NY Post Jeane MacIntosh April 8, 2001 A Robert Redford catalog company unwittingly sold products made from a firm that uses child laborers – all members of a controversial upstate cult – to make some of its products. The children are part of Twelve Tribes, a racist, isolationist Bible-based cult that believes in beating kids…
MSNBC.com March 13, 2001 Beauty company Estee Lauder could be facing another ugly controversy. The cosmetics giant recently angered actors when Liz Hurley crossed Screen Actors Guild picket lines to do commercials. Now it seems the company was unwittingly using child labor. What’s more, the alleged young workers were apparently part of a group that…
Source: The Burlington (Vermont) Free Press From The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press, June 18, 2000 By Nancy Bazilchuk ISLAND POND — John Dodge, 23, looked a little out of place at the Twelve Tribes church’s community gathering Saturday. An Island Pond native, he grew up calling the church members “Moonies,” threw pennies on the roofs…
The Buffalo News Janet Gramza April 27, 1997 When the phone call finally came, Laurie Johnson’s heart soared. After an eight year search for her two sons, authorities had found them in a small town in Florida. But the moment she had prayed for held little joy. When she finally met them, her sons refused…
The Winnipeg Sun Mike McIntyre April 11, 1996 Police search for kids actually ‘witch-hunt’ Angry members of a local religious cult say there were ulterior motives behind raids more than 70 police officers conducted yesterday in a search for two kidnapped kids. Cops hit four homes and two businesses just before 6 a.m. looking for…
Canadian lived with religious group in SC Santa Cruz County Sentinel/February 4, 1994 By Steve Perez Santa Cruz–A Canadian man suspected of taking his son from the child’s mother and bringing him to a religious community was arrested by federal agents Thursday morning at one of the group’s homes in Santa Cruz. His 11-year-old son…
The Daily News (Halifax, Nova Scotia) Sherri Jackson 1993 A Berwick man was sentenced to five months in jail for ignoring a court order that allowed his former common-law wife access to their son Michael. Edward Frank Dawson, 40, a member of the Bible-based Twelve Tribes cult, seemed stunned by the sentence, handed down by…
September 1993 The state seeks to have Eugene Hunt held in contempt for failure to pay child support. The issue revolves around Hunt’s “ability to pay” and his claim that his religious beliefs as a member of the Northeast Kingdom Community Church in Island Pond deprive him of that ability. The Island Pond church alleges…
The Chronicle March 23, 1983 Juan Mattatall, a defector from the Northeast Kingdom Community Church of Island Pond [now known as “Twelve Tribes] who is trying to get his own three year old daughter back from Europe in the custody of cult leader Eugene Spriggs, has reportedly helped bring another defector’s child home from Spain….
The Boston Globe Magazine Sally Johnson March 12, 1993 Ten years ago, Jeanie Swantko left her job as a Vermont public defender to join Island Pond’s radical community “The Twelve Tribes.” Today, she uses her legal skills to champion for the church against its critics. Jeanie Swantko was asleep in an upstairs room in a…