James Ayers
James Ayers was one of the Douglas Studios photographers connected to William Branham's famous 1950 Houston "halo" photograph, but his later significance lies in the criminal and religious scandals surrounding the image's afterlife. Ayers was convicted in a counterfeiting case involving his brother-in-law and business partner Theodore Kipperman, and his family became central to the sensational Leslie Douglas Ashley murder case after Ashley was condemned to death in Texas. During the same period tied to Branham's 1963 mystery cloud narrative, Branham and John Osteen joined efforts to help Ashley avoid execution, while Ayers formed the Ashley-Ayers Evangelistic Association and supported an insanity strategy that portrayed Ashley in prophetic terms as "Elijah the prophet." The result was a remarkable convergence of Branham's miracle-photo mythology, criminal scandal, Pentecostal influence, and competing Elijah claims within the same Houston-centered network.
James Ayers was one of two Douglas Studios photographers that captured William Branham’s "halo" photograph in the Sam Houston Coliseum during a 1950 debate between William Branham and F. F. Bosworth and Rev. W. W. Best.[1] He was a counterfeiter who, with his brother-in-law and partner, Theodore Kipperman, was caught in the act of forgery. James was convicted and tried unsuccessfully to appeal in March 1952.[2] Kipperman was named in the legal battle, having delivered a counterfeited letter to Mrs. O. W. Tidwell.[3]
After Ayer's son, Leslie Douglas Ashley, was convicted of murder during transsexual prostitution in Houston, the Pentecostal crowd came to the rescue. During the timeline of Branham’s "mystery cloud" event, William Branham and John Osteen,[4] Joel Osteen’s father, held rallies to free the transsexual. Interestingly, they had no interest in freeing his accomplice, Caroline Lima, who was involved in prostitution and murder. Ayers set up the "Ashley-Ayers Evangelistic Association"[5] after the conviction, helping the transsexual pose as "Elijah the prophet"[6] for an insanity plea. Branham, who also claimed to be "Elijah", claimed that he helped Ashley escape the electric chair, and Ashley was, indeed, granted a stay of execution due to insanity.
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.[7]
- William Branham