Jesus Freaks

In the tradition of Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven, Don Lattin's Jesus Freaks is the story of a shocking pilgrimage of revenge that left two people dead and shed new light on The Family International, one of the most controversial religious movements to emerge from the spiritual turmoil of the sixties and seventies.Some say The Family International-previously known as the Children of God-began with the best intentions. But their sexual and spiritual excesses soon forced them to go underground and follow a dark and dangerous path. Their charismatic leader, David "Moses" Berg, preached a radical critique of the piety and hypocrisy of mainstream Christianity. But Berg's message quickly devolved into its own web of lies. He lusted for power and unlimited access to female members of his flock-including young girls and teenagers-and became a drunken tyrant, setting up re-indoctrination camps around the world for rebellious teenagers under his control.Thousands of children raised in The Family would defect and try to live normal lives, but the prophet's heir apparent, Ricky "Davidito" Rodriguez, was unable to either bear the excesses of the cult or fit into normal society. Sexually and emotionally abused as a child, Ricky left the fold and began a crusade to destroy the only family he ever knew, including a plot to kill his own mother.Veteran journalist Don Lattin has written a powerful, engrossing book about this uniquely American tragedy. Jesus Freaks is a cautionary tale for those who fail to question the prophesies and proclamations of anyone who claims to speak for God.

Jesus Freaks
A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge

Chapter One

Revenge of the Savior

Near the Arizona/California State Line
January 8, 2005—Westbound on Interstate 10

Prepare to stop! Prepare to Stop! Prepare to Stop! Ricky eased off the accelerator when he saw the flashing yellow signs. He'd been jamming it since he fled Tucson earlier that night and headed out toward California on Interstate 10. Now, approaching the state line, Ricky slowed down at the inspection gate, steering his silver Chevy Cavalier toward two open lanes on the left. It looked like easy passage for regular automobile traffic. Then he glanced down at the bloodied pants crumpled on the floor by the front passenger seat. Should he stop and stash the incriminating evidence? Would his Washington plates make his car more likely to be searched than vehicles returning with California tags? What should he do? Stopping to hide the bloody evidence might attract more attention than going with the flow and taking his chances. None of the cars in the open lanes were being checked. Ricky eased down on the brakes and slowed the four-door sedan into the unmanned gate, stopping just long enough to read a sign telling him there was "No Inspection Today" and to "Proceed with Caution."

It was too late for that—too late for caution. Ricky had already begun his crusade. Earlier that evening, back in Tucson, he'd slashed the throat of his first victim, Sue Kauten, who as a young woman had helped raise the Prophet Prince and was one of several adult women who engaged in sex play with the young boy.

That was decades ago. On this night, Ricky was just a few weeks shy of his thirtieth birthday. He'd been out of the cult for four years, but he couldn't shake his past—the sexual abuse, pressure to be perfect, and all the twisted prophecies of his messianic fate. No one but he could find his mother and bring her to justice. No one but he could make her pay for all the lives she and that other monster, David Brandt Berg, had destroyed over the past three decades. The hard part was finding his mother. Her whereabouts were the most closely guarded secret in The Family. There were recent rumors that his mother was back in the states—hiding out somewhere in New Mexico, or maybe California.

His mother, Karen Elva Zerby, grew up in Tucson and had been back to Arizona a couple times to visit her aging parents. In the past, in her role as his mother's personal secretary, Sue was part of an advance team sent ahead to make sure it was safe for Zerby to visit. Ricky knew his mother would be back someday, so he moved to the Arizona desert to wait for that day. His break came on Christmas Day 2004, when Ricky learned Sue would be visiting Tucson the first weekend in January. Sue would surely know how to find his mother, and Ricky was ready to do whatever it took to extract that information.

Crossing the border into California, Ricky glanced again at the bloodied pants on the floor of his car. It had been harder than he thought to kill another human being. It had been three hours since he left Sue Kauten's body on the floor of his Tucson apartment and ran out to his car. His mind was still racing, but his body was giving out. At least he'd made it to California. It was time to stop, time to polish off that case of Heineken and get up the courage to make his next move.

Proceeding west on the darkened freeway, Ricky saw that the next exit was "Lovekin Blvd/Blythe." From the highway, Blythe looks like any other pit stop on the way into southern California. There's a rise in the roadway just before the Lovekin Boulevard off-ramp, a gentle crest that reveals a new horizon. Filling the night sky above the town are the golden arches of McDonald's, the blue and yellow sphere of Motel 6, the red and yellow rectangle of Denny's, the orange and black Union-76 ball, a rotating bucket of the Colonel's chicken, and the latest logo to join this crowded field of corporate totems—the green goddess of Starbucks. These familiar symbols are stuck atop poles five stories tall, two to three times higher than any building in Blythe, a struggling farm town in the Palo Verde Valley, a patch of green on the edge of the Mojave Desert.

All Ricky wanted was a bath and those beers. He took the Lovekin Boulevard off-ramp and pulled into the Holiday Inn Express, which offered an indoor pool and free HBO.

Ricky loved movies, especially action flicks and martial arts films. His favorite movie was Boondock Saints, a notorious box office flop and cult favorite. Ricky's boss back in Tucson had recommended the film but had no idea how Ricky would take its violent, messianic message to heart.

Boondock Saints is the story of Connor and Murphy McManus, two Irish brothers living in a tough South Boston neighborhood. Fed up with a gang of sadistic Russian mobsters muscling into their part of town, the young men embark on a bloody crusade to rid their streets of this imported evil. In the opening scene, the McManus brothers kneel in a back pew of their parish church. It's St. Patrick's Day. While a young visiting priest recites the Lord's Prayer, urging forgiveness against those who trespass against us, the two brothers hear another voice of God, an Old Testament prayer calling out for righteous vengeance.

"Oh Lord, here's my flashing sword which mine hand will take hold in judgment," says the angry voice of God. "I will take vengeance upon mine enemies. Oh, Lord, raise me up to thy right hand and count me among thy saints."

Connor and Murphy (played by Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus) shock the congregation by marching up to the altar in the middle of the priest's homily. The sermon recounts the demise of a woman stabbed to death in the street nearly thirty years ago. "She cried out for help," the priest recalled, "time and time again, but no person answered her calls. Though many saw, no one so much as called the police. They all just watched as she was stabbed to death in broad daylight. They watched as her assailant walked away."

Jesus Freaks
A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge. Copyright © by Don Lattin. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Excerpted from Jesus Freaks: A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge by Don Lattin
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