Leslie Douglas Ashley

Leslie Douglas Ashley was the stepson of James Ayers and nephew of Ted Kipperman, the two photographers who captured William Branham's iconic Houston Photograph otherwise known as the "halo photograph".  Together with Carolyn Lima working as prostitutes, Ashley engaged in a three-way orgy with real estate tycoon Fred Tones.  During their sexual encounter, Tones was shot and killed.  Ashley and Lima were tried and convicted of murder in the Texas State court and were facing the death penalty. 

Ashley is also indirectly linked to another icon in William Branham's "Message" cult following: The mystery cloud photo. Ashley's murder trial and protest of conviction is the reason that William Branham was in Houston, TX, during the cloud event. While Arizona citizens were watching in awe at the rings resulting from detonated missiles launched from Vandenberg AFB, William Branham was working with Ashley's mother to gather support and petition a stay of execution.  They were scheduled to die on February 28, 1963, the same day of the cloud event.[1] William Branham was contacted to use his popularity in the Healing Revivals to sway public opinion, and though it was an extremely risky move for his career, Branham agreed.  According to Branham, he won an "oscar" for his performance and saved Ashley from the electric chair.[2]

I was going hunting with a friend, not knowing what was going to happen. And someone called me, the one that criticized me about that picture of the Angel of the Lord, the one that took it. I had to go to Houston about his son, for he was going in the death row and was going to be killed in a few days. And he met me in there and throwed his arms around me, said, "Think, the very man that I criticized comes to save my only son!" The humane society give me what they call an oscar, or whatever you want to call it, for saving a life. Then we went back, I went up in the mountain to hunt.[3]

The details of the crime suggest that the death was no accident.  Ashley shot Tones six times with a pistol.  Then, to remove all evidence, the body was covered in gasoline and burned.[4]  Ashley and Lima, however, argued that they killed Tones in self-defense.[5]  According to the two prostitutes, Tones became violent with Lima's genitals as she and Ashely were engaged in sodomy, and Ashley intervened by firing one single shot.  Tones allegedly started swinging a bayonet, at which point Ashley fired the remaining five shots into his body.

The appellants testified that they were living together in December of 1960 when Lima met the deceased and began having paid sexual relations with him about once a week. Ashley first met the deceased while disguised as a woman, but later was introduced as Lima's brother. The deceased subsequently suggested that Ashley be a part of a perverted, three-way act of sexual deviation, and on February 6, the appellants went to deceased's office to engage in these acts with him. While discussing these sordid matters, deceased lightly stuck both appellants with his "bayonet", and when deceased proposed that he and Ashley engage in acts of sodomy he became very angry and cursed when Ashley refused. The deceased and Lima then partially disrobed and had been committing sodomy on each other when the deceased started "getting rough" and tearing at her private parts. When Lima began crying out Ashley intervened and deceased started hitting and choking him. During their struggle Ashley got the pistol out of Lima's purse and fired one shot before dropping it. Deceased grabbed the "bayonet" and started swinging it at the appellants, but Lima managed to grab the pistol and fire the remaining five shots which felled the deceased.
LESLIE DOUGLAS ASHLEY AND CAROLYN LIMA v. STATE TEXAS (06/20/62)

Both Ashley and Lima were convicted and sentenced.  In 1963, they tried unsuccessfully to appeal.[6]  If William Branham was successful in saving Ashley's life as he claimed, he did so by example.  In 1965 after Carolyn Lima was freed, Ashley pled insanity.  Ashley allegedly believed that he was "Elijah the Prophet".[7]  His defense was successful, and he was sent to a minimum-security mental institution, from which he quickly escaped. Disguised as "Bobo the Clown" in a traveling carnival,[8] Leslie would evade the FBI for over six months. On April 6, 1965, Leslie Douglas Ashley made the FBI's top ten most wanted fugitives.[9]

Later in life, Leslie Ashley changed his name to Leslie Elaine Perez and underwent a sex-change operation to become a transgender female.  As Leslie Elaine Perez, Ashley (now Perez) ran twice for the Democratic Party Chair, only narrowly losing the race.  Many newspaper articles and books were published to describe his/her horrific tale of sex, murder, and transition. One such book, "Dangerous Games," was published in 1993 by author Robert Bentley. Two reviews of the book summarize the gory tale:

From Publishers Weekly: In this unusual story, engagingly told by screenwriter Bentley, Leslie Douglas Ashley met Carolyn Lima at a lesbian bar in Houston. In February 1961, soon after moving in together, the pair, who had turned to prostitution, were charged with fatally shooting a customer named Fred A. Tones, leaving his burned body in a vacant lot. A legal battle and media circus ensued. Ashley was sentenced to death; Lima was imprisoned and eventually released. Ashley's verdict was overturned because the prosecutor improperly hid psychiatric records. Ashley was sent to a mental hospital, escaped and was captured six months later. After serving five years in prison, he was released and underwent a sex-change operation, becoming Leslie Elaine Perez. In a stranger than fiction twist, she became politically active in Houston's chapter of ACT-UP. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews: A startling portrayal of life at the frayed edges of the American Dream--of drag shows, transvestite hustlers, teenage hookers, flophouses--and murder most foul. Free-lance writer Bentley centers his narrative on Leslie Douglas Ashley, a flamboyant drag performer who in the early 60's fled Houston for Manhattan. Failing to make it in the Gotham clubs, Ashley, still in drag, took to the streets as a prostitute. Returning to Texas, he encountered Carolyn Ann Lima, a slightly retarded 17-year-old hooker. The two joined forces, servicing clients from schoolboys to traveling salesmen. One of the pair's johns was a local real-estate agent who--according to their later testimony--became threatening during an assignation. Lima pumped six rounds into the man, then helped Ashley drag the body to a nearby vacant lot, where they set it on fire. Taking their victim's car, the two set out for Manhattan, pausing briefly in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. Picked up in N.Y.C. on a minor charge, Ashley and Lima were returned to Texas on murder charges. Ashley was condemned to death, despite an insanity defense; Lima plea
bargained and received time. During an appeal, it became clear that the prosecution had withheld evidence regarding Ashley's mental condition, and, after a new sanity hearing, the transvestite was put in a mental institution. Ashley was eventually pardoned; today, after a sex-change operation, she's politically active as a spokesperson for ACT UP--although Bentley indicates that her abrasive personality goes unappreciated even by that organization. An engrossing look at a shadowy area of American life--and the dark underbelly of the Reagan years.
Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.