UPI: Murder-suicide blamed on mother's cult
Murder-suicide blamed on mother's cult
TUCSON, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- The suicide of a young man and the murder he allegedly committed earlier in Arizona are being blamed on a cult led by his mother, a report says.
Former members of the sect known as "The Family International" told CNN that they witnessed Ricky Rodriguez having sex with his mother, Karen Zerby, the cult leader.
Rodriguez in 2005 allegedly stabbed a woman to death in his Tucson, Ariz. apartment and then fled to the California desert where he shot himself.
The Family International was founded in California in the 1960s by David Berg, who referred to himself as "Mo," short for Moses. The sect's activities and history are detailed in a newly released book, "Jesus Freaks."
Former sect members also told CNN that cult founder David Berg encouraged adult-child sex, frequently with Rodriguez, the son of Karen Zerby, whom Berg called his queen.
"Jesus Freaks" author Don Lattin says Berg "wanted his child to embrace sexuality, to be a sexual being as an infant and growing up."
Since Berg's death, The Family International now says all "questionable publications were officially renounced and expunged between the late 1980s and early 1990s."
