Speaker 1: Novel. A listener note this episode contains violence and content
Speaker 1: that some listeners might find distressing. Previously on deliver Us
Speaker 1: from Herbal, Welcome to Colonia Labert. Well, yeah, come and
Speaker 1: say hi to Jesse's. We were going to Zion, a
Speaker 1: place for Jesus to return. I was all prepared to
Speaker 1: see a beautiful, wonderful place. We wanted to tell Joel
Speaker 1: what to do, because he wanted Joel to do everything
Speaker 1: more perfect and more professional, and Joel wasn't like that.
Speaker 1: One of the dictims of that cult was if you
Speaker 1: ever left, you would be killed. Non's if some butts
Speaker 1: about it. My brother says that he heard noises and
Speaker 1: discussions and then all of the sudden, some shots they
Speaker 1: killed him. The actual killing of my dad and brutal,
Speaker 1: cold blah. They kill him right here. On the twentie
Speaker 1: Fagasteen seventy two August nineteen seventy two, the Mormon fundamentalists
Speaker 1: of Colonial LeBaron are gathered at an airstrip in the
Speaker 1: desert of Chihuahua. The sky is lit up by bright moonlight.
Speaker 1: They're waiting for the body of their fallen prophet, Joel LeBaron,
Speaker 1: the One Mighty and strong murdered in an ambush in
Speaker 1: a town on the Baja coast of Mexico by disciples
Speaker 1: of his brother Herbal Murder. We're talking about murder. Naoma
Speaker 1: Stubbs was in the crowd that night at the airport.
Speaker 1: Joel died when I was nine years old, and I
Speaker 1: actually drove in the back of a truck when they
Speaker 1: brought his casket to The gusts are on this airport,
Speaker 1: and I remember watching as they landed to bring his
Speaker 1: casket home just before midnight. Huge floodlights flick on as
Speaker 1: the plane descends lands and the doors open. Naoma presses
Speaker 1: close with the rest of the crowd to see their
Speaker 1: profits body. A pickup then backs up to the plane.
Speaker 1: Joel's casket is lifted into the truck bed for his
Speaker 1: final short trip back to Colonial a Baron. I remember
Speaker 1: all the men discussing what has to be done to
Speaker 1: be able to take care of his body and bring
Speaker 1: him home. Within days of bearing Joel, the focus of
Speaker 1: the people of Colonial Aaron turned to Irville and his accomplices.
Speaker 1: Thanks to Joel's son Ivan identifying the killers, they had
Speaker 1: no doubts these were the people responsible for the death
Speaker 1: of Joel. He was our prophet and we all looked
Speaker 1: up to him and admired. Plus on top of that,
Speaker 1: now they could murder any of us. Because if Erville
Speaker 1: could have his own brother killed, the one mighty and strong,
Speaker 1: surely no one was safe. He started threatening that he
Speaker 1: was in a murder people if they didn't do what
Speaker 1: he said. It was very terrorizing, that terror. It was
Speaker 1: part of Herbal's plan to intimidate people so they'd fall
Speaker 1: in line behind him, so they joined his cult. We
Speaker 1: were always threatened. Nailma's mom, Larivee Stobs. I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: tell you this. Hervill thought that if he got rid
Speaker 1: of Joel, that he could just move in and take
Speaker 1: leadership with Joel's people. Well it didn't work, that's the problem.
Speaker 1: So the stage was set in Herbal's mind. At least
Speaker 1: it was him against the world. From the Team's at
Speaker 1: Novel and I Heart Radio. I'm Jesse Hyde and this
Speaker 1: is deliver Us from Hervial Episode two, the Massacre and
Speaker 1: Los Milinos. It was four when the phone calls started,
Speaker 1: calls threatening the townsfolk of colonial LeBaron. I remember always
Speaker 1: being fearful of him because as we were growing up
Speaker 1: after he had murdered Joel. It was always the fear
Speaker 1: of the I'm coming an attack in our town. There
Speaker 1: was a phone and they would send messages and say
Speaker 1: they're threatening this or they're threatening that. Up until now,
Speaker 1: the years since Joel Slang had largely been quiet, and
Speaker 1: one big reason for that was Hervill had been in
Speaker 1: prison following Joel's killing in seventy two. He had slipped
Speaker 1: across the US border with Dan Jordan's who had killed
Speaker 1: Joel and some other followers, and they cut a swath
Speaker 1: across the American South, stayed in cheap motel rooms from
Speaker 1: Texas to Tennessee, planning, scheming, never in one place for
Speaker 1: more than a few days. But then, after several months
Speaker 1: on the run, Herval did something really strange. He turned
Speaker 1: himself in. It was a gamble, a huge gamble. Back then,
Speaker 1: under Mexican law, a prosecutor only had seventy two hours
Speaker 1: to gather evidence, and if they couldn't find enough for trial,
Speaker 1: well then he was a freeman. So this sudden move
Speaker 1: might give him an upper hand. But the gambit failed.
