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- [00:05]
Aaron Mason
Gardens of Evil Inside the Zion Society Cult is a seven episode audio documentary that tells the unbelievable true story of a cult that operated in plain sight in an otherwise ordinary American suburb.
- [00:19]
Mike King
It wasn't a cult up in the mountains with 500 acres of land around him. These were people living in a developed area and, and they were getting away with it for more than 10 years before it finally was able to come to light.
- [00:34]
Aaron Mason
You'll be introduced to the Zion Society in its early days through the eyes of a young couple who moved into the new neighborhood sub development of Northwood.
- [00:44]
Northwood Resident
And I remember coming home from work one day and bushes were planted and half my lawn was already in. And I'm like, what in the heck is going on? We had a little alarms going off, but not a lot. And we didn't communicate. And that's, that's how that all started
- [01:00]
Aaron Mason
until a decade later when a former member of the group came forward and confessed to law enforcement the horrors happening behind closed doors leading to the dismantling of the Zion Society and the freeing of dozens of children from a life of relentless abuse.
- [01:17]
Survivor
Every day was. Every hour. It was our whole life. Some form of abuse, emotional, physical or sexual. Like, I can't think of any time that was just joy.
- [01:26]
Aaron Mason
Most importantly, we'll hear from the survivors, many of whom have broken their silence for the first time, to tell me their stories of living inside the secretive sect and the years after as they've struggled and fought for healing.
- [01:40]
Survivor
I have to remind myself every day that I need to forgive for me, not for them, so that I don't destroy my body in hate, you know, they have to let go.
- [01:49]
Aaron Mason
My name is Aaron Mason, and before the series begins on February 3, I wanted to set the scene for this podcast and explain why I believe it's a story that needs to be told.
- [02:00]
Mike King
In Gardens of Evil, we're going to be able to hear from victims who went through thousands of sexual assaults and physical assaults.
- [02:09]
Aaron Mason
That's former detective Mike King, who led the Zion Society investigation.
- [02:14]
Mike King
We're not going to talk about those events one by one. It's just too ugly and it really doesn't serve a purpose.
- [02:22]
Aaron Mason
My priority on this podcast is to do right by the people whose story it is. They lived it. I didn't. But some of the details are pretty salacious. So I've done my best not to be lurid for lurid's sake. You know, I want to communicate the facts of the situation without it feeling gross or exploitative. But that's only part of the story. Gardens of Evil is about much more.
- [02:48]
Mike King
It's about this process of coercive mind control, this ideology that takes people and gets them into positions where they will be victimized and how they can somehow take seemingly normal people and convince them to commit crime.
- [03:07]
Aaron Mason
Can the line between victim and victimizer become blurred? If an abuser is themselves abused, whether
- [03:14]
Mike King
it's physical, emotional or sexual abuse will go through what it does to them over the course of a lifetime, because we now have the lens 30 years later, of looking back on this case.
- [03:26]
Aaron Mason
Mike is retired now after spending 45 years in and around law enforcement, and in that time he's become an expert on cults and cult behaviors. Throughout the podcast we expose the methods used by cult leaders and anyone, frankly, who manipulates people for their own selfish gain. An abusive partner, a bad boss. The playbook is all the same and will highlight the most common red flags. Have you heard the expression what you see isn't always what you get? One of the central figures in this story is the personification of that sentiment, the leader of the Zion Society, a man named Arvind Shreve.
- [04:08]
Mike King
Arvin Shreve was an unassuming landscaper that everybody seemed to like. He was just kind of a normal looking, 61 year old grandpa kind of guy. And yet underneath the facade that he had created was a very evil individual who was conniving, who took the opportunity to twist people's belief systems and actually capitalized on their belief systems, but twisted it just enough to fit his own perverted needs.
- [04:40]
Aaron Mason
The Zion Society owned several houses on more or less a big cul de sac, and you could always tell which ones were theirs because they had the most beautiful gardens, perfectly manicured lawns, trees and shrubs, rock fountains, you name it. People would even drive through to look at them, having no idea the nightmares occurring inside. This, of course, mirrored Arvin, who himself had an outward demeanor that people loved, but secretly perpetrated abuse at a rate that was nearly unfathomable. The full story of the Zion Society hasn't really been told until now, but it's one you won't forget. Even Mike King, in all his experience, says this one is different.
- [05:28]
Mike King
You know, I've seen cases where there's more horrific things that happened with people who have been murdered or badly mutilated, but nothing has impacted me like this has.
- [05:42]
Aaron Mason
Gardens of Evil inside the Zion Society cult is a story unlike any you've heard before. Subscribe now to hear episode one when it's released on February 3rd. Wherever you listen to podcasts.
- [06:16]
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- [06:42]
Aaron Mason
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- [06:46]
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