WEBVTT - 9: Who Wears The Crown? 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:13.440 Ya novel. A Listener note this episode contains violence, including 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:22.000 sexual violence, and references to child abuse. Previously on deliver 0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:27.240 Us from Herbal. I think by the time Irvill had died, 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:30.400 I knew it really wasn't over, because with such an 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:34.760 unstable group founded on such erroneous principles, you never really 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:39.839 know what to expect. I'm Gabriella le Baron and my 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:44.400 father is Irvil LeBaron. Children naturally worship their parents, but 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:46.880 my experience with my dad was taken to a holy 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:50.680 level because he actually was the representation of God on earth. 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:54.080 This is the book of the New Covenant. It's a 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:59.840 manifesto of Irvill le Baron. I mean, it's just wonderful, right, 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:05.319 consistently crazy all the way through. The cult wasn't even 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:07.320 a word reknew of. There was no cult. We were 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:10.920 the KG if anything. Yeah, we called ourselves KG. We 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:16.520 were God's Kingdom. Changed my life forever, as far as 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:20.400 my worry about personal safety for me and my family. 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:23.800 Like the mafia, right, so the mafia breaks apart. One 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:26.760 team goes against the other team. Now everybody was going 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:30.039 to try to kill each other. We were in the 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:32.720 car and she just said, I have to tell you 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:35.440 the Arthur's been killed, and I froze, like my whole 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:39.720 body went like cold, white frozen. Don't tell anybody that 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:44.720 you know that was it. See Hebrew didn't study. He 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:46.280 was not one of those kind of guys. He was 0:01:46.319 --> 0:01:48.360 more of a party like a rock star type of guy. 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:52.200 But the thing is in the cults, is it? A 0:01:52.240 --> 0:02:43.000 person can't do that. M Of all the stories Gabrielle 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:46.480 LeBaron told me about her childhood living in the second 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:50.760 generation of herbal LeBaron's cult, the Kingdom of God, the Kog, 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:55.080 there's one that sticks in my mind. I keep coming 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:58.840 back to it. I went swimming in the ocean. I 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:02.800 was eight years old by myself, and I swam and 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:05.320 swam and swam and swam as far as I could. 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:10.120 Unlike many of the stories Gabriella told me about her life, 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:14.760 it wasn't about violence at the hands of others. I 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:17.640 was having this grand old time. I would play this 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:20.080 game where I would pretend to be a dolphin and 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:23.200 jump over the waves, hop over the waves. Gabriella was 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:27.640 out alone in the Sea of Cortez, swimming free, and 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:29.520 I try to hop and hop over waves as they 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:32.920 were coming in little mountain waves, and I was hopping 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:36.080 over them and hopping over them. Then when I finally 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:39.440 came back to the present moment and turned around and 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:43.480 to see the shore, I had swam so far that 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:46.440 people were itty bitty way out in shore. And I 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:50.320 was like, no problem, you know, just turn around, float 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:53.400 on the waves, let him bring you back. And I 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:56.240 came back and it drifted me down like a half 0:03:56.240 --> 0:04:03.720 a mile. When Gabriella started this story, I thought she 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:06.880 was telling me about happiness, about one of those rare 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:09.880 moments where she felt real joy. And I walked back 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:11.720 up and I was like, did you guys see what 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:13.400 I just did? You know? I came back with like, 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:17.839 but everyone was doing their thing. Nobody noticed, you know, 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:21.520 nobody noticed. But as her story went on, I heard 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:25.799 something else. If I wanted to walk forever into the horizon, 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:33.479 I could. At this point, Gabriella was just eight years old. 