Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark - “Drowned, Electrocuted & Tortured As A Child.” - Surviving The Unthinkable With Victor Marx

Episode Date: June 30, 2023

This episode contains descriptions of murder, physical violence, child abuse and animal abuse. Listener discretion is advised.Victor Marx survived unimaginable child abuse and torture carried out by his step father from 3-7 years old. He had two choices: die or become the man his step dad would fear the most. He chose the latter.If you are a survivor of sexual abuse and need to talk to someone about it, call RAINN the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization at 800-657-HOPE.Find Vic...

This episode contains descriptions of murder, physical violence, child abuse, and animal abuse. Listener discretion is advised. Picture Louisiana in the 70s. Humid. You're so little. You hear neighborhood kids playing and laughing right outside. You wish you were with them. Instead, you're inside the house and your stepdad is hurting you.

You make a promise to yourself. One day, you'll be so big. and strong that no one will ever hurt you again and the bad men will pay. My guest today is a husband of 35 years, a father to five children and has five granddaughters. He's a Christian and has traveled the world to places like Syria, Iraq, and Cambodia to help over 45,000 women and children with trauma relief who were victimized by ISIS. His ministry, all things possible, exist to identify, interrupt and restore those affected by trauma all over the world. This is Victor Marks, and this is his story on the spillover.

Victor, could you describe your family situation and your home environment for us at three years old? Like, what did your house look like? Where were you living? Yeah. At three years old, my mother was divorced, and we actually, she sort of dating a fellow that would later become a stepfather. and what she didn't realize at that moment was he was a pedophile.

So he married her. She had four kids at the time. And how did they meet? I think in a bar, you know. So it certainly wasn't good church morning service. And the deal, my mother was 22 with four children. She had suffered from her past to being abused. And he was a predator.

there's no other way to explain that he was a predator. And sadly, he played on the emotion of a single mom, won her affection, and let her know he would take care of her and the children. And then she ended up marrying him. And what state were you living in? At that time, it was Louisiana. Okay, so you grew up in Louisiana. Yeah. And up until that point, did your childhood seem happy overall?

I don't really have any given memories before that. I just knew that my biological dad didn't claim me as this kid when mom got pregnant. But he said in, she confirmed the night she got pregnant by my real father. He actually straddled her, put a gun to her head, and shove rosary beads down her throat. And it was a sad beginning for any kid. but it wasn't until I was three, three and a half that this other man came into our life. And for years, I thought he was actually my real dad. And I would learn later that my biological dad, you know, was actually even alive.

I didn't know it. And so at first, did it seem pretty normal with this new stepdad? Were there any red flags? Well, you constantly lived in fear. And when you're raised in that environment, It is the norm, but he started abusing me right away, both sexually and my brothers and sisters physically, other sexually too. But it increased to a place where, and I'm sorry if any of your listeners need to, you know, I don't want them to get triggered, but the abuse was to the point of torture. So I was electrocuted as a kid.

I was dunked in a tub until I passed out, only to be. waking up by him breathing into my mouth and him saying, boy, don't you ever forget, I'm the one that gives you life. And it accelerated through a lot of harsh treatment and the goal was to break my mind. And as a kid, the torture went on from about three and a half to seven years old. And he was effective in doing it. So there wasn't any grooming necessarily that was taking place to get you comfortable with him. It just kind of just started happening. Yeah, you don't have to groove groom anyone, if the predator is allowed to be your caretaker. It just happens.

That's important, I think. Yeah. Okay. And what do you remember about the first time that he hurt you? Yeah. Well, I mean, I don't want to get too graphic on here, but the first time I was tied to a bed by one of my arms. Was there anybody home?

Mm-mm. And he let me stay there all day. I remember sitting on the ground with my arm still tied to the bedpost. And then he brought an animal in, a dead cat. And he had a knife, and he said, I want you to cut the head off this cat. And I was terrified.

And he said, if you don't, I'll cut your head off. So... At three? Yeah, about three and a half. half. So now the carcass of the cat was empty, but he was trying to create such a traumatic effect. It would shift my mind to dissociate. And, you know, it worked because I did. I, you know, I used the knife, cut the cat's head off, and then he put the carcass on my head and blood dripped down on me. So that was the first really memory that I have of,

would be the beginning of a lot of abuse. That almost sounds to me like a satanic ritual of sorts. I would say that there's a lot of satanic activity, whether intentional or whether just a person is demonized. But there's also, you know, there, again, I don't want to go too deep. I normally don't talk like this. but there were government-funded programs that were intended to hurt children. Are you talking about like MK. Ultra?

Mm-hmm. And there was another one called Project Bluebird that preceded that. And then artichoke, there's... And my stepfather was encounter intelligence. Really? Yeah. And he had a background of doing horrible things to people. So although I don't personally believe I was part of a funded project,

someone who retired from the NSA contacted me after they heard me sharing some things. And they said, Victor, you should look at Project Bluebird because it sounds like your stepfather had been part of that. Did it seem like there were some similarities? It actually, it shut me down for a long time. I don't want to talk about it. because going through the list of what he did to me

and what these projects would do to people was horribly similar. What did the government claim that these types of experiments were supposed to do? Was it supposed to have some sort of positive impact? No, it's the ability to control people. The Manchran effect was a movie that came out. And, you know, if you look at the conditioning and programming of a person, even kids were trained in handing combatives weapons

to become ultimately what the government could control to be killers. So I had a natural propensity because of this, I believe, to martial arts. And I still hold the world record for the fastest gun to storm. I saw that. Yeah.

