Legal, Charles Manson, Opus Dei, Televangelists, 764
Fox: Charles Manson follower imprisoned in Hollywood killings gets significant ruling from governor
Patricia Krenwinkel, convicted in 1969 of the Manson family murders, has had 17 parole hearings since 1977.
"California Gov. Gavin Newsom has reversed a parole board's decision to release Patricia Krenwinkel, a former follower of cult leader Charles Manson and one of the perpetrators of the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders.
In a decision issued Oct. 13 and obtained by Fox News, Newsom wrote that Krenwinkel, now 77, 'lacks the requisite insight she needs to be safely released."
NEW: Pope Leo Set To Break Up Opus Dei
Pope Leo may approve a plan that effectively dissolves Opus Dei's structure; this would be the most significant internal action of his short pontificate to date.
TCD: Wealthy televangelists face backlash as details about recent behavior come to light: 'Getting by with more lavish lifestyles'
"A religious fraud watchdog group in Texas has been looking into the high-cost use of private jets by wealthy televangelists and faith healers in the state. As reported by Houston-area outlet Chron in August, the Trinity Foundation's "Pastor Planes" project has tracked 66 aircraft, 12 of which are registered in Texas and eight of which are jets. A report from the foundation indicated that several of the jets are owned by well-known religious figures.
Trinity's endeavor has shed light on the unchecked wealth and luxury habits of prominent religious leaders and groups, with many allegedly spending enormous amounts of donated funds on opulent travel while remaining shielded by faith-based tax exceptions.
"Churches, televangelists, and church pastors are getting by with more lavish lifestyles with impunity," Trinity president Pete Evans told Chron this summer."
Washington Post: 'It broke me': Inside the FBI hunt for the online predators who persuaded a 13-year-old to die
" ... The early-morning fog had yet to rise when police found the 13-year-old boy in a parking lot behind a grocery store. His body was illuminated only by the ambient glow from the loading dock lights.
Around the boy's neck was a white extension cord he had used to hang himself from a black chain-link fence.A few feet away, investigators spotted something else: an iPhone propped up on the ground, its camera pointed at the teen's body." ... The case would thrust investigators into the darkest corners of the internet — forums where groups of online predators manipulate vulnerable children, extorting them to share nude photos, mutilate their bodies and, in the worst cases, kill themselves. As the case dragged on, the FBI would come to view these groups as a terrorist threat, estimating that their members had targeted thousands of children. The agency is now investigating almost 300 people suspected of preying on children and other vulnerable people, cases that involve all 55 of its field offices.
Jay's death — one of its earliest cases — illustrates the challenges of investigating this new and growing form of online predation. An examination by The Washington Post and Der Spiegel in Germany found that authorities struggled to identify which laws had been broken. They faced jurisdictional hurdles as they traced suspected predators to countries around the world. And federal agents encountered reluctance from their own colleagues and other law enforcement officials in the United States and abroad, who were just beginning to recognize and respond to this growing genre of abuse.
Early on, local police suspected Jay's death was connected to these emerging groups. One of the most violent and extreme is known as "764" — named for part of the Zip code of a Texas boy who founded it in 2021 at the age of 15. Its members, authorities said, often seek out victims as trophies to gain clout and notoriety. Some members see their mission as weeding out society's weakest, which they deem to include mentally ill, gay, or transgender youths.
On a rainy Friday in spring 2022, the Gig Harbor detective in charge of Jay's case sat two visiting FBI agents down in a conference room at city hall and, for the next hour, projected horrific images onto a large screen.
One captured private chat between Jay's online tormentors, laughing and bragging about the fake empathy they'd used to coerce him into killing himself. Others showed teens who had carved their torturers' names and swastikas into their own skin. Some images showed young people who had been blackmailed into harming themselves sexually.
One of the FBI agents, Pat McMonigle, recoiled at the cruelty. "The lack of any kind of mercy for this kid, the manipulation they used, was shocking," McMonigle recalled.
By the end of the slideshow, McMonigle felt sick. He and his FBI partner walked out of the police department in a daze. Both had young children and lived in Gig Harbor. McMonigle and his four kids often shopped at the grocery store where Jay hanged himself.
The two agents had planned to grab beers afterward at a bar across the street. Instead, they sat in their unmarked car to regroup.
It is evident to them that a horrible predatory act had taken place, but they questioned whether they could investigate it. McMonigle and his partner worked for the FBI's joint terrorism task forces, which focus on domestic threats like the Boston Marathon bombers or foreign ones like al-Qaeda terrorists. With Jay's death, it wasn't clear where the predators were located or whether they were driven by terrorist ideology.
McMonigle, 45, would later encounter brutality and bureaucratic hurdles in the case that challenged him in ways he'd never faced in his 16 years at the agency.
The selection of articles for CultNEWS101 does not imply that Patrick Ryan or Joseph Kelly endorse the content. We provide information from multiple perspectives to foster dialogue.
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