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:36.520 She had no adult in the world to look out 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:40.320 for her. Her protective big brother Arthur was dead, her 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:44.159 mother gone to But it was worse than that for 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:48.599 Gabriella and all the children and teenagers around her. There 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:53.600 was no one to protect them from each other. There 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:56.479 were no boundaries for me. There was absolutely not a 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:59.800 single person that would stop me. The horizon was forever. 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:09.640 These traumatized and indoctrinated children and teenagers re enacting the 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:14.799 abuse and violence inflicted on them. Everybody was a crazy, little, 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:19.800 freaking spartan extremist terrorist, not knowing anything else in the world. 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:27.520 This was the Kog. Their horizon was forever, no boundaries, 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:33.160 not a single person to stop them. This is God's law. 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:35.760 We have to do it, otherwise the whole world will 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:39.240 go to hell like armageddon. You know, Satan will win 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:43.279 in the end. We don't do this. And now in 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:47.440 there was this nineteen year old kid, newly at the 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:53.360 helm of their death cult. Hebrew was the authority. William 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:57.360 Hebrew LeBaron, Gabriella's half brother, just like their dad. He 0:05:57.440 --> 0:06:01.640 was tall, good looking, He had bright, bright blonde hair, 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:07.520 raised up in an extremist faith, schooled in crime and violence, 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:11.080 and with a rage inside him that no one seemed 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:17.440 able to control. We were terrified of him. From the 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:20.440 Team's at Novel and I Heart Radio, This is deliver 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:28.839 Us from Herville Episode nine, Abdication. No child of Herbal 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:33.320 le Baron was permitted a conventional childhood, and his son 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:40.239 Hebrew was certainly no exception. In age. Just eleven years old, 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:44.080 he was pulled out of school sent to work in 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:48.200 an appliance repair operation in Denver run by Herville's then 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:53.479 right hand man, Dan Jordan's. Here he'd labor alongside his 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:57.160 siblings in what was essentially a sweatshop. He was one 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:00.440 of those child slaves, and they worked so hard, all 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:03.400 of them. There was no wages, right, You couldn't own anything. 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:05.440 You couldn't buy a new pair of shoes. You couldn't 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:08.080 you couldn't do anything. He had to send all this 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:11.240 money back to the family, to the cult. Unlike his 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:15.320 brother Arthur, who had been Hervil's chauffeur, Hebrew had virtually 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:18.800 no relationship with his father. This was the case with 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:22.160 most of Hervil's children. He'd only seen him a handful 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:26.160 of times. When he was in Denver. Hebrew lived under 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:31.480 Dan Jordan's brutal supervision, and he was whipped. What they 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:35.080 would do is these things that they would put inside 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:37.720 the screen window to hold the screen down, this rubber, 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:41.040 whatever thing they would stick inside the window. They would 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:44.440 pull those out and whip the children with them and 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:52.360 they would get a minimum of pretty lashes. As a kid, 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:55.360 Hebrew was frail, and he often had little to eat, 0:07:56.560 --> 0:07:59.080 sometimes just living off what the mothers and the clan 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:02.920 could scavenge him, dumpsters for him and the others, or 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:05.480 what Dan Jordan's soft fit to pass their way between 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:09.960 the beatings. Gabrielle lived in fear of those steam belts too, 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:13.800 but she says Hebrew often got the worst of it. 