The fastest gun disarm. You would not even believe this. I mean, it's like a flick of the wrist and all the sudden, like, the whole guns apart. Yeah. I've never seen anything like it. I can teach you to do it. I don't know.

I don't know, Victor. You'd be great. Okay, so yeah, so you, it was like a natural. Do you think that's just like a survival instinct? It kind of led you to be able to do those types of things? Yeah, I believe, I mean, the reason I know I got so good at that is when I was seven years old, he put me in a chair, my stepfather. He pulled out a pistol, pulled the hammer back, and he would tap the weapon to the side of my head. And he said, boy, if you ever tell anybody what I've done to you, I'll blow your brains out, and I'll call the police and tell him you shot yourself.

So as a child, the only way to work through that intensive trauma, I just had fantasized one day, I will be so fast. No one will be able to hold a gun to my head. And, you know, that's how I think there's redeeming factors for anyone who has suffered trauma. you'll either get bitter, you know, bitter or better from it. And for me, I think that was the way I tried to get better. When the abuse was happening, did it seem like there was a pattern, like he would wait for your mom to be gone or your mom to be preoccupied with something so that he could abuse you? Yeah, and that's a great question. People who abuse children are very methodical and very smart.

It's not just, you know, at a whim. They always want to cover their tracks, both timing, location, and bath time, or I'm going to take him for a ride, or he'll go with me to work. One time he brought me to this place, and it was a morgue, and he actually put me in a chair and wrapped me with Saran Wrap. And he made me watch a cadaver be cut up and then burned in an incinerator. and obviously he had a connection to the person work at the morgue. But he goes, boy, if you ever tell anybody what I've done, I'll do that to you. No one will even know where you are. They'll just say you ran away.

Do you think somebody like the morgue worker, for example, knew the dynamic of what was going on? I do. I believe there's a network of pedophilia. I believe there's a network of just evil people. And beyond that, most people do. anything for money. You know, we've proven that in the work we do now because we do, you know, counter-pedophile work. We help rescue women or children. We do trauma relief. And like we talked before, right now, we're trying to get a girl to a safe house in a different country this morning

in order to get her out of the country. And all that requires is money and connections. So it's the same way on the side of evil. They typically have money or favors for things done. You said that he electrocuted you and tried to drown you. When did you feel like the abuse really began to escalate? Well, it was, it just seemed like it always happened. I didn't feel like there was an escalation. Like out of seven days a week, how many days a week?

Oh, I couldn't tell you that. You know, the mind compartmentalizes. But there was enough regularity where, and victims will understand this. There comes a point where you don't fight it, where you don't try to, you just go along with it. So, yeah, I mean, he, yeah, the electrocution, I mean, he did stuff to reverse things. So one summer out, this was in Mississippi, we moved to Mississippi out in the country, there was a, he tied me down on a stack of wood. But he had me laid out. He poured water in my chest because I had a concave chest.

Then he took a cattle prod. And he would stick the prod into my chest but not let it touch my skin so it wouldn't leave a burn mark. And he'd hit it. Of course it caused this electrocution shock. And what people don't understand, when you're about to get shocked, you actually, you hold your breath and you clench and here it comes. The first thing that happens when it releases that air actually will escape your lungs. And he would lean forward. It wasn't just the shocking.

It was what was connected to the mind. And Alex, he would lean forward and he would say, do you know what that sound is leaving your body? It's a sound of hope, leaving your body. It's not just there. And then those become what I call lies based in reality. You start to believe them. And it's no different from, you know, some girl or a kid raised in a family and either parents put them down and tell them you'll never amount to anything.

You're stupid, you're ugly. They hear these lies. And then they'll repeat them enough where it becomes their truth. Mine just was associated with a physical torture. And did you see him abusing? You said there were other siblings in the home. Did you see him abusing them as well? Or were you the only one being sexually abused?

No, physically he would abuse and beat other siblings. And, you know, we knew bad things would happen if you'd take someone into his room. And, you know, I know because later we had to discuss it, you know, one of my sisters was raped by him. she was pretty young that hurts a lot of times emotionally more than your own because you can't you don't feel like you could do anything and did you guys talk about it in the moment like being little kids talking about what was happening it was just the secret never you yeah because you you risk being beaten or or tormented and you know one of the biggest things for me later because I had faith, but I remember a psychologist, and so people know, I mean,

because what I hear a lot is when people say, you don't seem like you went through this. And I'm like, well, you know, part of it was coping mechanisms, but I've also had a hundred twenty-three visits to a trauma specialist in nine months. I've been on Deppico, Depecine, Prozac, Zoloff, Lithium Bspar. I've had to go in and out of the VA. I've been locked in a crazy room. I say crazy with a K. And I survived.

And then with God's help, I thrive. But one of the main things that changed my life was when somebody said, where was Jesus with all this? And I remember telling the psychotic. I said, shut your pie hole right now. I'm going to knock you through the wall. He goes, why are you so angry? I said, I don't want to bring Jesus. in this. I know he's loving and he's good, but I don't want to ask where he was. And he challenged me.

He said, well, you should. And two years later, I did. And I actually had a vision. One of the times he was beating me. I'm laid out on the bed. He would put you in the underwear and he would beat you with this belt. And the last thing that happened is I saw Jesus actually enter into the scene and then place his body on top of mind to protect me when I was getting beat. I knew at that moment Jesus wasn't an absent person, but he was actually a real loving God that would enter into that pain with me. Take us to being five years old and being left in a commercial cooler to die. What do you remember about that day leading up to the event? I remember playing in the woods and then going down to the pond and then going up by the chicken house.

