WEBVTT - “A Crumbling Empire” 0:00:00.880 --> 0:00:03.880 Camp hell Anawaki is a production of I Heart Radio. 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:07.360 The views and opinions expressing this podcast are solely those 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:10.520 of the author and participants and do not necessarily represent 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:13.560 those of I Heart Media or its employees. Due to 0:00:13.600 --> 0:00:18.440 discussion of traumatic, sexual and violent content, listener discussion is advised. 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:24.520 I think once, maybe twice a year, people from the 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:29.160 state would come out to do like an inspection or something. 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:34.120 This is Terry, a former patient at the Annawaki North 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:39.120 Campus in Rockmart, the all girls facility. She remembers during 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:42.320 her time how the staff would handle visits from state 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:45.479 agencies that were meant to check on the treatment center 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:49.000 and how it operated with an Awake now being a 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:52.760 licensed medical facility, it had to be recorded that patients 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:56.840 were getting the proper treatment they were supposed to. And 0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:00.520 I remember the first time when they came out, they 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:04.360 picked like three of us girls to be the one 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:08.640 to answer any questions, and so they took the rest 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:11.920 of the group like way way out into the woods, 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:15.880 like a mile out into the woods. And I can 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:19.959 remember when the first inspector lady came, one of the 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:22.360 group leaders told her the girls are out on a 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:25.319 work project about a mile out in the woods. I 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:28.200 guess they just knew that the inspector probably wasn't going 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:32.080 to hike out a mile. But we were available though. 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:34.839 They were like three of us, and we were told 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:39.120 even before the inspector came, if they asked if we 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:42.680 met with a psychiatrist, to let them know that we did, 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:46.319 and that we had thirty to forty five minute sessions. 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:50.560 At this point in time, Annawiki was sold to the 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:54.240 parents of its patients largely as a medical treatment center 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:59.800 with daily therapy. In reality, this therapy was greatly exaggerated, 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:02.760 often amounting to know more than a few minutes at 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:07.800 most with an actual therapist. I don't think my parents 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:12.639 realized until I got out that I really didn't get 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:16.239 the help that I needed. We would see a psychiatrist, 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:18.760 I want to say once a week. It might have 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:22.400 been every other week. But we would literally like get 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:26.920 in a line and go one after the other and 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:29.240 you'd only get a few minutes, and they would just 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:32.520 right on a clipboard and they would literally look at 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:35.440 their clock and say, Okay, time's up next. I mean, 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:39.359 it was a joke. We like going to the psychiatrist 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:42.160 because it gave us like a five minute break from 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:45.760 the heavy labor work. But I mean, we didn't even 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:48.960 get that much time. It was a joke. And I 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:53.720 do know um that my parents were charged for like 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:57.000 a forty five minute visit, I think is what it 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:00.720 was supposed to be. Thirty or forty five minutes, and 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:03.080 we used to laugh about it. I guess we knew 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:05.800 the doctors are making all this money off of us 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:09.320 and they're only seeing us like for a couple of minutes. 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:14.240 Terry says that during these visits from state officials, the 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:17.440 designated patients who were allowed to answer questions were to 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:20.480 downplay the lack of education as well as how their 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:25.280 time was really being spent. They told us to explain 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:29.120 to them that it was an owned privilege and that 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:32.440 some people did go to school. And then there was 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:35.920 another thing that we were told not to let them know. 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:40.320 They like encouraged us not to talk about the manual 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:43.960 labor that we did all day. And the only reason 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:46.360 why I would go along with it because I knew 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:49.440 it wasn't right, like to not tell them the truth 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:53.160 on certain things. But it was another way where I 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:56.320 thought I was getting brownie points, you know, because they 0:03:56.400 --> 0:03:59.320 chose me to be the one to talk, so I 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:01.360 thought it just hit me on their good side that 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:04.760 looking back, that was pretty messed up because they probably 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:07.600 could have helped us if I had told the truth. 