Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 202 - The Cult of Tony and Susan Alamo

Episode Date: July 27, 2020

Susan Alamo was a cult leader and televangelist who founded the Alamo Christian Foundation with her husband, Tony, in Hollywood, in the late 1960s. Then they quickly built a compound just north of LA for their growing number of followers. And then they built a HUGE compound in Arkansas a few years later. Susan thought that God spoke to her, and when she died, Tony claimed that Susan spoke to him on behalf of God. And if God did talk to these two, he sure told them to do a lot of horrible stuff. The Alamo Christian Foundation was at the heart of a number of lawsuits and government actions, and Tony was jailed numerous times on a variety of charges, including income tax evasion, the theft of his late wife’s body, and taking underage girls across state lines for sex. Tony started off as a con artist and ended up as a polygamist and pedophile who abused his followers for decades. The Alamos made a lot of money off of these abused followers. Tens of millions of dollars. And Tony also bedazzled a lot of jean jackets. You read that right. The rise and fall of the Alamo Cult, today, on another cult edition of Timesuck!We've donated $6,100 this month to the Innocence Project. The innocence project exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. To find out more, visit https://www.innocenceproject.org/ Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/nIti49CR6ME Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Try out Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :) For all merch related questions: https://badmagicmerch.com/pages/contact Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 9000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast Sign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits

Tony Alamo was a cult leader in televangelists who founded Tony Alamo Christian Ministries with his wife Susan and Hollywood in the late 1960s and built a compound just north of Los Angeles in August, then built a huge compound in Arkansas, basically taken over in entire town with various Alamo businesses in the 1980s. Susan Alamo thought that God spoke to her, and when she died, Tony claimed that Susan spoke to him on behalf of God makes sense I've got did talk to these two. He told them to do a lot of wicked shit Tony Lamel Christian Ministries was at the center of a number of lawsuits and government actions and Tony was jailed numerous times on a

Variety of charges including income tax evasion the theft of his late wife's body and taking numerous underage girls across state lines for sex The con artist an eventual polygamist started off wanting to be a pop star. He met another con artist in Hollywood in a bar and found out that a lot of money could be made in religion. And Tony and Susan did make a lot of money. They made tens of millions of dollars off their followers. Had their own TV show, became friends with celebrities, and then it all came crashing down. The rise and fall of Tony Alamos cult today on another cult, cult, cult edition of Time Suck.

This is Michael McDonald and you're listening to Time Suck. You listening to, Saks. Hail Nimrod. Praise, Lucifina. Let Bojangles office leash. Let him run and dial in the multiverse AM station to triple M. Welcome to the call to the Curious. I'm Dan Cummins.

Lucifina's pony play consultant Nimrod's handler. Bojangles water bowl refill and you are listing the time suck. According here in the suck dungeon, CDA with the script keeper, not with the Reverend doctor, Joe pays the again. He's still out with COVID, but as of this recording on Thursday, July 23rd, he's on the mend. And hopefully next week, I'll be telling you, he's all good. Thanks for sending the Reverend doctor so many nice messages.

Thanks to many of you for subscribing to Joe and I's new podcasts as well as we dumb on YouTube bad magic productions and various podcasts players becomes a real show in August 12th when the first two episodes drop at noon Pacific time. I got a ridiculous new shirt and store at badmagicmerch.com inspired by my mustache and Logan Keats' twisted mind.

It's called Danny Mercury. You get it. Title will make perfect sense if you're confused if you just check it out. And I'm gonna say the rest of the announcements for the end of the show. We're trying to keep things moving. We got a lot of cult to talk about today. So much cult, cult, cult, cult.

Cult. INTRO Choosing to put almost the entire show in today's timeline. I think it's just the best way to keep it all organized. It's very scattered, gathering the information for this week. Had to dig deeper than usual for this one, pull from a lot of old articles and documentaries and info from hidden corners of the web.

Reagan Library, randomly, was a big help this week. Special thanks to the public libraries out there for your massive archives. This, uh, this suck would have been pretty skimpy without y'all. And to the Sundance, docuseries, Ministry of Evil. Ooh, well done. Uh, highly recommend checking that out if you, if you want to learn more about these, about these guys after the end of the suck. Uh, and now let's meet the first of today's two shitheads.

Edith Opal Horn is born on April 25th, 1925, and dire Arkansas. The daughter of Edward and Geneva Horn, little sister of Edna, born two years before she was, father is Ed. Daughters are Edith and Edna. A lot of Ed's, Miss Fiamine, no shortage of ego on that dude. Sadly, her father Ed died shortly after helping conceive Edith, dying over seven months before she's born in September 19, 1924 at the age of 32. Had he lived and had he and Geneva had more children, I'd bet anything a boy would be named Ed, Ed Jr. And another girl would have been Edie or Adelia,

even better, maybe a girl Edd, would be fantastic. Hi, I'm Edd, it's my son Edd, it's my daughters Edith, Edna, Edie and girl Edd. Edith's mother never remarried Geneva will die when Edith is 28. Dyer was a tiny little Crawford County town in 1925, not much bigger now. How do I run 500 people in 1925? Now has about 900. About 20 miles east to Fort Smith, city on the Oklahoma border with the metro population

of around 300,000, if you include the Oklahoma suburbs. Dyer's roughly a two hour drive from Arkansas, which lies 140 miles to the southeast, and it's just a hair outside of the Ozark National Forest. And just five miles down the road from the little 5,500-person town of Alma, South proclaims spinach capital of the world. Yes, back in the 80s, the Alan Canning Company, based in Alma,

was cannon more than half of all the spinach can in the US, about 60 million pounds. Good green strength of the year. Townsville has a few Popeye statues scattered around, not even kidding. If you don't know, no one has ever loved spinach more than Popeye. Crystal City, Texas also calls itself the spinach capital of the world. We got ourselves a spinach off. Crystal City about the same size, roughly 7,000 people.

Also has a Popeye statue erected in 1937. Also like Alma has an annual Spinach Festival. So if you love Spinach or Popeye or ideally both, well, keep your fingers crossed. But those two rip-roar and shindigs return in 2021. Put Alma and Crystal City on your calendars. Damn COVID, probably put the K kibosh on both those incredible festivals.

Edith Opal born into poverty started her life in a small Arkansas town next to a tiny bit bigger Arkansas town where spinach canning game was the biggest gaming town. Edith worked a variety of jobs starting. Who knows how young? Our daughter would claim years later that Edith hated living in Arkansas. You know, we'd say the people were mean to her and her family. They were looked down on.

She never provided many details, excuse me about her childhood. Nothing real specific. Somewhere around 1938 at the ripe old age of about 13, Edith got married to a man named Tom Brown. No age given for Tom. They have a son Charles, who they seem to have given up for adoption. Yee! Might have gotten pregnant at the age of 12. Babies having babies. Also by 1938, she's made it out of Arkansas, moved out to California, possibly settling in San Francisco. Some point over the next few years, young Edith divorces Tom, had south for Hollywood, where she's going to be a big star. It's going to be a star, but she doesn't become a big star.

She has cited in various articles as having gotten some acting work, but that could mean a lot of things. Based on pretty comprehensive film, database is out there. It doesn't seem as if she appeared at any movies. Instead, she learns how to con people if she didn't already know. She gets work according to her daughter, I'll name her shortly, as a T-girl in various Hollywood bars. For this job, Edith hangs out at the bar alone.

Looks cute. I want you to say it was a stretch first. It's not a real looker. Floor's with guys coming in to have a drink. And then when these guys buy or drink, the bartender fills her glass with iced tea instead of liquor and the guy getting conned, he pays full price for his drink.

Well, he pays full price, excuse me, for his drink and for her drink. He's paying full price for all the drinks. And then her job is to keep this guy buying these fake drinks, right? The more drinks he buys, the more money he makes. The bar gives her a little cut of the extra dough it makes, sell an iced tea and soda and you know, whatever for the price of a martini or whatever she claims to be drinking. So she established in her con artist roots here, important to understand who she was at her

core. And she may have also learned how to start scam and churches around this time. If not, she certainly learns this skill soon. We'll go over that here in a bit. Sometime in the 1940s, Edith meets a man described in the only reference to him online I can find as a prize fighter and a mobster, Solomon Samuel Lipowitz.

And in 1949 or 1950, Edith and Solomon have a daughter, Christanthian, Chris Lipowitz. No idea how to pronounce the full version of her name because it's made up. So you seem to be the only person who has it and an interview is everybody just calls her Chris because it's a ridiculous name. I'm pretty sure Edith made it up.

When you Google, pronounce Chris Thanthian every article that comes up is about Chris her daughter. By 1965, Edith and Solomon get divorced. Again, sorry for the sparse and often somewhat vague details. Peace and most of this together through genealogy databases, old LA Times articles, like a lot of cult leaders, Edith would do everything she could to obliterate her past once her cult got, you know, began so she could rewrite her own narrative. Colt leaders, no one loves to rewrite their narratives, you know, more than a Colator.

Soon Ediths will change her first name to Susan, her last name to Alamo. Alamo, God, I was gonna see Alamo. I don't know why they put Alamo, but they chose to pronounce this fucking fake name of theirs as Alamo. She'll lie her ass off about damn near everything for the rest of her disgusting life.

Let's talk about Edith's church scam now. By 1960, Edith's main source of income became scanning various LA area churches through this little bullshit testimonial song and dance she'd worked out with her daughter, Chris. Edith and Chris would randomly pop into some panic hostile church. Edith dressed impeccably, cute little daughter, Chris, you know, at her side. At some point in the sermon, the pastor would call on members to give testimony, share with the congregation how your faith in Jesus has transformed your life in some

powerful and positive way, up with shoot, eat his hand. She'd tell a story, she'd rehearse countless times, totally made up story about how she and Chris had just gotten back to Mexico, spreading the gospel of Christ. She said she was a single mom, twice divorced. That part was true. She fell into drug and drink. That part was true. She was the center of the highest order, also true. But then she found God, and that part was not true. Praise Jesus. She opened her heart to the Lord, received the Holy Spirit. Can I get a hallelujah and God had picked her up, had taken her from the gutter and given her a mission to save souls that was registered to she once was before she'd seen the light.

You know that she could barely put food on the table, even though most days she didn't know how she was going to keep a roof over young innocent daughter's head. She kept traveling to Mexico to spread the message of Christ to the Mexicans. You know, I got to say, I thought we're more generally more religious than Americans already, but whatever. Whole story was a lie. After her testimony, she'd asked if her daughter could sing a gospel song for the Lord and Chris who had a beautiful voice who'd also been rehearsed for this.

She'd sing a pretty song. The collection plate would be passed around and these two would be given enough money to keep spreading. God's good word, but of course they wouldn't do that because they weren't doing that. Eat it according to her daughter would spend most of the money on cigarettes and boosts. Chris that her mom referred to this kind of work is doing a church. It say stuff like we're doing a church tonight. The con artist is found a new target demographic to hustle Christians and she'll hustle them for the rest of her phony life. Eat is also by 1960 would travel around a bit with Chris giving her testimony at church revivals as well.

Make a bit of a name for herself and certain little Christian circles as a powerful speaker, a powerful converter for Christ. Also started doing a little bit of street preaching around L.A. in 1964 when Chris was 13 or 14 and her mom Susan was 38 or 39. The two were hanging out at a restaurant and bar that no longer exists on Hollywood Boulevard called Aldo's. And in walks 30 year old Tony Elamo, looking like the fucking big shot, he ain't. He actually wasn't known as Tony Elamo at that point.

He was known as Marcus Abad, the con artist meets another con artist. It's a con off. And now we're gonna back up from this point so I can share Tony's pre-1964 life and then we'll reconvene back in this bar in 1964 on September 20th 1934 going back now The man who become known to the world is Tony Alamo is born Bernie Lazar Hoffman in

Joplin, Missouri Joplin like Alma is out on out in the Ozark But on the opposite northern end a little more populated area the Joplin metro area has around 200,000 people 135 miles, almost do north of dire Arkansas. So the future Tony and Susan Alamo didn't really grow up that far from one another. We visited Joplin before the suckverse, home with depression, airy gangsters, bonding and clides, most infamous hideout located on 34th and Oak Ridge Drive.

Most famous pictures of those gangsters coming from Joplin, after getting their shootout with local cops, they left a camera behind when they fled had some undeveloped film it Little Bernie was raised Jewish Claimed his father Bernard Hoffman senior was a Jewish immigrant from Romania who allimo or Alamo claims I'm gonna get pissed at that pronunciation. They chose for the rest of the suck Claim that he'd been a dance instructor for Rudolph Valentino, an Italian actor based in the US who starred in several well-known silent films, including the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,

The Sheik, The Blood and Sand, The Eagle, and the Son of the Sheik. Valentino, a huge sex symbol known in Hollywood as the Latin lover. Never heard that term, I have. You can use to describe a lot of different heart throbs over the years. And it came from Valentino, a little extra trivia.

He was the first to ever be called the Latin lover of a description that was coined by a movie studio production promotion team. He was James Dean, basically, before James Dean was ever even born. Did Tony Alamo's dad teach this dude how to dance? Fuck no. Highly doubt it. Tony, I mean, Bernie, as you'll find out, is even more full of shit than Edith. This is just what he claimed.

Bernie's mom was Lillian, Johnston Hoffman, almost nothing is publicly known about her. And he had at least two siblings, brothers Richard and Daniel D Hoffman, little is known about Richard as well. Does say in Daniel's obituary that he died in 2006 in Nashville at the age of who knows, doesn't say Daniel would become a radio DJ for decades, starting career in Missoula Montana not too far from the suck dungeon. It's a little over two hours where he got his radio engineer's license. Then he got his first on air gig and tiny Hamilton Montana at KLYQ. Then he moved on to gigs and Billings and but came a program director for KXLF and but

and then bounced over to Pasco, Washington, Houston, Omaha, Peoria, finally landing in Nashville, where it became one of the city's top DJs. Number one DJ for a time, DJ Dan, working for WKDA top 40, a powerhouse station for a while. And as brother Bernie not mentioned in his obituary, I get the feeling that by the time he died, it had been many decades since the two had spoken. When Bernie was a teenager, Alama would say he left Joplin for the West Coast most likely.

He spent part of his time growing up in Mizzula with his brother, DJ Dan and Dick. And he was a DJ too, DJ Dick and DJ Dan. That's a, that's a fierce duo. After Montana, Bernie ended up in LA adopted the name Mark Hoffman, then he changed his name again to Marcus Abad and achieved some modicum of success or failure, depending on how you look at it in the.A. adopted the name Mark Hoffman, then he changed his name again to Marcus Abad and achieved some modicum of success or failure depending on how you look at it in the music industry.

Later claimed that he recorded a quote hit record single in 1960s for head of hit, a little yanky girl. And this is my favorite claim. He claimed that he was asked to manage the Beatles, the Doors, and the Rolling Stones. And I do not believe for a second, he was asked to manage fucking anyone. Definitely not the Beatles or the Doors, the Rolling Stones. None of those bands would have had anything to do with this bum. And Little Yankee girl, not a hit single.

Listen for yourself. He wrote this little ditty with his brother, DJ Dan. Oh, God, I look just real quick. Oh, boy, like so many cult leaders. This dude was a frustrated rock star. Man, Charles Manson, David Kresh, Father Yode, all these idiots, that they're going to make it big in music. And I love how in this song this clown from Joplin, Missouri, pretends to be British. There's some lyrics in there where he talks about being, you know, this British guy coming

over for this Yankee girl and the B side of this song is a little diddy called a big coal man. It might be worse and a very different sound than the side A, than the lead single to hit. Uh-huh. But, but transition. Jumbo bread. Just diggin' cold. Can't play when he lives in a hole. Can't play when he lives in a hole. I feel like they wrote these songs in about two fucking minutes.

So he's some British Beatles pop crooner wannabe on the A side and he's Johnny fucking cash on the B side. Weird. It's like this guy's a big phony or something, big pretender. Crazy that this dude never exploded in the music biz. These two songs pressed on to vinyl on little mark records, cool little find if you like to collect cult memorabilia. After these hot tracks, Alama went on to own a health club maybe, that's what he claimed,

then he went back into the music industry, maybe that's what he claimed. This dude lied so much like Susan and he made such an effort to obliterate his actual past. It's very hard to verify a lot of his claims. May have also had some falling out with his family at some point in the mid 60s after he meets Edith. He never mentions his real family again, other than to make claims about who his father may have been when he was a boy So now we're back in 1964 when fast rising British invasion and country music superstar Marcus Abad

Walks into all dose Edith Opal horn formerly Edith Brown now Edith lipwits Lady who likes to take Christians money and her her daughter, Chris, or sit at the table, Tony looks important. Of course he does. He's a con artist too. And based on what she overhears him saying to the bar, Edith thinks he's a big shot record producer. And he is.

