Hugo Westphal
Hugo Westphal (U.S. citizen; pseudonyms used include Eman Artist, Snowy and Al Eastman) grew up in Texas and was a longtime Mo Letter artist, especially known for illustrating the Flirty Fishing Mo Letters.
Hugo Westphal was married to "Genesis". When it was discovered that their baby's skull was fractured, David Berg accused Genesis of being a witch, claimed it was her fault, and had these revalations published for all Children of God colonies, complete with demoniac illustrations of her. It was later found that Hugo had abused the baby in a fit of anger.
There have additionally been a number of cases of alleged child molestation by Hugo Westphal.
Hugo was eventually excommunicated due to lascivious behavior and repeated offences of severe physical abuse against women and children.
47. I guess we'll have to say this year we lost one of our first & best artists. You could hardly believe that a man like that who could draw such gorgeous pictures & be such a marvelous inspired artist could let himself go like that with such a horrible temper & beat up every woman we ever gave him or ever tried to live with him, & threw his children across the room & all kinds of horrible things!--We just couldn't take it any longer, that's all!
48. [...] That was one of our losses in a way, but let's hope it's not a complete loss & that he'll continue to contribute.--We stood it as long as we could.--Please pray for him! We love him.
50. [...] Maybe when he gets back home & sees how bad the System is, he'll appreciate the Family more, & at least maybe contribute. So PTL!
From "Dad's Birthday Message!" (ML 877) by David Berg, Feb. 1980
Hugo was later reinstated and remained in The Family International into the early 1990s before leaving again. After his final departure, in 1997 The Family decided to hire him to continue artwork for them from outside the group (see: Grapevine 10, pg. 8, "W.S. News" para. 3) and his art is known to have been published by them as recently as April 2005.