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:14.520 That that's just the way it went. Although Terry went 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:16.960 along within a week he's plan to hide their abuse 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:20.320 from government officials, she did try to report the wrongdoing 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:24.520 to her family when she had the chance. I did 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:27.160 try to tell my parents on one of my home visits, 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:30.440 especially about the two counselors that I had that were 0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:34.200 sleeping together, that had a relationship, and all the sexual 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:37.440 things that were going on, and how uncomfortable I was, 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:40.680 and I really wanted to get out of there. Well, 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:43.719 it backfired because when they brought me back from my 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:46.520 home visit, they met with one of the social workers 0:04:47.120 --> 0:04:50.560 and then they called me in and the social worker 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:54.400 just barrated me. She said, you know, one of your 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:57.719 biggest problems, and the reason why you're out here and 0:04:57.760 --> 0:05:00.800 you're still out here, is because you're a manipulator and 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:05.440 what you've done um to your parents trying to make 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:08.800 up these things, saying that there's this sexual abuse and 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:11.400 things going on just so you can get out. You're 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:14.640 not gonna get away with that. You know, they see 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:17.719 right through We see right through it. And so it 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:20.600 was like I was a liar, and they didn't they 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:25.200 believe the social worker. They didn't believe me anymore. And 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:28.560 that she said that I wasn't the only patient out 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:31.200 there trying to do that, that there were other kids 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:33.960 saying the same thing just so they could get out. 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:36.919 You know, she tried to intimidate me, saying, do you 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:40.279 know how serious it is to make allegations like that 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:44.480 about your counselors and about other girls doing these things 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:48.359 with each other? I just I backed off. I knew 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:54.640 over the past several weeks we have received number of 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:57.800 very serious allegations concerning both the facility out there in 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:02.160 a number of individuals involved with them. It was just 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:04.800 a form of their therapy. They were told to do it, 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:06.839 and at the time he was fourteen and a half, 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:10.640 fifteen years old, they didn't know any better. I asked him, 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:13.240 why are you letting this happen? Why are you covering 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:15.799 up for Louis Batterer. He had no answer to that question. 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:23.799 Having and this sitution paid its little could be such 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:30.520 shock destrica place and to do absolutely the contrary of 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:34.320 what they should have done. I'm disturbable the fact of 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:36.400 something and he's still going on it. An I wake you. 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:41.520 I'm Josh Stein and this is camp hell an Awake. 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:47.880 By the mid nineteen eighties, an Awaki had reached its 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:51.440 highest attendance numbers. Yet not only was it operating on 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:56.520 three different campuses Douglasville, Rock Martin, and Carabelle, it was 0:06:56.600 --> 0:07:00.359 now taking its patients on trips to other countries. In 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:03.320 a board meeting from nineteen eighty three, plans for an 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:08.000 Antawaki University were discussed, a program that would continue on 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:13.520 through graduate degree status. Disruptions in the organization had started 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:18.120 to occur. One catalyst began with a legal dispute over 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:20.840 the recording rights to the songs written by the patients 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:24.880 you just heard from Terry. During this dispute, it was 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:28.520 also brought to her parents attention other wrongdoings which occurred 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:32.840 while her and her brothers attended, in particular that maybe 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:35.240 they weren't getting the treatment which their parents had been 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:38.800 paying for. The fact that Terry's brothers had also been 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:42.680 involved with the annual trip to Mexico made matters even worse. 