In July 2002, an appeal was launched for his release. This was refused on the grounds that he was still considered a danger to society, and still had drug and alcohol problems. Unusually, Roch welcomed the verdict. Prior to the actual hearing he had even asked not to be released as he had begun to fear the treatment which he anticipated would be waiting for him on the outside.
Gabrielle Lavallée campaigns constantly to keep Roch Theriault in prison. She has written a book about the ordeals she suffered, testified at his parole hearing, and believes that he is a ‘monster’ who should stay behind bars for the rest of his life.
Francisco Bezerra De Morais
Toto and his prophecies of death
Brazilian, francisco bezerra de Morais was 35 when he and his followers murdered six people in order to ‘wipe out the enemies of God’.
Morais was the leader of a religious sect deep in the Amazon rain forest which was an off shoot group of the United Pentecostal Church of Brazil.
Even though Brazil’s largest religion is Catholicism, over the years there has been a vast increase in other religions and sects that have been influenced by Christianity and Ancient African spirituality.
On November 17, 1998, Morais, known to his followers as Toto, commanded for murders to take place after he started receiving prophecies from God ordering him to kill certain people within his church community.
The voices were said to state that Satanical people had become members of his congregation, and these evil people needed to be wiped out as soon as possible.
Six members of the 30-strong sect were arrested at a rubber plantation, which had been the site of the ritualistic murders.
Leader, Toto, had been helped by his wife and four other men after the three children and three adults had started to turn into demons. One of Toto’s followers, Francisco Lopes da Silva killed his own 13-year-old child after the boy apparently ‘transformed into a demon in front of a large crowd’. Lopes took his son to the rubber plantation and inflicted a ritualistic beating upon him, which ended in his death. The beatings took place using a number of different weapons such as bare knuckles, wooden clubs and metal chains whilst a continual chant of ‘Out, Satan!’ was cried.
Another father, Adalberto Taviera de Souza was also arrested for the murder of his two young children aged three and five. He killed them by repeatedly stamping on their heads after they had ‘turned into monsters with wide faces, fat legs and long fingernails.’
Souza then calmly watched his wife be murdered by Toto. Toto believed that it was necessary for her to be killed as she had given birth to the two miscreated children, so it was more than likely that she also had monstrous, demonic tendencies.
The other adults who were killed on Toto’s orders were two men who had apparently performed miracles such as changing the colours of the sun.
Toto believed that nearly all of his followers were ‘infected’ by demons and marked for death by God. It was his job whilst here on Earth to cleanse his congregation of the evil within.
Toto and his wife were arrested two weeks after the first murder had taken place when a former leader of the church who had been left for dead after an obligatory beating had raised the alarm. Francisco Oliviera de Franca had pretended to be dead as Toto’s followers beat him with sticks and chains. As soon as the men and women had left him to rot away, he mustered up enough strength and courage to get to his feet. The former minister was then confronted with a three-day hike through the Amazon before he reached a town where he was able to notify the local police force of the events that were occuring in the jungle.
When the police arrived at the scene they were met with the foul smell of decomposing flesh. The bodies had not even been disposed of. They still lay where they had taken their final breath and were rapidly rotting, with chunks of missing flesh where wild animals had eaten from them.
If de Franca, had not survived his beating, who is to say how many more murders would have been committed?
Toto is still adamant that there is nothing wrong with him or with his actions. The only thing he did was to act upon orders given to him by God and what can be so wrong with that? Whilst being held in a secure unit in a town close to the Peruvian unit Toto stated:
These were the words of God. I have been communicating with him since the age of eight. This is in God’s hands and he will tell me what to do next.
Yahweh Ben Yahweh
God, the son of God
Yahweh Ben Yahweh proclaims himself, and is believed by his followers, to be the Black Christ. He founded the ‘Nation of Yahweh’, also known as the Temple of Love, in 1979, with the intention of leading the blacks out of oppression and into the promised land. He is now serving the last stretch of his 18-year prison sentence in Lewisburg Federal Prison.
Yahweh Ben Yahweh, born Hulon Mitchell, Jr., in Oklahoma in 1935, believes that the black people are the lost tribe of Israel. They are the true Jews, and God and Jesus are black. White people are devils, and need to be eliminated in his prophesised race war.
Mitchell moved to Miami in 1979, and began to circulate his beliefs. He demanded that those who follow him should give up their ‘slave’ names, and assume Hebrew names. He established the Nation of Yahweh, and the laws which governed its members. He instructed them to cut their ties with their families and instead offer complete loyalty and devotion to him. Allegiance to this sect grew, and by 1980, Mitchell was able to purchase a property in Miami which he named The Temple of Love. He set up businesses inside the building, including a supermarket and beauty parlour, and used the Temple’s members as full-time workers. Those who lived and worked within the temple worked without payment and donated all their possessions to Mitchell and the Temple.
EXPANSION OF THE TEMPLE
As the Temple flourished in the early 1980s, Mitchell declared himself to be the son of God, and thus renamed himself ‘Yahweh Ben Yahweh’, meaning ‘God, son of God’. He established a new, standardized dress code for his followers, consisting of white robes and turbans, and he became much stricter on the Temple members’ contact with non-believers. He placed security guards at the entrance to the Temple who were ordered to search all who entered. These guards were named ‘The Circle of Ten’ and, armed with clubs and machetes, they were told that anyone who attempted to enter the Temple without an invitation should be prevented, using whatever means necessary. This Circle of Ten also served as Ben Yahweh’s personal bodyguards and swore allegiance to him and to his protection.
The Nation of Yahweh began to expand in the years which followed. Trusted elders were sent out to distribute pamphlets and to set up temples elsewhere. By the mid-80s several new temples had been established in some of the larger cities in the US.
The expectations Ben Yahweh placed on his followers, and his subsequent control of them, also increased. He used sleep deprivation and malnutrition to control all members. Weakened, and unable to protest, they were forced to work long hours to earn more money for the Temple. Anyone who disobeyed his orders, either intentionally or unintentionally, was subjected to ridicule and beatings. Although he happily intimidated and humiliated those who dared to rebel against him, Ben Yahweh didn’t conduct the physical punishment himself. Rather, one of his other more ‘loyal’ followers, who were keen to show their devotion and please their leader, administered the beatings.