Again, this was in, you know, Men in Hall, Mississippi. This was at my grandparents, his parents, rant, farm. I remember finding an old corn cob, sticking feathers in the back of it, ticking feathers and throwing it up and watching it whirl a bird down. You'd make a toy. And then one of the neighbor guys came up to me. He said, hey, I want to show you something in here. It wasn't my stepfather with someone else.

So I followed him in, he shut and locked the door. And he said, this is what's going to happen. If you tell anybody, I'll kill you. And I remember just going, not again, not another person. And, you know, I ended up, he put me in this locked down cooler, shoved me in and locked it. And I remember sitting in there and is pitch black. But hearing this cooler fan and thinking, I'm going to die, I guess it's just my time.

And again, on a spiritual note, it's horrifying that is, for a child, I remember a very felt presence come right next to me. And it had to be an angel. I'm convinced it had to be an angel because it didn't feel evil. And then I ended up passing out. And how long were you in there? Hours. And what does this mean a commercial cooler? It was like a freezer or what?

It was in between a freezer and a cooler, a walk-in. But it was the summer. So all I had was shorts on with a little tank top. And he was hoping I would die or hypothermia. Do you think he was sent by your stepdad to do this? Or he was just a total random person? I don't. I think he was just a random person that lived nearby.

and this is the thing about someone who's abused. Once you get abused once, it's almost like an X on you. And then predators see that. They sense it and they see it. And they'll wait. And he had known me. He was a work on the farm. And then he waited for his time.

Me alone. Nobody there. And when my family, when I didn't come home, my family started looking everywhere for me. And hours had passed. They thought I'd drown in the place. pond, they looked in the woods. They finally came to this, you know, in between these chicken houses and opened as cooler, and I was unconscious. They rushed me to the house, wrap me

a blanket. Did they tell you if your, if your fingers were blue or your lips? Oh, my feet, fingers, I couldn't talk. I was unconscious for a while. And, you know, it's country, so they don't rush into the hospital unless you, you know, duct tape can't fix it. So when I was able to finally communicate, I told them what had happened. Because unlike my stepfather, this was just a neighbor bad guy. And my brothers and a couple of cousins went and found him. They kicked in his door. They beat him in front of his own family, drug him outside, hooked him behind our tractor, drug him behind my...

Oh, yeah, drug him behind my memo's house. fashion a rope, threw it over a pecan tree, and hung him. They tied it in the back of the tractor. They hung them until he passed out and cut them down. This is all in my documentary, the Victor Mark story. People can watch it at my website or YouTube. And I literally show you the same tree. And I couldn't believe it was actually still there.

I was like, oh, my gosh. So then what happened? Did the police find out? Did this guy leave you alone? This is the country. You don't call the law. for much. It's just country justice. So... Country justice. Yeah. They, I wish there was more of that, honestly, in our nation right now.

Go off. And I appreciate the Santa's making a law for any person, adult that rapes a child, gets the death penalty. I think that's one of the best laws that's ever been passed, because without consequences, they fear nothing because they seldom get caught. And when we work with law enforcement to catch pedophiles. We try to help them pursue and pray to God for a good DA. But in other countries, justice has handled different. And people would both be glad and horrified at some of the things that happened. So, I mean, when your stepdad sees the way that you and your siblings, everybody retaliates

against this neighbor for abusing you, did the abuse suddenly stop? Was he scared? Then like, oh, you know what? Maybe this is like a wake-up call for me. No way. He's like, that's right. He shouldn't mess with you. Has nothing to do with him and his ownership of me.

So then how long did the abuse continue for? Because you were five years old at this cooling incident. Yeah, about another two and a half years. And so then what happened? Thank you, Alex. I've always known it'll be a great interviewer. That's why I share your stuff, but man, you ask questions if you ever do. So when it was time to end everything and when he would stop, he, gosh, I can't believe I won't tell you all this.

He woke me up one morning early, put me in the back of his car, made me lay down. He drove me to a little wooden house, and it was still doing. dart. We walked in, and it was an abandoned house. It just had one light hanging down, but it didn't look like it was being used much. There was a hole cut out in the middle of the floor, a wooden floor that dropped down, and then it was a hole in the dirt. And there was another fellow there, and they're talking. And the only thing I could, the only thing I could just process as a kid as I'm about to die. Because I've been so close. to death and things that happen.

And then I hear this man tell my stepfather, I don't want to do this anymore. And I thought, you know, and then my stepfather was a very well-educated, smooth-talking. This was not the guy in the back of a van. This was a guy who was well-read. Hemingway was his favorite author. I mean. And he told the guy, I understand. And when the guy relaxed, my stepfather hit him,

boom, and knocked him unconscious. Because he was a fault, it was a broader unit of fight. He drugged the guy to the hole, put him on his knees, handcuffed him, his hands behind his back. Then he pulled out a pistol. And he said, come here, boy, you're going to shoot this man. To you. And you are seven?

About seven. have. And he said, uh, had you ever held a gun before at this point? Rifles, shotguns, not a pistol. And now the guy's conscious. And he knows what's going on. And he starts saying, please don't shoot me. Please don't shoot me. And again, I need people to understand. Once your condition and program, it's not, it's not the end of the world when you do something, your program. And you can see case studies in Kurdistan where teenage boys were abducted by ISIS, and within a year, they're so brainwashed.