Speaker 1: He was charged with the murder and sentenced to twelve
Speaker 1: years in prison in Mexico. That could and should have
Speaker 1: been the end of it. But fourteen months later, the
Speaker 1: appeals court reversed the conviction and Herville was released from prison,
Speaker 1: an act of God, more likely a bribe to the
Speaker 1: right official by a member of his cults. Once released
Speaker 1: from prison in Mexico, he traveled north, back into the
Speaker 1: US where he could put those fourteen months of brooding
Speaker 1: and scheming into action. He told his followers of a
Speaker 1: coming war, and back in colonial le Baron, those menacing
Speaker 1: phone calls had started. He tried to scare people into
Speaker 1: life and death like that, and people were scared so
Speaker 1: that you had to be careful. Yeah, you did. Local
Speaker 1: is like larive Stubs were spurred into action. The town
Speaker 1: erected a watch tower on a hill. One resident even
Speaker 1: put a siren on his roof. They were taking the
Speaker 1: threats of violence from Herbyl's cult seriously. Naoma remembers armed
Speaker 1: townsfolk patrolling the streets looking for anything suspicious. They would
Speaker 1: shoot gunshots. So if you would hear those gunshots, you
Speaker 1: knew that, Okay, everybody needs to take cover because we're
Speaker 1: under threat. And that would happen all the time. Those nights.
Speaker 1: We would put our sleeping bags in the weeds and
Speaker 1: sleep in the ditches because we had threats on our town.
Speaker 1: You would literally gather up the younger kids, leave the
Speaker 1: house and then go to a ditch. Yeah, we had
Speaker 1: a ditch in front of our house. Always had weeds
Speaker 1: in it because of the water. And I would always
Speaker 1: grow of sleeping, bagging, go jumping the ditch because the
Speaker 1: fear was our roof was made out of wood, and
Speaker 1: if he would throw a gas bomb on it, well,
Speaker 1: our home would be in fire and you're going to
Speaker 1: run out and he would kill us. So if you
Speaker 1: were in the ditch and you're being quiet and there's weeds,
Speaker 1: don't never know. They wouldn't go in the ditches? In
Speaker 1: my mind, how long would you stay in the dish?
Speaker 1: Like all night? I remember one night being there all
Speaker 1: night long and waking up there in the morning time.
Speaker 1: How often do you remember it happening? I remember, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I probably went to the ditches nine twelve times.
Speaker 1: For Naoma. This thing, she feared, this thing. She seemed
Speaker 1: to almost see residents being drawn out of their homes
Speaker 1: by bombs and fire, only to be gunned down as
Speaker 1: they fled. A lot of people I talked to reporting
Speaker 1: the story told me a vivid premonitions like this, And
Speaker 1: if this sounds a bit crazy, I get it, I
Speaker 1: really do. But here's an important thing to understand. Mormonism
Speaker 1: is a religion of dreams and visions and prophecies of
Speaker 1: magic in a way of the veil between heaven and
Speaker 1: Earth being very thin. All Mormons believe that, whether they're
Speaker 1: fundamentalists or someone like my parents. But here's the really
Speaker 1: crazy thing. This vision of violence seen by Naoma, it
Speaker 1: turned out to be right more after the break. I
Speaker 1: grew up in a very devout Mormon family. We were
Speaker 1: not fundamentalist. We were part of the mainstream church. As
Speaker 1: a kid, I thought a lot about what I read
Speaker 1: in scripture, and I think, like a lot of kids
Speaker 1: raised in devoutly religious homes, be a Catholic, Muslim, evangelical,
Speaker 1: I thought a lot about sin, and to be honest,
Speaker 1: I feared it. I feared the judgment of God. Looking back,
Speaker 1: I've got to admit it probably wasn't healthy how often
Speaker 1: I felt guilty. Mormonism teaches that you can be forgiven
Speaker 1: of pretty much any sin unless you denied the Holy Ghost.
