ABC News: Primetime: The Outsiders
The Outsiders
ABC News: Primetime/2006-08-29
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ABC Primetime: The Outsiders - Series One, Part 3 - Children of God (0:17:31.417, 55.56M, xViD AVI) — 2006-08-29
ANNOUNCER
An insider's glimpse into a religion of free love. An outsider's revenge when "Primetime" returns with "The Outsiders."
COMMERCIAL BREAK
ANNOUNCER
For the religious group, Children of God, a freewheeling life of free love.
FORMER CHILDREN OF GOD MEMBER (FEMALE)
We would witness acts of sexuality.
ANNOUNCER
But for the children of the Children of God, a secret world of abuse and shame.
What about us? Where's our apology? They're not even (censored by network) sorry.
ANNOUNCER
And for the leader of the sect, his own mother, the promise of revenge.
RICKY RODRIGUEZ
Here is my weapon of choice.
ANNOUNCER
"Primetime: The Outsiders" continues after this from our ABC stations.
COMMERCIAL BREAK
ANNOUNCER
"The Outsiders" continues. Here's Jay Schadler.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(OC) He was supposed to be the ultimate insider. The child who had been anointed to someday lead the infamous Children of God. A religious group some have called a cult. So how did Ricky Rodriguez become the ultimate outsider, a man with a gun, hell bent on revenge? And what happened to him as a little boy to provoke his rage? Here is a "Primetime" investigation that begins with a haunting piece of videotape and ends with a terrible act of violence.
RICKY RODRIGUEZ
I want people to know that even though some of the things that I'm gonna try and do are rather shocking and maybe not right in a lot of people's books.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) In words both thoughtful and disturbing, 29-year-old Ricky Rodriguez begins to unload decades of sadness and frustration.
RICKY RODRIGUEZ
I'm just loading some of my mags here. I hope you guys don't mind if I do that while I talk.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) The man with the gun was once a child in pain.
RICKY RODRIGUEZ
Well, I think I'm just really (censored by network) in the head. I've tried so many things trying to - trying to somehow fit in. Somehow to find, you know, a normal life.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) But was normal ever an option for this young man? Now on a violent collision course with his past.
RICKY RODRIGUEZ
What about all the thousands of us, who have been (censored by network) literally. What about us? Where's our apology? They're not even (censored by network) sorry.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) Ricky Rodriguez is about to commit a terrible act of violence, though his life began in the spirit of peace and love. The Children of God was a fringe sect born in the late '60s and devoted to a strange brew of biblical prophecy and sexual freedom.
CHILDREN OF GOD MEMBER (FEMALE)
Oh, I love you. I love you.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) Its membership would grow into the tens of thousands. This man, David Berg, was its charismatic leader and this child, his heir apparent. This little boy idolized by thousands as a prophet in the sexual revolution is now sitting in a small apartment in Tucson getting ready to kill.
RICKY RODRIGUEZ
Here in our great state of Arizona, Jesus Land, as some people call it, if you catch an adult sexually abusing a minor, if you catch him in the act, you can walk up to them and execute them and it'll be a justifiable homicide.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) Ricky's interpretation of the law is incomplete. In Arizona, deadly force can be used only if there's no other way to stop the abuse. But there is no stopping Ricky this night. And Ricky says nothing could justify what happened to him inside the Children of God.
RICKY RODRIGUEZ
Thousands of us, some worse than others. A lot of these girls, (censored by network) I can't even compare my stories with yours.
CELESTE JONES (FORMER CHILDREN OF GOD MEMBER)
There would be, I would say weekly orgies.
FORMER CHILDREN OF GOD MEMBER (FEMALE)
He'd, you know, unzip my shirt and, you know, touch my breasts.
