38 International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 1, No. 1, 2010
from the group (quoted in Braithwaite, 1983: 1).
In Fritog’s accounts about what life was in the
Northeast Kingdom Community, he revealed:
Methods of child discipline at the Island
Pond community have been dictated in a
series of messages from Mr. Spriggs and
his wife, based on their experiences with
three-year-old Lydia.
One method, called scourging, involved
tying a nude child face down on a bed
and striking the entire body with a thin
wooden balloon stick. Mr. Fritog said he
had seen the technique used on a two-
year-old girl. (Braithwaite, 1983: 23)
If true, then Fritog’s information established a
clear link between the beatings that Spring
received in Spain—the results of which police
had summarized in a police report and had seen
in photographs—and messages received and
followed by Northeast Kingdom residents from
the leader and his wife in Europe, both of whom
had been involved with beating the young girl.
What at the time appeared to be unfortunate
confirmation that Northeast Community elders
were following the Spriggs’s instructions about
scouring came when Constance and Roland
Church reported that elder Charles “Eddie”
Wiseman had scourged their thirteen-year-old
daughter, Darlynn, over a period of seven hours.
Detective Johnson’s report indicated that he and
a person from Social and Rehabilitation Services
taped a statement from Darlynn in which she
Advised that she was sent from the room
and the adults stayed and had a meeting.
Darlynn was called back into the room
and told she was going to be disciplined
for lying. Darlynn was stripped to her
underpants and told to put her hands on
a window sill. The accused then hit the
victim with a long, thin piece of wood
(balloon stick). According to Darlynn
she was hit and then questioned…. The
victim advised that this lasted from
approximately 0930 until 1630 hours.
(Johnson, 1983b: 2)
Along with the police report, Detective Johnson
also submitted a copy of a medical report written
by a physician at a local hospital, which
“indicated that linear scars were present on legs
and would be consistent with the victim’s
statement” (Johnson, 1983b: 2).
Darlynn’s father, Roland Church, who was
present in the room during the beating,
confirmed his daughter’s story. He indicated that
the men who beat her “suggested that the rod be
an extra long one and that they should strip her
down to her waist, down to her panties” (R.
Church, 1983: 3). He also indicated that the men
talked to her for about “an hour before the
discipline started,” and it lasted “until 4:30 in the
afternoon.” The men overseeing her beating
would stop scouring her for “ten to fifteen
minutes until they pried information out of her,”
then start the whipping again (R. Church, 1983:
3). Likewise, Darlynn’s mother, Constance
Church, confirmed her daughter’s story, since
she, too, witnessed it. The man beating her
daughter, she said, used long balloon sticks as
the whips (C. Church, 1983: 5). Although
crucial aspects of this family’s accounts would
change in the future, before the raid there was
strong evidence that adults were scourging
children, as the Spriggs couple had instructed.20
More dramatic evidence of physical abuse came
forward in late August 1983, when Brenda
Hebert, who was the wife of a Northeast
Kingdom Community member, produced for the
police seven photographs she had taken of
children whom she said had been injured,
sometimes bleeding, from beatings. One picture
was of a baby’s bottom—the child was still in
diapers Hebert claimed the child had been
beaten for a week (Hebert, 1983: 4–5). Still
another allegation of a nine-month-old being
physically abused came to light in March 1984,
when defector Jeff Jenke indicated that, in the
community, a baby with broken bones had been
hit with “sticks,” and the people in the church
20 Worth noting are Susan Palmer’s comments on the child beating
issue:
I have been asked on many occasions to express an opinion
concerning the severity of these disciplines. I always state
that, since I have never personally witnessed the chastisement
of children, I cannot judge. Certainly, the people I have spent
time with strike me as kind and loving parents, and their
children are high-spirited and trusting, so it is difficult to
believe some of the affidavits I have read for the courts.
(Palmer, 1999: 161)
from the group (quoted in Braithwaite, 1983: 1).
In Fritog’s accounts about what life was in the
Northeast Kingdom Community, he revealed:
Methods of child discipline at the Island
Pond community have been dictated in a
series of messages from Mr. Spriggs and
his wife, based on their experiences with
three-year-old Lydia.
One method, called scourging, involved
tying a nude child face down on a bed
and striking the entire body with a thin
wooden balloon stick. Mr. Fritog said he
had seen the technique used on a two-
year-old girl. (Braithwaite, 1983: 23)
If true, then Fritog’s information established a
clear link between the beatings that Spring
received in Spain—the results of which police
had summarized in a police report and had seen
in photographs—and messages received and
followed by Northeast Kingdom residents from
the leader and his wife in Europe, both of whom
had been involved with beating the young girl.
What at the time appeared to be unfortunate
confirmation that Northeast Community elders
were following the Spriggs’s instructions about
scouring came when Constance and Roland
Church reported that elder Charles “Eddie”
Wiseman had scourged their thirteen-year-old
daughter, Darlynn, over a period of seven hours.
Detective Johnson’s report indicated that he and
a person from Social and Rehabilitation Services
taped a statement from Darlynn in which she
Advised that she was sent from the room
and the adults stayed and had a meeting.
Darlynn was called back into the room
and told she was going to be disciplined
for lying. Darlynn was stripped to her
underpants and told to put her hands on
a window sill. The accused then hit the
victim with a long, thin piece of wood
(balloon stick). According to Darlynn
she was hit and then questioned…. The
victim advised that this lasted from
approximately 0930 until 1630 hours.
(Johnson, 1983b: 2)
Along with the police report, Detective Johnson
also submitted a copy of a medical report written
by a physician at a local hospital, which
“indicated that linear scars were present on legs
and would be consistent with the victim’s
statement” (Johnson, 1983b: 2).
Darlynn’s father, Roland Church, who was
present in the room during the beating,
confirmed his daughter’s story. He indicated that
the men who beat her “suggested that the rod be
an extra long one and that they should strip her
down to her waist, down to her panties” (R.
Church, 1983: 3). He also indicated that the men
talked to her for about “an hour before the
discipline started,” and it lasted “until 4:30 in the
afternoon.” The men overseeing her beating
would stop scouring her for “ten to fifteen
minutes until they pried information out of her,”
then start the whipping again (R. Church, 1983:
3). Likewise, Darlynn’s mother, Constance
Church, confirmed her daughter’s story, since
she, too, witnessed it. The man beating her
daughter, she said, used long balloon sticks as
the whips (C. Church, 1983: 5). Although
crucial aspects of this family’s accounts would
change in the future, before the raid there was
strong evidence that adults were scourging
children, as the Spriggs couple had instructed.20
More dramatic evidence of physical abuse came
forward in late August 1983, when Brenda
Hebert, who was the wife of a Northeast
Kingdom Community member, produced for the
police seven photographs she had taken of
children whom she said had been injured,
sometimes bleeding, from beatings. One picture
was of a baby’s bottom—the child was still in
diapers Hebert claimed the child had been
beaten for a week (Hebert, 1983: 4–5). Still
another allegation of a nine-month-old being
physically abused came to light in March 1984,
when defector Jeff Jenke indicated that, in the
community, a baby with broken bones had been
hit with “sticks,” and the people in the church
20 Worth noting are Susan Palmer’s comments on the child beating
issue:
I have been asked on many occasions to express an opinion
concerning the severity of these disciplines. I always state
that, since I have never personally witnessed the chastisement
of children, I cannot judge. Certainly, the people I have spent
time with strike me as kind and loving parents, and their
children are high-spirited and trusting, so it is difficult to
believe some of the affidavits I have read for the courts.
(Palmer, 1999: 161)