Speaker 1: Then you become something called a son of perdition. Growing up,
Speaker 1: I didn't know exactly what that meant. I just knew
Speaker 1: I didn't want to be one, because a son of
Speaker 1: perdition gets sent to a unique kind of hell, a
Speaker 1: place Mormons call outer darkness, And I'll be honest, it
Speaker 1: terrified me. I pictured like space and some little star
Speaker 1: off all by itself, cold, alone, forever, no path to redemption.
Speaker 1: It freaked me out. I say all of this because
Speaker 1: when I tried to picture Herville, especially after he killed
Speaker 1: his brother, when I try to think of him washing
Speaker 1: the metaphorical blood from his hands, I can't help but
Speaker 1: think of him as a son of perdition in his
Speaker 1: own sort of outer darkness. Because Herville had crossed what
Speaker 1: for me at least is an unimaginable line ordering the
Speaker 1: slaying of his own brother, and as I see it,
Speaker 1: it was a demarcation point from which he would never return.
Speaker 1: He was cast out from colonial a baron, eden zion home,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it, and the rest of
Speaker 1: his days would be spent in restless wandering, like Kine
Speaker 1: after he killed his brother Abel in the Book of Genesis.
Speaker 1: But if Herville felt a weight a darkness for killing
Speaker 1: Joel if he felt even a semblance of that guilt
Speaker 1: and shame I knew as a kid, he didn't show it.
Speaker 1: The continued threats to Colonial LeBaron demonstrate that he simply
Speaker 1: pressed on wandering through the darkness. And it was darkness
Speaker 1: that was now spreading out from Colonial LeBaron and headed
Speaker 1: across Mexico, falling across the Baja Coast. We're on Highway
Speaker 1: of one in Mexico, which starts at the border right
Speaker 1: after San Diego, and we have been driving in total
Speaker 1: from the border were about three hours. And the highway
Speaker 1: when you first get outside of Tijuana, it's just stunningly beautiful,
Speaker 1: just hugs the ocean. There are hotels right on the beach,
Speaker 1: then these little Mexican towns, and then the first kind
Speaker 1: of big town you come to is Rosarita, and then
Speaker 1: an hour so after that in Sonata. But we are
Speaker 1: driving toward a town called Los Molina's. If in Colonial
Speaker 1: Labaron Joel had yearned to create the next kingdom of
Speaker 1: God on Earth, you might say Los Molinos was heaven spillover.
Speaker 1: It was one of the major outposts of Colonial l
Speaker 1: Abaron where Joel and Irville had attracted converts as their
Speaker 1: church numbers started to swell. Los Milinos, which means the
Speaker 1: Windmills in Spanish, is about an hour's drive from where
Speaker 1: Joel was killed. As you pass down the highway, the
Speaker 1: beauty of the landscape is unrelenting, the light that haze
Speaker 1: from the ocean. You pass vineyards where you can stop
Speaker 1: to drink delicious samples and eat local cheese, and then
Speaker 1: the town appears across this vast flat plane of land.
Speaker 1: It's a little more barren and dry than the countryside
Speaker 1: you've passed through. In the distance the shore of the
Speaker 1: Sea of Cortez, and to the north, a steep hillside
Speaker 1: overlooks Los Milinos. Back when Joel was still alive in
Speaker 1: the sixties, both he and Herville saw huge potential in
Speaker 1: the town. I've got to be honest, sometimes, when you're
Speaker 1: in colonial LeBaron, out in the harsh desert, it's sort
Speaker 1: of hard to understand why the LeBaron's thoughts such an
Speaker 1: inhospitable place would be the best location for Zion. But
Speaker 1: what you see when you pass along this coastline road
Speaker 1: towards Los Milinos, well, it's much easier to imagine how
Speaker 1: the LeBaron saw its promise for Joel and the people
Speaker 1: who ran his church after his death. The opportunity they
Speaker 1: saw was for another communal utopia like Colonial LeBaron, but
Speaker 1: Erville's vision for the town was different. He focused in
Speaker 1: on the nine miles of surrounding beachfront property. What Erville
Speaker 1: imagined was a luxury resort kind of his own Mara Lago.
Speaker 1: He even lined up investors in the States. He flew
Speaker 1: them down on a private plane for a tour, and
Speaker 1: in typical RVIL grandiose fashion, he called it the Baja
Speaker 1: Yacht Club. I don't know, maybe he thought that was
Speaker 1: an easier cell than the next Kingdom of God on Earth.
Speaker 1: Even before Joel's murder, Los Milinos townsfolk had mixed loyalties
Speaker 1: between Joel's church and hervil. One. Los Milinos local I met,
Speaker 1: for instance, Joe Castillo. He was firmly behind Joel and
Speaker 1: saw him as his prophet. Our prophet said that Los
Speaker 1: Molinos was a suitable place to come and lift our people.