I mean, come on. Did you or did you not hear that un-fucking-deniable musical talent? Did you miss it? Did you miss this? Come on. It's just the yucky care I belong. It's little yucky, you motherfucker. Did you miss it? Did you miss this? Come on! It's Little Yagging Girl, motherfucker! Wake up and smell the talent! Sorry, I was aggressive.

Also super creepy. Super creepy. The 1964 you sing about little girls based on what this dirtbag will do later. Edith asks Marcus, are you in a music business? And Tony sells for a bunch of big shot nonsense. He's got a hot single. He's considering managing the Beatles, maybe his stones, blah, blah, blah, blah. Susan tells her that her daughter, Chris,

is gonna be a music business next big star showbiz. This is how to do it in Hollywood. The songbird of her generation, they're both doing so well. They're both on the cusp of fame and fortune. At least that's what they tell each other. Chris would later say the truth was neither one of them wanted to pay for the picture of beer sitting in between them because they were both broke. Chris also said that before the three left all those her mom leaned across the table and told Tony, did you know that Jesus Christ is coming back to earth again? Oh my! Here we go.

Tony didn't have a religious background. Wasn't raised in the church, Susan's words, and treat him. She was good at selling the gospel. That's how she made her money. Tony later claimed he fell in love with Susan and the gospel almost immediately. I think he fell in love with Susan and the potential to make a lot of money immediately.

Chris would recall this meeting in an interview she gave in 2008. She gave more background info about her mom and Tony. She said, Mama had great dreams of being a star. She was beautiful in the weirdest way. Not like you would look at her and go, wow, a striking beauty. I can verify for that.

She's, no, it's got to odd look. When she walked into, but when she walked into a room, she had so much command that people stopped talking. We go from a few bucks to absolute poverty. I mean, the kind of poverty that mom and I would be living in a one room apartment with a pull down Murphy bed and a hot plate, and we would do mystery cans. Where we go by cans that had no labels, you would open these cans, and whatever you opened, you ate. And then we'd get really broke. Mama and then Mama decided to go

into religion. Oh, and then when we get really broke, Mama decided to go into religion. When Chris entered her early teen, she began picking up work as a background vocalist, turning all her money over to her mother. She says that her mom dated a stream of men in the early 60s before she met Tony at time disappearing for days. And then there was the day at all dose. And Chris said, I knew who Tony Alama was. I'd seen him around the ball of art. He was supposed to be this great big promoter who promoted the Beatles, but I knew he was a

bald face liar. I knew that he was living with a girl who was pregnant with his child. He wasn't living with her. He was living off of her. Chris said, so I knew that he was living with a girl who was pregnant with his child. He wasn't living with her. He was living off of her. Chris said, so I see this creep coming in with a producer I've worked with and he's coming right toward the table and my mother's sitting there and I'm thinking to myself, oh crap, not this clown.

Then Chris added, she usually picked out men who had a little style and a lot of money. He sits down at the table, he's bullshit until his face is about to fall off. And my mom's doing the well-ammon actress been around the studio for years and my daughter's a singer thing. He's like, I just heard her tape.

She's fantastic. I can make her a big star. And I'm watching them and it's like a tennis match of horse crap. Susan converted Tony to Christianity. Or at least, you know, that's what she would later claim, at least starting to lie about being Christian, taught him how to preach, and then the two started preaching together. Her daughter thinks that her mom did this because in order to make more money,

she needed a man, needed a husband. She knew that she wouldn't be able to launch a fake church alone. Christianity is just two patriarchal, more so back than the now. Her daughter thinks Edith was using Tony from the very beginning. And the Tony was using her mom

from the very beginning as well. He saw dollar signs and Edith's talk of God and out salvation. How much did Susan believe when it came to the gospel? How much did she convert Tony? No, we'll never know. We'll never know. I think it was probably all the scam from the start. That's just a hunch.

Have to make your own guess. Neither one of them ever later said, oh, it's all bunch of bullshit. The two of them started running a variety of scams now, testifying, getting that collection plate money, street preaching for tips, you know, in sunset, Hollywood boulevards. Cut two years forward to 1966 after serving a bit of jail time for a weapons charge, Marcus Abad, Mary's Edith Opelhorn on August 19th. Some sources say they changed their names to Tony and Susan Alamo just before they got married, something after.

One source says Edith changed her name to Susan Lama, and that Bernie changes name to Tony, and then took her last name, I guess it doesn't really matter. From 1966 forward, these two assholes won't change their stupid names anymore. Why Lama? Tony would later claim that he changed his name to mimic some Italian American singers who were popular at the time.

And again, such a phony, right? In one song, he's got this British pop persona, and another, he's a down-home, good old blue-collar country fella. And then two years later, he's trying to be Frank Fuckin' Sonatra. From this point forward, Tony will tell anyone who will listen to this sermon that he found Jesus while he was in a meeting at a big Beverly Hills investment firm.

You know, because he was a super successful producer, right? Of course, he probably took all the money he made from this hot track. Put it in the stock market. Tony would say that Jesus came to him at this meeting, told him to preach the second coming of Christ, leave the trappings of the measurable wealth behind. Sure, he could have been super duper rich, relying on nothing but his other worldly musical talent and managerial prowess. So off the charts that Mick Jagger was down on his knees begging him to manage the stones, but no, that's not what God wanted. Tony and Susan passed out religious tracks, preached, especially to drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes.

Right? You know, they were just looking for whoever they thought was the mostics, prostitutes, right? You know, they were just looking for whoever they thought that was the most desperate, you know, to pull into their little orbit. Their ministry was part of the Jesus people movement which many of those involved in the counterculture of the 60s began proclaiming a spiritual transformation and allegiance to Jesus. 1969, Tony and Susan formed the Alamo Christian foundation

and they get a little headquarters. The street preachers moving on up. We're moving on up. Oh, buddy. Yes, sir. By late 1969 or early 1970, the couple, they're living in a rented three bedroom home in West Hollywood at the intersection of Crescent Heights and Sunset. And exactly where that is. For those of you in Los Angeles, just a few blocks west of the comedy store on Sunset, almost directly across the street from the Lafactory. There's a Trader Joe's where this house was now.

How about that? A Trader Joe's in a Starbucks and a CB2, right? Where Tony and Susan Alamos Colt was founded. They didn't last very long at this spot. Soon, roughly 200 early Colt members were living there. So many hippies. Such a little space. The Alamos targeted the same disenfranchised youth and Hollywood.

So many other Colts were a little space. The Elon Musk target the same disenfranchised youth and Hollywood so many other cults were targeting at the same time. This house was less than half a mile from where father, yo, source family cult was getting started at the exact same time, right down sunset, right where the source restaurant was, Kabul, Cantina now currently sits. The Manson family, they were fucking around in Hollywood

in 1969, 1970. They were living a bit north of the city up on a spawn ranch, but still a lot of time, you know, around Hollywood killing around Hollywood. In August of 1969, when the Alamos were settling into their crowded home, David Berg's children of God, they were getting going to South of LA and Huntington Beach, Jim Jones, people's temple followers,

they were dicking around LA as well. They'd have an LA chapter established by chapter established by 1972 and on and on. 1970s Hollywood provided fertile ground for a cult to grow. The U.S. was so polarized where you've for the Vietnam War, where you against it, most youth were against it, most of their parents were for it. Teens were running away from homes of their Midwestern parents and droves and hitchhiking across the country to follow LSD, guru, Timothy 1966 advice to turn on tune in and drop out. Teen two grown up in rigid conservatives, authoritarian households that arrived in the

belly of the beast, the sex drugs and rock and roll. Hollywood Boulevard, sunset strip. And some of these kids embraced L.A.'s free love and hippie ways. And those kids were more likely to drift down to the source restaurant and get recruited by father Yod. And ballin' baby, followin' the path, embracein' the journey. These new ideas scared a lot of other kids. Kids raised in fire in Brimstone, rigid Christian homes.

Kids who are now worried about their eternal souls. And these kids, Susan and Tony's Hellfire Street Preaching appealed more to them. Hollywood is the devil's playground. Don't let Satan in his free loving ways, damn your soul to eternal hellfire. And to escape the good times of awesome late 60s music and hot STD, low STD risk, birth controlled hippie sex. Hell, Lucifer, some of these sad sex ended up in a Lama's compound. Right. Oh, man, I don't want any of that. I don't want any of that hippie sex. I don't want to listen to that good music. I want to hang out and listen to you guys talk about

hell. Tony and Susan quickly convinced a core group of these kids to sell their possessions, give all of their worldly trappings to the cause of righteous salvation. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. So give me your shit, kid. The young cold now listed in daily sermons by Tony and Susan, lost teens and young adults, packed like sardines and his three bedroom home, sleeping crammed into rooms or out in the lawn. They didn't stay too long again in this location.

Their neighbor, excuse me, didn't love living next to 200 zealots for some crazy reason. The West Hollywood police began stopping by often citing the Alamos for unsanitary conditions and various code violations. So in early 1970, the Alamos for unsanitary conditions in various code violations. So in early 1970, the Alamos used the money they got from their first wave of recruits to buy their first true compound. Susan wanted to get away from complaining neighbors and pestering police officers, so they bought

property in Saga's mint canyon, about 45 minutes northwest of Hollywood at the time, a little, a little longer drive now, depending on traffic. Saga's is the neighborhood on the outskirts, very outskirts of Santa Clarita. This is the metro area, very, very edge of LA's metro area as well, about halfway between downtown Santa Clarita and Palmdale. They've got a 12 acre, acre parcel on the Sierra Highway, and then another 150 acres, four miles north. They built a church on the 12-acre parcel. The address is 13136 here. A highway, canyon, country, California still stands today. Scoped it out on Google Street View. Looks like they've used fairly recent.

It's closed down. It's dilapidated, but the sign, Tony Elamo, Christian Church, still out front. Place is way out in the very northeast end of Santa Clarita. North of the Antelope Valley freeway, about 10 miles due east of Castellac Lake, two miles south of O'K reservoir, very strategic placement, so close to Hollywood, but also out in the fucking boonies. Boarded to the north by the Angles,

or the Angles National Forest, Angeles, there we go, Angeles, that's one of my, perfect, easy access to new recruits, but also known as Gribaldia out there. It's a great place to isolate people. Some of those disenfranchised youth who came to stay with them on sunset boulevard, you know, came from some pretty damn wealthy families. Susan Alamos' daughter, Chris, would later claim that her mom and Tony didn't just take

anyone into the cult. They would publicly claim, in one interview after another, but almost all their followers showed up at their door with nothing but the clothes on their back and a yearning for salvation in their hearts But that was bullshit Chris that her mom and stepdad were strategic They took some down and out cases some Real big gullible fish as well to balance them out and I believe Chris The alamos would build dorms on this land for the cold members to sleep in various other houses big place to eat a

Nice home of course for Tony and Susan. They eventually converted the property into a working farm. Followers living in Saga's called themselves the Jesus children, and they drove to and from LA in a bus called heaven to do more recruiting and street preaching. Tony and Susan Alamo Christian foundation was alive and thriving. Services were held at the compound church, every evening at 8 pm, every evening on Sunday services held at 3 pm and 8 pm, and they were held at the compound church every evening at 8 p.m. Every evening on Sunday services held at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and they were open to the public recruit recruit recruit Cult cult cult Followers who were going to live on this new compound and it was a compound We're now required to sell their earthly goods and hand over their money to Tony and Susan

You know, you didn't get to just kind of check it out really got it if you're gonna be there for like the time You got to give all your shit to the cause. One of those who did this, one of the followers early was Greg Wilson. Greg Wilson graduated from UCLA in 1970, became a musician, traveled, played music in a group for about three years. He would later stay in an interview, during that time, I began to go on a kind of a spiritual search

and it took me through some pretty strange experiences. I dabble in Eastern philosophies and religions, but nothing satisfied me. Any real degree. I was restless and never really had a home during that period of time. I had no close friends except for the people I played music with in the group. One time in Monterey, I had an experience in which God rattled my cage and I started reading the Bible for the first time in my life. Something in it really spoke to me more than anything else I'd ever read.

I embarked on a search to find someone who could show me a way of living. The way I thought Christ was telling me to live in the Bible. I left a musical group and my search was getting desperate. I saw imperfection in the lives of everyone I met who claimed to be Christian. I thought Christ was saying that there was a way to be perfect and I wasn't finding anybody who was living that kind of life. I ended up in Santa Monica, started drinking, to console myself, to drown my sorrows. It's a good place to drink, Santa Monica's awesome.

Because I sensed no direction at all in my life. I remember one morning walking around aimlessly near the Santa Monica pier, where I encountered some young people passing out gospel tracks. I took one of their tracks and was really turned off by it. I read it over and it just seemed like trashed to me. And yet I was curious about the young people

who were so aggressively passing out the gospel tracks to anybody who would take them. Eventually a couple of these kids approached me and gave me a real hellfire and brimstone message that if I didn't get right with God, I would spend all eternity in hell. Fear, nothing sells like fear. And nothing is more fearful than thinking that you have an eternal soul and that be it will literally burn forever if you don't play the game of life right, best sales pitch of all time. Join now or burn forever. We're having one hell of a sale. Buy or fucking burn. Greg continues. I remember their directness in a really powerful way. They witnessed to me.

They looked me in the eye and pulled me out of the heavy duty fear scriptures in the Bible and pulled out. Excuse me, the heavy duty fear scriptures in the Bible. Susan had taught them well, right? She knew how to sell testimony. It's her main scam for years. And Greg said they had quite an impact on me. And they told me that they had a service at a church in Saga. As they said that a bus will be leaving that evening for Saga's

and that they would provide transportation back. About 10 minutes later, as I was walking back to my house, I got witness by several others in the group who gave me the same powerful, confident, bold treatment. Back at the house, I reread the tract I've been given and noticed that it was distributed by an organization called the Tony and Susan Alamo Christian Foundation. I felt the track which contained Tony's life story was absurd.

Oh my God, I'm sure it was. I wish I could find one of those original pamphlets. I would love to read what Tony wrote about his life story. I can only imagine how grandiose the claims were. Before God saved my soul, I was a real schmuck. We're all in that nick. Sure, I was a multi-millionaire. Hot shot Hollywood record producer, you know, promoted the Beatles. Sure, the Rolling Stones want me to be their manager. Yes, I produce Led Zeppelin's first three albums in Jim Morrison. Well, he'd still be alive. If I would have taken him under my wing. Of course, I dated Janice Joplin. My nickname was Bobby McGee and the rumors are true. Todd Jimmy Hendrix had a solo on a guitar, but what does that matter when you don't have your soul? Well, I remember one night I was sitting on the couch in the green room with a Hollywood ball with the guys from Pink Floyd after promoting one of their

Sold out shows surrounded by groupies sitting in front of a mound of cocaine. Roger just asked me if I wanted to have a new Porsche that he didn't want to drive anymore and I just thought, what am I doing with my life? Anyway, back to Greg. I was so down in the life I was leading and I thought to myself, gosh, what am I going to do tonight? Is it Friday night? I probably sit around and play some music with the guy I was staying with and end up

getting drunk. Sounds fantastic Wake up the next morning with no better prospects in sight so I concluded you've got nothing to lose You even get a free dinner there. I didn't have much money at the time So even that was pretty appealing. I was really turned off to churches up to that point in my life And I hadn't attended church in a long time I was curious to see what all these young kids were so fired up about so I decided at five in the afternoon That I would go and check out the place.

Along my way to the appointed place, I was really taken aback when this red, white, and blue bus pulled up. It had the word heaven written across the front and Tony and Susan Alamo Christian foundation on the side. I got on board. Seemed funny at the time that no one really talked to me. Some people were reading,

few were talking to each other. And that's one of the ways it would start. Someone doing some soul searching, right? Someone not happy in life, someone disillusioned hopping on a bus. The bus brought Greg to a prayer room that looked like a converted restaurant. Later a service started. It was loud gospel rock. Spoked to the musician and Greg, he wanted of God and brought him to this compound to use his musical abilities for God. After long sermon, an altar call was given by Tony to have any unsaved people, anyone not in the cult,

come up to the front and recite the sinner's prayer. Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner and I ask for your forgiveness. I believe you died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn for my sins and invite you to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow you as my Lord and Savior. And Greg broke down and cried when he resided this.

