Skip to main content.
Religion News Blog is a non-profit service providing academics, religion professionals and other researchers with religion & cult news
ReligionNewsBlog

Religion news articles about religious cults, sects, world religions, and related issues

Navigation:
Home | Site Menu | About RNB | RNB Store | Cult FAQ | Cult Experts | Apologetics Index | Cult Information Search Engine
A Random Image


 Search



 Share & Follow Religion News Blog


 Remember These Stories?


 Amazon

More articles about: Children of God / The Family:

Former cult member speaks from grave

KVOA, USA
Jan. 18, 2005
Lupita Murillo (reporter)
kvoa.com

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Wednesday January 19, 2005

Ten days ago, Ricky Rodriguez murdered 51-year old Angela Smith in a Tucson apartment.

Within hours, he killed himself.

His wife blames his actions on his childhood.

Rodriguez claimed he was raised as a sex slave in [a] religious cult run by his own mother.

“Anger does not begin to describe how I feel about these people and what they done. Rage, I get livid,” words Rodriguez says on a video tape he recorded the day before police say he killed Smith. 

In the video, Ricky Rodriguez sits in his apartment, and from his kitchen table, documents his plan — to hunt down and kill several members of a religous sect he claims sexually abused him and other children.

Rodriguez says, “There is this need… I have a need. It’s not a (explitive) want. It’s a need and I wish it wasn’t, but this need for revenge, it’s a need for justice.”

The Family

Many teachings and practices of The Family fall outside those of mainstream, orthodoxy Christianity to such an extend that the movement is considered to be, theologically, a cult of Christianity.

Loading bullets into magazines, the 29-year-old talks about the abuse.”Thousands of us, some worse than others, I had it good in many ways”

As a toddler, it been reported that Rodriguez was being groomed to lead the group, but he managed to break away several years ago.

Leaders of the sect have admitted publicly that as of 1986 the rules were changed to ban sex with minors.

The tape is almost an hour long.

Rodriguez shows weapons he intends to use to torture those he felt tortured him, including a drill, a kitchen fork and a stun gun.

He says, “I have this nice Glock and all this (explitive) ammo, but the truth, this is my weapon of choice.”  He shows a sharpened knife.

By far the most chilling part of the tape is when Rodriguez vows revenge on the group’s leader,his own mother.

“My mom is going to pay for that. She is going to pay dearly one way or another. If I don’t get to her…man if I don’t get to her and life goes on, I’m going to keep haunting her in the next life.”

Angela Smith’s body was discovered in Rodriguez’s apartment on Sunday, two days after the videotape was recorded.

Her throat had been slashed.

Rodriguez shot himself in a parked car in Blythe, California that same day.

Claire Borowick, a spokeswoman for the group told CNN that’s not true. “To set the record straight, Angela Smith was never Ricky Rodriguez’ ‘nanny,” said Borowick. 

Borowick maintains that Rodriguez was never abused by Smith, althought he was raised in a sexually-permissive envioronment which was encouraged by parents who were leaders of the “The Family”.

Bookmark share or email this Religion News Blog page Bookmark, Share, or Email This Page

 

Read another article Read Another Article

Tags and keywords for this Apologetics Index entry Related News Articles

arrow

RSS Feed Subscribe to Religion News Blog updates

Religion News Find Related Information

Use our custom search engines to find additional research resources on religions and cults:
arrow ApologeticsSearch.com: Search for apologetics articles, books, videos, and other research resources across 135 Christian apologetics websites and blogs.
arrow CounterCultSearch.com: Search for information about (religious) cults, cult-like organizations, and cults experts -- as well as paranormal-, New Age, and pseudoscientific claims -- across 260+ websites, blogs and forums dedicated to cult research, spiritual abuse, ex-cult counseling & support.

Religion News Find Related Religion & Spirituality Books at Amazon.com

Religion News Possibly related... or Most Popular Religion News Articles

Religion News Search Search Religion News Blog