Benjamino Evangelista, aka Benny Evangelist
In the Beginning...
In 1904, nineteen-year old Benjamino Evangelista emigrated to the United States in search of a better life. He changed his name to Benny Evangelist and began to make a name for himself in real estate and contracting.
And then he found God.
Beginning in 1906 he began receiving a series of daily religious visions which lasted until the end of his life. He saw God and all his acts as creator, and wrote it all up as a handy book, entitled "The Oldest History of the World Discovered by Occult Science in Detroit, Mich." The title is intended literally, Evangelist believing his visions had provided him with the true History of the World. His intended four volume work covered all of history through the resurrection of Jesus, including the birth of God himself; the first volume ended many years before the story of Noah.
Upon This Nut I Shall Build My Church
According to a press account from 1929, Evangelist
...is said to have received as much as $10 for private "readings," during which he called upon the powers of his own cult to heal various ills, either spiritual or physical, with which his "patients" were afflicted. This cult, evidence indicated, was known as the "Union Federation of America," and apparently was founded by Evangelist himself more than 20 years ago in Philadelphia. The founder, according to a preface in the cult's "bible," which Evangelist had written, was supposed to be, "with the power of God." In a dingy, but electrically lighted room of the basement, the "prophet" had set up one of the weirdest "altars" ever uncovered in Detroit. Eight or ten wax figures, each hideous and grotesque to the extreme, and each presumably representing one of the "celestial planets," were suspended on the altar in a circle by wires from the ceiling. Among them was a huge eye, electrically lighted from the inside, which Evangelist referred to in his bible as "the sun." The walls and ceiling of this "religious sanctum" were lined with light green cloth, which bulged out in places like the walls of a padded cell. In a window of the basement, which was on a line with and visible from St. Aubin avenue, a large card bore the words: "Great Celestial Planet Exhibition."
Clearly, a very happening group. Sadly, Evangelist was murderded by decapitation on July 3, 1929, along with his wife and children.
Stories and Speculation
The case of Benny's death went unsolved, but one can imagine the range of possible executioners, from disgruntled members of his personal cult, to representatives of the Vatican Secret Service, or perhaps even the Deros, who didn't want the truth of human history getting out.
Sources
The visionaries at Kobek.com have seen fit to republish The Oldest History of the World, and made it available as a PDF, if you're inclined to take a look.
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