36 International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 1, No. 1, 2010
during which they were supposed to
smile and thank their elders…. ‘I
couldn’t stand what they were doing to
their children,’ said Tommye. ‘I
couldn’t stand listening to them cry.’
(Zabarsky, 1982)17
Again, these tensions between the local
community and the Northeast Kingdom came
from interactions that members from each group
had with one another while living and working
in proximity. Coates and Kelly from the Citizens
Freedom Foundation did not have to generate
allegations of physical abuse against Northeast
Kingdom Community children—Island Pond
residents apparently saw instances with their
own eyes, heard the beatings going on in a
Northeast Kingdom community house (Sexton
1983: 25), and read about other instances in the
local press.
In addition to information about children
allegedly being beaten within the Northeast
Community, local citizens also learned from the
press that Lydia Mattatall, one of a defector’s
children, essentially had been kidnapped. Ex-
17 Alluding to this trial, Swantko and Wiseman said that, in 1982, a
member of their community, “whose wife accused him of
pedophilia,” defected and tried to gain custody of the family’s five
children. Vowing to “‘destroy’ the community, [he] sought advice
from anticult activists, who apparently suggested that he spread
lies in the media and among local government officials” (Swantko
and Wiseman, 1995: 88). What they failed to state is that, during
the hearing,
...several former members of the Vermont church community
testified that toddlers were beaten with rods or belts. David
Anderson, 24, said he comforted one mother as a church
member whipped her 3-year-old son on his legs, chest and
arms for about 40 minutes. He said he also saw two other
youngsters the same age beaten until blood flowed down
their legs. (United Press International, 1982)
Simply from reading the account by Swantko and Wiseman, one
cannot know that several people testified under oath about intense
corporal punishment in the group. Bozeman and Palmer 1997: 184)
indicate that, in the early 1980s,
[r]umors, gossip and mis-information about the community—
particularly about possible child abuse—grew, a situation
unintentionally aggravated by the Church’s unwillingness to
indulge the curiosity of journalists or state officials. This was
particularly true after 1982, when church members lost a
series of child custody battles due to their unconventional
lifestyle….
Note that both reporters’ and state officials’ interest in the group
was only “curiosity,” and that “possible child abuse” was only
“mis-information.”
members relayed that the defector’s former wife
“‘gave’ her to [leader Elbert Eugene] Spriggs as
a faith gesture” (Nickerson, 1983: 81), and
Spriggs took her to Europe. In her scholarship,
Susan Palmer mentioned Lydia was with
Spriggs Swantko did not. Palmer indicated that
“members claim that [mother] Cindy Mattatall
gained her husband’s consent prior to this
arrangement [involving Lydia living with
Spriggs], but when he was disciplined by the
community in Boston, he decided to claim his
daughter was ‘kidnapped’” (Palmer, 1999: 170).
Even if this were true, however, when the father,
Juan, demanded custody of his daughter, “the
church has ignored a court order to return her,”
and (on December 28, 1982) members “were
told to pray for his death. One elder of the sect
rose during a ‘body meeting’ of baptized
members and described a dream in which Juan’s
throat was slit and his head lopped off”
(Nickerson, 1983: 81 see Braithwaite, 1983: 1).
Moreover, no reasonable explanation comes to
mind about why the group leader would want to
raise someone else’s young daughter in the first
place, especially thousands of miles from the
parents themselves. No indication exists, for
example, in anything that I have read, that the
mother gave her daughter to Spriggs out of fear
that her husband was a child molester, as might
be inferred from Swantko’s comments and
subsequent evidence about the father himself.
Lydia’s disappearance was not the first time that
a young girl had gone missing from the
Northeast Kingdom Community at Island Pond.
In 1980, a Northeast Kingdom member
kidnapped his daughter, Gabrielle Spring
Howell, from her grandmother’s house in
Tennessee and brought her to Island Pond.
Gabrielle Spring’s mother found her and was
trying to flee with her when Northeast Kingdom
members (or her husband himself—accounts
vary) “ran her off the road and snatched the
child again.” Her father took her to Europe but
three years later (when she was seven years old),
her uncle tracked her down in Spain and
returned her to her mother in Alabama, in March
1983. Spring (which was the name she went by)
“told her family on her return that she was
beaten, forced to do physical labor, milk goats
and scavenge for nuts and berries to feed the
during which they were supposed to
smile and thank their elders…. ‘I
couldn’t stand what they were doing to
their children,’ said Tommye. ‘I
couldn’t stand listening to them cry.’
