← True Weird Stuff
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- [00:01]
Sherry Lynch
What's more fun than a kitschy roadside attraction? Slow down now, because up ahead we've got one that's offering more than just food and gas. This place has an observatory and a dance hall and ice cream and even peep show machines. Wow. You can't miss it. Just look for the nine giant statues of Santa Claus lining the entrance. Welcome to Holy City. Are you here for the laughs or for the white supremacy love cult? And they got a small beam of light against the mirror. True.
- [00:52]
Max Sweeten
Weird stuff.
- [00:56]
Sherry Lynch
It's really easy to judge people who belong or have belonged to a cult. I would never. You say those people are like lost sheep, you say. Gullible, stupid, desperate people join cults, you say. But nobody really joins a cult, do they? No, that's not how it happens. It happens more like a discovery. Encountering someone who has the answers about God or the government or just life. And those answers make sense to you. This person, this leader, knows the way. And damn if that isn't soothing in a world that feels so chaotic and destructive and maybe even doomed. Look at Heaven's Gate. You think those people all had mass suicide on their bucket lists? No. They were searching for meaning, for something beyond their own mortality, for a higher spiritual truth. Maybe you found that at Sunday school. These folks found it in a religion that offered them ascension to heaven via a ufo, provided they were faithful enough to willingly shed their human bodies so that their consciousness could be transferred to a new container, a next level body. And on March 26, 1997, law enforcement officers from the San Diego County Sheriff's department found 39 of those discarded human bodies in a house in the suburbs. Had they managed to hitch a ride to the next dimension on the Hale Bopp Comet? Or had they died tragically and for no grander reason than the madness and ego of leaders T&do, real names Bonnie Nettles and Marshall Applewhite. Then there's this guy, Keith Ranieri. If two voices sound identical, the phrasing, whatever, when you become very sensitive to those things, you find this individualism pops through. They can't hide it. Even if they try to be inauthentic, they are individual in their inauthenticity. Okay? It's a fingerprint. You know that. That fingerprint that shows that there's another soul to us, that the individual exists. So a lot of times when we. We might not see creativity in something, it's because we haven't developed the distinctions. But with respect to art and an artist, the thing that's wonderful about art Especially what I would call potent art is there's expression and impression. That word salad is from one of Ranieri's many posts on his YouTube channel, Keith Ranieri Conversations. Ranieri was sentenced to 120 years in prison and fined $1.75 million following his conviction on federal charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and possession of child sexual assault materials. Raniere, with the help of five female co conspirators, founded and ran the NXIVM organization. NXIVM used the MLM model multi level marketing to recruit members. NXIVM branded itself as an organization devoted to personal growth. That wasn't the only branding going on. NXIVM was a cult. Ranieri coerced members into having sex with him and and branded the women with his initials like cattle on a ranch. These women were his own personal harem, his private retinue of sex slaves. And like any narcissist worthy of the title, of course, Ranieri saw himself as the victim, in this case the victim of a broken and corrupt American justice system. You know, one of the things that's most important in our country is the justice system. And although, you know, people can hate me and do and think I'm an odious type of a character, you know, awful, actually the both the devil and the saint should be able to get the exact same treatment under our justice system. So saith the man who was known in the Nexium cult as Vanguard. Yes, I am innocent. And although it is, this is a horrible tragedy with many, many people being hurt. I think the main thrust of this has been the oppression, but really a different issue which is hard for me to express. There is a horrible injustice here. And whether you think I'm the devil or not, the justice process has to be examined. I admit I've struggled to understand how this dude struck anyone as any sort of guru worth a follow. But that's exactly the thing about a cult. The message isn't for everyone. The message is tooled to appeal to a very specific individual at a uniquely vulnerable moment in their life. Like, not every celebrity is a Scientologist, right? Not every believer in aliens in Southern California joined Heaven's Gate. You yourself may have brushed up against a cult recruiter without even knowing what was happening. Because the message wasn't for you. It slid right past you. I've had that experience twice. Once as a college student in Philly with the Unification Church, better known as the Mooney's, and then a few years later in LA with Dianetics, AKA Scientology, and Let me tell you, you're a broke ass student. The offer of a free meal is hard to pay pass up. And that was the strategy being deployed. A lot of us chowed down on those free veggie plates. I have no idea what the ratio of freeloader to viable target for recruitment was, but I know this. If the strategy didn't work, the cult wouldn't be using it. So how did William Edward Riker pull it off? They called him the Comforter and Father and the professor and the Emancipator. In the beginning of his career, Riker tried his hand at reading palms and reading minds. He ran for political office and lost. And he founded his own religion, as one sometimes does when all other schemes have gone bust. Riker named his church the Perfect Christian Divine Way. Doesn't that sound so promising? Like, is this a church that celebrates the true word of Christ? You know, love your neighbor as yourself, forgive, be kind and unselfish, take care of the widows and the poor, judge not, and so forth. Was that Rikers Perfect Christian Divine Way? Not so much. Rikers Church, known as the pcdw, preached another kind of gospel. White supremacy, Racial segregation, but also segregation by gender. And big red flag, abstinence from both sex and alcohol. Now why is that a red flag? Because if history has taught us anything, it's this. The man screaming loudest for abstinence can very often be counted on to be the man getting his rocks off in the morning. Most distasteful, immoral and often criminal ways imaginable. I said what I said. William Riker was born on February 17, 1873 in Oakdale, California. He wasn't accomplished or even particularly ambitious in his youth. He quit going to school in the fourth grade and kind of just knocked around till he became the man of the house at 17, after the death of his father by age 19, with his mother remarried, William left home and headed for San Francisco. He picked up work here and there as a street hawker, a job that revealed his true gift. Riker was a born proselytizer, not to be confused with an evangelist. An evangelist is all about a two way conversation between believer and would be convert. Riker wasn't interested in