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

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When 11 year old Justin Miller was severely beaten with a wooden paddle (late 80’s) Tony Alamo ordered his step-father, Marc Landgarten, to hold him but needed the help of 3 more men so they could hit Justin right on target “spread-eagle in the air”. My ex-husband (also an abuser, but unknown to me at that time) was one of the people Tony chose to hold an arm or a leg. At home, after the beating, he told me he had been keeping count of the swats and said he counted 155, and that he also saw BLOOD that was oozing out of the seat of Justin’s pants!! This sadistic punishment was done at one of the Tony Alamo foundation locations, consisting of 3 houses, around 500 yards from the “church”. It’€™s very secluded there, with no neighbors, not even street-lights, so nobody heard Justin’s screams for help!! Tony was on a speaker-phone, next-door, telling the person swinging the paddle (Terry Farr) how many more times to strike, done “baseball-style”, all the while, looking up SCRIPTURES from the BIBLE and reading them to Justin!! Tony had ALL of the children who lived in the Saugus, Ca. church, at that time, assembled there to witness the beating. One woman, J. S. (15 years old at the time) told me that she had also seen blood coming through Justin’s jeans!! J.S. said to me that every one of those children, including herself and her sister, were called back over to Tony Alamo’s house later on and told by Tony, “you never saw a spanking”, ” nobody ever was spanked”, “there was no spanking that happened”, etc. These children who were ordered to be there were age 3 to 15. Knowing Tony as I do, after being in the organization for 21 messed up years, in my opinion he had those children there so that they would always fear him the rest of their lives. Tony is into “total control of every follower” and, as Hitler, will settle for no less than COMPLETE OBEDIENCE !!!!

CLAUDIA CHERVYAKOVA

Southwest Times Record
By Linda Seubold

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David Kroopf watched with contempt as Tony Alamo walked away from the Washing ton County jail in Fayetteville Tuesday afternoon.

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Los Angeles Times
July 11, 1993
Sam Enriquez, Times Staff Writer

Religion: Ex-followers recall Tony Alamo’s path as harsh and narrow.

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Los Angeles Times
April 28, 1993

Stepdaughter Testifies About Rape by Alamo

“Evangelist Tony Alamo’s stepdaughter testified Tuesday that he raped her, and a former wife said he beat and sexually assaulted her, but a federal magistrate said that was not enough to keep Alamo behind bars pending trial on tax evasion charges and set bail at $50,000.

In an extraordinary hearing that lasted well into the night in U. S. District Court in Los Angeles, Alamo’s stepdaughter made public for the first time her claim that he raped her in 1966, when she was a teen-ager.

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First Magazine
March 30, 1992

Life Story: Elishah

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My childhood was filled with fear and loneliness. I was the first child born into the Tony and Susan Alamo Christian Foundation in Alma, Arkansas. We were supposed to be a religious group, full of love. But it was really a prison.

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Southwest Times Record
June 21, 1996

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I was born and raised in the Tony and Susan Alamo Christian Foundation. In the year 1993, I was already married and a mother when Tony threw my husband out of the group and damned him to hell for erroneous accusations. The Alamo Foundation was the only life I had ever known. At seventeen years old, in October 1993 I became the sixth wife in Tony’s harem. Tony was sixty-three.

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.

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To Whom It May Concern;

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.

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This is Katrina’s mother’s testimony:

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.

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In early 1998 I started living in Tony Alamo’s house in Fouke, Arkansas off and on since I was 13 years old. I had been requested by Tony Alamo to stay at his house along with other young girls, one of which was Amy Eddy. There were several other women and girls there which were called his wives. Their names were Sharon Kruf, Lydia Willis, Michelle Jones, Jeannette Orlando, Elizabeth Guitirrez, Angel Streit, Isabel ?, Pebbles King and Amy Eddy. We would all go to visit him in prison in Texarkana, Texas. He was incarcerated on charges of tax evasion due to his church no longer falling under tax exempt status. We went to visit him every Saturday and Sunday. This is when all of my doubts of Tony Alamo began.

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.

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Once in 1999 at Tony Alamo’s Home in Fouke Ark I, Donna B, witnessed Tabor eating sliced apples at the kitchen table and he dropped apiece and it fell on the floor, he bent down to pick it up as Tony Alamo walked into the room and Tony started screaming at him and accusing the little boy of throwing his food on the floor.

