Alamo - Guilty - 175 Years in Prison!
In U.S. District Court in Texarkana, Arkansas the 75 year old Alamo was recently sentenced to 175 years in prison on charges of engaging in sex with minor members of his so-called “church.” One of the five brides identified was just 8 years old. My sources, escapees of the church, tell me there were many more Alamo brides.
Alamo’s real name is Bernie LaZar Hoffman. He was a phony from the get-go. Back in the early 70’s he and his wife, Susan, dreamed up the “Alamo Christian Ministries” to rescue drugged out homeless people from the streets of Hollywood. They gave the unfortunates a cot to sleep on, food to eat, a rousing sermon and an odd job or two to perform as payback. City fathers donated money to show appreciation for the more tourist friendly streets. T
hose first Alamo followers settled in, coupled up and gave birth to a second generation. The poor kids never had a chance.
Susan & Tony Alamo - The Early Days
T
he Alamos had up to three dozen money making enterprises – from restaurants to hog farms –and their loyal disciples were their workforce. Instead of a salary the workers got meager living arrangements, irregular meals (many consisted of whatever food had been donated to the ministry) and all the preachin’ about Jesus the Alamos could muster.
The Alamos got rich. When Susan began to suffer from cancer they moved their headquarters to a hilltop near tiny Fouke, Arkansas – far away from the prying eyes of outsiders.
A big source of income was the uber-expensive, handmade rhinestone and sequined studded denim jackets the disciples churned out. In the day it seemed all of Hollywood was wearing one! Dolly Parton, Brooke Shields, Mr. T, among others, wore the flashy fashion statements and sales sky-rocketed.
Alamo Jackets Sold For Up To 5k
In 1994, Alamo went to prison for failure to pay taxes on the jacket earnings. At the time of the trial there was evidence that children at the compound were being brutally beaten, held aloft by four burly church men while Alamo beat them bloody, “baseball style” with a wooden paddle. However, that testimony was never allowed at the tax trial. Once in prison Alamo still ruled his flock with an iron fist.
In a series of exclusive interviews with those born into the Alamo cult I’ve heard unforgettable horror stories.
The children were schooled but now realize, as adults, that on orders from Alamo their education was sorely lacking. If they asked an inappropriate question about the day’s lesson they were beaten. If they were tardy, laughed too loud or wore the wrong clothing they were beaten. After classes they were ordered into hours of mandatory prayer. One young man named Jared remembers after Susan died of cancer in 1982 all followers were ordered by “Papa Tony” to keep up a round-the-clock kneeling prayer circle for her “certain resurrection.” Alamo kept Susan’s corpse for 16 years until a court finally ordered him to return it to her family.
Child Labor Made These Jackets
These Alamo captives now reveal it was them – the exhausted, terrorized children of the group who often worked until midnight laboriously turning out those denim jackets. A young mother named Becca tells me that growing up in the ministry brought no joy – ever. She worked in the communal kitchen cutting away the rotten parts of donated food. She fantasized about Papa Tony’s promise to get her a “jar of pickles for my birthday.” There was no real medical care, not even for one poor epileptic child. Jared remembers watching the girl beaten every time she had a seizure. Several other former Alamo Ministry children who wish to remain anonymous told me how underage girls were routinely married off to much older male church members. After Alamo got out of prison in 1998, they say, Papa Tony chose multiple underage brides for himself.
Finally in September 2008, at a roadside stop in Arizona, Alamo was arrested with 6 girls in his vehicle and charged with transporting them across state lines for sexual purposes.
I tell you this story because society needs to learn from it. Our justice system took way too long to stop this monster, knowing since the early 90’s that children were suffering at his hand. The doctrine of separation of church and state caused authorities to shy away.
We need to do better. While the second Alamo generation is now thankful he’s locked away authorities admit there are other religious based predators out there. No one wants to curtail freedom of religious practice but allowing charlatans to victimize the innocent and enslave people isn’t acceptable either.
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
ABQ Journal Reader Ron H. writes:
“Just read your article “Locking Away Evil – Finally” in Saturdays Albuquerque Journal. Thanks for drawing our attention to this abuse and slow justice. It is one of many examples being exposed by groups like the Freedom From Religion Foundation (www.ffrf.org).
But I am confused by your statement that “The doctrine of separation of church and state caused authorities to shy away.” Usually neglecting to investigate is the result of too much respect for churches by government agents. So, what did you mean?
