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Tony Alamo’s Enforcer On The Run

Cops: Fugitive Beat Followers For Slip-Ups

While Tony Alamo might be in jail for transporting minors over state lines for sex, another dangerous member of his church is still on the run. Cops say John Kolbek helped keep the Alamo followers in line… by beating them into submission.

The Full Story Below:

The Alamo Empire

In the late 1960s, Tony Alamo and his wife Susan began the Tony and Susan Alamo Christian Ministries by recruiting the hippies and homeless off Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, Calif. The group officially incorporated into the Tony and Susan Alamo Foundation on January 29, 1969.

Cops say Susan Alamo was the brains of the foundation and instructed Tony Alamo on how to act and what to say. The couple bought airtime and began spreading their message on the airwaves. Tony, a self-proclaimed singer and record promoter, performed religious songs live, while Susan preached the Bible.

While the group continued to gain followers, the Alamos gained power. However, their empire faltered when Susan was struck down with breast cancer. Ex-members say this was when Tony Alamo began to show a darker side.

He allegedly forced his followers to pray around his dead wife’s body all day and night, convinced she would rise from the dead. When her body decayed instead of resurrecting, ex-followers say Alamo told them Susan would return to him in the body of a younger woman.

In the early 90s, Alamo was sued by the IRS for back taxes, and became a fugitive for two years. After he was captured and served jail time, he returned to his church and took up old habits.

This is when cops say Alamo began to prey on young women in his church. In order to do this, he needed to control his followers. This is where John Kolbek entered the picture.
According to later testimony, Kolbek’s daughter was married to Alamo when she was only eight years-old.

The Enforcer

Ex-members say Kolbek got into Alamo’s good graces when he allowed his daughter to live with Alamo when she was six years-old. According to later testimony, the child was “married” to Alamo when she was only eight. After this precious gift, Kolbek became Alamo’s right-hand man.

Alamo allegedly became extremely controlling in every aspect of his follower’s lives. They had to submit their phone records to him, and they could not purchase clothing, food, or any other item without his approval. Ex-followers said they could not watch television without Alamo’s consent. In exchange, Alamo gave his followers salvation.

According to ex-followers, church members believed that God was actually speaking through Alamo. Alamo preached fire and brimstone, saying that the end was coming and that he would bring those who followed him into heaven. He threatened his churchgoers, saying those who left the church would become insane or homosexual, and would burn in hell when they died. This type of fear kept his flock from straying.

If anyone were to question Alamo, they would be summoned to see Kolbek. Kolbek had what was known as the “board of education,” a three foot long, six inch wide wooden board used to beat followers into submission. Ex-members said it was unpredictable when they would get beaten. There are documented records of members being beaten for playing in the dirt, making a joke about Harry Potter, playing with squirt bottles, making repairs that didn’t hold, and other meaningless “crimes.”

But while the crimes were meaningless, the beatings weren’t.
Here’s Johnny!

Ex-members say the beatings would consist of person holding each limb, while the victim was held aloft. Kolbek would then take out the board and beat the person relentlessly, sometimes to the point of unconsiousness. In one case, Alamo was quoted as introducing John Kolbek by saying, “Here’s Johnny!” Another time, he was reported as saying, “Do you think I like doing this? I love doing this!”

These beatings were allegedly given to adults and children alike. In one case, ex-members say Alamo even ordered Kolbek to “beat the devil” out of a little girl with epilepsy.

When two teenage boys escaped the Alamo compound, they reported the alleged abuse to police. The beatings one boy sustained were so intense, there was still visible bruising from a beating six months prior.

Police raided the Alamo compound on September 21, 2008 and removed the girls living in Alamo’s house. They raided the area again in November, seized more children, and placed them into foster homes.

Alamo has since been convicted of transporting minors over state lines for sex, and sentenced to 175 years in prison. Kolbek was able to escape authorities, and is on the run. He might be traveling with this wife, Jennifer, and four children belonging to another member on the church. The children are under the guardianship of Jennifer Kolbek, and police are concerned for the children’s safety.

Wanted For:

* Second Degree Battery , Fort Smith , AR ; Oct 16, 2008

(Information valid as of December 11, 2009)

Witness: Alamo said ‘The Lord told me to abuse’

A third-generation follower of evangelist Tony Alamo told federal court jurors Wednesday that the preacher had so many sex partners that he scheduled how often he would sleep with them.

The 30-year-old woman said she was one of Alamo’s wives, marrying him at age 15.

Alamo is named in a 10-count indictment alleging he took young girls across state lines for sex. He has pleaded not guilty. The woman told jurors she traveled to California, Tennessee and West Virginia to be available for the now 74-year-old minister.

In testimony, the woman said she began to have questions after Alamo graphically described what he had done to an 8-year-old girl holding a stuffed animal. She said Alamo told her she shouldn’t question what “the Lord told me to do.”

Witness: Evangelist had total control of compound

A woman whose parents and grandparents followed evangelist Tony Alamo testified at his sex-crime trial Wednesday that “Papa Tony” segregated children by gender to prevent “hanky-panky” and controlled everything at his religious compound.

The woman, now 30, said children in the compound were not allowed to attend public schools and instead took classes that Alamo himself approved. She also said the pastor’s consent was needed if a follower wanted to obtain food or clothing, or borrow a car from the motor pool.

“He had control over everything,” the woman said.

Alamo, 74, is accused of taking five girls across state lines for sex between 1994 and 2005. The woman did not testify about any specific allegations before the judge ordered a recess so workers could fix a broken computer monitor at the defense table.

The woman said her first memory of Alamo was from age 3, when his ministry was based along Georgia Ridge in far western Arkansas. Her family moved to New York briefly in 1991 after federal marshals seized the land amid Alamo’s disputes with the IRS and Labor Department.

In the fifth grade, she said, Alamo ordered boys and girls into separate classrooms.

“He said he didn’t want, as he put it, any hanky-panky between boys and girl,” the woman said.