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:49.160 Here's journalist Albert Edgin. At the same time, there was 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:53.840 a parent whose daughter had written a song about Anna 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:57.160 Wake and there was a complaint. There was some dispute 0:07:57.160 --> 0:07:58.680 over the whether she was going to get paid for 0:07:58.720 --> 0:08:01.120 the song or how the boarding studio was going to 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:07.640 be paid. But that parent then, in coincidental parallel track 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:14.200 learned about the trips to the Mexican brothels. This cause 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:18.080 for alarm regarding payment to Anawaki was not a rare instance. 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:22.520 With an Awaki now collecting payments from its patient's insurance, 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:26.720 Oftentimes parents would not realize what they were actually paying 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:30.640 for the school. One quota number for yearly tuition to 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:34.040 an Awaki was thirty three thousand dollars a year in 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:37.800 the early eighties, the equivalent of over one d thousand 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:42.640 dollars today. Receiving payment from medical insurance policies was just 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:46.360 one of an Awaki's multiple revenue streams. With the purchase 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:49.920 of land for its three campuses and properties in Mexico 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:53.800 and Canada, and Awaki had set up a shell corporation 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:59.319 called Anawaki Estates. This LLC would own the real estate 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:02.960 and Awake had acquired and would then lease the property 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:08.240 to its other corporation and Awaki Incorporated in essence shifting 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:12.040 funds from the patients back to the owners of aniwaki Estates. 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:15.960 And who were the owners of the shell corporation none 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:20.599 other than Lewis Petter's three daughters, Tina, Rita and Marcia. 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:24.320 They were leasing them just like anybody else would be 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:28.199 leasing real estate from another company, any other business. So 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:35.080 the non profit was paying the profit corporation. The nonprofit 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:38.839 aniwaki E was paying an awaki Estates rent for lack 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:41.240 of a better way of putting it. And I don't 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:45.080 recall the amounts and involved there, but the ownership of 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:49.600 that was the three daughters. This is Frank Win. He 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:52.680 was the d A for Douglas County in the ninet eighties. 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:58.040 He says the business behind Anawaki's financial interest was largely 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:02.120 tied to the pattern family. Pet His daughters would go 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:06.080 on to marry others involved in the organization. Marcia Petter 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:09.960 to Bud Pedigo in a week he's main accountant, and 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:13.319 Rita Petter to James Henry Evans one of in a 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:17.520 week he's heads of management an awaki Estates. Who would 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:21.200 have been the name of that corporation. Anawaki Inc. Was 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:25.560 the not for profit or nonprofit organization that you know. 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:28.760 I believe most of the board of directors thought when 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:32.920 they authorized stuff that they were authorizing purchases in the 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:38.080 name of Anawaki Inc. And actually they were leasing a 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:42.559 lot of the facilities from Anawaki Estates. So the family 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:46.640 that was the big picture of the family's involvements. You 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:50.679 had three of them that owned the for profit corporation. 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:54.439 Both of his daughters were in charge of different departments, 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:58.360 two of his son in law's were involved. His wife 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:02.640 was also involved. All of them in a director type position. 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:06.719 It is around this same time that some changes were 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:11.360 happening in the law enforcement agencies of Douglas County. For years, 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:16.160 the sheriff had been Claude Abercrombie. Sheriff. Abercrumbie two had 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:19.920 close ties with Anna Waki, even teaching a horse breaking 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:22.600 class to the boys who would come and work on 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:27.160 his horse farm. Abercrumbie's term ended in the mid seventies 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:31.120 after his deputy sheriff, Earl Lee, decided to run against 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:35.120 him for the position and was elected. Earl Lee became 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:39.200 a known character of Douglas County Lore. Here's what Frank 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:44.960 Winn remembers about him. Well, Early was sheriff of Douglas 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:48.559 Canty when when I came along, he had a reputation 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:53.720 that clearly was a walking tall type of sheriff. Some 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:59.200 of it was very much talk. I learned the no 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:02.400 Earl and and love him because I could see just 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:07.400 how obsessive he would get investigating a homicide. He couldn't 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:11.160 stand that someone was killed and that there wasn't justice 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:14.480 trying to find who did it, and he would work 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:17.520 very hard. He wouldn't just jump in and arrest somebody. 