Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 67
His friend had "an instinctive sympathy for poor people, oppressed people," said Freeman.
"She was very selfless."
Campbell, 37, mother of the baby who died in November, worked at the Hotel Nikko as a
sales assistant in the late 1980s. "Mary always had a smile and was a bit on the outrageous
side, showing up for work at this conservative hotel in short skirts and Raggedy Ann
stockings," said a friend from those days, who didn't want to be named. "She was pretty
suggestive. Liked to (have sex) and didn't mind telling people about it." The friend said the
starvation of Campbell's child was all the more puzzling "since at the hotel we used to get
free food and she was always eating everything she could get her hands on."
Wilson, 37, is the granddaughter of the Xerox corporation founder. And Polk-Matthews, 20,
was a once-promising student at an exclusive San Francisco high school.
Kali Polk-Matthews, at 20 the youngest and evidently the most recent addition to the group,
was a standout soccer athlete and scholar at the private Lick-Wilmerding High School in San
Francisco. She attended one year at Spelman College in Georgia, but last summer "took a
year off to go travel with friends," a close friend said. "Kali was the sweetest teenager I
ever met," said the friend. "She organized clothing and food drives for battered women and
their children, with no help from adults," the friend said.
Expert's Analysis
Singer, who said she was called in by San Francisco police in the early '90s to debrief the
woman who fled the group, said that Rasheen/Wright attracted women by his charismatic
personality. He then kept them and their children enthralled "the way so many of these
guys do, by convincing them that being with him was the best thing in the world, ...that
he has special powers, special knowledge, and that leaving him would be horrible."
Of the woman she interviewed, Singer said, "I was surprised, but not much, that a woman
of her education and with a very upper-class East Coast background had gotten involved
with a man like this. She had gotten away from the cult and the police wanted me to learn
how this guy had gotten this woman to do what he wanted. "My answer was the same as
with so many of these situations: glib talk."
"Groups like Rasheen/Wright's are different from cults like, say, the Heaven's Gate UFO
suicide cult, Singer said, in that they do not spread beyond a small clan and a charismatic
leader. Often, there is nothing overtly illegal going on, although they seem strange. "I've
seen more and more of these kinds of little cults in the past five, 10 years," Singer said.
"They are not religious in nature. They are mostly these little guys, like Wright, who see the
big cults and think, 'Hey, I can do that too.' (Wright himself came from a modest
background and "had no money," said Singer, who is well known for interviewing and
analyzing the Charles Manson "Family," and Patricia Hearst after she was kidnapped by the
Symbionese Liberation Army.)
Defense
Jack Rauch, representing Bremner, insisted that depictions of the group were wrong. "From
what I know, this doesn't look like a cult," said Rauch, whose client has been with
Rasheen/Wright for 20 years. "The one lady who decided to leave left of her own free will
and volition. My client raised two happy, healthy teenage daughters. They were just very
private in the way they lived because they felt people would not understand."
Rauch said the group kept to itself for fear of being mocked. "The whole group is
devastated," he said. "It's their lifestyle that's interesting to everybody, not what was done.
..."Sex and race seem to be what is titillating here, but it really has to do with their
vegetarianism and their slowness in seeking traditional medical treatment." There were 12
children living in the Marin home when the defendants were taken into custody, many of
His friend had "an instinctive sympathy for poor people, oppressed people," said Freeman.
"She was very selfless."
Campbell, 37, mother of the baby who died in November, worked at the Hotel Nikko as a
sales assistant in the late 1980s. "Mary always had a smile and was a bit on the outrageous
side, showing up for work at this conservative hotel in short skirts and Raggedy Ann
stockings," said a friend from those days, who didn't want to be named. "She was pretty
suggestive. Liked to (have sex) and didn't mind telling people about it." The friend said the
starvation of Campbell's child was all the more puzzling "since at the hotel we used to get
free food and she was always eating everything she could get her hands on."
Wilson, 37, is the granddaughter of the Xerox corporation founder. And Polk-Matthews, 20,
was a once-promising student at an exclusive San Francisco high school.
Kali Polk-Matthews, at 20 the youngest and evidently the most recent addition to the group,
was a standout soccer athlete and scholar at the private Lick-Wilmerding High School in San
Francisco. She attended one year at Spelman College in Georgia, but last summer "took a
year off to go travel with friends," a close friend said. "Kali was the sweetest teenager I
ever met," said the friend. "She organized clothing and food drives for battered women and
their children, with no help from adults," the friend said.
Expert's Analysis
Singer, who said she was called in by San Francisco police in the early '90s to debrief the
woman who fled the group, said that Rasheen/Wright attracted women by his charismatic
personality. He then kept them and their children enthralled "the way so many of these
guys do, by convincing them that being with him was the best thing in the world, ...that
he has special powers, special knowledge, and that leaving him would be horrible."
Of the woman she interviewed, Singer said, "I was surprised, but not much, that a woman
of her education and with a very upper-class East Coast background had gotten involved
with a man like this. She had gotten away from the cult and the police wanted me to learn
how this guy had gotten this woman to do what he wanted. "My answer was the same as
with so many of these situations: glib talk."
"Groups like Rasheen/Wright's are different from cults like, say, the Heaven's Gate UFO
suicide cult, Singer said, in that they do not spread beyond a small clan and a charismatic
leader. Often, there is nothing overtly illegal going on, although they seem strange. "I've
seen more and more of these kinds of little cults in the past five, 10 years," Singer said.
"They are not religious in nature. They are mostly these little guys, like Wright, who see the
big cults and think, 'Hey, I can do that too.' (Wright himself came from a modest
background and "had no money," said Singer, who is well known for interviewing and
analyzing the Charles Manson "Family," and Patricia Hearst after she was kidnapped by the
Symbionese Liberation Army.)
Defense
Jack Rauch, representing Bremner, insisted that depictions of the group were wrong. "From
what I know, this doesn't look like a cult," said Rauch, whose client has been with
Rasheen/Wright for 20 years. "The one lady who decided to leave left of her own free will
and volition. My client raised two happy, healthy teenage daughters. They were just very
private in the way they lived because they felt people would not understand."
Rauch said the group kept to itself for fear of being mocked. "The whole group is
devastated," he said. "It's their lifestyle that's interesting to everybody, not what was done.
..."Sex and race seem to be what is titillating here, but it really has to do with their
vegetarianism and their slowness in seeking traditional medical treatment." There were 12
children living in the Marin home when the defendants were taken into custody, many of
