In the summer of 2000 five people were murdered by the Helzer Brothers (Glenn and Justin) and Justin’s girlfriend, Dawn Godman. The three members named their cult The Children of Thunder and committed these murders because they believed the murders would usher in the return of Christ. The victims were 22 year old Selina Bishop, who was the daughter of the blues guitarist Elvin Bishop, Jennifer Villarin and her companion James Gamble, and a couple who have been married for 55 years, Ivan and Annette Stineman. Their bodies were cut in pieces, put in black duffle bags and thrown into Mokelumne River.
The leader of the cult was the older brother Glenn also known as Taylor. The Helzer brothers grew up in the Mormon religion and lived the life they were suppose to live by there beliefs. Then one day Taylor, Glenn, make a decision that changed his life and would eventually change his brothers and friend life forever. Taylor wanted to change his way of life, so he stopped following the Mormon ways, got divorced, started drinking, smoking and wear black clothes. Due to the way Taylor started acting he was eventually excommunicated from the Mormon Church. This was the start of Taylor forming his own beliefs system.
Taylor believed, “There was right and wrong, and good and evil.” Taylor started to believe that he was a prophet of God and could receive messages from him. He also believed these killings that he had planned were part of God’s master plan to defeat Satan. He convinced his brother, Justin, and Dawn to trust and follow his plans because God told him what to do. Justin and Dawn believed and did everything that Taylor told them because they were warned if people are not loyal to Taylor, then he would kill them.
The Helzer br...
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...d him too. God does not tell people to murder others, we suppose to love one other like we are family.
Works Cited
Demian, B. (n.d). MARTINEZ / Guilty verdict in murders of 5 / Last of 3 members of cult like group to be convicted. San Francisco Chronicle (CA).
Scheeres, J. (n.d.). Children of Thunder: The Helzer Brothers. Murderous Glenn Helzer and Justin Helzer called their cult The Children of Thunder. Retrieved November 5, 2013, from http://www.icyte.com/system/snapshots/fs1/6/2/5/c/625c8b189427717d7b803311a7d14d5fbd9c07e5/index.html
Tv. (n.d.). Children of Thunder: The Helzer Brothers. Murderous Glenn Helzer and Justin Helzer called their cult The Children of Thunder — Bags of Bodies — Crime Library on truTV.com. Retrieved November 5, 2013, from http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/classics/helzer_brothers/index.html
The satanic cult panic in part contributed to the conviction of Misskelley, Echols and Baldwin. Baldwin himself describes this assumption; “I can see where they might think I was in a cult,” he said, in that 1993 interview, “because I wear Metallica T-shirts.” (Rich, 2013). The article goes on to explain that the crime happened at the end of the five-year satanic panic period that had plagued American popular culture. These boys did not dress like other teens; they did not listen to the same music. Metal music especially music from bands like Metallica were frowned upon because of their expletive lyrics. When the public established that the boys were different from them, they developed stories that would align with their beliefs. The article establishes that after several weeks of investigation and no clear leads, “rumors of satanic involvement assumed greater urgency” (Rich, 2013) By doi...
Victor, Jeffrey S. Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend. Chicago: Open Court, 1993.
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Castillo, Mariano, Alina Machado, Randi Kaye, Hilary Whiteman, and Josh Levs. "Oklahoma Killing May Be Gang-related." CNN. Cable News Network, 23 Aug. 2013. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.