Fred Phelps, founder of Topeka KS 'God Hates Fags' Westboro Baptist Church, died last night at 84

Phelps sect achieved worldwide notoriety when it began picketing the funerals of people who died of AIDS. When it later started demonstrating at the funerals of dead soldiers, it attracted counter-protesters like 'Patriot Guard' motorcyclists.

     Phelps built a successful civil rights/employment rights legal practice, but in 1979,

the Kansas Supreme Court stripped him of his license to practice in state courts, concluding he'd made false statements in court documents and "showed little regard" for professional ethics. He called the court corrupt and insisted he saw its action as a badge of honor. He later agreed to stop practicing in federal court, too.

     Daughter Margie in recent days refused to reveal the condition which caused her father to be placed in a hospice or to admit that he was near death. Her church said merely that its founder was "old and old people have health problems.
     Last year Phelps was excommunicated from the Westboro Baptist Church.
     His daughter says there will be no funeral.