conversation. He was here to talk, not listen. Like other messianic cult leaders before him and after him, Riker had all the answers. Zero questions welcomed. And like other wannabe messiahs, he claimed a personal encounter with the divine. In his case, it was up in the hills above San Jose. In the year 1906, Riker marched down from that hillside and began building his flower block. As luck, fate and timing would have it, there was a large influx of Midwesterners in California then, people in middle age, struggling financially because the promised land of California had turned out to be just another hard place. Like the towns they'd left, but with better weather, these folks were neither educated nor worldly, easy prey for a natural hawker like Riker. By 1915, he'd managed to persuade a small group of disciples to join him in religious life in a house on Hayes street in San Francisco. Three years later, in 1918, with the help of two others, Anna Schramm and Irvin Fisher, Riker found it the perfect Christian divine way. And this was when Riker took on the title the Comforter. Now, did his followers know that. That the Comforter was a charlatan? Clearly not. Did they know he was a notorious bigamist? Oh, did I forget to mention that? Oops. It was quite the scandal. Nearly a decade earlier in 1909, it went down like this. Riker had a newborn son with his second wife, Bessie. She took the infant, named William after his father, and went to the Oakland police seeking protection from Rikers first wife, whom he had not divorced. Wife number two told police that wife number one had vowed to take custody of the baby, even if she had to commit murder to do it. Riker himself took off for British Columbia three days after the child was born. Bessie claimed that he wrote letter after letter assuring her that he would return and would stop at nothing to get custody of their baby. The poor woman was frightened, nearly out of her mind. Between the threats made by Riker and by wife number one, Bessie felt certain that neither she nor her child would be safe anywhere. Bessie was young and innocent. She'd been an easy mark for Riker. She'd met him in Pasadena, California, where he was drumming up followers for something he called improved Christian Divine Science. The courtship was brief and the the wedding took place in December 1907. The baby was born almost exactly nine months later, on September 17, 1908. The umbilical cord had barely been cut when wife number one, Lillian Darwin showed up at the door in a rage, demanding that Riker give her money or she'd go public with the news that the pair had never divorced. She'd ruin Riker and the religious movement he was attempting to build. So he paid her off and split for Canada. Lillian vanished too, was believed she was in Vancouver with Riker. Lovely people. I'm all right. It was a nightmare for Bessie, and the Oakland police were no Help. They refused to take any action against either Riker or Lillian Darwin on the grounds, get this, that the marriage between Bessie and Riker had taken place in Los Angeles. So how's about Bessie get the LAPD to deal with her little domestic drama and then. Wait. The same detective who told reporters that Oakland wouldn't prosecute the alleged bigamy later changed the story and said they never even met Bessie. And just like that, the whole bigamy scandal died down and Riker returned to California and got right back to building his religious empire. Poor Bessie wound up in an insane asylum. And one guess who took charge of baby William. So back on Hay street, where life in the house got weird fast. By 1920, Riker was sharing the place with seven married women. Their husbands were nowhere in sight. And that's because the Comforter had discovered that there is no foreplay like blind religious devotion. He could, in the name of God, bed the wives of other men. Call it all a blessing. In time, though, even that wasn't enough to satisfy his lust for power and control. He had the wives. Now he wanted the children, too. In 1921, a former member of Riker's perfect Christian Divine way, Frieda Schwartz, filed a legal complaint against the Comforter. She alleged that not only had her husband been married off to not one, but two other women, bigamy was clearly business as usual for Riker, but that her eight children had been taken from her and were now being raised by the cult. An investigation was opened into the goings on at 674 Hay Street. Riker was charged with child endangerment, larceny and conspiracy against public morals. But Frieda Schwartz's victory was painfully short lived. The four children who had been removed from the home were returned and all charges against Riker were dropped. Is it any wonder that he felt more emboldened than ever to do as he pleased? I mean, he very correctly believed himself immune to the law. And the law apparently agreed. To his critics, it seemed like the Comforter could get away with murder. And maybe he did. In April 1929, Riker had built a compound on more than 140 acres of land purchased with his disciples money lucked into a great location. The Glenwood State highway was the only paved road that ran through the mountains between San Jose and Santa Cruz. That highway cut right through Riker's property. The Southern Pacific Railroad also helped with a stop just two miles from Holy City. Not much of a distance at all, especially given how close that rail stop was to the Glenwood Highway. Holy City was perfectly Positioned as a roadside attraction, one that would, at its peak, bring Riker more than a hundred thousand dollars a year in revenue. That's worth more than $1.8 million today. Holy cash cow. With transportation solved, Riker had another big problem to deal with. The PCDW was a faith founded on racism and white supremacy and temperance and celibacy. Not his own, of course, and Riker was far too savvy to think he could sell that to the public. So he went the other way, creating what was basically a false front steeped in vice to lure in new converts. That's why the roadside attraction that he called Holy City looked to the unknowing like a charming, tiny town. Travelers came in droves, buying gas and ice cream. He opened a post office and even built a small airstrip. While adherents to the PCDW were forbidden to drink alcohol, tourists visiting Holy City could enjoy a rare treat. Carbonated cocktails. Sex might have been off limits to his followers, but visitors to Holy City could enjoy the lascivious thrill of dropping a coin into a peep show machine for a few minutes of lewd entertainment. But the children? What about the children? Riker had a plan for them, too. A little zoo and Santa Claus. And if one Santa is good, then nine Santas is even better. Statues of the jolly old elf, though, because, of course, the real Santa couldn't get away from his duties at the North Pole. And now that we've got mom and dad and the kids all happily distracted, don't forget the propaganda. Riker had his own print shop where reams of pamphlets were churned out. These attacked the government, openly preached white supremacy, and were sexist in the extreme. Others extolled the rewards of joining the pcdw. And then there were these enormous signs that lined the road leading to and inside Holy City. Signs emblazoned with cheerful messages like this.