In 1992, the girl was a young teen and had returned to western Arkansas. She and other girls worked as baby-sitters and also had to help in the church office or wrap candy at one of Alamo’s business ventures. Her mother, she said, purchased groceries to feed the flock.

Prosecutors alleged in their opening statement Tuesday that Alamo took a girl as young as age 8 as a bride and repeatedly sexually assaulted her and that at least four other girls were raped or assaulted as well. Defense lawyers say the girls traveled the country for outreach and to support the business interests of a “bona fide religious group.”

Jurors were expected to hear from Alamo’s alleged victims early in the trial. While the woman who testified Wednesday did not discuss specific sex crimes, it is expected that she will. The Associated Press generally does not identify alleged victims of sex crimes.

In questioning Wednesday, a woman in a photograph shown to the witness was identified as “one of Tony Alamo’s wives” – drawing a sharp objection from Alamo’s lawyers. U.S. District Judge Harry F. Barnes has said references to Alamo’s alleged polygamy is off limits.

After a few minutes of discussion at the bench, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyra Jenner referred to women in the photos as “residents” of Tony Alamo’s home.

During the bench conference, Alamo grabbed a book of photos from the defense table and looked at the pictures from a distance of about 2 inches. The woman on the stand smiled occasionally while looking around the courtroom. During a glance at Alamo she wiped away a tear.

Defense lawyers say the government targeted the ministry for prosecution and Alamo says the trial is part of a Vatican-led conspiracy against him.

“This investigation, this prosecution was fueled by prejudice the government and law enforcement have against Tony Alamo’s church because of its practices,” said Don Ervin, who is leading Alamo’s defense team.

Alamo, whose ministry grew into a multimillion industry on the backs of his followers, was convicted of tax evasion charges in 1994. He served four years in prison after the IRS said he owed the government $7.9 million.

In 1991, Alamo was acquitted of threatening a federal judge – a case that fueled an extraordinary increase in security efforts for Alamo’s current trial.

State and federal agents raided Alamo’s compound in far southwestern Arkansas last September. Alamo was later named in a 10-count indictment.

If convicted, Alamo faces 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count. He is being held without bond until the end of his trial.

Witness: Evangelist controlled everything

A woman whose parents and grandparents followed evangelist Tony Alamo testified at his sex-crime trial Wednesday that “Papa Tony” segregated children by gender to prevent “hanky-panky” and controlled everything at his religious compound.

The 30-year-old said children in the compound were not allowed to go to public schools and instead took classes that Alamo himself approved. She also said obtaining food or clothing, or borrowing a car from the motor pool, had to be OK’d by the pastor.

Alamo is accused of taking five girls across state lines for sex. The woman did not testify about any specific allegations before the judge ordered a recess so workers could fix broken equipment in the courtroom.

Alamo has pleaded not guilty.

Southwest Times Record
June 21, 1996

Ex-wife: Alamo took away childhood

When she was 6, Jody moved to Alma from Connecticut with her mom, step dad and sister, and became a part of Tony Alamo’s Holy Alamo Christian Church.

The family soon moved into the Alamo compound on Georgia Ridge in Dyer, where Jody gave her heart to God and her life to Tony Alamo.

In return, Jody says, Tony Alamo took away her childhood at the age of 10 by putting her to work eight hours or more a day in the church’s denim jacket business.

And when she was 17, he took her virginity after making her one of the three “wives” he had at the time.

After nearly a year of being “married” to Jody (in a ceremony consisting of Tony mumbling a prayer and asking, “Do you marry me?” and her replying, “I do,” in front of two church members in a California hotel room) Alamo “divorced” her. Jody has since left the church, testified against Tony in a federal income tax case and struggled to cope with life outside the church and Tony Alamo,

Jody, now 20, says even though she’s out of the church, not an hour of each day goes by that she doesn’t worry about those still controlled by Alamo from his cell in a Texarkana, Texas, federal prison, where he is serving a six-year sentence.

Tony’s so into The Old Testament now, he believes it’s alright for him to have as many wives as he wants,” she says. “And before I left him, he was talking about having people in the church stoned for committing adultery and things and even sacrificing animals in worship.”

Jody’s testimony in a 1994 tax case against Alamo, which was supported by documents she had quietly accumulated, proving Alamo lived lavishly on unreported income, helped the IRS put Alamo behind bars. He was convicted of understating his income and failing to file tax returns on unreported church income of about $9 million from 1985-88.

Before the conviction, Alamo had faced various other state and federal criminal charges, including a 1991 charge of threatening to kidnap U.S. District Judge Morris Arnold of Fort Smith. (Jody says she was among many other followers who listened to Tony’s taped message describing how he was going to “judge the judge and hang him.”)

Following her testimony against Alamo in the tax case, a scathing personal condemnation of her was printed in a Holy Alamo Christian Church leaflet plastered in public places all over the country by Alamo followers.

The pamphlet, “Lying for Fun and Profit,” included about a dozen “affidavits” signed by Alamo followers including Jody’s stepfather and half-brother. The affidavits accuse Jody of being a rebellious troublemaker and habitual liar.

But the affidavit statements are lies, Jody says. She says if Alamo followers are taught that if they hear anyone criticize him and don’t come to his defense, all the curses in the Bible will befall them. They also believe Tony is infallible and his authority over them is absolute.

“He uses the Bible to bring people in to be saved but uses their gratitude for salvation to make them feel they have to stay in his church,” she says. “I found out that living with Tony and living in the church as a ‘no one’ is totally different.”

Jody says she believed it was wrong to marry Tony, knowing he had other wives, but could not refuse him. But she said she put off consummation of the marriage until it was forced on her, because she was repulsed by the thought of sexual relations with Alamo. After that she said she contin¬ued to submit but was “like a corpse” to his advances, which he griped about.

While living as Alamo’s wife, she got to dine with him at swanky restaurants, watch him become drunk on $200-a-bottle wine at a Beverly Hills Country Club and wear expensive clothes, Jody said. She still has, but doesn’t wear, wedding rings he bought her.