They got him. Here we go. After the scripture, Cole members give him the hard sell. They're quoting scripture, they're telling him that God has called him to the compound to be safe, to be saved, the end times are coming. Fear, be afraid, God's wrath is close. Greg has asked, do you want to stay and walk with God?

Or do you want to leave and turn your back on salvation? Apparently there was no third option. He remembers Cole members telling him that if he left, he might end up on drugs. Mm-hmm. Or he could end up insane. Or this is their words, not mine. Worst of all, he could end up a homosexual. If he doesn't stay on the compound, Devils going to start throwing dicks in his mouth,

just one after another. The older I get, the more silly I think it is to care about sexual preferences like this. Uh, relative of mine came out recently as polyamorous and then another relative of mine called me up and was like, Oh my God, you hear about this also? They're polyamorous and I thought it was like all juicy and gossipy and they were so disappointed when my response was, Yeah, I don't know who gives a shit. Well I used to give a shit about 25 years ago.

What a waste of energy. And sometimes I would cite scripture, you know, to back up my confused hate. Greg decided to move to the compound. You wanted just to drive down to Mission V.A. How they got him, you know, they sold him, he wants to go down to Mission V.A. how just get his things and then tell his parents that you know, he's starting a new life.

Colt members tell him, this is a horrible idea. That's exactly what the devil wants to have your parents talk you out of this. Colt, Colt, Colt. They quoted scripture about leaving your parents. wants to have your parents talk you out of this. Cult, cult, cult. They quoted scripture about leaving your parents. You got to leave your parents. You got to accept that God is your only father. Cult, cult, cult.

Greg agrees to let three cult members drive with him down to Santa Monica to grab his things there and then come right back. Those three cult members had to protect him from reasonable, logical, caring roommates, talking him out of thrown his fucking life away. I mean, they had to protect him from the devil is what I was trying to say. The first few weeks he was there Greg was watched 24 hours a day. He like all new recruits was referred to as a baby Christian. A week after he derived his parents showed up, his sister had told him where he was.

Prior to them showing up, Cole members told him day and night that his parents were going to be coming. That the devil was trying to use his parents to take him from God's light. The devil was going to, you know, use his parents to take his salvation away from him. Of course, the devil would do that. Greg's soul was his goal. When his parents showed up, they demanded that their son leave with them, just like the cult told him they would.

Damn you Satan! Coat, coat, coat. And that's from Greg knew he found a new home. Greg said that over the next few months, whenever he had any doubts about anything that went on at the Alamo Foundation or Alamo Foundation, fine, God stupid pronunciation. A circle of four or five brothers would form around him immediately and they'd pound him with scripture, talking a lot about the devil, trying to trick him. Always a devil, the great adversary.

Such a great way to unite a group, right? Keep him rooting against the same enemy. It works in war and it works in religion. Whether the cause is just or not, it works. Great was put to work in Baker's field during the day shortly after he got there, uh, farmed out by the foundation for manual labor, picking crops. He was bused back to the compound at night after 12 hour days in the field. He was one of roughly a hundred other members sleeping on the floor of a four room uninsulated

unheated shack, mice running around, nothing but a pillow and a sleeping bag. He was told his trials and tribulations are going to make him strong. He was also told his paychecks for his work in Bakersfield were always going to be signed over to the foundation. I mean, who needs that devil money? Anyway, come on, they're doing him a favor. He was told all his suffering, was preparation for the horrible time of tribulation

that was coming when Christ returned, which is gonna be soon, very soon. It's always soon with these motherfuckers, isn't it? I always talk to God, God's always angry, and he's always coming back soon. And he's not fucking around, he comes back. You gotta build that tick and clock into your cult. Works in film and television narratives,

and it works in cults, right? You gotta raise the stakes. You gotta be build that tick and clock into your cult. Works in film and television narratives and works in cults. Right? You got to raise the stakes. You got to be vigilant. You got to prepare. There isn't much time. You know, if she doesn't get hit the fan for years and years, well, then there's no urgency. There's no real pressure to be in the cult. You still got time to swing your dick around a little, you know, live it up. Greg said that the food at the Saga's compound was worse than the accommodations. He said there was a lot of health problems. Members were having people's teeth are falling out. Hair is thinning. A lot of intestinal troubles.

Why was their food is shit? They get their food from various LA grocery stores from dumpsters, expired food. As the stores couldn't sell spoiled food, food with little to no nutritional value, and they don't get enough of it, and they don't get enough sleep, right? They get four or five hours of sleep a night, constantly being woken up in the middle of the night, asked to pray for this, pray for that tired, hungry, scared, confused, classic, cold power moves. Cote, coat, coat. And then Greg got lucky. He got real lucky. Now, to live it at the compound

for what seems to be around six months, his interview wasn't exactly clear on this. His parents show up to visit him again under the guys. I just want to say goodbye. Right? That's what they told him. That's what they told the cult. Everybody calm down. We're just here to say goodbye. They show up calm. They seem sad. They don't seem angry. They don't seem like they want to talk him out of anything. They just wanted to say goodbye to them and they wanted to say goodbye to their cousin sitting over in the car. It's like walks over to say, you know, say, goodbye to his cousin. That's when his cousin grabs him by the wrist.

Boom! And then his dad pushes him into the car and they fucking kidnap him. Yeah, yeah, yeah, love it. Morally justified kidnapin. His cousin and dad restrained him. They drive into a man named Ted Patrick, a man known as the father of deprogramming. Despite a lack of formal education and professional training, Ted Patrick would end up being hired by hundreds of parents and family members to deprogram their loved ones.

A high school dropout, Patrick based his techniques and practice on his own gut instincts and life experience. A doctor mentor who's actually made about Ted called deprogrammed used to be on Netflix, used to be on Amazon, used to be on Vimeo, a lot of other places, basically impossible to find out. And I don't know why it's intriguing. Patrick used what he called a confrontational method with Greg.

He says of his method, when you deprogram people, you force them to think. But I keep them off balance and this forces them to begin questioning, to open their minds. When the mind gets to a certain point, they can see through all the lies

that they've been programmed to believe. They realize they've been duped and they come out of it. Their mind starts to work again. Love me some Ted Patrick. Hail Ted Patrick. After several days of being confronted by Patrick, why won't they let you sleep?

Why do they take your paychecks? You know, does that seem like God's love? Why do they live in a mansion when you sleep with the mice? You know, Greg wakes up from his programming, snaps out of the spell that the Alamos had woven on him. One Susan has been perfecting for many years now and he breaks down his tears, he hugs his mom, and then his family gets her son back. And then he goes on to get married, have kids live a normal life in Southern California,

free from any cult. Sadly, so, so many others would not be so lucky. And let's meet some of those others and we'll learn so much more about them after a little sponsor break. It feels like the least disruptive place to have this little break. Thank you all again for supporting our sponsors, given the show and audience big enough to have sponsors.

And now we're back ready to continue with the formation of Tony and Susan's cult. Greg Wilson's family got him out of the cult. Most other families would not be able to save other followers. Tony and Susan were making a lot of money off those other followers in August, started in 1970. They had roughly 300 members living in the compound, around 200 being loaned out for micro work, or we're doing other random jobs pretty much year round. All of them signing over their paychecks. Former member Kerry Miller moved on to the compound in 1970 when he was 17, followed his older brother Robert and the Alamo's mind fuck trap. Kerry thinks each of the Jesus children living on the compound, working outside of it,

we're signing over 200 to $500 paychecks to the Alamos, Alamos twice a month. If those paychecks were all just $300, hypothetically, that would equal out to an income of about $1.5 million a year. Plus, these people are giving everything they have to the Alamos when they join. Plus, the Alamos are monetizing the compound in other ways, selling goods made by those who don't work outside the compound. The Alamos done with their little street hustles now. They have built a cash cow.

And to keep all this money, they created a nonprofit foundation so they don't have to pay taxes. And they skimp more and more expenses when it comes to their faithful. They're giving them terrible food, as we talked about. so they don't have to pay taxes. And they skimp more and more in expenses when it comes to their faithful. Right? They're giving them terrible food, as we talked about. Very little supplies of any kind, like with clothes and stuff. Mothers are only given cloth diapers for their babies,

and not enough soap and water to keep them clean. Like one pair, these diapers would often end up so dirty. They'd be full of maggots. And then the moms would be blamed for the maggots. These moms emotionally abused, told that they were dirty, they were lazy, how dare you allow your babies to walk around in blamed for the maggots. These moms emotionally abused, told that they were dirty, they were lazy, how dare you allow your babies to walk around and diapers full of maggots.

Well, the mom didn't have time to clean these diapers. They were too busy doing chores on the Saga's compound, tendin' to gardens, fruit trees, cleaning, being put to work in various ways to make crafts and goods to sell to make the alarmals more and more money. And why do these people put up with all this treatment? Because they believed, they truly believed that Tony and Susan were God's prophets.

They believed the Alamos, and only the Alamos could save their souls. Cult, cult, cult, only I have the answers. Tony and Susan told followers, the Susan could literally talk to God that she literally heard his voice. Susan told followers that she was the handmaiden of God. She was Christ's body on earth.

She presented herself as God on earth, and God's word was to always be followed. And she never even once broke character and said something like, hey, I can't fuck outta here. I don't know shit about God. Come on, God's dang, oh my heck. I'm a Tom Fuling, this whole time.

God can talk to me, you know, if he's real and create all this beauty, you know, well, why the fuck would he have some piece of shit street hustler spreading his word? I don't make no sense. In the early days of the cult, Susan was unquestionably the leader, not Tony. He was the sidekick.

I find this interesting, right? The trajectory of this cult's long life is unusual in this way. Tony is the cult leader who eventually becomes the most infamous person associated with the mess they would make, but without Susan, the first real cult leader, Tony would have just remained a street hustler. Susan man, so good, to mastermind, so good at manipulation. Check out this little scam she ran. This is one of her favorites.

For well over a decade she pretended to have terminal cancer. The only reason she wasn't dead was because God worked one of his miracles to heal her. During one sermon she says, I've had terminal cancer for six years now. You know who never verified that? A doctor, any doctor. No doctors at all. Her daughter, Chris, says she made it all up. Made up having cancer, what a piece of shit.

Claims like this have never made sense to me. Like I don't understand why people buy these type of claims. Like what a weird miracle. Let me get this straight, right? Like you've lived with terminal cancer for six years. Huh. Why couldn't an all-powerful God, I don't know, just cure it.

Instead of making you go through that, well Susan had an answer for that. She said she was continually sick because God was punishing her for the sins of her congregation. She is sick so you can be well. She's doing this for you. Oh, man. Now get it. Makes sense. That seems like something a perfect omnipotent omnipresent God would

do. Right. Give you cancer because your followers are pretty much prey all day. Every day is just still aren't praying hard enough. That's reasonable. Susan actually had these motherfuckers convinced that their sense had given her cancer and they wept for it. They prayed. They worked harder. Oh sorry. Sorry Susan. We're trying. We're trying. We're doing we're doing the best we can. 1971 Susan's daughter Chris daughter of God's prophets escapes from the compound. Weird. Weird that we're weird that God's prophets daughter would want to run away from her. She had two young kids. She was miserable living in the compound. She was hungry. She was tired and Tony was now

starting to beat the shit out of Colt kids with what he called the board of education, more on that later, a lot more on that later. Chris was worried about getting her kids getting beat and also worried about her kids getting molested. Chris claimed, and I believe her claim based on everything I've learned about Tony, that back in 1966, when she and Tony and her mom had been in Las Vegas running one of Tony's last non-religious scams, getting a bunch of backer money apparently to try and promote this bullshit supposed to be famous opera star. In their hotel room, she claims that Tony raped her.

Never filed charges, but again, I do believe her. She was 16. She said she told her mom and that her mom then told her that she was a whore, accused her of trying to take her man, and kicked her out of the house. God, if only she would have stayed away from Susan Alamo, profit of God. So now five years later, 1971, Chris is 21, has two young daughters. She finally feels strong enough to break free from her abusive mother. She's motivated by protecting her kids.

She wants to get away from her fucking creep stepdad. She says to Susan, Mama, listen, I've done everything you wanted and you know that. I just want to go now. I'm going to take my kids and I'm going to go. My hand to God, I will never say word. If they subpoena me and bite me, I will never say a word, but I have to go. I love you and you're my mother, but I just can't be in this any longer. And Chris claims Susan said back to her, don't be stupid. Don't make me kill you. You're my daughter, but there's too much fucking money and too much to stay here.

You try and leave. I'll kill you. And then Chris says, she said to her mom, you know what? You're not going to do that. You'll do a lot of shitty things, but you won't do that. And then Chris ran up to her room. She claims where her kids were sleeping, woke him up, threw some stuff into a suitcase real quick, called a cab. The moment she hangs up, she says foundation members, including her mom and Tony, come storming through her door, and they proceed to beat the shit out of her. Says they gave her two black eyes, busted her lip, broken nose, ripped some of her hair out. The cab driver arrives, interrupts the beating, calls the police, Chris says she put a towel over her face to keep from scouring her young daughters with her injuries. Susan tells the police that her daughter is a sacodic drug addict that her injuries are the result of her trying to restrain her to

save her and the cops buy it. Susan was slick, real slick. Of course she was, she's God's handmaiden. The two cops receive another call, they leave slick. Of course she was. She's God's handmaiden. The two cops receive another call. They leave. And then Chris loses consciousness. She says somebody cracked her in the back of the head with the telephone. When she comes to later on the floor, her kids are gone. Right. She's freaking out. Obviously she calls the police the same two cops come back. Now there's blood running down the back of her head. She tells the cops, you walked out of here. They stole my kids. It's a cult. They took my kids. Please found one of her daughters hiding in a closet. Her daughter, her other daughter, the baby was with the baby's father, also a cold member, so they couldn't

take that daughter right away. The police take Chris and her older daughter to a police station and say, we need to take you to a hospital, but can we get some pictures taken to you first? Can you hold up? She agrees. And after she agrees, she says the station phone rings. It's a call for her. She picks it up and it's one of the her mom's lawyers. She hears a voice say, Chris, don't say anything about who's on the phone. If you file anything, you will never see your daughter again. If you want your daughter, you need to leave there right now.

Don't sign anything. Come back to the house and get her. So then Chris, with a police escort, drives back to the compound, gets her other daughter, leaves, does not press charges, and never sees her mom or Tony ever again. For the next several years, she says she moved constantly. She was living in fear, terribly afraid that her mom was going to find her and kill her. After Chris leaves, Susan and Tony tell going to find her and kill her. After Chris leaves, Susan and Tony tell everyone that the devil had taken her. She'd let the devil into her soul.

She turned against God's prophet. She turned against the cult. I mean, church. She'd been banished from the compound to keep everyone else's soul safe, right? Classic, cult leader move. Mm-hmm. Well, plain handmaiden, when someone leaves the cult, you never say, listen, listen, things just wouldn't work out. You know, they're great.

Now, Chris is great lover, but she didn't want to be here anymore. And that's okay. That's her right, you know, we should all live the life. They're, you know, we want to live. Now, fuck no. That opens up the door for others to leave. And pretty soon, the whole cult crumbles.

Nah, they didn't want to leave. Nah, they wanted to destroy the cult. They joined the adversary. They wanted to steal your soul and condemn it to internal flames and, they wanted to destroy the cult. They joined the adversary. They wanted to steal your soul and condemn it to internal flames and being the strong leader that I am being gold's profite. I cast out my own daughter. I cast out my own granddaughters. What an evil heartless fuck, Susan Lamowitz, her daughter and her granddaughters. Her death is coming up in this timeline. Oh, so good. So fitting. Colt members were forbidden from saying anything

about Chris after this. She's now known forever as being one of the devil on a Satan's tools. And if you speak well at her, well, your risk and banishment yourself and banishment equals a one-way ticket straight to hell. A mass migration does not follow Chris's departure and Susan and Tony continue to rake in that sweet cult money.