Speaker 1: Joe Castillo was one of Joel's earliest converts, so he
Speaker 1: moved from Central Mexico to Colonial le Baron, then onto
Speaker 1: Los Milinos. When the keep and when I came here,
Speaker 1: I saw that it was a much better place for
Speaker 1: me in regards to the economy, because we had better salaries,
Speaker 1: and it was also a better place to develop. That
Speaker 1: is why we have been here since nineteen sixty six
Speaker 1: until now. They say. But Hervill was popular in town too,
Speaker 1: when he made the long trips across Mexico to visit Mama.
Speaker 1: I remember my mom saying that Ervil really liked Bence
Speaker 1: and Salta. My mom all aways gave him food. This
Speaker 1: is another Lost Millinos resident Delhi. She grew up here
Speaker 1: and when Herville came to town, he would stay in
Speaker 1: her parents home. It was a house where they gather
Speaker 1: to study, to talk, to talk more than anything with
Speaker 1: my dad. But I remember that my mom used to
Speaker 1: happily tell me that my dad like Herbal, but he
Speaker 1: arrived with stuff for my mom. Hervil gifted in machine
Speaker 1: and Yes, considering the mixed loyalties between Joel and Hervill,
Speaker 1: it's easy to understand that when Herville had his brother killed,
Speaker 1: it sent Los Milinos into a state of somewhere between
Speaker 1: panic and confusion. The majority of the town continued to
Speaker 1: follow Joel's church, the Church of the Firstborn, which by
Speaker 1: nine seventy four was led by a man called Verlin Barnon.
Speaker 1: Le Baron is as the youngest brother to joln Irville,
Speaker 1: and he was seven years the younger than yo Joel.
Speaker 1: A Baron's son Adrian, took me to the spot in
Speaker 1: Los Milinos where Verlin lived today. It's a small, tumble
Speaker 1: down one story home, a rusting gate, rusting chain link fence.
Speaker 1: And the reason we're standing up here because when they
Speaker 1: startled about Molinos, he brought his family here. He helped
Speaker 1: a lot to build this down little Molinos. He had
Speaker 1: en office here. Verlin he didn't have the Hollywood looks
Speaker 1: of his brother Herville, and he wasn't like his brother
Speaker 1: Joel either, really like he never made any kind of
Speaker 1: claim of revelation to be the one mighty and strong,
Speaker 1: that person who was chosen to unite the whole Mormon church.
Speaker 1: There was no seeing angels or hearing God's voice for Verlin.
Speaker 1: In fact, you could say he wasn't ambitious for power
Speaker 1: at all. Yet after Joel's death, he was running the
Speaker 1: community Herville had sought to control. This sent Herval into
Speaker 1: a rage, and no sooner had Rlin inherited the leadership
Speaker 1: of Joel's church. His presence at Los Milinos had put
Speaker 1: the whole community squarely in Hervil's crosshairs. Hervill's fourteen months
Speaker 1: in prison might have given the town some respite, but
Speaker 1: then in nineteen seventy four he was released, and just
Speaker 1: like in colonial LeBaron, the town started to receive ultimatums
Speaker 1: to fall in line under Hervil. Things didn't stop there,
Speaker 1: because in nineteen seventy four, everyone who didn't want to
Speaker 1: follow where we started receiving threats. He quoted a passage
Speaker 1: in the Bible that talks about destruction. Los Milinos residents
Speaker 1: like Joe Castillo started to receive handwritten violent threats delivered
Speaker 1: by his own, well supporting neighbors. But then, just as
Speaker 1: it seemed inevitable that these threats would turn into actual violence,
Speaker 1: a strange thing happened. In late nineteen Quietly, without any announcement,
Speaker 1: those families who had joined Hervil's church, the Church of
Speaker 1: the Lamb of God, started leaving Los Molinos. They just
Speaker 1: quietly packed up their homes and left. The community breathed
Speaker 1: a collective sigh of relief. We never believed that they
Speaker 1: were capable of attacking us. They left and we were
Speaker 1: having a normal life. But in they threw an attack.
Speaker 1: The attack. It's December seventy four and the moon is
Speaker 1: bright overhead. It's one of the coldest nights of the year.
