Behind the Bastards - Part One: The 12 Tribes: The Worst Cult You've Never Heard Of

Episode Date: September 5, 2023

Robert is joined by Alex Steed to discuss The 12 Tribes cult. (2 Part Series)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm comedian Gabby Watts and I'm hosting a new history podcast called American Filth. Where we're diving into the filthy underbelly of the good old US-A-V. I'll be talking about a founding father who died from a DIY catheter. The woman who wrote the dirtiest blues song ever recorded. How the pilgrim smelled durable. And of course a 17th century beastiality panic. Listen to American Filth on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

On his new podcast, six degrees with Kevin Bacon, join Kevin for inspiring conversations with his friends and fellow celebrities who are working to make a difference in the world, like actor Matthew McConaughey. You know, I found myself moving upstate in the middle of this fracking fight, you know, and I'm trying to raise kids there and, you know, my neighbors like willing to poison my water. Listen to 6 degrees with Kevin Bacon on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

911, what's your emergency? It's a nightmare we could never have imagined. And a killer? Who is still on the loose? In the 1980s, we were in high school losing friends, teachers, and community members. We weren't safe anywhere. Would we be next?

It was getting harder and harder to live in Mompine. Listen to the murder years on the iHeart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, uh, can we, can are we ready? Yes boss. That was to me. That was to me because you that was, that was to you, huh? You could never be in charge. Yes, employee. Wow, wow. What's the president of this podcast? My Robert Sophie? That's right. That's right. You admitted it. Who is the, who is the dictator overlord of this podcast? My Sophie. I'm gonna have Daniel cut that little bit out where you, where you Introduced me as boss and then I'm gonna play that like a, I am introducing a boss. I introduce myself as boss and then I'm gonna play that like a I'm introducing us boss I introduce myself as boss. No I'm gonna get a little two little buttons one of them one of them has you

introducing me as boss and one of them has Garrison calling Reuters routers and that's funny that's gonna be all I need. That's very funny one of one of the weird things about being associated with I heart radio is that I have an org chart that literally shows you as my employee. So. Wow. Wow. This is a,

I don't know. I don't know. I'll have to ask Sophie of a minute and a half ago who's in charge. Wow. Is that I seem to recall what she said. Wow. Anyway, this is behind the bastards,

a podcast of vicious power struggles where we occasionally talk about some of the worst people in all of history. Our guest this week, Alex Steed of You Are Good, the podcast and the general concept. Yeah, both at thanks for having me. Yeah, Alex, Alex pointed out that the one time we met in person was that Jamie Loftus' 30th birthday at medieval times where we were both extremely intoxicated and I've never felt more endeared to a guest in my life. Now Alex. Yes. How do you feel about Colts? Oh, Colts. I find them fascinating. They're part of our

they're part of our national history. Mm-hmm. How do you, on a similar topic, feel about the largest wildfire in Colorado state history? I have no feelings or knowledge, no feelings towards our knowledge about pro wildfires. Got it. I'm just taking notes here. Um, thank you. Okay. So we're, we're going to be talking today about a cult that I'm going to guess most people, I had not really heard of these guys until I started digging into them. But it's a fascinating, real, real fascinating cult leader, real terrible journey. We're just going to hear a lot of awful things this week. Just deeply unpleasant. So are you ready? Are you strapped in to just have a very bad time? You know, I've listened to the show before.

I know we're in for and I'm eager for the journey. Yeah, well, this one's... It's been a while since we've had a good cold episode, you know? That's our bread and butter. So yeah, get ready for some bread and butter. Get ready for like the carb equivalent of sorrow. I don't know what that would be. I'm sorry Alex. Existential depression maybe. So on December 30th, 2021,

Embers from an approved trash fire caught dry vegetation on fire in the suburbs between Denver and Boulder. And in Ferno followed, tearing through desiccated grassland and the Rocky Mountain foothills. Hundred mile an hour winds meant that for quite some time, there was no feasible manner of fighting what became known as the Marshall Fire. It killed two people and did around $2 billion in damage. It is to date the most devastating wildfire in Colorado history. Although, give Colorado some time, I'm sure they'll break that record very soon, the way things are going for everybody, RE fires.

So after 18 months of investigation, state authorities concluded that the blaze had started likely due to smoldering embers from the aforementioned trash fire. And it was like wood trash that was being burned. The fire had started on the communal living property owned by a little known cult called the 12 tribes. This sparked renewed interest in the group and the investigations that followed what inspired these episodes. I should note here that Colorado authorities opted not to charge the cult or its members with the blaze. This may seem unjust,

but the logic's actually pretty solid. Like this was a trash burn. The authorities showed up. The fire department gave them the go ahead. It just was the driest it's ever been. So I'm going to say the horrible fire this cult caused probably chalked out more to climate change than the cult. But we have to start there because it's kind of the biggest recent touchstone with this cult. If you don't want to remind people that you exist.

No, no, you really want to not start the largest wildfire in state history, because it might start a Denver Post investigation indeed. It's pretty good, quite good. As a basically fair man, I think it's important to acknowledge even as we dig into how the authorities have ignored decades of allegations of child abuse committed by this cold, that the fire that they got famous for probably not their fault. Today the 12 tribes number about 3,000 members somewhere around there, although we have no insight into their actual numbers because they are a very shady cult. We do know they own about $36 million in real estate in the United States and they operate

communes in 22 states. So there's a lot of these communities and they also operate a lot of businesses, which we'll be talking about later, mostly like little cafes and restaurants and enormous construction companies. So one thing that interested me right away with this cult is that, well, it's got a charismatic founder who goes mad with power.

It may have functioned in most of its history as an endless like centralized manner, right, where the cult leader was kind of potentially usurped at some point by his equally sketchy wife. It's kind of hard to say exactly because the life of the cult founder Eugene Spriggs is a little bit obscure, but we're going to do our best here to pull back the veil about this guy and what happens to him. So, Albert Eugene Spriggs Jr. gets born on May 18th, 1937, to a devout Methodist family in Eastridge, Tennessee. His childhood is mostly a mystery to us.

I can tell you his dad was named Albert Sr., which is ridiculous, and his mother was a mabel, so he's like, very thirties kid, right? Mabel and Albert, like, that's like, you can only be grandparents. Like while you're, I think you get like, skipped over straight to the grandparents stage if you've got old people names like that. Yeah, and they're out of Tennessee.

This is like a scene from Pearl. Yeah, yeah, tried, and also just like, try to imagine an 18 year old Albert. Like, it's impossible. You can't do it. It cannot be done. It's a Benjamin Button, such a race. Yeah, I do.

I want to, I'm never going to have a kid, but I want to like try and start a movement of like Ginzy kids to bring back some of these ridiculous old-timey names. Like I want a bunch of gin alpha maples, like a lot of little baby mable and effles, like wandering around. I did meet a very nice dog named Mabel once

She was we have a dog she was a call dogs anything. She was a corgi She was just doing doing she was sniffing and her name was Mabel and it and it worked So can we have a dog exception? There's always a dog exception. I know I knew a Mabel named after Mabel Carter as a dog. So yeah, I guess that's a two of them. That's a popular dog. Yeah, that's very pop. Yeah, seems like Mabel's the hot new dog name. Everybody's going with why not name your kid Mabel?

You know what, bring it back. That's how we get back some of those good 30s values like smoking lots of cigarettes. But in kids to work. Yeah, because like Albert's a cigarette name. Like Albert's fucking, like smoking the way people just can't smoke today. Yeah.

