a key one. And what this one tells us is that at the same time that Charles Brannum has been arrested for his liquor activities, right? This is also March 1924.

Charles Brannum has been arrested for his liquor activities. We know he was living on with Wathen when the clan attacked, right? At the same time that has happened, William Brannum has been shot in both legs.

Another son has suffered a broken arm, and another son has sustained a life threatening injury as well to his neck. So not only has Charles Brannum been arrested and put in jail, three of his sons have also been severely and life threateningly injured at the exact same time that this has happened.

And William Brannum, according to not this article, but I actually don't have that one printed. It's one in the series right before this, John. It says that William Brannum was 16 years old. And actually I might have that one printed here, John.

Let me look real quick. So this is another one in the series. And this one is talking specifically about William Brannum and his father. Yes. And here they say in this one that William Brannum was 16 years old in March, 1924, when this event.

So you can start maybe connecting that John into why somebody would need to disappear or run away or change their age. Yes, so that is literally the bomb that is dropping in this episode.

I have spent a decade of research trying to find out two things. Number one, why was William Brannum dishonest about his entire history from childhood to ministry? Why would somebody do that? Especially a Christian minister.

Why would a Christian minister be dishonest about his entire conversion story to Christ? Christians don't do this, right? And number two, why did all of the years change? His birth year according to every record that we've identified up to a certain date places his birth at 1907.

He himself mentions being born in 1907 on recording. He says, John Alexander Dowie died on this day and I was born the next day, which is 1907. Later, that's basically that's his Elijah stage persona Dowie Dowie's Elijah and he's getting the Elijah to Dowie's Elijah.

Whenever he was he was telling his Moses stage persona, he says that he met this fortune teller and this fortune teller told him, did you know you're born under a sign, the stars and the planets aligned in 1909?

Yet one of his marriage records, I believe it's the one to hope, he says that he's born in 1908. So we have three birth years for the man. And who does this, right? Even the argument that has been made towards William Brannum's favor is, well they didn't have records today like we have, you know, back then like we have today.

We didn't know his age, but what people don't understand is during that era when you did not have records, even if you didn't remember your birth year, you picked one and you stuck with it.

Because this is a, this identifies you. It's part of your identity. Right. The question that was raised for me was, why would somebody try to hide their identity? Yeah, why? Why? And with him, he changed the year and he also changed the day of the month and the month in some of the birthdays as well.

So yeah, it's always been, it's an unusual thing, right? Like why did he do it? And for me, I had always looked at it, John, that he was doing it for the effect of his stage personas, right?

He needed to have this date so he could claim to be the successor of Dowie and Elijah, right? But then he needed this other date because it's what the fortune-toler told him in relation to him getting the two signs as Moses.

You just kind of juggled whichever one fit at them what story he was telling, but as we look at these things, John, you know, at age 16 in Indiana at that time, that's enough to be tried as an adult.

It is. It is. It is. I was standing on that hill and I was looking around at all these properties, you know, when he talks about his, you know, he tells these humble beginning stories and I'm looking around trying to envision what it would have looked like.

One of it exists today, even Wathen's house has burned to the ground, but I mean picture this. This was where the horse track was. This was where the casino basically was. This was where most of the money in Jeffersonville was.

This was the Kingpan in Jeffersonville. So this would have been a very extravagant place. And I'm picturing the clan coming in and raiding not just Charles Brannum's whiskey still, which I believe was actually off grounds, which makes sense.

They're hiding the operation. But when they raid Jeffersonville, they're not just raiding these off ground sites. This is the Kingpan. This is their target, right? And the thought suddenly hit me and that's when I called you, you know, William Brannum says, I'm going to read the quote actually because we know exactly how old he was when he was shot.

He says, I was shot down in the field when I was 14 years old. And I was laying there. My legs bloated over me like hamburger from a 12 gauge shotgun. I screamed for water, oh, give me a drink.

Now if you think about this, like you just said, he's 16 years old in that era, 16 was the age of adulthood. Everybody considered you an adult when you're 16, not when you're 14.

And even today in the state of Indiana, at age 16, you can be tried as an adult if you have an offense severe enough to be tried as an adult, which back then this was a federal law that he was breaking.

