Rev.C.L. Franklin was a closet case. That's what I know. And he had a taste for young boys. Not kids, but boys who were around 16-17. One night a young boy he had relations with tried to rob him in his house, and shot him. He was kept alive artificially for years.
The part you say about him getting his wife locked up is true. He was also physically "strict"(abusive) to his kids, Carolyn, Erma, Aretha and Cecil. To my knowledge he never sexually abused his kids, he was just a mean assed bastard.
From a young age, Aretha, like Whitney, was a star in church. People would come from all over to Rev Franklin's church to hear Aretha and that choir. Her sisters were talented too, Carolyn wrote one of her classics, Ain't No Way. But Carolyn and Aretha fell out. Carolyn died of cancer. So did Cecil & Erma.
When Aretha was about 16 she met Ted White. He was a thug. He was literally a pimp. When he married Aretha, he got rid of his whores, and became her manager. He would beat her. One time he threw her down the steps in the lobby of a hotel in Washington D.C.
After seeing how her father treated her mother and how he treated his kids, here she was in this situation with Ted White. They had two or three kids. One of Aretha's sons is gay and two of them are troubled children.
One of her kids burned down her house, but even though the cops knew it was arson and that he was the prime suspect, no charges were pressed and he went away. That same kid used to get in fights with other kids and bited people.
Then Aretha married Glen Thurman. I don't know if he was found in bed with her gay son, but that's what is said. I don't know about that. I do know that she had a "special relationship" with Jessie Jackson, and to this day they are close, and he did help her get thru some rough years when her kids were teenagers and when she was on her own.
Aretha's daddy was a civil rights figure and people in the Detroit community admired him, because he was friends with MLK. Rev. Franklin wanted to be like King & he was just second tier. Jessie is another one who was real jealous of Dr. King. So that's what I know about that.