Latest / This is monsters / The Ant Hill Kids _ Roch Thériault
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hey everyone, welcome back to This is Monsters. I'm your narrator,
- 0:04Speaker 1: Giles with a J. I just want to take a
- 0:06Speaker 1: quick moment to let you know that we're on season
- 0:09Speaker 1: 21 and the theme is strange and unusual. I feel
- 0:13Speaker 1: like I might have been a little too aggressive in
- 0:15Speaker 1: my previous intro and I want to make things a
- 0:18Speaker 1: little more positive, so I'm going to encourage you to
- 0:21Speaker 1: caress the like button and maybe hug the subscribe button.
- 0:26Speaker 1: Show it some love. Don't hate. Save your hate for
- 0:30Speaker 1: the monsters. On with the show. In life, we meet
- 0:35Speaker 1: people who have a profound effect on us. Coaches, teachers, bosses,
- 0:41Speaker 1: they all can become mentors and give us a sense
- 0:43Speaker 1: of loyalty. Of course, that can be taken to an
- 0:47Speaker 1: extreme and the mentorship can twist into brainwashing. In the
- 0:51Speaker 1: woods of Canada, a small group of people would end
- 0:54Speaker 1: up so brainwashed that they would do anything for their leader,
- 0:58Speaker 1: even when they were asked to dispose of the bodies
- 1:01Speaker 1: of those he had killed. This is Monsters. Rock Theriault
- 1:32Speaker 1: was born on May 16, 1947 in Quebec, Canada, a
- 1:36Speaker 1: descendant of one of the earliest families to travel to
- 1:39Speaker 1: Canada from western France. He grew up in Thetford Mines,
- 1:43Speaker 1: just south of Quebec City. Though considered intelligent, he attended
- 1:47Speaker 1: a local school that only went to grade 7 and
- 1:50Speaker 1: never continued on to the nearby high school. He eventually
- 1:54Speaker 1: started working as a carpenter and worked to educate himself
- 1:57Speaker 1: to become a self-proclaimed intellectual. Later in life, he would
- 2:02Speaker 1: be considered a hypochondriac, but he did suffer medical issues
- 2:06Speaker 1: when he was younger. As a teen, he had frequent
- 2:09Speaker 1: stabbing pains in his abdomen, which led to multiple operations
- 2:12Speaker 1: to remove ulcers when he was in his early 20s. Eventually,
- 2:17Speaker 1: he would become known for being a notorious crybaby. He
- 2:20Speaker 1: would complain about any little problem, with some saying he
- 2:23Speaker 1: could make a case of the sniffles seem like a
- 2:25Speaker 1: life-threatening illness. Rock grew up in a Catholic household, but
- 2:30Speaker 1: his father, Hyacinth, was a member of a group called
- 2:33Speaker 1: the White Berets. They started during the Great Depression with
- 2:37Speaker 1: ideas of how to improve the economy. But the group
- 2:40Speaker 1: the Therios were in turned to religion when they failed
- 2:42Speaker 1: in politics and began preaching anti-Semitic ideas about Jewish bankers
- 2:47Speaker 1: trying to control the world. The family patriarch would make
- 2:51Speaker 1: the children wear white berets and they would go door
- 2:53Speaker 1: to door citing prayers and asking for donations. Rock did
- 2:57Speaker 1: not like having to march around begging for handouts and
- 3:00Speaker 1: it's where his distaste for the Catholic religion began. Rock
- 3:04Speaker 1: would go on to tell people that he was severely
- 3:06Speaker 1: abused by his father, but his accounts have been disputed
- 3:09Speaker 1: by various people who knew him when he was younger,
- 3:12Speaker 1: including his father. Despite Rock not being interested in Catholicism specifically,
- 3:18Speaker 1: he would go on to become somewhat obsessed with the Bible,
- 3:21Speaker 1: specifically the Book of Revelations. It's the part of the
- 3:24Speaker 1: Bible that talks about the end of the world and
- 3:27Speaker 1: has been the focus of many a doomsday cult. When
- 3:30Speaker 1: Rock was in his later teens, he met a young
- 3:33Speaker 1: woman named Francine Grenier at a local dance. The two
- 3:37Speaker 1: started dating and got married in 1967. Rock built a
- 3:41Speaker 1: house a little more than half a mile or about
- 3:44Speaker 1: one kilometer down the street from his parents, but it
- 3:47Speaker 1: wasn't long before the couple moved to Montreal. Rock started
- 3:51Speaker 1: working for the fire department inspecting chimneys. The couple had
- 3:55Speaker 1: their first child, a son named Rock Jr., in January
- 3:59Speaker 1: of 1969. While Francine was pregnant with their second child
- 4:04Speaker 1: was when Rock had his first surgery for his ulcers.
- 4:07Speaker 1: Their second son, Francois, was born in April of 1970.
- 4:13Speaker 1: Later that year, Rock had his second surgery, but it
- 4:15Speaker 1: didn't seem to help. Soon after, he was diagnosed with
- 4:19Speaker 1: dumping syndrome. The condition was caused by the nerves that
- 4:23Speaker 1: were severed during his surgeries and made the food he
- 4:26Speaker 1: ate not get processed in his stomach properly. He would
- 4:29Speaker 1: spend the rest of his life with pain and heartburn.
- 4:33Speaker 1: That wasn't the only change in the man, though. People
- 4:36Speaker 1: who knew him said his personality also changed and he
- 4:39Speaker 1: started obsessing over medicine, reading anatomy textbooks, and telling people
- 4:44Speaker 1: he was dying. He claimed that after the surgery, his
- 4:47Speaker 1: insides were made of plastic. People say he also became
- 4:51Speaker 1: reckless and self-centered. He quit his job with the fire
- 4:55Speaker 1: department and the family moved back to Tetford Mines. Rock
- 4:59Speaker 1: started working on his own as a carpenter and woodcarver,
- 5:02Speaker 1: making ornate furniture and wooden mugs. While there, he asked
- 5:06Speaker 1: his parents if he could start a nudist colony on
- 5:09Speaker 1: some of their land, but they said no. At the
- 5:12Speaker 1: beginning of 1977, members of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church came
- 5:16Speaker 1: to Tetford Mines to preach about the future of humanity.
- 5:20Speaker 1: Rock was in attendance at that very first sermon. Eventually,
- 5:25Speaker 1: the evangelists left, and the small congregation they had built
- 5:28Speaker 1: began having weekly services in a hotel room before going
- 5:31Speaker 1: out to proselytize. Rock was immediately engrossed in the teachings,
- 5:36Speaker 1: and he quit drinking and smoking, and he became a vegetarian.
- 5:40Speaker 1: By then, he had started seeing a woman named Giselle,
- 5:43Speaker 1: whose last name changes depending on the source. He brought
- 5:46Speaker 1: her into the church where he told the other followers
- 5:49Speaker 1: that his first wife was heartless and had left him.