- [18:21]
Narrator/Voice Actor
When you are dead, you are plumb dead, and only mankind lives on. And Holy City can prove this statement. Only purified minds and bodies go to heaven. And headquarters for the world's most perfect government.
- [18:37]
Sherry Lynch
What on earth the tipsy Peep show crowd made of this? I'd love to know. Riker even signed a radio station onto the air. KFQU. It was only the second radio station licensed in the entire state of California. But radio is a little more of an exact science than making carbonated cocktails. And KFQU suffered from so much frequency drift that it was shut down after only two years. And then came the accusation. Riker's former secretary, Evelyn Rosenkranz, filed an affidavit accusing him of murder. That she did so from inside San Quentin, where she was serving a life sentence for passing bad checks and habitual criminal behavior only added to the drama. Rosencrantz attached the affidavit to a writ of habeas corpus that she filed. She tried to make the case that she'd been imprisoned under a different section of the criminal code than the one under which she was convicted. She was smart as a whip and a worthy adversary for the comforter. The affidavit stated that two years earlier, in 1927, Riker strangled Mrs. Margaret White to death. The crime allegedly occurred in a cottage in Culver City that Rosencrantz shared with Riker. Rosencrantz claimed that Riker disposed of White's body by burying it in quicklime on the grounds of his popular tourist attraction, Holy City. She offered up the name of an accomplice, a disciple named Walter Kurt, who she said helped with the burial. And law enforcement from two counties immediately launched an investigation. Rosencranz said that the victim, Margaret White, came to the cottage in Culver City saying that Riker was her husband. They'd married in Minneapolis, and then he deserted her. White came to California in hopes of reconciling and told Rosencrantz that Riker had been giving her money to keep her quiet and out of sight. Rosencrantz confronted Riker, but he denied it all. The next time White appeared at the cottage, Rosenkrantz kept her there until the comforter arrived. What happened next? Chilling, Riker shoved Rosenkrantz out of the front room. She said she was weeping in the couple's bedroom when she heard the scream. In Evelyn Rosenkrantz's own words. I tried to open the door, but it was locked. So I ran around the back way and saw Riker choking the woman. When I finally got in, she fell to the floor. We threw water on her, and then I felt her head. At that moment, I knew something terrible had just happened. I wanted to telephone a doctor. I tried, but Riker stopped me. Then a boy came to the door, and Riker told me if I opened my mouth, he would accuse me of the crime. When the boy finally went away, Riker called in Walter Condert, the disciple. Police acknowledged that they had kept Riker under surveillance for several weeks, but had no record of any slaying nor of any person named Margaret White. So Rosencrantz struck again, this time making additional allegations that she said would only amplify her original Complaint. These new allegations included charges of bribery, as in Riker spending as much as $50,000 to ensure that Evelyn Rosenkrantz would find herself in San Quentin. She claimed to have seen and pay a witness in one trial, $200 in tens and twenties. She said that the serial bigamist was unrepentant and that his marriage to his wife Lucille was yet another sham. As Lucille had never divorced her first husband, she accused Riker of railroading poor Bessie, remember her into an asylum so that he could take their child. And bombshell. She said that Riker himself was responsible. Responsible for the death of Frida Schwartz. Frida, who had accused him of trying to take her children. On April 25, 1929, Los Angeles police questioned Riker for more than six hours. The LAPD also brought in Walter Condert. Both professed their innocence and were released, with police announcing they'd been unable to corroborate Rosencrantz's story. Story. The LA District Attorney assured the public that they'd continue their investigation into these allegations even as police and prison officials scoffed, calling Rosencrantz's testimony worthless. One official stated that even though Riker was a known fake and known to be a deeply dishonest man, you couldn't
- [23:31]
Max Sweeten
convict a yellow dog on Mrs. Rosencrantz testimony.
- [23:34]
Sherry Lynch
And as for Frida Schwartz, the woman who'd first brought the law down on Riker in 1921, she was deceased. After leaving the PCDW, Schwartz was admitted on June 29, 1922 to the isolation hospital, diagnosed with an incurable disease. Five days later, on the 4th of July, she was found hanging from a bedpost, an electrical cord knotted tightly around her neck. The coroner's verdict was suicide while mentally deranged. And one last detail. Upon receiving the Rosencrantz affidavit accusing Riker of strangling Margaret White, LAPD officers immediately paid a visit to the cottage in Culver City. And there they found Father Riker the comforter, tending to a blazing bonfire in the backyard. Cleaning up the place so I can sell it was his story. Detectives announced their intention to sift through the ashes in search of any relevant evidence, but nothing ever happened. Riker skated on accusations of murder even more easily than he did bigamy. The 1930s saw Riker turn his attention to politics. He wrote a letter to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt offering to put an end to the Great Depression, a feat that would also, quote, make kings and queens out of all sane minded white people. He launched a campaign in 1938 for governor of California. Not surprisingly, he ran on a platform of hardcore white supremacy. And he gave himself yet another nickname, the Emancipator. One of his campaign pamphlets offered this.
