Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 66
Methods
A decade ago, San Francisco police asked cult expert Margaret Singer to analyze the group,
for despite several encounters with The Family, they found themselves powerless to act.
Singer learned that Wright espoused "a mishmash of Rastafarianism, karma, and white
guilt. The white women who lived with him "had to work off the white mistreatment of black
people. It was their responsibility to work off their karma."
A woman had told investigators that when she went to the house in Marin she met two
others who appeared to have bruises, and one who had a black eye. The visitor found
herself alone with a man introduced as "Rasheen" who smoked an odorless substance from
a glass pipe. After donning a kimono, she underwent a massage but repeatedly refused
requests to disrobe. At one point, as she read from the Book of Revelation, she looked up
and saw that Rasheen had exposed himself. She left, was persuaded to return and left
again at dawn and went to police.
In another incident, the hosts lighted incense and offered herbal cigarettes. The visitor told
authorities that after a massage, she felt drugged and ended up having sex with Rasheen,
who was depicted as "Adam" to her "Eve." She reported the incident to police, but later
refused to press charges.
Police also knew of the 1990 death at the home of an infant girl, whose lifeless body was
kept in a hammock for three days before the medical examiner's office was summoned. A
year later, the child's mother left the group, taking her 2-year-old son and her 4-day-old
daughter with her, and got a restraining order against a member of the group, which is
when police were first told about The Family.
Singer, a clinical psychologist and author of Cults in Our Midst: The Hidden Menace in Our
Everyday Lives [and member of advisory committees of AFF, publisher of the CSR], said
that the frightened ex-member told how Rasheen would spend $1,200 for two days' worth
of crack. Singer also related that one woman's trust fund was being "smoked away." The
women in the group were ruled through domination, according to the one who left. "He
walked around the house with a riding crop he used to beat the women." According to
Singer, "he once beat a woman so hard he broke his arm."
In 1993, police officers checked out reports of possible child neglect at the home, but found
no problems. A few hours later, a neighbor of Wright's came to the police station and said
that after the officer left, Wright began "to rant and rave." That bitch f-- with the wrong
person," Wright screamed from a patio, according to a police report on the incident. "She f--
with me?? I'm gonna f-- her up! ...If I can't get her, than I'll get my niggas after her. I
got lotsa niggas!"
Who Were These Women?
Exactly what drew the four women in custody to Rasheen/Wright is unclear, but their
backgrounds indicate a level of sophistication that is puzzling, considering the condition of
the 12 other children in the Marin house some of whom were suffering from rickets, a
disease rarely seen in North America.
Bremner, 45, was an impassioned leader of the protest movement against South African
apartheid when she studied political science at the UC Berkeley in the mid-1970s, yet she
was so sweet-natured she was known as "Carol the Saint."
"What's mystifying and horrifying is how somebody, certainly on the left and very
purposeful about politics, could have fallen into what looks like a tragic abyss," said Bennett
Freeman, who was part of the protest movement with Bremner and continued in politics
after college he was appointed deputy assistant secretary of state by President Clinton.
Methods
A decade ago, San Francisco police asked cult expert Margaret Singer to analyze the group,
for despite several encounters with The Family, they found themselves powerless to act.
Singer learned that Wright espoused "a mishmash of Rastafarianism, karma, and white
guilt. The white women who lived with him "had to work off the white mistreatment of black
people. It was their responsibility to work off their karma."
A woman had told investigators that when she went to the house in Marin she met two
others who appeared to have bruises, and one who had a black eye. The visitor found
herself alone with a man introduced as "Rasheen" who smoked an odorless substance from
a glass pipe. After donning a kimono, she underwent a massage but repeatedly refused
requests to disrobe. At one point, as she read from the Book of Revelation, she looked up
and saw that Rasheen had exposed himself. She left, was persuaded to return and left
again at dawn and went to police.
In another incident, the hosts lighted incense and offered herbal cigarettes. The visitor told
authorities that after a massage, she felt drugged and ended up having sex with Rasheen,
who was depicted as "Adam" to her "Eve." She reported the incident to police, but later
refused to press charges.
Police also knew of the 1990 death at the home of an infant girl, whose lifeless body was
kept in a hammock for three days before the medical examiner's office was summoned. A
year later, the child's mother left the group, taking her 2-year-old son and her 4-day-old
daughter with her, and got a restraining order against a member of the group, which is
when police were first told about The Family.
Singer, a clinical psychologist and author of Cults in Our Midst: The Hidden Menace in Our
Everyday Lives [and member of advisory committees of AFF, publisher of the CSR], said
that the frightened ex-member told how Rasheen would spend $1,200 for two days' worth
of crack. Singer also related that one woman's trust fund was being "smoked away." The
women in the group were ruled through domination, according to the one who left. "He
walked around the house with a riding crop he used to beat the women." According to
Singer, "he once beat a woman so hard he broke his arm."
In 1993, police officers checked out reports of possible child neglect at the home, but found
no problems. A few hours later, a neighbor of Wright's came to the police station and said
that after the officer left, Wright began "to rant and rave." That bitch f-- with the wrong
person," Wright screamed from a patio, according to a police report on the incident. "She f--
with me?? I'm gonna f-- her up! ...If I can't get her, than I'll get my niggas after her. I
got lotsa niggas!"
Who Were These Women?
Exactly what drew the four women in custody to Rasheen/Wright is unclear, but their
backgrounds indicate a level of sophistication that is puzzling, considering the condition of
the 12 other children in the Marin house some of whom were suffering from rickets, a
disease rarely seen in North America.
Bremner, 45, was an impassioned leader of the protest movement against South African
apartheid when she studied political science at the UC Berkeley in the mid-1970s, yet she
was so sweet-natured she was known as "Carol the Saint."
"What's mystifying and horrifying is how somebody, certainly on the left and very
purposeful about politics, could have fallen into what looks like a tragic abyss," said Bennett
Freeman, who was part of the protest movement with Bremner and continued in politics
after college he was appointed deputy assistant secretary of state by President Clinton.