- 5:52Speaker 1: She eventually would, but it was because Rock wasn't taking
- 5:55Speaker 1: care of his family and was cheating on her. He
- 5:59Speaker 1: made a bed in the back of his truck to
- 6:00Speaker 1: keep up the appearance that he and Giselle weren't having
- 6:03Speaker 1: sex before marriage, which they were. He also began selling
- 6:07Speaker 1: Adventist literature as an official delegate for the Health and
- 6:11Speaker 1: Home Services of Quebec, which was basically the church. He
- 6:15Speaker 1: quickly became a top seller. Through the church, Rock met
- 6:19Speaker 1: a number of young adults, many of whom were women.
- 6:23Speaker 1: Solange Boilar was born on March 2, 1956, in Quebec.
- 6:28Speaker 1: She was the baby of the family, which meant she
- 6:30Speaker 1: was a bit spoiled. She did well in school, and
- 6:33Speaker 1: after high school, she enrolled in a business administration program
- 6:37Speaker 1: at a college in Tetford Mines. There she met other
- 6:40Speaker 1: young adults, Jacques Fizet, Chantal Labrie, and Francine Laflamme, all
- 6:46Speaker 1: of whom would go on to be followers of Rock.
- 6:49Speaker 1: He began giving lessons directly to them and his group
- 6:52Speaker 1: of followers grew. In 1977, he and his followers attended
- 6:57Speaker 1: an Adventist retreat and it was there that Rock claimed
- 7:00Speaker 1: to have had a vision of God telling him that
- 7:02Speaker 1: the area was a holy place. That was the beginning
- 7:06Speaker 1: of Rock believing that he had a more important message
- 7:09Speaker 1: than the Adventist church, but he continued on for a
- 7:12Speaker 1: while longer. He brought in more and more followers, and
- 7:16Speaker 1: eventually Giselle's apartment was overstuffed with various young adults. Rock
- 7:21Speaker 1: ended up renting a house that the group turned into
- 7:23Speaker 1: a clinic to help people stop smoking and live a
- 7:26Speaker 1: healthy lifestyle. He convinced one local to transfer his wife,
- 7:31Speaker 1: who was being treated for leukemia at the hospital, to
- 7:34Speaker 1: his clinic where he could treat her with a healthy diet. Oh, well,
- 7:37Speaker 1: why didn't the trained and licensed doctors think of that?
- 7:41Speaker 1: The woman was dead a month later. It was around
- 7:44Speaker 1: that time that the Adventist pastors voted Rock out of
- 7:47Speaker 1: the church. Rock didn't really care much. He was well
- 7:51Speaker 1: on his way to starting his own religion where instead
- 7:53Speaker 1: of delivering God's message, he was the God that gave
- 7:57Speaker 1: the messages. Giselle didn't like that Rock was spending so
- 8:01Speaker 1: much time with other young women and eventually asked him
- 8:04Speaker 1: to marry her, which he did, but it was quickly
- 8:06Speaker 1: apparent that he had just done it to pacify her.
- 8:10Speaker 1: When she became pregnant and told Rock that she was
- 8:12Speaker 1: going to leave, he punched her in the face and
- 8:14Speaker 1: locked her in the bedroom for two days. Giselle was
- 8:18Speaker 1: not going to go home to her parents as Rock
- 8:20Speaker 1: had already proclaimed that his followers were no longer allowed
- 8:23Speaker 1: to contact their families. Of course, until later when he
- 8:27Speaker 1: needed them to beg for money. In the beginning, though,
- 8:30Speaker 1: isolating members from the people who might convince them to
- 8:33Speaker 1: leave the group is a common tactic for cult leaders.
- 8:36Speaker 1: The cult, and most importantly its leader, is the only
- 8:39Speaker 1: thing that understands them and is giving them freedom, when
- 8:42Speaker 1: in reality they were having their freedom taken away. An
- 8:46Speaker 1: increase in paranoia is also common with cult leaders, and
- 8:49Speaker 1: Rock was no different. Since Rock had been kicked out
- 8:53Speaker 1: of the Adventist church, his supply of literature and natural
- 8:56Speaker 1: foods had gone away, and suppliers were upset about his
- 8:59Speaker 1: unpaid debts. The police also started keeping an eye on
- 9:03Speaker 1: the clinic after the death of the leukemia patient, so
- 9:06Speaker 1: the leader decided it was time to move on. On
- 9:09Speaker 1: June 5th, 1978, Rock told his followers that they needed
- 9:13Speaker 1: to spread their word and a caravan of people including
- 9:16Speaker 1: six men, twelve women, and two children left the area
- 9:20Speaker 1: and headed out where they held Stop Smoking seminars in
- 9:23Speaker 1: various areas for about a month before Rock took them
- 9:25Speaker 1: out to a remote spot on the Gaspé Peninsula in
- 9:28Speaker 1: New Brunswick. There he told his congregation that the end
- 9:32Speaker 1: of the world was going to happen on February 17th, 1979.
- 9:37Speaker 1: He said that God had appointed him as his personal
- 9:39Speaker 1: emissary and, of course, anyone who was loyal to him
- 9:42Speaker 1: would be saved from the impending apocalypse. We really need
- 9:46Speaker 1: to start teaching every single person when they're young that
- 9:49Speaker 1: if anyone ever says that God told them that the
- 9:51Speaker 1: world would end on XYZ date and that you would
- 9:54Speaker 1: be spared if you follow them, it's a fucking cult.
- 9:57Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that history has shown us that people...
- 10:00Speaker 1: who say that have never been right and they're just
- 10:02Speaker 1: trying to start a cult. Seriously, let's stop believing these
- 10:06Speaker 1: cult leaders already. And then he ends up inevitably claiming
- 10:10Speaker 1: that all the women need to sleep with him because
- 10:13Speaker 1: it's a fucking cult. Of course, after finding a clearing
- 10:16Speaker 1: in the wilderness and building an encampment, unsurprisingly, Rock started
- 10:21Speaker 1: sleeping with all the women. It's crazy how many people
- 10:24Speaker 1: are willing to believe that God has a specific date
- 10:27Speaker 1: that the world is gonna end, and before that happens,
- 10:30Speaker 1: he really needs one dude to bang as many women
- 10:33Speaker 1: as possible. Either God's an absolute freak, or the dude
- 10:37Speaker 1: is lying. Which seems more likely. But I digress. Rock
- 10:42Speaker 1: found a spot that was supposedly holy and he had
- 10:45Speaker 1: the group start building. He couldn't do any of the labor,
- 10:48Speaker 1: of course, because of his stomach pains, but he had
- 10:50Speaker 1: a bunch of loyal followers to clear the land and
- 10:53Speaker 1: build a cabin. Two of the men spent the summer
- 10:56Speaker 1: digging a well in the middle of the cabin. Others
- 10:59Speaker 1: hauled large rocks in to build a fireplace. While Rock
- 11:03Speaker 1: was relaxing, watching his flock do all the work, he
- 11:07Speaker 1: compared them to ants all working together. He began calling
- 11:11Speaker 1: the group the Ant Hill Kids, which gave them a
- 11:13Speaker 1: sense of being more of a club than a full-fledged cult.