- [25:20]
Narrator/Voice Actor
The white man can take care of any and all kinds of business in our own white man's California state home. And no longer will the white man tolerate your undermining and polluting tactics. Farmers, businessmen and the workers say Orientals, get out and stay out of our business. Our new government will see that you get a job you're polluting and undermining. Mining system of business must eternally stop in our California. And besides this, keep your polluting hands off our white race women. They also only belong to the white race man. This is the true law of our original white man's constitution. These statements explain the real and true spirit of California.
- [26:07]
Sherry Lynch
And then there's this screed from another pamphlet.
- [26:10]
Narrator/Voice Actor
Don't you believe that the white man has proven himself to be a dude, dumbbell by being so easy with Negroes and especially with you Orientals, by letting them have their white man's inventions for savage and selfish purposes. As you demonstrate in your war game of not only murdering off all the prisoners, but also confiscating defenseless people's property, the white race will soon take you in hand and clean you up up. So you will be a fit people to live in the presence of the white man. And it will be done in the name of Jesus Christ.
- [26:50]
Sherry Lynch
Hey, if you're thinking that's not a campaign strategy, that's just a pile of racist, hateful craziness. Well, yeah, exactly. And also poor Jesus, who is forever having monsters promising the very worst in his name. Now, it's encouraging to know that the Californians of that era thought he was a buffoon and firmly rejected his rabid racism when they headed to their polling places to vote in the 1938 primaries. Of the 7,500 votes cast, Riker received only 170. But this didn't discourage the would be governor. He ran again three more times and was defeated again in the primaries in 1942, 1946 and 1950, each time earning less than 1% of the vote. Riker, the comforter turned emancipator, gave up on hearing back from FDR and focused on his next pen pal, Adolf Hitler. Riker had a big old Nazi crush on the Dolph. He saw himself as Hitler's kindred spirit and his letters fawned all over the flatulent leader of the Third Reich. Riker addressed Hitler as your Excellency. And his letters were filled with gushing paragraphs like this.
- [28:08]
Narrator/Voice Actor
Your opportunity is now ripe, and when it is done, you will prove yourself to be the greatest character that has ever lived since the time of Jesus Christ. You will not only succeed in whipping all enemies, but will cause yourself and millions of other people to experience happiness far greater than words will explain.
- [28:33]
Sherry Lynch
Riker's fawning over Hitler wasn't limited to his correspondence. Remember, Holy City was a popular tourist destination and a group of soldiers in uniform paid a visit. One afternoon, Riker, in his trademark white suit and accompanied by Guy, his little dog, accosted these soldiers, browbeating them for serving on what he saw as the wrong side. Riker told the military men that what they ought to be doing was defeating the non white Japanese military and just leave Hitler alone to take over Europe. He insisted the men take a pile of pamphlets he'd written on the subject, bragging that Adolf Hitler had cleverly adopted many of them, his own ideas regarding racial purity. He said that Hitler was not only right to expel the Jews, but was another Martin Luther here to free the people from the tyranny of international bankers. It's sickening and heartbreaking that these same anti Semitic tropes are still alive and well Today, more than 80 years after Riker printed his foul propaganda. As for the soldiers, they took the pamphlets, but instead of passing them out in the barracks at Moffett Field, they handed them over to the FBI. In October 1942, the FBI announced that Father Riker, leader of the religious group at Holy City, had been arrested and charged with sedition. The evidence against Riker was strong and his own attorney advised him to enter a guilty plea. Riker fired that attorney and afterward gave a rousing speech in the courthouse parking lot where he insisted that he was the most patriotic of Americans. When it became apparent to Riker that this sedition charge wasn't going to simply evaporate the way his other legal troubles had, he tried a new strategy. He blamed all of his troubles with the US Government on one Father Divine of Philadelphia. Now, what in all the Hail Mary passes is Riker talking about here? Well, he claimed that the FBI only came for him after Father Divine libeled him in one of Divine's publications called New Day. A subpoena was issued for Father Divine, but the expense of getting him to California to testify made that unlikely. And sure enough, Divine did not appear and the case against Riker looked airtight. The feds had six letters written by Riker to Adolf Hitler Entered into evidence, they had several members of the US Military testify to their experience with Riker at Holy City. They reported under oath that Riker had tried on three occasions to persuade them to do their part to make peace with Hitler and Mussolini. The soldiers also testified that Riker advised them to try, quote, acting crazy to avoid being deployed to Europe to fight the Nazis. You know, America's true ally. Slam dunk, right? William Riker was finally going down, finally being held accountable. Acceptance? No. His attorney was a young Marvin Belly. Does that sound familiar? It should. Belly went on to a superstar legal career representing Jack Ruby, the man who shot Lee Harvey Oswald. Chuck Berry, Muhammad Ali, the Rolling Stones, and Jim and Tammy Baker all hired Belly to fight their legal battles. Belly's nickname became the King of Torts, and he was the king of scoring big cash compensation deals for his clients. Belly was a baby lawyer when he took Riker's case, but he was already that good. In a courtroom, Belly defended Riker by calling his client a complete crackpot. His skillful cross examination of the witnesses managed to cast doubt on just how directly Riker had promoted, promoted anti American sentiments and anti Semitism. Belly said that his client was pathetic but not seditious. And that argument was enough to earn Riker a complete acquittal on all charges of sedition and subversion. Once again, Riker skated. Riker showed his gratitude to his attorney by refusing to pay him for his services.