Yeah, that's what you know about him. So very religious family, like again, hella Methodist. They went to church three times a week on a pretty regular basis just a nightmare life. One bio I found notes that Eugene Spriggs was a football standout at Central High School, so we can assume a handful of childhood head injuries. He graduated and moved to Chattanooga to attend the University of Tennessee where he got

a degree in psychology. Now, a paper I found on the Virginia Commonwealth University website describes his young life as unsettled in a number of ways as he held a succession of jobs, pretty wide variety, everything from like labor jobs and stuff to, he was a high school guidance counselor for a spell. He was the tour director of a travel agency. He did a stint in the army, and he seemed to have unusual difficulty staying in relationships. This is a, at this point, 50s guy

who gets divorced three times. Oh, yeah, you don't run into that a lot. That means you're really running through, like you gotta be absolutely, and it seems like he is leaving them, right? Like, he has one kid and wife takes it. I don't know. It's a little unclear to me what happened

in each relationship, but that's not a common story in this period of time. No, no, no, although it feels like a common story with male cult leaders. It does. At this time, there's like a couple of wives before you find one who's like, let's, I like your zany ideas.

Let's move on it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he does, you actually have predicted where this goes one who's like, let's, I like your zany ideas. Let's move on it. Yeah. Yeah. And he does, you actually have predicted where this goes, because wife number four is going to be down to clown. This already sounds a lot like, I forgot the name of the cult, but the Tony, Tony Alamo, the guy who makes the, like, beaded jackets. This is almost exactly his story.

Yeah. Well, it's also, I mean, it's not, Elrond Hubbard, like he did everything He's extra penache, but he's, he's, gets, is divorced basically two or three times before he, he finds the lady who's going to go to prison for him for infiltrating the FBI. It's a high standard, really. Yeah. To be like, will you go to jail if it comes to it? Yeah. So anyway, listeners, what you should take from this is that if you're looking to start

your own cult, get divorced a lot. I mean, I mean, you, because honestly, unless you're able to, unless you should take from this is that if you're looking to start your own cult, get divorced a lot. I mean, I mean, because honestly, unless you're able to, unless you've got real experience abandoning families, then you're not going to have the kind of emotional distance that it takes to be a good cult leader. It's just basic sense, you know? You can learn more about this in my $4,200 weekend course, divorce your way to leadership skills. Yeah, I think Robert has a free PDF about this. Of course.

Do I get 10%? Yeah, of course, Sophie. You're my dealer basically. So by age, yeah, by age 32, Sproogs is super divorced, the most divorced man in the 1960s. And working as a carny in Chattanooga, which is so funny. Like, he is living the most depressing, the divorced carny. Like, if you were doing that today, it would be the worst.

Oh, yeah, yeah. So he's a divorced carny, doing divorced carny shit in fucking Chattanooga, which is a rough place to be a divorced carny. And then he hears the voice of God ask him a question, is this what I created you for? Now, normally, that's like you should go to the doctor experience, right? Sprigs, Sprigs does not do that. In fairness, doctors didn't really exist back then.

So he would later claim that his time as a carny had given him an intimate look into the most sinful and debauched aspects of life. This is the only thing he says that I think is probably true because I've known some carny's and they all report that. Love him. So he decides this is not what God has in mind for him. And so he follows a large percentage of his generation and fucks off to California. Now, the late 60s, early 70s are famous in this country for having been the age of the hippie movement and its disillusionment and collapse into what eventually became the soulless corporatism of the Reagan era. Now, I think the fact that the hippie movement gets so much play in media in part because

like the kind of people who made movies and shit were likely to be as kids, the kind of people who were into that social movement, there's this like belief among people that it was the generation that spawned that movement was much more radical than they were. The boomers were always a very conservative generation. Yeah, the whole like hippies were the way people are thing drives me nuts.

Yeah, it was not, hippies weren't the way hippies are. Like you are thing drives me nuts. Yeah, it was not. Hippies weren't the way hippies are. Like you talked to people, like for one thing, it was still a very homophobic, very like most people who would have called themselves hippies, held us some, what we would call very traditional values about sexuality and gender still. And it was also just like most people like that,

like the friends who were super progressive anti-war hippies, were not anything close to a majority. And one of the things that kind of makes this point is that at the same time that the hippie movement is kind of winding down, another major cultural trend is happening. That tends to get left out of popular histories of the era. Have you heard of the Jesus movement? No.

Yeah. So, these are kind of a mirror of the hippies, in that most of the Jesus movement, people who get swept up in this, they're like, they've got long hair, they're kind of unkempt. Most of them have dropped out a society. It is a lot of the same kind of, you know, living in buses, traveling around,

doing like handcrafts. A lot of them people are like pooling resources to start farms and stuff together, back to the land. And the thing that kind of separates them from the hippies is that the Jesus movement sees Christ as a counter culture hero. So they are kind of... Yeah, hippie, there is like a bit of that going on,

but it is still, as we'll talk about, still quite conservative. When I went to church as a kid, like, this is how they sold me on Jesus. Yeah. It was, like, it was clearly people who, like, got into Jesus in one way or another from, because, in, I grew up in Maine, there were a couple different kinds of back to the landers. There were, like, the hippie hippies and there were religious hippies.

And those were the ones who sold Jesus as, like, a social justice figure. Yeah. And this is, because you get the Jesus movement, some of the splinters out of it is going to be kind of more progressive Jesus was fighting against these injustices that are still present with us today. But a lot of it's going to lead to the religious right. Like, it seems directly, because you have kind of, Jesus movement is sort of late 60s through parts of the 70s and kind of that's also right around when, you know, in the late 70s you get Jerry Falwell, start to emerge, you get the religious right welded into this

political coalition for the first time. Yeah. So the people who get swept up in this generally called either Jesus people or Jesus freaks, that is where the term Jesus freak comes from. And yeah, it's a charismatic movement. It's cross denominational. So there are Catholics who like, like sects of Catholics who are part of this Jesus movement. There's Protestants in it.

And it's like a lot of different organizations, lots of different churches, that you can just kind of like broadly call part of the Jesus movement not because they're part of the same thing with each other, right? Like if you have this sort of hardcore Protestant church that's Jesus movement, you know, they're not the same thing as Catholics who might also be swept up in it. But the similarity they have is that like they're all adopting this really like charismatic,

kind of counter-cultural attitude towards their religious worship. Followers would often speak in tongues, that's a big part of like when that gets more popular in the United States And there's generally a big focus on what's called the gifts of the spirit Which is like restoring this kind of sense of a direct connection personal connection to God usually in a static connection Right like so this is part of why you get these like big tent revival worship ceremonies. A really good documentary to watch. If you want to understand the the texture of this movement in time is Marjo, M-A-R-J-O-E. It's about this kid, Marjo Gortner, who was like the youngest priest in the country. It was kind of a carnival side show grift run by his parents, but he went back as an adult

to film behind the scenes and it it shows a lot of this period. You can get like, are you aware of where this was happening? Like did it stick over? All over. Spring out of one geopie said, no, so okay, it was all over. I think it does start in the West Coast. Like I think that's where you said California, but it spreads everywhere as we'll talk about. These guys are very much a Jesus movement story.

Eugene sprigs is going very much a Jesus movement story. Eugene sprigs is gonna be a Jesus movement like that's when he kind of starts becoming a religious leader and they do embody to an extent a big wing of it. And again, when we talk about the Jesus movement, it's not like a cult, it's not like a one thing, right? It's like a bunch of different. In some cases, very much like opposed,

different sort of religious organizations, traditions, communities, they're just kind of bound together by certain similarities as result of this cultural moment. Yeah, and it's also worth noting that like a lot of people who get pulled into the Jesus movement, there's a big focus on this idea of like returning to the lifestyles of early Christians, which is part of what convinces them of like, while a lot of them do sort of the back to the land shit, right? Like that's a big thing for them. This helps them kind of blend in with the hippies, right? And often Jesus freaks are people who had been hippies a few years earlier.