Speaker 1: The town then looked much like it does today. Mostly
Speaker 1: single story houses, small yards, the occasional garden, all in
Speaker 1: a grid system with a church in the center. Basic
Speaker 1: not unlike a suburb and a small American town. Although
Speaker 1: the roads are unpaved, the majority of the few hundred
Speaker 1: villagers that night have turned in. They're huddled around stoves
Speaker 1: to keep warm. We're already in bed. Just before nine pm,
Speaker 1: two vehicles approached the town, flick off their headlights as
Speaker 1: they enter. The first is a brown GMC pickup stolen
Speaker 1: from the United States. In the back of the truck
Speaker 1: are three of Herville's most trusted lieutenants. Close behind in
Speaker 1: a dark green Fiat driven by another follower, a teenager
Speaker 1: who will become central to the whole Hervil story. Her
Speaker 1: name is Rna chinof Tonight. She's a sixteen year old onlooker.
Speaker 1: In a few months she'll become Hervil's thirteen wife. The
Speaker 1: cars passed by a house shared by four families, including
Speaker 1: Joel Aguilar, a local clam fisherman, another one of Joel's
Speaker 1: early converts. He lives with his parents and two of
Speaker 1: his married brothers. He looked through the window that pointed
Speaker 1: north and said that Virhinias bets Hells was on fire.
Speaker 1: The tallest structure in Los Milinos was this three story building.
Speaker 1: Everyone called it the tower House, and Joel Aguilar saw
Speaker 1: that it was ablaze. Joe Castillo saw the fire too,
Speaker 1: and like there are other neighbors who saw the tower
Speaker 1: House burning that night, his first thought was, how can
Speaker 1: I help you in the moment, it's like that meant
Speaker 1: I thought it was an accidental fire. I didn't see
Speaker 1: anything evil on it. Who were just there with a
Speaker 1: trust of putting the fire out, thinking it's okay. Things happened,
Speaker 1: Fires happened, But the tower House fire was no accident.
Speaker 1: It had been caused by a Molotov cocktail, and shooters
Speaker 1: were now hiding in the shadows about twenty yards away,
Speaker 1: their targets standing before them perfectly silhouetted against the burning house.
Speaker 1: More after the break, the first fire in Los Milinos
Speaker 1: that night was under control role in a little more
Speaker 1: than ten minutes, neighbors had worked together to get the
Speaker 1: tower House blaze under control, like Joe Castillo and his
Speaker 1: brother Fernando, who had climbed to an upper floor of
Speaker 1: the burning house and from there had successfully fought back
Speaker 1: the flames. But the fire was a trap. On the
Speaker 1: second floor. When my brother was he suddenly felt a
Speaker 1: bullet and told me I have been shot, but I don't.
Speaker 1: Irville had ordered the fire just to lure out his
Speaker 1: brother Verlin. Once again, Irvill was trying to kill one
Speaker 1: of his brothers, and the way he planned it as
Speaker 1: leader of the community, Verlin surely would come out to
Speaker 1: join his neighbors in tackling the blaze. The shooters, who
Speaker 1: were now firing from the shadows, would execute Verlin as
Speaker 1: he came running to help. But so far Verlin hadn't
Speaker 1: shown up, and as the blaze subsided, the shoot as
Speaker 1: were now at risk of being spotted by men like
Speaker 1: Joel and Fernando Castillo on the upper floors of the
Speaker 1: tower House. Before they could lose the element of surprise,
Speaker 1: they opened fire. But that's when I realized how dangerous
Speaker 1: this was, so I grabbed my brother and jumped from
Speaker 1: the second floor into a pile of sand. Joe Castillo's
Speaker 1: brother landed on the floor bleeding. So I pulled my
Speaker 1: brother close. He could still walk a little, and as
Speaker 1: I took him, I told him stay here. At that instant,
Speaker 1: I got shut in my hand and my mano. Now
Speaker 1: both men had been wounded. Joe Castillo moved his brother
Speaker 1: to a sheltered spot as he tried to process exactly
Speaker 1: what was going on. He told him, good, you stay here,
Speaker 1: because something is happening. It started to dawn on Joel
Speaker 1: Castillo that this was a trap. But who were these
Speaker 1: attackers he now saw coming from the shadows, their faces
Speaker 1: seemingly distorted, partially obscured by some kind of cloth like mask. Then,
Speaker 1: as shooters moved away from the shadows, the townsfolks started
Speaker 1: to make out facial features, some were alarmingly familiar. Los
Speaker 1: Milano's resident Deli can remember her sister's shocked as she
Speaker 1: realized she recognized an attacker. And she looked at him
Speaker 1: and so it was her friend, the friend that almost
Speaker 1: became her boyfriend. This was someone she had been to
Speaker 1: school with, sat with him in class. She saw his eyes.