- 11:17Speaker 1: Once the cabin was finished, Rock gave all of the
- 11:19Speaker 1: members biblical names, calling himself Moses, and began sleeping with
- 11:24Speaker 1: all the women. That angered a heavily pregnant Giselle, and
- 11:28Speaker 1: she ran off, but Rock caught her and threatened her.
- 11:30Speaker 1: He told her that he was Moses and she had
- 11:32Speaker 1: to listen to him or else God would smash her skull.
- 11:36Speaker 1: The closest town was too far away to walk to,
- 11:38Speaker 1: so she gave in and returned to the cabin. They
- 11:42Speaker 1: did lose a few members, though, with one woman returning
- 11:45Speaker 1: to France when her passport expired and a family of three,
- 11:48Speaker 1: which included one of the children who had set off
- 11:50Speaker 1: with them. Rock didn't seem to try to stop them.
- 11:54Speaker 1: In order to make money, the group started baking and
- 11:57Speaker 1: selling their goods in various towns. A bunch of the
- 12:00Speaker 1: members also began receiving welfare checks, which all went to Rock.
- 12:05Speaker 1: The Jonestown Massacre happened on November 18th, 1978, which put
- 12:10Speaker 1: cult activity into the global spotlight. You can check out
- 12:14Speaker 1: the episode I made about that cult. The link is
- 12:16Speaker 1: in the description. The Canadian media began to focus its
- 12:20Speaker 1: attention on the man who called himself Moses with a
- 12:23Speaker 1: group of young college dropouts living in the woods. While
- 12:27Speaker 1: Rock and a follower were driving to a radio interview
- 12:30Speaker 1: on December 11th, he was stopped by the police and,
- 12:33Speaker 1: despite them not being able to take him into custody,
- 12:35Speaker 1: he agreed to go with them to undergo a series
- 12:38Speaker 1: of psychological evaluations. A master manipulator, Rock easily convinced the
- 12:44Speaker 1: psychologist that he was of no harm to anyone. He
- 12:47Speaker 1: returned to the camp where he continued his relationships with
- 12:51Speaker 1: multiple women, even going as far as to have a
- 12:53Speaker 1: ceremony to make them all his wives. February 17th, 1979
- 12:59Speaker 1: came and went without any apocalypse. Rock explained that nailing
- 13:03Speaker 1: down the exact time of such an event was difficult.
- 13:06Speaker 1: He said, quote, In the eyes of God, one second
- 13:09Speaker 1: could be 40 of our years, just as 40 of
- 13:11Speaker 1: his years may be one second to us. Then why
- 13:15Speaker 1: did you give an exact date, genius? Chantal Labrie's parents
- 13:19Speaker 1: were sure that their daughter would see that Rock was
- 13:22Speaker 1: a fraud when that date came and the world didn't end,
- 13:24Speaker 1: but a month later, when the young woman hadn't left
- 13:27Speaker 1: the cult, they got a court order to force her
- 13:29Speaker 1: to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Police showed up at the
- 13:33Speaker 1: cabin on March 17th and said they were taking Chantal,
- 13:37Speaker 1: but Rock wouldn't allow them inside. They ended up leaving
- 13:40Speaker 1: without the woman. Jacques Fisset left the group not long after,
- 13:45Speaker 1: claiming that Rock was becoming too violent, but the leader
- 13:48Speaker 1: told his followers that the devil had taken him. On
- 13:52Speaker 1: April 18th, the police returned and arrested Rock for obstruction
- 13:55Speaker 1: of justice. He was ordered to have a 30-day psychiatric evaluation,
- 14:00Speaker 1: and during that time, Chantal was taken for her evaluation
- 14:03Speaker 1: while families of other cult members were allowed to go
- 14:06Speaker 1: into the settlement to try to get their children out.
- 14:09Speaker 1: They had no luck. Even Chantal returned to the cabin
- 14:13Speaker 1: after the doctors determined her to be in perfect mental health.
- 14:17Speaker 1: Rock was able to talk to the media while in
- 14:19Speaker 1: the hospital where he showed them letters of support, some
- 14:22Speaker 1: with money included. The attempt to break up the cult
- 14:25Speaker 1: backfired and Rock became something of a folk hero who
- 14:28Speaker 1: was helping young troubled people get support to change their
- 14:32Speaker 1: lives for the better. Back at the camp, Rock's behavior
- 14:36Speaker 1: became more erratic. He had abandoned all of the healthy
- 14:39Speaker 1: living he had once preached and was drinking alcohol and soda.
- 14:43Speaker 1: He had lost some followers, including a woman with multiple
- 14:46Speaker 1: sclerosis who had been at the clinic before they moved
- 14:49Speaker 1: out to the wilderness. She fell into a coma and
- 14:52Speaker 1: died in October of 1979. Police retrieved the body and
- 14:57Speaker 1: investigated her death, but it was ruled to be due
- 15:00Speaker 1: to natural causes. They did welcome the arrival of Guy Veer,
- 15:04Speaker 1: a man who Rock had met in the hospital during
- 15:07Speaker 1: his psychiatric evaluation. Outside of that, Rock decided a better
- 15:12Speaker 1: plan for building up his following was to father new members.
- 15:16Speaker 1: By the early 80s, Rock had fathered three children by
- 15:18Speaker 1: three different women, Giselle, Nicole, and Solange. Solange had given
- 15:23Speaker 1: birth to her first child, who was fathered by a
- 15:26Speaker 1: different cult member. There were also two children from a
- 15:29Speaker 1: married couple who had previously joined the cult. Rock was
- 15:33Speaker 1: said to treat the children very violently, but his physical
- 15:36Speaker 1: abuse was not reserved for just the children. He started
- 15:40Speaker 1: believing that his followers need to be kept in line
- 15:42Speaker 1: and that violence was the best way to do that.
- 15:45Speaker 1: He would punch the members and hit them with hammers.
- 15:49Speaker 1: He told one follower, Jacques Giguerre, that he needed to
- 15:52Speaker 1: prove his loyalty by cutting off one of his wife, Maryse's, toes.
- 15:57Speaker 1: He said that if Jacques didn't cut one off, then
- 15:59Speaker 1: he would cut them all off. Jacques relented and cut
- 16:02Speaker 1: off one of Maryse's pinky toes. After that, Rock made
- 16:06Speaker 1: Jacques his main enforcer. On March 23, 1980, Rock's two
- 16:12Speaker 1: sons from his first marriage, who were 10 and 12
- 16:14Speaker 1: by then, arrived at the camp and the leader organized
- 16:17Speaker 1: a huge party to celebrate. Guy Veer had not been
- 16:21Speaker 1: brought into the camp as a full member of the cult.