Their lives in a lot of cases collapse, they get criminal charges or something, or they have, you know, they burn out, you know, as a result of drug use or whatever. And then there's this kind of movement that has some aspects of values that are similar to the thing that had brought them in that they can, that they wound up getting swept up in. Not an uncommon story. Yeah, it's a super common. I mean, I did a podcast series a couple of years ago on Tony Alamo and his religious

cult. It's almost exactly beat for beat. Like they started in like 69 in Hollywood and they were attracting just burmed, like hippies who were burned on them being hippies into Jesus, yeah, this message. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And yeah, a lot of Jesus freaks wound up.

Living in communes, practicing versions of religious aestheticism. We see echoes of like modern trad culture in this. There are a lot of it is this sort of reaction to especially like feminism and stuff. There's this attitude of like modern trad culture in this. There a lot of it is this sort of reaction to, especially like feminism and stuff. There's this attitude of like the necessity for turning the traditional gender roles or changing in the wrong direction.

Some of this is tied to the Cold War as well, particularly fears of nuclear war and how that merges with Christian apocalyptic prophecy. One of the key books of the Jesus movement is how Lindsay's the late great planet Earth. And if you grew up as an evangelical kid, you probably heard about that book. It is hugely influential to these people.

We can't actually know if Sprigs had the vision he claims he had in 1969. I kind of think he may have falsified that because it's an auspicious year for the counterculture. If you're gonna talk about, like that's the year you do it. Part of why I suspect this is because some versions of the spring story say that, you know, God came to him during his carny days in 1970,

you know, a year later. Whatever the case, after the late 60s, you know, as the 1970s start, he does become very quickly, like a player in the newly energized Christian fringe. A right up by the Times free press notes. While in California, he devoted his life to creating a ministry, according to reporting at the time by the chat and nougan news free press.

Spring said he wanted to reach young people who were not going to church, particularly those turned off of faith from their parents. That's interesting to me. Like he's very much focusing on young people who, especially this kind of very stade, stolen Protestantism that's really turned of this century. He's very quiet austere churches that still have kind of some of these Victorian attitudes and worship is very much like channeled through the pastor. But big part of what he's doing is like, no, we want like a personal, aesthetic connections. And that's what'll bring these young people back

who kind of got burnt out of these very authoritarian churches of their youths. This is going to be ironic considering where sprigs ends up. It often is, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. In 1972, he gets hitched for the fourth time. And what will be the final time to a woman

named Marsha and Duval. By all accounts, Marsha shares his spiritual obsession, the two move away from the sinful California coast and back to Chattanooga, where they found a Bible study group for young people that they call the Vine Christian Community Church, named after their home, the Vine House, and they bring some California people with them. The Jesus movement is appealing to dissolution, to dropouts, to former war protesters and stuff like that. And Jean realizes early on that these people are the easiest converts to his church because

like dropouts, people with criminal records, they tend to be desperate. And so he offers them what they need if they'll attend his services. And he starts opening his house to worshipers, right? Being like, if you're coming to church here, you can live with me, you know, like your food and whatnot I'll be taken care of. And so by 1974, there are between 50 and 60 people living with the sprigs in their house, which must have smelled fascinating. That's too many people for one house. Perhaps because of this, they start asking their followers to pool their resources.

This is a limited affair at first. They're just asking for donations, right? If you do have money, if you've got family money or something, or you have savings when you come here, maybe give us some of it so we can pay for these other people who have nothing. They do well enough at this. They're able to accrue a decent amount of money. And they purchase three additional homes in Chattanooga and they buy a restaurant, which

they call the yellow deli. This becomes known as a place in town where if you're a runaway or a hitchhiker, you can get a free meal. So a lot of people show up because like, you know, they're starving. Yeah. And when they're starving, that's a really good way to just kind of pull people into what is becoming a cult, right? You know, that's your little fishing lure. Any move, I'd like, that's the tricky thing is like any movement usually starts with taking dissolution to people and

giving them a reason and giving them some resources or making available some resources, but it gets, it's usually just like what happens after that step where you determine, is it going to be a cult or is it going to be a social movement or is it going to be a little bit? Yeah, that is exactly the kind of situation here. It's got a lean cult spoilers because this is the show that it is. Well, it's like if you think about just the commonalities of this and again, Alamo, and then just like Elijah Muhammad was sending people five dollar bills in prison. Like it's a great way to endear people to you.

Yeah, it's this thing that the the Winfrens and Influence people like Influencer Grine set talk about a lot, but it is a real factor like the reciprocity effect, right? Where like if somebody gives you something, you feel like a psychological need to give them something to return the favor. Right.

Just the fact that Manson loved that book and and Ionetics just like makes all this and that just explains it all for you. It is like exactly the books. Like at some point somebody's going to feed those books to an AI and we're going to have a real fucking problem on our hands because like like, they're just gonna create Elron Hubbard the fucking chatbot. Very much looking forward to it. Robert, that's such a good idea. Can I have 10%?

Yeah, absolutely. I do, I am looking forward to when a bunch of weirdo online influencer freaks, like feed the right combination of books to a chatbot and convince themselves they've created a god. But also why hasn't so Scientology made in Elron Hubbard AI? Like that. They will.

They will, the LRH bot. Like why haven't they done that? Because I would, you know what, I would pay the money for that. I want that on my phone. I want to run all of my life decisions by the Elron Hubbard. But why haven't, I mean, obviously it's because David and Scott just wouldn't have power. But like, why haven't they done that in a

strategic way? It doesn't make sense. Like, you're still putting a close out. Like, why, why haven't you done that? Well, I think they're probably don't take note scientists. You're despicable. But, um, I feel like you got a, not like, what I would like is a robot in my pocket that when I'm like, what should I do in this situation? Says you should kidnap your own daughter and flee to Cuba. Because I've been looking for an excuse to go have a nice vacation there.

You know, I've always wanted to see Cuba and I feel like this could make it easier for me. So if you think you don't have a daughter. Yeah, I'll kidnap somebody's daughter. Look, kids, you know, they're small. Yeah, there's all sorts of kids all around. So it's easy to find one. Anyway, it's not your fault if the Scientology AI

told you to do it. Exactly, that's exactly what I'm going to say in court. And you know who else loves abduction. Where are you going with this? It's time for ads, so. Yeah, but where are you going with this? It's time for ads, okay? Yeah, but where are you going with this? Ah, to Cuba, hopefully. America, the land of the free, the home of the brave.

And I would argue a nation of some major filth. and I would argue a nation of some major filth. Hi, I'm Gabby Watts, comedian and podcast producer. Also not to brag, I went to an Ivy League school and majored in history and graduated highly unawarded. And I'm hosting a new history podcast called American Filth. Where we're diving into the filthy underbelly of the good old US of A. I'll be talking about a founding father who died from a DIY catheter, the woman who rode the dirtiest blue song ever recorded, how the pilgrims smelled durable, and of course

a 17th century beast reality panic. So join me as I plunge face first into the dirtiest people and events in the anal, I mean annals of American history. Listen to American Philb on the IHR Radio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On his new podcast, six degrees with Kevin Bacon, join Kevin for inspiring conversations with celebrities who are working to make a difference in the world, like musical artist, Jewel.

