Tuesday, February 20, 2001
Minister prompts vote in church due to
mysterious past
DALLAS (AP) - The future of a Dallas minister will be decided
by his congregation this week as some members voice doubt in the
saga he tells of a 16-year-old disappearance and amnesia.
The Rev. James Simmons, who requested the Friday vote, has said
he won't take the pulpit until at least two-thirds of the congregation
affirms him.
Simmons, formerly known as Wesley Barrett "Barre" Cox,
says he was beaten in 1984 and awoke from a coma hundreds of miles
from home with no memory of his wife, his 6-month-old daughter
or his job as a youth minister at a prominent San Antonio church.
His marriage to Beth Cox, now of Franklin, Tenn., was dissolved
when he was declared dead in 1991.
In December, he was giving an audition sermon at White Rock Community
Church - a predominantly gay and lesbian congregation - when a
former acquaintance recognized him and had a friend put Simmons
in touch with his family.
Meanwhile, questions swirl around his story.
Cox disappeared in Jones County while driving from Lubbock to
Abilene, where he was stopping to visit old friends before heading
home to San Antonio. His car was abandoned and ransacked on a
country road, and his wallet was scattered on the ground. But
there was no trace of Cox or a motorbike that had been in his
trunk.
A massive manhunt for the former Abilene Christian University
admissions counselor found nothing.
Simmons told parishioners at the church in December his first
memory was of awakening in a Memphis, Tenn. hospital in July 1984.
He said he was told children had found him viciously beaten and
comatose in the trunk of a car.
Memphis law enforcement and hospitals, in the weeks that followed
his revelation, could not find any record of a John Doe found
comatose in a car trunk during that summer.
Simmons said that he adopted his surname from a hardware store
billboard as he traveled cross country to Virginia. He took his
first name from the Bible's book of James, he said.
A Panhandle rancher later claimed that Simmons stole his name,
birth date and Social Security number.
Despite Simmons' claim of amnesia, doctors characterized it as
virtually impossible. Brain trauma severe enough to obliterate
33 years of memory would disable a person from functioning normally,
they said.
Simmons is scheduled to begin preaching at White Rock on Sunday.
Simmons has taken time away to give the congregation distance
from the media flurry and to reacquaint himself with his family.
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Copyright ©2001,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps. Publications
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