Tag: cults

It Started With Thirst Traps on TikTok. Now, She’s Accused of Running a Cult

When Chae first saw Angela Vandusen, aka @angelatheegoddess, on her TikTok For You page last year, she was instantly smitten. A 27-year-old based in Michigan, Vandusen was a home health care aide and an aspiring natural oils entrepreneur, but she had amassed many devoted adherents by posting thirst traps on the platform, most of which followed a specific template: she’d turn her steely blue gaze on the camera, usually while biting her lower lip and lip-synching provocative lyrics, or simulating strap-on sex while winking to the camera. She’d built a following of about 50,000 followers based on those videos, as well as videos documenting her dramatic weight loss journey.

A single stay-at-home mom of two children, Chae, who requested her last name be withheld to protect her privacy, wasn’t looking for a girlfriend at the time. But when Vandusen popped into her TikTok Live late last year, she was giddy with excitement. “She was my biggest TikTok crush at the time,” Chae says. It wasn’t just Vandusen’s looks — the penetrating stare, the chest tats, the razor-sharp cheekbones — that attracted Chae. It was also the fact that Vandusen frequently made videos about her love of BBWs (big beautiful women), coupled with those documenting her own weight loss journey. As a BBW herself, Chae was intrigued. “She understands what a bigger person goes through, the insecurities and stuff like that,” Chae says.

Chae and Vandusen exchanged numbers, and they began chatting every day, sometimes late into the night while Vandusen was still working her shifts. When Vandusen told Chae she was involved in the kink lifestyle and wanted Chae to be her submissive, Chae says, she didn’t bat an eyelash; though she’d never dabbled in kink before, the prospect intrigued her. Same went for the fact that Angela had a slew of online admirers, who’d go into her Lives every Saturday to lobby for her affection: Chae was also interested in the poly lifestyle, and says she didn’t initially feel jealousy in that regard.

Then, in the winter of 2021, another one of Angela’s subs started calling her “daddy.” Angela apparently liked it, and on one of her Lives, she requested that all of her followers refer to her as “Daddy,” and that they refer to themselves as “Daddy’s Girls.” “It mainly was like a sisterhood,” says Chae. “At least, that’s how it started.”

Now, Vandusen, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment, is alleged to be the leader of the Daddy’s Girls cult, a group of female devotees who identify themselves with a yellow heart in their bio (this was, Chae says, inspired by the fact that she once painted her nails yellow, and Angela liked the color). Many of the members of the so-called “Daddy’s Girls cult,” as TikTokers describe it, are Black women; their bizarre Lives, in which they pray to Vandusen like a god, have attracted the attention of black TikTok. The level of scrutiny around them was heightened last spring after Chae left the group and made several allegations against Angela publicly, such as that she forced her “Girls” to cut themselves and pull out their own hair if they displeased her. And while many of Vandusen’s so-called “girls” state that their relationships with her are consensual, and that they follow her of their own volition, cult experts disagree.

“What definitely is going on here is psychological manipulation,” says Diane Benscoter, a cult expert and former member of the Unification Church, who runs the group Antidote.ngo. “This person is taking advantage of TikTok and social media and it’s a business, almost, where the goal is total control over a specific group of people. It’s definitely got all of the components that one would call a cult.” In their Lives, Angela and other members of the group would also validate claims that the group was a “cult,” albeit in a tongue-in-cheek fashion. “They say it’s a cult,” Angela says in one Live, responding to another user’s comment and grinning. “Want to join?” 

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Jamaican preacher Kevin O. Smith, parishioners arrested for alleged human sacrifices

A Jamaican preacher and 41 of his congregants were arrested last week after two people were killed during an alleged “human sacrifice.”

Kevin O. Smith, a self-proclaimed “prophet,” and the church members were arrested for slitting the throats of 39-year-old office worker Tanecka Gardner and an unidentified man.  

Friends told the Jamaica Observer Gardner had been buying “essentials” in the weeks before her death, as Smith told his congregants that a flood was about to sweep in.

“Even recently, she has been stocking up on kerosene oil and cooking oil,” a friend told the Observer. “She told me that the pastor said that they must buy brown rice because something is going to happen.”

The day of the murders, Smith ordered parishioners to dress in white, wrap their cellphones in tin foil, leave the devices at home and head to the church, the Mirror reported.