FORMER CHILDREN OF GOD MEMBER (FEMALE)
We would witness acts of, of sexuality between adults and often become part of it as well. JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) In the case of Ricky Rodriguez, evidence that he grew up in a sexually charged atmosphere is hard to refute and even harder to look at. "Primetime" obtained this book, the group's infamous manual once used to raise children, many pages are full of sexual photos and suggestive captions, much of the text was written by that self-proclaimed prophet, David Berg.
DAVID BERG
God created boys and girls able to have children by about the age of 12 years of age. My God, now he's gonna educate childhood sex.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) The images in this book leave little to the imagination, including this photo of 2 1/2-year-old Ricky with Angela Smith. A woman some say had sexually abused Ricky more than two decades ago. Now, she was about to become he's first target.
RICKY RODRIGUEZ
Because I have a nice Glock, (censored by network). But the truth is, this is my weapon of choice.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) His night has begun. Ricky invites Angela to dinner. Back in his apartment, he has gathered not only lethal weapons, but more instruments of torment.
RICKY RODRIGUEZ
I got lots of (censored by network) duct tape. I got soldering iron, a rather crude implement I think can work wonders, especially if it's used in the right way.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) By early evening Angela is dead. Her throat slashed. But is Angela his only target tonight? This is Ricky's mother, Karen Zerby seen here in the late '70s. She is the current leader of the group now renamed The Family International and according to Ricky, she condoned sexual abuse in her own home.
RICKY RODRIGUEZ
My own mother. What an evil little (censored by network). How can you do that to kids? How can you do that to kids and sleep at night? (Censored by network). My mom is gonna pay for that. She's gonna pay dearly one way or another.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) By nightfall, Ricky is in his car with a six-pack of beer and a 40-caliber pistol, he leaves Tucson on Interstate 10.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(OC) For the next several hours, he keeps driving west for the Arizona-California border. A lonely man on a lonely road. What could he possibly have been thinking? Actually, we have a better idea than you might imagine. Because sometime around 7:00 that night, he picks up his cell phone and calls the last person who will ever hear Ricky Rodriguez alive.
ELIXCIA
I could hear he was driving but he didn't tell me where he was. He was in his car.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) Elixcia is Ricky's wife. She, too, grew up in the group and for five hours across the miles and into the night, she and Ricky carry on a chilling conversation.
ELIXCIA
For a split second, he broke down and I could hear him sob just once. And then he inhaled really deeply and with a very strong voice said, 'I'm not gonna cry. I'm gonna be strong." And I immediately knew that something was wrong. He didn't say anything about what had happened. But I knew something wasn't right. Every so often he would get quiet and he would say, 'Oh my God, what have I done?"
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) Of course, we know what Ricky Rodriguez has done. The question is, what is he about to do?
ANNOUNCER
Will Ricky's revenge continue?
RICKY RODRIGUEZ
And I wanna keep going until somebody gets her or I get her.
ANNOUNCER
And were the accusations true? Jay Schadler puts a sect on the hot seat.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(OC) You've got pictures of kids in sexually compromised positions.
ANNOUNCER
When "The Outsiders" returns on "Primetime."
COMMERCIAL BREAK
ANNOUNCER
"The Outsiders" continues. Once again, Jay Schadler.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) Ricky Rodriguez is now somewhere between Tucson, Arizona and Blythe, California, somewhere between one violent act and another.
RICKY RODRIGUEZ
I'll go on my merry way. I am not going to hurt or try to hurt any law enforcement. And that's gonna be really tough to do this without doing that. But that's where I draw the line. I'm not going to hurt them.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) But Ricky Rodriguez was still bent on hurting someone, still angry at the group for what he says they did to him and sometimes to girls and women. Ex-members say the cult's leader, David Berg commanded the women in his group to perform video stripteases for them.
DAVID BERG
I practice what I preach and I preach sex boys and girls, hallelujah.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) And no one was too young. 'Primetime" recently obtained this disturbing video of young girls dancing for their leader.