And what an equal opportunist misery is, it doesn't care if you're black or white or rich or poor or famous or homeless. If you are raised in misery systems, it's perpetual. Kevin is the founder of the nonprofit organization, 6-Degrees.org. Now he's meeting with like-minded actors who share a passion for change, like Mark Ruffalo. They're all in the wrong track track helping you down the right track. If you're on the right track, let's help them double down on that and see the opportunities

stay on the right track for success in the future. These conversations between Kevin and activist Matthew McConaughey will have you ready to lean in, learn, and inspire to act. You know, I found myself moving upstate in the middle of this fracking fight and I'm trying to raise kids there and my neighbors, like, willing to poison my water. Listen to six degrees with Kevin Bacon on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

911, what's your emergency? You shot her! Oh, my God! It's a nightmare we could never have imagined. And a killer who is still on the loose. My small town rocked by murder. There are certain murders I'm scared to discuss. In the 1980s, we're in high school

losing friends, teachers, and community members. One after another, after another for a decade. We weren't safe anywhere. We're teenagers terrified to leave our own homes. Would we be next? Who is killing all the kids? And why? In that moment, I saw rage. And why do you some want the town's secrets to stay dead and buried forever?

I'm not sure why you're digging up all this old stuff again, but I'd be careful. Don't say I didn't warn you, Nancy. Listen to the Murder Years on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, we are just having a great time here talking about the beautiful birth of what's going to become quite a cult. One local news article about the yellow burles. The spark if you will. The spark, yeah. Really the start of the little campfire from which they're going to burn down all of Colorado

is the yellow deli. One local news article about the deli's opening, Sprigs said, when people ask us who are interior designer is, we tell them we have the same one's opening, Sprigs said, when people ask us who our interior designer is, we tell them we have the same one Noah had, which is an interesting, like, basically saying, like God helped us design the interior, which I think means they probably did not have fire escapes. Seems like I think God would miss. Sprigs was not at this point openly describing what he was doing as separate from mainstream Christianity. In fact, he and his followers were careful to maintain regular attendance at a local church first Presbyterian, because it's, you know, like even if you're doing an ostensibly Christian

movement, there's nobody who's going to get pissed at you faster than like old conservative churchgoers, right? So if you're doing this weird thing, if you're living with dozens of people and like convincing all the dropouts and hippies to move in with you and buying up large amounts of real estate, you really want to allay their suspicions. When he is asked by a journalist during this period of time about his plans for the future, Sprigs says this. Can you imagine what a wonderful thing it would be to have yellow delis all over America, a restaurant with good food for everyone in the community, But it would be a place to reach all the runaways who are passing through or all the young people who are tired and mixed up. These people are not going to church.

Sometimes they stop at shelters and guidance people beat around the bush. They don't tell it simple like it is. Jesus loves you. You can be happy. Let God run your life. You know, with God helping them build that, I really hope they got flood insurance. Oh no. God does not believe in flood insurance. That's not, that's not having enough faith in him, right? Yeah, heaven is the insurance, I guess.

Yeah, heaven is your flood insurance. It's wild because this is the same time. I mean, I know, I know how much is happening at this time, but I never really think about all of the individual pinpointed moments is this is also the same time that they're opening the source family restaurant, NLA, is 69, and they're like, that's their gateway into their cult. So having like a branded hangout cafe spot was like the way to go. You know, so redding California, where I used to live off and on for years, is run by a cult.

Like, there's a big church in town that absolutely runs everything, the police politics, and are increasingly an iron grip on it. And I used to work because we had no internet for a long time in the trailer and the mountains that we lived in. I used to have to go drive every day to this place. I think it was called ****. It's absolutely a part of this like fucking church thing. All very, like a lot of people having like

evangelical conversations, like, you know, pulling in someone from off the street, some trimmer or whatever, and having very earnest talks with them about Jesus. It was, that's where I wrote a lot of what became the first season of it could happen here. It's like sitting in this cafe with all of these like hardcore Christian right fanatics who were very, very carefully trying to expand

their little kingdom quite successfully. You're like, in fact, it's happening right before it is. It is. In fact, happening right here. Yeah. Fun town. Don't go there unarmed. Redding. So we're going to have like three redding listeners laughing a lot of things. I actually, my brother's college roommates from redding. So I look forward to asking him some follow up questions. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. We may be covering them more in the future since I don't have to go back to that fucking

town anymore. So the stuff that sprigs a saying about like, yeah, we want to use these cafes to find these young people who were tired and mixed up. You know, this is the 70s. This is the fucking easy writer era, right? These like, the fact that there's all these young people have kind of dropped out is a major like, kind of, it's not really a culture war touchstone, but it's like a major concern, particularly for like older, more conservative Americans.

And so this line plays well with them, you know, particularly well with people who might have been put off by the fact that he's kind of created a commune in their town. But there are some signs from the beginning that sprigs was heading in an unsettling direction. In that same interview, he expressed that another one of his goals was to reach people who had dropped out of Christianity because they didn't like the faith that their parents had expressed. And this line from him is really interesting. You can't fool a dog or a child. You can see the hypocrisy and the phoniness in their parents' lives. Their parents take alcohol, tranquilizers, cigarettes, or they disobey speed laws,

yet they want their children to stay off drugs and obey all laws, which is not an inherently bad point, right? That like, there's this very conservative backlash era happening in the, particularly in the 70s, but it's being kind of perpetrated by these people who are on what we now call some of the most dangerous binzos in the world, right? He also, that's also like a very cool youth pastor thing

to say. And then you're like, you know who else disobeyed laws? Yeah, exactly. Jesus, like, you know who else? Disorbit laws? Exactly. Well, I actually think Jesus would have been a fucking, well, anyway, we can talk about what drugs I think I may have bought from Jesus Christ, but that's a separate story for another day. This was such a success.

Please have me back for that. This was such a success that they next opened a coffee house and started ministering to local kids who were disillusioned with mainstream society. Sometimes the cult sent members out into the world to find new members in places where they thought people struggling on the fringe would congregate. This culminated in them for years, they would send a bus to follow the grateful dead on concert tours, and handpicked members would offer first aid and food to fans coming up or down on the various substances. Yeah, I do kind of, I have this beautiful image

in my head of like this coat bust crashing into the nitrous mafia's bus. I don't know who I don't want that fight. So Gene sprigs promises all of his recruits. If they work hard, he'll take care of them. They won't have any unmet physical needs. All he needs is their, yeah, they're labor and they're unyielding religious devotion.

And he also promises, you'll never be lonely again. Everyone lives communally in the cult and they work communally too. They start to call themselves the light brigade in this period of time, they're not gonna stick with that name very long because it's a dog shit name. And it's one of those things.

You don't have any autonomy when you're in the light brigade, but you also, you're not exposed to capitalism, right? And that like, you don't have to worry about winding up on the street. You don't have to worry about starving. Like that is a huge part of the appeal, right? Especially, again, this is a lot of these people are folks who had been swept up in the big social movements of the 60s, and now they're kind of dealing with

how a lot of that failed, how chaotic and scary the world seems in the 70s. The promise that you can forget all of that and forget interfacing with a confusing and chaotic world. That's appealing, right? That is objectively that is appealing. A lot of people, it's why folks in our generation idolize this kind of mythical idea of living on a farm

with your friends. Oh God, yeah. And then you live on a fucking farm. Yeah, that's the downside. Yeah, I live on a farm, kind of. It's a small one, but we don't like, there's no attempt to make a living or survive purely by that,

because that's like a huge amount of work. Exactly. You get blight and no one eats for a year. It's bad. It's a bad time. No, I think I do think that like the real sign of maturity, the eventual real sign of maturity is just like accepting no orientation or situation is going to be good and they're all going to suck a lot. Yeah, yeah, there's like dog shit that you have to deal with no matter what you do. Right, you're gonna eat shit somewhere on the journey. Yeah, I think the appeal to something like that, it's the inherent appeal of dropping out, right?

