Rebecca Remembers The Abuse By Tony Alamo
The following was posted on the Factnet discussion board. Click here to read more former member’s accounts of living in the group.
Posted on Thursday, November 03, 2005
My name is Rebecca Sue (Levy) Gay. I was born February 26.
When I was two my family was moved to Arkansas. The first few years of my life are kind of uneventful. I do remember my dad having to leave in the middle of the night for night watch. Also, I remember my parents being called to Tony and Susies house in the middle of the night because of reports.
I remember when I was 5 and in kindergarten in Dyer, Arkansas (1980) Tony and Susie would make frequent visits to the school. Tony was our principal. I remember his paddle. It was big and had holes drilled in it. I was told the holes made the paddle move more air and was supposed to make it sting more, which was the goal. I remember TONY ALAMO, himself coming and beating kids severely for everything from talking back to a teacher, to bad grades (C’s, D˜s and Fs), to lying or cheating on tests. I think it was at that time when I consciously realized I was not safe. I saw other kids beaten and I was terrified. In addition to being scared to death of the beatings,
I remember Carlos and Miguel getting beaten with an actual horse whip¦ I recall sitting in the cafeteria eating dinner when Erik Ondersak came back from the Spec House (Tony’s mansion). We moved over for him to sit down and he physically was unable to even sit down. He was beaten so severely with a wooden board that he was unable to sit for days! I was there, I saw that with my eyes.
In 1986 and 1987 I was at the Spec House (in Arkansas) SEVERAL times when Tylon Willis, Aaron Willis, Tyrone, Benji Risha, Jarred Balsley, Jason Balsley, Katie Decker, Angela Greiner, Kimberly Ondersak, (and maybe a few others who at this moment I cannot recall) were ORDERED to be beaten BY TONY ALAMO. (they were beaten for disrupting class, making jokes during teaching time, bad grades and talking) Now when I say beaten¦ let me just paint a picture for you¦.
One large man would get on each kids limb. That’s right one person holding each arm and each leg¦ For those who can’t count, that means FOUR adults holding these kids, suspended in mid air, while yet another adult takes a board and beats them the number of times issued by Tony Alamo. Oh, and in case you want to know how count was kept, the kids had to count their swats and if they lost count the count would start over. Tony had a thing for the number 40.
He issued lots of 40 swats.
One night this poor black kid, who was drug into the church by his parents who were eager to serve God got beaten. He was weeping and told Tony he was sorry. Tony said that God told him Tyrone was lying and Tony said, 40 more! So poor Tyrone got 40 more swats! Tony then had Aaron and Tylons mom take Tyrone and Aaron and Tylon who were also beaten in to the bathroom and these boys had to pull down their pants. If they weren’t bleeding they got more swats.
Bethany Decker who was 14 or 15 at the time started to cry because the screams and the sound of the board hitting these kids was just unbearable, Shelly Borak told Bethany Decker that if she did not stop crying she would tell ALAMO that Bethany was crying for the bad kids, and crying meant her loyalty was to them and not to God. Shelly told Bethany it would be her next.
I was there, I was personally right there when this was said and done. UNFRIKKEN REAL huh! What is hard for most people to fathom is that when Tony Alamo gave orders, they were followed. It wasn’t even a matter of, Do you want to obey? you just did. Everyone obeyed. Tony controlled everything. If you needed clothing you had to ask Tony. If you needed to go t a Dr. you had to ask Tony. If you wanted to get married you had to ask Tony. If you saw someone who was not conforming completely to all of the ever changing rules you had to report them to Tony. There was a whole system for the cult to run properly, by Tony. He had everyone under his direct authority. The adults obeyed like they were little children. They never questioned Tony and they never said no. I watched grown men stand and watch other grown men literally bloody their children’s bottoms and the dads would stand there and not lift a finger to help their own yelping children. WHY you ask???? Because they were conditioned to OBEY orders! Conditioned by fear, fear, and more fear, of yeah and twisted scriptural references. That also played a role in the obedience factor.
What must be established here, on this board is a pattern of Tony giving orders and people who are so brain washed they follow even the most absurd orders. Keep reading, I’ll show you what I mean. Later on in 1987 (or 88) Tony really started to push his control. I believe he wanted to see how far he could go. I think he was testing the limits. He began to have the adults beaten with the same boards that the kids were beaten with¦ Pete Kortez, Pam Kortez, and several others were literally spanked. These were full grown adults, mind you. These adults were so obedient and loyal to Alamo they physically bent over and did not move while they were SPANKED by a board to the number of swats that was issued. Also, at this time Tony decided to start SMITING people. He would have them stand and not move while another person literally hit them in the face as many times as ALAMO issued. These are not rumors. I saw this with my own eyes.
I was personally smitten 4 times for asking a Bible question.
God told Tony I was mocking him by asking the question. Oh and by the way, Tony Alamo never was able to answer my question.
Everything I said is true, not hear say, not a rumor, it is 100% unadulterated truth. I can stand before God knowing that I did not lie, at all.