RICKY RODRIGUEZ
There is this need. But I have this need. It's not a want. It's (censored by network) and I wish it wasn't, but it is. It's a need for revenge. It's a need for justice because I can't go on like this.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) Ricky's final act of violence was against himself.
ELIXCIA
Well, throughout the time, I always knew him. He always wanted to die.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(OC) He said that?
ELIXCIA
Yeah.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) Police say sometime after midnight he drove into this empty lot.
RICKY RODRIGUEZ
I'm sort of quitting right now but in a way I'm not because I'm not doing it the way I wanna do it. I didn't just turn tail and run. I'm not those (censored by network).
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) And fired a single round ending his life.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(OC) The real question is why he did. Why did he want to? That's what we're after here.
Well, I asked myself the same question. I asked myself that about Columbine. It is hard to understand. We live in a violent culture.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) Claire Borowick is the spokeswoman for The Family International. She says she's deeply saddened by what has happened but doesn't believe her organization is responsible and denies Ricky was a victim of sexual abuse.
CLAIRE BOROWICK
It wasn't an issue of sex. There was a liberal - liberality that existed in our homes. That degree of liberality existed in some homes, not most homes.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(OC) Well, how about David Berg's own home? How about, for example, in the book of Davidito? Here is a picture of Ricky in front of a Playboy Playmate. On the next page is a picture of Ricky at the breast of one of your elders.
CLAIRE BOROWICK
Well, you're giving a sexual context to that. He's 2 years old but...
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(OC) You wouldn't give a sexual context to Ricky standing in front of a Playboy Playmate?
CLAIRE BOROWICK
Yes, I understand.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(OC) Why are the faces blanked out?
CLAIRE BOROWICK
Well, because back then Father David had received some threats.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) You don't think they were scratched out to protect their identities?
CLAIRE BOROWICK
No, no.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(OC) You don't? I don't mean to be obtuse. But it seems to me as if one of the reasons that you'd cover it up is because you don't - you've got pictures of kids in sexually compromised positions you don't want their identities...
CLAIRE BOROWICK
I can understand you'd look at it that way but I would have to show you our other books so you could see that in our normal publications had nothing sexual in it.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) But other ex-members like Celeste Jones and Don Irwin insist that an intense atmosphere of sexuality pervaded the groups they lived in.
CELESTE JONES
I was a subject of sexual abuse. Adults teaching me mainly to fondle them. And also...
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(OC) What age?
CELESTE JONES
Five and 6 years old.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(OC) Five and 6 years old?
CELESTE JONES
Yeah.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) Celeste was barely more than that when she too was asked to dance for Berg. Though Berg's ideas on adult-child sexual behavior received attention, he also encouraged sex among adults through his teachings and videos as a way to bring in recruits and make money. A process he called 'flirtyvision."
FORMER CHILDREN OF GOD MEMBER (FEMALE)
Berg had this revelation that his women need to be fishers of men. Like Jesus called his disciples who were fishers of fish, they should be fishers of men and basically go out and share God's love with lonely businessmen.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) Scandalized by all these accusations and the subject of a number of police raids worldwide, the group renounced adult-child sex in 1986. And Borowick points out, no one was ever convicted of sexual abuse. JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) The Family turned over a new leaf in 1986, right?
CLAIRE BOROWICK
That's right. Now, we did not have any policies in place that would protect our minors. It became very clear in 1986 that that was very necessary and important.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) Still, some believe sexual abuse continued even after the group's 1986 proclamation. And consider this, in 1988, two years after the sex ban went into effect, ABC News interviewed these young Family members in South Dakota soon after they left the group.
ABC NEWS REPORTER (MALE)
Did you have sexual contact with other kids?
FORMER CHILDREN OF GOD MEMBER (MALE)
No.
ABC NEWS REPORTER (MALE)
No?
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) But were all these kids telling the truth? Last year, "Primetime" located one of these children. Francisco was then 25.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(OC) Did you, in fact, have what you'd now consider to be sexual contact while you were a child?