Tony grabbed Tabor from the table and dragged him into his bedroom and left the bedroom door open. He sat on his bed and screamed in Tabor’s little face for him to confess that he threw the food, because Tabor was trying to tell Tony that he just accidentally dropped the piece of apple, he didn’t throw it, but Tony would not believe him and hauled back with his hand and slapped Tabor in the mouth. Tabor fell down and Tony picked him up again and made his wives hold him up. so that Tony could have good aim as Tony started to haul back and slap him again he stopped and told one of his wives to get his ring off of the dresser and give it to him when Tony Alamo got the ring he put it on the hand that he was hitting tabor with and continued to punch Tabor. His ring made his punch more painful to the little boy. A couple of us that were watching fainted and when we woke up Tony was telling Tabor’s Mother that she was not allowed to go to Tabor and comfort him Tony said that Tabor needed to get tough, when tabor was crying in agonizing pain Tony told one of his wives to go to him and tie something around his mouth to keep him from making so much noise. The next day Tabor’s face was unrecognizable and his eye looked like it was so swollen that it was out of its socket. Tabor looked only to be about 5 or 6 years old at the time of this beating.

The following was posted on the Factnet discussion board. Click here to read more former member’s accounts of living in the group.

I was a member from 1970-1986 and am sorry to say I was involved at all. I met Tony and Susan when I was 21 years old being just a kid and feel for there doctrine, and was completely indoctrinated into their beliefs. Later to find out that they were nothing but a couple of con artists. They ran there place with a strict hand beating the children or having them beaten for the slightest provocation. I am told they, after I left, had the adults spanked and beaten as well. The people that lived at the foundation were kept impoverished. The members were at the time, full time workers, either on outside of the foundation jobs like tree crews or they worked for the foundation at one of the many businesses. All there earnings was confiscated by the church and everyone was given $5.00 for the week. Anybody that didn’t blindly follow them were kicked out penniless and without their families. Tony did this to keep people in line. Tony solely ran the church and all its business totally by himself and nobody had any power to make decisions at all. If anything need to be done or money needed to be spent it was put on an “ask Tony list”, which of course also gave him the power to deny people clothes , food, toilet tissue water or anything else that are necessities of life. This man wouldn’t know God if God was standing in front of him….

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The following posts are all from former members of the Tony and Susan Alamo Christian Foundation. They were posted on the Factnet discussion board IN 2005 AND 2006.

Click here to read more former member’s accounts of living in the group.

TONY ALAMO IS A LIAR

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For years after we left the Alamo Foundation, in 1989, I was a big Tony Alamo supporter and defender. I wanted nothing more than to go back to the Alamo Foundation. We drove from Fresno to LA every other weekend to attend services. That was about a 4-5 hour drive 1 way. We tithed 10% or more of our pay, I spent countless hours listening to Tony’s tapes, passing out tracts, praying for Tony and the foundation. Spent hours on the phone with Tony, Yes, he would call and we would talk about what he was doing and the court cases. He told MerryAnn and Lenore to call and fellowship with me. Why Tony even had my friend Tommy S call me to see if we needed anything.

While living outside of the foundation I testified at court cases, supporting and defending Tony Alamo.

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For everyone’s information I was there at 20644 Roscoe in Canoga Park Ca in early ’93 when Tony Alamo told myself and Bert Krantz that he had just become a polygamist (with Lydia Willis). After that he repeatedly denied it publicly – then he would explain in private that they were just concubines not wives. It’s gotta stop- just like all who deprive others of their God given liberty eventually get their judgment. – Simon

The following was posted on the Factnet discussion board. Click here to read more former member’s accounts of living in the group.

I remember this one time we were at one of the many warehouses owned by the Alamo Foundation. A few kids were there packaging candy for Bruce G. Tony Alamo called and asked for Lizzie G. Man was that a Kodak moment – her countenance fell 3 stories. She got on the phone and you could tell Tony wanted her to be his wife. I heard Lizzie say I’ll ask God for a sign. I heard Tony Alamo yell on the other line

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The following was posted on the Factnet discussion board. Click here to read more former member’s accounts of living in the group.

I was a member for 14yrs at the Alamo Church. My then husband was kicked out for something very trivial. We were at an out post in a ruff section in Chicago. It was the coldest recorded winter in 100 yrs. A message was delivered by one of the Alamo Foundation members (we were never able to talk to the pastor). We were told that Tony Alamo said, “she can stay but he has to go” There was no regard for the sanctity of marriage. I choose to leave with my husband. We were not offered a dollar for a cup of coffee or a way out of the city. We were flat broke and had it not been for my family, who knows what we would have done. It didn’t matter that we had spent14yrs in the church and had given 100% of all the money we made towards the Alamo Foundation. The whole experience was very traumatic and still effects my feelings toward organized religions. Do I believe in God? Yes! I’m doing well, I own a hotel and 4 beautiful horses.

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