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:17.600 And I know that Hebrew grew up with that abuse 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.080 like this earlies who's you know, three or four or 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:22.520 five years old. The boys were all made to work 0:08:22.520 --> 0:08:24.480 really hard, and they were beat and beat and beat 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:27.800 and starved and beat and made to work in all cold, 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:31.200 freezing temperature. They weren't allowed sweaters and you know, warm 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:36.480 blows or anything. In his teens, Hebrew got to live 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:40.720 in another colt house in Dallas, Texas. Life there seemed better. 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:44.480 But at the age of eighteen, a year after Evil 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:48.320 had died, Hebrew was instructed to return to Dallas and 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:53.760 the appliance business. When he refused, Hebrew's mom showed up 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:56.839 and she had a gun with her and some other guy, 0:08:57.000 --> 0:08:59.439 and they were there to force he were to come 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:04.080 back into in them either come back or die. His 0:09:04.120 --> 0:09:08.360 own mother, Anna Mae Marston, a devoted wife who married 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:13.000 Irville in nineteen The Colt ordered her to control the 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:17.200 teenage Hebrew. They sent his own mother to kill him. 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:22.440 Mother was sent to kill him um. He was scared 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:28.160 of his own mom for a time. Hebrew had worked 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:32.280 alongside his brother Arthur to develop the families now growing 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:38.000 import export business. He decided to begin stealing cars from 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:41.080 the States and bring him to Mexico and selling them 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:44.160 and getting tons of cash. And they were so good 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:47.480 at it. The people who purchased them on the Mexican 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:50.200 side were the Mexican mafia, and mafia would be like, 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:52.000 I mean mafia guys. They would be super excited to 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:54.200 buy cars from us. We brought down like the coolest, 0:09:54.280 --> 0:10:01.400 biggest cars. Together, they expanded their business beyond cars. They 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:06.320 also started to smuggle marijuana from Mexico to the States. 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:11.080 Hebrew and Arthur enlisted Gabriella in this new venture. I 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:13.800 used to help pack the marijuana. Thought that was cool. 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:16.520 You know, I was eight years old, you know, I 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:18.280 was like, oh, this is cool. I get I get 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:21.240 to be part of this like secret work that only 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:25.200 adults can do. That was so cool and it smells 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:30.760 so good. So we would pack it really tightly in 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:34.319 surrand rap as tight as we could, and then um 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:36.640 pack it inside of guest Inc, a fake guest inc. 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:41.720 So guess inc would be pulled off. Cut. You stick 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:45.680 all the marijuana in there, sill it up somehow, and 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:48.439 then drive that in a normal pickup truck and then 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:50.840 have somebody who doesn't even know that there's marijuana in 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:54.679 the car, some cult member who has no idea. Okay, 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:56.280 you need to go to the States and do X, 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:57.839 Y and Z, and you're going to drive this car. 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:03.720 Hebrew may have enjoyed this new line of work, the 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:07.079 chance to escape Dan Jordan's sweatshop, but he wasn't that 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:12.559 interested in the other side of cult life, in doctrine, theology, 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:15.800 or really any of the religious underpinnings of the ko 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:21.240 G Perhaps unsurprising for a teenager who had suffered such 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:25.440 abuse at the hands of the deeply religious, or maybe 0:11:25.480 --> 0:11:29.880 hanging out with Mexican mafioso's in the early eighties distracted 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:33.560 him from Hervil's Book of the New Covenant, a kind 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:37.760 of freedom for this wild teenager who loved rock and 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:41.160 roll and the band Scorpions. He was part of the 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:43.560 smuggling drug smuggling stuff, and he hung out with the 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:45.800 guys and every now and then he would just he 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:48.439 would party with them and do some coke and marijuana. 