But she felt guilty living so well while most other Alamo followers existed in near poverty conditions while working long hours in the church’s production of high-priced, hand-painted and decorated denim jackets.

Jody says Alamo still has a loyal follow¬ing across the country. He directs his flock and witness teams through messages and sermons he tapes from his prison cell, and orders the printing of his notorious church pamphlets in Fort Smith and Fayetteville,

After federal officers seized Alamo’s Georgia Ridge property in 1991, his followers there scattered to find other homes, Jody ended up at Alamo church operations in California.

There she was chosen by Alamo to work in the church office, where one of her duties was to look up scriptures to support the doctrines he dictates to followers— like his right, “as a prophet,” to take more than one wife.

Daring to debate scriptures with Tony and disagree with him eventually got Jody “divorced” from her pastor/husband, she says.

“There is nothing, she says, Alamo’s followers won’t do for him.”

“They’re giving their daughters to him, they’d even die for him,” the pretty young ex-Alamo “wife” told me. “At one time I would have, too. Since Susan (Alamo) died (in 1981), he can do anything he wants in the church. There doesn’t seem to be anyone or anything that can stop him.”

Times Record columnist Linda Seubold is a four-time recipient of the Distinguished Service to Journalism Award from, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

If you had told me several months before that I would become Tony’s wife I might have thought you were crazy. I had never heard of polygamy until 1993, the same year my daughter was born. Apparently, Tony had my husband and another man from the group doing research on polygamy for quite some time beforehand. I knew nothing of it; neither did most members of the church. He was saving it, as a special revelation from God, to share with the members.

When he brought the first message, and I received the tape, I asked my husband, “What’s next? Drugs and alcohol?” When my husband reported to Tony that I had said this, Tony called me to his house and subjected me to over three hours of reprogramming. The bottom line was that if I did not accept polygamy, I was a blasphemer.

I know what you might be thinking. “So what? Just leave!” Unfortunately, it was not that simple for me. I lived my entire life within the foundation and I knew no other life. As far as I knew, Tony was the Lord’s Anointed and I was but a simple sheep in rebellion to his will. To further complicate matters, I had no money of my own, no job, no job history, no high school diploma, and no way really to leave unless I wanted to leave my family and my entire support base. The idea was unthinkable to me. I submitted. I did not understand it, but I submitted to the Lord’s Will.

After a few months, in February of 1993, Tony began talking about “virgin brides”, wives he would take who would remain virgins unto the Lord. I thought, “Well, this isn’t as bad as I thought. At least it isn’t about sex.” I was relieved, actually. Though I was still disappointed to see that Tony had already married four wives, only two of those wives had conceived by him and I felt that the others must be virgins. Then, later, in a move that angered me, Tony kicked out his ex-stepson, Kenya Williams, and took Kenya’s wife, Misheal. Misheal was pregnant with Kenya’s son, but Tony said the child would be his. According to Tony, Kenya was not submitting to the Lord and therefore was “cut off” from the Lord. Forever. God had said “NEVER” and that was it. Their marriage was over, and Kenya was gone.

Fear rang in our hearts. People had been put out before and there were people who had come against the Foundation with accusations. We knew those people would never be let back in. But God had said “NEVER” and that had not happened before. God could say that about any of us if we didn’t watch out. In prayer, I submitted to God, even though I did not understand what was going on. I had always loved God, prayed to him, supported Tony even when things seemed mysterious to me. Now God was no longer on my side, only Tony’s and this put quite a bit of fear into me.

Unexpectedly, it was not me that God cut off, but my faithful husband, the one who had done the research on polygamy, covered Tony’s ass while he was in jail by conducting financial affairs and keeping the bills paid and so forth. My husband only ever meant well by Tony, and saw him as a father, a mentor, a guide, a pastor, and most of all ‘God’s Anointed.’ One day, my husband was flying high, managing the office affairs, running Tony’s errands, doing special projects, and sending Western Unions back and forth across the country to keep the affairs of the church running smoothly, and the next morning, I woke up to Tony screaming at him on the speakerphone and telling him to leave right now, God is through. No mercy. I stumbled half-awake over to where he was but Randy motioned for me to stay put. He grabbed a few things and went out the door, down the street on his feet, because we had no car, just walking. I had met him at the door briefly and he said “Don’t make it hard for us.” “I’ll get you back” I told him and tried to kiss him, but he brushed away and shut the door.

From the speakerphone in the other room I could hear him asking, “Is he gone? Good! Make sure that bastard is gone. God won’t bless this ministry with people like him around. Insolent bastard.”

I was absolutely stunned. Tony’s right hand man, just gone over some….what? an office mistake? A misunderstanding? God could not possibly be THIS irrational. But apparently he was.

For two weeks I continued on as assistant in Tony’s office, living there and breathing grief and missing my husband who had wandered the streets, until I finally stopped Tony in the middle of something one day and told him I wanted to see my husband. He later had someone help us rent an apartment. At this point we had one leg in the foundation (me) and another leg completely and totally anathema (my husband.) I suppose I really did not believe God had cut him off and that is why I continued to stay with him and try to get him back into the Foundation. I could not imagine living apart from God’s Will.

A few months passed like this, and I could sense uneasiness in the Pastor, but I refused to acknowledge it for fear of what it was and for fear of becoming cut off myself. Then, one day he said, “You cannot be unequally yoked with an unbeliever.” I died inside. That afternoon I went to my apartment packed all my things and left my husband. It was possibly the saddest moment in my life. I had spent those months praying, fasting, begging God, begging my husband to do whatever, anything, everything, confess to anything, any moment of doubt, but please just make God happy so this could all be over with.

Writing all this today I can think of a million things I should have done, but truly, at the time, there was nothing I could think of to do but to wait on the Lord and pray and hope in his mercy, which had begun to run out.