Of like realizing how complex the problems are and like, well, I just want an option that means I don't have to think about them because then I can pretend it's not happening. Maybe I can escape, maybe I will be safe. And obviously, the fact that all of Canada burned down this year is evidence that no, you can't be. But we don't need to harp on that. Everyone is aware of that, right? We're preaching to a large choir here.

And everyone has the vibe of people who know. Yeah. I wanted to provide some context from one of the desperate young people lured in by Jean's cult. And I found it, this is a later account from 2006, but I, I think it holds up. It's from an issue of the local chat and nougan paper, the chat and nougan titled, I escaped from the yellow deli. Quote, you would have to understand my situation at the time to understand how I was influenced by these people. I was 21 years old and just got out of a three year abusive relationship, renting a room in a house in St. Elmo, no direction and no family to turn

to. They told me what I needed to hear. They loved me and God loved me and I could come live with them. When I became convinced, two members moved me out of my little room at 3 a.m. I was driven to their commune in Dalton, Georgia. And like, yeah, I think that gets across. Like, yeah, it was in an abusive relationship. I got out, I've got no family, I've got this apartment, I can't afford. It solves, they offer to solve all your problems as long as you want the Jesus. At first, the light brigade and the Vine House church were augments to the local Christian

culture, not a wild new vision of worship. This changes in 1975, when first Presbyterian makes the decision to cancel a Sunday worship session so that their pastor can go watch the Super Bowl, right? He's like, you know, I don't come in Sunday, like we're all gonna go to the game anyway, right?

This is kind of a cool thing to do, if you're a 70s preacher, but this is like, gene finds this offensive, right? You don't skip worship for any reason, especially in not this like profane worldly game. So he uses this as an excuse to break his flock away from the church entirely and start hosting Sunday services in a local park instead. This increases his hold over his flock who now become they had been part of the community before, right? You're going to church with everybody,

you're somewhat tied to it. From this point, now they're only socializing and working with each other, right? This is kind of, he's severed this like cord that they had to everyone else. This also brings sprigs his first real opposition because once the cult kind of steps away from this church, locals start to be like, this does kind of seem like a problem, like this cult.

So from 75 to 78, local churches register protests against the light brigade when sprigs is spotted performing public baptisms. Local papers start running the first articles accusing them of being a cult. Two local colleges banned their students from eating at the yellow deli. After enough, former students had dropped out to join the sprigs cult.

Like, it becomes such a problem of them, like, poaching college students. I'm guessing they're kids who are, you know, you're in college. You find that, you don't like your majors, much as you thought, or you get stressed out during exams. You, you, you're poor, so you go to the yellow deli for a free meal, and they're like, boy, it seems like college isn't making you happy. You know, it'll make you happy? The difference in your, where your life turns out

could just be like one free sandwich. Yeah, exactly. Just, there's so many times in my life where if I got the free sandwich from the wrong place, I would have been screwed. Yeah, I mean, I know a lot of like former punk kids who are anarchists because the food not bombs people showed up and gave them sandwiches.

And food not bombs is how I, same. it's how I turned from a libertarian kid to a anarchist punk kid. Yeah, and this is always the case with cults, right? Where like the things that let cults, I'm not going for not bombs a cult. I'm saying that like the thing that cults use is something that also has a good, it's good to give people things. It's good to take care of people who are desperate. If you're doing that because you like people and you want them to have an easier time, that's good. If you're doing it because you want them to feel

a sense of obligation to use a decent, broken, menti, or your cult, that's bad, right? To invest in your real estate scheme. Yeah, a big part of it, whenever somebody is like showing up and handing out free food, is like, yeah, who's behind this? Is it just a bunch of people coming together to help out the community? Or is there a guy? Is there like a dude? And this is his thing, you know? Then, then maybe it's a cult. Then maybe you should get your cult mace out. So I found one story from a student, actually, the student who was the author of that article in the chat nougan, I quote earlier,

who talks about like the process of being recruited and forced to drop out of college by these people. Quote, they believed that anything in the outside world was evil and they drove me to chat nouga state where I was attending to withdraw me. When I told my counselor what I was doing, he just shook his head. I told him I found Jesus and these people loved me

and we're going to take care of me. So they have, they build over the years like a pretty steady process for like disenrolling kids from college when they convert them. Like it's enough of a thing that like, not only these schools try to ban their students from going to this cafe, but like everyone who works their nose like, oh shit, we lost another one

to the fucking cult. Yeah. So, in 1978 things come to a head because that's the Jones down year, right? Congressman Leo Ryan and several other people are gunned down in the jungle by a cult. The cult then commits mass suicide. This makes a lot of people very unhappy. Really freaks out the country. Yeah, it was, the golden era to have a cult was, was, you know, was like 67 to 78.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. With the little, you had the Manson blip, but you could still get away with a lot in the stuff. Yeah, yeah. This puts an end to that, right? This launches what Sprigs would later call anti-cult hysteria in the United States. It says that like it's a bad thing. Yeah, I don't feel like it's hysteria. This

is like clear evidence. You know, Jonestown was clear evidence of a problem. So by this point, Jean Spritz is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was like a hundred and sephid. It was about like a lot of people are dead now. A little more than a scare. They shot at congressman. That's so wild. I Imagine if that happened today. Yeah, they like ran, oh my God, a helicopter is there was actually, it's wild. Like, I cannot believe that that happened still. Like I can obviously, but it's so specific

and in a lot of ways feels like destined to be born of this country even doesn't happen here. Well, I mean, the most unbelievable thing about it is that a congressperson actually did something, right? Like, like, like, like, like, or rowically. Yeah, pretty heroically. Yeah.

So by this point, Gene Spriggs had developed a new name for his cult, the 12 tribes. So named in honor of the fact that he was one of the first guys in the Christian fringe to start incorporating Judaism into his Christian cult, right? And this is a very common thing now. You might not think about it that way, but if you've ever seen, he'd been to one of these far right gatherings where there's like a lot of religious right people and someone will bring like a show far, which is like a horn made out of like an animal horn that you blow into. That's like comes from Jewish religious observances, right?

That like some Christians have reincorporated back into evangelicalism. I think because a showfar looks cool and they want them to be like, but yeah, he's like kind of the first guy to do this in a big way, in the Christian right. And he's more extensive than this. He brings the show far in.

He also brings back Bar Mitzvahs, like kids in his school, have their Bar Mitzvahs and Bot Mitzvahs. And this is interesting. It's certainly going to play into ways in which other far-right religious cults are going to move in the future. But it makes them seem more alien to the Normees of Chattanooga, who by this point are in kind of a full-blown panic that the next Jonestown might be in their backyard. Another thing that makes them seem alien to the Normies is that by the late 70s, Spriegs

had decided that separation was the critical precondition for his cult to reach the potential that God had set for them. And I'm going to quote from that right up by VCU here. Twelve tribes has concluded that adherence to a natural law standard will not be sufficient to create the conditions for the return of the Messiah. Separation is critical for the 12 tribes because the absolute values of natural law are being lost in contemporary society. The 12 tribes oppose the rise of a multicultural, global social order, a single world government

and world religion. The former revitalizes values, the latter undermines and compromises the values of natural law and promotes rampant materialism and equisitiveness, feminism, the devise of the traditional patriarchal family, and the legitimation of gay marriage. The return of the Messiah is contingent on the gathering of a faithful remnant, and the church being restored in its original form. To pave the way for the millennium, the movement must expand from its present nine to twelve tribes, each of which must grow to at least 1200 members, thus creating the 144,000 faithful who will be included in God's

millennial kingdom. Now, a lot of that's very modern, Jean as a trailblazer in some of this stuff. It's interesting. I've seen it claim that Jean's particular eschatology, he didn't just need 144,000 faithful to prepare for the way of the Messiah, but he had to build an army of 144,000 male virgins. Yeah, and it is it is at this point. I should also note that according to the church Jean was a scout master at one point. They brag about this a lot. So you hear about a scout master trying to get 144,000 male virgins together. That's not a happy story, right?

