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Growing up in the 1970s in a religious cult known
around the world as the Children of God, Rick Rodriguez was revered as
"the prince." The group's leaders were his mother and stepfather, and they
taught that their son would guide them all when the End Times came.
He was so special that his unconventional upbringing - by a collection of
often topless young nannies - was chronicled in "The Davidito Book," which
was distributed to members as a how-to guide for raising children.
Last Saturday, the 29-year-old Rodriguez invited one of his former
nannies, Angela Smith, to meet him at his apartment in Tucson, Ariz., for
dinner. He stabbed Smith to death, got in his Chevrolet, drove west across
the California border to the small desert town of Blythe and called his
wife on his cell phone to explain why he'd done it, according to the
police in both states and Rodriguez's wife. Then with one shot from a
semiautomatic handgun, police said, he ended his life.
The group lives on. What was once known as a '60s cult, attracting members
like the parents of River Phoenix and the Fleetwood Mac guitarist Jeremy
Spencer, is now called The Family International. A Washington, D.C.-based
spokeswoman for the group, Claire Borowik, described the organization as a
Christian fellowship with about 4,000 children and 4,000 adult members who
live in 718 communal houses in about 100 countries. The group sends aid
workers and missionaries to disasters like the recent tsunami.
But Rodriguez's murder-suicide is reviving allegations by former members
about routine physical, emotional and sexual abuse they say they
experienced as children.
Rodriguez recorded a videotape the night before he killed Smith and
committed suicide.
The video, which was provided to The New York Times by Rodriguez's widow,
shows him loading a gun. He said he saw himself as a vigilante avenging
children like himself and his sisters who had been subject to rapes and
beatings.
For The Family International, the latest murder-suicide threatens to
revive a past Borowik said she thought the organization had already put
behind it.
The Family announced in 1986 that it had changed its guidelines and would
excommunicate anyone who had sexual contact with children, she said.
The group survived child abuse investigations in Spain, Argentina,
Australia and France in the 1990s, and while some members were briefly
jailed, there were no convictions of top leaders.
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