- [33:12]
Narrator/Voice Actor
My son, I shall reward you with a seat in my kingdom of heaven. And that is far more emolument than a paltry $5,000
- [33:23]
Sherry Lynch
classic malignant narcissist behavior. And Belly responded by suing the beers out of Riker. A case that Lawyer won in 1943. Wrecker returned to his little kingdom at Holy City. You already know that. His political ambitions came to nothing. And the glory days of Holy City were already in the rear view. A new highway had opened up in 1940, and the number of cars passing Holy City dwindled. Converts to Riker's perfect Christian divine way dwindled too. With fewer new members, it was crazy critical to prevent existing members from leaving. Maybe that's why San Jose police found Riker's own son William, bloody and beaten and hiding in a shack. In 1947, William told the cops that members of his father's church had assaulted him to stop him from leaving the compound. His injuries were severe, his back and chest battered, ankle broken, face lacerated. William was so terrorized, the police said, if they had not followed a trail of blood to his hiding place. They were certain he would never have sought help. This is the point where William Riker, Jr. Slips out of this story and vanishes. And we can only hope that it was into a life of his own choosing. Three years later, in 1950, Riker's wife, Lucille, died. Riker, now 84 years old, remained at Holy City. In June 1957, a fire destroyed much of the place. The community hall, the museum, the barbershop, and the public restrooms. Another fire in 1959 took out Riker's beloved printing plant. Arson was suspected, and an arrest was made, though all charges against the suspect, Robert Kloger, were dropped. When it came to Holy City, it just seems like law enforcement was jinxed. Despite the ruination of Holy City, Riker's church, the PCDW, persisted. In 1961, though, the board removed the comforter, Father William Riker, from his leadership role. He was allowed to remain in Holy City, reduced and dilapidated as it was. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that just a few years after Riker's ouster, he converted to Catholicism, boasting that he'd been living a celibate life for the past decade anyway. And then, at age 96, Riker died at Agnew Hospital of natural causes. He was survived by just two remaining disciples and a very enterprising natural nephew named Gifford Riker. Gifford told the press that his uncle was an inspiration. Gifford said that after 40 years of atheism and a career as a wholesale appliance salesman, he was inspired by his uncle's life to write a new Bible. It was to be called the Gospel of St. Riker. The saint wasn't his uncle. It was Gifford himself. I guess it's harder to be a messiah than it looks. The world never did get to see what revelations might be unveiled in the Gospel of St. Riker. As for Holy City, it's a ghost town now. Hop on Highway 17 near Los Gatos and take the Redwood Estates Road exit. Keep heading west to Oneida Court, which turns into Holy City Road. The peep shows and ice cream shop are gone, but who knows? Maybe you'll get lucky and catch a glimpse of the ghost of the comforter. They say he walks there still in his fancy white suit.
- [37:22]
Max Sweeten
So, Sheri, I'm fascinated by this story. And when we first talked about this, I looked up and found a little information about Holy City. It's kind of a ghost town now, but it was purchased by a guy by the name of Robert Duggan who made a lot of money. But Robert Duggan is a member of the Church of Scientology.
- [37:42]
Sherry Lynch
It's just, you know, cult's gonna. Cult. What are you gonna do?
- [37:45]
Max Sweeten
You know, what's interesting about this story and what he did in this story and the way that he got people to follow him. And the same is true with NXIVM and whatnot. And is the idea that many of the people that got involved with this, I think you mentioned this, maybe towards the top, you think, oh, it's just weak minded people. You know, it's people who had a vulnerable moment in their lives. I think a lot of times are taken in by some of these people. I was thinking about a podcast that I listened to called the Sunshine Place, and Robert Downey Jr. And his wife were the executive producers of this podcast. But it's about a guy who, in the late 1950s, by the name of Chuck Diedrich, started an organization to try to help addicts and alcoholics called Synanon. But unlike the organizations, aa, na, all of those kinds of organizations, this was a cult of personality that was all about this guy. And it went the exact same direction of this. Didn't have the white supremacy, didn't have that, but it had the beating up of people who wanted to leave, the attempted murders. It had all of these awful things that had happened. And the similarities between the two, to me were striking. That it became about the property, it became about all this other stuff that was connected to it and the justifications of violent behavior and murder.
- [39:17]
Sherry Lynch
It's breathtaking. And, you know, speaking of Synanon, I don't know how many people are aware that narcissism. Narcanon is part of the Church of Scientology.
- [39:26]
Max Sweeten
I didn't know that. That's not Narcotics Anonymous. Just.
- [39:29]
Sherry Lynch
That's not to make it.
- [39:30]
Max Sweeten
To make it a. A clarification there.
- [39:34]
Sherry Lynch
No, it's a. Narconon is a Scientology organization that uses the principles, the Scientology tech, as they call it, the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard, to treat people, people in the grip of substance abuse. Because let's look at again, we're looking for vulnerable people. We're looking for people that are casting about for a lifeline. And Scientology understood very clearly that people in the grip of substance addiction would be vulnerable people in the same way that Sunshine Plays would vulnerable people. And what's really sad about what Riker did in Holy City was, you know, in the following. The Great Depression, the Dust bowl, people. People saw California as, you know, it was like the gold. The. The gold rush mentality never ended. Even when they stopped being gold Miners, do you know what I'm saying? Like, this idea that you could go, it's even still true today in a lot of ways that California was a place where you could go and strike it rich and, you know, your dreams would come true. And so these people that had flooded into the Golden State from hardscrabble lives in the Midwest, that's who Riker's cult was founded upon. It was on the backs of those struggling, tired, middle aged people who realized that California was no different from Indiana, except for the weather. You know, and that's the thing about cults. Like when I remember when the Nexium story broke, watching the coverage, like, girl, what? How did you. Have you ever listened to Keith Ranieri? Like, it just sounds like we threw a bunch of words into a Vitamix and churned out some doctrine. Like, it's just ridiculous sounding. We played just a snippet of it in this episode. It all sounds like that. But remember that Keith Ranieri wasn't trying to recruit you or me. No, Keith Ranieri was talking directly to someone who was lost and seeking, as all cults are, whether it's Jonestown, Charles Manson, the Unification Church, Scientology. That is how they recruit. Which is why they can say the same way. Words to 100 people, but only two step forward seeking more.