Yep, things getting better for the Alamos now actually. They get a TV show. Mm. Moona. Moona. Yeah, two years later, these two dipshits get what they came to Hollywood for in the first place. Back when they openly didn't really give a shit about gold,

they get to be a couple of stars kind of beginning in 1973. The Alamo Christian foundation begins producing and syndicating the Tony and Susan Alamo Christian television program. And it was apparently very, very profitable. The show was hit, you know, ran on a variety of random Christian TV stations around the world, brought in a lot of new members, a lot of donations, a lot of viewers sent the Alamos a lot of money. Coal leaders and their televangelist now Tony gets to sing Susan gets to preach Colt members in the audience would come forward and give their testimonies and the money would flow in. Susan's wearing dresses she'd bought and had custom fitted on rodeo drive while

her Colt's babies are walking around and maggot infested diapers, Tony's wearing custom tailored Italian suits. Of course, he is Italian. He's a Lomo. While his followers sleep with mice on the floor, they run on the same scam Susan and Ran years ago with her daughter, Chris, but now they're scamming people around the world. Many of them at the same time. Now they got star power. Now, they have Hollywood production value.

The show said it does look good. Looks like some network variety show set really well lit. Well shot, great set deck, you know, good costuming. They did it right. They shoot this show from 1973 to 1979. They shoot in Hollywood for the first two years, Nashville for a couple years, and then finally end up shooting in dire Arkansas. When we head back to Arkansas, we'll be there soon. Here's a little taste to this show. sweet Tony Elamo crewing and to come Followed by a little bit of Susan Elamos beautiful preaching I really recommend giving this a look. He's not a real solid performer.

There's Susan waiting for her turn to talk. Look at her angry actually. Let's wrap it up Tony Come on come on, Tom Let's get to the ending come on come on buddy My show I'm a handmade Well dressed up beautifully Well, dressed up beautifully, with a solid backing band, like a set, you know, kind of like the, uh, the night show or something might happen.

It's, it's quality. All right, here comes, here comes Susan. Oh boy, good, good job, Tom. It's absolutely from the mic. Perfectly timed, Susan and Peckley dressed, walks forward. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And greetings again and the wonderful name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. It is good to be with you again.

And thank you so much for having us in your homes. And we know that so many of you truly are because we do get so many cards and letters from you. And on this song that Tony just sang, Crystal Mountain, to each and every one of you who write to us this week, we want to send out this new song to you. It has just been recently recorded here in Nashville, Tennessee. They would give it away. Crystal Mountain. Now that address says so many of you are saying I'm having trouble getting the address. Now while you get a pencil and paper, one, three, one, three, six. Sierra, highway, Saga's, California.

Now, is that hard to remember? I think she gets a little snappy with the audience. 13, six, Sierra, highway, and Saga's, California. And remember, free, post paid, to you, to any of you who will just write this week and say, please send me Tony's new record, his new release, Crystal Mountain, and we'll be more than happy to send it right along to you.

We don't want anything for me. Because we enjoy hearing from you. And we know that you are watching and that you are interested in the program that we certainly know because we do hear from enough of you. And now Mary Jane is going to sing for us too busy, but before Mary sings this song, I want to have her come down and tell us, of course, what this program, I don't know how it gets called the Tony and Susan Alamo show because I don't think there's anything particularly a show about it.

It is positively and a benjelistic program. And then she'll have these people come up and give their testimonies. And there is numerous people in these documentaries to talk about later that the way they look on this program is not at all how they look on the compound. They would clean them up, they would dress them up, they would walk them out, have a little song and dance, and then right go back to like slave labor back in the compound. 12-hour days, dirty clothes, all that stuff. Eee, it's all business to them. In 1973, the US Department of Labor and the IRS come a knock-in on the door of the

Saga's compound to talk about their little bit of business they're doing. They believe the Alamos are all business and not actually a church, and they're starting thinking maybe it's kind of illegal to not pay people for you know anything ever or not pay taxes ever. And they started asking a lot of questions the Alamos don't want to answer. So what do the Alamos do? Well, of course, they start paying everyone and they admit to the IRS. Yeah, you know what?

We're sorry. Of course, this is obviously a for-profit business. If we should have been, I'm sorry, it was a misunderstanding. They apologize and they tell the agents absolutely will start paying our taxes right away. So that's what's gallant to want. No, they don't do that. They bounce. They scoot back out to Arkansas. 1975, the Alamos tell their followers that they need to move toward the gospel is strong to the Bible belt. They return to dire Arkansas where Susan grew up, Susan tells her

shows viewers, I was born and raised in the Bible belt, the state of Arkansas. I was nine years old when God came down from the heavens and touched my little body, racked with tuberculosis, dying, touched me and healed me, and I had a lot of relievers. Her daughter Chris said that her mom never had tuberculosis, another life, all life. They leave some of their leadership in August to keep things going at that compound, can't abandon that cash cow no sir. The hire a good lawyer, defend off the IRS, the Department of Labor for a while, they re-incorporate, then they dissolve, then they re-incorporate again, then dissolve and re-incorporate some more. They create the most confusing paper trail they can to slow down investigators. They moved Arkansas because Susan is familiar with the area. It's also

close to Texas and Oklahoma should Should the law give them problems? They can bounce quickly across state lines. Cold buys a whole bunch of land outside of dire near Alma. 243 acres over a million square yards of land. And over the next several years, nearly 800 Alamo followers will move onto Tony and Susan's Arkansas compound where they will build themselves a virtual town, fucked up up but also impressive as hell.

Uh, they ended up basically running dire in Alma. There's a, of course, a church on the compound. There's a TV studio, a store, you get some groceries and stuff. dormitories, duplexes, little medical center, Olympic size swimming pool, big park for the kids, daycare, uh, it's gated and fence. There's guard towers. There's 24 hour security patrols. Eventually, even some small factories will be built on this property, profitable sweatshops.

The Alamos of course live in luxury at their compound followers, you know, build them a two story, 13,064 square foot mansion, over 13,000 square feet, six car garage, huge heart shape pool out back. Oh, for the glory of God! These charlatans, they can see it over a hundred for dinner in their massive dining room. There was a recording studio in the basement, so Tony could work on his sweet sweet ass music. Too bad Tony was never able to collaborate with rival coat leader, an incredible musician, and vocalist's father Yod from the source coat. What amazing duets they could have pulled off. I'm just a British boy, holding in love with you.

I don't know why. I haven't known you for very long, baby. If you should only say where friends all die. Little Yankee girl, I love you so ballin' baby. Little Yankee girl, don't ask how I know. It's just a Yankee girl I'm in love with you baby, fallin' the path. How great of a track without a bin! What a hit! What a hot track's hit.

They open a ton of businesses in the area. They establish the main branch of the music square church is what they're calling themselves now. In one time, Alamo owns 29 different businesses in Alamo alone. Alamo Western Wear, Alamo Discount Grocery, the Alamo Restaurant, which become pretty famous regionally actually.

They be opening churches in other cities soon, making real estate investments in various states across America, opening stores and other cities like Nashville. David Kimberrow, an IRS agent who'd be brought in to investigate the Alamos because they were hiding numerous for profit businesses behind their churches, nonprofit tax status, says that by 1975, they were making well over a million dollars a year in profit. And then much more than that going forward. David says that in order to make that money, club members were working 12 hour days, five, six, seven days a week. Jack Mosley, who is the editor for nearby Fort Smith, Arkansas, Southwest Times record,

remembers when the diars moved in the area. He said they were always extremely well dressed. They drove nice new catalax, had a little fleet of them. In a documentary I watched, Jack holds up a photo of Susan He said they were always extremely well dressed. They drove nice new Cadillacs, had a little fleet of them. In a documentary I watched, Jack holds up a photo of Susan, wearing a very expensive looking fur coat, huge diamond ring standing in front of a new pink Cadillac. Looks like it's been customized quite a bit. The Cadillac parked in front of her mansion.

When Jack asked her about seemingly her seemingly decadent lifestyle, Jack from member Susan telling him that she was one of God's children, and that God wants his children to go first class. Uh-huh, why are you follow her suffer? At Georgia Ridge, the Alamos control cult members lives more than ever. I think I already mentioned this place is called Georgia Ridge, right?

So we're not in Georgia. We're still in Arkansas, just called Georgia Ridge. Members not allowed to be alone. They were kept busy, mandatory Bible studies all the time, daily sermons, rigorous work schedules, messed up sleep schedules. You had no time to sit and think and reflect. No time for your thoughts.

The alarm was constantly preaching fire and brimstone. If you don't repent, you'll perish. If you don't ask or do what is asked of you, your soul is in peril. You're gonna burn and hell. The cult really starts to grow and grow in Arkansas. Due to no birth control being available to foundation, lots of kids are born, kids raised in this kind of indoctrination from birth.

Kids that are calling Tony, poppitony. Cult member Rebecca Gaye was one of 24 kids born on the compound in just one year. The alamos are really controlling these kids. These are the first cult members. They'd had lives before the cult. But now kids are growing up in the cult. Kids who don't know any other kind of life growing up on the compound, Tony and Susan decide with the kids study, what they eat when they go to bed, what they wear, you know, what what they do when they do it. Rebecca said the Tony and Susan were quote their gods. One of these kids was Benji Risha. Benji actually was not born in the cult.

He was the very rare kid. The only one that I know have adopted by the Alamos shortly before they moved to Arkansas. Adopted as a baby. So he might as well have been born on the compound. A Benji grew up being told that Susan was his real mom, that his birth mom was burning in hell for not taking care of him.

So that's fun. And the documentary Ministry of Evil, the Twisted Cult of Tony Elamo, Benji speaks of what he and others call the spec house in the Georgia Ridge compound. In this house, reports are dealt with. Remember those beatings I mentioned earlier? The one Susan's daughter, Chris,

was afraid that her kids would receive, getting to these now. Tony and Susan had a reporting system. When someone thought that you did something wrong, they would write up a report. And that report will be filed and it would be collected and taken to Tony and Susan. They had little official cards made up for this and everything, little places to drop them off.

Members would carry these cards around at all times or at least have them, you know, nearby. Check out this list of complaints former members wrote up reports for using a microwave on the Sabbath. Talking to someone they weren't supposed to. So you'd write that in a report fucking Bob talking to someone he's not supposed to. Spilled something in the kitchen. Clumsy Sheila. She's ruining God's plan. You know, doing laundry on the Sabbath spoke contrary to the Bible called Tony a liar emailed his father.

Flicked Susan's clit from East to West as opposed to vice versa. Question Susan's authority giving someone a neck rub laughing in the prayer room. Okay, maybe I made up the one about the clip flick. I wish that one was true. God's handmaiden told you exactly how to flick a clit. East to West, East to West. But the rest were real. Children reported parents, parents reported their kids, husbands reported wives, people reported themselves,

people would report themselves. Cause they didn't wanna go to hell. They were afraid someone else would see them, find out that they hadn't told themselves. It was like some Gestapo shit, like Stalinist, Russia, where neighbors reported neighbors before they thought those neighbors reported them for not being communist enough. Punishments for these infractions vary.

There was a special building on the compound, a punishment building where you might have to sleep on the floor for a while, kind of like being put in timeout. You could also be sent to work and live on the pig farm on the compound, apparently work there and lodgings really sucked. Ultimate punishment was banishment, right? Exile from the cult. Debbie Schreiber, author of a book published in 2018 called Whispering in the Daylight,

the Children of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries and their journey to freedom. A woman who has studied this particular cult perhaps more than any other person says that banishment was worse than death. It was spiritual death. Right, these people mostly again staying on the compound out of fear.

They're convinced that if they're not ensues in Alamo's good graces, they're gonna burn in hell. Another punishment, dished out in the spec house, was the out of fear. They're convinced that if they're not ensues in Alamo's good graces, they're going to burn in hell. Another punishment dished out in the spec house was the board of education. Several grown men would hold a kid down. Someone grabbed the board of education, a heavy wooden paddle with holes drilled through it. Reminds me of a cricket bat.

It's hefty. It's sizable. And Tony would tell them to quote, chop wood. The men were told, if you don't spank them hard enough, we'll have someone spank you. And they would. Grown-ups could also get fucking beaten with the board. Former members said that they never thought

about reporting this abuse because they didn't want to go to hell. And they believed. They were sorry. They believed that they deserved to be beaten. I mean, if Tony's telling them they need to be beaten if Susan's telling them, well then, you know, God must have told Tony or Susan to say that.

These people would hit little kids on the ass of this thing as hard as they could, literally. Couple years further along in this timeline, oh, I'm gonna share a particularly gruesome example of a beating with the Board of Education. Let's pause on the beating, talk about the Alamos businesses again. The Alamos, they're killing it, I can't say.

They're driving those new custom Cadillacs living in a big mansion. Former member Rebecca remembers the Alamos preaching about how they were all supposed to live like that. You know, it was gonna be the Cadillac ministry. They would all soon have mansions in Cadillacs, but you gotta get your shit together, you gotta pray harder. You gotta stop sinning so much.

Peter, George, George Gidey's, his name is not pronounced anywhere. Peter, Georgia, des. This is how it's spelled. An attorney who would later work with many cult members and represent them in civil suits against the Alamos says, this was all part of the theater. Dangle that carrot to keep the faithful online, right? To sell their cult members on how cool it was to be part of their cult. The Alamos also start bringing in big name musicians to sing at their Alamo restaurant

where they had a small intimate performance space. People like Hank Williams Jr., Roy Orbison, Tammy Weinette, Dolly Fuckin' Parton. Oh man, Tony must have loved all of this. He clearly did, there's actually pictures of him with these musicians, big ass shit-y-t and grin across his face. How did he get Dolly Parton, who was huge in the late 70s to sing at a restaurant Alma Arkansas? I'm guessing he paid her a shit ton of money for a private gig. Oh man, I wonder, I wish I could know what Dolly Parton

thought about him. Can you believe this, Alamo, this Alamo clown? Could have managed to beat us. My sweet Southern ass, kiss my grits. Damn, full hand of me is record. Marcus Abad, big coal man. The man couldn't tell a lump of coal from a lump of dog shit. Throw in the trash Larry, let's get the hell out of here.

If you want to know who Larry is, Larry is Dali's fake road manager. I made it for that reference. I love Larry, I've always loved Larry. He was a great fake manager with three fake hits from three different fake women. He had a fake drinking problem. He was fake troubled, but he had a fake heart of fake gold.

He'd give you the fake shirt off his fake back. You get it. Jimmy Wiseman from Crime and Sport Small Town Murder would have probably joined this cult just to have been a Dolly Parton show at this restaurant. You know what I'm gonna say? I do love Dolly Parton. It borders on obsession.

Love Jimmy and James over small town murder crime and sports, by the way. Been too long since I mentioned him. Fantastic podcasters. Probably would have made terrible cult members. I don't see those two putting up with Lambo's shit very well. Jimmy would have probably killed him after meeting Dolly. You know who really was at Dolly Parton's Alma show?

A young Bill and Hillary Clinton. They were sitting in the audience and Bill's autobiography. He would later, he would mention Tony Lambo. Bill said that Tony quote, look like Roy Orerson on speed nailed it. If you look up images of this guy, Tony Alamo, yeah, Roy Orbson on speed is a pretty damn good reference. Looks like a fake ass record producer because he was.

In 1976, the US Department of Labor charges the Alamos with violations of their Fair Labor Standard Act. It will take a while for this case to affect them. It will be held up in court for years. The department's lawsuit alleges that the Alamos should have been paying as much as $19 million in wages since their cult began. Addressing this in an interview, Tony says, the disciples of Lord Jesus Christ never felt

that they needed a paycheck. What Tony doesn't mention here is that Jesus didn't get paychecks based off of their discipleship. He didn't take them. For the next few years, things go very well with the Lamos. They keep making lots of money. There are cult members, keep having kids, there are business ventures thrive. The Saga compound For the next few years, things go very well for the Lamos. They keep making lots of money. Their cult members keep having kids, their business ventures thrive. The Saga's compound, the Georgia Ridge compound, everything else is allowing them to hire talented

lawyers to keep the IRS, keep the Department of Labor at bay. In 1980, locals are really wondering what the fuck's going on with the Lamos? What are those weirdos doing out there, right, on their compound? Why do they own so many businesses around here? To prove to their neighbors and Arkansas that cold members are normal. They have pictures taking a kid's plane at the pool playground pictures of cold members looking happy doing normal stuff. You know, just making beds, cooking some food, smiling. They make a big book called the foundation book and this book is then given out for free around dire and Alma. We're normal, you know, we're

normal. Look at all these pictures of the happy people. A former member Jessica Cooper, who was born on the compound, remembers the creation of this book. She remembers nicer furniture being brought in for the photos. She remembers being given nicer clothes to wear, new beddings, all of that went away after the photos were taken. All fake, of course it was. She's propaganda.