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:52.920 So he was definitely like a heathenish personality within the cult, 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:56.920 a nineteen year old rock and roll loving drug smuggler 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:01.240 living a life far from the theological opinnings of his family. 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:05.560 You know, he wanted to make money and m Hebrew 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:13.400 didn't really care about pryank or anything. But when tragedy 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:18.000 struck Ine and Arthur was murdered by Leo evan ex 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:22.840 splinter group, suddenly Hebrew, in the final days of his teens, 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:30.000 was in charge. And having heard the stories of Hebrew's 0:12:30.040 --> 0:12:33.760 neglected childhood, it's kind of hard to square it with 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:38.320 someone suddenly being given this role the mantle of the 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:43.200 One mighty and Strong. Then again, Hebrew's name isn't actually 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:45.280 written into the Book of the New Covenants as a 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:48.640 future leader. It was the now murdered Arthur who had 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:53.240 been specifically named as Hervil's successor. But Hebrew had been 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:57.000 there during that prison ceremony in one when Herville placed 0:12:57.080 --> 0:13:00.120 his hands on Arthur to pass on the title, and 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:04.040 by birth, Hebrew was the next son in line after him. 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:09.320 So even though Hebrew didn't have visions, prophecies, or even 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:13.679 an apparent interest in theology to the Kingdom of God, 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:20.920 the line of succession was clear. Hebrew's life changed forever. 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:24.720 Suddenly the pressure was on him to be the authority, 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:28.520 which he didn't want. He wanted to be happy, go lucky, 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:31.920 and good concerts and not have this pressure on him. 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:35.920 He didn't know what to do. He was torn those 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:40.480 flashes of hedonism and freedom and his new obligations of 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:44.280 the One Mighty and Strong, with responsibility to keep the 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:48.280 entire cult together, to make sure the group were tight, 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:52.320 no one left, that the money was coming in, the 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:56.440 kids were clothed and fed. And added to this pressure 0:13:56.880 --> 0:14:02.840 was his childhood conditioning violence and punishment all he'd known 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:07.440 since birth. So would it fell on him? He didn't. 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:11.040 He didn't handle it well at all. That's coming up. 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:23.920 After the break in. Early Hebrew le Baron, the new 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:27.920 leader of the kog, arrived in Lahoya. His first order 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:31.080 of business as One Mighty and Strong to deal with 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:38.720 the fallout of his brother Arthur's killing. Arriving at the 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:41.240 ranch in Sonora, there was no sign of Leo Evanick, 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:45.400 although his enforcers, the Rio's brothers, remained at the camp. 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:51.000 They were leary on guard, but Hebrew had come in peace. 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:56.560 When Arthur got killed, there was no vengeance. Nobody was 0:14:56.600 --> 0:15:00.360 trying to take revenge. We were worried about the attack 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:03.960 coming to us. He told the Rios brothers he wanted 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:07.920 to end the violence, put this all behind them. Once 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:10.840 Hebrew gained their trust that he wasn't going to enact 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:15.200 vengeance against them, they decided to remain at Lahoya, and 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:18.600 eventually they renounced their ties to Leo and score loyalty 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:24.960 to Hebrew, the new one, mighty and strong. For several months, 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:28.760 a calm settled over the camp. Maybe the reign of 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:31.760 Hebrew would be an era of reconciliation for the colt. 