Cult Justice

Bernie Hoffman's dream was to strike it rich as a Hollywood star when God called on him to preach the gospel. Changing his name to Tony Alamo, he started a popular Hollywood ministry together with his wife Susan, also an aspiring entertainer.

General Deborah Green and her husband Jim didn't hesitate to call themselves leaders of a cult-what started as a free love commune offering salvation and refuge for lost souls became a militaristic organization that believed in tough love.

It was supposed to be a haven for anyone who made a mistake, committed a crime, and wanted to turn their life around-that was Anna Young's mission when she and her husband started the House of Prayer.

Neighbours often wondered about the secretive group living in a school building in suburban Utica, New York. But the secrecy was shattered when a counseling session turned horrifically violent.

After a nine-month investigation, authorities were horrified to find the bodies of a family of five, buried in a barn in the rural community of Kirtland, Ohio.

Dwight York, a smooth Marvin-Gaye-style crooner known as Dr. Love, had his own successful record label and musical career in the early 90s. His early recordings and performances featured love songs and ballads. But Dr. Love was also a charismatic speaker with radical ideas who gathered hundreds of followers at a rural compound outside of Atlanta.