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The Finders: CIA Ties to Child Sex Cult Obscured as Coverage Goes from Sensationalism to Silence

WASHINGTON — In February 1987, an anonymous phone tip was called into the Tallahassee police department reporting that six children were dirty, hungry, and acting like animals in the custody of two well-dressed men in a Tallahassee, Florida park. That phone call would kick off the Finders scandal: a series of events and multiple investigations even more bizarre than the initial report.

The trail would ultimately lead to allegations of a cult involved in ritual abuse, an international child-trafficking ring, evidence of child abuse confirmed and later denied, and ties with the CIA, which was alleged to have interfered in the case. No one was ever prosecuted in the wake of the initial 1987 investigation or a 1993 inquiry into the allegations of CIA involvement: official denials were maintained, and authorities stated that no evidence of criminal activity was ever found. However, documents that have emerged over time beg significant questions as to the validity of the official narrative.

In contrast with other historical human trafficking rings covered in the independent press, including those I have previously discussed, the Finders scandal presents as something of a phantom. This is in consequence of the lack of adult victims who have come forward, an absence of hard evidence viewable to the public, and an absence of extensive trials or convictions. Further impeding the willingness of most journalists to cover such a story were claims of ritualistic abuse that were hyped by corporate media at the time of the incident, as well as allegations of a CIA-led coverup that were less widely recognized by the legacy press.

The story is further complicated by the fact that it takes place in three basic stages: the initial 1987 investigation spread across multiple states and law enforcement agencies; a subsequent 1993 inquiry into allegations of a CIA coverup and interference in the 1987 investigation; and the emergence of Customs Service documents detailing new aspects of initial searches of Finders properties which was followed by the publication of hundreds of documents from both investigations to the FBI vault in 2019.

By initially sensationalizing the issue via the framing of the Finders as a satanic cult, the media profited from immediate shock value while permitting this very sensationalism to become the premise for dismissing other aspects of the story and Finders ties to the CIA to remain unexplored.

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Russia Becomes First Country To Ban Scientology As A “Threat To National Security”

Russia’s Justice Ministry is waging a war on Scientology, this week banning the organization from operating on Russian soil. It’s not the first time Moscow has moved legally against the group, however, in an updated list released Friday two key Church of Scientology entities have now been blacklisted as “undesirable” – the most severe designation ever taken by the Russian government.

Calling the group a “threat to the security of the Russian Federation” a media statement described that that “On October 1, the World Institute of Scientology Enterprises International, L. Ron Hubbard Library as well as the ENEMO were added to the list of organizations whose activity is deemed undesirable in Russia by the Prosecutor General’s Office.”

The two entities named are California-based holdings and are said to be vital to Scientology operations in foreign countries. Being added to the “undesirable” list means all local offices are closed down by the state and assets frozen.

Moscow has long argued it’s a “business masquerading as a religion” – similar to arguments made by detractors in the West, who have also long lobbied Washington to revoke Scientology’s tax exempt status.

In most countries across the globe, the group is officially considered a religion and thus enjoys tax exempt status, with the major exception of Russia. In the US, where it was born over a half-century ago when American science fiction novelist L. Ron Hubbard wrote its foundational texts (numbering thousands upon thousands of pages), it’s attracted huge controversy.

The controversy and media spotlight has grown especially over the last decade in the US. After a number of high profile Scientologists, including celebrities like Tom Cruise and John Travolta (though there are rumors the latter has moved away from it), became outspoken public advocates – which included defending some bizarre practices like forcing women to “stay silent” during child birth – but which resulted in backlash as more and more documentaries emerged delving into the strange belief system. 

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COURT DOCS: Neo-Nazi Satanic Sect Leader Outed As FBI Informant Since 2003, Was Paid Over $140,000 By U.S. Government

A court filing in the case of a high-profile Neo-nazi group member has ousted Joshua Caleb Sutter as a longtime informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Sutter, the publisher of Martinet Press, is allegedly an Atomwaffen member and key figure in the satanic group known as the O9A Tempel ov Blood, according to investigative reporter Ali Winston.

Investigative reporter Ali Winston has been covering the case against Kaleb Cole, an alleged Atomwaffen member who was charged with leading a conspiracy to intimidate reporters across the United States with other group members. All of them have entered guilty pleas except Cole, according to Winston.