So what we have, John, is really what looks like the first possible reason that William Brannum, first possible time, William Brannum, may have needed to change his birth date to avoid being tried as that adult, John.

And if he was 16 years old when his father was arrested, right, then in the eyes of the law, he was just as guilty as his dad for working those stills. And he should have went to jail just as much as his dad should have for what was going on there at that time, right?

And so we have a very logical explanation for why he would change his birth date at this time, and it is to avoid... going to jail with his father because we know from his own testimony he was right there with his dad working in the illegal production of liquor and these newspaper articles tell us he was at an age to be tried as an adult when that happened. Yes now I can hear it now all of the pro-William Brannum people are going to say you don't know that's why he changed his name or changed his

his birth year we don't we don't know that we can't say for certain that this is why he lied about his birth year but we know that there is some reason why he lied about his birth year and this looks like the most plausible explanation right exactly you know we we don't know all of the house we don't know all of the wise but we know it happened right and that that's the thing and and here's here's what I hope the listeners don't do right don't don't get so stuck on trying to figure out the how and the why that you miss the facts okay right the fact is that William

Brannum was involved in this stuff there there's certain there's certain facts here and John I just want to run down these things these are indisputable facts number one is Brannum's father did work for Otto Wathen William Brannum said so himself Wathen was the supplier of Al Capone's bootlegging operations indisputable we know that through government records through newspaper articles three Brannum told his audiences that he was working on those stills with his father in the sale production of liquor right there's not that that's a fact and in March of 1924 his father was arrested for those criminal activities and also number five the clan attacked Jeffersonville

that same month and shut down the booze ring in Jeffersonville which his father was working in right number six William Brannum was involved in the firearms accident at the exact same time shot in both legs and two of his brothers also suffered life threatening injuries at the same time number six and number seven the Indiana clan then steps in they pay William Brannum's hospital expenses right so these are all everything I've just said is facts with no speculation whatsoever none and when and when when you add all of that up right there's got to be an explanation here and

if you summed it up you could say what is happening in this story and these times is not what William Brannum has led us to believe it is not what is in this book no it is not what is in this book it is not what is in this book what is happening here in his life is not what is in these books right right and whatever happened whatever happened when you come out to the other side of this event William Brannum is taken under the wings of the Ku Klux Klan and he's touring the nation

the second highest ranking member of the clan. Right. So for the listeners who aren't watching the video, the books that were shown are all the cults supported life story accounts that are published. This is how you know William Brannum.

But I'm going to add, you mentioned eight points. I'm going to add, or seven points. I'm going to add eight, nine, and 10. You can go ahead. Which are extremely significant, extremely significant. There are going to be pro William Brannum supporters, who say, well, this may have been disconnected.

Yes, Wathen was the kingpin. Yes, Charles was producing liquor. But what if Charles wasn't producing liquor for Wathen at that time? What if he went rogue and he's out on his own? And he's producing liquor and William Brannum is helping fund, you know, feed the liquor stills regardless of William Brannum being dishonest about his birth year.

Well, we have a newspaper article where when Charles is arrested, Wathen actually pays his bail. Right. 1924, so that connects it all back together to Wathen. But here's the bigger thing. Whenever this happens, you know, the clan has raided with vigilante justice.

They've raided Jeffersonville. And vigilante justice in the United States isn't really legal. It's outside of the scope of the law. It can only be, remember, this was an Indiana clan so it's a state vigilante.

But here's what it did. Whenever the clan raided Jeffersonville and exposed this big operation that was going, the clan had no intent of seeing that through to its end. What they did was they opened the doors for the government to investigate, to see what was going on.

And then the government would see this through to its conclusion. I had missed this, even though, believe it or not, this was on my website and I did not notice the dates were different.

Charles Brannum actually went to prison for this. Or the one to see. Yeah, well, he went to jail once, but he actually went to the state prison for this. Right. Right. Right. And it was three years later.

It was, what was the date? I think it was 1927. He went to federal prison. Right. So we're talking about a three year span of government investigation into the Jeffersonville liquor ring that William Brannum and Charles Brannum are participating in.

Right. Right. And just again, William Brannum was a minor when he started. Before this is over with Brannum is a adult. He crosses the line and he's an adult at a certain point that he's working in this operation.

