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Ricky Rodriguez grew up
being hailed as a messiah. Born into the notorious sex cult The
Children of God, Rodriguez was raised amid a bizarre blend of free
love and apocalyptic Christianity. Its founder, David Berg, prophesied
that one day Rodriguez would lead it.
Yet now he is dead. Two weeks ago 'gentle, caring'
Rodriguez brutally murdered a cult member, and then shot himself in
the head on a lonely stretch of desert road in Arizona. The deaths
have shocked America and highlighted the dark history of the cult,
which has branches in Britain and across the world.
It has revealed graphic allegations of sexual
abuse, surreal beliefs and countless shattered lives in a group that
sprang from the counter-culture of Sixties California. It is also a
tale of 29-year-old Rodriguez's doomed struggle to come to terms with
his past after leaving the cult and the terrible revenge he plotted
against members he claimed had sexually abused him as a child.
Gradually a picture of his last days is being
pieced together. Friends of Rodriguez said he had struggled to cope
with entering the world outside after his exit from the Children of
God in 2000.
For Sarah Martin, another former member, the first
sign something had finally gone dreadfully wrong was when Rodriguez
phoned her in the middle of the night just before the murder.
'He just said he had been up late doing a lot of
thinking,' Martin said. Rodriguez told her he had sent her a video.
Martin was pleased as she had often urged him to record his
experiences of abuse. But by the time the it arrived in the post
Rodriguez was already dead.
Martin watched the tape in horror to see the
usually well-mannered Rodriguez swearing frequently as he displays an
array of guns. He methodically loads bullets into a Glock pistol and
vows revenge on his own mother, Karen Zerby, known as Mama Maria, who
now leads the cult.
He also shows off a large knife, a drill and a
soldering iron. He would use these as torture tools, he says in a
commentary, to extract information from people about his mother's
whereabouts. 'I was shocked. When I lived with him this man never
swore. He was a very gentle person, very caring,' Martin said.
Exactly what happened is not clear. What is known
is that Rodriguez met cult member Angela Smith, his former nanny, whom
he had accused of sexually assaulting him as a child. Smith, 51, was
later found dead with her throat cut in Rodriguez's apartment in the
city of Tucson, Arizona.
Rodriguez then drove his Chevrolet Cavalier into
the desert, rang his former wife to confess to the killing and fired a
bullet into his own brain.
Former cult members said Smith was close to Mama
Maria and privy to her secrets. 'He was after information. He knew
that this woman was his mother's eyes and ears,' said Martin.
Certainly Rodriguez left no doubts in the video as
to his intentions, vowing: 'We're in a war here. I'll get one person,
that's for sure - the source of my information [Smith].' He would
continue to hunt down his mother, even in the afterlife, he promised.
The cult that Rodriguez was born into was one of
the strangest to emerge from Sixties America. Its founder, David Berg,
was a former preacher who had been sexually abused as a child. He
started the cult with a potent blend of free love and prophesies of
the end of the world.
Women members became 'hookers for Jesus' to raise
money for the cult, and went 'flirty fishing' to draw in potential
converts by having sex with them.
The cult attracted a few celebrities, notably the
parents of the late actor River Phoenix and former Fleetwood Mac
guitarist Jeremy Spencer. However, underage sex, incest and
paedophilia occurred, and were even encouraged, by the cult leadership
and their literature.
When Berg married Rodriguez's mother the young
child - hailed as 'The Prince' - found himself proclaimed as the
future leader of the cult. Dubbed 'Davidito', he was held up as an
icon of the group.
A tome called The Davidito Book was distributed to
members, chronicling his upbringing, and showed the baby Rodriguez
watching orgies and having his genitals fondled. Smith is pictured on
a bed with the young Rodriguez. A caption reads 'Undressing... for
Sue!', the name Smith used in the cult.
However, the group was eventually hit by a series
of scandals and underwent a radical image change. It apologised for
any former abuse in 1994 and abandoned many of its previous sexual
tenets, especially those involving children. It renamed itself The
Family International, and now has about 4,000 adult and 4,000 child
members spread over about 100 countries.
When Berg died in 1994, Mama Maria was elevated to
leader. Her whereabouts is now kept a close secret. Rodriguez was heir
apparent, but he shocked the cult by leaving. 'Davidito was central to
our lives,' said former member Jonathan Thompson 'He was a Christ-like
figure.'
Rodriguez befriended a network of disillusioned
former members. Many, like him, saddled with the legacy of sexual
abuse, were not equipped for a world outside the cult. They had little
education and few relatives or friends.
Rodriguez struggled. He moved to Seattle with his
wife but the couple separated. He became a vocal critic of those he
said had sexually abused him. Thompson met him last summer. 'He seemed
very, very sad and bitter about life in general.'
Many unhappy former followers of the Children of
God have committed suicide. Martin's own brother has killed himself
and her sister once slit her wrists.
Eventually Rodriguez's obsession with tracking down
Mama Maria began to take over his life. He began posting threats on
internet websites set up by former members of the cult.
'Something has to be done about these child
molesters,' he once wrote.
The cult's spokeswoman, Claire Borowik, said claims
of sexual abuse by Rodriguez and other former members had been
exaggerated, and the murder of Smith was being used to unfairly
tarnish the organisation. 'This has been the pattern in the past,'
Borowik said.
She denied that Smith had abused Rodriguez. 'The
blatant lack of respect for the loss of Angela's life is appalling.
One would think she had committed the crime rather then been the
victim.'
Internal memos sent by Mama Maria after her son's
death have urged members not to believe what they read about it in the
press or on the internet. They say bitter ex-followers are waging a
campaign against the cult.
'They're trying to make Ricky look like a hero and
role model, ignoring the fact that he actually murdered someone,' one
missive from Mama Maria said.
'The media is being contacted and fed extensively
by some of our most hostile apostates.'
But the now former members hope something will be
done to reinvestigate their claims. It would not be easy. Many of the
alleged incidents happened abroad many years ago and involved cult
members who were not using their real names.
'An entire generation of adults who left the family
have been trying to get justice for years, but they have been
frustrated in their efforts,' said Dr Stephen Kent, an expert on the
cult, at the University of Alberta in Canada.
Former members now hope the deaths of Rodriguez and
Smith will finally lead to a full investigation of the cult's
activities in the Seventies and Eighties.
'This is a tremendous tragedy for Ricky and
Angela,' said ex-member Daniel Roselle. 'But we need justice now.
Something good has to come out of all this.'
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