FRANCISCO (FORMER CHILDREN OF GOD MEMBER)
Absolutely. Sexual contact was part of that group.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(OC) There is no question you had sexual contact when you were a child?
FRANCISCO (FORMER CHILDREN OF GOD MEMBER)
Yes. At about five years old I experienced being matched up with another - with another child and she was about 16 years old.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(OC) The Family maintains, even today, that in 1986 the line was drawn. After that, no more sexual contact between adults and children. Is that true or is that false?
FRANCISCO (FORMER CHILDREN OF GOD MEMBER)
Nobody came to us and told us this was changing. We didn't see a change.
FORMER CHILDREN OF GOD MEMBER (FEMALE)
This is what we do.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) Despite that claim, most current members of The Family, including these young people, insist they've never experienced any abuse in the group. Which they say is engaged in fundraising and charitable activities around the world.
CHILDREN OF GOD MEMBER (FEMALE)
If it was categorical, if it was widespread, how come I never suffered abuse? How come I who have over 100 personal friends in The Family International all over the world, how come none of them ever told me they witnessed abuse or experienced abuse?
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) But the reality of The Family's past is complex. Steven Kent is a professor of sociology at the University of Alberta. He's an expert on the group.
STEPHEN KENT (UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA)
There is no indication that the widespread abuses that went on in The Family in the '70s and '80s and did go on goes on now. It is the case, however, that many of the perpetrators of those vicious abuses back in the early periods still are in positions of leadership.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) Take for instance Paul Peloquin who recently ran an outreach program in Africa for The Family. He appears on this tape made for the group in the '80s.
PAUL PELOQUIN (CHILDREN OF GOD MEMBER)
It was going to turn me on for sure.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) Court documents from 1995 identify him as a sexual abuser who corrupted and abused young girls.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(OC) How about Paul Peloquin? Do you know him? Paul Peloquin?
CLAIRE BOROWICK
No.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(OC) Never heard that name?
CLAIRE BOROWICK
No.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) That's odd because his photo currently appears prominently on The Family's own website. And remember that outreach program? It's for children. We tried but were unable to reach Paul Pelloquin for comment. Though the group's founder, David Berg, died of natural causes in 1994, his wife, Karen Zerby and Ricky's own mother has continued on as the family's spiritual leader.
RICKY RODRIGUEZ
And if I get to him, life goes on...
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) From his own video, it appears Ricky was hunting for her at the end of his life.
RICKY RODRIGUEZ
And I wanna keep going until somebody gets her, I get her, justice will be done, believe me.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) And in reporting this story, we discovered just how hard it may be for anyone to find her.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(OC) Why do you think at this crucial moment in the history of The Family and in this crucial moment for Ricky and all of these other second-generation kids, your spiritual leader, Karen Zerby, is nowhere to be found? Don't you think it's odd?
CLAIRE BOROWICK
We don't look at it as nowhere to be found. She's very present in her writings.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(OC) Do you know where she is?
CLAIRE BOROWICK
Do I know where? No, not necessarily, no.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(OC) You don't? Claire, the Pope is a spiritual leader. We know where he is. Karen is a spiritual leader and we don't know where she is. And her son just committed suicide and murder.
CLAIRE BOROWICK
I'm aware of that.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(VO) So why don't we know where she is?
CLAIRE BOROWICK
That's her policy. That's all I can tell you.
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
(OC) After this story first aired last year, the FBI began an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse. According to an organization made up of ex-members in their 20s, the tragedy, however, continues. They say in the last year and a half there have been six more suicides. We contacted The Family International whose spokesperson told us they aren't aware of an FBI investigation or of the number of suicides. We'll be right back.
COMMERCIAL BREAK
JAY SCHADLER (ABC NEWS)
That's our special "Outsiders" for tonight. But be sure to stay tuned for 'Nightline" after your local news. I'm Jay Schadler. And for all of us as "Primetime," good night.