- 16:24Speaker 1: He had actually signed a contract with Rock to watch
- 16:27Speaker 1: the three children who were not fathered by him in
- 16:30Speaker 1: exchange for food, beer, and a place to live. The
- 16:34Speaker 1: official version of events that were accepted in court were
- 16:37Speaker 1: as follows. Guy was watching four-year-old Miriam and two-year-old Samuel,
- 16:43Speaker 1: who were the children of Jacques and Maurice Giguere, as
- 16:45Speaker 1: well as two-year-old Simon, who Solange had had with another member.
- 16:50Speaker 1: Guy claimed that Samuel would not stop crying, and in
- 16:53Speaker 1: a fit of anger, he picked the boy up by
- 16:55Speaker 1: the throat and punched him in the face five or
- 16:58Speaker 1: six times. The following day, Rock found out and took
- 17:01Speaker 1: the boy to Gabrielle, who had medical training and acted
- 17:04Speaker 1: as the group nurse. They said that Samuel's head was
- 17:08Speaker 1: flopping around and that his penis was swollen. It was
- 17:12Speaker 1: described that Rock took a razor, dipped it in some alcohol,
- 17:15Speaker 1: and then cut open the boy's penis to allow the
- 17:18Speaker 1: urine to drain out. The following morning, Samuel was dead
- 17:22Speaker 1: and the followers burned the body because Rock said that
- 17:25Speaker 1: it would attract wild animals. Giselle would later tell a
- 17:29Speaker 1: different story of what happened the morning after the party.
- 17:32Speaker 1: She said that the boy's face was bruised the following morning,
- 17:35Speaker 1: but there was nothing else wrong with him. Rock decided
- 17:39Speaker 1: that Samuel needed to be circumcised, likely stemming from his
- 17:42Speaker 1: obsession with performing surgery. He used the alcohol to sterilize
- 17:47Speaker 1: the razor, but he also made the boy ingest some
- 17:50Speaker 1: of it to act as an anesthetic, which is likely
- 17:52Speaker 1: what killed the child. When Maurice was told about the
- 17:56Speaker 1: death of her son, it's said that she was so
- 17:58Speaker 1: thoroughly brainwashed that she shrugged it off and continued with
- 18:01Speaker 1: her work. Months later, Rock would hold a trial for
- 18:05Speaker 1: Guy with all of the cult members serving as judge, prosecution, defense,
- 18:09Speaker 1: and jury. They initially found Guy not guilty due to
- 18:13Speaker 1: mental illness, but Rock overruled the decision and ordered the
- 18:16Speaker 1: man be castrated. Eventually, Rock convinced Guy that the procedure
- 18:20Speaker 1: would be good for him and got him to sign
- 18:22Speaker 1: an agreement to be castrated. Rock performed the surgery himself
- 18:27Speaker 1: and Guy actually recovered. That didn't seem to be enough
- 18:31Speaker 1: of a punishment for Rock, though. From that point on,
- 18:34Speaker 1: he would continue to beat Guy and is said to
- 18:36Speaker 1: have attempted to kill him without success. Then he would
- 18:40Speaker 1: order his followers to stab him in the chest, then
- 18:42Speaker 1: call them off at the last minute as a form
- 18:45Speaker 1: of psychological torture. That caused Guy to flee the camp
- 18:49Speaker 1: and after arriving in a nearby town, he told police
- 18:52Speaker 1: about the death of Samuel. The police underwent a month-long investigation,
- 18:57Speaker 1: and on December 10th, 1981, they stormed the camp and
- 19:00Speaker 1: arrested Rock, Samuel's parents, and a number of other cult members.
- 19:05Speaker 1: Investigators had learned about the castration of Guy and that
- 19:08Speaker 1: it had happened after a vote was taken by the
- 19:10Speaker 1: so-called jury in his trial. Then they learned that one
- 19:14Speaker 1: of the people who had been on that jury was
- 19:16Speaker 1: 12-year-old Rock Jr. He had voted in favor of castration.
- 19:22Speaker 1: When investigators searched the camp, they found the charred remains
- 19:25Speaker 1: of Samuel and delivered him to the coroner for an autopsy.
- 19:30Speaker 1: The coroner determined that Samuel's death was non-accidental and seven
- 19:34Speaker 1: people were initially charged with various crimes. Rock, Guy, Jacques, Maurice,
- 19:39Speaker 1: and Gabriel were charged in some way with the involvement
- 19:42Speaker 1: of Samuel's death. Another member named Claude was charged with
- 19:46Speaker 1: obstruction for burning the body, and Solange was charged with
- 19:50Speaker 1: child neglect. With their leader being held without bail, the
- 19:54Speaker 1: remaining cult members left the camp and found places closer
- 19:57Speaker 1: to the prison, but the authorities used their children as
- 20:00Speaker 1: leverage to split them up. The Canadian authorities removed seven
- 20:04Speaker 1: children from the camp and told all of the parents
- 20:07Speaker 1: that they could either leave the cult and regain custody
- 20:10Speaker 1: of their children, or the kids would be placed into
- 20:12Speaker 1: the foster care system. Each of the various parents found
- 20:16Speaker 1: their own apartments and agreed to regular visits from child services.
- 20:21Speaker 1: But just because they were living separately didn't mean they
- 20:23Speaker 1: had lost their faith. Three and a half months after
- 20:27Speaker 1: the raid, all of the children were returned to their parents.
- 20:31Speaker 1: In September of 1982, all of the defendants were found
- 20:35Speaker 1: guilty of various crimes. Jacques and Claude were sentenced to
- 20:39Speaker 1: six months in jail and three years of probation for
- 20:42Speaker 1: child abandonment. Maurice and Solange were given three years of
- 20:46Speaker 1: probation for child neglect. Gabrielle was sentenced to nine months
- 20:50Speaker 1: in jail and three years probation for criminal negligence in
- 20:53Speaker 1: the death of Samuel and causing bodily harm to Guy.
- 20:58Speaker 1: Rock was sentenced to two years in prison plus three
- 21:00Speaker 1: years probation for criminal negligence and causing bodily harm. Guy
- 21:05Speaker 1: was found not guilty due to mental illness and sent
- 21:08Speaker 1: to a psychiatric facility in Quebec City. Authorities were hoping
- 21:13Speaker 1: that having Rock behind bars would cause the cult to
- 21:15Speaker 1: fall apart, but they vastly underestimated the man who called
- 21:19Speaker 1: himself Moses. While awaiting trial, he had already impregnated three
- 21:24Speaker 1: of his followers during conjugal visits. Giselle was in charge
- 21:28Speaker 1: of the flock while Rock was away. He would call
- 21:31Speaker 1: her twice a week to remind her of her duties
- 21:33Speaker 1: and she would tell him when any of the sheep
- 21:35Speaker 1: were beginning to wander. He would instruct her to have
- 21:38Speaker 1: that person at her house at a specific time and
- 21:41Speaker 1: he would call and talk to them for up to
- 21:43Speaker 1: an hour. Once the call was over, the follower would
- 21:46Speaker 1: be back on the path that Rock wanted for them.