The night that I became Tony Alamo’s wife (October 15, 1993), I had gone to speak to him as my pastor, the only pastor I had ever known, which even now seems like a rational thing to do. I approached him one evening, as my pastor, to please ask God for another chance for Randy. I felt that God did not want my child to be without her father, nor me to be without my husband. What ensued were several hours of emotional and spiritual deception and coercion. Just when I thought I had made my point, Tony would reveal to me a new reason why I had to leave Randy, and not only rejoin his group, but stay close to him. I was becoming more and more confused. I had never known another man of God. Tony had been like God to me and I had always thought he was honest and meant well; and how many times had we read “Touch not mine Anointed and do my prophets no harm.” If I protested about anything he was to tell me about God’s will for my life that would be an accusation against him. I could not accuse a prophet of the Lord. I did not have it in me. These thoughts were pervading my conscience and still I asked him to allow my husband back into the fold. I was willing to risk the anger of God, because I felt I could prove that I was right and this was all a misunderstanding.

We went back and forth for six hours. There were several times that I thought he had not only heard me, but been convinced of what I was asserting. He was being very kind, understanding, offered me a drink of water, said I was intelligent and not at all the way he had thought I was.

All at once Tony took my hand and said I was to marry him. Then he asked me to be his wife. I was very confused. I had gone to tell him that I must stay with Randy and suddenly here I was about to marry him. I started to say no. I was suddenly terrified of God. God knew how to play terrific, horrible tricks. I felt like a little ant. So this is what it felt like to be in the presence of God’s anointed.

Questions that never finished, before more questions invaded, spiraled me into confusion.
Here I was, seventeen years old. In another room, his five wives had my child. I was alone. I had no car. No money. No telephone. NO OPTIONS.

Would I go to hell? Would he do something to me? If I ran out into the street right now screaming, would he have me committed? I was terrified, not of just him, and the person he was, but also of the person he represented to me as God’s Anointed. My baby was in the other room with Sharon Kroopf, Lydia Willis, Jody, Isabel Mendoza, and Misheal Jones-Williams, his five wives. I wanted to go and get her. If I left would God kill my baby? Would they have even given her back? They were after all praying for God to cause me to see the error of my ways and concede to being his wife. That way they would be blessed too. I felt angry and felt that I had been tricked into coming to his house that night. He knew what I wanted. He pretended that he would give it to me and instead presented a high stakes bargain: If I married him that was the only hope Randy would have of ever being let into heaven. God was a God who could kill me in an instant if I displeased him. Tony was the only one who had the power to save my husband from hell. Hesitantly, I prayed. Words, words, and more words went round and round in my head. Something tried to creep in, some inkling of truth, but I was not able to grasp it. I could not think. The Alamo Foundation had been my life. Every message I had heard was from Tony’s lips. My education was from Tony’s perspective, my worldview was Tony’s worldview, my voice was his voice, my thoughts were supposed to be as close to his thoughts as possible. All that I knew about God I had learned from Tony or someone who was close to him. I opened my eyes.

The fleeting particle of another option left and suddenly he made so much sense and I was the stupid one. He squeezed my hand and said, “You haven’t answered me.” in a tone that meant “God is displeased with you.” I knew then that there was no way out. I thought I would just say yes, then grab my baby and leave. I had no car, so I would have to walk in the dark streets. I had no telephone, and no money. I said “yes.” Immediately I felt remorseful. My love, my life. It had all vanished in a second. “He who finds his life shall lose it, and he who loses his life shall find it.” How many times had I heard that scripture? Now I finally knew what it meant. He squeezed my arm and said “Good girl.” I felt relieved, like I had bought some time from God and I started planning. I would go get my child, tell him I’d see him in the morning and never come back. He said some words that I don’t remember and kissed me on the head. I could not even lift up my head for the sadness of physically betraying my husband, but I was afraid. Afraid he might see it and God might be angry with me.

In my mind I cried out “No! I change my mind, you misunderstand me!” but I was mute with fear and confusion. This was a sacrifice, like the one Abraham had to give when he offered his son Isaac. At any moment God would descend, strike the knife from his hand, and I would be free. Then he asked me if I wanted to go in the “other room.” At first I thought he only meant the conference room, where my baby was. But he was expecting something, I could tell. He watched me closely. Then I knew. The other room was his bedroom. Fear shot through body and I told him that I did not. I was trying to figure out how to get out of it. What happened to the whole “virgin bride” thing? In that moment, I wanted to run away back home, back to my own sweet husband who would rather me never know of his love than to force himself on me. Patiently, Tony waited–five minutes. He asked me again, and again I said “no.” He stood up, took my hand and tugged me in that direction. From there on, I was in victim mode, a surveyor of my actions, non-participant in the decisions. Moments before, I had a plan. A simple plan but a workable one. That disintegrated when I realized that he very much meant for me to have sex with him, right then. I was smitten. I tried to act cool and change the subject. He pulled my arm in anticipation and took me in the other room.

My blood ran cold. My mind was still, but my heart raced faster than I knew it could. I don’t really remember what happened next but somewhere a voice, I don’t remember whose, told me that the marriage must be consummated. I thought “Well, not now. I have to nurse the baby first.” That was already taken care of. As if he read my mind, he smirked and signaled to Misheal and Sharon and they said “She’s asleep.” I felt a tinge of anger, but stayed with my hand on the back of a chair, while he cleared the bedroom and took me. My emotional consciousness watched, begging for mercy, as I entered the dark room, and he lay me on the bed. He asked me over and over what was wrong until I realized that I was shaking uncontrollably and sobbing. He said something like “Women get emotional about this.” I sucked it in, not wanting to be a woman, not wanting to give him anything I didn’t have to. I asked him what he was doing to me. The clock across the room had red glowing numbers—so fitting. Looking back I can only describe it as a heart that had once been mine had been stolen from me, cut from my person, and I was left to emotionally bleed to death on the bed. I thought I would vomit.