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:19.760 He's certainly the kind of person that would not back 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:22.040 down or somebody that you didn't want to have a 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:26.000 fight with. So he had developed a reputation with a 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:31.959 lot of people local from Douglasville. Pat Kirkland remembers how 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:35.439 Earl Lee was thought of at the time. Early has 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:40.640 a reputation on his own. Early was an old West lawman. 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:45.160 He was the law. I mean, everybody knew that Earl 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:49.679 Lee is the law in Douglas County. Early was just 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:53.880 a good old boy, old small town you know, sheriff 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:56.400 and everything. Of course he was you know, he was 0:12:56.440 --> 0:12:59.920 elected by the people and everything, but he just really 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:02.080 it and put up with too much stuff from anyone. 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:06.760 Back several years ago, there he was, he had a 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:09.800 prisoner in the back of his car, and I remembered 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:14.120 this somehow that prisoner and handcuffs committed suicide in the 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:16.640 back of Early's car. Now how and they had did 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:21.800 that happen? Earl Lee had a reputation in the county. 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:24.040 I think he did a lot of good for the 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:27.920 county and everything. But Earl Lee was an old West lawman, 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:31.880 and it's gonna be my way or you ain't gonna 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:34.960 like the circumstances or the what happens at with it. 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:38.160 I know that there were some a couple of instants 0:13:38.160 --> 0:13:42.960 where people got shot. People believe that Earl had shot him. 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:48.400 But I had reviewed the files when I first came along, 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:52.400 just out of curiosity, and had had talked to some 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:55.360 people in the Sheriff's department, and the truth was Earle 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:58.920 had not been the one that shot the people. But 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:03.360 he never for with back down from letting people believe it. 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:07.120 He wouldn't correct them because he felt like it helped 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:11.720 his reputation as far as uh, you know, law enforcement, 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:16.480 as far as the criminal UH elements were concerned. There 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:19.960 were a lot of people. I heard tapes of people 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:24.080 that would we're doing drupe transactions and would say I'm 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:26.760 not going to Douglas County or I'm not going to 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:29.880 Earl Leaves County. That was more likely how they would 0:14:29.880 --> 0:14:34.040 say it. It was amazing. Sometimes. I'll never forget one 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:37.040 case where he told me said, I tried to let 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:40.480 my people do the job on their own and let 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:42.600 them branch out and be able to do it. And 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:46.800 they had actually gone and searched an apartment and came 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:50.200 back and told him they couldn't. They just didn't find anything. 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:53.200 And an Earl believed that just didn't make sense in 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:56.200 relation to this case, that that person had to have 0:14:56.240 --> 0:15:01.080 been somehow involved. And the body that we found in 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:04.520 Douglas County, Earl, he asked the guy, you still give 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:07.400 us consent search, and Earl went back and searched with 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:11.360 the same officers and the first thing he notices is 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:16.040 just a few little red spots, real minor red spots 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:21.560 on the wall. And he realizes that nobody has turned 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:25.200 the bed over, so he makes his officers flip the bed, 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:28.600 and the first thing they see is some blood, and 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:31.360 then they find some on the bottom side of a pillow. 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:36.320 And whether it's true or not, I remember Earl after 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:40.000 they started, after they clearly had found blood, he said, 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:43.680 let me show you where the gun is. And he said, so, 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:46.960 I took him into the guy's closet and started patting 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:50.000 down the clothes, and the gun had been placed on 0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:53.560 the inside pocket of a coat. This was clearly the 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:56.960 murder weapon, but his officers had missed it. And Earl, 0:15:57.240 --> 0:16:00.880 once he found the blood, he knew exactly where somebody 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:04.960 might hide a gun, and and that his officers might 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:07.840 not have looked at and that still might have been 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:10.080 a problem. But he he brings the guy into his 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:14.600 office and very politely interviews him and and goes over 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:16.480 his rights with him and talks to him for a 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:19.440 