The death of Debbie Valgos

It remains in great dispute how much involvement Phelps
had in the death of 17 year old Topeka girl Debbie Valgos, whom some of his
family members claim was married to his son Fred Jr. in a secret ceremony. While
Valgos' cause of death is listed as "accidental," the circumstances surrounding
her demise leave it questionable as to whether she died accidentally, committed
suicide, or whether she was murdered by someone conspiring with Fred Phelps.
Having met in 1970 during one of WBC's candy drives, Fred Jr. and Valgos became
sweethearts, which angered Phelps, who has arranged marriages for five of his
thirteen children. Valgos, in addition to being Catholic, was a decidedly hippie
girl who introduced Fred Jr. to outside influences such as contemporary rock
music and roller skating. While the elder Phelps had long informed Fred Jr. that
the boy would go to law school, with Valgos' urging, Fred Jr. began to think of
pursuing his dream of becoming a history professor. One day the elder Phelps
informed his congregation that he was considering allowing Fred Jr. and Valgos
to pursue their relationship, under the condition that Valgos attend church
services at Westboro. When Valgos arrived for her first sermon, the church
bulletin board read "Debbie Valgos: The Whore of Topeka," with Phelps' sermon
being nothing more than an hour long attack on Debbie Valgos, accusing her of a
variety of perverse sexual acts. This continued on for several weeks, with
Phelps apologizing each week to Valgos, only for her to return the next week and
suffer increasingly vulgar attacks. These culminated in Phelps assaulting Valgos
at a crowded roller rink, resulting in Valgos suffering an epileptic fit.
Eventually Fred Jr. and Valgos ran away together. Their whereabouts were
unaccounted for a brief period of days; according to some of Fred Jr.'s
siblings, during this time he and Valgos were married in a private ceremony, the
details of which have never been explicitly discussed. Sometime later, Fred
Phelps ascertained where Fred Jr. was staying and, along with another Westboro
congregant, kidnapped him at gunpoint and forced him back to the church, where
he was allegedly held hostage for a brief period before running away again and
living in a friend's basement. It is unknown whether he and Valgos ever saw one
another again. Valgos turned up some months later as a drug addict "party girl"
who hung around military bases, still mourning the loss of Fred. The
circumstances of her April 17th, 1972 death remain vague; in the weeks leading
up to it, she had attempted suicide four times but had been stopped by friends
or army officers who discovered her. Allegedly, the night of her death, she took
tainted drugs, then sustained internal injuries when an overweight friend of
hers attempted to cease Valgos' convulsions by sitting on top of her. Some
allege that Fred Phelps arranged for Valgos to be given tainted drugs or
otherwise conspired for Valgos to be killed in a way that would appear
accidental. The morning following her death, Fred Phelps broke the news to the
rest of his family by dancing through the house singing "the whore is dead" to
the tune of "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" from The Wizard of Oz. According to
his siblings, Fred Jr. continued to carry around Valgos' photo in his wallet for
over a year following her death. During the period he was being held at
Westboro, he was introduced to Betty Schurle, whom he would eventually marry.
Although his sister Margie Phelps told the Topeka Capital-Journal in 1994
"Debbie Valgos was a whore extraordinaire," Fred Jr. himself claims not to
remember any of the incidents surrounding his time with her. Two of Phelps' sons
told the Topeka Capital-Journal in 1993 that they would not be surprised if it
turned out that Phelps conspired to kill Valgos, and that they believed it was a
definite possibility. Valgos' mother, who disappeared in 1994, told the Topeka
Capital-Journal in 1993 that she believed Fred Phelps played an active role in
her daughter's death. When she attempted to confront Phelps about the matter in
the days following Valgos' death, Phelps threatened her with physical violence
and informed her "your whore daughter's burnin' in Hell now." The nuns who were
responsible for Valgos, though silent on the matter of whether Valgos' death was
accidental, suicide, or murder, indicated that they hold Fred Phelps responsible
for her death.