- 21:50Speaker 1: He was released in February of 1984 and lived with
- 21:53Speaker 1: Giselle at her apartment. He immediately started talking about moving
- 21:57Speaker 1: back out to the camp, but the members of the
- 21:59Speaker 1: group had gotten used to simple luxuries like running water
- 22:02Speaker 1: and heat. It also would have been a lot of
- 22:05Speaker 1: work to rebuild since authorities had burned down all of
- 22:08Speaker 1: the structures at the site. Giselle ended up convincing Rock
- 22:12Speaker 1: that they should find a big farm to move to.
- 22:15Speaker 1: He liked that idea because he decided he wanted to
- 22:17Speaker 1: get out of Quebec in order to be away from authorities,
- 22:21Speaker 1: particularly probation monitoring. Part of their probation included not all
- 22:26Speaker 1: living together, something Rock was not about to comply with.
- 22:30Speaker 1: He promised his followers that he was going to quit
- 22:32Speaker 1: drinking and there would be no more violence. Then he
- 22:35Speaker 1: and Jacques got into their truck and set out to
- 22:38Speaker 1: find their new promised land. It didn't take Rock long
- 22:42Speaker 1: to find the perfect place. Well, according to him. It
- 22:45Speaker 1: was 200 acres or 80 hectares of wooded area in Ontario,
- 22:49Speaker 1: near the Burnt River with nothing built on it. Rock
- 22:53Speaker 1: quickly purchased the land, and when he told Giselle about it,
- 22:56Speaker 1: she was disappointed at the idea of starting all over
- 22:59Speaker 1: like they had with the camp. This time, though, Rock's
- 23:02Speaker 1: planning worked out better than before. They cut down trees
- 23:06Speaker 1: and built a sawmill. They built a simple A-frame cabin first,
- 23:09Speaker 1: then built a large two-story house with a kitchen. They
- 23:13Speaker 1: built a smokehouse, a bakery, and dug a root cellar
- 23:16Speaker 1: into the side of a hill. After five months, the
- 23:20Speaker 1: property was set up and the group began taking on
- 23:22Speaker 1: their roles, keeping everything working. Jacques and Maurice were forbidden
- 23:27Speaker 1: to sleep with each other because it was a threat
- 23:29Speaker 1: to Rock's status as the leader and father figure. Eventually,
- 23:33Speaker 1: Maurice was forced to sleep in a hut away from
- 23:36Speaker 1: the rest of the group with her children. This is
- 23:39Speaker 1: where I have a hard time understanding how some people
- 23:42Speaker 1: can stay in a cult. I get that people can
- 23:44Speaker 1: be brainwashed and their own insecurities used against them, and
- 23:48Speaker 1: it's a slow process over a long period of time.
- 23:51Speaker 1: But to be able to be convinced that your spouse
- 23:54Speaker 1: and your children are somehow bad people who were a
- 23:56Speaker 1: danger to you and the other members of the cult
- 23:59Speaker 1: are just wild. One thing that made the lives of
- 24:02Speaker 1: the cult members harder was that the local government of
- 24:04Speaker 1: their new compound refused to provide them with welfare. Because
- 24:09Speaker 1: of that, Rock declared that the infidels were trying to
- 24:12Speaker 1: destroy God's people and that they would have to simply
- 24:14Speaker 1: help themselves to anything they needed. The nearby town became
- 24:18Speaker 1: the setting for a campaign of shoplifting to supply the
- 24:21Speaker 1: compound with food, toiletries, tools, building supplies, and water. The
- 24:28Speaker 1: members would wear long overcoats with large pockets sewn inside
- 24:32Speaker 1: and steal anything they could. Eventually, a number of the
- 24:36Speaker 1: followers were caught and arrested, but the only punishment they
- 24:39Speaker 1: received was being banned from the town they had been
- 24:41Speaker 1: in at the time. They became desperate for money, especially
- 24:45Speaker 1: because the soil on their property turned out to be
- 24:48Speaker 1: too poor to be able to grow anything. Rock eventually
- 24:51Speaker 1: developed a scheme where he and some other followers would
- 24:54Speaker 1: steal fruit from other farms and then sell it on
- 24:57Speaker 1: the side of the road. They used the money from
- 25:00Speaker 1: that to finish supplying their bakery with equipment and began
- 25:03Speaker 1: selling bread door-to-door in nearby towns. There was never quite
- 25:08Speaker 1: enough for everyone to eat, but the situation seemed tolerable
- 25:12Speaker 1: and Rock spent most of his energy working on new
- 25:14Speaker 1: ways to make money. Then he started drinking again. After
- 25:19Speaker 1: the group moved to their new property, officials from a
- 25:22Speaker 1: nearby town notified child services of the commune, including several
- 25:26Speaker 1: children and pregnant women. When the agent arrived at the property,
- 25:30Speaker 1: it was unconventional, but they weren't breaking any laws and
- 25:33Speaker 1: it actually seemed like a nice place to raise children.
- 25:37Speaker 1: Based on the descriptions, it would have been many people's
- 25:40Speaker 1: dream scenario. You know, beside it being a cult. They
- 25:44Speaker 1: kept an eye on the group and noticed that their
- 25:46Speaker 1: food was scarce, so they helped provide them with food
- 25:49Speaker 1: and money to get winter clothing. They also gave them
- 25:52Speaker 1: a two-way radio in case of emergencies. Well, on January 26th, 1985,
- 25:59Speaker 1: one of those emergencies occurred. Gabrielle wrapped her five-month-old baby
- 26:03Speaker 1: in a blanket and placed him in a wheelbarrow outside.
- 26:07Speaker 1: He was there for about an hour and 15 minutes
- 26:10Speaker 1: before she returned. It had been negative 10 degrees Celsius
- 26:14Speaker 1: or 14 degrees Fahrenheit. It shouldn't be surprising that the
- 26:18Speaker 1: baby was blue and had stopped breathing. They used the
- 26:22Speaker 1: radio to call for an ambulance, but the baby was
- 26:25Speaker 1: pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. For some reason,
- 26:29Speaker 1: the coroner reported that the child had died from sudden
- 26:32Speaker 1: infant death syndrome, despite the baby having clearly died of exposure.