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:42.000 Hebrew answered that question definitively. One afternoon in March, one 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:45.520 of the Rios brothers, the one named Gamaliel, was sitting 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:49.680 in the air stream talking to other cult members. Hebrew 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:54.680 walked in. After a little chit chat, Hebrew pulled a 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:59.360 forty five from his waistband and shot Gamiliel in the face, 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:03.640 turned to the other sitting there and ordered them to 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:10.800 clean up the fucking mess before nonchalantly walking out. Gami 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:15.520 Leo's brother, Raoul Rios, was next. A few days after 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:20.200 Gamilio's execution, Raoul was caught fleeing the camp. He had 0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:22.360 only made it a few miles from the ranch when 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:28.480 the Kyog ambushed and killed him. The Rio's brothers were dead, 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:34.120 but Leo remained in the wind, as were the other 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:38.880 factions of Herbal's former church. Those families the Kingdom of 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:44.400 God now viewed as threats. The Kog weren't done yet. 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:49.200 We also had to prepare ourselves for big wars that 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:54.120 were coming and be tough for it. Leo's group we're 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:58.040 out there still in dangerous and we had to defend 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:01.280 ourselves from the real or person threat from Leo's group. 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:05.639 So um, we all just had to learn how to 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:09.280 shoot guns. The kids as young as seven were given 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:14.120 revolvers and a R fifteen two rifle a shotgun. Put 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:16.119 a little bottle up on a post and try to 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:18.600 shoot it, you know, and try with all the different 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:20.560 kinds of guns, and you have to like hold it 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:21.920 and then you have to pull this thing on the 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:24.960 air fifteen here click, and then you can let it 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:27.199 go and then you can shoot. And then you have 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:29.800 to like hold a position like exactly on your shoulder 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:34.520 and then you shoot. The air fifteen was pretty heavy, yeah, 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:37.800 and the shotgun those are pretty big. I have a 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:40.440 nine year old daughter, and I tried to imagine her 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:44.359 with these weapons in her small hands, trying to hold 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:47.359 her body fully upright under the weight of the steel 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:50.240 of an a R fifteen or a twelve gauge as 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:54.240 it recoils. It makes me sick to even picture it. 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:58.879 Shooting the guns is not the traumatic part, you know. 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:01.760 The traumatic part is the load that comes that you're 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:05.040 actually going to be faced with a major war and 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:08.440 you might have to shoot people. So that's the really 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:11.439 nerve wrecking part, and you have to prepare for it 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:13.479 so you can't have any kind of feelings, you can 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:17.119 have any soft feelings. You have to steal yourself and 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:20.199 and just be really, really tough and be ready to 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:26.400 suffer anything that comes. But passed, word reached the Kyog 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:29.879 that Leo had moved to Monterey, California to start a 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:33.280 new life with his own church. The imminent threat of 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:37.040 attack had passed for now, and yet the fear of 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:40.920 a coming war was never far away in their minds. 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:45.159 The Kog weren't short on enemies. The entire world was 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:49.480 out to get them, gentiles and infidels, and so the 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:53.719 Kog prepared like a mafia family. Think of it as 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:57.560 a committee. It was not a top down government type 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:00.320 of thing. So it wasn't like a kingdom more the 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:02.359 king is like, I'm the new king, and everybody's going 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:05.240 to do what I say. It didn't happen that way. 