Speaker 1: He was completely covert, and she saw his eyes and
Speaker 1: recognized him, and he turned and saw her and ran away.
Speaker 1: Other townsfolk were coming to the same awful realization. Not
Speaker 1: only were they under attack, but the assailants were the
Speaker 1: children of their former neighbors. Most of the attackings were kids.
Speaker 1: Joelah Baron's son Adrian, took me to the place where
Speaker 1: this all happened. And the kids that Adrian is talking about,
Speaker 1: they were teenagers from the town. It's amazing how children
Speaker 1: are not turtem fourteen, fifteen, sixty and eighteen year old
Speaker 1: can be swam to the opposite side so easy doing
Speaker 1: the attack. They're in a thank your spot of life,
Speaker 1: so you see, convinced of something else. And those are
Speaker 1: the people that Irvil somehow brainwashed. It was powerful. As
Speaker 1: the teenagers attacking Los Milinos realized Berlin wasn't going to
Speaker 1: come out to fight the fire, they switched to their
Speaker 1: next phase of the assault, basically an all out attack.
Speaker 1: These teenagers started firing randomly at the panicking crowd. One
Speaker 1: attacker moved towards a wounded sixteen year old boy, a
Speaker 1: boy named Maronai Mendez. Marona I was on the ground
Speaker 1: moaning and crying, and this attacker stood over Maronai and
Speaker 1: shot him in the chest. Now the attackers left the
Speaker 1: burning tower house and headed towards Verlin's home. Joe Castillo,
Speaker 1: who had been shot in the hand, had made it
Speaker 1: back to his house. From there, he could see that
Speaker 1: the attackers had split into two groups, one moving through
Speaker 1: the town on foot, the other by car, both sets
Speaker 1: randomly firing into residence homes. They were shooting house by house,
Speaker 1: and so I panicked. I didn't even tell my wife
Speaker 1: I was hurt, but I did tell her it was
Speaker 1: you know what, going look for a place to hide
Speaker 1: up there with the trees. Are go over there and
Speaker 1: hide because we are being attacked by as people. The
Speaker 1: teenagers weren't just randomly firing at people. They were now
Speaker 1: also throwing these handmade bombs at the houses. They'd shoot
Speaker 1: at the people fleeing their burning buildings. One group of
Speaker 1: attackers arrived at clam Fisherman Joe Aguilar's Houseman went and
Speaker 1: looked through the window. He went towards the window and
Speaker 1: at the moment he opened the curtain and look, he
Speaker 1: got shot. He got shot in the head. And then
Speaker 1: a molot of bomb was thrown through the same window,
Speaker 1: but the same weekd men. That bomb was made out
Speaker 1: of petrollum base and I had a week inside a bottle.
Speaker 1: And the moment the bullet and the bomb were at
Speaker 1: the same time, the bullet hit him in his head
Speaker 1: and the bomb lit and fell on him, setting his
Speaker 1: body on fire. And to say, my brother. Then as
Speaker 1: I wake up, he fell to the floor with a
Speaker 1: bullet in his head while being on fire, and my
Speaker 1: dad then took a bedsheet and tried to put out
Speaker 1: my brother's body. We then woke up and my mom
Speaker 1: tried to hug it, but he had a lot of
Speaker 1: pain and kept rolling from one way to another. My
Speaker 1: mom cried, we all cried. He was in so much pain.
Speaker 1: The attackers arrived at Virlin's home. Here they threw nearly
Speaker 1: a dozen Molotov cocktails on the roof, fired round after
Speaker 1: round through the windows, but Verlin still didn't emerge, and
Speaker 1: that is because, unknown to the attackers, he wasn't anywhere
Speaker 1: near the town that night. He had fled to Honduras,
Speaker 1: leaving days before the attack. Seeing one brother already slain
Speaker 1: by Herval's colt was enough to convince him to take
Speaker 1: Hervil's recent threat to the town more seriously, but he
Speaker 1: left behind his wife, Charlotte and their small kids, as
Speaker 1: well as his congregation, and now his family were following
Speaker 1: the same procedure rehearsed by residents of Colonial le Baron,
Speaker 1: hiding in the town's ditches just yards away from their
Speaker 1: burning home, and other families and Los Milinos were now
Speaker 1: also hiding their small children from the onslaught as the
Speaker 1: attackers continued their seemingly random assaults on different houses. But
Speaker 1: my husband, and he was wounded. He just didn't show
Speaker 1: me anything. He then manned at his rifle and grabbed
Speaker 1: it with his own injured hand. No, no, he only
Speaker 1: said to me, go out back, take the kids and hide.