- 26:37Speaker 1: Gabrielle would later say that Rock hated the child because
- 26:39Speaker 1: he had a slight deformity on one eyelid and would
- 26:42Speaker 1: regularly beat him. She claimed she left him outside as
- 26:46Speaker 1: an act of mercy. Because of the cause of death, though,
- 26:50Speaker 1: nobody was arrested. The social worker did continue keeping an
- 26:54Speaker 1: eye on the compound, trying to find anything to use
- 26:57Speaker 1: to break up the cult and save the children that
- 26:59Speaker 1: were there. That would come almost a year later when
- 27:02Speaker 1: Maurice was allowed to leave the compound. Rock told her
- 27:06Speaker 1: she could leave with two of her children, Giselle, who
- 27:09Speaker 1: was two years old, and Thomas, who had been born
- 27:11Speaker 1: a few months prior. But her oldest child, Miriam, had
- 27:15Speaker 1: to stay behind so she could become his next wife.
- 27:18Speaker 1: The girl would have been about nine years old at
- 27:20Speaker 1: the time. Maurice took the opportunity to leave, but contacted
- 27:25Speaker 1: the authorities to seek help getting Miriam. It took months
- 27:28Speaker 1: for the cult experts to get the brainwashed woman to
- 27:31Speaker 1: a state where she could be useful. When Maurice was
- 27:34Speaker 1: finally able to think clearly, she told social workers about
- 27:38Speaker 1: how things were inside the compound. She told them how
- 27:42Speaker 1: Rock would hit everyone with the blunt side of an axe,
- 27:45Speaker 1: including the children. He performed surgeries on followers with improper
- 27:50Speaker 1: tools and no anesthesia. He also separated the children into
- 27:54Speaker 1: two classes, the ones who were fathered by him, who
- 27:57Speaker 1: were treated well, and the ones who weren't his offspring,
- 28:01Speaker 1: who were treated as slaves. He used some of the
- 28:04Speaker 1: children for sex games, and of course, he was holding
- 28:07Speaker 1: her daughter to become his next wife. On December 6th, 1985,
- 28:12Speaker 1: the police raided the property with warrants to take every
- 28:15Speaker 1: child into custody. Rock didn't resist. He was a calculated
- 28:20Speaker 1: person and believed that handing over the children willingly might
- 28:23Speaker 1: get the authorities off his back. He told his wives
- 28:26Speaker 1: to wash and dress the children and all the women
- 28:29Speaker 1: complied without complaint. Having their children taken away seemed like
- 28:33Speaker 1: an ordinary event to them. Social workers took pictures of
- 28:37Speaker 1: each child with their mother so they could be organized
- 28:40Speaker 1: before taking them into town and placing them in foster homes.
- 28:44Speaker 1: The women were told that they could get their children
- 28:46Speaker 1: back if they agreed to leave the cult, but not
- 28:48Speaker 1: a single mother agreed. They just stood there and watched
- 28:51Speaker 1: their children disappear onto a bus. As the children's time
- 28:56Speaker 1: in their foster homes went on, the horrors of their
- 28:59Speaker 1: previous lives became more and more apparent. Some children's teeth
- 29:03Speaker 1: were black and yellow. One boy was terrified of all
- 29:07Speaker 1: bearded men. An infant girl would rock back and forth, chanting.
- 29:12Speaker 1: As they got more comfortable, they would tell their foster
- 29:14Speaker 1: family stories about how they would be deprived of sleep
- 29:18Speaker 1: with a loud bell ringing throughout the night or the
- 29:20Speaker 1: strange rituals involving chanting and upside-down crosses. Some people could
- 29:26Speaker 1: try to explain it away as the children making up stories,
- 29:29Speaker 1: but the families would find out that multiple children had
- 29:32Speaker 1: said the exact same things and then the stories would
- 29:34Speaker 1: be confirmed by Maurice. Then a number of the children
- 29:38Speaker 1: described being involved in sex acts with Rock. One girl
- 29:42Speaker 1: described pulling on his penis until white stuff came out.
- 29:46Speaker 1: Then there was the physical abuse. Before Samuel died, Rock
- 29:50Speaker 1: had put his foot on the boy's head and told him, quote,
- 29:53Speaker 1: the more you cry, the more I'll crush your head.
- 29:57Speaker 1: He threw children against walls and trees. He would sometimes
- 30:01Speaker 1: hold two babies by their ankles over a fire and
- 30:04Speaker 1: threaten to throw one in, making each mother beg for
- 30:07Speaker 1: the life of their child. What should have been an
- 30:10Speaker 1: open and shut case of child abuse turned out to
- 30:12Speaker 1: be anything but. An independent group was brought in to
- 30:16Speaker 1: evaluate the situation and they had determined that the children
- 30:19Speaker 1: should be returned to the compound immediately. They claimed that,
- 30:23Speaker 1: though their lifestyle was unconventional, the group was being discriminated
- 30:27Speaker 1: against because they were French-speaking in an increasingly English-speaking world.
- 30:33Speaker 1: That led to court hearings, which were initially attended by
- 30:36Speaker 1: Rock and his wives, but they ended up leaving and
- 30:38Speaker 1: not complying with the judge's instructions. Fortunately, the judge was
- 30:43Speaker 1: not blind to what was really going on at the
- 30:45Speaker 1: compound and didn't agree with the independent assessment in any way. So,
- 30:50Speaker 1: though it took longer than it should have, it was
- 30:53Speaker 1: ruled that the children would stay with their foster families
- 30:56Speaker 1: and be formally adopted if those families wanted. By then,
- 31:00Speaker 1: Rock had fathered four more children, who were taken away
- 31:03Speaker 1: immediately after they were born. Despite all that, the district
- 31:07Speaker 1: attorney said there wasn't enough evidence to press charges for
- 31:10Speaker 1: any crimes and Rock was left in power. After having
- 31:14Speaker 1: his children taken away, Rock's violence increased. He would get
- 31:18Speaker 1: drunk and carry out unspeakable acts on his followers. He
- 31:22Speaker 1: would whip them with a belt and break their bones
- 31:24Speaker 1: with a hammer. He would pull out their teeth. Once,
- 31:27Speaker 1: Claude angered Rock somehow, and he was ordered to put
- 31:30Speaker 1: a band around his testicles. By the next morning, they
- 31:33Speaker 1: were swollen to the size of an orange and had
- 31:35Speaker 1: turned blue and purple. Not long after, one of his
- 31:39Speaker 1: testicles got infected, so Rock had his followers hold Claude
- 31:43Speaker 1: down and he cut the infected testicle out before cauterizing
- 31:46Speaker 1: the incision with a piece of red-hot iron. But he
- 31:49Speaker 1: was still angry at Claude, so he held a vote
- 31:51Speaker 1: on whether or not they should stone him to death.