He kept saying, “the blood of Jesus is against you Satan” over and over again. My fear was that I was Satan and that Jesus’ blood would come and kill me as I lay there doubting every thing I had ever known, even doubting my human existence. Finally it was over. The cold breeze of the air conditioner went on. I turned over and cried silently. I missed my husband. The worst night of my life and he wasn’t there to hold me.

I was officially “broken in”, if you want to call it that. I was now desensitized and reprogrammed into being his “wife.” The next morning Tony told me never to think of Randy again. I was sitting in the corner of the room with a headache and sobbing again. Adultery wasn’t in me, just a desire to do God’s will. He said that God would cut me off if I thought of my husband. I was not even to speak his name. Tony spoke of Randy and his (Tony’s) triumph often and every time he did, my emotions were fractured into shards of grief and anger. This was the beginning of two and one half years of abuse, including psychological and emotional trauma, sleep deprivation, and numerous fasts, up to three weeks at a time. And always the quest to know “Are you thinking of him?” thrust upon me in unsuspecting moments. I was seventeen. My life, already, was pretty much over.

In 1993 and ’94 while I was living with Tony in his house, I witnessed 15yr, 16yr, 17yr, and 18 year olds living as Alamo’s “wives” going into his bedroom and it was common knowledge amongst ourselves that we were all having sexual relations with him. Lydia Willis was pregnant with Tony’s baby and delivered Tony’s son, Tabor, while I lived there. In December of 1993 he added Angel Streit to his harem and Jody left his house around the same time. In January 1994 he married Elizabeth “Lizzy” Gutierrez who had just turned 16 and Jeannette Orlando who was just 15 years old. Tony Alamo confided in me that he had spanked Isabel, one of his other “wives”. In late 1994 and 1995, from prison, Tony claimed to have received revelations from God to marry nine and ten year old girls and in the summer of 1994 he had 9 year old Eliza V, the first of these virgin brides visit him in prison in Memphis, Tennessee. Later, in 1995 he had Katrina and Darlene F., more of these young “virgin brides” visit him in the prison at Florence, CO. While there, the little girls would sit on his lap and he would talk dirty to them. Since he had us older ones (Sharon, Isabel, Angel, Jeannette O, Lizzy G) rub near his groin and he fondled our breasts and if possible other anatomy, I assumed he was doing these things to these younger girls also. We had an unspoken code to look away from him while he was “visiting” with another wife.

In January 1996 I was kicked out of his house under enormous pressure of not having completed a project (which was physically impossible to complete in the manner in which he requested.) He said God would kill his son, Sion, if I was to stay. Actually, I was relieved. I then went to stay with my parents in Arkansas who were with the regular part of the congregation. Tony called me and asked me to repent, and I refused. I had enough of being a battered wife. He had intended to maintain some control over me and when I would not fall for it he said I could not leave, but he would kick me out. Why did I leave? Not because America is a free country, because I had no idea what freedom looked like. I left because my child was turning three. My mother-heart was waking up to the realization that someday, my little girl would become a young woman, and I did not want this for her. In conversations, Tony had also described sexually perverted acts that he intended to do with us when he was released from prison, including beatings and orgies. I decided that I had had enough. I wanted to be a good mother, I wanted to live a good life. If God was mad at me, so be it. I had to move on. Later, after I left, Tony continued to harass me with letters of condemnation, threatening that I would get cancer and die or be killed in a car accident. He continued to remind me that I was damned to hell. It took years of counseling to end the nightmares and fears that had been instilled in me. Tony calls it the “fear of the Lord.” In reality it was fear of life, fear of making a mistake, fear of being alone, fear of being responsible to myself. He taught us fear, and it worked. That is how his cult continues to survive.

Tami

I, Cindi Jo, was born and raised in the Tony and Susan Alamo Christian Foundation. I am the oldest of four siblings. Knowing no other life, I thought my life was good. We had our own school, cafeteria, recreational center and, of course, church. As I got older things started to change. Tony’s wife, Susan had passed away and Tony remarried. I remember vividly playing on the playground and seeing Tony’s limo pull up. He got out with his expensive furs and diamonds. His wife decked out as well. Everybody stood around him as if he were God. That’s when things really started to change. Tony, shortly afterwards, remarried and then remarried again. He was going through one wife after another.

Things started to change for the worse. I lived in fear that if anything I did could possibly be misconstrued or twisted, there was the fear of being beaten.. It was a fear that became a reality so many times. When I look back now, I, as well as the other children, never deserved those beatings.

Shortly after the raid in 1991 the members of the church started to come back together. I was 14 years old at that time. Still brainwashed, I did whatever I was told to do. I looked up to Tony as if he was Gods right hand man. Tony was in hiding during this time but he still controlled the church through tape messages and his right hand men.

The girls my age were all being married off to older men in the church. I knew my time was near. Sure enough, I was married too. I never knew this man I married or anything about him except that it was supposedly of the Lord for me to marry him, and how dare I question that!?. I was fifteen years old. At eighteen I had two children and two miscarriages. Birth control wasn’t an option.

Meanwhile the church and Tony was just becoming more and more corrupt. Tony had become a polygamist (1993) and was marrying girls my age. During this time he was finally caught and sent to prison for tax fraud and other things (1994). Once again, he still ran and operated the church through phone and message tapes. His 9 wives, at the time, moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado to be close to the prison and would visit him almost daily.

During this time, I lived in Moffet ,Oklahoma. It was close to Fort Smith, Arkansas. We had a church in Fort Smith (Gloryland Christian Church), in which I worked. My husband (at the time) was sent to California on a construction job. I stayed with my two children in Moffet, Oklahoma (church property) and continued to work in the church office. After a few months, I and a couple of the other wives were given permission to move to California and live on church property there so we could be with our husbands, as the construction jobs kept coming.

The church property in which we stayed was hardly livable. There was no electricity, running water and the duplexes were infested with roaches, mice and rats. We had blow-up mattresses and blankets and cooked with propane stoves and brought water to wash dishes and bathe. It was unbelievable. The property had been vacant for years and this was where we were supposed to stay. Meanwhile all the money that our husbands made was being shipped directly to Tony’s wives in Colorado Springs.

