while he watched and degraded them publicly to punish them in the case of at least one girl he allegedly forced her into prostitution to repay him for property damage he said she caused those kinds of accusations were common he manipulated the students living with him into begging for money from their parents to repay him for damages he insisted they were responsible for one voice said he was bullied into sending him an email with the subject line prices of your things i damaged slashed ruined with preliminary total he said he was told he owed lawrence more than forty seven thousand dollars for a list of things including painters tape all the way up to a broken stove he's been accused of threatening to call the police or exact retribution in some other way if they didn't pay him one family gave their child more than two hundred thousand dollars to repay lawrence they had to sell their house this cycle of abuse and control continued for NUMBER_TOKEN years in their apartment in new york at his stepfather's house in north carolina and then when his behavior got them evicted from the new york apartment they took over another friend's house in new jersey according to the indictment he forced seven of his followers to confess to intentionally damaging his property and poisoning him when he was arrested in february NUMBER_TOKEN the fbi seized a polygraph machine NUMBER_TOKEN recording devices NUMBER_TOKEN journals and more than NUMBER_TOKEN hard drives today he's in jail awaiting trial he's pleading not guilty but some of his victims potentially including his oldest daughter are still loyal to him while others have broken free reunited with their families and are in therapy so much therapy and that's your recap amy is coming up to tell you about a cult leader slash entrepreneur who manipulated his followers into murdering him for the insurance money it's a weird one but first we need to give you a quick thank you to today's sponsor i want to thank anna luisa jewelry again for sponsoring this episode remember just for listening you can get NUMBER_TOKEN off when you go to a n a l u i s a dot com slash true and use code true so just between us my mom's birthday is coming up and i got her this oval stone bracelet from anna louisa jewelry it was inspired by the ocean and it features this blue amazonite disc she loves the beach so i'm basically going to be her favorite child when she sees it and i love the price jewelry starts at just thirty nine dollars and you can get ten percent off all products just by going to anna URL_TOKEN slash true and use code true again that's a n a l u i s a dot slash true and use code true they release a new collection every friday so it's like almost impossible not to find something you love again that's anna louisa spelled a n a l u i SHORT_HYPHENATED_TOKEN dot com slash true and use code true to get NUMBER_TOKEN off all products for yourself and someone else now back to the show this story starts on a dirt road far out in the country in northwest wisconsin on july NUMBER_TOKEN NUMBER_TOKEN. a man was lying in the middle of the road dressed all in white white shirts pants belt shoes the only color came from the telltale
START_SPONSOR_TOKEN but first we need to give you a quick thank you to today's sponsor i want to thank anna luisa jewelry again for sponsoring this episode remember just for listening you can get NUMBER_TOKEN off when you go to a n a l u i s a dot com slash true and use code true so just between us my mom's birthday is coming up and i got her this oval stone bracelet from anna louisa jewelry it was inspired by the ocean and it features this blue amazonite disc she loves the beach so i'm basically going to be her favorite child when she sees it and i love the price jewelry starts at just thirty nine dollars and you can get ten percent off all products just by going to anna URL_TOKEN slash true and use code true again that's a n a l u i s a dot slash true and use code true they release a new collection every friday so it's like almost impossible not to find something you love again that's anna louisa spelled a n a l u i SHORT_HYPHENATED_TOKEN dot com slash true and use code true to get NUMBER_TOKEN off all products for yourself and someone else now back to the show END_SPONSOR_TOKEN