They're driving V-beds, explosive cars into troops. They're completely brainwashed. So I grabbed the pistol and put it to the guy's head, and I started trying to squeeze. and I don't know if it was because I couldn't squeeze the trigger or something in me was fighting the finality of what was about to happen. And my stepfather put his hand on my wrist, and then he put his finger in the trigger well over my finger on the trigger, and he pressed until the gun went off.

And it shot the guy on the back of his head. And the guy slipped over. He did. So it's seven years old. I mean, you're essentially coerced into killing this man in a way. I mean, you didn't necessarily pull the trigger. But you still feel responsible. Of course.

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And so what does he do? Just say you're going to help me now bury this body? The man's bleeding out, and he wiped his, he put his hand, the man's blood on the ground. He slapped it in my face, got it in my mouth on my face and he said that's your first kill boy and then he shoved the man into the hole and he buried him with both dirt and then mixed concrete and then dirt and um i just watched

and then we left and he made me lay down in the back of his car again and um you know obviously i pushed this stuff out of my mind to try to survive life. Later in life, when I had to face it, I actually called the local sheriff department, explained everything. And they're like, do you know where the house is? I said, I don't, there's no way. I said, did anybody go missing? I've just got to clear this. Yeah, like, who was this guy? Yeah. And the sheriff was very nice. And he just goes, you know what? It sounds like he probably had picked up some guy, homeless guy. promised him money. He would get to abuse a kid. And he goes, but there's, it's such a cold case.

It's been 30 years. And I have friends at the FBI. I actually took a forensic lie detector test, polygraph to try to say, am I just crazy, but it was all true. So, you know, later in life, I mean, I'd be sitting in a youth prison with kids who had killed people and never bothered me. Or overseas, you know, 16 times Iraq or Syria in the ministry that we do in dealing with death and being shot at

and shooting and mortars and me and my family hiding and never bothered me. So I do know that God has the ability to redeem the worst things that can happen to people. So the worst abuse

in torture took place three to seven and then how did it end? Did he divorce your mother? Did he just become suddenly out of your life? Yeah. It was the night we left.

He had come home drunk, which was not uncommon, but he and my mom were fighting. When I say fighting, he's yelling. And he pulls out a pistol, that pistol, and he starts shooting out the lights on the outside of the house. The argument was based on the electricity bill was too high. So when he starts shooting, my mother runs, grabs us. We go into a closet in the back room, and she shuts the door but leaves a crack so she can see the door. And she just said, kids don't. She just got to be quiet.

And then he starts yelling, where are y'all at? Where are y'all at? And he comes in the house looking for us. And I'll tell you, that's when fear turns into terror. And, I mean, it's what your worst panic attacks are made of. Do you believe that your stepdad was just days away from killing your entire family? Would he have killed your entire family? Yeah.

I do believe he would have. And he could have that night because he came to the door. And again, he was demonically energized. And when people have evil in them or on them and driving them, they'll do anything. And he said, come out, I'm coming in. And then my mom, she started saying, I plead the blood of Jesus over the door. I plead the blood of Jesus over the door. And my first reaction, honestly, was like, wait, that's the good guy who helps children.

And we need someone better, like Peter with a sword. If you're going to call on somebody, not Jesus. But sure enough, my stepfather couldn't come into the room. There was a physical barrier or some type of restraint. And he was growling and angry. And I remember thinking, oh, my gosh. He literally can't get in. And then he went, yeah, he went and passed out in his room.

We escaped a little window in that room that night, never came back. Where did you go? We ran across a couple of acres, crossed the road to a neighbor's house. My mom beat on the door. And everybody knew that that house in my stepfather, was bad things happened. It was constant. Did he try to look for your family?

No, we fled. I mean, we actually left the state. Good. Yeah, we left the state, but you're still terrified. And I would never return to that house to like over 30 years later. Did you go for your documentary? I know. I went because I was at that time working for an organization.

Dr. James Thompson. Oh, I didn't know you did that. Yeah, I was an assistant to doc. Cool. Yeah. Okay. And so I'm traveling, I'm speaking for him on behalf of him, and I realize I'm in the same little town when I'm leaving.

And I felt like the Lord said, go to that house. And what was that like when you saw it for the first time after 30 years? I was terrified. Here I am, full grown man, Marine, Black Belt, and I'm thinking, But you felt like a little boy again. Yeah, I was terrified. I knocked on the door just out of sheer obedience to God. I expected some monster to open it.

It was just actually a little old lady, the sweetest little lady. And Alex, she goes, can I help you? I said, ma'am, this is going to sound weird. I used to live in this house 30-something years ago. She goes, who was your daddy? And I told her, she goes, her first words, bad thing. happened here. I said, yes, ma'am.

She goes, I bought this house from him. And then she said, you want to come inside? And I was like, oh, I said, yes, ma'am. I go inside. And I said, I work for Dr. James Dobson. And she goes, I know, I know of him. She goes, I'm a Christian. I'm like, I am too.

And then she goes, wait right here. I took her a minute. She went back in a room. She came out with a box. There were pictures on it. She said, when I bought this house from your stepfather, I knew y'all had to flee because all your stuff was here. So we gave it away to Goodwill.

And she said, but I kept a couple of pictures. And she pulled out a picture of me and my brothers and sisters. And she said, I prayed for y'all. I prayed for you all these years. I said, God kept you alive. so I could come back and show you your prayers worked. And, you know, then I told her how we escaped that night. She said, would you like to see the room?

And then I was like, oh. Did you hesitate? I did. I kind of froze up. And she grabbed my hand. She said, come on with me, son. And she walked me back there, and I saw the closet. It hadn't moved.