That's, that's gonna be bad. That is rough. Yeah. Yeah. Also too many male virgins, like nothing good can happen with all that, all that pent up engine. Because then you need like 144,000 male non-virgins to have more.

To counteract it. Yeah, so to stop it from exploding. Yeah. So Jean decided it was probably wise if his cult branched out and started picking up property and members in another state, where they might be more welcome, right? This is fine, cult logic. It's the kind of savvy maneuvering

that made Scientology great. But sprigs underestimated the degree to which small towns Americans get scared based on news stories that they kind of skimmed. He also made the mistake of having the mission to Vermont led by one of his longest serving members, a guy named David Jones. David had joined the 12th drives back in 1973 as a traumatized Vietnam veteran fresh from the war. He'd become one of Jean's most trusted lieutenants. Unfortunately, his last name was Jones. And the provincial residents of Island pond Vermont started, like, as soon as they hear a guy named

Jones has moved here with his, like, weird religious congregation, they're like, he has to be related to Jim Jones. You can't Google it. Yeah. It's like, there's no, you're just gonna, you're just gonna take it on, take it on face value that he's not. It's like, it is funny. Like, it would be one thing if he had like some very complicated, rare last name, but being like, they're both Joneses. Yeah, there's probably fucking 40 Joneses in town. What are you talking about? You fucking small town maniacs.

Like, they're right to be concerned about this people, but they're still dummies. So from the beginning, the 12 tribes attracted eyeballs in Vermont. Now, the reason for this is dumb, obviously, like that they think this guy is related to Jim Jones, but they ought to be watching these people because there are absolutely good reasons to be monitoring the 12 tribes. They just have nothing to do with Jonestown. That's another just classic American story. It's like, you have good reason to be concerned

about this. And it just so happens that the reason you are concerned is not the right one. Yeah, you picked the wrong one. Um, and the good reason to do this is the fact that by the late 70s, Jean had built his entire religious philosophy. It's philosophy. This is like the core of what he actually is teaching in the 12 tribes now around beating the shit out of kids. Like, right, this starts off as sort of this,

we're going back to the original Christianity and over the first decade or so it exists, he kind of builds this religious philosophy where he decides the chief problems of the world are all caused by disobedience to God's law. And so the only way to correct that is to raise up a new generation of kids by absolutely beating the piss out of them. And that is going to be, that is the raise up a new generation of kids by absolutely beating the piss out

of them. And that is going to be, that is the 12th tribes, right? It is the, let's hit the shit out of our kids, Colt. Terrible way to go to ads. But here they are. America, the land of the free, the home of the brave, and I would argue a nation of some major filth. Hi, I'm Gabby Watts, comedian and podcast producer. Also not to brag, I went to an Ivy League school

and majored in history and graduated highly unawarded. And I'm hosting a new history podcast called American Filth, where we're diving into the filthy underbelly of the good old US of A. I'll be talking about a founding father who died from a DIY catheter, the woman who wrote the dirtiest blue song ever recorded, how the pilgrim smelled horrible, and of course a 17th century Beast reality panic. So join me as I punch face first into the dirtiest people and events in the anals, I mean annals of American history. Listen to American Philp on the IHR Radio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcasts. On his new podcast, six degrees with Kevin Bacon. Join Kevin for inspiring conversations with celebrities who are working to make a difference in the world, like musical artists, Jewel. And what an equal opportunist misery is, it doesn't care if you're black or white or rich or poor or famous or homeless, if you are raised in misery systems, it's perpetual. Kevin is the founder of the nonprofit organization, SixDegrees.org. Now he's meeting with like-minded actors who share a passion for change, like Mark Rapelo. They're all in the wrong track, helping you down the right track.

If you're on the right track, let's help them double down on that and see the opportunities stay on the right track for success in the future. These conversations between Kevin and activist Matthew McConaughey will have you ready to lean in, learn, and inspire to act. You know, I found myself moving up state in the middle of this fracking fight and I'm trying to raise kids there

and my neighbors like willing to poison my water. Listen to six degrees with Kevin Bacon on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. 911, what's your emergency? You shot her! Oh my God! It's a nightmare we could never have imagined.

And a killer who is still on the loose. My small town rocked by murder. There are certain murders I'm scared to discuss. In the 1980s, we're in high school losing friends, teachers, and community members. One after another, after another, for a decade. We weren't safe anywhere. We're teenagers terrified to leave our own homes. Would we be next?

Who is killing all the kids? And why? In that moment, I saw rage. And why do you some want the town secrets to stay dead and buried forever? I'm not sure why you're digging up all this old stuff again, but I'd be careful. Don't say I didn't warn you, Nancy.

Listen to the murder years on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. We're back. Now, by this point in the story, Gene has also taken a new name for himself and the tradition of most great cult leaders, Yonek, which hebrew comes from the Bible. His followers called him an apostle.

And there's debate from former members as to whether or not Yonek was all powerful or just a major source of charismatic authority, but he certainly was not the only source of prophetic revelations for the group. It does seem fair though to say that Yonex set the tone and focus for the church, and that his primary concern was children. In the early days, sprigs had claimed his goal was to bring kids on the fringe counterculture

types who had dropped out of the middle America Christianity of their parents back to God. But now in the mid-del late 70s, early 80s, he starts to claim having a different goal, which is to build a church that it would be impossible for children to leave, right? Like that is his, he goes from, I wanna bring kids back to the church too, I want to build like break their little minds in such a way

that they never disobey their parents, that they never leave us, you know? Now, part of how he does this is isolation. He starts mandating church kids are not even allowed to be born outside of the compounds, right? You can't go to a hospital to have your kids. You certainly can't have them educated in public schools. They're never going to work a job on their own.

They'll be a printst within church businesses. We have created our own parallel society so that they can't escape. And to make any kind of deviation impossible, Sprigs devoted his biblical knowledge to creating a protocol of rigorous abuse, described in his brochure, when the spanking stopped all hell broke loose. Oh my god.

Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, solid name there. Yeah. I'm going to quote a description of this pamphlet from an excellent article in Pacific Standard magazine. It sites Proverbs 1324, he who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly.

To make the following argument, if you love your child and if you love your child, you will take up the rod and discipline him when he's disobedient. It's not optional. It's a command. The tribes argue that progressive childbearing practices such as timeouts or taking away treats or screen time have resulted in a spike in juvenile violence and crime. The only way to reverse this trend, the tribe's contents, is by using the proverbial rod, early, often, and hard enough to leave marks.

According to former and current tribes leaders I spoke with, infants raised in the tribes are hit with balloon sticks, then wooden rods used to keep balloons from floating away, for offenses as minor as resisting a diaper change or throwing a bottle. Older children are whipped with bamboo canes. Children are driven by their natural innate nature to do what is wrong. The group's teaching state, it is better to go to heaven with welts than go to hell without welts. That's Gene Spriggs right there. Oh my god. I can't. Like I can't imagine how they reconcile when kids eventually obviously leave the church.