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:10.240 People influenced each other. Everybody interpreted a law together. It 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:12.840 was the whole teenage group was a supreme court basically, 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:17.879 and the leader was the person saying, Okay, ultimately we 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:21.080 have to do X, Y and Z, you know. So 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:26.320 the leader could be like influenced, heavily influenced by the 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:29.800 other teenage kids who believed, this is what this says, 0:19:29.880 --> 0:19:32.199 this is what we have to do. So Hebrew was 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:37.159 influenced a lot by the teenage kids. We all agree 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:39.480 that we have to do this. The when and the 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:42.679 how is something we have to work on eventually. To 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:47.119 hear Gabriella described them, these teenagers were like mafia cappos 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:51.960 in this ruling committee, their personalities dictating distinct roles they'd 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:55.480 carved out for themselves, and this way that they organized 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:58.200 themselves with the one mighty and Strong at the head, 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:03.080 but actual decision making done through consensus. It's something a 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:06.280 lot of cops and prosecutors struggled to get their heads around, 0:20:06.359 --> 0:20:10.880 chasing the colt like exactly who was controlling all this, 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:15.960 pulling all the strings. Well, it seems like if it 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:18.679 was any one thing, it was Hervill's Book of the 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:23.200 New Covenants, the b n C, their father's Opus, which 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:26.479 was now being interpreted by these different ruling committee members 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:33.480 who remember, we're mostly just teenagers. There was Hebrew's half brother, Andrew, 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:37.320 the oldest son of Herville and the now deceased Laura Channath. 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:42.960 He was the Kog's best mechanic. Andrew was cool. He 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:48.480 was like funzy cool, and I was like fascinated by him. 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:52.240 Next was Aaron, who they mostly called Mo Andrew's full brother. 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:55.439 He was considered frail and the most kind hearted of 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:59.600 the remaining Labaron's sons. When Hebrew and Andrew were gone 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:02.560 from the match, Aaron was in charge of the children, 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:05.760 who were mostly orphans now They called him Mommy mo 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:10.440 sometimes because he made sure that we ate well. He 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:15.280 was the one that was like the mellow, studious moral 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:19.160 compass for us being good and studying hard and praying 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:23.240 and learning and reading and making sure we were well 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:27.960 verse in our own doctrine. Other coppos and the KG 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:34.520 ruling committee were Hebrew sisters. Cynthia. Cynthia was pretty much 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:40.200 a diva and Jacqueline Jackie was a hardcore extremist. She 0:21:40.400 --> 0:21:44.520 was definitely a person that kept everything to the tea. 0:21:44.800 --> 0:21:49.919 And Patricia or Trish. Trish was one of the adults 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:52.120 I was kind of scared of. She had a little 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:55.000 bit of an attitude, but she was definitely the cool 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:57.560 person of the crowd. There were elite members and then 0:21:57.560 --> 0:22:01.119 there were there nobodies, and Trisha the elite of the elites. 0:22:01.920 --> 0:22:04.200 When she was talking, everyone just had to be quiet 0:22:04.240 --> 0:22:10.159 and listen to her. All these siblings so many names. 0:22:10.920 --> 0:22:14.080 It's hard to keep track, I know, but don't worry 0:22:14.119 --> 0:22:17.520 if you've already lost track. Each would play their own 0:22:17.600 --> 0:22:21.679 crucial role in what's to come, a chain reaction of 0:22:21.960 --> 0:22:26.560 escalating tension and violence that would define the second generation 0:22:26.720 --> 0:22:31.280 of the kog and Yet from the vantage point of 0:22:31.280 --> 0:22:34.960 a kid like Gabriella in the mid nineteen eighties, her 0:22:35.000 --> 0:22:40.480 older brothers and sisters just seemed really cool. The way 0:22:40.520 --> 0:22:42.840 they were their jeans, the way they wore their hair, 0:22:42.960 --> 0:22:45.479 the way they wore everything, everything that they did. They 0:22:45.480 --> 0:22:48.280 were the cool the grown ups, the cool kids. They 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:52.320 got us all into. Jane fond of workouts and wearing 0:22:52.440 --> 0:22:56.359 cropped off T shirts, a big giant hair, and you know, eighties, 0:22:56.400 --> 0:22:59.400 all this eighties style stuff. I love imagining you, guys, 0:22:59.400 --> 0:23:02.000 don't Jane on the workouts out in the desert. That's 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:06.520 exactly what we did, Jane, funding workouts out in the desert, 0:23:06.920 --> 0:23:13.680 trailers around you. And they would teach us about being 0:23:13.920 --> 0:23:17.880 good women and preparing to be good wives, and building 0:23:17.880 --> 0:23:21.800 God's kingdom and being ready for whatever had to happen. 