(Zabarsky, 1982)17
Again, these tensions between the local
community and the Northeast Kingdom came
from interactions that members from each group
had with one another while living and working
in proximity. Coates and Kelly from the Citizens
Freedom Foundation did not have to generate
allegations of physical abuse against Northeast
Kingdom Community children—Island Pond
residents apparently saw instances with their
own eyes, heard the beatings going on in a
Northeast Kingdom community house (Sexton
1983: 25), and read about other instances in the
local press.
In addition to information about children
allegedly being beaten within the Northeast
Community, local citizens also learned from the
press that Lydia Mattatall, one of a defector’s
children, essentially had been kidnapped. Ex-
17 Alluding to this trial, Swantko and Wiseman said that, in 1982, a
member of their community, “whose wife accused him of
pedophilia,” defected and tried to gain custody of the family’s five
children. Vowing to “‘destroy’ the community, [he] sought advice
from anticult activists, who apparently suggested that he spread
lies in the media and among local government officials” (Swantko
and Wiseman, 1995: 88). What they failed to state is that, during
the hearing,
...several former members of the Vermont church community
testified that toddlers were beaten with rods or belts. David
Anderson, 24, said he comforted one mother as a church
member whipped her 3-year-old son on his legs, chest and
arms for about 40 minutes. He said he also saw two other
youngsters the same age beaten until blood flowed down
their legs. (United Press International, 1982)
Simply from reading the account by Swantko and Wiseman, one
cannot know that several people testified under oath about intense
corporal punishment in the group. Bozeman and Palmer 1997: 184)
indicate that, in the early 1980s,
[r]umors, gossip and mis-information about the community—
particularly about possible child abuse—grew, a situation
unintentionally aggravated by the Church’s unwillingness to
indulge the curiosity of journalists or state officials. This was
particularly true after 1982, when church members lost a
series of child custody battles due to their unconventional
lifestyle….
Note that both reporters’ and state officials’ interest in the group
was only “curiosity,” and that “possible child abuse” was only
“mis-information.”
members relayed that the defector’s former wife
“‘gave’ her to [leader Elbert Eugene] Spriggs as
a faith gesture” (Nickerson, 1983: 81), and
Spriggs took her to Europe. In her scholarship,
Susan Palmer mentioned Lydia was with
Spriggs Swantko did not. Palmer indicated that
“members claim that [mother] Cindy Mattatall
gained her husband’s consent prior to this
arrangement [involving Lydia living with
Spriggs], but when he was disciplined by the
community in Boston, he decided to claim his
daughter was ‘kidnapped’” (Palmer, 1999: 170).
Even if this were true, however, when the father,
Juan, demanded custody of his daughter, “the
church has ignored a court order to return her,”
and (on December 28, 1982) members “were
told to pray for his death. One elder of the sect
rose during a ‘body meeting’ of baptized
members and described a dream in which Juan’s
throat was slit and his head lopped off”
(Nickerson, 1983: 81 see Braithwaite, 1983: 1).
Moreover, no reasonable explanation comes to
mind about why the group leader would want to
raise someone else’s young daughter in the first
place, especially thousands of miles from the
parents themselves. No indication exists, for
example, in anything that I have read, that the
mother gave her daughter to Spriggs out of fear
that her husband was a child molester, as might
be inferred from Swantko’s comments and
subsequent evidence about the father himself.
Lydia’s disappearance was not the first time that
a young girl had gone missing from the
Northeast Kingdom Community at Island Pond.
In 1980, a Northeast Kingdom member
kidnapped his daughter, Gabrielle Spring
Howell, from her grandmother’s house in
Tennessee and brought her to Island Pond.
Gabrielle Spring’s mother found her and was
trying to flee with her when Northeast Kingdom
members (or her husband himself—accounts
vary) “ran her off the road and snatched the
child again.” Her father took her to Europe but
three years later (when she was seven years old),
her uncle tracked her down in Spain and
returned her to her mother in Alabama, in March
1983. Spring (which was the name she went by)
“told her family on her return that she was
beaten, forced to do physical labor, milk goats
and scavenge for nuts and berries to feed the