It wasn’t too long afterwards that my husband was caught with pornography and had made a 900 call while he was still living in Moffet, Oklahoma that was subsequently tracked down to him. He was at that time kicked out or told to leave the church. He was dropped off at a mission in Van Nuys, Ca. I was told I could stay. A couple days later, I got a message from Tony that I could chose either to go back to Arkansas and live in Moffet or go to Colorado Springs with Tony’s wives. I chose to go back and live in Moffet. My message back was that God wanted me to go to Colorado. Having no choice I was flown along with my two children from LAX to Colorado Springs, Colorado where I was escorted to Tony’s house where all his wives lived. To my surprise, one of my sisters, Katrina, (only 11 years old ), was living there along with the other wives. Katrinna told me she was married to Tony.

That was the beginning to the end. After I got there Tony requested pictures of me. I thought that was really strange but I did as instructed and allowed pictures to be taken. Shortly after my arrival my daughter, Varina, only 9 months old, became very sick with pneumonia. She could barely breathe one night. I thought she was going to die. I rushed her to the hospital were she was hospitalized for several days. During my stay at the hospital I got a phone call from one of the wives. She told me that Tony had called and that the Lord told him that I was to be one of the wives. She said “one of us” as she was being discreet over the phone. The news was overwhelming. I told her that I would like to pray about this. I didn’t understand. I thought it was against God’s Word to marry sisters, as it causes confusion. When Tony heard my response he was furious. His message back to me was if I didn’t become one of the wives my daughter, Varina, would die. In my state of mind, (brainwashed) I believed him. I agreed to become one of the wives. Shortly after, I was sent a pass to the prison.

I’ll never forget how confused I was. In a blink I was one of the wives and now on my way to visit Tony in prison. On my first visit I sat next to him. The whole time he was getting an erection as he was being turned on by telling me all the things he was going to do to me when he got out. He said he would spend four straight nights with me. He also shared in graphic detail how it was with each wife on the first night. While at the prison, the wives would take turns sitting on the each side of him throughout the visit. I sat next to him the whole time on the first visit since I was the new wife. The other wives would watch the security cameras and when they would turn Tony would fondle the wife on the other side of him. He only rubbed my leg on the first visit but the other wives he fondled.

I had so many unanswered questions. Although I knew no other life, my gut feeling was that this was wrong. The home I stayed at in Colorado was gorgeous. The refrigerator and pantry was packed with food. We only had the best. I couldn’t help remembering how I lived before I became one of the wives. It really bothered me. It was so wrong!

My visits to the prison continued for the next five weeks. It was during this time I realized who Tony Alamo really was and just how sick, demented, perverted, and ungodly he really was.
Over the course of my visits, I did ask him to explain to me how it was okay to marry sisters along with many more questions. His answers were even more unbelievable. He told me that he was confused when he told my sister she was to be a wife and that the Lord really wanted it to be me. I asked him if it was okay in the eyes of God to marry children. His response was that as long as they were at the age of puberty, then it was fine. I was sickened.

During my visits to come, I only saw a very perverted man who would molest these young girls. He wasn’t the man of God I had believed he was. I was so confused and disappointed. The man that I thought was a man of God was some sick pervert who could care less about anyone but himself.

I started to become very ill. I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I soon found out that I was pregnant. I was so upset. Here I am with my two children in some freaky house with a bunch of brainwashed women and now I find out I am pregnant! I didn’t know what to do. The thought of being Tony’s wife along with nine others and raising three children at only nineteen was overwhelming. I realized I could only do one thing and that was to take one day at a time.

The news of my pregnancy was told to Tony on one of his calls to the house. He didn’t say much. I continued to visit. During this time, Tony was writing tracts. The wives were forced to stay up all hours of the night looking up scriptures and assisting with the tract writing. It wasn’t getting done fast enough so we all were all put on a ten day fast. I asked Tony if I was supposed to fast too (as I was pregnant) and he said yes and that it wouldn’t hurt my baby. Unknown to me at that time, I was carrying twins.

I came to the conclusion that there was only one way out. One day I decided after arriving at the prison that I wasn’t going to go in. I told Sharon (one of the wives) that I refused to go in and to please give a note that I had written to Tony. In the note I explained that it wasn’t in my heart to be one of the wives and begged for Tony to let me go.

I thank God to this day that He answered my prayers. Tony let me go. I was flown back to Saugus, California with my two children. I asked Tony for money, as I had nowhere to go and had two babies and was pregnant. He gave me $ 500 and told me to keep my mouth shut about everything. I was dropped off at a mission in Hollywood where I tracked down my husband. I, shortly afterwards, miscarried one of my twins. I had no place to go, no idea of where or what to do with my life or how I was going to provide for my children. All I knew was that I would make it and that I was FREE from the clutches of Tony Alamo.

Well, needless to say, I made it and I have no regrets. I thank God everyday that he gave me the courage to say no.

Sincerely,
Cindi Jo

Here is what I know regarding Tony Alamo: I came to the foundation a long time ago and I really got saved and filled with the Holy Spirit and dedicated my life to serving the Lord Jesus Christ. Throughout the years I kept my eyes glued on God and minded my own business. To make a long story short, about 10 years ago, during the time when Tony Alamo was in prison he had asked if my 12 year old daughter, Katrina could come and stay at his house to be a companion to his stepdaughter, Rebecca, who also had been a good friend to my daughter. They were to be home schooled together. It sounded fine to my daughter and me.

At first I heard regularly from my daughter but after awhile I stopped being contacted. This started to really bother me so I told Tony I wanted her back home. Of course Tony rebuked me and told me I was interfering with God’s will. Much to my relief my daughter was sent home shortly after the rebuke from Tony Alamo.

After Katrina returned home I was told by her the most horrifying story I had ever heard about Tony Alamo. The perverted things he was doing and the appalling things that he had poisoned my daughter with.