Tony Alamo finishes another book in 1980, publishes a book called The Messiah According to Bible prophecy, unavailable in digital form and out of print. But Amazon, why you can't buy it, does list it, and provides an introduction to it. Says the most amazing drama ever presented to the mind of man, a drama written in prophecy in the Old Testament, and in biography in the four Gospels,

is the narrative of Jesus the Christ. It's kind of weird, we'd have phrased it, Jesus the Christ. One outstanding fact among many completely isolates him. It is this, that only one man in the history of the world has had explicit details given beforehand of his birth, his life, his death, and his resurrection. These details are in documents which are given to the public centuries before he appeared and no one challenges or can challenge the fact

that these documents were widely circulated long before his birth. Anyone and everyone can compare for himself the actual records of his life with these old documents and see that they match one another perfectly. The challenge of this indisputable miracle is that it happened concerning only one man in the whole history of the world. Also, did you know that I'm a close personal friend of Dolly Partons? She made a pass of me, but I denied her. I married to God's handmaiden. I didn't let the offer to manage the Beatles and the Stones get in way of my serving God and I won't let Dolly sweet titties pull me from the path. That part's not a book. Too bad. What I made a better read.

1981, not a good year for Tony and Susan, not a good year. After lying to her ass off about this for years, Susan actually does get cancer. How fucking fitting. Local newspaper editor Jack Mosley knew the surgeon who operated on Susan, the little exploratory surgery. And when the surgeon opened her up after a quick examination, so her backup, she was riddled with cancer, inoperable and terminal. So weird. The God would do that to his handmaiden. Can you imagine what Susan must have thought? She had been testifying about God keeping her terminal cancer at bay, cancer that she didn't have for years. Now she fucking has it. Bad. I'm telling the followers for years that as they pray hard enough, you know, God will heal them.

A message, I don't think her con artist has ever believed. And now she knows she's going to die. Ain't that a mother fucker. As she grows more and more ill, Tony starts to freak out. He's terrified that his cult is going to disband when she dies. They're following her a lot more than him. All his power is connected to her. She's the one God speaking to. In the Ministry of Evil documentary, there's footage of Susan from Christmas in 1981. And she looks real rough. And she stands at her mansion by the window and followers on the other side of the window pray for her. And God does not answer their prayers. I don't think unless they were praying to have her killed, which is possible, then he did. April 8, 1982, Susan dies at the age of 56.

I don't feel sorry for her one bit. According to a former member whose parents were close to Susan at the time for death from her deathbed, Susan grabbed Tony, pulled him in close and said, you're going to destroy this place. Let these people go. Don't continue this. It's wrong. Sure.

Why not say that in your final days, final, final moments when you're not going to be around to enjoy the riches anymore. I don't think she said this because she had some change of heart and became a good person at the end. I sprite just didn't want Tony to enjoy what she wanted, what she'd built after she was gone. Tony, of course, does not let his people go He goes off the rails a bit appears to go a bit nuts or maybe he was crazy like a fox because his craziness did serve him well

He decides not to bury Susan Tells his followers that following her death he was quote, and this is a in a sermon He says I was swimming in despair Throwning in sorrow Had to seek the Lord to find out what to do when the Lord told me to raise the dead and a campaign to resurrect Susan began. He puts her casket in the spec house, leaves it open.

Tell us everyone that is their job to raise God's handmaid and back up from the dead. I'm not making this up, holy shit, he turns his house and do a prayer chapel. Members make prayer chains, praying two hours shifts for Susan to come back. It goes on around the clock 24-7. Even kids are doing this. And the way it's written is kind of weird, but apparently the amount of the spec house was attached to his house. But it's in his house. And the people who are praying there in front of her casket. And they stare at Susan's dead body

for like many hours at a time, doing nothing but praying, they're just praying to the lashes off, waiting for her eyes to pop open, waiting for her to go full zombie, and pop back out of the casket. I want Lizzie to do this to me after I die. Right, no prayer chain, not that part,

I'm not coming back, but I do wanna hang around. This is my body. I think I wanna be taxi-dermied, right? Yeah, I wanna be stuffed. I wanna, and Ied, right? Yeah, I want to be stuffed. And I want to be stuffed, and I put a lot of thought into this. I want to be stuffed in a standing position. And I want my joints to be replaced with a ball bearing situation

so you can, like, an action figure. You can move me to different positions. And I want to have different outfits. I want to be dressed in different outfits. Sometimes I'm wearing a key. Ready for some karate. Maybe put me in a sidekick position. Put a black belt on me. Who cares if I earned it or not? I'm wearing a G. Ready for some karate. All right, maybe put me in a sidekick position, put a black belt on me, right?

Who cares if I earned it or not, I'm fucking dead. What do you wanna argue with my kung fu corpse? Go ahead. Maybe sometimes you put me in a little banana hammock, right, put some, put some suntan on my hand. Dead Dan's body's ready for the beach. Oh, me, the fuck up. I don't need, I don't need, you know, protection.

Am I worried about skin cancer? It's so fun. If Lindsay gets remarried, I want to be in the bedroom. Put me in the corner. Let me watch. Oh, he's watching. But seriously, how creepy is this resurrection campaign? And it goes on for over a year.

Shortly after Susan dies, Tony tells his followers that she's talking to him from heaven. That's fun. God talks to Susan. Now Susan talks to Tony. So now he's kind of God's handmade. He's, he's Susan's handmade. Who's still God's fun. God talks to Susan. Now Susan talks to Tony. So now he's kind of God's handmade. He's he's Susan's handmaiden Who is still God's handmade? He's the handmaiden's handmaiden the little convoluted but it works This followers are so brainwashed at this point. They'll believe anything

So now Tony is a new Susan until you know Susan comes back from the dead of course Tony has to deal with more than Susan's death in 1982 He also has to deal with the government as well Tony has to deal with more than Susan's death in 1982. He has to deal with the government as well. Three weeks after she dies, the US Department of Labor's lawsuit regarding the Alamo Foundation not paying its employees, finally goes to trial. Tony tells his followers he's now fighting the one world government. He says they're taking him to court because he is quote exposing the evils of the world.

Followers believe that they're fighting against the beast. They're told to keep praying because the government's going to try and take away everything. Coat, coat, coat, experts on cults say leaders do this all the time. Right? One of the most common tactics cult leaders use is to keep the cult together. Again, is the adversary, the presence of an outside threat to create that us versus them mentality, create a boogeyman. Tony frames the Department of Labor coming after him as an attack on freedom of religion.

He hopes the jury will buy this bullshit. They don't. The US District Court rules that the Elamo Foundation owes $19 million in back wages and overtime. Tony, of course, appeals. So now it's tied up in court again. 1983 kicks off with a still not buried Susan literally rotting in the spec house. Mm hmm. Flesh rotting off her body. Cold members, including kids, still have to stand around her casket, still pray for her to come back from the dead.

Not fucked up at all. Not even a little bit. All part of God's plan in August, or sorry, in Arkansas, TV news report in April of 1983 reveals that a year after her death, right, you know, still not been buried and they say that the members of her cult

still praying for resurrection. Then Tony blames his followers for not bringing her to life. He tells them that just didn't pray hard enough. They didn't fast long enough. They didn't have enough faith. And now, look at her. Look at her. She decomposing.

She stinks. It's like a gross, you guys. And he pulls a plug on the prayer chain. Has a mausoleum built. Tells people that she's still coming back. But later, now people are used to Tony being in charge, this little resurrection attempt, stun, you know, provides a little nice transition

of power for him. Is that why he did it? I don't know, maybe. Opinion is different on how smart this dude was. Also in 1983, while he fights the Department of Labor and Appellate Court, the IRS begins an investigation into the Lama Foundation. Damn you, one-world government, new world order.

Why must you persecute? Persecute. The handmaid and the handmaid and thing of God situation. The IRS is well aware how lavishly the Alamos have been living. They bought gold coins, gold bars, statues, various expensive antiques, heart-shaped swimming pool, right? That big six-car garage, custom everything in the mansion,

numerous catalax, traveling on big expensive vacations. Tony himself estimated around this time the foundation was worth about $50 million. They have damn near 30 fucking businesses and Alma alone and they don't pay any taxes. Also in 1983, the spankings ramp up. The board of education gets a lot more use. Former members say years, we'll say years after Susan,

or after they leave the cult, that after Susan died, Tony becomes much crueler, becomes sadistic, becomes a true monster over the next couple of years. 1934, now 49 year old Tony scares the shit out of his cult. He threatens to abandon them, tells his followers to God, has told him to leave his people. And he takes off to LA and starts dating a fashion designer.

42 year old Brigitte Gillinhammer. Tony meets her at the boutique she owned in Hollywood, Astral Out of the Date, and he winds and dines her, shows her his diamonds. Probably does not bring up how he's just stopped trying to resurrect his dead wife, his rodding wife. I'm guessing. And what do you do, Brigitte?

Oh, you want to be a world renowned fashion designer. That's incredible. Me. You know, in a perfect world, I'd like to get back in the music. I just haven't had the time, I've been pretty piaque behind this last year trying to get my cult to resurrect my dead wife. So time consuming and they're so lazy. I don't even do it.

I hate having a shitty cult. I just let her rot in a living room. Anyway, you know what I'm dessert? I was thinking about going for the lollicake. Tony Wood Brigitte quickly, they get married, brings his new wife back out to Arkansas for spending a little time at the Saga compound. Brigitte recently interviewed,

thinks Tony was attracted to her because she looked a lot like Susan. Colt expert Debbie Schriver thinks Tony married Brigitte because he considered introducing her to his followers as resurrected Susan. God, I wish he would have done that. Look who's back! I wish he would have done that because she looks kind of like Susan,

but not that much like Susan. I don't think anybody would actually thought she was Susan. I know what you may be thinking. Why does Susan look a little different? Why does she insist on being called beginner? Why does she have a sweetest accent? Where, why is she several inches shorter?

Why is she not even Christian? Well, I'd listen, I've told told you before Lord works in mysterious ways and Being resurrected changes a person. You know when Jesus died He was a six-foot tall middle eastern man. Did you know when he came back? It was a five foot two Asian woman You didn't know that did you somebody pants? Brigitte was a terrible choice one former member thinks they only got married for the sex She didn't want to be new Susan. She didn't want to go to church. She wasn't even Christian Brigitte herself later said the only way I could handle him was to have sex three times a day She didn't want to be a new Susan. She didn't want to go to church. She wasn't even Christian. Brigitte herself later said,

the only way I could handle him was to have sex three times a day. Brigitte said that if, hey, Lucifer, I guess, actually not though, because it's sad. Brigitte said, if they didn't have sex three times a day, if the only had sex once or twice, Tony would leave the room, go, quote, talk to the Lord, then come back and beat her.

Ah, weird. All of God's messages. Go into some other room. God, what do I do? You got to fucking beat her. You got to fucking beat her, Tony. Tony is so crazy. Brigitte brings a weird twist to the story that I love so much. So random and weird.

With Brigitte's fashion connections, Tony opens a new business that will be his most profitable yet bedazzled jackets. I shit you not. She designs these blue jean airbrush denim jackets be dazzled with sequins and rhinestones. They are something to behold. They're marketed under the brand Alamo designs,

even the buttons say Alamo on them. They build a big factory on the Georgia Red compound. And by factory means sweatshop. This is when the cult kids start working for a for a for profit animal business, a lot more business for the first time. After evening prayer meetings,

a little kids, we bust down to the compound road to the factory to work on Tony's jackets to the middle of the night. These jackets were rhinestone by hand by adults and children alike, airbrushed by hand. Had a whole assembly line set up. And these jackets were big business. High end made in America jackets sold in stores across the country. They hit a million dollars in sales in just the first few months.

They made custom designs for numerous celebrities, like Dolly Parton, Brooke Shields, Sonny Bono, Mr. T, Don King, Mike Tyson, Michael Jackson. You can actually find pictures online of all these people wearing these dumb jackets and more. They even did some leather bedazzled bad boys. Yeah, actually the jacket Michael Jackson wears on the cover of the bad album is a customized Tony Alamo jacket. They open up an Alamo fashion boutique in Nashville on Broadway Street.

How did the Department of Labor and IRS not shut them down for all this? Well, coal members, including kids, have been thoroughly brainwashed to always lie to the government. The government was part of the devil, part of the beast, and God wanted you to lie to them. Now weird is the story, by the way. Not expect bedazzle jackets to be in this story when I first heard of Tony Alamo.

And it gets weirder or creepier, maybe it's a better word. April of 1905, the US Supreme Court upheld the verdict in the Labor Department case against the Alamo Foundation. And now Tony is legally required to pay his workers. And he owes almost $20 million in wages. He'll hold up the payments in court again though. In August of 1905, the IRS retroactively revokes the Alamo Foundation or the Alamo Foundation's tax exempt status.

And Tony now owes the IRS an additional $7.9 million. So he's got to sell a lot of jackets now. Make that money. Brigitte says that Tony really starts to turn into the devil in 1905. He says he tries to strangle her many times, told her that if she left him, she'd get nothing because nothing was in his name, told her that if she left him, the Lord would kill her. You know, because he knows what the Lord thinks. He's God's handmaid and handmaid.

Also around this time, Tony gets really into some Old Testament passages about God one. He'd have several wives. Oh boy. And Brigitte said he started eyeing some young girls on the compound in a way she really didn't like. So he's really escalating his cult tactics. Late 1905, after less than two years of marriage, Brigitte files for divorce and leaves. She claims that after she leaves, he had me followed for years. He was crazy. Of course, referring to Tony. In 1986, Tony gets even crazier. After after Brigitte leaves him, he becomes especially unhinged. He's lost two cases against the government. He doesn't know how he's going to pay them the money. Former member Carrie Miller says that Tony told him in 1986

that he could pull out a switchblade, slice the members throat, have them bleed out on the ground in front of multiple witnesses, not get in a damn bit of trouble because this follower was okay with anything he did because he was the prophet of God. Cool Tony. Okay. Nice. Cool story, bro. Good to know. In 1986, Tony sends Kerry to Miami. He wanted to buy some real estate. Take advantage. The boom that was going on there. Sure, he may owe a lot of money, but he also knows how to move his money around, hide it, reinvest it. Wall in Florida, Kerry meets a five-year-old boy named Justin while fixing up a building he's bought for Tony. Justin's single mom is on drugs. She's mentally ill. She can't take care of Justin. Justin's pretty much living on the street, and she lets Justin

travel with Kerry back to Arkansas. Test out, test out Tony's, Tony's lay of the land. She doesn't really know it's a cult know, let's go to visit him there. And then while Justin is in Arkansas, his mom dies and Carrie and his wife Carol end up adopting Justin. Justin is so happy at first. No longer roaming the streets. Wonder where his next meal is going to come from.

More on Justin in a bit. He will soon meet the board of education and be pretty savagely beaten. 1997 Carrie Miller's brother Bob start the Alamo trucking company and another for-profit business. He says they're making money hand over fist. Also says that for the first time in 1987, he finds out about the board of education. Apparently this was hidden from a lot of cult members.

He didn't realize they've been going on for years. And then once he knew he says he was done. He wanted to get out, tells his wife Carol, they're beating kids bloody Carol, they're not of God. And then Carol starts weeping and says, I don't want to burn in hell. And she refuses to leave, you know, she's too brainwashed, too scared. Carrie's brother, Bob also wants to leave. Bob can't convince his wife either.

So Bob and Carrie decide to flee and leave their families. Get out, figure out how to come back for their kids later. They sneak out of the compound in the middle of the night. They're spotted by security guards who open fire on them as they run. Carey thinks they were shooting to kill, but they didn't hit them. They made it out. And he said there was no going back to the compound, at least not to be taken in by the cold after that, because he will go back in early 1988 shortly after Carrie and Bob flea. Carrie's wife Carol tells their adopted son Justin that Carrie and his uncle Bob are now dead in Christ and they're going to burn and hell for what they've done.