- 31:54Speaker 1: The members voted against it, which threw Rock into a
- 31:57Speaker 1: rage and he threatened to open Claude's stomach with an
- 32:00Speaker 1: acetylene torch. But Claude managed to get free and hid
- 32:03Speaker 1: in the forest until the cult leader sobered up. In
- 32:07Speaker 1: February of 1987, Rock stabbed Giselle in the leg and
- 32:11Speaker 1: wouldn't let her get treatment. She wrapped a towel around
- 32:15Speaker 1: it and it ended up swelling up to the size
- 32:17Speaker 1: of a football. Rock attempted to perform surgery by cutting
- 32:21Speaker 1: open the wound and pouring boiling water over it. When
- 32:24Speaker 1: the swelling didn't go down after a few weeks, he
- 32:27Speaker 1: mixed salt and olive oil and rubbed it into the wound.
- 32:30Speaker 1: Then he put spruce gum over the wound and covered
- 32:33Speaker 1: it with a bandage. Giselle limped around for a month,
- 32:37Speaker 1: making sure to get all of her chores done to
- 32:39Speaker 1: not make Rock angry, and then when he left for
- 32:41Speaker 1: a trip to Toronto, she hitchhiked to a woman's shelter.
- 32:45Speaker 1: She was so brainwashed by Rock that she didn't know
- 32:48Speaker 1: how to live outside of the group, so she eventually
- 32:50Speaker 1: went back. She never sought treatment at a hospital because
- 32:54Speaker 1: she didn't want to have to explain how she had
- 32:56Speaker 1: gotten the wound, but it did eventually heal. The violence
- 33:00Speaker 1: continued to escalate. It would later be revealed that Rock
- 33:04Speaker 1: had taken a torch to Nicole's stomach the day she
- 33:06Speaker 1: gave birth to one of his children. He broke Jacques'
- 33:10Speaker 1: ribs with a club. He kicked Nicole in the stomach
- 33:13Speaker 1: when she was three months pregnant, causing her to lose
- 33:16Speaker 1: the baby. He broke Giselle's ribs by kicking her with
- 33:19Speaker 1: a steel-toed boot. He shot Nicole in the right shoulder.
- 33:23Speaker 1: He bent all of Claude's toes back until they were broken.
- 33:27Speaker 1: He crushed Gabrielle's right hand in a vice. He ordered
- 33:31Speaker 1: Jacques to cut off one of Gabrielle's fingers with a
- 33:33Speaker 1: pair of wire cutters. He injected Gabrielle in the back
- 33:37Speaker 1: with an unknown solution and then broke the needle off,
- 33:40Speaker 1: leaving it in her back. He fired a. 22 caliber
- 33:43Speaker 1: bullet at Claude, grazing his scalp. He beat their workhorse
- 33:47Speaker 1: to death with chains. He slammed Solange on the floor
- 33:51Speaker 1: and punched her in the face, breaking her cheekbone. He
- 33:55Speaker 1: ordered one of the women to break Claude's leg with
- 33:57Speaker 1: a sledgehammer, and he cut his arm open with a
- 34:00Speaker 1: piece of broken glass. The beginning of the end of
- 34:03Speaker 1: The Ant Hill Kids started with Solange complaining of stomach pains.
- 34:08Speaker 1: Rock had been convinced that it was her liver and
- 34:10Speaker 1: that she would need an operation. They took her to
- 34:14Speaker 1: the bakery, and Rock performed the operation on her there. First,
- 34:17Speaker 1: he gave her an enema with a mixture of molasses, oil,
- 34:21Speaker 1: and water. Then he started pushing and even punching on
- 34:24Speaker 1: her stomach. He then placed a tube down her throat,
- 34:27Speaker 1: the same one he'd used for the enema, and started
- 34:30Speaker 1: blowing air into her stomach. It's unclear why. Then he
- 34:35Speaker 1: cut Solange open, jammed his fingers into the opening, and
- 34:38Speaker 1: pulled something out. Some said it looked like a chunk
- 34:41Speaker 1: of fat, and others said it looked like a piece
- 34:43Speaker 1: of intestine. Either way, he pulled the piece apart and
- 34:47Speaker 1: stuck some of it back in the hole in her stomach.
- 34:50Speaker 1: Then he had someone sew her up. He claimed that
- 34:53Speaker 1: after that brilliant intervention, she would be fine. This may
- 34:57Speaker 1: not come as a shock to anyone, but she wasn't fine.
- 35:01Speaker 1: She died the next morning. From that point, Rock really
- 35:04Speaker 1: began his final descent into madness. At first, he was
- 35:08Speaker 1: so distraught that he told his followers that he wanted
- 35:10Speaker 1: to die. The first attempt was to have him sit
- 35:13Speaker 1: in a van and direct the exhaust into the vehicle.
- 35:17Speaker 1: That didn't kill him, so Rock took more than 200 Tylenol,
- 35:20Speaker 1: but that didn't kill him either. They obviously had the
- 35:24Speaker 1: means to easily kill him, and seems as though Rock
- 35:27Speaker 1: only wanted to seem like he was ready to end
- 35:29Speaker 1: it all. He was not ready to relinquish his control,
- 35:33Speaker 1: which he would then use to horrific ends. The group
- 35:36Speaker 1: had built a coffin for Solange and buried her body,
- 35:39Speaker 1: but Rock ordered her to be exhumed. First, he cut
- 35:43Speaker 1: her open, removed some of her organs and a rib,
- 35:46Speaker 1: which he turned into a necklace. Then he had Jacques
- 35:49Speaker 1: drill a hole in her forehead so Rock could ejaculate
- 35:52Speaker 1: into her brain, something he believed would bring her back
- 35:55Speaker 1: to life. After that was complete, he started talking about
- 35:59Speaker 1: giving some of the members lobotomies. Fortunately, that never happened,
- 36:04Speaker 1: but it created a situation where Giselle started questioning her
- 36:07Speaker 1: husband's almighty power. She started leaving the compound for periods
- 36:11Speaker 1: of time and living with her parents. That angered Rock,
- 36:15Speaker 1: but without Giselle there, he began taking his rage out
- 36:18Speaker 1: on Gabrielle. After her last birth, she had a prolapsed uterus,
- 36:23Speaker 1: which was causing her pain as she was forced to
- 36:25Speaker 1: work in a field-picking cabbage. Tired of hearing her complaints,
- 36:29Speaker 1: one night Rock forced her to lie on a table
- 36:31Speaker 1: and he attempted to forcibly push and punch her uterus
- 36:35Speaker 1: back into her vagina. Then he used a cone-shaped piece
- 36:38Speaker 1: of wood like a plug, secured in place with a harness.
- 36:43Speaker 1: The following day, when she was ordered into the fields
- 36:45Speaker 1: for work, she removed the device and ran to the
- 36:48Speaker 1: neighbor's house. They tried to help her medically, but didn't
- 36:51Speaker 1: take her to the hospital and didn't alert the authorities.