People need to stop believing the lies of the media (Satans mouth) that slander, persecute, ruin peoples lives and propagandize the masses to go along with this evil one world vatican led New World Order.
Pastor Alamo is Innocent! They have been persecuting him for years! Now they coerced a few good liars and convicted him with NO evidence and threw him in jail and steal the ministry children who were not abused and won’t return them.
The media loves to promote this lying filth, the more bizarre the better add some child sex abuse to it and walla! Everyone believes the lies! They call you cattle! Please people wake up to what is going on! They do this to ALL those that preach the true gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and expose the Vatican for the disgusting child sex molesting sodomite cult it is! Why aren’t they plastering all their sodomite, pedophile priests all over the news and stealing Catholic children? Why are they allowed to silence and pay off their victims and yet here we got Miss Diamond nailing Pastor Alamo with NO evidence against him and even the jury told the judge they did not find him guilty can they convict him anyway? The Judge should have said NO..but of course he was hand picked for the occasion! I hope the brain dead masses WAKE UP..This is an assault against real Christian Pastors, churches and Christian children and families and people just believe! Just like when they cheered as this evil govt burned alive innocent men, women and children. They hate God and they hate his word and they hate those that preach it!…
Go read the truth at http://www.alamominitries.com
http://www.arcticbeacon.com The bible says the WHOLE world would be deceived even the very elect if it were possible. Best to repent and believe the word of God because this government is working to take everyone to hell with it…Read the Popes Secrets on the web site and stop this attack against the innocent people of God!
http://alamoministries.com/content/english/Antichrist/Popes_Secrets.html
I am publishing this comment only so the rest of my readers can read it and understand the mentality behind those who followed – and continue to follow – Tony Alamo.
What my column did not delve into was the actual trial testimony which, I my opinion, was the compelling evidence this writer says does not exist.
Five female Alamo Ministry Church members stood before the court and told horrific tales of being taken as underage brides by Tony Alamo himself. Other sworn testimony revealed that other older men in the church sexually availed themselves of minor female children in the "church".
This writer may want to condemn those who convicted her preacher as "Brain dead masses." I submit it was Ministry members who were brainwashed. ~ DD
PS. – This space will NOT become a forum for pro-Alamo vitriol
Ron,
I have had many members of law enforcement say to me, off the record, that they hesitate and sometimes completely refuse to make a move on religious figures they suspect of wrong doing. Mostly, they tell me, it’s because the District Attorney’s office warns them about the doctrine of church and state and how complicated such cases are to take to court and win convictions. Yes, police may have some evidence that wrong doing is occurring at these religious compounds ( i.e., the remote Yearning for Zion Ranch in El Dorado,Texas) but the muck and mire of making the case sometimes thought not to be worth the effort.
That’s a shame, in my book, as I beleive the state owes the children (especially) on these compounds the same protection they’d be available to receive if they lived in an apartment in a city. ~ DD
Web site Reader Jane S. writes:
“Unfortunately the “Cloaking Crime in Religion” syndrome is nothing new nor are the atrocities committed in the ‘name of religion’ and/or by ‘men of God.’
From the Spanish Inquisition to Northern Ireland’s IRA (I never understood how Catholics and Protestants could distinguish each other by looks and decide who to kill) to the Holocaust to Jonestown to the KKK to the Charles Manson ‘family’ even to the fictional “Elmer Gantry” the elements are the same.
THE RECIPE: At least one controlling, power-ravenous, fanatical socio-path and/or psycho-path (whose own perverse purpose/agenda may be greed, sexual satisfaction, egomaniacal gratification or any combination thereof) to prey upon needy, lost souls unconsciously seeking answers, structure, somewhere, somehow to ‘belong’; Gather prey with the promise of hope, purpose, glory, monetary or afterlife rewards, etc. – isolate them from ‘normal’ environments and others – then CULTivate their dependency with mind-control.
If we take an honest gander at the practice of barbaric rites and rituals – and killing in the name of them – crimes in the name of religion date back past biblical tribes to the pagan Roman and Greek “Gods” and is evidenced daily in the tribal factions still (and seeming eternally) fighting each other in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Africa, Israel-Palestine (I’m sure I’ve left some out) as well as right here at home in what we continually call ‘senseless GANG violence and killings’ – the syndrome is no different. Civilized behavior must be really well taught and instilled for “Do Unto Others” to prevail in actual practice. And that teaching has to happen early on, and by example, in the home/family/school.