When she would go to the prison along with other little girls, ages ranging anywhere from 11 years to 17 years, Tony would not talk to them about the Bible, like I would expect, but rather Tony Alamo would tell them that they were to be his wives…some already were!! He warned them not to tell their parents, because they wouldn’t understand and may cause a scene!

Katrina was given explicit details of everything from oral sex, how Tony and his other little-girl wives were going to have threesomes once he was out of prison, he also bragged about the (supposed) size of his penis, and many other disgusting pornographic subjects that would repel any decent adult. This little girl who never watched TV or heard a cuss word was freaked out by the things “Papa Tony” told her. Katrina would tell me how, when in the prison visiting room, the girls would take turns being shields and keeping their eyes open for the guards while Tony would reach his dirty, perverted hands up the girl’s blouses, etc!

Needless, to say I was sickened beyond description upon learning these sordid details and moved fast and far away from that horrid place very soon afterwards. I don’t like to think about Tony and the atrocities that are, to this day taking place there still, and from what I hear, are more brazen and bad than ever before.

I felt it was my responsibility as someone who knew first hand of the truths regarding this perverted Tony Alamo. To share it, if peradventure, it could help someone out. I know my little 12 year old girl did not make that stuff up; she heard it from the self-proclaimed ‘world pastor, Tony Alamo’. I am thankful to the Lord Jesus from the depths of my heart for delivering my family out of the Alamo Foundation. It truly does amaze and sadden me that some mothers and fathers, some still in the Alamo Foundation and that they would allow their precious little girls to be offered up to that perverted, child molesting old man…to have sex with and be subject to his deviate sexual abuses.

Imagine yourselves for one moment back when you were 10, 11, 12 years old and your own mom or dad forcing you to “marry” a 70 some year old man and have him on top of you, raping you!

I had absolutely no sexual education at the time. My parents raised me on the guidelines that were given by Tony and that was absolutely no one talked about sex except for him. I would visit Tony with about 5 of the other wives and maybe another young girl or so depending on who he requested but I was on the list to go every week that I lived at that house. He would ask me to sit next to him (all the wives took turns sitting next to him). He talked of his younger wives. He told me that his wives wanted him to be inside of one of them while the other was licking him. He would go on about these sorts of sexual tales and justify, if you will, his telling them to me because he was not the one who conjured this it was his wives and he was just telling me. I was told to swear that I would never tell anyone the things that he told me. I didn’t understand why he talked to me like this but I kept the promise. Every single week more stories. He told me a story once of the wives of the wives “f—ing” as he would call it with a different wife’s father while that man’s daughter was baby-sitting and later joined in. I later found out that this was an illicit tale that was made up in his own head and that he pressured each one of the particular wives to exceedingly reluctantly confirm. This was how I began to realize how disgusting he was. He talked of how large his penis was and that “nigger’s dicks were nothing’” because he had seen them in the showers. I had to promise that I would never tell anyone the kind of language and profanity that he used during visits. There were several stories of Tony’s wives in bed, how large their breasts were, which one was “hot”, which one liked to be “on top”, which one was “freaky”, what each of them liked etc.

It was decided while Tony was in prison that Amy Eddy age 13 would be one of his wives. When Tony got out of jail I was living in his house. After him being out for about one month, it was time to make Amy his wife (it was a literal f–k-fest the first few months he was out, he had his pick of the litter). This meant of course that she had to go to his bedroom. He didn’t spend much time in there with her but the deed was done. Moments later Amy came out looking very shaken and walking as though she was in a bit of pain. Tony came out also and I followed him to the living room. I noticed that on his right middle finger there was blood. I looked into his face and then back down at his finger so that he could see I saw what he did. He covered his hand and said nothing.

Right around the same time that Amy became Tony’s wife there was another incident that I remember very well. One of Tony’s wives, Michelle Jones Williams, had a son named Jordan who was not Tony’s biological son. One Day Jordan (age 3 or 4) was playing with Tony’s biological son Sion (age 6 or 7). They were play-fighting and Jordan accidentally hit Sion in the groin. Sion went to his father Tony and told him that he was hurt by Jordan. Tony then started out by verbally reprimanding Jordan him and telling him that he was wrong. But Tony started to become more and more enraged and started to push Jordan in the stomach. He then pushed him so that he was on the floor and started kicking him in the stomach harder and harder, yelling at him for hurting Sion and screaming that he could have made it to where Sion could no longer reproduce. It looked like Tony was mopping the floor with the little boy. Jordan was so scared and hurt he urinated on himself. He was covered in welts. He had them on his arms, his stomach, his legs and his mouth was full of blood. His mother watched and so did all the other wives and no one did anything for fear of Tony. Almost the same thing also happened to Lydia’s son by Tony but disliked because he is half black, Tabor (age 4) on another occasion in the same general time frame.

-Approximately one month later I was finally allowed to back to my parents in Saugus, California. I was 14 years old.

When I was 15 years old, in April or May of ‘99 I was sent back to Tony’s house in Fouke, Arkansas due to the fact that I was not following all rules and began to sort of rebel. I had so many doubts about Tony Alamo and was realizing things that were so wrong. I was living in his house completely against my will but per my father’s insistence. My father literally forced me to go while I was screaming and crying. I knew of the things that went on in that house that not too many others did. I did not want to be one of Tony’s wives. All I wanted was to be able to go back to my mother in California.

There were more girls than before some much younger such as Desiree’ Kolbeck. She was about 7 or 8 but Tony seemed to take quite a liking to and as far as I know she is still in his house and one of his wives now. Also, Piper was there this last time. I was told if I was there I would be more godly and a much better person. I was told that I should be honored to have been invited there by Tony because he liked me. In the church living in Tony’s house was considered to be a very high honor. I wanted to leave so bad. I would ask if I could please go back to my mother and his answer would something like well we can’t afford to assign someone just to take you to California. So I would arrange rides that I knew were already going out there and tell it wouldn’t cost a thing to let me go. But he never let me. He would say very sarcastically “there are no bars on the windows or doors, you can leave anytime”. I thought that ironic because there was in fact bars on all of the windows and all of the doors were padlocked and monitored with surveillance cameras for our protection.