Speaker 1: They are killing people out there. Joe Castilla's wife, Julia Cardoba,
Speaker 1: had hoped she could wait out the onslaught, but now
Speaker 1: looking out from her window, she clearly saw other homes
Speaker 1: going up in flames. So I left and hit. There
Speaker 1: was a beautiful bride moon. It almost felt like daylight.
Speaker 1: I went to hide. I had my three kids and
Speaker 1: I was pregnant. I told the kids to hold on
Speaker 1: to me as I grabbed the youngest one to live.
Speaker 1: It was December, it was very cold. I gave a
Speaker 1: blanket to my oldest sons and we left. I let
Speaker 1: them down, and I told him it looks like someone
Speaker 1: is burning the houses over looked in at the houses
Speaker 1: from where we were in cases at our house on fire.
Speaker 1: Stay here, I told my four year old victor, to
Speaker 1: which he replied, yes. Mommies hiding in the flickering shadows
Speaker 1: of their burning home. The community of Los Milinos waited
Speaker 1: in sheer terror for what would come next. But by
Speaker 1: ten pm the raid was over. The attackers fled along
Speaker 1: that same highway I had driven into town on, rejoining
Speaker 1: their families and Hervil's colts. Meanwhile, in Los Milinos, the
Speaker 1: people gathered the wounded. Joel Aguilar remembers four women and
Speaker 1: eleven men ranging an age from sixteen to seventy eight
Speaker 1: years old, had been shot. They were taken to a
Speaker 1: local hospital. The most of your cases where my brother
Speaker 1: with a bullet in his head, and another young man
Speaker 1: whose name was Moronimendous. They were there for three days.
Speaker 1: After three days, my brother ed Mundo died around one pm,
Speaker 1: and Moroney around three pm. The nursessor said it was
Speaker 1: a beautiful day. The son suddenly came out of the clouds,
Speaker 1: but the clouds came back, and then it rained. The
Speaker 1: earth shook, and then a peace, but later on tiered
Speaker 1: shook again. We're standing on a hill above Los Molina's
Speaker 1: or is there, as they called today, standing here at
Speaker 1: and down. When I visited Los Milinos to see for
Speaker 1: myself the side of the attack, I ended up on
Speaker 1: the hill, the one that overlooks the town. Where we
Speaker 1: stand you can see all the way. Thought it was
Speaker 1: on the same hill in nineteen seventy two, just before
Speaker 1: he had ordered his brother dead, that Irville had pretty
Speaker 1: much laid out his entire plan to one resident, a
Speaker 1: man named Fernando Castro. He was Deli's dad, Delhi, whose
Speaker 1: mom RVIL would give gifts to whenever he visited town.
Speaker 1: On this hill, Rvill had told Fernando Castro about both
Speaker 1: his desire to kill his brother and to take control
Speaker 1: of Los Milinos. He offered him a role in his
Speaker 1: cult in exchange for his loyalty and help, but Fernando
Speaker 1: wasn't interested, or maybe he just couldn't comprehend that Ervil
Speaker 1: would actually do all this. Anyway, Now I'm back at
Speaker 1: that very spot, looking out over the same view of
Speaker 1: Los Milinos with Fernando's daughter Deli. I'm also with Adrian.
Speaker 1: He's the son of Joelo Baron and the nephew of Herville.
Speaker 1: Today Delhi and Adrian are married. Delhi is one of
Speaker 1: Adrian's three wives. She points down to the town below
Speaker 1: us and tells me about what life was like for
Speaker 1: the community in the aftermath of the attack. The people
Speaker 1: who lived here were still unsure whether Irvill's court would
Speaker 1: return with more violence and destruction, and maybe that in
Speaker 1: my life and mine, the sound of the ocean still
Speaker 1: connects to what happened that day. The ocean reminds me
Speaker 1: of the massacre. But that's what we say. Where those
Speaker 1: two pounctories are is where the whole town went to
Speaker 1: hide that night to sleep. We were scared, and we
Speaker 1: were told that you cannot sleep at your home. You
Speaker 1: have to go and spend the night at the houses
Speaker 1: that are further away. Up here, at the top of
Speaker 1: the hill, I can see brown earth and the charred
Speaker 1: remains of buildings below me. In total, twenty four homes
Speaker 1: had been firebombed that day, twenty four several were completely gutted,
Speaker 1: and to be frank it seems like in some ways,
Speaker 1: this town hasn't really been able to move on much
Speaker 1: from what happened that night. There never has been any
Speaker 1: justice for what happened in the Los Milinos massacre, not
Speaker 1: that day, not ever. Two residents, one of them just
Speaker 1: a teenage boy, were dead, and the dreams this community
Speaker 1: had for a communal utopia, for prosperity even today, that
Speaker 1: is still their struggle. But Herville's followers cowardly attack on
Speaker 1: their own town seems to have stopped Los Milinos in
Speaker 1: its tracks. Then, as Delhi and I continue to talk,
Speaker 1: she says something that catches me off guard. I still
Speaker 1: love Hervilly because Hervil is responsible for my mom and
Speaker 1: my dad coming here. I'm stunned she still loves Hervil.