The solution? Crackdown on a democracy’s loophole of the right to practice freedom of religion? Naw, don’t think so. Maybe practicing what we preach plus paying more attention to what goes on around us might help the ‘good’ team to win more over “evil.”
This man is a monster. WE have to keep him locked up and throw the key away. Someone like this should get the ‘Dalhmer’ justice and let the inmates take care of it. Drowning him in the
toilet seems fair! Otherwise we will spend millions more protecting him from the ‘terrors of a child sex offender in jail’..
Let him out in the yard!! That will do it!
DD Web Site Reader Joy H. writes:
“I have followed you since the O.J. trial and loved you ever since. Just finished reading your article about Tony Alamo. Please, please write a book about this sick pervert! The world needs to know about the people in his cult that are desperately in need of help.
I will keep watching you and hoping for the book.
Always a fan,
Joy
Olathe, KS
DD Web Site Reader Frank F. writes:
“I’m always suspicious of ANYONE who claims to speak for G-d,
Really well done piece. Thanks for it.”
Agree wholeheartedly Diane. After pastoring deep in the heart of religion I can vouch for the comments here that the law’s laxness regarding pastors and predators are an example of how some of the rules need revisiting.
Once I uncovered sexual abuse among the ministry and what I coined “pulpit rape” while in a certain denomination I recieved a letter stating that I was being brought up on charges that were never explained to me. Subsequently I was turned out of the church as an ordained minister.
There is widespread coverup of child molestation and sexual abuse among key denominations. How these churches squeaked by with all the whistleblowing while the Catholic church was under scrutiny I’ll never know and it is not just in the low ranking ministry. It’s in the rank and file.
I’ll keep uncovering it as long as I have breath.
Great work and you have a wonderful fan following.
Jim
Silent Ministries,Inc
The government is partially to blame, too…having had laws to allow anyone to start a church. There is a lot of money laundering and avoided taxes happening, believe you me. There is a religion up here in ND that does this blatantly. Their leader is in Australia getting wealthy from this. They don’t beat kids, but will take them away if they deem the parents unfit, and the cops do diddly squat. A real church allows anyone to sit in, and turns away no one. So all the bad people out there acting like ministers have the government to hide behind while taking years to be brought to justice!!!
It really isn’t a bad idea for a book … but would definitely bring out the crazies.
Hey! Crazies I know how to deal with, Anita! ~ DD
Anyone can say anything about another person. That does not make it true. It’s just not that hard to figure out that people will lie when they are coerced and paid 2.7 million dollars for doing it.
Witness testimony is NOT enough to put any man in jail for the rest of his life and attack his ministry members and steal their children.
Even Clinton had evidence against him. Remember the blue dress? Anyway, I read the web site above and the guy is not guilty. Too many men have been convicted by paid liars.
Well, by this line of thinking we might as well do away with all the courts in the land! In other words, Steve, all the evidence against Pastor Alamo was just made up? Why would five girls, their parents, the prosecutors, the judge, the kids from the past who claimed he brutalized them, their parents and lawyers – why would ALL of these people be lying?
Sorry, your claim that Alamo was railroaded just doesn't fly with me. ~ DD
Well, by this line of thinking we might as well do away with all the courts in the land! In other words, Steve, all the evidence against Pastor Alamo was just made up? Why would five girls, their parents, the prosecutors, the judge, the kids from the past who claimed he brutalized them, their parents and lawyers – why would ALL of these people be lying?
