Hate Mail From A Cult Leader: inside MOVE's language of control

WARNING: disturbing language and content.

Behind the veneer of revolutionary rhetoric and claims of natural living lies a darker reality that few have ever glimpsed. For decades, MOVE has carefully cultivated an image of a loving, principled liberation movement, but newly uncovered internal communication reveals something far more sinister.

These never-before-seen letters—what can only be described as "hate mail" between MOVE members—expose the psychological warfare waged against anyone who showed signs of independent thought or questioning. They reveal how cult leader Vincent Leapheart (John Africa) maintained iron-fisted control through a sophisticated system of emotional manipulation, public humiliation, and threats.

"You're a criminal motherfucker," reads one letter to a MOVE member who dared express doubt while imprisoned. "Prison is where you belong." Another eight-page tirade calls a recipient "a worthless bitch, a freak" whose "goddamn head should be cut off" for the crime of communicating with a family member who had left the group. These aren't isolated incidents but part of a systematic approach to thought control documented across multiple letters.

What makes these documents particularly chilling is their perfect alignment with established criteria for thought reform and cult indoctrination. Every psychological manipulation tactic identified by experts appears within these pages—milieu control, mystical manipulation, demand for purity, confession, sacred science, loaded language, doctrine over person, and dispensing of existence. They represent the complete toolkit of coercive control.

Meanwhile, contemporary MOVE supporters continue selling a narrative of love and liberation, seemingly unaware—or deliberately ignoring—the mountain of evidence proving otherwise. After hearing these letters, no honest person can maintain the fiction that MOVE was anything other than what these documents reveal: a destructive cult that weaponized progressive rhetoric to mask authoritarian control.

Listen to the actual words MOVE leaders wrote to their followers, then ask yourself: would you support an organization that treated human beings this way? And if you've already voiced support, what responsibility do you bear to acknowledge the truth now that it can no longer be denied?

Resources:

Dr. Robert Jay Lifton

Dr. Janja Lalich

Alexandra Stein

The producers of this podcast wish to stress that all individuals reference in this series are presumed innocent unless or until they are proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law in the United States of America.

Chapters

• 0:00 Content Warning
• 21:32 When Control Starts Slipping
• 25:20 MOVE's Love Letters Deconstructed
• 30:03 The Brutality Escalates
• 38:15 The Truth Behind the Facade

Transcript

Beth: 0:02

This episode contains profanity, disturbing and emotionally abusive language and graphic descriptions of psychological coercion. Some of the letters read aloud may be triggering for survivors of abuse or anyone sensitive to verbal violence. Listener discretion is strongly advised. A full transcript of this episode is available if you would prefer to read it instead of listen. This episode is available if you would prefer to read it instead of listen. Last episode I shared some MOVE letters that had never been heard outside the group before. One was from Vincent Leapheart, better known as John Africa. On the surface they sounded like letters of love.

Vincent: 0:38

I love y'all so much. Ain't nothing I wouldn't do for y'all. Don't worry about a thing no matter what y'all do, as long as it is right, y'all safe, because y'all got a strong understanding of MOVE law. And when you got strong faith in MOVE law, can't nobody touch you. So you see, you all are as protected as the sun and just as important, because without MOVE, the sun is incomplete. Stay true to MOVE law and the truth will bring you home soon, ain't that right?

Beth: 1:08

I brought in the work of Dr Robert J Lifton. To break it down, he's a psychiatrist who studied Chinese prisoners of war, cult members and even Nazi doctors. He taught at Yale and Harvard and wrote the book Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, which is kind of the Bible on brainwashing, and through that lens we looked at what those letters were really about Power control and keeping people locked in mentally and emotionally, even if they were already locked up physically. Because to the public, MOVE members are the embodiment of the I love y'all so much letter. Even after 40 years in prison they continue to espouse the virtues of being in MOVE, like it's still the greatest thing that ever happened to them. This is Janet Holloway, aka Janet Africa.

Janet: 1:56

It was the teaching of John Africa, the patience, the love, the security, the direction that got me to the point that I am now committed and loyal to John Afro.

Beth: 2:10

And the supporters of MOVE. They're not just buying it, they're also selling it.

Suzanne Ross: 2:16

This is before I give an update on Moomie. I just want to say a couple of things about MOVE.

Beth: 2:20

Case in point, our favorite sycophant, suzanne Ross. Oh sorry, dr Suzanne Ross, child psychologist on speed dial for cult leader Alberta Africa.

Suzanne Ross: 2:32

One of the things I've always said is that the MOVE has so much to learn from MOVE.

Beth: 2:39

I've been in the MOVE a long time, many, many decades. Fun fact, Suzanne Ross was a member of the Weather Underground. Google it.

Suzanne Ross: 2:50

The thing I talk about. MOVE is not only the love that's radiated by everybody in MOVE, including all the way to the young children, but also the morality the MOVE has a level of morality that, by and large, does not exist in that way in the rest of the MOVE. It just doesn't.

Beth: 3:13

Suzanne is just the worst.

Suzanne Ross: 3:16

Honesty, longstanding commitment, acceptance, building, unity, principled behavior, all that kind of stuff is something that a MOVE that doesn't have that will not last over the long haul. Our MOVE has that to learn from MOVE, that kind of love. How many of us have seen the older generation of MOVE people hug us, receive us, comfort us under all kinds of conditions? That's something we need to honor and cherish and recognize.

Beth: 3:52

Suzanne Ross, retired child psychologist, thank God has spent years selling the MOVE love story like a high-ranking shill in an MLM. She's selling a narrative, she's pitching it to empathetic activists, people who care about justice, people who want to believe in liberation MOVE. She wants them to buy in on MOVE, just like she did, and she wants them to ignore reality, the convictions, the photos, the abuse and the body count. Because, yes, there is one and it is directly tied to MOVE, and Ross isn't some fringe outlier. There are plenty of people with degrees, with platforms, with legal and ethical responsibilities still carrying MOVE water. That's why this episode is dedicated to sharing the darkest truths about MOVE, in their own words, the hate mail they sent to each other, letters written under the orders and the indoctrination of narcissistic, sociopathic leadership. These letters are brutal. No matter how many times I have read through these letters, I walk away feeling disoriented, tired, heavy and really, really pissed off, like fuck you MOVE. Pissed off Because I'm outraged this happened, that adults and children were trapped in this for decades, and that the very people who lived through it are now out in the public lying about it. So it's time to put this into the public record. Just like in the last episode.

Beth: 5:29

I'm going to use a little creative license here. I'm using AI-generated voices to represent the authors of the letters. I wish I had a roster of voiceover actors on standby, but alas, it's just me and my computer. I'm going to start with the less intense letters, the ones that use pressure and shame but still keep up the appearance of care, and then we'll work our way into the darkness, to the letters full of insults, profanity, emotional abuse and threats of violence. I'll chime in with warnings along the way so that if you need to pause, switch to the transcript or just turn this off completely, you have a warning and I will totally understand.

Beth: 6:10

Really, you have to do what's best for you. Okay, letter number one. It's in a folder labeled info on thinking. We ain't loved when things don't go the way we think they should go. I don't know the author of this letter. I've chosen a male AI voice to read it. This letter is not addressed to anyone in particular. I think it is addressed to all 12 adult MOVE members who were arrested on August 8th 1978 and charged with third degree murder.

Speaker 5: 6:41

I know, because of all them insecurities this system has put on us, and because people are so starved for love, they tend to think that when things don't go according to their plans, they automatically feel as though they ain't loved. This is what the coordinator has pointed out to us, and that is the way it is in this system, because this system never had love to give. However, people have carried this attitude over into the organization because that's the way they're used to experiencing things. All of us, with the exception of our founder, is accustomed to planning on things the way we think they're supposed to go. But we ain't right. And because we ain't right, our plans don't be right either.

Beth: 7:21

This letter opens by telling all of them that their own feelings of not being loved are the result of the system-based programming. The real enemy is their expectation that things should feel loving or go as planned. MOVE members are told. We ain't right, except for the founder Translation you can't trust your own thoughts, feelings or instincts. Only MOVE leadership can define your reality.

Speaker 5: 7:49

The coordinator explained this exactly why he emphasizes us to be careful not to question. It's proven. The coordinator knows what he's doing.

Beth: 7:59

The coordinator, vincent Lepart, aka John Africa. He's not just right, vincent Lee Part, aka John Africa, he's not just right, he's proven supernaturally correct by the events of August 8th 1978.

Speaker 5: 8:13

People didn't plan on coming out the house alive August 8th, but they did come out alive. When people plan things in their heads, they ain't applying MOVE law.

Beth: 8:23

So what exactly was supposed to happen on August 8th 1978? Was the activity that day meant to end in death? Were MOVE members ordered to cycle to die for the cause, or were they supposed to surrender, get arrested and use the trial as a platform, which is what happened? I've heard from sources unverified but consistent, and they make sense, that there may have been a miscommunication that morning that Vincent couldn't get his final instructions to the members who were barricaded inside 309 North 33rd Street. Was he changing the plan? Another scenario to consider is that MOVE members aborted their activity. They chose to surrender in order not to die. In that case, it would be considered that they had violated MOVE law. This letter goes on and on about how plans contradict MOVE law, which contradicts John Africa and his authority.

Speaker 5: 9:19

Plans cause folks to get upset because they ain't said they ain't necessary. People had plans before joining the org and that's all we had. What we have to learn to do is stop putting our minds on a bunch of plans and keep our minds on our belief. If people would do this, they'd never doubt that certain people don't love them.

Beth: 9:43

This short typed letter ends by saying that doubt is the reason you're upset, not the situation you're in, not the abuse, not the fear, not the prison, just your attitude and the fixed trust the coordinator. Do what he says and you'll feel better, you'll be safe. He'll be encouraging you, maybe even praise you if you stay in line. You'll be safe. He'll be encouraging you, maybe even praise you if you stay in line. And that's the key, because this letter is almost certainly from right after August 8th 1978. Vincent still had some access to his followers, then some recent contact, to keep the illusion of closeness intact, but he knew that wouldn't last. The longer those MOVE members were physically separated from him in jail, cut off from daily indoctrination, the tighter his grip had to become, because if it slipped he wouldn't just lose followers, he risked losing everything. If even one of them broke rank. They could cooperate with authorities, they could tell the truth about what really happened that day, they could reveal where Vincent was hiding and that would lead directly to his arrest, not just on weapons and explosive charges, but for the third-degree murder tied to the death of Officer James Ramp. Vincent knew he couldn't afford to lose control, because if he lost control. He lost his freedom and he lost his power. Not all communication inside MOVE came in the form of letters. Sometimes it was an instruction sheet, something written up like a set of guidelines, but still carrying the same pressure, the same voice of authority. What I'm about to read is one of those documents. It's a MOVE communication titled Good Soldier Section. It was written and distributed to all MOVE members after August 8, 1978.

Beth: 11:26

As time goes on, anything by John Africa will be valuable. You can see, the Bible ain't worth shit. People want our information. All people should constantly read the 35-page letter to the family in family study sessions, especially those having trouble. Read it every chance. You get Right here there are two of the eight criteria for thought reform the demand for purity and doctrine over person. Memorize it, believe it. Eventually you don't even realize that the voice in your head isn't even yours anymore, it's Vincent's.

Beth: 12:01

When people go to court for verdict, have hard principle statements ready. Start speaking as soon as you get in the courtroom and don't stop till you're out of the courtroom. Talk over the judge and don't stop because he's giving you verdict. That's contempt of court and MOVE did it constantly and it got them thrown out of the courtroom, delaying their trials and extending the run of this cult play which puts John Africa on the front pages and, in his mind, makes him think he's the most important person in the world. One person can put the Jewish argument on Malmed that's MOVE being anti-Semitic as a tactic against a judge.

Beth: 12:42

Now the information about always having strong principles in our heads and ready can be applied whenever we go to court. People should constantly be putting founder's name out, like our founder has taught us. Well, our founder has taught us to see inside your head and see what you're thinking. Run it down, elaborate. If you do things that are fucked up and feel guilty afterwards, it shows you the insanity in doing it. So if we know we're going to feel guilty and fucked up after violating, we shouldn't violate, that shows the insanity in us and that's a crystallized example of just how crazy and masochistic we are. By we, of course, they mean everybody who isn't Vincent Lepart.

Beth: 13:23

Take advantage of news media. Keep John Africa in limelight. Prisoners can call press conferences. We want John Africa etched in people's heads, like civilization is. Write news media. Get them up here. What you put in people's minds will stay there. This is our founder we're talking about. It should be important to us.

Beth: 13:44

People are attracted to Louise Del what they're saying, because they're attracted to John Africa. Muslims are constantly putting Allah's name out there. Everybody is waiting for John Africa to come. They want to see him, hear him waiting for him like they're waiting for Messiah. They want to hear it. Examples They'll never stop John Africa. Look what he's done for blacks, poor whites, puerto Ricans. Look at August 8th MOVE, people being drowned with water, shot at, etc. And don't blink an eye because of John Africa. That's leadership power, that's faith, that's wisdom. That's why people broke barricades, why they converged on City Hall, because they got faith in John Africa. That's why Schapp had so much trouble. Because John Africa contacted him. Carter was contacted by John Africa, humiliated Malmed too. John Africa turned these cops around. Keep John Africa's name out there like they put Christ's out.

Beth: 14:45

John Africa told us this would happen years ago. Run examples Rizzo overthrown, etc. John Africa told us judges would have a heart attack. Look at DeBona. People want to hear about John Africa, they want to see him. Look at what John Africa done for y'all. Run examples Got court system backed up. Don't John Africa run these prisons? Don't John Africa have judges fucked up.

Beth: 15:11

Elaborate. Dell will be able to preach this good. