ABC Action News - May 22, 2011
California mother, Lyn Benedetto, tries to kill kids before the tribulation, deputies say
By: Kristal Roberts
PALMDALE, Calif. - A California woman who says she wanted to protect her children from the May 21 “tribulation” is in jail after slitting the throats of her daughters’ before cutting her own back in March, KTLA reports.
Lyn Benedetto, 47, told authorities that to prevent her family from suffering, she had her daughters, 11 and 14, lie on a bed, took a box cutter knife to their throats, then cut herself March 19.
The suspect reportedly drove the victims to a friend’s home that she thought was empty, planning to die there.
Lancaster deputies say they responded to call regarding an assault with a knife around 5:30 p.m. from the owner of that home.
The mother was found at the location and arrested. The two victims were taken to Antelope Valley Hospital for “moderate though non life threatening injuries” and released to custody of Department of Children’s Services.
Benedetto is being held on a $1 million bail.
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Is the guy who held up those John 3:16 signs at sports events in jail for life?
ReplyDeleteThe Straight Dope November 7, 1997
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/848/is-the-guy-who-held-up-those-john-3
Dear Cecil:
Recently on your America Online site you posted your old column about Rock'n Rollen Stewart, the guy who used to hold up those "John 3:16" signs at sports events. You may be interested to know that Stewart is now serving a life sentence in jail.
— Name withheld, via AOL
Cecil replies:
Yipes. I lost track of Rollen after talking to him in 1987. At the time he struck me, and I'd say most people, as a harmless if obsessed flake. Shows how wrong you can be. A few years later Stewart went completely off his nut, staged a series of bombings, and wound up in prison after a bizarre kidnapping stunt. The whole story is told in The Rainbow Man/John 3:16, a new documentary by San Francisco filmmaker Sam Green. If you doubt that too much TV is bad for you, you won't after seeing this flick.
Stewart's problems started during his childhood in Spokane, Washington. His parents were alcoholics. His father died when Rollen was seven. His mother was killed in a house fire when he was 15. That same year his sister was strangled by her boyfriend. A shy kid, Rollen got into drag racing in high school, married his first love, and opened a speed shop. But his wife soon left him. Crushed, he sold the shop and moved to a mountain ranch where he became a marijuana farmer, tried to grow the world's longest mustache, and watched a lot of TV.
In 1976, looking for a way to make his mark, Rollen conceived the idea of becoming famous by constantly popping up in the background of televised sporting events. Wearing a multicolored Afro wig (hence the nickname "Rainbow Man"), he'd carry a battery-powered TV to keep track of the cameras, wait for his moment, then jump into the frame, grinning and giving the thumbs-up. Rollen figured he'd be able to parlay his underground (OK, background) celebrity into a few lucrative TV gigs and retire rich. But except for one Budweiser commercial, it didn't happen.
Feeling depressed after the 1980 Super Bowl, he began watching a preacher on the TV in his hotel room and found Jesus. He began showing up at TV events wearing T-shirts emblazoned with "Jesus Saves"-type slogans and various Bible citations, most frequently John 3:16 ("For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son," etc.). Later accompanied by his wife, a fellow Christian he married in the mid-80s, he spent all his time traveling to sports events around the country, lived in his car, and subsisted on savings and donations. He guesses he was seen at more than a thousand events all told.
This brings us to the late 80s. By now Rollen had gotten his 15 minutes of fame and was the target of increasing harassment by TV and stadium officials. His wife left him, saying he had choked her because she held up a sign in the wrong location. His car was totaled by a drunk driver, his money ran out, and he wound up homeless in LA. Increasingly convinced that the end was near, Rollen decided to create a radically different media character. He set off a string of bombs in a church, a Christian bookstore, a newspaper office, and several other locations. Meanwhile he sent out apocalyptic letters that included a hit list of preachers, signing the letters "the Antichrist." Rollen says he wanted to call attention to the Christian message, and while this may seem like a sick way to go about it, it wasn't much weirder than waving signs in the end zone at football games. In any case, no one was hurt in the bombings, which mostly involved stink bombs.
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ReplyDeleteOn September 22, 1992, believing the Rapture was only six days away and having prepared himself by watching TV for 18 hours a day, Stewart began his last "presentation." Posing as a contractor, he picked up two day laborers in downtown LA, then drove to an airport hotel. Taking the men up to a room, he unexpectedly walked in on a chambermaid. In the confusion that followed he drew a gun, the two men escaped, and the maid locked herself in the bathroom. The police surrounded the joint, and Rollen demanded a three-hour press conference, hoping to make his last national splash. He didn't get it. After a nine-hour siege the cops threw in a concussion grenade, kicked down the door, and dragged him away.
About to be given three life sentences for kidnapping, Rollen threw a tantrum in the courtroom and now blames everything on a society that's "bigoted toward Jesus Christ." A cop who negotiated with him by phone during the hotel standoff had a better take on it: "With all due respect, maybe you look at a little bit too much TV." For info on the Rainbow Man documentary, write Sam Green, 2437 Peralta St., suite C, Oakland, CA 94607.
— Cecil Adams
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/848/is-the-guy-who-held-up-those-john-3
Shots fired as police swoop 10 minutes before 100 followers of Brazilian doomsday cult were due to commit mass suicide over end of the world
ReplyDeleteBy CRAIG MACKENZIE, Daily Mail UK October 12, 2012
Police swooped on a Brazilian doomsday cult just 10 minutes before more than 100 followers were about to commit mass suicide by drinking poisoned soup
Elite troops burst into a building where self-proclaimed prophet Luis Pereira dos Santos had barricaded himself in after predicting the world would end at 8pm yesterday.
There was believed to be an exchange of gunfire between the group and police who used gas bombs and pepper spray during the assault. No casualties have been reported.
Santos was arrested as officers took away a tub containing a sweet paste made from Caju fruit which they suspected contained a toxic product.
The night before 19 children were rescued from the building on the outskirts of Teresina, the capital of the country's northeastern state of Piaui.
Police forced their way in after receiving 'credible' information of a suicide pact.
The stand-off began at 3pm local time - an hour before the predicted apocalypse - when 60 military and police officers surrounded the house.
One of the followers, Maria Silva, 57, came out to tell the crowd that 'Jesus Christ is in the body of the prophet' and that no-one would be allowed in or out the residence.
Desperate relatives of those inside tried to invade the building to take their loved ones out. Maria Madalena, 39, told Brazil's Cidade Verde website: 'We want to get my mother out while there is still time. This man has messed up her head, it's like she's been brainwashed.'
Authorities kept a close watch on the children placed in care homes over fears they had been instructed to take their own lives at the same time.
During the operation, a 'significant quantity' of rat poison was found at the residence, a police spokesman said.
After the raid, military police commander Alberto Meneses said: 'This was an unusual situation, because when religion is involved everything is possible and nothing is predictable.'
Santos, known to his flock as Daddy Luis, had claimed an angel visited four years ago telling him the exact time the world was going to end.
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ReplyDeleteLast month, the 43-year-old spiritual leader instructed his 113 followers to leave their jobs, give away all their possessions and take their children out of school, police confirmed.
The end of the world was predicted on a public holiday in Brazil, the feast day of the country's patron saint Our Lady of Aparecida, as well as national Children's Day.
Although the group didn't put up any resistance, one of the cult members, Maria Francisca Alves, 38, whose 12-year-old daughter was taken away by police, protested the action.
Asked why she had taken her daughter out of school, she said: 'We're preparing for the end of the world, so what's the point of studying? Learning the word of God is more important.'
Children's judge Maria Luiza de Moura, who issued the protection order, said: 'We believe that a mass suicide or murder may happen using a soup ingested by cult members.
'The adults are free to act of their free and spontaneous will, but we have to make sure that nothing happens to the children.'
The police chief leading the investigation, Joatan Goncalves, said: 'Our worry is if there are offered a toxic product claiming to offer salvation on Friday.'
In an interview with Brazil's Terra website, divorced father-of-five Santos, a former caretaker, said he didn't fear the police and denied that the group were planning to drink poison.
He said: 'I preach the gospel and it says thou shalt no kill. We will be saved and raptured in another way.'
The former Catholic said most of his followers are former street beggars, prostitutes, drug dealers and criminals which God had told him to 'save'.
He said: 'I received a message telling me to be a shepherd to lost sheep. I am Christ's advocate. From Friday night there will be only darkness, because the beast will come out of the abyss and the world will end.
'People call me crazy, even my wife abandoned me, but I am sure that there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth and the good people will be taken away.'
After Santos was arrested, police occupied the building where the rest of the cult members remain.
The largest recorded cult suicide was in 1978 when People's Temple leader Jim Jones inspired 918 of his followers to kill themselves in Guyana by drinking cyanide.
From 1994 to 1997, members of the Order of the Solar Temple sect began a series of mass suicides, which lead to around 74 deaths.
In 1997, 39 followers of the Heaven's Gate cult died in a mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe, California, believing their souls would journey aboard a spaceship they believed to be following the Hale-Bopp comet.
view photos at the following link:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2216743/Shots-fired-police-swoop-10-minutes-100-followers-Brazilian-doomsday-cult-commit-mass-suicide-world-ended.html
NOTE: the following article was published in Spanish, this copy is a Google Translation.
ReplyDelete***********************************
Sect cremated baby would qualify as "antichrist"
According to the investigations, the group released the child to an excavation where he set a pyre of fire
BY 24HORAS.CL http://www.24horas.cl/nacional/secta-habria-incinerado-a-bebe-calificado-como-anticristo-619032
April 25, 2013
The Investigative Police ( PDI ) arrested four persons who were part of a cult that operated in the town of Colliguay , in the Valparaíso Region .
According could investigate the Police Special Investigations Brigade ( Bipe ), members of this group would have incinerated a baby of only two days old, which occurred on November 23 in the sector Los Molinos of that locality.
The irrational act was committed because the group believed that the infant was the " antichrist "that under the supposed end of the world predicted for December 21, 2012 . In fact, waited for the fateful date together, but to see that nothing happened, left the scene.