They had made the window a little bit bigger. And I said, that's where we went out. And she said, I know we replaced the window as small. I said, yeah, we all got shoved through there. And so again, it was kind of victory, you know, in all of this. And by the way, he was still alive at the time. Yeah, but he wasn't in that city anymore? Not that city.

He was over on a river, you know, about an hour away, living in a trailer. and I felt like God told me to go find him now. That was the next step of obedience. And I hadn't seen this man of forever. And I thought, man. During this trip of, you have, wait a minute. Yes. So you go to his trailer then?

Yeah. And when you knock on that door and he opens, what did his face look like seeing you as an adult man? His blood drained. Because he probably thought he's here to kill me now and finish the job. Oh, yeah. And he knows it would be justified. I could have put him in a river right there.

And there wouldn't be a law enforcement officer. That would blame me. But I looked at him. He was like, hey. And then the weirdest thing, he tries to intimidate me. How? He says these words. He goes, boy, you don't know how easy it is to take a head off of a man.

And at this point, had you been to the Marines? Yeah. Okay, so we're getting to this part. Yeah. But that's very ironic for him to tell you that. Did you say, boy, you don't know? I'm like, I'm a grown-ass man to you right now. That won't work.

And he had actually had surgery, you know, open art surgery so you could see the scar. Because, you know, he's like a trailer dude. I was thinking, I'll crack that rib cage open. I was literally going to say, I bet you thought I could reach right into your chest caffeine, pull your heart out with my hands. Yeah, put it on the ground, making a look like an accident. So, yeah, I just remember thinking, I'm a. I'm a master of martial arts. I'm war workers.

I'm Marine. You're going to try to intimidate me. And on top of all that, I have the power of God in my life now. That's right. So I don't succumb to any of that. So as you got older, how did you start coping with the trauma of the abuse? Well, you know, coping mechanisms can both be negative and positive. So I started junk with negative stuff.

Sixth grade, I started drugs. What kind of drugs? I started with pot, escalated. And my whole deal is I didn't do the drugs to try to be cool or drink with kids to be cool. I did it because I hurt. I didn't want memories. I just want to kind of disconnect. And I tell people alcohol and drugs, they work short term.

Sure. But long term, it actually causes more problems. So. And did you tell your mom yet? No. Okay. No. Mainly because part of me,

felt like my mother knew. But she suffered from, you know, the associative identity disorder. I was actually, it's interesting you say that. I was wondering if you had ever gotten diagnosed with that, just when you talked about going into compartmentalizing during the abuse. Yeah. I didn't know if that was DID or not. So there's four stages of it.

I was a level three. So I wouldn't dissociate from my body or lose time. I would coexist. So yeah, broken parts of my mind would come forward. At the same time, me as a man, I could feel the emotions. And, you know, so you tend to overreact, not respond to certain situations. People may call it a trigger, but some guy would threaten me. And all of a sudden I feel like, you know, torture is going to be the result of that.

Right. So I beat the guy into a bloody pulp. Just, you know. And for people that don't know, D.I.D. or dissociative identity disorder, that is like, that's a new term for multiple personalities. Correct. And people develop that. People get diagnosed with that after going through the most severe, typically childhood abuse you could ever go through. So if your mom had that, that means she also must have been severely abused as a child.

child, I'm guessing? She was. She was sexually abused, and that's common knowledge now. So, you know, my mother's still alive and I wouldn't say anything. I mean, we actually take care of her with help on her where she lives. But yeah, you know, but I want people to understand this. Not everybody who, because it's just saying hurt people, hurt people. And I understand that. But in the realm of sexual abuse, it is the worst predators are not people. that were abused. That's a misnomer. These are just people that are perverts. So, like, I've never abused anybody. And actually, it was the opposite for me. I became a protector, not a predator. That's why we've done what we've done.

So, yeah, it's a coping mechanism that helps. And everybody experiences some type of the social. You can be driving home. and miss an exit. Yeah, you miss an exit. Where am I? And that's just you kind of, that's level one, two and three. You know, three is a little bit more severe.

And then four, you just lose track of time. And so you decide to join the Marines, which thank you for your service, by the way. I appreciate your support. It was an honor. There was a day while you were in the Marines that you got a letter. Yeah. Who was it from and what did it say? Well, the letter was actually from my biological dad.

and I was both shocked and angry because he, in the letter, he said, Dear son, I know I've never been a dad to you. And I was like, you don't call me, son. You got my mom pregnant and you left. And, of course, I didn't know all the details, but I just know he wasn't there for me. And I'm like, oh, so mad.

And then he goes on to say, I know you think I'm crazy. I'm like, yeah, you were in a mental hospital for homicidal tendencies. And you were a drug dealer, you know, and you did the occult. He was a warlock. He was a practicing warlock. Casting spells on people, all public knowledge. And he was a bouncer.

And he was this karate guy, boxer. So he's just overall bad dude. But he writes in this letter. I know you think I'm crazy. The deal is, his dad. My biological grandfather died in the same mental hospital he went to. It's called Pineville State Mental Hospital. It's not there any longer.

But my grandfather had a plate in his head, you know. And so I just thought, am I? I don't want to go on this track. You know, I don't want to be crazy like them. So the next part was what stunned me. He said, I know you think I'm crazy. But Victor, I'm crazy this time for Jesus Christ. Yeah, he evoked the name of Jesus, of which I just went, what is your angle?

I mean, what are you trying to accomplish here? But the letter was seen pretty sincerely just goes, look, just come and visit me. And I did. I took leave absence from the Marine Corps, flew down, and that's when I had my, like, really adult encounter with him. And so was this Louisiana that you went to? It was. And he asked you to go to church with him. Yeah.

