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Ida K.’s Letter About Her Son Bob

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Flushing, New York July 31, 1977

To Whom It May Concern:

I am the mother of a young man, who has been in a religious cult (The Tony and Susan Alamo Foundation) for nearly eight years, and whom I have been prevented from seeing during all this time.

Being Jewish, my son, Bob, had Hebrew religious training and was bar-mitzvahed at thirteen years of age.

At the age of eighteen he joined the Alamo Foundation in Los Angeles, California, in February, 1969, after involvement in New York with drugs like “pot” and LSD. He obtained the drugs when he was a high school senior, and then as a freshman at Stony Brook State College on Long Island, in the fall of 1968. He had intended taking a leave from college for only one semester, but he has never returned.

Before going on drugs and joining the cult he was an excellent student, a musical talent, and a compassionate human being. Since joining the Alamo Foundation, however, he has been taught to hate everyone in his past, especially his immediate family.

During his first year in California he wouldn’t telephone me collect, urging me to convert to his kind of religion. He was very fearful that the world was coming to an end so why should he go back to school or strive for anything? He kept quoting the scriptures as though he were a religious machine, where one would merely push a button to hear all sorts of irrelevant and irrational talk. He also told me he worked very hard on Sunset Strip, witnessing for the organization, writing music for them, and leading a very austere life. This so alarmed me that I telephoned Susan Alamo herself, and asked her to please release my son, since I was & single, working parent and had a younger daughter who needed care and guidance. My children and I had always been a close-knit, loving family. Mrs. Alamo replied, “He’s mine now and he will never return to you.”

At the beginning, Bob would write very long, rambling letters that were completely irrational.

Soon after, the letters stopped, and Bob called less and less frequently. When I asked to see him, he replied that a meeting would have to take place on the Foundation grounds, so I could view the “good” life he was leading. This I refused to do, but offered to meet with him on neutral ground, which he refused. (I did not know at the time that he was not permitted to leave the Foundation, except with another cult member or two, and under the strictest supervision.) Several of my relatives and friends in California visited Bob over the years, reporting to me that he seemed to be brainwashed and completely alienated and unreasonable.

By this time the cult had moved to Saugus, California, and the phone calls stopped altogether. This necessitated my calling the cult person to person for about two or three weeks periodically, and harassing the other cult members until they relayed the message for Bob to call me.

In the meantime, Bob and the other young people in the cult were working very hard for the Alamos for no pay, while the Alamos were piling in thousands of dollars for their own personal use.

About three years ago, when Ted Patrick and others were successful in rehabilitating some cult members who were “captured” by them, Bob asked me over the phone if I intended to kidnap him. I replied that after all he was an adult, doing what he believed in so what right did I have to force him out of there? All this time I believed that my son was there of his own free will, but now I know he has been brainwashed all these years, and has turned into a robot that is constantly programmed to do the Alamos’ bidding, for their own personal gain.

Most of the cult members, including Bob, moved to Arkansas and Tennessee about three years ago, and Rob stopped phoning me collect, so that he could keep his whereabouts secret. On the very rare occasions that he called he would never tell me where he was, and he was uncommunicative. It was not until I read the New York Post article of July 1st and the Newsday article of July 2nd of this year that I learned of the change of the cult’s location.

After reading about the June action in court by other parents, I wanted desperately to see my son. Since the Foundation is not listed with the Telephone Company, I called the police department of Fort Smith, Arkansas, telling them about the immense difficulty I had in locating him, since the cult would not give me any information about him. A police captain there told me the cult operated out of restaurant in Alma, fifteen miles away and that I was to call him back if the cult was uncooperative. When I called the restaurant on July 3rd, the man who answered denied knowing my son, and further denied the existence even of the Foundation. I replied that in that case I would ask the police to help me locate him.

Within ten minutes Bob called me, full of venom and rage. He had never spoken to me this way before. He became very abusive because he was certain that I was trying to hurt the Foundation and nothing I said could abate his anger. When I told him that I only wanted to see him he replied that if I came to Arkansas he would have me destroyed, and that I was never to write or speak to him again. After speaking to other parents, I am convinced that Bob was programmed to say these terrible things.

Since all contact with Bob has been temporarily halted, and I know that he has been brainwashed, I am now free to publicize the terror and abuse that exists at the Foundation, so that it can be exposed for the money-making, unchristian, maniacal cult that it is. The cult breaks the Ten Commandments repeatedly, especially the one “Honor thy father and thy mother.” Hopefully, other parents will be alerted to the location of their children and the evil things being done to them.

There is a special trust fund set up for needy parents who cannot afford legal fees and traveling expenses. It is called: “Save Our Children Trust Account,” First National Bank, Sixth and Garrison, Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Please help us by publicizing what is going on at the Alamo Foundation.

Sincerely,

Ida K

In: Concerned Parents

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