If all you've seen of Phelps, his family, and "his" church has been the news of their picketings, as will likely be the case for most here(?), a "short book length" article giving a fairly complete biography is available and should be of interest.

An introduction to the book, quoted here, as it typically appears at a number of sites, explains the rather curious way in which it was "unpublished, sealed by the court, but public information anyway."

Addicted to Hate: The Fred Phelps Story

[quote]

Cover (Notes from the Anti-Phelps Underground)
IMPORTANT NOTES FROM THE ANTI-PHELPS UNDERGROUND

On June 29, 1994 Jon Michael Bell, a former reporter hired to investigate Fred Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church by Stauffer Communications, Inc.,filed a lawsuit in Shawnee County District Court in Topeka, Kansas against Stauffer Communications alleging the Topeka Capital-Journal owed him compensation for overtime and to clarify ownership of his notes and work product. The work product in question, "Addicted to Hate" chronicling the life and times of Fred Phelps, was attached to the lawsuit as Exhibit A making it, therefore, a public document.

Learning of the suit, members of Topeka's anti-Phelps underground delivered a certified copy of the lawsuit to a copy shop near the courthouse.

Within 48 hours, Stauffer Communications had written all area media outlets and issued veiled warnings about using the information contained in "Addicted to Hate". A rival Topeka newspaper, the Metro News, announced it was considering publishing the lawsuit in it entirety. The Kansas City Star abided by Stauffer Communication's wishes, but several other media outlets aired or printed portions of the manuscript. Within 48 hours of the filing, Stauffer Communications persuaded a judge to seal the suit so the Clerk of the District Court could no longer make copies for the public. No matter - no such order was issued to the copy shop or to the hundreds of citizens that already had copies.

On July 8 the Capital-Journal, which had deep-sixed the Phelps project and fired the publisher who authorized it when it was completed last fall, suddenly began its watered-down, copyrighted series on Phelps that they had earlier claimed they wouldn't print.

Bell also withdrew his suit the same day.

By this time, however, TV networks, wire services, and eastern newspapers had obtained copies of the manuscript, and Stauffer's unprecedented attempt to suppress media discussion of the document attracted the interest of several major East Coast newspapers on First Amendment grounds.

...

[End quote]

The "book" is about 100 pages as I saved it in a single Word .doc, and doesn't take long to read. As posted at this site, it's about 10 separate "Chapter" downloads if you want to save it and put it all together into a single file, but a menu of links lets you jump from chapter to chapter if you just want to read it.

(It has been posted at a number of sites, and you might find it elsewhere in more convenient form. Most sites should show up in a search for "Addicted to Hate.")

John