One night I disconnected a phone from the office and snuck it into the bathroom where I had noticed a phone jack behind the toilet (of all places). I called my uncle in Chicago for help. I wanted to get out. My uncle called my mother to tell her what I said and she in turn called Tony. I was summoned to the office where Tony was and where he handled all of his business. Tony was sitting there in a rage that I had only seen the tip of until now. He bolted towards screaming so loud and adamantly that he was spitting in my face saying “Did you make an unauthorized phone call?!!!” I turned my face away from him and answered “yes”. He then hit me in the face. When I was smacked he shoved my head into the book shelf that was directly behind me (meaning that the 3rd shelf on the book shelf acted and a sort of baseball bat blow to the head, hitting me squarely in the middle of the back of my skull causing me to black out. I, however, was so terrified that he would kill me if I were unconscious I willed myself to stay on my feet and the next thing I remember is him coming at me with a 2×4 piece of wood smacking his hand with and telling me to sit down ( the chair that he wanted me to sit in was so close to his that I had a hard time obeying the order and I was quite stunned to say the least and doing my best not to cry, this was something he loved: to make the girls cry so that he could make fun of them during and after they did, so I did not cry which just angered him more). After his repeated commands for me to sit I did so. I was then subjected to 2 hours of him attempting to mortify and humiliate me calling me a “dirty whore”, “a slut”, “a sinner”, telling me that I was going to fry in hell, I was worthless, and he kept referring to me as “that thing”. I was surrounded by every wife in the house and the children as well one of which was sitting next to me on the floor in the middle of my rebuke handed me my three earrings that fell to the floor when they were out of my left ear when I was hit. For me the verbal abuse was actually far worse than the physical. The things he was calling and the thoughts that he said were in my head were so awful to me for it was all such a heinous lie he said that god was telling him all these things about me and that he knew what my thoughts were and he continued to recite them out loud and as I sat there I knew he was a fake and all the accusations that I had heard about him were indeed true. I was free. He couldn’t trick me.

Later, all the wives denied that anything had ever happened when asked about it by others including my mother. She was told by Tony that he gave me “a pop in the mouth”. He sent me to a room in the house. I was to be isolated for the rest of the evening.

The next week or so, Tony basically made fun of me. If I walked through the room he was say how weird I was or there’s that “thing” again. He would laugh and mock me etc. I kept to myself and did not talk. I did not know what to do. No one talked to me either. It was probably the most “mind-fucking” situation I’ve ever been in. I was treated like an unwanted dog.

Towards the end of that time I saw Amy Eddy Beaten.
Tony had gone to lunch with some of his wives at the Old Country Buffet and Amy was one of them and so was Lizzy (Elizabeth Guiterrez). There was some kind of disagreement about who was to sit next to Tony. Amy wanted to and so did Lizzy. Tony picked Lizzy and Amy was offended. When they all arrived back Tony was going on about how Amy was embarrassing. She was trying to defend herself in the argument but she should have never opened her mouth. Tony started to beat her, I mean really beat her. She was so bloody and so swollen. Tony had beaten her with his bare hands, kicked her drug her on the floor, punched her, slapped her. It went on for more than ten minutes. I don’t want to exaggerate but I do think that it was almost 20 minutes. She screamed and screamed and screamed. Her screams were really awful. After the first few minutes of the beating Tony had her cornered in her bedroom and Sharon, Tony’s first wife closed the door. There were a lot of children in the house; visiting and she didn’t want anyone to see what was happening. It was too horrific for anyone to see. He came out of her room and about a half an hour later so did she with a bloody, white T-shirt. She attended the “message” he was giving. I don’t recall what it was about in particular.

The other wife that he hurt was Jeannette Orlando. She was reading him a paper and her voice was not the way he wanted it to be. He yelled at her and told her to go to the bedroom. This time the door was left open but I could not see anything. I heard her yelp and she later came out with bruises on her arms. I think he hit her in the face because of a bruise that was visible on her face later but she denied it.

We later joked and began calling ourselves the “battered wives club”. Amy, Jeanne and I never thought anything like this would happen to us but there we were with the evidence of abuse literally written all over our faces.

In June of 1999 I attempted to sneak another phone into the bathroom. Tony was out of the house that afternoon and due back in less than an hour. I had the phone wrapped in a towel as I was on my way to the bathroom. I walked into my room that was adjacent to that bathroom and thought no one was there so I let the towel unravel and the phone dropped right as Tony’s stepdaughter Rebecca popped her head up. She was sleeping on my bed and saw what I was about to do. At this point I really did fear for my life. I was sure that Tony could go too far and possibly kill me with whatever beating he was render to me upon his arrival. I gathered as much as I could in my backpack. I left with $60.00 in my pocket. I took the padlock off and unlocked the four locks on the door and exited past the surveillance camera and 3 watchmen. I ran in the woods along side of Highway 71 to avoid being seen on the side of the road. If I came close to the highway I could see the white vans going up and down. I crossed 5 barbed wire fences, 2 rivers and crawled through the gutters underneath the highway so not to be seen. after about 4 or five hours I finally came across some homes the first would only give me a Dixie cup full of water but the second home I encountered was owned by [names withheld] and they helped me very much by first driving to Texarkana and then coming back to pick me (they gave me their telephone number) and letting me spend the night with them. The next day they took me to Wal-Mart to buy a few things and they purchased a Greyhound Bus ticket for and that’s how I made it back to L.A. only to be met by my mother at the bus station 3 hours after it had arrived and told that I was not allowed on the church property and that I could not come home. I was to either go to Juvenile Hall or find somewhere to go. In short I was abandoned at the age of fifteen and given 50.00. I since then have never even attempted to go back nor will I ever.

Nikki F