What struck you about the service that day? You know, thanks for asking that. It wasn't the preaching. It was actually the worship. Really? It was the music. And this is why it wasn't that they were the best worship team. But my father, my biological dad, had invited, I think it was three or four of his fighters.

He trained fighters as part of his deal. And they were worshiping God. their hands are up in the air. They're like, some of them are getting emotional, and I'm looking at them going, what in the world is going on? And at that moment, I remember saying, I don't feel like I'm that type of Christian. Because, you know, everybody. Like, charismatic.

Yeah. And, but they seem so sincere. And that's really what I started feeling is God's love and his conviction at the same time. which blew my mind. What did you feel like God was convicting you to do? Well, I felt he was showing me the sin in my own life, things I'd done wrong, because I spent a lifetime blaming others to justify my behavior.

There was a problem in my life was linked to this person. At that moment, I stopped blaming everybody else, and I could see my sins, the things I'd done wrong. And although it wasn't, you know, heinous in these respects, it still was breaking his Ten Commandments. I'd broken out all of them. And then I felt his love, which if people really knew how much God loved them, you wouldn't feel this constraint to serve him. You just feel the reciprocation of his love.

It's the best thing you can do is follow him and trust him. So you're a new Christian at that point. Yeah. You decide to get out of the Marines. And what was the next mission you felt like you were supposed to go do? Well, I felt definitely called to some type of ministry. And the verse that God gave was in the book of Timothy, and it said, endure affliction. Which you had done.

Yes. But it would mean more. Ender affliction and do the work of an evangelist. So evangelism, there's all types of evangelism. Angelist or people using the gift. But for me, I just had this unbelievable desire to share people with Christ. I wasn't good at it. I literally would just tell people I'd go on the beach in California and go, hey, I'm

really new at this. Can I ask you some questions and practice? And they'd feel so bad for me. They're like, go right ahead, man. And then at the end, I'd say, is there any reason why you can think of you wouldn't want to accept Christ. And so many people said, no. And I'd pray with them and they'd give their life to Christ.

So certainly that and God used my natural clinician toward martial arts to be a platform, you know, to do that. And, okay, let me make sure I have this right. We go to war with Iraq. Yep. And what was it about seeing footage of the war and stuff that really spoke to you? Yeah. It was the suffering.

It wasn't the loss of land. It was just the, I mean, it was the unbelievable level of evil. And, you know, I had privy to some information. Maybe others didn't, but, you know, people being crucified, men having their heads cut off from other families, children being burnt on open fires. just evil. And that's, I just thought, wow. And it just seemed like nobody was trying to stop this, certainly not in America. So you just had a real heart for helping women and children suffering at the hands of ISIS.

Could you tell me about a particular rescue that stands out in your mind? Yeah. My family and I end up getting a safe house there because we'd go back. and forth in our teams. And we have incredible teams. Without teams and local assets and people supporting us financially and praying, it would never happen. But one night I remember we had to go into Mosul, fighting is going on. And we worked with General Mustafa and also another organization called Free Burma Rangers with Davey Bank of Friend. But a kid's parents were running with him and ISIS killed the parents. And the mom was holding.

this little baby, how he didn't die, we don't know. But he was rescued. We went in to get him and bring him out of the war zone. And nobody knew his name because the parents are murdered. It's active war. So he was named Baby Ali. And the first guy that went in to pick him up was shot and killed by ISIS. But I remember. getting him. And then one night that we were there in Mosul were walking out, and there's an ISIS commander that had just been captured. And it was just like, holy smokes.

And, you know, part of you just wants to shoot the guy right in the face because of what he represents. But I felt God's grace come upon me and say, I want you to pray for him. I was thinking, Lord, he's being. This guy. Yeah, not this one. I mean, they were actively pummeling this dude. And so I said, hey, let me talk to him.

And I had my turp with me. And they put his hands by his back and shackle him up. I'm talking to him, and I just felt the piece of God come on me. I said, hey, man, have you ever met an American? He's like, no. And was this all in Arabic? Yeah. And have you met a Christian before from America?

He goes, no. He said, why do you want to kill me? Because this guy had the look and I was like he would cut my head off in a second. He goes, I don't know. And then I asked some sincere questions about him where he lived, why he joined us. They'd have a family. And he opened up. How old do you think he was?

He had to be 30. Okay. And, you know, the pressure to join and become an extremist is real over there, among some circles. but at the end I said, you know you're about to die. He's like, yeah. I said, what will happen to you when you die? And he says, inshallah, I mean, God's will, whatever God's will. I said, do you mind?

I said, because I can die to leaving here. He said, yeah. I said, can I tell you what I would call my hope of eternity or my surety of salvation? He said, yes. And I actually shared the gospel with this Isis. fighter, who actually was a commander, we found out. And then at the end, I said, would you like to have that assurance like I do? He said, yes.