little while, reaches under his desk and pulls up the 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:23.280 jacket and says, tell me about this jacket, and the 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:27.560 guy immediately starts explaining why the gun was there. And 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:33.200 Earl had made had spent thirty minutes never mentioning the gun, 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:38.040 never told the guy the point of the coat, And 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:41.520 like Earl told me when we were prosecuting the case, 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:47.560 it was better than a confession. Frank says that while 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:51.360 Earl Lee had his suspicions about an AWAKEI, he never 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:54.040 had enough of a case to make an arrest or 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:59.280 conduct a formal investigation. This outlook changed after a tragic 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:05.520 incident occur on the Douglasville campus. From Earl's Lee's standpoint, 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:08.360 one of the things that had caught his attention had 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:14.240 been that there was a situation where UH kid had 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:18.280 killed himself. He had jumped off of I'm going to 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:23.440 call it an old rock or brick type of chimney 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:27.679 structure and landed onto a concrete slab. And that was 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:33.639 something that Earl was very uh touched anytime a kid 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:38.080 died and he would get involved, uh and he would 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:43.719 become obsessive, compulsive. Carl Moore remembers his reaction when he 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:48.440 was informed there had been a suicide at Annawaki. There 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:53.720 was a a chimney of one of the cabins that 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:57.560 was left. I can't I think it was just a 0:17:57.640 --> 0:18:00.480 chimney with the slab. I don't remember why it was 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:06.560 that way, but he climbed to the top of that 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:12.760 and uh dove off. I had been on a trip somewhere. 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:15.159 I can't remember what I was doing now, but I 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:17.879 had someone had picked me up the airport and told 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:21.080 me that one of the kids who killed themselves. It 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:24.640 just devastated me to hear that. I think I actually 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:28.200 arrived back at the campus as the ambulances were still there. 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:31.040 I got the idea that a lot of the kids 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:35.320 knew him. It was a big deal. That was something 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:40.479 he never could figure out why that kid did what 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:44.639 he did. That just he wasn't provided with enough information 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:48.840 from Mannawaki that made him comfortable that it explained the 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:54.719 kid committing suicide. And so that was just something that 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:58.520 bothered him, and he spoke to me about it, and 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:01.360 so it was something that we sort in our minds 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:05.400 had in the back of our thought process when when 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:27.520 other things developed. By eighty Lewis Petter's friend and confident 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:30.800 Jim Parham had completed his term as a part of 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:34.959 Jimmy Carter's presidential cabinet and had returned to serve as 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:38.040 a member of the board of directors for Anawaki. With 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:42.160 Anawaki licensed as an official medical hospital, it was now 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:46.200 subject to receive state funding as a mental institute as 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:48.639 part of a new mental health program put in a 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:52.760 place by the DHR, the same organization which Parum was 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:56.040 once head up. In a document from the Georgia Department 0:19:56.040 --> 0:20:01.120 of Human Resources from January eighteenth night, it is recorded 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:04.120 that the State of Georgia paid an Awake the sum 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:08.000 of eight hundred and seventy two thousand dollars of taxpayer money, 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:10.960 the purpose of which was to build a brand new 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:15.200 evaluation and observation or E and O building that could 0:20:15.200 --> 0:20:19.760 house up to forty five additional patients. While Annawaki was 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:24.160 clearly still in good graces with state government agencies, others 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:27.920 were beginning to become suspicious of the tax exempt organization. 