Like there must be, there must be, I'm not massed to affection, but there must be defection. Yeah. Later on at this stage again, it's all first generation converts having kids, right? And the kids can't leave, you know? Sure, sure, sure. And they're trying, this is, this is being largely being enforced so that that first generation of kids raised within the cult can't leave, right?

That's what Springs wants to set up. Spanking is a technical endeavor within the 12 tribes. There is arcana around it, right? Depending on the era and the geographic region, they seem to prefer using these balloon sticks or bamboo sticks, but they also, for certain things, prescribed whipping kids with resin-tipped whips, I don't even know where you get those, like, probably have to get a whip

and just tip it in resin yourself. Today, this is all described in detail in their 348-page child training manual, all of which is based on sprigs as teachings. Is it straight up called child training manual? Does it have a, what does that cut? Okay. That's what it's called.

You can find it online. You know, I've been reading a bit of it. Sure you can. Okay. Yeah, it includes the fact that children as young as six months old should be spanked for deviations of from proper behavior, particularly willfulness. An infant wriggling during a diaper change is specifically listed as in need of a physical punishment.

Oh my God. You know, the thing that every infant does, which is what he's saying, right? Children are inherently disobedient and touched by Satan and you have to beat that out of them, right? Quote, the pain received from the balloon stick is more humbling than harmful. There is no defense against it.

The only way to stop the sting of the rod is to submit. That is exactly what the child will do. Submit to his parents will and end his rebellion. Now, that's fucked up and bad. It is responsible to acknowledge that, like, smacking kids around is not all that far from normal in the 70s, right? We are we are not talking about like that. I mean, it still happens today. Obviously a lot of parents use some form of physical coercion with their kids and it's even more common back then And just like like institutional corporal punishment. She's not I mean

Is not at all out of the norm my elementary school in the 90s spanked me. You know, public elementary school is not like a Catholic school or anything. This isn't fucking Ida Bell, Oklahoma. Yeah, so smacking kids with rods is unfortunately yet, not not all that abnormal in this period. But the 12 tribes engaged in numerous and much more creative abuse tactics than this. He sprigspins a lot of his time, thinking up new ways to abuse children and justify it with the Bible. One ex-member who grew up in the church during the 80s recalled a practice called scourging, in which a child is stripped naked and beaten with a rod over every inch of their body. Yeah, adults would also regularly withhold meals from small children as punishment.

Starvation is a really common punishment for them. In some cases, food would be withheld for days at a time. Children were also locked alone in dark rooms for days at a time and response to crimes like stealing food from a refrigerator. And so this isn't getting out right because the kids are probably not in the school system. They're no longer in a church, so no one knows. Some of it is being there are reports, there are reports in Chattanooga and soon after in Vermont,

because like they have neighbors, people can see them hitting kids in public sometimes, slapping them and shit. So this is not like totally a black box. One member later told the Denver Post, the one time that I was locked in the dungeon, it wasn't a real dungeon, but it felt like it. I think it was for more than a day because we fasted every Friday, so I was used to starving, and it was longer than that, which gives you an idea of the bleakness of this. I was pretty used to starving. This was worse than normal starving.

Now, one of the things that's interesting to me is, Sprigs never has a kid. He does not have a child of his own in the cult. sorry, he does have one boy with his first wife, but he leaves when the kid's young, which is for the best in this case, that kid really dodged a bullet by not having his dad. Yeah, not always a win to have your dad in your life, especially when it's the how to hit children guy. That makes your issues with like,

dad abandonment, even all the more difficult, where you're like, I just want him to love me, but I'm glad he didn't love me. It's very complicated. I want a dad to love me, maybe not this one. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's very real. So, again, he has no child in the cult.

And for what I can tell, sprigs, he seems to have kept some contact with his family and his old friends through like the late 70s. But by the close of the decade, even as close relatives had started to grow increasingly like concerned with the violent tone that his faith had taken, his sister Joyce talked to the press and reported that like, you know,

when he in the early 70s, when he starts ministering, when he starts like speaking to people doing these church services, I thought, well, maybe he in the early 70s, when he starts ministering, when he starts speaking to people, doing these church services, I thought, well, maybe he started to figure his life out. This is like, you know, good for him, probably a positive turn. But by the end of the 70s, December of 79, she was like, I think he's gotten very negative.

And she mentions this to him. She goes to Eugene, she's like, I think the stuff you're talking about is like really aggressive and it's kind of scaring me. And he just says, you know, all I'm doing is following the scripture, right? Like you can't argue with this. You can't argue with me because this is all the Bible. Now, we will talk more about this in part two, but it's worth noting that while the 12 tribes' attitude on child abuse is extreme, it does not grow up in isolation. The Jesus movement started out with serious countercultural elements,

but it also fed directly into the birth of the religious right, which helped to unseat Jimmy Carter and became a major engine behind Reaganism and the Revived Cultural Conservatism that followed. When I read about Spreaks' teachings here, I think about a book called To Train Up A Child, which is a 1994 Parenting Advice book self- book self published by Mike and Debbie Pearl. If you recall our episodes on the Dougers and the organization behind them, the Institute of Basic Life Principles, the IBLP endorses this book, right?

To train up a child is common among homeschooling families. It was for years the standard book in the Christian far right about how to raise kids. I have multiple friends who are raised according to its teachings. If you knew any people who were like quiverful kids, this book was a presence in their house and childhood. And one of the things like, among other things, the book says that like, you need to, kind of as sprigs taught, you have to be constantly using some form of negative physical reinforcement on your kids.

And it includes like, sadistic shit, like spanking your kids long enough to break their will, right? It's not just like, I'm not saying this is okay, but it's not just saying like, okay, you know, you did a bad thing, so I'm gonna like, you know, spank you five times in the butter or something. It's like, you have to spank them until they stop being willful, you know?

Right, well, because there's, I mean, there's no means is this an excuse, but like I know that there were people who would spank their kids because they thought that that's a thing that they, you know, like, like my parents, yeah, it's pretty, pretty normal practice. Yeah. They had to do, but they do it in passing. And it was like more of an aesthetic and like scary thing.

And again, this is not a justification of those things, but this idea that you then take that to another level which is like, you do it with will and you do it to break will. It is, the first one is terrifying, but that's just, it's hard to even wrap, fully wrap your head around. It's difficult.

Yeah, and we'll talk about it more one of these days. If you want to hear what we do get into more of this in the Dugger episodes, it is worth noting here, though, I bring this up to say that like Jean Spriggs is a trailblazer in child abuse, but he's not a lonely one, right? Ideas close to the ones he promulgated are absolutely the norm among the religious right in the United States today. His cult has stayed fringe, but his child-beating tactics did not. Anyway, when you build a church around slapping the absolute shit out of small kids, eventually someone's gonna spot your members slapping the shit out of small children.