Amid a healing rite course, the group's leader, Gustavo Castillo Ramón Gaete (35 years) , who called himself "Antares light" and was considered a god on earth, he asked the child to his mother and took him in his arms until an excavation where he had installed a pyre.
The rest of the supposed disciples set fire to it and was thrown into the fire.
According to Miguel Ampuero Research prefect , presented to the bus naked and gagged when she screamed, and "thrown alive into the fire. always thought they were going to save the world" with this sacrifice.
The civil police began investigating what happened when they received history of a child born in a clinic in Vina del Mar which had not been registered in the Civil Registry .
Apparently it was the sister of one of the members of the sect to which you reported the crime to the IDPs, who investigated the case for three months prior to the arrests. At the site of the pyre were found bones of the infant.
This Thursday conducted over detention of those arrested, among which is located Jequer Natalia Guerra (35 years) , the bus would have been the result of a relationship with Castle-Gaete, Josefina Lopez Nunez (24), Carolina Vargas San Martin (28) and Paul Undurraga Atria (28).
All four are charged with murder and was expected to be formalized in the Court Quilpué Guarantee .
Of note is the fact that members of the sect were professionals with high purchasing power, which gave money and properties in parts of the Fifth Region as Mantagua or Zapallar Gaete Castillo to belong to the group. With this money, they believed, "their souls were saved."
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT
According to the researchers found, the group was founded in 2005, but it was not until 2009 that they began to meet regularly in "retreats" in which ayahuasca drugged and had sex with their leader, who fled upon learning investigated Peru , where he formed another sect. We have already processed the request regarding Interpol to try to capture in the neighboring country.
As the day progresses, they get to know gory details of the behavior of the sect. So, says La Tercera , was composed of a dozen people, who received 45 strokes with a stick when "light Antares" understood that they had "positive vibrations at a low level."
The weeping after the beating he received three strokes more.
Mom said she was going to kill her three children so they could meet Jesus: Police
ReplyDeleteby Erika Wurst, Chicago Sun Times October 10, 2014
A Montgomery woman accused of trying to kill her three children told police she was sending her daughters to meet Jesus Christ, according to court records.
The children were dressed all in white when Montgomery police arrived at the family’s Patron Lane home at around 10: 20 a.m. Sept. 25, after dispatchers received two hang-up 911 calls.
When they arrived, police said Pamela J. Christensen, 47, answered the door wearing a white shirt covered in blood. She got down on her knees before police and told them she had tried to kill her children.
The girls were upstairs, and two had suffered stab wounds to the chest. According to Kendall County Court records, Christensen had also stabbed herself in the chest and abdomen.
Pamela Christensen, 47, was transported to Presence Mercy Medical Center in Aurora. She was not taken into custody and charged until Wednesday, after she was released. She faces three counts each of attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery and aggravated unlawful restraint — all felonies, police said in a statement. Her bail was set at $1 million on Thursday. She is next scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 16.
In an affidavit to secure a search warrant for the family’s home, police said Christensen told officers that she was sending the girls home to “meet Jesus Christ.”
The three girls, ages 12, 16 and 19, told police that their mother held a knife to them and asked them if they accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Two of the girls were stabbed.
Police recovered a poisonous liquid in the home’s kitchen, which Christensen said she had concocted out of dishwashing detergent in an attempt to subdue her children.
She told police she had hoped they would fall asleep so she could stab them. Police said the children refused to ingest the poison.
On the scene, police said they found a cell phone which belonged to Christensen. The woman told officers that her husband, Vaughn Christensen, had left messages on the phone telling his wife that the world was ending, and that she needed to prepare the family to meet Jesus.
Vaughn Christensen is a former pastor at a Sugar Grove church.
The three girls were taken to an area hospital for treatment, and released with minor injuries.
Montgomery Police Chief Daniel Meyers said the children are now in the custody of Christensen’s father, because it “was determined by the court” to be “ the best place for the kids at this time.”
A month prior to the stabbings, Christensen had filed an order of protection against her husband, which was granted. The order was to be in effect until the end of October. According to records filed by Pamela Christensen, the two were going through a divorce, and Vaughn Christensen had become increasingly violent toward her and the children.
The order, filed on Aug. 29, stated Vaughn Christensen had become “increasingly erratic” over the last seven months, and had threatened to harm himself and the kids.He mentioned wanting to die on several occasions, she wrote.
Police said they had been called to the home within the last year for several suicidal incidents.
Pamela Christensen wrote that her husband had kept her from leaving the home on numerous occasions, and on Aug. 25, she moved to her father’s Naperville home to escape her husband.
Robin Domalewski, who lives next door to the Christensens, called her neighbors “so quiet and reserved,” adding that the incident was “baffling to me.”
She and husband Eric Domalewskis said the Christensen children were home-schooled, and were rarely seen without their mother.
“They were always together,” Robin said. “I never heard anything out of that house.”
Robin said she had spoken with Pamela Christensen on several occasions, and the woman had mentioned being ill.
“She appeared very scared,” Robin said.
http://breakingnews.suntimes.com/chicago/police-mom-said-she-was-going-to-kill-her-three-children-so-they-could-meet-jesus/