Sorry, your claim that Alamo was railroaded just doesn't fly with me. ~ DD
Excellent and troubling article. More Troubling? Cardinal Roger Mahoney, the leading prelate of the Roman Catholic Church in America caught Aiding & Abetting pedophile priests and nuns under his regime and obstructing justice. The Oscar nominated documentary “Deliver Us From Evil” from Lionsgate Pictures shows the irrefutable evidence documentiae. Mahoney also took in many of the fugitive pedophile priests banned from Ireland as announced this week by IRELAND!!! US Attorney needs to arrest Cardinal Mahoney or any other criminal element working against the laws of the US in this country. Read further about Mahoney and all of the priests in the US accused, convicted and or imprisoned in the U.S. at http://bishopaccountability.org
mr hughes you again are incorrect of placing any blame on the government. all the law states is that we have the freedom to practice any religion we choose to believe in. weak americans in search of something or someone to make their worlds a better place, and there are many out there, are easy prey to the gift of gab these “evangelists” have. jim jones had such influence he talked his followers into mass suicide, including their children. i saw the downfall of swaggert and baker long before they took place and now both of them are back on television and appear to be regaining strength. in the words of w. c. fields, “there is a sucker born every minute”. religion is such a touchy subject for politicians, they would rather ignore it than become a watchdog over these television crooks. what these type of groups are doing amounts to nothing more than organized crime, that is the blame you should place on the government, for not policing the industry, singling out and prosecuting the crooks. tony alamo was just another loud mouth with the gift to attract the weak willing to part with their money into his coffers. since separation of church and state was intended to keep religion out of politics, and since religion is such a major part of politics, these groups should not be exempt from paying taxes on their revenues. the weak who allow themselves to fall prey to these nuts should receive the majority of blame. cut off their revenue and you kill the snake.
Dear Diane,
Excellent article. I find it very interesting just how cases are either prosecuted or not. I’ve studied it a little and have come to a general conclusion.
“Non-stranger crime gets no time.” I know sounds a little like Johnny Cockran. I think it’s just more difficult to prove and win non-stranger crimes.
I am also sad that victim’s rights are not enforced.
I am a big fan and greatly appreciate your educating us.
Cherry
ABQ Journal Readers Steve and Elly S. write:
"Dear Ms. Dimond,
An article on Tony Alamo was way overdue. His doctrine had disintegrated into horrible heresy but who knew about the child abuse? You said that the justice system knew about it since the 90's…..did they ignore that? If so, were they negligent? What does the doctrine of separation of church and state have to do with anything? That does not protect lawbreakers. It is often misinterpreted these days and deserves to be read from time to time. A friend of mine was forbidden to bring a Bible to work to read on her break time. She could bring a book on witchcraft and astrology. She was told that this decision was beacause of the "doctrine of separation of church and state" What do you think?
Steve and Elly,
Way back when the authorities first heard about child abuse occurring within the Alamo Ministry compound they were focused on proving a TAX EVASION case. The abuse was of a young boy who was brutally beaten for the mere infraction of wearing an unsanctioned scarf around his neck. The prosecutors chose to stay focused only on the tax evasion case and advised the boy and his family to seek a suit in civil court. The family did that and won a sizable amount from Alamo.
Please read my statement above to reader "Ron" – regarding the church and state doctrine which is often used (or was in the past) by law enforcement to explain why they don't (or didn't) move in more often on these charlatans. Bottom line: police operated under the mistaken impression that it would be too difficult to win a case against a religious leader – even a phony one – because they would cloak themselves in the doctrine that the church should at all costs be held completely separate from state control.
Facebook Friend Susan S. writes:
"Sadly what I have heard the experts on sex crimes say is once they fulfill their fantasy that is what they will think about in jail. They need a special place for all offenders and put them all together on an island and they can all have each other."
Facebook Friend Danielle R. writes:
"They just need to be taken out back and executed right away. It has been proven that sexual predators never can be rehabilitated. It is a waste of our tax dollars to spend any amount of money on these monsters. Not to mention, when they get out (because they always do) and repeat the abuse over again."
Facebook (and all around) Friend Patti P. writes:
"You are so very dead-on correct. It sickens me to think what these people went through then and the trauma they will continue to experience. 175 years isn't enough time."
Facebook Friend Cea G. writes:
"Good. He can think of what he did in jail for a verrrry long time."
Facebook Friend Antoinette T. writes:
"I wish I had justice when I was a child.. Good for him!"
have a couple of comments to respond to. When Tony Alamo moved into a small town he became friendly with the local officials, thus paving his way for some to turn a blinds eye to his crimes that people were hollering he was committing. This happen in Dyer, Alma and Fouke Arkansas. Moffett and Muldrow OK also have a church following. Ft Smith AR and Saugus CA still have his churches opened.
Local and State elected officials were reluctant to investigate because of the Freedom of Religion law. They nicknamed Alamo “Teflon Tony” because they claim they could not get any crimes to stick when dealing with him.
Next the comment about anyone can lie but that does not make it true. In a taped jailhouse phone call played for the court, Alamo said, “so what if I had sex with those girls”. He never denied in court that he raped them. He told them it was God’s will they be his wives. Even at 8 years Old!