By 1979, several members had fled and taken stories to local chat and nukah papers. Allegations of abuse, based on the fact that cult members absolutely were hidden kids had also gone the old-time equivalent of viral. This problem followed the branch of the church, 200 members strong that had moved to Vermont. By all accounts, sprigs maintained tight control of this break-away segment, not break-away, but of this like expansion of his church, writing regular letters to David Jones encouraging him to ensure that children on the new properties were being beaten often enough. Quote, if one is overly concerned about his son receiving blue marks, you know that he

hates his son and hates the word of God. Blue marks are sprigs his turn for bruises and he speaks of them as a positive thing, right? Like you're not being a good parent if your kids don't have blue marks. If you're not bruising them, you're not doing it hard enough, right? That's what he's saying here. He's just being a little bit more kind of biblical whimsy about it. This is a frequent euphemism used by church leadership. A reporter for Pacific Standard Magazine writes more on this topic based on interviews with former church members. I remember a constant welts on my hands, thighs thighs and butt, a woman who was raised in the tribes

told me, children are expected to obey on the first command without talking back or complaining. They are not allowed toys or bikes and cannot engage in fantasy play. They read only the Bible and the group's dogma. The former members I spoke to claim to most children were beaten multiple times a day for transgressions as innocuous as forgetting to raise their hands at the dinner table and dissipation. The group's term for horseplay. Respond into these descriptions, a current leader of their California communities Wade Skinner echoed the brochure I read in blue blinds. That wouldn't be how we portray our life he said, but we do believe that if you love your child, you will be diligent to discipline them,

and if you hate them, you will withhold the rod. Cool, guys. Love to see it. It's so cool. The first serious trouble for the 12 tribes started in Vermont in 1983 when an elder named Eddie Weisman whipped a child named Darlin with a balloon stick from her shoulders to her ankles for kissing a boy. Darlin was 13 years old.

And he whips her badly enough that she's like bleeding. Do you know where in Vermont they landed? Oh yeah, still, like a wild west town in Vermont. Oh, that one, yeah, I, we've got it up there. We read it out earlier, people. Pond, is it island pond Vermont? Yeah, I think it's island pond. Oh, yeah, so it's that area. Yeah, it's like a pretty, I don't know, you're familiar with it. I think it's a, I think it's a, I think it's a, it's like a wild, it's like a, still, like a wild west town in Vermont.

Oh, that one, yeah, I, we've got it up there. We read it out earlier, people. it's, is it island pond Vermont? Yeah, I think it's island pond. Oh, yeah, so it's that area. Yeah, it's like a pretty, I don't know, you're familiar already. I, I live in Vermont. I know very little about Vermont.

Yeah, it is the, like people think of Vermont, like it's kind of like the hippies thing. It's like they think of it like Burlington and hippies and it's like, no, it's like some of it is like libertarian wasteland. Yeah, I definitely, we'll talk about Vermont and New Hampshire libertarians more one of these days.

There's some fun stories up there that involve bears. Yeah, that's where I'm from. So I love it. I know it and I love it. It's in here. So yeah, her father sees Darlin bleeding from the back after this whipping and he's outraged. So he reports Weisman to the authorities

who charge Weisman with simple assault. But then something happens and her father drops the case. He claims actually it wasn't that bad I was pressured by anti-coalt activists to exaggerate the abuse. So probably a very unpleasant story behind that. Authorities continue to investigate and part because the 12 tribes had already been attracting concern for a while Now investigating this cult is a really difficult job The children who were believed to be victims were homeschooled so they're not ever in front of teachers They avoid modern medical care so they're not ever in front of doctors

They very rarely leave cult property which makes it pretty much impossible to build a case, right? You can't get a warrant when you don't know the number of children or their names when you're just like, there's children there and we think they're being, like, that's a tough legal situation to be in. If you're the people trying to do something about this, right? Because you have a lot of rights, obviously, especially on your own property. And yeah, it's tough. The actual, like, how to break into a situation like this is incredibly difficult when they have so successfully created

an alternate world for themselves. It's rough. I never thought of that like one of the have you quote, benefits of absolute sort of separatism is it makes it legally difficult to intervene because there's not the data that you need in order to create a case. Yeah, it's fucked up and it's going to be a real problem in this case. So what they decide to do, what the authorities decide to do here is to

summon seven cult leaders, including David Jones, to give basic information to the state on how many children live on the properties and what their names are. Jones and his family refuse to do this. They are jailed, but they're released in short order. Three days later, though, an army of state troopers and social workers raids the 12 tribes's property with a mandate to do whatever is necessary to figure out how many kids are there and who they are. They find 112 minors, and they take them all away. It looks, you know, initially as if maybe the authorities are going to do something to put it into this, that is not what happened. While the parents of these kids wait nearby, prosecutors fail to get

a court order to examine the children for signs of abuse. The district judge in this case complains that their warrant is too broad, and part because it does not name the children They want to search all 112 minors are ordered released in very short order back to the waiting rods of their parents David Jones gloated that this had all been the result of an unhinged small town mentality Claiming the furor had come to a head like a boil with no pus Which is a weird way to describe being in his eyes Exonerated for child abuse like yeah, we're just like one of those pusless boils. Yeah. Like, what a, what an odd, what an odd turn of phrase. June 22nd, the day the,

we're the boil that you want. Yeah, yeah, we're the boil you want to have. There's not it. Yeah, it's pusless. June 22nd is the day that the raid gets aborted, and this becomes the first religious holiday that the 12 tribes celebrate all to themselves. They start calling it the day of deliverance. They'll do Passover-style meals, right? Like they kind of make it into their Passover, right?

Because it's the day that God miraculously extended his protection to them against the grasping hands of the state. Jean Spryg's after, will only grow more convinced of the wisdom of his separation from society. Another thing that plays into this is what's happening at the same time as the AIDS crisis, right, is starting to kick off. This convinces him both that, like, of this kind of fallen nature of the modern world,

that the only thing to do is separation, and it also convinces him that God's justice is being delivered against the unrighteous, even as his hand shields believers. He writes at this time, hormone from your brain, permeating your body that gives long life. If you don't do this, that hormone dries up and your bones dry up. The disobedient don't live long. The lifespan of a homosexual is about 40 years. That's not because of AIDS. They die of a bad conscience. And like that's evil.

It is, I have to say, the idea that like obeying your parents releases a hormone that you die without is a pretty fun bit of pseudos a cult leader. I did one. I did one. Several people whose moms told them that if they cut their own hair or wore makeup or whatever, it would give them cancer later in life. So I feel like that's a very common bit of parenting psychological warfare that they took to a whole other level. Yeah. Quite a, quite a, yeah, a fancy, an impressive level, yeah. So that's gonna be all of it for part one here. How do you feel in here?

How we doing, Alex? That's dark, man. It's, yeah, it's a, I feel, I feel heavy with darkness and I hope that things go arrive, but I bet that they won't. It seems like these are people who have staying power. Yeah, yeah. Speaking of staying power, you got any pluggables to plug? I would just love people to listen to you are good, a feelings podcast about movies

where we talk about feelings and therapy related things by talking about pop culture, because it's too scary to do head-on. Yeah, very scary. You can find me at Cooler Zone Media, where you can get this podcast without ads. So do that and uh, go to hell. I love you. Take it. Behind the bastards is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more from Cool Zone Media, visit our website CoolZoneMedia.com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm comedian Gabby Watts, and I'm hosting a new history podcast called American Filth, where we're diving into the filthy underbelly of the good old US of A. I'll be talking about a founding father who died from a DIY catheter. The woman who wrote the dirtirty is Blue Song ever reported, how the pilgrim smelled durable, and of course a 17th century beastiality panic. Listen to American Film on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On his new podcast, six degrees with Kevin Bacon, join Kevin for inspiring conversations with his friends and fellow celebrities who are working to make a difference in the world, like actor Matthew McConaughey.

You know, I found myself moving upstate in the middle of this fracking fight, you know, and I'm trying to raise kids there, and, you know, my neighbors, like willing to poison my water. Listen to six degrees with Kevin Bacon on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. 911, what's your emergency? It's a nightmare we could never have imagined. And a killer who is still on the loose.

In the 1980s, we were in high school losing friends, teachers, and community members. We weren't safe anywhere. Would we be next? It was getting harder and harder to live in Mount Pine. Listen to the Murder Years on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.