And his eyes were no longer mean. He was like, yes. I said, well, I'll pray for you. So we start praying, and he's actually repeating the prayer with me. And I can't believe this. It's like after midnight, hot you can hear. I'm going, God, thank you. I get right to the end, Alex.

and I say in Jesus' name, and then something happens. He kind of twitches, and you literally could see evil come on him. Whom! And his eyes changed, and his face contorted, and his ears,

literally, I have a photo of it, because people wouldn't believe it. He turned into, he looked like a troll. It was like demonic possession. Complete. Now, I use the term demonized, but he was.

definitely demonized and it affected his features and everybody jumped back and he snapped the hand ties on behind him and then my dog scout rushed him to hit him in his throat I'm like nine no don't and guns come out they're about to kill this guy I'm like wait wait wait and I just start praying out loud Lord Jesus please and all of a sudden the evil left him and he came back to his normal self. Of course, they slammed them, tied them up again. And I was like, hey, you know what just happened? It's like, yeah. I said, tell me what you would want me to tell other young men who are thinking about come to ISIS. His words from his lips to my ears, he said, tell them don't come to the darkness. And I told him, I said, there's no way that God brought me all the way here.

to share the gospel with you. And I said, before you die, you can call off to Jesus, and he will save you. He thanked me and left. And then on a funny note, my turp, who's actually my bodyguard, he goes, boss, his name is Sasan. He goes, I'm very sorry. I seen him with the, and he breaks. He goes, I was going to shoot him in the face, but you were saying the nice things.

So I went to wait. Well, he's meaning you're praying for him and I don't want to shoot them. Yeah. I said, that's good. That's good. Thank you. That would be odd. So you guys now have done all of these missions helping women affected by trauma.

Yeah. Could you briefly explain that? Yeah. Well, I mean, we've, we're 20 years of helping people who've been affected by trauma. And it started in youth prisons, but it's spread everywhere from military bases to, to, we have a safe house in Southeast Asia. We've done this work. We are actually still active inside an ISIS prison camp in Syria with women and children every month to on the border, south of the border, and then other places in the world.

But here in the U.S., we really want to try to help and protect children because it's such an onslaught against kids right now. It's so in everybody's face. And Christians and conservatives and just good people in general have been so passive that they've let this evil virus in. And it's causing havoc right now. And it will get worse. So we want to help. You know, I have a thing called the Pedophile Hunters Fund on our website. And through people supporting us, it allows us to engage in.

in very unique ways, whether it's individual cases, whether it's helping law enforcement, whether it's tracking some guy in Southeast Asia, which we did for a year before we caught him. And now he's in prison for cutting a girl's hand off, putting battery acid on her face or whatever and raping her. So it's, but we really, we've made resources available now for the average person.

There's a film called Triggered and Triggered 2. on a website free. And we were, you know, I talk about this demon. We just finished an eight-part series on spiritual warfare. Amazing. And out of everything, that's the most important thing that people need to be aware of. So in the midst of this entire story that you just told us, when did you meet your wife, Eileen?

Yeah, I met her. I was just getting out of the Marines. Okay. And she came in the church. She was a non-believer. I was a brand-new believer. And I remember when she walked in, I was just like, oh, my God. Oh, my gosh.

I'll marry that one. And you actually reminded me of her. You have the same features. You're a very beautiful gal. Thank you very much. And she had this beauty externally, but inside, you could see there was something very special about her. So it was, you know, meeting her at church, becoming friends. I fell in love with her instantly, wrote in my man journal.

This is the one God has from me. I'm going to marry her. took her a little longer. And she actually came into the church one evening to get counseling because she was dating this guy. And there were no other pastors. And I was just there, volunteer and cleanup. And she says, oh, there's no.

I said, well, what do you need? I'll listen. Of course. And she's like, well, you know, this guy, he likes to party, but his brother's a pastor. And I don't, she said, what do you think? I said, I think he's a spawn from Satan. And I actually, I actually pivoted from that to say, hey, I'm. I'm not even looking for a girlfriend.

I just want a wife. You into this? I'll probably live in Africa. And she was like, whoa, it's kind of, wow, we're just friends. Yeah, let me think about it. And again, it took about another year, which I thank God because the timing matters. So how long did it take you to disclose your abuse to her? Well, we realized there was something wrong quick that I didn't, you know, I wasn't going to tell her anything.

You know, we sent out the marriage invites. So we're engaged, we send them out. And I visited her with her one day, and I disassociated. I mean, I had no feelings, and she's like, what's wrong? I go, I don't know. And I just told her, I can't feel anything. I have no emotions. She's like, whoa.

And we actually had to contact a psychiatrist right away. And then she realized, oh, wow, you've got some something's going on. I go, I don't know. I can't help it. I'm sorry. And then she said this. She said, you know, because the only advice I'd ever got from a woman was my mom about women. And she just said, Victor, she was drunk.

She just said, don't ever trust a woman. They'll use you and get rid of you. I was in the sixth grade. And that was like really imprint on my soul. So Eileen standing right there said, look, she was crying. And she said, we'll cancel the wedding. And it was such tormal for me because standing before me is the most beautiful woman I've ever seen who loves me and wants to be my wife. And I could never get her.

But I knew she was a gift from God. And she said this. She goes, I'm not your mom. And I won't leave you. we'll cancel the wedding. She goes, but I'm not going anywhere. And if we're 85 years old and you're comfortable then, we'll send out the wedding invitations again. And so how long did it take for you guys to actually have the wedding?

Actually, that moment, I believed her. I said, I believe you. And we hug and we had the wedding. Oh, so you didn't even have to cancel it. No. Amazing. But I believed her. Yeah.

Yeah. What do you think women should know if the man they love is a victim of sexual abuse? Well, just know this, none of it is their fault, the way he responds or acts or may treat her. You can't take that personal. And that if you're to be married, then you're a gift to them as part of the journey of their healing. And two or better than one. I wouldn't be alive without my wife. and either I would have done a lot of bad things,

a lot of bad people all over the world and justified it and probably ended up in prison. But God used, I lean, to love me, just simply show me God's love for me. One time I snapped, really snapped, and I disassociated, I snapped. And I remember running into the shower. I was just ripping my clothes off

and I thought I was going to get killed by my stepfather. I'm a man. And I remember just huddling down. I'm rocking back and forth in the shower saying, don't let him kill me, don't let him kill me. I was a little kid again. And Eileen came in there. She's fully close.