We will be at every hearing he has. For his appeal, his victims restitution hearings starting in January, and to any hearing for other adults they may charge with enabling Alamo to commit these crimes. The public needs to remember , he could not have abused these children on his own. There are still over 90 Alamo children being sought to be put into protective custody. They are being hid by his devoted followers.
If not for one dedicated FBI Agent who believed these stories , Alamo would still be raping and beating children. He will never be free again. We only hope the prisoners inside the Federal Prison find out soon what he’s guilty of and make his last days on this earth miserable. His final judgement will come after he dies. PACA
Reader William D. writes:
"I saw your interesting article about the Alamo scandal. This article sparked memories of the Alamo couples' rackets back in the mid-1970's when I still lived in Nashville, TN, pursuing my master's degree in librarianship. At that time, downtown Nashville had at least one of their clothing stores, and possible a bookstore of theirs. Although I had never set foot in their places partly because I was not interested in high-priced clothing (not on my budget then!) and because I knew enough of their repugnant right wing ideological views (fellow graduate students told me word of mouth about the Alamos), I avoided them like the plague.
The Alamo's grusome legacy that you spelled out today also sparks my interest because, as a former student of 20th Century Tennessee history, their horrible abuse of children resembles an ugly legacy that plagued Memphis from 1925 until 1950 when a Georgia Tann and another woman started up what was supposed to be the nation's first orphanage. While her enterprise did indeed spawn several legitimate orphanages nationwide that really made an honest effort to put their children residents first, heres was anything but. Hers was a "baby-for-sale-racket." The white children she took in she would try to sell to the highest bidder. Many famous movie stars of the forties like June Allyson, Dick Powell, and Joan Crawford, got their adopted children from this pseudo-orphanage. Those children that Tann could not sell for adoption would suffer a horrible fate of child abuse and molestation. Tann and her assistant, along with several of the staff she hired (many of whom had prior records of mistreating children), would starve, rape, and even murder, children with absolute impunity from the authorities until 1950. Her orphanage to those who were unaware of these abuses, had revolutionized society's expectation of white unwed mothers. Before the 1925 creation of her abusive orphanages, society expected white, as well as black, unwed mothers to keep and raise their children with or without (mostly the latter) any public or private assistance. After 1925, society pressured unwed white mothers to give up their children for adoption while continuing to demand that black unwed mothers hold on to their children.
How, you might ask, did this Memphis orphanage get away with such horrible crimes for over a 25 year period? One has to understand the Memphis of that era and the expectations that the nearby Deep South state of Mississippi had for middle-class white women who aspired to economic independence. Georgia Tann had wanted to become an attorney like her father, but since her family considered that work "unsuitable" for women, she decided, upon moving to Memphis, to start up an orphanage that emphasized profit over child welfare.
Memphis prior to the 1878 yellow fever epidemic had been a fairly cosmopolitan city with a fairly strong foreign white ethnic population. The 1878 yellow fever epidemic, however, would change that by killing most of the Irish and forcing the Germans to flee to St. Louis. In their place came rural, mostly illiterate whites and blacks, who became very suseptible to a new hustler class that would run Memphis into the ground, giving it the dubious distinction as the murder capital of the U.S. for a while and cause it to lose its bond rating. Afterwards, a city-boss system similar to Mayor Daily's Chicago machine would come to power, holding both Memphis and Tennessee in a political stranglehold that would last until 1948. Ms. Tann knew who the most powerful persons in Memphis (and, therefore, Tennessee) were and was able to "buy" police protection for her abusive orphanage. When state reformers toppled the Memphis Dixicrat cabal from power, they decided to finally close in on her, but not for her abuse of her children charges. Instead, the reformers only wanted to force her to pay back taxes that the old machine had allowed her to evade for decades. Only her death from natural causes along with the death of her female co-resident, put an end to her orphanage. It would take decades later for the surviving child victims of her orphanage to get any acknowledgement from the state of Tennessee of the crimes that Tann and her cronies commited against these children. This Memphis scandal may have inspired the 1951 television episode, "Babies for Sale," that appeared in the RACKET SQUAD series that aired during the closing months of the Truman Presidency.
Let's hope that the Alamo crimes have been stopped for good now and that their surviving victims will get their day in court."
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