Well we finally know what happened to the good Rev. Gary Aldridge, thanks to the Montgomery Advertiser, but I was out of town over the weekend and found it throughSmokingGun.com. I think we can all understand why they wanted to keep it quiet now. The worst of the rumors have been confirmed true.
An Alabama minister who died in June of “accidental mechanical asphyxia” was found hogtied and wearing two complete wet suits, including a face mask, diving gloves and slippers, rubberized underwear, and a head mask, according to an autopsy report. Investigators determined that Rev. Gary Aldridge’s death was not caused by foul play and that the 51-year-old pastor of Montgomery’s Thorington Road Baptist Church was alone in his home at the time he died (while apparently in the midst of some autoerotic undertaking). While the Montgomery Advertiser, which first obtained the autopsy records, reported on Aldridge’s two wet suits, the family newspaper chose not to mention what police discovered inside the minister’s rubber briefs. Aldridge served as the church’s pastor for 16 years. Immediately following his death, church officials issued a press release asking community members to “please refrain from speculation” about what led to Aldridge’s demise, adding that, “we will begin the healing process under the strong arm of our Savior, Jesus Christ.”
UPDATE: Dr. Taylor has an interesting post on this as well. I strongly disagree with one of his points however. It was the police and the mayor who misled the public about the nature of the crime. The local media had tried desperately to find some confirmation for the rumors that everyone heard, but no one would release the concrete information or even go “off the record” to confirm the rumors. If anyone is at fault for misleading the public, it’s the mayor, the police department and the district attorneys office.
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