And what? Here, do you think that William Brannum fled Jeffersonville? Well, the official version and the best I think, I say 1927, I'm going to read a quote that's going to blow your mind because this is, I've been trying to find the reason for this trip for 10 years.

I kid you not for 10 years. I've been trying to find this puzzle piece and we just found it in this episode. I'm going to read you this quote from William Brannum. I was passing down this street.

I came here for the first time 35 years ago this year. He's in Phoenix, Arizona and he is describing his trip out west and he says, I was passing through here 35 years ago this year in 1926, an old T model forward, 1926.

Now that doesn't mean that he left Jeffersonville in 1926. That means he was in Phoenix in 1926. And we already know that he is working with Roy Davis by 1926. You're seeing so. It looks very much like the clan rate of Jeffersonville at some point after this, William Brannum changes his birth year.

He basically decreases his year by two years to become 14 instead of 16. He starts working with Roy Davis and the Indiana clan and the Davis clan, et cetera. And then changes the, so at the early part of his life, he's changing the date backwards.

So he's subtracting, you know, he's basically subtracting two years off of his life. Then to cover this up, he claims that his ministry starts about 19, what was it, 1931, 32, something like this.

He's a little vague about it, but it's way after 1926. So he is literally, we know that he is in the ministry with Davis and he's touring with Roy Davis, the Imperial Chaplain, Caleb Ridley.

He literally goes in bed with the clan to escape prosecution. Right. And so, you know, as we look at it, as we look at it, there's something unusual that happens there. And I know I think I've alluded to this before in another episode that we, where we looked at this.

It seems like William Brannum in a sense changes sides here. Something, this, this event where he shot in both legs, the clan comes and pays his hospital bill. It's some big catalyst in his life, a moment where something really changes in his life.

And it seems like when you come out to the other side of this, again, we don't, we don't necessarily understand the how or the... Why? He ends up working like you said with these high ranking members of the Ku Klux Klan.

Did they take him under his wing and say, oh, we're sorry, we shot you, come, we'll help you. Did they? Was he with them all along? Was he on their side the day? We don't exactly know.

But something happens after this event where the shooting, he shot where his dad goes to jail, and he has a reason to run from the locks. He was certainly involved in crime, right? Crime he should have went to jail for.

Something happens, and he starts working with these Klan figures and leaves the state of Indiana. Yeah. See, my mind goes a slightly different direction. I can see your point, and that's probably the most plausible fact.

But I grew up in this strange world as William Brandham called Delete Family, where the actuality of what happened is so far more complicated than the public view of what happened. Whenever my family gave a public presence, there was always so much more going on behind the scenes that you could literally say any one of the spider web of trails of actual truth and only give partial truth.

Roy Davis, this was a man who was a criminal. We have an extensive criminal record history of him. The Klan was in the public, was opposed to liquor, was opposed to the mob. They're fully disconnected, and they were vigilantes against this sort of thing.

Right, the rank and file was anti-licker, right? Right. But you've got this weird scenario. Davis is a criminal. He's basically against every value that the vigilantes were trying to stop. Exactly. He was a personally opposed prohibition, right?

Right. Right. He's supported liquor, Davis. He supported liquor. He's working with Congressman William D. Upshaw. Literally the man that is the reason why prohibition exists in the United States. But then Davis on the side is what?

He's got his Sargon juice, where he selling his off brand liquor, right? Upshaw. Upshaw. Upshaw is selling liquor for, he's basically rebranding, and he calls it a quote revitalizer. But it's a liquor, right?

So these men, they did not hold to their core values. Right. Even in Indiana, DC Stevenson, we talked about the grand dragon before. They were, he was publicly in support of prohibition, but guess what? He was drunk the day that he murdered the woman in Indianapolis, right?

None of them, the leaders were definitely not opposed to drinking liquor. It was a public image. They were trying to hold up for their rank and file, right? And what wasn't Caleb Ridley? Didn't he get any trouble for drinking?