Speaker 1: And it's not just me who was shocked to hear this,
Speaker 1: So is Adrian. Herville was the man who ordered his
Speaker 1: father dead. I look across at Adrian and I see
Speaker 1: that he's crying. Adrian, there are something she said that
Speaker 1: seemed to make you kind of emotional. What was that
Speaker 1: or why did it make you emotional? The way she
Speaker 1: the way she feels, that makes me feel, just because
Speaker 1: it's sad to see this story. Guy, he's got me emotional.
Speaker 1: Same match it to me. Let's say it's it's a
Speaker 1: very interesting to me. It's uh, okay, he killed my dad,
Speaker 1: so he should pay for it. But then, but then
Speaker 1: if you start thinking who he was for for my dad,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't matter if he became possess or obsessed
Speaker 1: with evil spirit, it doesn't change the fact that we
Speaker 1: lost the beautiful salt because to me, Herbal was a
Speaker 1: beautiful soul. This is real crucial for me. I'm learning that.
Speaker 1: And this seems even more incredible. Adrian's dad was murdered
Speaker 1: by Irville. In fact, not just his dad, Joel was
Speaker 1: also his prophet. But somehow Adrian has similar feelings towards
Speaker 1: Irvil as Delhi. This is one of the more remarkable
Speaker 1: and I gotta say challenging things about Hervial, the love
Speaker 1: and loyalty he was able to extract from people no
Speaker 1: matter what he did. And as I'm standing there on
Speaker 1: that hill overlooking the town of Los Milinos, I wonder
Speaker 1: was that how he was able to get away with
Speaker 1: manipulating people to kill in his name, Because there is
Speaker 1: no denying the whole evil had over certain people. Even
Speaker 1: after the attack on those Milinos you could say he
Speaker 1: was only really just getting started. He was headed from
Speaker 1: Delhi from Joe Castillo, Joe Aguilar, Julia Cardoba. But Erville
Speaker 1: would continue to be chased and hunted by people like
Speaker 1: Larive Stops and others in colonial LeBaron as he continued
Speaker 1: his restless wandering through the darkness. Rville was headed to
Speaker 1: America to expand his cult to new followers, and there
Speaker 1: he would find more disciples willing to shed more blood
Speaker 1: in his name. They were going to go out and
Speaker 1: save the world. Was the leader. When they all got
Speaker 1: on this ship to go out and save the world.
Speaker 1: And as they went along, I started thinking started dragon
Speaker 1: and things weren't good, and then it caught on fire.
Speaker 1: That's coming up in episode three. Deliver Us from Herville
Speaker 1: is hosted by me jesse Hyde and written and reported
Speaker 1: by me Leona Hamid and David Waters. Production from Leona
Speaker 1: Hamid and David Waters. Sean Glenn and Max O'Brien are
Speaker 1: executive producers. Lena Chang and Megan Oyinka are researchers. Marianna
Speaker 1: Gongora is our field producer. Fact checking by Donya Suleman
Speaker 1: and Sona Avakian. Production Management from Shari Houston, free Key Taylor,
Speaker 1: and Charlotte Wolfe. Austin Mitchell is our creative director of production.
Speaker 1: Michae Lee Row is our managing editor. Gavin Haynes is
Speaker 1: our head of Development. Willard Foxton is our creative director
Speaker 1: of Development. Sound design, mixing and scoring by Nicholas Alexander
Speaker 1: and Daniel Kempson. Music supervision by Nicholas Alexander and David Waters.
Speaker 1: Our music is composed by Julian Lynch. Special thanks to
Speaker 1: Scott Anderson, Scott Carrier, Del van Ada, Pippa Smith, Saskia Edwards,
Speaker 1: Matt O'Mara, Katrina Norville and beth Ann Makaluso, or In Rosenbaum,
Speaker 1: Shelby Shankman and all the team. A U T A.
Speaker 1: For more from novel, visit novel dot Audio