Well a few weeks later, Carrie sneaks back onto the compound to rescue Justin. It doesn't work. His wife Carol wakes up and she immediately screams the top for lungs guards. And Carrie has to bolt back out of the house, sprint back out of the compound away from shooting guards once again. Crazy shit. Now to keep Carrie from reaching Carol and Justin again, Tony relocates them to the Saga's compound back in California. Justin, 10 years old, 1988 remembers missing his dad, Kerry, after heading back to California,

and then getting in a lot of trouble for missing his father. Because his dad was now of the devil. You don't speak well of your father. He's the devil. Missing your dad means you missed the devil, which means you're of the devil. Yeah, I mean, I get it. It makes sense., missing your dad means you missed the devil, which means you're of the devil. Yeah, I mean, I get it. It makes sense. Missing your dad means you worship Satan. Totally. When you worship Satan, what you got to be punished?

You got to get the devil beat out of you. Tony will not at the saga's compound at the time orders a public beating of Justin over the speaker phone or over speak over speaker phone. And supervise, he supervises this beating via speaker phone, other compound children, parents are gathered around to witness the spectacle. Tony tells them all, this will happen to you if you think of ever doing anything like this as well. Then he tells Justin, the Lord tells me that you deserve 150 swats, 150. Justin's mom, Carol, one of the parents witnessing this. Couple big dudes grab Justin

bending over the arm of the couch and then they go to work with the board of education. They take home run swings. Tony tells them to hit him with everything they've got. And again, Justin's 10 years old, less than halfway through the beating. The first guy, he gives the board to a second guy because his arms tired. He'd wore himself out, being the fuck out of a little kid. Justin was hit so hard, blood is splattering off of his ass, getting on other kids and parents watching this beating. And he wasn't even bare-assed.

He bled through his pants to get the paddle bloody. At one point Justin tells his mom who's watching that it wasn't fair, he's begging her for it to stop. She says, shut up, you deserve it. Mom of the year. So many awesome people in this cult. Justin keeps getting hit. Eventually, the second guy gets tired.

Third guy takes over. Ten year old boy hit with a thick piece of wood in the ass, 150 times. Has to land his stomach for over a week afterwards. Has to sit on pillows for several weeks. Has to have gauze reapplied to his ass several times because it keeps bleeding. Other kids say Justin was never the same after that.

Yeah, yeah, fucking bet. He barely talk about it on a documentary interview 30 years after it happened. Three months after leaving the Arkansas compound, Carrie and his brother Bob received word that their sons have been taken across state lines and are now back in the Saga compound. Since taking their kids out of the state was illegal, they're able to obtain a court order to recover them. With a sheriff's escort, they're able to invade the Saga's compound. Carrie gets Justin out, takes him to Disneyland,

and there Justin tells his dad about the beating. And Carrie has Justin then tell the police everything. And police raid the Saga's compound. They bring social workers, they check on all the remaining kids and Saga's for abuse, they interview kids, have them undergo medical examinations, look for broken bones. August of 1988, Tony and five others are charged with child abuse for ordering the beating of Justin. Rather than face this charge, Tony goes on the run.

Bob and Carrie Miller now wage a civil suit against Tony Alamo in his foundation. They hire attorney Peter, Georgia, crazy name to represent them. Tony is now running his cult from over the phone and through the mail. He records how he wants the church to be run an audio tape, sends these tapes through the mail to upper management. He's recording two, three hour sermons each week. I want to Tony's tapes. He says, the Lord says that people are lukewarm are going to get spit out of his mouth. And then you are going to hell. He says, I don't care what anybody thinks about me.

I just do what the Bible tells me. Reveal where all the wickedness is coming from in this world. So people have a chance for their souls to be saved. A lot of people in the United States of America would like to me to shut my mouth. And the Lord has called us to do a work of the Lord with him and us doing it not for him to serve you. You're supposed to be serving the Lord, okay? So let's get that straight now. Lord has done a mighty work in me, and as long as I live, he still will.

And if a person is a betrayer and they're saying they're going to betray me or anybody else for that matter in my church, I'm going to put them out. Well, Tony's on the run, things get worse for his followers in Arkansas and California. Beating's ordered by Tony become more frequent, become more random. Also compound families start getting broken up. Half one family has to go live with another and get shuffled around, keep shuffling around, keeps everyone scared and confused. Tells us followers at the government, law enforcement, social workers, etc.

All part of the beast, soldiers in an evil army. They want to kill them. They want to take their souls. And one tape sermon, Tony mentions that he told teenager Rebecca Gay, another follower who'd been born on the cult, to kill them. They want to take their souls and one tape sermon. Tony mentions that he told teenager Rebecca gay Another follower who've been born on the cult to do something and she has the audacity to not remember him telling her that how dare she not remember one thing one time Where it gets back to Tony? Rebecca gets called into a compound office where Tony's on speaker phone again This isn't gonna be good

Tony tells her that he's heard that she called him a liar. And the Bible says, liars must be punished. He says, the Bible says, if you smite the simple, the wise will be made aware. God's telling me you need to be smitten.

Then he tells four people in the office, they need to come forward and smite Rebecca. Oh, I don't trust a person who says smite a lot. Rebecca's 13th of this time, and he directs these adults to smite Rebecca. Oh, I don't trust the person who says Smite a lot. Rebecca's 13 of this time, and he directs these adults to Smite Rebecca as hard as they can. At one time, each of the adults slaps Rebecca across the fucking face. At one at a time, you know, each slapper across the face, she says they didn't hold back. She remembers hearing something pop in her ear, turns out it was her ear drum bursting. She tells She's sorry then Tony says that God just told him she didn't get hit hard enough

He tells you the old's presence I want you to hit her again and this time give her everything you've got and then they do and Rebecca suffers permanent hearing loss in her left ear then still not done Tony tells her that now she's gonna go to hell And after being beaten she is kicked out of the compound. She's 13 and he banishes her. And her parents are cool with this. Ah, this point fucked these people. Uh, all of them. She leaves everyone she's ever known.

1979, rather than half her son, take a 40-swat beating for tossing a grapefruit on a bus window. Another cult member Sue Ballsley, who was now 38 and living on a Lamao compound since she was 19. She chooses to leave. After working with the Alamo compounds since she was 19 she chooses to leave After working with the Alamos for almost 20 years. She leaves with nothing two decades of 12 hour days Leaves with no money no possessions nothing but the clothes in her back cut off from every social connection. She had ever made as an adult 1990 Tony civil child abuse case now goes to trial

He's been on the run for two years at this point. He's of course a no show So now he's a federal fugitive and his absence Tony to trial, he's been on the run for two years at this point. He's of course a no show. So now he's a federal fugitive. In his absence, Tony's found liable for defrauding, emotionally tormenting, and physically abusing the millers. The millers are awarded 1.8 million in damages. They'll never get that money. Federal agents to recoup this money are trying to raid the Georgia Ridge compound in Arkansas

and they're trying to recoup the IRS, the Department of Labor money. Kerry Miller and his attorney, that Peter guy guy traveled to the property to deliver the court order to seize the properties along with US marshals and local law enforcement. That was so good for Kerry. Just fuck you, Tony. I'm coming for your shit. The cavalry's coming with me. Mike Belevens, who was the US marshals chief deputy for the Western District of Arkansas at that time led the raid. He took Arkansas State troopers and Crawford County police to provide more manpower than what was normal for this type of operation due to the compound having approximately 300 people still living there at the time who might respond with hostility.

The Marshalls do not find Tony, of course, he's in hiding when carrying the agent show up members freak out. They start running out of their homes, literally running into the woods, out off of the ridge. Tony has them thinking that Satan's minions are gonna mone down. Alamo, you know, ordered them to flee if agents ever showed up. Two of Alamo's followers do not flee, not before bringing Susan's dead body with them.

They've been ordered to bust her casket out of the mausoleum and bring her remains with them before escaping. And her remains would be missing for years. Carrie Miller thinks that Tony felt he needed to have Susan's body with him to maintain control over his cult. He's still telling people that they're going to resurrect her. She's been rotten for eight fucking years now. When Susan's daughter, Chris, who's been out of the cult for around 20 years this point,

here's about this in the news. She sues Tony for stealing her mom's remains. Tony mails a new message to his followers now says the Lord told me to get off our land on Georgia Ridge and To spit the church up into different factions because they were going to come there and kill us so much drama So it feels like some weird TV show not like real life Amy Eddie a former member born in 1983 remembers a few cult families coming to stay with her family in Nashville for a little while this time She says from this point forward, her mom had Tony's literature and message, you know, his tapes, his messages delivered to her home. That goes to David

Berg here, right? Creepy pedophile ear, the children of God cult. Ruling from hiding, ruling while on the run from law, from the law, you know, through tape sermons and letters. A former member, Desire Kovek born in 1991 on the Arkansas compound, remembers moving around a lot of this time as well. All of the members are dad telling her and the rest of the family that they always had a backpacked. Okay, so they needed to flee to Moments Notice. They're all very paranoid.

With this follower spread out all around the country, Tony's financial empire begins to crumble a bit. Tony's Nashville store is closed. Federal agents liquidate all his fancy soup can of rhinestone, sweet jackets to pay some of his civil suits and some back taxes. The Arkansas compound is auctioned off. Oh man, that would have been one hell of an auction to attend. All right, everybody, we got another cold jacket on the board, opening prize of $100.

I got a ball, legal, I was on the hand of God, pink rhinestone down the street, filing the devil's tone across the back, got God's warrior, brush cost of front. Eeeh, fake jewel, perfectly placed by kids hands. Sniffing a smell of fear, hand crowded by those. So the end was near, 50% denim, 50% fire and brimstone. Do I see 200? Do I see 200? Yes, you're about to be blessed.

300 for the woman with Tammy Faker eyelashes. 400 for the woman with a Jen crouch perm. 500 for the man with Jim Jones glasses. Can we get 600? This is the perfect jacket to wear to a church starter coat, big kids butts, be wingedougat ding dong flim flamcom and man just don't try and raise the dead preach red, make some bread, make some crazy chance for bread. So to the man in the white suit with evil glint in his eye, these jackets still sold as collectors

items by the way online. Some of them for over a thousand bucks. Uh, a week after the Georgia Ridge raid, Tony calls local journalist Jack Mosley to ran against the judge who seized his Arkansas property. Tills Jack, he's local journalist Jack Mosley to ran against the judge who seized his Arkansas property. Tells Jack, he's going to try judge Morris Arnold, the federal judge in God's court. Oh, you can try me. I want to try you. Uh huh. Not crazy at all.

He says somehow Tony's going to be the judge in this scenario. And Tony tells Jack that he's going to be the judge, but he's going to give him a fair trial. But the judge is going to be found guilty. And then after the guilty verdict, the judge is gonna be taken out by his neck and hanged until dead. I don't think Tony fully understood

the concept of a fair trial. We're gonna give you a fair trial, sir, and we will find you guilty. And you will hang, fairly, fairly and squarely. You will hang. Love how cult leaders like Tony, they do not understand how fucking crazy they sound outside their cults.

There's so many on YouTube, you can find so many interviews to him like CNN and Fox and all these places. And when you take that crazy, you just put it out in the real world and he's talking to somebody who's not a cult member, it is hilarious. They just seem to lose awareness of how powerless they are in the outside world, how nobody else actually thinks that they're a profit. Tony's saying this shit is that the judge is going to be scared. Tony, but actually hang him in God's court. Jack Publisher's interview on

the front page of his local paper and then the following day, FBI is knocking on his door. The FBI does not find Tony, Tony's rambling. It's very funny. Tony has just publicly threatened the life of a public judge and he charged with another crime. Tracking down in a resting Tony, Alamo now becomes a priority for the FBI and US Marshall service. They worry that due to how loyal his followers are, how fucking crazy he is, that one of his followers is going to try and carry out his judgment and kill Judge Morse. 1991. Law enforcement recruits former cult members to help with a national television campaign

to locate Tony Alamo. Susan's daughter Chris has interviewed on national news, still trying to locate her mom's remains. Addressing Tony, she says, if you ever loved my mother, you need to be a news, still trying to locate her mom's remains. Adressing Tony, she says, if you ever loved my mother, you need to be a man, you need to bring her back. All you need to do is return her so we can bury her. Adressing Chris, Tony calls Arkansas journalist Jack Mosley again,

tells him that he does have Susan's body. He won't be bringing it back. He says, the cascade belongs to me. Her body belongs to me. She is mine. And you know, I mean, he's right. How the hell are you supposed to bring her back to Chris Hazard?

What? Well, it was Chris gonna resurrect her? How? Is she God's hand made in? Hand made in? No, she's one of Satan's minions. Her mom said so. Tony also told Jack regarding his whereabouts.

A lot of people know where I'm at. I don't want demons, devils, and goblins and witches. Know where I'm at. I love that he actually says goblins. He and goblins and witches. I know where I'm at. I love that he actually says goblins. He says goblins and numerous interviews. Damn it, Jack, I'm hiding from goblins. I can't risk bringing a casket to a funeral home. You know how many goblins could be waiting for me there?

I love the weird logic here too. Apparently he thinks that goblins and demons have no greater investigatory powers than US marshals to find somebody. All right, there's pictures of a bunch of goblins demons sitting in a cave somewhere, wherever goblins hang out, looking for this dude, maybe we could trace this cause. Have you haunted the phone company yet, demon? Have you tried scaring them into coughing up his collar records?

Or maybe run us plates? I think we should run us plates, you know. Tony wasn't done with a variety of cult members. None of them would cooperate with authorities and turn him in. If the abandoned Georgia Ridge compound investigators find a detailed list of his followers, they begin tracking them down in the hopes that one of them will lead into Tony.

They start monitoring the phone records of multiple members. In September, they find Tony's cell phone. They track him to Tampa, not sure where the goblins were at this point with their investigation. You know, he never was attacked by goblins, so, I guess, you know, the problem, maybe there's still somewhere out in the cave, so arguing with demons. I just, I got to a phone company.

What's so hard about that? Haunt the, his follower, something, the lazy demons. Federal agents, able to triangulate his calls, find that they came from a zone inside of three Tampa towers. Agents rode around inside this triangle, writing down license plates and addresses, comparing them to license plates and addresses they've found in the Arkansas compound.

Thanks for so much harder back before you had Google Maps. As you're doing this, the local AM station on Tampa is broadcasting a daily sermon from Tony. Tony's telling us followers about demon investigators and goblin judges coming to get up. He's hunted by Satan. This is all his language.

And for several weeks, the cell phone, the marshals were tracking called a number linked to an address within the Tampa triangle. Marshall's drove past the address. There's a van in the driveway. Of course, it's a van. They write down the license plate number compared against their list direct hit. They found a follower. They knew they had him. Early in the morning hours of your life, if marshals sneak up to this Tampa address, they find a good place to hide. They wait for Tony to pop outside. They don't want to do anything that's going to risk tipping him off, give him a chance

to flee. When a delivery man tosses out the paper in the driveway, out pops Tony wearing his dark sunglasses and his tie-died shirt, coughing hand to pick it up. Now they know he's inside. If he goes back in, agents surround the house, Scott Sanders, chief inspector for the US Marshall at the time was in charge of the raid. They knock on the front door, announce who they are. Tony doesn't answer.

So they knocked the door down to enter the home. There's Tony sitting at the kitchen table eating some breakfast next to his cereal bowl. His fat stacks of cash. Marshall Mike Levin said that when Tony was handcuffed, he asked, how did you find me? And one of the agents said, and I love this said, I quote, it was divine intervention. Tony, the Lord let us here. We found you back and well played. They don't find Susan's body.