- [42:07]
Narrator/Voice Actor
Right?
- [42:08]
Sherry Lynch
And that's okay. That's the way that it works. Riker. And my. One of my favorite little fun facts about William Edward Riker is I'm a Trekkie Commander William Riker.
- [42:18]
Max Sweeten
Oh, I had. Oh, I hadn't thought about that.
- [42:21]
Sherry Lynch
Yeah. Jean Luc Picard, second in command. Like, I don't know if the. If the creators of that character did that intentionally, but I was like, this is just maddening to me that, you know, number two, William Riker is the same name as this diabolical cult leader who. I want you to step aside from what he did in terms of fleecing people out of their money and robbing people of their freedom. Look at what this man did. And he got away with all of it. He got away with bigamy. Not once, not twice. But he was a serial bigamist. He got away with trafficking because that's what was happening on Hay street in San Francisco. Right, right. He got away with child endangerment. I think it's very possible he got away with murder.
- [43:19]
Max Sweeten
Yeah, I think that's obvious.
- [43:23]
Sherry Lynch
Let's see if you can see any parallels to today's headlines. We've got this guy that is making himself the victim of the justice system, not paying his lawyers. I mean, you know, like, everything old is new again, because when it comes to malignant narcissism, the game never changes. Just the player. And can we shout out arc. The. The voice actor who played Riker in this episode is a gentleman named Don Morgan. And I. He's. Max knows Don. And. And I said to Max, you know your friend who sounds like a 1940s police captain, would he do Riker for us in this episode? His voice hypnotizes me. And I want to thank you. I want to shout you out, Don, because you had to say some really distasteful stuff. Yeah. In this episode. And it's not at all who he is as a person.
- [44:15]
Max Sweeten
No, I'm just glad I wasn't the one having to say the really distasteful things for a change.
- [44:21]
Sherry Lynch
I mean, come. Can we just, like. Okay, all right. Okay. So the guy is a bigamist, and he's a trafficker, and he's a pervert. And he sent Bessie into an insane asylum, which was very easy to do back then. It was very easy to point to a woman and go, that. Be. That biatch is hysterical. She needs treatment. You know, Bessie. Bessie died there. Like, the amount of mayhem that this man left in his path. And then he becomes pen pals with Adolf Hitler and is trying to convert uniformed American military officers who, many of whom testified against him, trying to convert them to his cause, saying things like, see if this doesn't sound like it's ripped from today's headlines. Just let the dictator have Europe. Like, folks. What the. What? Did that not jump out at you, Max?
- [45:17]
Max Sweeten
Yeah, that did. I was thinking about there was a play that I was in called Good and what I. In the play. And it's been done as a movie, but anyhow, the central character is named John Halder, and he is a college professor. And he is a college professor in Nazi Germany before World War II. And it talks about all of the little moral decisions, the tiny moral decisions that he rationalizes why it's all right, all right, they're doing some bad things, but I guess it's okay. And he gets seduced into becoming a member of the ss. So he comes from being this college professor, and at the end of the play, he. He is the guy who is determining how they are going to run the gas chambers for the Jews at the camps. And you see all of the tiny little moral decisions he makes along the way to rationalize it. And I suppose that that's very similar to what happens for a Lot of these people who get into these cults, they're in a situation and they go, all right, maybe this isn't a little right, but I can do this. And this may not be a little bit right, but, but, but, but, but, but, but. And that, that's how they go from point A to point B. And you see, how could that happen? But I can see how that could happen. I can see how that somebody could make those judgments.
- [46:36]
Sherry Lynch
It's the, it's the old classic metaphor of the water getting hotter by degrees. I don't know why we always talk about a frog in the boiling pot when I think a crab or a lobster would make more sense. But at any rate, no, no animal jumps into a pot of boiling water. The water, water's cold, right? And salty, and it gets warmer bit by bit until you're being boiled alive. And that's that kind of moral slippery slope. And people, people who are lost in seeking by the time it's like the Jonestown massacre, by the time everyone's gathered in the room and they're passing out the poison Kool Aid, you're, you've, you're in so deep that it's that moment that you realize what's happening, if you realize it at all. And I think it's just like I said in the top of the episode, it's just really easy to judge people who find themselves in that situation. And but for the grace, there goes you, you know, because haven't we all had a time in our life when we just felt like, man, this is the bottom. And we, and we say something like, God, show me the way. You know, if you're a person of faith and maybe the very next thing that happens is a kind stranger says something to you that just sounds wise and you think this is the way. Do you think those people, those nice middle aged Midwesterners who found themselves separated from their wives while Riker was sleeping with all of them, do you think those people made that decision that afternoon? No. By the time that happened, a million other smaller bits and pieces of indoctrination had gone down. And Riker, the story of Holy City and of William Edward Riker is a great American story. It has all of the classic ingredients of the Horatio Alger rags to riches American folk tale, does it not? Drops out of school in fourth grade, his dad dies, but somehow, through his own wit and ingenuity, he becomes a wealthy and powerful figure who's running for the governor of California. You know, you strip away the white supremacy and the Sex trafficking and the fake religion. And we've got an American icon here, don't we?