Caleb Ridley was... drunk too he got arrested for DUI in Georgia right so all all of these top people in the clan john all of them are drinking liquor right and they're just kind of riding that wave of power right and so so it makes sense to me why the leaders like Roy Davis and stuff they would look at William Brannum and maybe feel sorry for him right because they don't really see anything wrong with what he was doing fact they might have been some of his customers yeah for all we know right so where my mind goes with this in being raised in the cult especially if

you're a rank and file member not like my family was you see where your Brannum is this big mastermind this you know he's this evil entity that ruined and destroyed your life so you're going to think he's the the prime villain I don't see it like that I don't see him as a pawn but he was basically one of the enforcers he Davis and these men above him were pulling his strings and think of the criminality that's going on behind the scenes think of Davis who is a criminal now you've got William Brannum who literally knows the intricate details of the mob because he grew up right there

in the wathenhouse on the wathen farm this guy knows how it works right plus he also has connections that were established while living there whenever you are this type of criminal the way that criminals think people aren't people people are resources to manipulate other people so Davis would have Brannum would have been a prime target to get so that he could get at other people and also to as ways to basically you know if he's in bed with the mob and he gets in trouble himself which he did several times he can easily go say hey look we're working with you can you

get me out of this thing and I'll rub your back if you rub mine right I see this as a golden opportunity for Davis and for some of the others in the clan right you know there's there's so many possibilities right and a lot of them are really very plausible and right however it comes about William Brannum definitely comes from living in this mob controlled liquor producing gambling prostitution compound right who's from there over and he's touring and traveling with the some of the top ranking leaders of the Ku Klux Klan and this happens right after these events

where he shot his father goes to jail and his brothers also suffer like threatening injuries right it all happens boom boom boom right at the same time think of this al Capone they were never able to stop him he was I mean he this was the kingpin in Chicago He was a villain beyond what we can even imagine, but even with everything going on they could not pin him to any single crime. He was that level of, you know, beyond untouchable for the law.

The only way that they could stop him was through a tax evasion lawsuit. That's how they arrested Al Capone. And what did William Branham have in the middle of his ministry? A tax evasion lawsuit.

That's John. William Branham was charged with tax evasion. And he was guilty actually, because he admitted his guilt, right? And he settled the whole thing out of court and just admitted he was liable for the whole thing. And, you know, I'm sure we're going to get more into those things as we get deeper into his ministry. But I know we've, we've in these first episodes, we have not got out of the 1920s yet, John. There's so much here. You know, and I know maybe some people listen to this. Why, why are you still stuck here? And this event, you know, it's a huge question

as to how and why did William Branham start down this path? And part of this is we want our listeners to see that there was something ugly happening behind the scenes all the way back here at the very beginning, right? Right. Just like this isn't something that started way down the road in his ministry. This was from the beginning. So that's an important fact that is conveyed by these things.

Another thing is that we want to understand why, right? That's the huge, why did he do this? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Everybody that's come out of the message, everybody that's fits, who has like me, John, like you, our lives were terribly affected by the things that William Branham did. William Branham caused us incredible pain and suffering. And we lived through that and endured that. And we want to know why? Why did he do this? Right? And did he have a good mode event? Or was it a bad mode? Right, we want to understand. And this lays a little bit of

a groundwork for us to start to understand why. And we're not so much maybe talking about those wise, but our listeners definitely can take these facts and put some pieces together for themselves to see some of those wise. Why did he do this? I think that's a really good way to say it because this episode in of itself isn't incriminating. This basically explains the reasons why what we're about to get into in future episodes, the reasons why these things happen. This is in my world, I call this a Lego block. As you're building the house of Legos, you've got all of these little

blocks and without some of... the more important blocks, the house won't stand. So this is one of the most fundamental Lego blocks of this building that we're creating, right? And there's so much to get into, but we've got to stop it here.

And next week we're going to get into some more of these building blocks and it's such exciting information that, I mean, my mind is already being blown. I don't know about the listeners, but this was fascinating research.

If you've enjoyed our show and you want more information, you can check us out on the web. You can find us at William-Branum.org and Christian-GospelChurch.org. For an overview of the historical information and research of William Brannum and the healing revivals, you can read preacher behind the white hoods, a critical examination of William Brannum and his message available on Amazon, Kindle, and Audible.

And join us again next week. We've got a great episode ahead.

And hope you enjoyed it. Next week, let's miss Joseph.