She opens the door. She steps in, she knills down, and she just howled me. And she just cried with me. And I'll tell you, at that moment, I felt God's love for me. that no matter he will never forsake you. So God made us to heal. And I have a book and a film that I would absolutely encourage women to watch or read and then get the person you love to watch and read.

And then also for those single gals, we have an online marriage course. It's for relationships and marriage. And we just encourage thousands have gone through it. And it's pretty effective in helping prepare women, but also and men, but also help people in a relationship right now. It was between three and seven that your abuse and torture started. Now you're a bona fide pedophile hunter. Do you think that subconsciously you became the man you are now because that's who three-year-old Victor needed? There's no doubt in my mind that I really did become the man that I wish would have.

have come and rescued me. That's so full circle. Yeah. And the enemy gets his feelings hurt. I hate demons and I hate the demonic and just, I don't know if people are even going to be a wrap their mind around this just 24 hours ago. Eileen and I are sitting by the pool. We fly in here.

Our dog, Reagan, keys up on a man and woman across the pool and starts growling and barking. Reagan doesn't do that. It was so radical. I got up, took the dog. I said, I'm going to find out. I walk over and I go, hey, my dog never keys on people like this. What's going on? I said, who are you?

Where do you work? And the guy's like, whoa, man. And ended up, I said, well, then there's something demonic. You said that to these strangers? Yes. She's in the pool because she had dropped in. We saw her get in. Bless the heart.

She had a G string on. So it was like, son's out, buns out. And it's a guy for a husband. You don't look over it. You just kind of go, oh. Yeah. And but I told him, I said, something's not right. And my dog keyed up.

I said, I hunt pedophiles, but I also hunt demons. Oh, my gosh. So do one of y'all have an issue you need to be prayed for? And the girl goes, me, please pray for me. I went, fine. I sat down. The dude is sitting there like, what? I said, I can.

I can tell you within five minutes if you have any demons that are assigned to you and will destroy him. Sure enough, found out within three minutes, within 10 minutes, she, while in the jacuzzi got set free from five demons that have been assigned her and trying to kill her her whole life. We knew the lies. It's called retooling prayer. It is the most powerful thing we do. She gets set free.

She jumps out, hugs me, is crying. Her face changes. it's soft. And my wife said, you know, Eileen was crying on the other side. I was going to say, so Eileen's just like laying out

by the pool watching all this go down. Yeah, I mean, for her, it's like, it's another day. It's just another day for us. But I'll tell you.

And then I looked at the guy and I said, are y'all married? He goes, no, we live together. Ah, the sixth demon. Yeah,

I said, I'll tell you right now. I said, if she's good enough to live with and have sex with, she's good enough to marry. You ought to marry her. and then her face just

She's like, I love this man Yeah, she's just like Oh my gosh And he's looking at me Like he's looking And he starts getting red face Like and I go If he doesn't marry

You find somebody Who will love you and marry you And now he's getting mad And I said well I said I do this everywhere I go Don't be mad But if you are chances are You can't whip my

Yeah And And I pause for a second And I think he thought Yeah Not the right time So one day I may get whooped, but I'll just get back up and say, nothing changes.

The truth, what I said. This is just the day in the life of Victor Marks, which you have to follow him on social media. It's all this kind of stuff all the time. What is your social? It's Victor Marks. Marks with an X, M-A-R-X, and we love one people. We're about to cross 200,000 people. Yay.

We're right there. We never try. It's just happening. And you speak all over the United States. Yes. So people can invite you to speak and all that too, right? Love to. And your ministry is all things possible.

Yep. And victormarks.com is where they can find out more information. Thank you so much for sharing your story. Your testimony. I've been wanting to have you on for forever, and this just ended up being perfect timing. I'm so happy that you came on the spillover. Well, thank you for being you. If you are a survivor of sexual abuse and need to talk to someone about it,

call Rain the nation's largest anti-sense. sexual violence organization at 800-657 hope. This episode was so heavy, and I can't stop thinking about what a miracle it is that someone like Victor has found hope and freedom in Jesus. I'm just not sure that he'd be alive today if it wasn't for that. If this episode had you on the edge of your seat, let the team know with a five-star review. And if you're interested in other survivor stories, I've interviewed several amazing guests, just like Victor.

One of my favorite episodes, though, on this subject was with a woman who spent her entire life putting men and women who hurt children behind bars. She was a state and federal prosecutor, and her specialty was child abuse and exploitation. She is a powerhouse of a woman, and she tells several stories of cases that she worked on just like this one. That is season one, episode four with Francie Hakes. Absolutely listen to that. and you'll find two other survivor episodes in that season. The spillover is back next Thursday at 9 p.m. Pacific, midnight Eastern, anywhere you get your podcast. With a doctor friend of mine, who you may know from Instagram, is pretty huge.

His forte is discussing the biological differences and needs of men and women, and he is very knowledgeable about hormones. Should both men and women do cold plunges? Should women do crossfit? What can women do to help PCOS? that doesn't involve the pill. Tips for menopause. It's a really high-energy episode

where I get to do a super informative Q&A. That is next week. Every interview is available to watch on the Poplix YouTube channel. I'm Alex Clark, and this is The Spillover. Love you, mean it. Bye.