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:33.719 Following the suicide on campus in Antawaki's resistance to investigate it, 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:37.840 local authorities were now looking more closely into the financial 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:44.040 organization behind in Awaki. In nine two, Douglas County decided 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:48.280 to revoke an Awake's nonprofit tax exemption, followed by an 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:51.920 attempt to recoup hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes. 0:20:52.160 --> 0:20:56.080 The county felt it was owed. Insurance companies, who were 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:59.640 now being charged hundreds of thousands of dollars also began 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:03.480 to question the validity of an Awaki's treatment. An early 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:08.720 correspondence from shows Blue Cross Blue Shield arguing that the treatment, 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:12.119 costing upwards of one thousand dollars for a patient was 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:16.240 not covered under their plan. Another correspondence from the United 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:20.320 States Department of Defense Division of Health Affairs regarding the 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:23.600 son of a retired Army officer shows a decline to 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:28.520 cover the treatment provided it Innawaki upon further review and 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:35.359 called the treatment quote not medically necessary. While state agencies 0:21:35.400 --> 0:21:38.720 and insurance companies alike were beginning to grow skeptical of 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:42.639 Anawaki's practices, other things were starting to make parents of 0:21:42.680 --> 0:21:46.120 the students and even board members of an Awaki suspicious. 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:49.960 One of these board members that would greatly affect the 0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:54.720 future of an Awaki was one Sarah Tillis. Here's journalist 0:21:54.880 --> 0:22:01.400 Albert Edgin. Sarah Tillis was the mother of several children 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:03.760 who had been treated in an Awake and who are 0:22:03.800 --> 0:22:06.159 still being treated at an Awake in the eighties, but 0:22:06.359 --> 0:22:09.679 also an important member of the board, a very influential 0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:13.040 member of the board of directors, and eventually the chairman 0:22:13.080 --> 0:22:16.080 of the Board of Directors. She and her husband were 0:22:16.200 --> 0:22:19.400 very involved in all sorts of activities there and very 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:23.560 supportive friends with Petter and wealthy in their own right 0:22:24.040 --> 0:22:27.679 and had been seduced by Petter. Petter made sure that 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:31.919 her children were given special attention. At the end of 0:22:31.920 --> 0:22:35.840 the day, Petter was a good counselor. If he wanted 0:22:35.840 --> 0:22:37.760 to be a good counselor, he could be a good counselor. 0:22:37.880 --> 0:22:40.560 So if he had somebody he needed to curry favor with, 0:22:41.080 --> 0:22:42.760 and the way to do it was to counsel her 0:22:42.840 --> 0:22:46.439 children in a very professional and accomplished way, he did it. 0:22:46.520 --> 0:22:48.280 And that's what he did with Sarah tell Us, he 0:22:48.400 --> 0:22:51.159 lured her in. He seduced her in the same way 0:22:51.480 --> 0:22:55.440 that he seduced those boys through his manipulation of her emotions. 0:22:56.000 --> 0:23:00.840 So Sarah became an Antiwaki advocate on deroids. I mean, 0:23:00.920 --> 0:23:04.680 she was the she was an awake's face. And in return, 0:23:04.800 --> 0:23:08.040 her children were taken care of, and she was introduced 0:23:08.040 --> 0:23:11.400 by Petter to the you know, political hierarchy in two 0:23:11.400 --> 0:23:15.359 different states. You know, she could go to all sorts 0:23:15.400 --> 0:23:17.960 of affairs and events with the governor of Florida or 0:23:18.000 --> 0:23:21.160 the governor Georgia away. It was very you know, very 0:23:21.200 --> 0:23:25.320 high cotton for a suburban housewife in Atlanta. He gave 0:23:25.320 --> 0:23:30.159 her those avenues. During one of an Awake's annual Mexico trips, 0:23:30.280 --> 0:23:35.080 in a group of board members joined along a number 0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:38.840 of incidents occurred which gave alarm to Sarah Tillis and others, 0:23:39.680 --> 0:23:43.400 in particular witnessing what she believed to be an inappropriate 0:23:43.440 --> 0:23:49.720 relationship with Carl Moore and Petter's teenage granddaughter Shari. You 0:23:49.800 --> 0:23:52.920 have to think that was a pretty well developed system 0:23:53.000 --> 0:23:57.639 by four when Sarah stumbled onto just one aspect of it, 0:23:57.880 --> 0:24:00.439 and the aspect of it that she stumbled on was 0:24:00.800 --> 0:24:04.560 is important in the narrative because it changed her opinion 0:24:04.600 --> 0:24:09.280 of Petter, and that was that Petter's granddaughter, who was fourteen, 0:24:09.640 --> 0:24:16.359 was engaging in sexual for play with the driver of 0:24:16.400 --> 0:24:21.280 a van that was taking an Awakey officials around Mexico, 0:24:21.680 --> 0:24:25.400 and Petter knew this was happening. It was his granddaughter. 0:24:25.800 --> 0:24:28.960 A couple of the the board members, Sarah Tillis being 0:24:29.040 --> 0:24:33.399 the main one, noticed that and complained about it. Looking 0:24:33.440 --> 0:24:36.280 back on it, it's amazing and it's sort of as 0:24:36.320 --> 0:24:41.359 a testament to Petter's um sheer control over the over 0:24:41.440 --> 0:24:44.560 people he could control people's opinion of him, and so 0:24:44.800 --> 0:24:49.000 even though this was something that that Sarah disapproved of, 0:24:50.280 --> 0:24:53.520 she was able to put that in some sort of 0:24:53.520 --> 0:24:57.600 a uh place where it was something that troubled her, 0:24:57.640 --> 0:25:00.680 but it didn't completely alter her opinion and initially, Peter 0:25:02.600 --> 0:25:05.880 I asked Carl Moore about his involvement with Petter's then 0:25:05.960 --> 0:25:10.600 teenage granddaughter. He says this was just another sign of 0:25:10.640 --> 0:25:14.520 how bad things had gotten for him. There was a 0:25:14.600 --> 0:25:21.520 larger context to it. Um doesn't justify or really change 0:25:22.960 --> 0:25:28.000 anything about it. I think it was another example, in 0:25:28.040 --> 0:25:31.520 a way of how twisted things were for me at 0:25:31.560 --> 0:25:34.280 the time. And I don't think it's I don't think 0:25:34.320 --> 0:25:36.919 I can say anything else about it. I have to 0:25:36.960 --> 0:25:41.199 think it was smoke screen in some ways. After this 0:25:41.240 --> 0:25:45.800 episode published, I was contacted by both Carl and Sari. 0:25:46.520 --> 0:25:50.440 Carl and Shery both stated that their relationship was strictly 0:25:50.480 --> 0:25:54.800 as friends and never sexual. When asked about her relationship 0:25:54.840 --> 0:25:59.640 with Carl, Charis stated quote, Carl has never been anything 0:25:59.680 --> 0:26:02.919 but good to me. He cared about what happened to 0:26:02.960 --> 0:26:07.520 me without ever wanting something in return. When asked again 0:26:07.560 --> 0:26:12.199 about his relationship with Shari, Karl stated quote, I was 0:26:12.280 --> 0:26:15.879 being her friend without being sexual. I knew there was 0:26:15.920 --> 0:26:19.520 a risk that my affection was being misunderstood by others, 0:26:19.640 --> 0:26:22.560 and I did not care what they thought. It is 0:26:22.600 --> 0:26:25.840 ironic to me that, after all these years, that an 0:26:25.880 --> 0:26:29.400