- 36:55Speaker 1: When she returned to the compound, Rock was so mad
- 36:58Speaker 1: he ripped out eight of her teeth for having such
- 37:00Speaker 1: a big mouth. At some point after that, Rock attacked
- 37:04Speaker 1: Gabrielle with a knife and cut two of her fingers.
- 37:08Speaker 1: The woman escaped again and went to a women's shelter.
- 37:11Speaker 1: Over the course of three weeks, she received medical treatment
- 37:14Speaker 1: for her hand and her forcefully removed teeth. When she
- 37:18Speaker 1: was asked why she didn't leave Rock, she said that
- 37:21Speaker 1: he was an alcoholic, but she believed she could fix him.
- 37:25Speaker 1: When she returned to the compound, Rock ripped off the
- 37:27Speaker 1: cast on her hand and pulled out the wires that
- 37:30Speaker 1: had been put there to stabilize her fingers. On May 26th, 1989,
- 37:36Speaker 1: Rock asked Gabrielle to put her hand on a table,
- 37:39Speaker 1: and he stabbed a knife through it and into the table.
- 37:43Speaker 1: Gabrielle was effectively stuck in place, and that's when Rock
- 37:46Speaker 1: pulled out another knife and began cutting off her arm
- 37:49Speaker 1: between the elbow and the shoulder. After having removed a
- 37:53Speaker 1: strip of flesh around the bone, he pulled the knife
- 37:55Speaker 1: out of her hand and led her to a stump.
- 37:58Speaker 1: He had her lay her arm on the stump and
- 38:00Speaker 1: used a meat cleaver to cut the bone. The stump
- 38:04Speaker 1: left on Gabrielle was dipped in a saline solution and
- 38:07Speaker 1: Chantal stitched up the end. Despite all that happening without
- 38:11Speaker 1: any anesthesia, Gabrielle didn't pass out and she never considered
- 38:15Speaker 1: leaving ROC. Months later, Rock declared that Gabrielle's wound was
- 38:20Speaker 1: not healing properly, so he used scissors to make cuts
- 38:23Speaker 1: in the stump and then cut a small chunk of
- 38:25Speaker 1: flesh from her right breast, claiming it would redirect the
- 38:28Speaker 1: infection somewhere else. Yeah, that's not how that works. Like,
- 38:32Speaker 1: somehow your body can only have one infection at a time.
- 38:36Speaker 1: She'd just have two infections. Then he hit Gabrielle on
- 38:40Speaker 1: the head with the blunt end of an axe, leaving
- 38:42Speaker 1: her with a large gash in her head. The woman
- 38:45Speaker 1: ran into the woods and slept on the ground for
- 38:47Speaker 1: two days, and when she returned to the house, Rock
- 38:50Speaker 1: had not sobered up. He then used a red-hot piece
- 38:53Speaker 1: of driveshaft to cauterize the end of her stump. That
- 38:57Speaker 1: was finally enough to snap Gabrielle out of her brainwashed state,
- 39:01Speaker 1: and she fled the compound and went to the hospital.
- 39:04Speaker 1: She tried to claim that she had lost her arm
- 39:06Speaker 1: in an accident, but it was clear she was lying,
- 39:09Speaker 1: so the doctors called the police. On August 19, 1989,
- 39:14Speaker 1: the authorities executed a search warrant for the compound but
- 39:17Speaker 1: found the property abandoned. They collected bloody tissues and a
- 39:21Speaker 1: number of sharp tools with bloodstains on them. But the
- 39:25Speaker 1: Ant Hill kids had not left for good, though it
- 39:27Speaker 1: looked like they knew their time was coming to an end.
- 39:30Speaker 1: so they took off to avoid arrest, most of them
- 39:32Speaker 1: had actually just gone to Quebec to deliver bread. Some
- 39:36Speaker 1: of the members had fled the group, but the rest
- 39:38Speaker 1: had no idea the police were coming for them and
- 39:41Speaker 1: would soon return to the compound. Obviously, when they returned,
- 39:45Speaker 1: they could tell that the place had been searched, but
- 39:47Speaker 1: Rock still didn't leave. He played a game of cat
- 39:50Speaker 1: and mouse, remaining nearby but always being able to effectively
- 39:53Speaker 1: hide whenever the authorities came sniffing. That finally came to
- 39:57Speaker 1: an end on October 6th when Rock and the final
- 39:59Speaker 1: members of the cult were located and arrested. After extensive
- 40:04Speaker 1: searches of the entire property where Rock had built his compound,
- 40:07Speaker 1: Solange's remains were located and Rock was charged with her
- 40:11Speaker 1: murder on top of being charged with the mutilation of Gabrielle.
- 40:15Speaker 1: The fact that Rock had a necklace with one of
- 40:17Speaker 1: Solange's rib bones when he was arrested did not help
- 40:20Speaker 1: his case. Rock pleaded guilty to assault and the mutilation
- 40:24Speaker 1: of Gabrielle and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
- 40:28Speaker 1: Others involved also pleaded guilty and were given lesser sentences.
- 40:32Speaker 1: When he was charged with the first-degree murder of Solange Boilat,
- 40:36Speaker 1: he pleaded not guilty and was prepared to fight it.
- 40:39Speaker 1: But eventually the prosecutor realized there wasn't enough evidence to
- 40:42Speaker 1: suggest the murder was premeditated and they made a deal
- 40:46Speaker 1: for Rock to plead guilty to second-degree murder and be
- 40:48Speaker 1: sentenced to life in prison in exchange for not being
- 40:51Speaker 1: charged with any other crimes. What did he think the
- 40:55Speaker 1: authorities would find, I wonder? Nobody else in the cult
- 40:58Speaker 1: was charged in the murder. Three women, Francine Laflamme, Chantal Labrie,
- 41:05Speaker 1: and Nicole Ruel, remained loyal to Rock and all had
- 41:08Speaker 1: more of his children after he was imprisoned through conjugal visits.
- 41:12Speaker 1: Over the years, it's estimated that Rock fathered 23 children,
- 41:16Speaker 1: almost all of whom ended up in foster care. Well,
- 41:19Speaker 1: the ones who lived. On February 26, 2011, Rock Theriault
- 41:25Speaker 1: was stabbed to death by his cellmate, Matthew McDonald. It's
- 41:29Speaker 1: said that Rock never stopped talking about the things he
- 41:31Speaker 1: did to his cult members, and his cellmate was tired
- 41:34Speaker 1: of hearing it. He pleaded guilty to murder, but since
- 41:37Speaker 1: he was already serving a life sentence for murder, the
- 41:40Speaker 1: second life sentence didn't seem to matter much. There's no
- 41:44Speaker 1: doubt that Rock was a monster, and in the end,
- 41:46Speaker 1: it took another monster to finally put a stop to
- 41:49Speaker 1: him negatively affecting other people. Thanks again, and be safe.