Tony's brought back to Arkansas. By this point, he's facing charges of child abuse, civil contempt, tax evasion in California, charges of tax evasion by the IRS, facing charges of threatening the life of a federal judge in Arkansas. A jury finds Tony not guilty for the death threat. Real bummer, local journalist Jack Mosley is later told that some of the jurors gave this not guilty verdict because they didn't want to encroach on his freedom of religion. Tony's released on a $200,000

bond to weight in his California trial. Former member Benji Risha, right, his adopted son, says that after he's released, the family he's living with is in the core group of Tony's inner circle. And Tony orders his core members to regroup it and Fort Smith Arkansas now and Fort Smith they buy a new church and the band is back together former member Sue Ballsley who left earlier over not wanting her son to get paddled for throwing some grapefruit she goes to this new church begs to be taken back into the group and she is so you're out now you're back in. 1992 Tony holds a foot washing ceremony in his new church. The Ministry of Evil documentary producers found

some video taken of this and in the video Tony says, I got a call from Norman Kaye, a cult member, today who said, you're the Messiah and I said, oh no, I'm just a foot washer. The Messiah told me to do the foot wash. And though in this ceremony, you approach somebody that you feel like you've offended and you asked to wash their feet and Tony washes numerous people's feet and he's so creepy about it. At one point, he says, I'll wash the piggies. Exactly that. I'll wash the piggies. And then he says later, he says, I'll show you how

strong I am. And then he screams, I want to wash them to watch them pick us Such a weird moment He's screaming this dress in a pinstripe suit where an aviator sunglasses like he Jim Jones Then he says I'm gonna prove to this world as a Lord wasn't lying about me And now since he has a new church while battling the government his this sleaze bag is able to get more followers One of these new followers college student Lisa Pierce First time she saw Tony. She said he had an ankle bracelet. Members told her that he was fall sea accused and persecuted. Persecution helps to all those who are living God the lives.

At the foot washing service, Tony also says there are two different types of governments, one of the Lord and one of the devil. And you have to save one or the other. There you go again, us versus them. Cult, cult, cult. Tony reads from revelations lots of stuff about the world's governments rallying against God, new world order type shit. The same sermon Tony says he asked God, well Lord, are we going to, you know, is it going to be a while now before the end of what? Because should we start

planning and the Lord told me it's on us right now. The end here. We go. Tony tells us followers that as long as they stay with them, they're going to survive the second coming and their souls won't perish, but they leave them. Oh, not good. Late 92 members began to hear about polygamy from Tony for the first time. He's going further with his cult leader status. Took him a few decades, but he's finally playing the old cult leader polygamy card. First Tony begins to marry different cult members, right?

Let's his upper level male members take some extra wives, build a little bit of loyalty. And one tape sermon, Tony says, does the law state that it's all right to have two wives? And here we follow his respond, yes. Is that evil? No. Why? Because God is the sum of moral excellency. And there was no doctors in him, not an A-man. A-man. Tony says, look at David, he had many wives. And look at Solomon, he has many wives. God is clearly in favor of it, so you shouldn't question it. And then he says some weird random hell shit.

He says, the pin of hell is seven times hotter than the sun. I'm sorry, what was that last part? What did God just tell you that? Not six times, not 10, seven. It seems like overkill, but okay. I shouldn't keep trying to apply reason to any of this. 1992 Tony is interviewed by a current affair. That's great. He talks about being persecuted by a one world government.

He's dressed in one of his bedazzled jackets wearing sunglasses in a cowboy hat. Looks less like a prophet, more like the king of tools. Back and forth Smith, Tony has grown distant with his adopted son Benji. Put Benji in charge of business records That were kept in the office of the church Benji's now 16 Benji's been told his entire life that his birth mom was dead that she abandoned him

She was an adulterous burden and health for sins and now he finds his birth certificate in these office records And his birth mom's name is written on the record attached as an article about his mom attached to her photo and with this information He finds his mom and she's very much alive article about his mom attaches her photo and with this information, he finds his mom and she's very much alive. He now has undeniable proof that Tony's a line piece of shit been lined up his whole life so it runs away, takes his birth certificate, the photo of his mom and 120 bucks and Tony tells us the cult, but of course, Benji has been banished. He's sided with Satan.

Summer of 1993, Tony's trial begins in Memphis for tax evasion and tax fraud. He remains free on bond, former member, Sue Ballsley goes to Memphis with several other top cult members to visit Tony after his trial begins. When she gets there, there are four, 15, 16 year old girls sitting around the table with Tony. Girls, Sue remembers being kids at the Georgia Ridge compound, kids that she taught. Here's where a timeline gets creepier.

These girls are Tony's new wives. He's 58 years old. Years later in 2012, Tony will be interviewed about his child brides when he is 78. He'll refuse to admit it was wrong right up until the bitter end. He's asked, let's say you elected to take an eight, nine-year-old girl as a wife. How would you determine if a young female had reached puberty? And he says, well, they know that in my church, they'd come and say, hey, I've reached puberty. Can we get married? He also says puberty is consent.

Oh boy. And that's not how it happened. The girls did not want any of this. We will learn about how it happened soon. Sue will leave the cult for the second and final time because of this child bride bullshit. June 8th, 1994, Tony convicted on all tax charges, sends to six years in federal prison, begins his prison sends in the Texcan a federal prison and continues to lead the cult from behind bars

uh... being in prison actually strengthens his leadership his incarceration reinforces to his followers the belief that he's indeed being persecuted and why because he's a profit profits are persecuted uh... so are most uh... dirt bags while in prison his followers are still able to generate income, donate to his ministry. He's on the phone with followers one, two hours a day from prison, still given sermons, still making business deals, or does his followers to buy some real estate and a fuk Arkansas.

David Carter, who will later act as an attorney for many atonies, former brides, when they wage numerous civil suits. Against him later, thinks that Tony chooses fook because it was very similar to Alma. Fook's a small community near where he'd be released from prison, a place where he could live away from the prime eyes of the media, a place where he could gain influence more easily than he could in a larger community.

1994, Tony tells us followers who are now spread out across America, anyone who has children is to move to Arkansas. Uh-huh, In light of recent child bride developments, you might find that that command to be especially creepy. It is. In a sermon, he recorded in prison shortly before his release, he says, having two wives or more is not a sin to Florida. If the Lord gives them to you, the Lord has given me three. He didn't seek out those pedophiles, uh, those 15 year olds like a pedophile. No, not

Lord gave those girls. God's a pedophile. not Tony. Tony tells his followers this time that if a girl has had her period, she's old enough to be married. He also says if they're menstruating the women, they should be able to be married at 13 years old. Welcome to if there's grass on the field, it's time to play ball ministry, starring Tony Lamo, aka pastor's secret diddals. I keep getting more evil. When cold member Amy Edy, it's 14, she sent toA. pastor of secret diddals. I keep getting more evil. When cold member Amy Edy, it's 14. She sent to live in pastor secret diddals house. So she can be there when he's released waiting for him.

When Amy tells her mom, her mom is pumped. She says, you're getting married to Tony. This is what God wants. You know, my mom thought that God wanted a 14 year old daughter to be the wife of dude who's now 60 years old. Mysterious ways indeed. All these wives will live with Tony in this new place and Fook, not a mansion, but big enough to house them all.

Attorney David Carter describes his home as being catacomish. Amy and other brides would visit Tony while he's in prison. They will bring nude photos of themselves and give those photos to him while he's in prison. They deliver fucking kiddie porn to him while he's in prison. Now, they also bring him picks of other naked cult kids. Attorney David Carter says he was doing this so he could select his next wives once he got out of prison. He's out of control. 1998, federal authorities prepare to release pastor secret diddles,

old Reverend Kitty Badazler from prison. Before they release the authorities in CIS, Tony tell them where Susan, where her remains are. Her body is still missing. The judge says that if he does not return the body to Susan's daughter, Chris Faberial, he her remains are. Her body is still missing. The judge says that if he does not return the body to Susan's daughter, Chris, for burial, he will be arrested the moment he's released from prison and he'll sit in the fourth Smith jail until he provides that info. So Tony finally caves.

Susan's body is then delivered anonymously to the Moral Park Cemetery in Tulsa, Oklahoma. You know, her daughter, Chris is notified. Wonder Tony finally told his followers that the odds of resurrecting Susan are now looking a little slim. I got to say, guys, children, we were days away from bringing Susan back,

days away from having my skeleton bride, God's bony handmade and standing at my side. But then one of Satan's goblins, Chris, demon and daughter got a hold of her, so formidable the devil must constantly prepare for his attacks Now if you excuse me I must make sure my wives are in bed. It's not in PM and it is a school night Once released Alamo's under constant surveillance outside his home due the conditions of his release Unable to do as much outside his house

He focuses on being more controlling inside the home. He focuses on his child brides Desiree Colbeck is one of them. She married Tony in his home. Then that night, he tells her, you're supposed to consummate the marriage. Desiree is so young, she doesn't know what consummate means because she's fucking eight years old. Mm-hmm. And they do consummate the marriage.

God's profit indeed. Has she even hit puberty by this point? I doubt it. What biblical passage did Reverend Kitty Badazler used to justify this? One point Tony has 24 wives living with him in Fouke, nine of them are underage. Alama records some more sermons justifying his continued child molestation. Now what else is written in the book of jasha? Let's talk about Rebecca and her husband Isaac. How old was Isaac when they married married wasn't he 40 years old and she was 10 he was 30 years older The book of Joshua Tony refers to here is not a book in the Bible

It's a book referred to in the Bible by different names and King James book a you know version of the Bible It's referenced in Joshua second Samuel second Timothy It's referred to as the book of righteous the book of the upright one the book of the just ones and Greek and Roman Some sources say it's you know, it's been lost to history We may never know what the past is really contained the book if the upright one, the book of the just ones and Greek and Roman. Some sources say, you know, it's been lost to history. We may never know what the past year's really contain. The book, if it's even real, supposedly covers biblical history from the creation of Adam and Eve until a summary of the initial Israelite conquest of Canaan in the beginning of the book of Judges. Most scholars think the book was written centuries after the rest of the Bible, and the references were added to the King James version when that version was written in 1611.

Various scholars think it was written between the 9th and 16th centuries, not referred to in any Bible, written prior to a 1552 edition found in Naples. So Tony's getting real creative with scripture now, getting hard to find the right verses to justify his bullshit in the regular books. So he's got to dig into the deep cuts.

He's confusing his flock by referencing a biblical book. They don't even have in their Bibles. He's a snake oil salesman, of course. Word reaches Susan's daughter, Chris, who's made contact with other banished former cult members about these child brides. She has no doubt Tony was raping these kids and beating him, right? She now tells her story about how many years earlier

in Vegas Tony raped her. Cult expert Debbie Schriver says that a lot of these parents after Tony's death would finally end up leaving the Colt and are now devastated by what they put their kids through. Once finally, the program, they become riddled with guilt over the decisions they made. I can't imagine, oh my god, after months of being raped, it's an eight-year-old, Desiree Colbex begs her mom to take her back to her mom's house, walk away from Tony. And her mom says, what's wrong with you?

I can't take you home unless I get permission from Tony. And then she stays there for many, many years after that. Eek. Former member Sue Ballesley, who left the cold when she found out about the teenage wives, apologizes to her two sons, profusely, for allowing them to ever be raised in such a toxic abusive environment. She breaks down in the documentary. Your heart pours out to her.

Hard to keep your eyes dry when you watch. My allergies really kicked out when I watched it. One of Sue's kids told her about a website then called Fact Net where accusations against the Alamo Foundation kids were as far as them being abused were being labeled as false. This pisses her off. She goes to the website to set the record straight. After Sue posts about the physical abuse of her children that they suffered other former members come forward post their own stories of their kids being abused The cult finally starting to turn against Reverend Secret Dittles former member Bill Levy posts about being a member from 1970 to 1986 Said they ran the place with a strict hand beating the children having them beaten for the slightest provocation said that ran the place with a strict hand, beaten the children, having them beaten

for the slightest provocation. More people come forward, posting more first-hand accounts of witnessing kids being beaten, literally bloody. Then soon accounts about having Tony having sex with underage girls, they start getting posted. Former member Theresa Lupo posted on November 17th, 2009, I'm so sick of perverted power, monger, lusty men, hiding behind using God in the Bible

to enslave little girls and women by brainwashing them and threatening them. How dare they say it's God's will when in reality it's their own lust for power and perverted lust for little girls. They're sick. They deserve everything our laws have coming to them. Thanks to these postings, Randall Harris of the FBI becomes aware of these allegations. He knows that in order to get charged against Tony to stick, they're going to need one of his child brides to come forward. Back in Tony's new compound,

Tony's wives do begin to conspire against him. Going after an eight-year-old was too much even for these girls who have been brainwashed in spurth, but it was hard to stand up to Tony. If any of his wives just pleased him in any way, he'd make them live in what he called the House of Scorn, aka the greenhouse. Had a small guest house on the food property, and girls would be locked in this house from the outside like animals and a cage for weeks at a time. Tony had security cameras installed in the greenhouse so he could watch his trapped wives,

punish them further if they didn't obey him. Tony has cameras set up all over his property. He's able to watch his entire property via this fucking weird control room for the monitors. Tony's also keeping what he's doing for most of his other followers by almost never letting his wives off of the property. He keeps some of these girls in this house for almost 10 full years. June 9th 2006, a roughly 9 p.m. one of his wives, Amy Edie, now 22, escapes after being with Tony for nine years. With Tony chasing her, she runs out of the house,

makes to a bus station, takes the bus to Oklahoma to try and find her dad's terrified. She's been programmed to believe she ever turned her back on Tony. She'd burn in hell. Few months later, Desiree, now 15, also escapes after being there for seven years, able to contact her on to agree to pick her up at a designated meeting spot. Right. Finally, Tony's cold is crumbling after over 40 fucking years. Desiree flees on November 3rd, 2006 at 11.30 pm, sneaks out of the house

and just runs. Has to flee past security cameras and guards. X members soon now find out about all this. They inform authorities that a two of Tony eight Tony's underage wives have escaped. When the FBI contacts Amy, she initially refuses to testify. So then they approach Desiree. She agrees to testify because she has a younger sister who is still in the cult and she wants to save her. Hallelujah. Right? They're coming for you,

Reverend Kitty Badazler. Desiree tells her FBI handler that the Alamo took nude, Polaroid pictures of young girls. This is huge. If the FBI can get these photos, they're going to have a much easier time charging Tony with many more counts counts of child pornography. They can put this motherfucker away for life. And the charge of child pornography is a federal crime. So the feds can now pursue this fucker. Desiree also helps authorities contact another witness named Summer. Another child bride who became Alamo's wife in 2003. Tony started having sex with Summer when she was 11. Summer told FBI agents about a trip she'd taken with Tony from Foucault, Arkansas, to Los Angeles. She said Tony raped her in the back of his heaven bus near the Saga compound.

This is big because now the feds can charge in with interstate transportation of a minor for illegal sexual purposes, for cross-natured lines to do this. With all this new evidence, all these new charges, the feds prepared a raid, Alamos Arkansas compound. At the time of the raid, there was a half dozen underage girls living there. And on the risk just seven years old, her sister 11 when they're living there at this time, preparing to be Tony's next wives, Tony is 73 now. Vanessa Griffin in eighth grade when she moved into the house, Shane Abraudorick sent to Tony's house when she's also underage. Shane says living with Tony was like living in an insane asylum.

Said he would hold himself open his room for days at a time. Then suddenly he popped out, might be at 4 a.m. Gather everyone in the house to listen to him rant and rave like a lunatic about some batshit, you know, notion of his head, stuff like the government today, they say that it's wrong to be a Christian. That's why they killed those people at Waco.

Those people didn't do anything wrong. Well, they did, David Krish, kind of, you know, Melissa's, some kids. Tony would play a documentary of what happened in Waco over and over again. He was obsessed. He'd tell the girls, this is what they're gonna try to do anything wrong. Well, they did. David Krish, kind of, you know, molasses. And kids, Tony would play documentary of what happened in Waco over and over again. He was obsessed. He'd tell the girls, this is what they're going to try to do to us. I'm sure they were thinking, oh, God, they'd be great. They'd be great if they got us.

September 20th, 2008, the FBI finally raised Tony's compound using a SWAT team. Unfortunately, Tony not at home when the raid occurs. They searched the house. They can't find any nude polaroids either. He had taken those with him when he ran. It did find some Polaroid cameras around packages of film. Former member Amy Edie says that whenever Tony thought there was going to be a raid, he would have his wives destroy evidence. While they did find a bottle of Viagra, Gross. In Tony's bathroom closet, they find ovulation tests, Gross.

One of his bedroom drawers, they find multiple wedding rings. Over the next several weeks, authorities use this evidence to seek custody of the ministry's children when 21 other compound children are being driven out of Arkansas to go into hiding under Tony's order. By member Lisa Pierce, the bus is pulled over. As soon as it crosses the straight lines, the kids are taken into protective custody, placed in foster care. Parents are then told they can have their kids back.