0:23:22.880 --> 0:23:25.359 By eighty four, the Kingdom of God had rented a 0:23:25.400 --> 0:23:29.240 house inside the mafia controlled town of Caborca, where they 0:23:29.240 --> 0:23:32.880 converted the front porch to a proper chop shop. They 0:23:32.920 --> 0:23:38.520 specialized in building bulletproof four wheel drive vehicles. Business was booming. 0:23:39.280 --> 0:23:42.400 Clean cut looking teens like Hebrew and many of his siblings, 0:23:42.760 --> 0:23:47.040 who all spoke perfect English. They aroused little suspicion in 0:23:47.080 --> 0:23:52.320 the US, and most were dual citizens, meaning getting back 0:23:52.359 --> 0:23:55.600 and forth across the border was easy for them to 0:23:55.720 --> 0:24:00.960 smuggle guns, drugs, and stolen cars. Things went well for 0:24:01.000 --> 0:24:07.560 a while, but then one day in the Colt's best mechanic, Andrew, 0:24:08.400 --> 0:24:13.600 that FONSI cool presence in the group, just seemed to disappear. 0:24:16.880 --> 0:24:18.639 He was around, he was one of the guys around, 0:24:19.200 --> 0:24:22.400 and he would play with the kids and scrape bonfires 0:24:22.520 --> 0:24:25.600 and it's just one of those cool kids. And I 0:24:25.680 --> 0:24:28.080 remember one day he just didn't come to the wrench 0:24:28.160 --> 0:24:30.199 and I asked about him, and they said, we don't know. 0:24:30.359 --> 0:24:33.800 Don't ask a question. And I just never saw him again. 0:24:34.000 --> 0:24:36.200 So he was one of those that just never came back. 0:24:37.800 --> 0:24:42.160 Had Heber just had him killed. Just shut your mouth, 0:24:42.640 --> 0:24:47.760 don't think about it, don't talk about it. But Andrew's 0:24:47.800 --> 0:24:51.399 sudden disappearance wasn't the only thing going wrong with the 0:24:51.440 --> 0:24:56.280 cult around this time. Because his night turned to six, 0:24:56.680 --> 0:25:00.440 the Kog's ruling committee were getting more in a little 0:25:00.480 --> 0:25:05.360 frustrated with their one mighty and strong leader, Hebrew. There 0:25:05.359 --> 0:25:08.920 were suddenly money issues for the cult, not helped by 0:25:08.920 --> 0:25:13.720 Andrew's disappearance. He was the group's best mechanic, so that 0:25:13.880 --> 0:25:16.119 shut down a lot of the stolen car business and 0:25:16.240 --> 0:25:20.760 drug smuggling. Then there was also Hebrew's abuse of the kids, 0:25:21.720 --> 0:25:26.760 random violence. Gabriella tells how he would just suddenly explode 0:25:26.760 --> 0:25:31.560 with rage, beat the members of the Kog, whip them 0:25:31.600 --> 0:25:34.959 like he had been whipped as a kid, relentlessly with 0:25:35.000 --> 0:25:41.520 those steam belts, no warning. And then the elephant that 0:25:41.560 --> 0:25:43.879 had always been in the room when it came to 0:25:43.960 --> 0:25:48.359 Hebrew and the Kog, his refusal to engage with the 0:25:48.400 --> 0:25:53.680 culture religion kind of a big deal. Not just that 0:25:53.720 --> 0:25:57.639 he didn't get revelations from God. He didn't even seem 0:25:57.720 --> 0:26:01.280 to know Ervil scriptures. It seemed like all he wanted 0:26:01.280 --> 0:26:05.040 to do was party with his mafia friends. Due to 0:26:05.080 --> 0:26:08.399 Andrew's death, the Kog was no longer flesh with cash. 0:26:09.440 --> 0:26:13.160 They were back to days of hunger and the rank 0:26:13.200 --> 0:26:16.959 and file we're beginning to doubt Hebrew's mantle as the 0:26:17.000 --> 0:26:22.520 one mighty and strong. He needed a miracle, something to 0:26:22.640 --> 0:26:27.320 make them believe in him again. So in he came 0:26:27.400 --> 0:26:31.760 up with an extremely risky plan to get some fast cash. 0:26:32.760 --> 0:26:36.560 He picked up a gun and crossed the border into 0:26:36.560 --> 0:26:54.879 the us that's coming up after the break. The Promenade 0:26:54.880 --> 0:26:57.600 Center in the Dallas suburb of Richardson is a single 0:26:57.680 --> 0:27:02.560 story strip mall underneath endless blue Texas sky. You could 0:27:02.560 --> 0:27:04.760 be in pretty much any U. S suburb on a 0:27:04.840 --> 0:27:09.000 nice day. A main road separates a parking lot from 0:27:09.000 --> 0:27:12.720 low rise housing. Rarely are there people on the sidewalks, 0:27:12.840 --> 0:27:16.080 especially when it's hot, and of course in the summer 0:27:16.119 --> 0:27:20.240 it often is. When the traffic is light. You could 0:27:20.240 --> 0:27:23.560 say it's peaceful if you were being charitable. I guess 0:27:24.400 --> 0:27:27.320 it has that going for it. Good location if you 0:27:27.320 --> 0:27:34.680 don't want to be noticed. On November five, the Promenade 0:27:34.720 --> 0:27:38.159 Center was home to Gibraltar Savings and Loan, a small bank. 0:27:39.000 --> 0:27:43.159 It was just one big room. There were four employees. 0:27:43.440 --> 0:27:45.719 It was small, and then there were a couple of 0:27:45.720 --> 0:27:48.520 desks over to the left side where if someone came 0:27:48.520 --> 0:27:50.399 in and wanted to open a new account, that's the 0:27:50.400 --> 0:27:52.520 part of the building you'd go to. And then to 0:27:52.560 --> 0:27:56.480 the right where the two teller windows. Jane was working 0:27:56.600 --> 0:28:02.320 at Gibraltar Savings and Loan that Wednesday in November alongside 0:28:02.320 --> 0:28:06.359 two co workers, Arlene and Brenda. So I was standing 0:28:06.359 --> 0:28:09.040 at my teller window, with Arlene on my left and 0:28:09.040 --> 0:28:12.080 then Brenda next to her. I remember we had three 0:28:12.119 --> 0:28:14.800