In what Winston described as a “remarkable filing” from Cole’s case, it was revealed that Joshua Caleb Sutter, an Atomwaffen member, Satanic 09A Tempel ov Blood leader, and Satanic book publisher, is “undoubtedly” an FBI informant, and had been since 2003, according to documents. “Sutter isn’t identified by name, but its undoubtedly him. Martinet Press publishes Order of Nine Angles texts that have radicalized countless youth in Neo-Fascist, Satanist practices. He has that aforementioned ’03 conviction for trying to [sic] sell a firearm w/an obliterated serial,” Winston explained. The promotion of the satanic Tempel ov Blood ideology, according to journalist Jake Hanrahan, has connections to a series of murders in Great Britain.

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Children of God victims forced to sign up for ‘sex rota’ from age of 10, survivors say

Verity Carter, now 41, was one of thousands raised in the notorious Children of God cult where kids were sexually assaulted, beaten and put on a ‘sharing schedule’ for sex at the age of 10.

Glasgow-born Verity has shared her story along with fellow survivors Hope Bastine and Celeste Jones in the new Discovery series, Children of the Cult.

The series shows disturbing footage from inside the communes and reveals the horror of life in the cult.

The survivors’ long fight for justice is documented in the five-part series as they share their ordeal.

The first UK convictions of the cult’s abusers were only secured in 2018 and 2020.

The evil sect was founded in 1968 by David Brandt Berg and grew to 130 communities around the world which housed 13,000 members.

Numerous communes based in the UK were used by Berg to convince followers that the world was ending and that sex was the way to find God.

Berg made his followers believe that “death was the ultimate orgasm.”

Members were inundated with images of naked women and children as well as X-rated videos and a rota was made for women and girls as young as 10 to make themselves available for sex to any man in the commune.

Berg endorsed a book about the sexual abuse of his own infant son, a horrific act which he encouraged his followers to do too.

Celeste said that the image of the Children on God as a sex cult is wrong, it’s more than that, it was a method of control.

She said: “David Berg said we needed to share sexually with other members in the commune. You were told who you had to have sex with.”

Verity’s mum joined the cult in Renfrewshire, Scotland, after Berg opened up the communes in the 1970s and began a lengthy recruitment process for members.

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Losing Finders: The Buried Documents that Linked the Infamous Cult to the CIA

WASHINGTON — Concerning the Finders cult — the elusive Washington, D.C.-based outfit whose antics and ties we began examining in Part 1 of this series — one set of documents in particular held the most explosive allegations made against the group and against the CIA for allegedly covering the story up. Despite their contents, almost no corporate press ever quoted from these documents or addressed the concerns they raise. This article will attempt to remedy that deficit of coverage by fully exploring what the documents have to say.

I previously described the 1987 arrest of two well-dressed men in Tallahassee, Florida, on charges of child abuse relating to six children found neglected, dirty, and hungry in their care. After the men were found to be members of the Finders, a multi-state investigation sparked a national media frenzy: for a week, headlines alleged satanic ritual abuse before downshifting radically. The entire scandal was eventually explained as a “miscommunication” regarding a “misunderstood” alternative-lifestyle community. But further questions would arise regarding allegations that the Finders were linked to the CIA and that the agency had spiked the investigation.

In my initial article introducing this series of deep dives into the Finders scandal, I mentioned the allegations made by former Customs Special Agent Ramon Martinez in the Customs reports he penned in 1987. To understand the overall Finders story, we must look at exactly what evidence Martinez claims to have witnessed and what that evidence suggests. His account is crucial because, if true, it undermines the established narrative that no evidence of criminality on the part of the Finders was ever found.

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Former NXIVM Second-in-Command Allison Mack Sentenced to Three Years in Prison

Allison Mack, the former star of the CW’s Smallville, was sentenced on Wednesday to three years in prison, as well as a $20,000 fine. In April 2019, she pleaded guilty to charges of racketeering and racketeering conspiracy related to her role in NXIVM, the Albany-based self-improvement group and multi-level marketing organization commonly referred to in the media as a “sex cult.”

Former member Jessica Joan, who revealed last December that she had been a Jane Doe in the case, gave an impassioned victim statement during the proceedings, in which she described Mack as “a demon of a woman” who had groomed her to be a “sex slave.” “Allison Mack and Keith Raniere are the most evil monsters I’ve ever met,” she said. “She sought me out like a predator stalking their prey.”

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