The cult that mysteriously betrayed baby Holly Clouse after her parents were brutally murdered is almost certainly a nomadic group led by a hermit who claims to be reborn Jesus and convicted of child abuse, DailyMail.com may reveal.
Cult expert Joseph Simhart said he would “guess nine out of 10” that the details revealed last week after the baby’s identity was revealed correspond to a group known as the Family of Christ, which has roamed the southwestern United States for years.
The organization was described by Texas authorities last week after Holly was finally tracked down in Oklahoma and reunited with her family.
Texas First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster said the group handed Holly over to a church in Arizona after her parents were killed 1,000 miles away in Harris County, Texas.
Webster said the group wore white clothes, walked barefoot, ate a vegetarian diet, separated men and women, and avoided animal products.
This description coincides with the family of Christ, Simhart, who met with the group several times in the early 1980s, he told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview.
Christ’s family was led by a convicted drug trafficker named Lightning Amen, who in 2003 was convicted of irritating or harassing a child under 18.
The group, which numbered about 2,000 at its peak, believed that marijuana was a God-given herb and smoked it openly, calling it “God’s sedative” – while the men wore diapers on their heads like a turban.
Dean Clouse, 21, and Tina Close, 17 (pictured with their one-year-old daughter Holly Marie) were found dead in a wooded area of Houston, Texas, in January 1981 – until last year their identities were unknown.
The Texas Attorney General released a photo of Holly, who was adopted after being betrayed by a religious cult, although she did not reveal her identity.
The nomadic cult, The Family of Christ, was led by a convicted drug trafficker named Lightning Amen, who was convicted in 2003 of child abuse and claimed to be Jesus.
Dean Clouse and Tina Lynn met as teenagers. They married when Tina was 15 and was pregnant with Holly, then moved to Texas before their baby was one year old so Dean could find a better paid carpenter’s job.
Webster said a member of the group, called Sister Susan, contacted relatives of Holly’s murdered parents in December 1980 or January 1981 after their deaths and offered to return their car for a $ 1,000 donation.
The exact involvement of the group in the deaths of Harold Dean Close-Jr., 21, who was beaten and tied up, and Tina Close, 17, who was strangled, is unclear.
Authorities have not revealed how long Holly has been in their care, but she appears to have been with them at least for the trip from Texas to Arizona.
Chronology of the 40-year-old search for baby Holly Marie Clouse
1980: Harold Dean Clouse, known as Dean or Junior of his family, his wife Tina and their baby Holly Marie move from Florida to Texas
October 1980: Dean stops writing letters to his mother Don Casasanta, causing her concern
Around New Year 1981: A man contacts Dean’s family to tell them that he has joined a cult and doesn’t want to have anything to do with it
About this time: The family is connected by a man who claims to be a law enforcement officer who connects them with “Sister Susan” from a religious group wearing white clothes, who offers them Dean and Tina’s car back for a donation of 1,000 dollars
January 1981: The bodies of a young man and woman are found in Houston, Texas. There are no traces of a baby and they are unidentified
2011: Bodies Exhumed to Obtain Their DNA Samples from Identifinders International, a California-based organization that conducts genetic testing for law enforcement
2021: The bodies are finally identified after DNA breakthroughs in forensic technology and their relatives have been reported.
2022: Holly is found alive and identified
Clouses’ relatives were told that Dean – as his family knew him – and Tina had joined the cult and given up their land holdings and did not want to be associated with them.
But in 2021, two bodies found in Houston 40 years earlier were identified by DNA technology.
Given that Holly’s body was not that of her parents, her family was left hoping she was alive, prayers answered last week when Holly was found to be 42 years old. mother of five living in Cushing, Oklahoma. who was adopted after his transfer.
She was informed about the identity of her biological family only last week and plans to reunite it in the coming days.
The Family of Christ was one of a number of fanatical groups that emerged in the 1970s, said Simhart, who himself survived a cult and once taught deprogramming lessons to former members.