If they agree to raise them completely outside of the church, some agree most don't. Most refuse to turn their backs on Tony, even when it meant losing custody of their own kids. That's how strong this dude's hold on them was. While on the run, Tony makes a super creepy call into a live broadcast on Fox News, explaining that he's done nothing wrong with anything he's done. He says, the Bible states that the legal age for marriage is a puberty. I'm not married to any teenage girls who don't want to be. I'm 74 years old. The host, Julie Bandera's cut him off says, I don't remember reading that in the Bible, sir. And I went to Bible study in Sunday school. I don't remember them saying that. Kids are reaching puberty

at the age of 12. And Tony screams, you don't know anything about the Bible. Former child bride, Amy Eddie, said she watched this broadcast, broadcast laughter ass off. She loved how crazy he looked how the hosted up to him Within a few weeks by tracking Tony's cell phone the FBI locates him. He's a they find him He's on tour with the stones actually randomly Jagger had just hired him for their sticky fingers and bedazzle jackets tour He's promoting them managing them open up for them with a classic hit little Yankee girl And then we come back out do the stones encore four of them getting standing innovations every single night with his other Chartblasting hit come on people big coal man He's a star. Shobius, of course, that's not true. Authorities find that human cockroach hold up in a roach motel and flagstaff Arizona. Since

authorities never found the nude polaroids, the only thing they could charge him with was interstate transportation of a minor for legal sexual purposes. For his rape of his child bride summer, trying bolsters or case, bring on more charges, the FBI contact Amy Edie again. Ask her if she'll now testify the Tony Rape der. She agrees. Hail Nimrod! As do three other former child brides, with five girls willing to testify, you know, because

Desiree test will testify as well. Tony's indicted now on 10 counts of interstate transportation of a minor for legal sexual purposes. By the time they go to trial, the feds have 25 to 30 witnesses, former brides, people who witnessed beatings, people who endured beatings, several witnesses who had spent decades inside the cult. At the trial, Desiree's mother, the girl who was eight when Tony married her testified against her daughter on behalf of Tony. Told the court her daughter was a liar. Man, if hell is real, I think that bitch might be burning there right now. Tony's found guilty on all counts, sends to 175 years in prison, the maximum sentence,

finally, bit of justice for this piece of shit. And for putting Tony behind bars through civil trials, David Carter's legal team wins over a billion dollars for children who are raped and or beaten by Tony. They're still seizing Alamos assets to satisfy those judgments. Over the last few years of Tony's life, he was shuttled around between various federal prisons. Few of his followers maintained contact with him up until the very end. And then Tony Alamo died on May 2nd, 2017, 430 PM at the age 82. He'd served eight years of a sentence, the rolling zones,

or the Paul Bears that is now. His saga's church was the last Alamo location to close, where it all got started in 1970 and may open again His church is called it does still exist. I I called their prayer line on July 21 Pulled the number off Yelp 661 252 6 5 6 8 6 operator standing by 24 hours a day someone picked up that he didn't know for sure when they were gonna open again They were just closed due to COVID, but literature still being distributed. If you want to be in their fucked up email list, you go to Alamo Ministries.com.

It's an active website. You can find another phone number for church services. You can find a PO Box in Hollywood. Recently, in 2018, there was still Alamo Christian Ministry Services being held in New York City and New Jersey. Services ran by former members. And once crazy goes as far as it did in this cult, it's real hard to shut it down.

And that's all for today's time suck timeline. Good job, soldier. You've made it back. Barely. BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

BANG! BANG! Woo-hoo! That's a big timeline. I want to close this one out. Like given a special thank you to all the law enforcement agents, federal, state, local, any other who help save more kids like this. The ones who helped save more kids from being Tony's childbrides, to agents and officers

who stop other people like Tony and save additional kids, your heroes, you save kids, and you fight real life fucking monsters, real goblins for a living. Thank you. Please keep doing what you do. And how crazy was this story? It went off for so long. This cult practically owned Alma Arkansas and not that long ago, right in the 80s.

Selling jackets to Michael Jackson, Deli Pardon, Jack has made a, you know, child labor working in an Arkansas compound sweatshop. Kids are living in a cult that began when so many other cults began and where so many other cults began, LA in the 60s, casualties of the counter culture revolution. How did this cult form and grow so strong? It still has believers today.

Fear, nothing sells like fear. That's why so many headlines are still negative today. And why most headlines will be negative tomorrow. Be afraid, be afraid. Right. In this case, God's wrath is coming. The only place that safe is right here in this compound where God wants you to work 12 hours a day to make two Ozark con artist rich, Susan and Tony Alamo, God's handmade and God's handmade and handmade. Anyone who tells you that they speak for God and only speak for God, that God only speaks through them, fuck them, 100% of the time, fuck them.

God's really wants to talk to you. I'm guessing he or she or it knows where to find you. I'm guessing you can build your own relationship. That being said, Nimrod is talking to me right now and Nimrod only talks to me, by the way, and he says it's time for today's top five takeaways. Number one, the Alamo Christian foundation cult founded in 1969 by want to be music big shot,

Tony Alamo and by Susan Alamo who'd been scamming churches for years prior, telling people God spoke to her and they started an oppressive and dehumanizing cult. Number two, Susan Alamo died in Arkansas on April of 1982 of cancer. After pretending she'd had cancer for many years to gain sympathy and loyalty from her followers. And then wasn't buried for over a year and her cult prayed continuously to try and resurrect her. And then Tony still stole her remains and hid them for many years. Number three, bedazzled gene jackets. Tony and Susan Alamo made millions selling bedazzled gene jackets and cold children working in sweatshops helps make them. Number four, Tony Alamo got into Colton for the money,

stayed in for the polygamy in the pedophilia. And he told anyone who would listen right up until the bitter end when he died in prison prison that it was all part of God's plan. Man, let's hope that's not true. And number five new info, Alamo Ministry is still around and they have a very interesting website, Alamo ministries.com. And the new info is you can find sub menus there for UFO literature, Tony's unreleased Beatles album, not kidding. And Tony Alamo's any Christ literature and photo gallery. And also links to classic Alamos sermons

with titles like Mystery Babylon is Rome's UN, Satan's government, Mystery Babylon, the mother of Harlitz, beware of receiving blessings from the Vatican. It's clergy, especially their popes. This guy was like David Ike before, there was David Ike in some ways. So much crazy info if you want to dig in,

if you want to dive in further, just don't dive in too far. Still life, you don't want to end up one of its prayer line operators or something, you don't want to go too far in this cult. Time, suck, tough, five takeaways. Tony Alamo and Susan Alamo's cult has been sucked. What a couple of sleazeballs, but sweet jackets. Thank you again to the time suck team Thanks for pulling together when we're down on a small crew again a person this week Thanks to Queen of bad magic Lindsey Cummins Reverend Dr. Paisley Biddle-Lixer Logan and K. Keith Thanks to the script keeper Zach Flannery for producing this week while I focused on research Thanks to Liz Hernandez and all seen eyes running the cult of the curious Facebook page

focused on research. Thanks to Liz Hernandez and all seen eyes running the Cult of the Curious Facebook page. Thanks to everyone on Discord as well. And best of luck to everyone using and competing with our new trivia, you know, using our new trivia game in the time suck out. Also last reminder, we donated $6,200 this month to the Innocence Project to find out more. Go to innocenceproject.org, link in the episode description. Next week on time suck, the curious but clen-design man's minds, I'm faden, of our Patreon Space Lensers have chosen to investigate some investigators. Gonna be looking into the FBI's behavioral science unit.

The BSU is one of the original instructional components of the FBI's training division at Quantico, Virginia, founded in 1972. Through its legacy of training, research, and consultation activities, the BSU developed techniques, tactics, and procedures that have become a staple of behavioral based programs to support the law enforcement intelligence and military communities. It is here where the term serial killer was coined and where profiling was developed to help catch many of the sick folks we've talked about here on the

suck. I worked on by the BSU profilers has led to a number of high interest arrests including some of time sucks all time worst shit lords Ted Bundy, Wayne, Gacy, Ed Kemper, Jeffrey Dahmer, mother, they found me. Well, the topic also gives us an excuse to delve deeper into the history, accomplishments, and missteps of America's top law enforcement agency. There's so many questions. Who are the unsung heroes of the FBI? How many fingerprints, hair samples, DNA vials? Do they actually have on file? Do they really have a bunch of dossiers on celebrities? And perhaps most importantly, do they have a file on you? Or me, probably me.

A more interesting info coming your way next week on TimeSuck. Now let's investigate today's TimeSucker updates. Updates, get your time sucker updates. First update from SuperSucker, Carl Ren motivated me to burn the midnight oil and pass along some good information. Carl writes, great podcast, most podcasts run longer than 30 minutes are full of fluff

and chitchat between the house. Yours is content rich, educational, and entertaining. Well, thank you. In the episode about killer kids, you're using stats about the homicide rates as an example of how violent crime rates have changed. You ignore the fact that modern medical care allows many people who were shot or otherwise injured to survive wounds that might have been fatal in earlier days.

That's an interesting thought that I had never thought of before your message. In order to get a better picture of violent crime rates, you have to look at both aggravated assault, tried to kill and failed, as well as homicide, tried to kill and succeeded. The other issue that is rarely discussed is that plea deals can result in reduced charges. Someone can be initially charged with aggravated assault for a non-fatal shooting, but plead down to something lesser, which is what ends up in the crime stats, unless they track both the arrests and convictions. Another nuance in the data is that some police agencies report an incident in which several

people were shot as one incident, others reported separately. This is done because of pressure from City Hall or the chief's office to make the numbers look a certain way, either to aid someone's reelection campaign, things getting better, or to justify the case for grant money or higher budgets. We need more money because things are getting worse. One of the issues currently wrapped up in the different police reform bills in Congress now is more uniform reporting guidelines to ensure that the data is more accurate. Well, thank you, Carl. Yeah, I hope they pass some bills to make

sure that the data is more accurate. Man, it is so crazy, like the way, you know, like, I mean, I'm such a fan, obviously, of data, hard research, but to get really good data, it can be so much more tricky than it first appears, right? Because numbers can be skewed and you can kind of cherry pick, you know, numbers to kind of suit your narrative. Ah, it's tough, very, very tough. And I appreciate information like this because it makes us think harder about that in the future

and trying to do a better job. Next up, the Cyphe of Nimrod, Jessica Schuch has some extra Egyptian info to add to our someone recent Egyptian God suck. She writes, Hi Master Sucker, New listener here. My husband got me hooked and now every night after we put the kids to bed, we catch them on episode's via YouTube. We just want to see Egyptian God's episode because it's one of our favorite subjects to learn about. You mentioned, and I, and I, his name here is a tricky one. I put the pronunciation, yeah, pronunciation guide here, but Akka, Akka Nadan, there we go.

It's this guy. You mentioned Akka Nadan and how we introduced monotheism. The story behind that is super interesting. First, there are a lot of similarities between him and Moses. Akka Nadan proclaimed that there was one true God, not multiple, he was ran out of Egypt by the people, was chased for many miles. It said that he parted the Nile River for him and his followers to cross and get safety.

That is interesting. Once they were safe, they built their own little city, and on a wall, he had carved that this was the land god promised them. Thousands of years later, Egyptologist, Egyptologist, excuse me, came across a tomb unlike any other tomb they'd found. The coffin had the names scratched off so they could not identify who was in there. Also, the mummy itself had been desecrated and the tomb was set up in a way

that his soul would never be able to leave earth for the afterlife. On the door of the tomb was written, the evil one shall not live again. Honestly, that's fucking intense. Honestly, if I've been one of the Egyptologists who had found that, I probably would have shed the door and never looked back.

That's the type of shit shit movies where everyone gets cursed. Anyway, after some investigative work, they found that this was the tomb of Bakunaten, or Akanaten. Akanaten, my god. The Egyptian people hated him so much for trying to change a system that they wanted to make sure he'd never get to the afterlife. If you want to read more about it, there's a book called Conspired that Evil One shall not live again by Rami Romani.

Really good, also short for people who are pressed for time. Thank you for all you do. Keep on sucking, Jessica Schuck, PS. If you could wish my husband a happy birthday, that would be amazing. He's a huge fan. Thank you. Well, happy birthday, husband of Schuck,

handmaiden to Jessica. I didn't catch his name, Jessica. Sorry if I missed that. I reread the email twice. So I should have reached out for more info. I'm guessing he'll appreciate the thought and now you get to call him husband of shook handmaiden to Jessica.

And thank you, Sir, for the info. Good information to pass along for more Egyptian fans. That stuff is fascinating, especially how the stories overlap with ancient religions, the similarities between some of them and how clearly one story was probably used in another advice vice versa. Next up Chloe.

Sorry, Chloe. Kategia. I don't know. The sweet sucker writes, hey Dan King of the suck, Lucifian is boy toy. Hope you're doing well. I'm a new time sucker. Just want to say thank you for talking about this themia on your bizarre mental disorder suck.

I was diagnosed with and I helped him say this right, Stemmia when I'm 17 now, I'm 22 now. It's been hard having motivation to do anything. I barely sleep, I don't eat much, I'm always down on myself, but when you talked about it, I felt seen. Thanks to you and the whole time suck team for the research, excellent sound editing.

Oh, it's nice, quality design that goes into every part of this excellent intangible project, product. Well, you bet, Chloe, I hope you're feeling good now. I mean, I do think it is just so nice to not feel as alone, right? Isn't it so important? That suck made me feel less crazy too. I think about it often about the mesophonia,

even just today, earlier today, Lindsey was going to town, some hello, fresh meal, here in the suck dungeon and I was tired, little cranky and I started to irritate it and I just laughed about how silly it all is. And then I went ahead and so many emails came in for that. You could call it a disorder, whatever. I was like, okay, okay, no, maybe I'm a little crazy,

but we're all crazy in some way. And it's just nice to know that other people experience the same thing. And I'm sure a lot of other listeners also experienced the stemma. Critical thinking sucker, Josh Robely, brings a new perspective now on violent video games found this very interesting.

Josh writes, greetings, I'm a bit behind why you probably won't read this on air. Now you're wrong. Just something I think of with regard to nature versus nurture and violent video games I wanted to share with you. I don't think violent video games lead to violent behavior, but I have to think that they do have impacts on kids in other ways. I don't think we know what ways it impacts kids, but here's why I think it has to have at least some impact.

A company will spend millions of dollars for a 30 second ad during the Super Bowl. In the hopes that those 30 seconds will convince you or influence your decision to buy a product. Companies don't need to throw money away. So there has to be something there that companies are willing to put up the money for that purpose. Now if companies think those 30 seconds of time are going to influence your product's choices, I have to think that a kid playing 40 hours of a violent video game has to have some impact on their development. Again, I don't think it necessarily leads to violence, but anecdotally, there has to

be something going on or changing or developing in a certain way in response to those games. Maybe science will figure it out at some point. Keep on sucking. Josh Roby. Very interesting thoughts, Josh. Yeah, it does have to affect us in some ways. For sure. And yeah, you're right. There hasn't been probably enough evidence to find out how yet, but when you are, if you are spending that much time playing certain games, it's got to change your neural pathways in some type of way. Maybe in the next couple of years we'll find out. Now what I'm gonna switch shout out requested by TopSelfSack, Cheyenne Perkins, Cheyenne writes,

Dear Master Sucker, Mr. Suckington, Bojangles Pooper Scooper. I know you get a lot of messages, but I was hoping you could help me with an early wedding gift to my fiance, a shout out. His name is Chase, and he's been a faithful space lizard for some time now, and has wrote me into the cult We listened you constantly especially with being a delivery driver

He's my name rod and I has lustful Luciferina We even have the corresponding ringtone set for each other adorable It would mean the world to me if you could surprise him like this for me You become a huge part of our life wanted to you to know the joy you've created for both of us He is my world. Oh look at you. I would appreciate if you can share my love on an episode of Time Suck Thanks for reading my gooey gross romantic crap. It means a lot fellow Medsac Shion Perkins Well, congratulations Chase the Shion she sounds like a keeper your reverent fun curious lustful sweet enjoy your honeymoon Be sure to please Lucifer east to west east to west

Thank you shy in and thanks for the message everybody congratulations on the marriage and I'll talk to you guys next week Thanks time suckers. I need a net. We all did Have a great week suckers. Please don't tell any kids that consent is puberty fucking ever. And please don't try and manage the Beatles. I mean, come on, a ship sailed. But please do keep on sucking. you