- [49:01]
Max Sweeten
Yeah, it's. It's all the dark. It is the worst of. It's the worst of our natures. He brought forth the worst of human nature. You know, some people do. They bring out the best. There's Mother Teresa and then there's, you know, William Riker.
- [49:17]
Sherry Lynch
You know. You know what I think, though? I think that as Americans, and this is true in every culture, right? Every culture has its unique set of buttons and levers that if they're pushed just right, you're activated in American culture, we are very activated by a story like this. We're drawn to these characters who are swaggering icons of ballsy bravado and, you know, can do. We love that. We follow those people, we vote for those people because it's hardwired into our very DNA to see that kind of bootstrapping all the way to the pinnacle as something noteworthy and an achievement worth applauding. But very often, and this is where we're such innocent children as a people, very often, that bootstrapping icon that we're cheering for is a freaking wolf dressed up as a sheep. William Riker was Jim Jones. I mean, I'm not even gonna like. I think we all can think of some other really contemporary examples of, of this phenomenon. We're vulnerable to this. We are vulnerable to this myth making
- [50:38]
Max Sweeten
and we always will be.
- [50:40]
Sherry Lynch
We always will be. And. And you know, in a lot of ways, it's like anything else. The thing that makes you most charming can be your downfall. Right? The thing that. Who was it? There's a great line in. I think it's in look homeward, angel about, you know, the thing that makes Americans Americans. This vastness of space and this, our geography, you know, that we have so much room to stretch for opportunity, but it makes us, you know, homesick and exiles wherever we go. But it makes us vulnerable to this idea that you can. Can pull yourself up from the very bottom to the top. And that's our bootstrapping puritanical foundations, Right? So when we see characters doing this in the religious arena, the political arena, in show business, in sports, you know, we cheer the loudest for those heroes and those anti heroes because they are enacting the American myth. Does that make sense?
- [51:44]
Max Sweeten
Right? And when they achieve success, one of two things happen. They either swell with it or they grow with it.
- [51:51]
Sherry Lynch
Yeah. And it's either growth like a mighty redwood or growth like a malignant tumor, as was the Case in William Riker's story. But Holy City, back in the day. Omg. So Holy City was a boom town in the years leading up to World War II because people had automobiles and suddenly they had freedom and access. And you'd be out for a Sunday drive and you come around the bend and here's this little town that just has it all going on. And I want you to take a minute and enjoy the hypocrisy. The perfect Christian divine way forbade sex and alcohol and drugs and gender mixing and racial mingling. But Holy City. Holy City was sin city right off the side of the road. Think about. Think about how craven that appeal was that. That Riker understood human nature so well. He didn't even try to appeal to new converts with a message, a message of love or redemption. He lured the men with sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
- [53:09]
Max Sweeten
I see you're going. I think this is a religion I can get behind. All right. Yeah, okay.
- [53:15]
Sherry Lynch
Yeah. So we. I mean, one of the. One of the greatest works of literature that shows you this idea of the American flim flam, man, is the wizard of Oz. Think about it. Oh, yeah, We've got this regular little man who's not worth much, but he somehow is able to build an entire kingdom around himself. And the whole thing is a game of smoke and mirrors, literally. Right, Right. When L. Frank Baum wrote the wizard of Oz, I mean, there was such a political dimension to it that we never think about or talk about. In the same way that Gregory Maguire's response to the wizard of Oz, the wicked books, they are among the most political books you can read. Right. Because they really lay bare the mechanism of political power and what terrorism means and how despots retain control of the people. And so William L. Riker, in many ways, was very like the wizard, because behind the curtain in the wizard of Oz, very like him. And like the wizard, no consequences. How many times, Max? How many times did the cops show up at his door? How many times was he investigated? He was brought up on federal charges of sedition.
- [54:40]
Max Sweeten
So he. When he would get by, he would go, see, I am a higher being. I can get away with just. I'm feeding it. I think you said that in the script.
- [54:52]
Sherry Lynch
That's something we're also seeing playing out on the national stage right now, too. You say to yourself, my God, this is so blatant. How do you think you're going to get away with this? Well, you've gotten away with everything else.
- [55:04]
Max Sweeten
Yep.
- [55:06]
Sherry Lynch
It makes you. It fills you with a False sense of power and autonomy and supremacy and all of that.
- [55:13]
Max Sweeten
And, and also William Riker saw himself as a victim. That's the thing. That is the thing that is most amazing.
- [55:23]
Sherry Lynch
Oh, William Riker was yelling about how there was, wait for it, a witch hunt for him. I sometimes I just want to stand outside and scream at the sky. That the way that history, it's not that it repeats, it just echoes and echoes and echoes and echoes. And this is like, you know, this is one of our unique products that we make here in the United States. We are so good at the loud, emboldened criminal flim flam. We're just so freaking good at it. And you could say, yeah, but what about the Germans? They had Hitler. What about the Italians? They had Mussolini. I'm not saying we're, we hold the corner on the market for dictators. I'm saying that we are really good at a specific kind, a specific character that we unleash onto the public stage and we venerate and worship and venerate and worship until we realize usually too late, that we've been conned. And that's what happened to Riker's followers. You know, he died with these two poor penniless elderly people scratching out a meager living in a burned out shell ghost town. That was all that was left of their religion.
- [56:42]
Max Sweeten
Can I just say of his conversion to Catholicism, he says, well, I was celibate anyhow. Being Catholic does not mean that you're celibate. Listen, somebody that doesn't know anything about Catholicism thinks, are they all celibate? No, just the priests are supposed to be.
- [56:59]
Sherry Lynch
So what was extra double, triple obnoxious about that? And, and it was a real like, take a piss in the eye of everyone who ever followed you. Riker, the perfect Christian divine way, preached celibacy. But of course their fearless leader was sleeping with all of their wives. So when he said I was, I've been celibate anyway, an acknowledgment that, that he wasn't celibate till age 74. Like, how's that for a kick in the pants? If you were a believer of this man, it's so insulting and oh my God, it's just so obnoxious. Like, before we wrap this, this conversation up, was there anything else in this dude's wild story where you were like, what did I just hear so much? There's so, so, I mean, Roosevelt, when Roosevelt got the letter from Riker, who was a well known public figure in his day because he kept running and Losing the governorship, running for Roosevelt was like, hell out of here with this nut case. I mean, you have to think about the. The very large public stage that all of this played out on. All of this naked, open racism and sexism and eugenics, and all of it was wide open to the public. There was no wink, wink. We say one thing and believe another. It was all out there. And control, control, always control. And sex. Can we just be real for a second? I don't care if you're Jim Jones or Keith Ranieri or William Riker or whichever tiny tyrant is running Scientology right now. I think it's David Miscavige, man. So often it just comes down to science sex, doesn't it? Yeah, it's like.
- [58:51]
Max Sweeten
And that never seems to change that somehow that powerful thing is. Becomes a part of the equation.
- [58:58]
Sherry Lynch
You just take it. You just take what you want. You just grab them by the. And they let you. Because you're a star or because you're the leader of the church, or because you're the governor, whatever you are. It is amazing to me that these stories all always have the same ingredients over and over and over again, just wild. And my heart breaks for the people who followed him, who gave their lives and every penny they had, and sacrificed their marriages and their children and their families. And for what? How does your heart not break for those people? And to be conned in the name of Christ? Like, if there is a hell, how is there room for anyone else but the people who have conned others in the name of Jesus? Answer that question for me, please.
- [60:00]
Max Sweeten
If there's any justice in any of those, there be a special place.
- [60:06]
Sherry Lynch
Like, you know, Dahmer shows up in hell and Satan's like, dude, I'm gonna need you to sit over there. We are all full with all these people that have conned innocent souls in the name of Jesus. Like, we just got no room. Like, it's just the most tragic and heart wrenching thing, because the people who come into these groups looking to have their heart filled with God and with Christ and with that golden, holy spiritual light, those people, they are the lambs to the slaughter. They really are. They really, really are. And so, Max, as we wrap up Road Trip, you want to go to Holy City and tour the ghost town.
- [60:50]
Max Sweeten
So, yeah, that was the only thing that I was thinking about because that involves a true weird stuff episode and a place that's abandoned. So, yes, we are going to road trip to Holy City.
- [61:01]
Sherry Lynch
The next time that we have to travel to that part of California for work, for like a conference or whatever. We're going to book some extra days and we're going to go to Holy City.
- [61:11]
Max Sweeten
Oh, yeah.
- [61:12]
Sherry Lynch
Oh, oh, oh. And there's one. Oh, my God, don't let me forget this. There's one last thing. So Riker at his peak in his heyday, he walked the grounds of Holy City dressed in a white suit. If you're picturing Colonel Sanders, you are not off the mark with a cane and a little white dog. Can you please answer for me? Why every super villain in real life and in James Bond movies fits that description? What is it with these guys? What is it with these people?
- [61:44]
Max Sweeten
Like I said, they either grow with it or swell with it.
- [61:48]
Sherry Lynch
I shall be a super villain. I'm going to need a small domestic animal.
- [61:57]
Max Sweeten
It's.
- [61:58]
Sherry Lynch
It's you.
- [61:59]
Max Sweeten
You know, some of this stuff you write, you go, oh, that's really bad fiction. No, you can't do that.
- [62:05]
Sherry Lynch
You can't believe it. You can't believe it. So listen, all of us, any of us can have a moment where if just the right person whispers just the right thing into our ear, we can be lost. So think about that the next time you roll your eyes at somebody who's fallen into whatever it is they were lost and they thought they got found. And all we can do is hope that they get found for real before they end up like those two little old men who died hungry and heartbroken in the burned out remains of William Riker's Holy City. Thank you for listening to this classic episode of True Weird Stuff. To fall even further down the rabbit hole of weird history, follow True Weird Stuff on Instagram and YouTube. True Weird Stuff is a now media production written and hosted, hosted by Sherry Lynch. Executive produced by Tony Garcia. Directed by Max Sweeten. Additional support from producers Carrie Bowser and
- [63:20]
Max Sweeten
Stephen Call, our digital witch and social
- [63:24]
Sherry Lynch
media cult leader, Heather Fur. Original graphics by Kevin Nash.
- [63:29]
Narrator/Voice Actor
Original artwork by Olivia Axeland.
- [63:33]
Sherry Lynch
True Weird original music composed and performed
- [63:37]
Max Sweeten
by Jack Griffin and zayn Nash. Copyright 2026 Now Media.
- [63:44]
Sherry Lynch
All rights reserved. All wrongs remembered.