The group spent its winters in places such as Yuma, Arizona, a county mentioned by authorities when it was announced that Holly had been found.
Christ’s family believed in gender segregation and moved from coast to coast “like the wind,” according to a 1980 Washington Post report on the group.
The report says they did not wear leather goods, did not eat meat, eggs, dairy products or even honey, as they say they are the product of captive animals.
Almost all have taken the surname “Christ”.
Their most famous feature was their white robes and bare feet, inspired by the idea that this could bring them closer to Jesus.
They had no money, lived off food and charity coupons from the public, and carried army-style blankets on their shoulders like makeshift beds.
Simhart said he encountered groups of about a dozen members of the Family of Christ in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, where he worked as a portrait painter.
He said: “There were other groups like Jesus, but these people were very distinctive, they said you should smoke marijuana and they wore white clothes.
“You were immediately curious because they were so distinctive. One of the women squatted to talk to me. She had no underwear. She was very comfortable with that.
“They did not try to recruit me and attracted people passively through their appearance and peaceful behavior.
“A few young people would become curious and find meaning in their words, and they would register and wear the suit a month later.”
Although police did not report the group was violent, they had a criminal element, especially their leader.
In 1986, Lightning Amen – real name Charles Franklin McHugh – was convicted of possession and transportation of methamphetamine for sale, as well as possession of a hypodermic needle and concealed weapon.
According to an Associated Press article at the time, he faces up to seven years in prison, but faces additional charges of confiscating drugs, $ 4,200 in cash and several weapons.
The report notes that in December 1985, 10 members of the cult were sentenced to $ 900,000 in prison for growing marijuana on the sect’s ranch.
Amin reportedly left his family to find God after a business and two marriages failed.
Court records in Riverside County, California, show that in 2001, Amin, who died in 2010, was charged with three counts of harassing or harassing a child under 18.
He was found guilty of one of them the following year and was sentenced to 160 hours of community service.
He was also ordered not to contact three women, all of whom were identified by the surname “Y”.
Today on the ranch an old yellow school bus with personal registration number 4 Christ is sitting on blocks in the front yard
Many members of the cult adopted the surname “Christ”, including Gary Christ (left) and John Christ
Amen spent five years in prison in Chino, California, on arms charges, his follower Gary Christ told DailyMail.com “He took rap for a motorcycle gang that keeps their weapons here.”
The group, which numbered about 2,000 at its peak, believed that marijuana was a God-given herb and smoked it openly, calling it “God’s sedative” – while the men wore diapers on their heads like a turban.
Members wore white clothes, walked barefoot, ate a vegetarian diet, separated men and women, and avoided animal products. But now members like John Christ wear modern clothes
Simhart said: “The leader was in charge of the whole thing – he was narcissistic in his way of interpreting the Bible, combining back to the movement of the Earth with the Bible.
“He developed this kind of white garment that looks like something from the Jesus movies with white headbands tied around their heads.
“I’m not saying they didn’t believe in the Bible, but it was a very distorted version of a leader who wants power.
Gary Christ, 69, told DailyMail.com that only three people now live in the complex. “I’m from the 1970s,” he said
“Amen uses the Bible to gain power over people and to promote his grand vision of who he thought he was. The drug trade was huge among hippies, and after God blessed marijuana, why not?”
“Matt was around then and it was easy to make more money. Somehow he managed to bless this and incorporate it into the teaching.
According to Simhart, if Holly’s parents were connected to Christ’s family at all, they could have been told to get rid of their baby.
He said: “The simple answer is that the group persuaded them to give up the child. They advocated celibacy as a rule as monks and nuns.
“Attachment to the world and to your family and things outside the group were considered sinful.
“You must give up for the sake of the lord. If you do not love Jesus more than your mother and father, you are not worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven.
“They would use words like ‘your job is for the Lord,’ and then you will give up the child.”
Lightning lived on a ranch in Hemet, California, at the time of his death, near the headquarters of Scientology, a large area known as the Golden Base, where Tom Cruise is said to have studied intensively.
A non-profit organization called Christ …
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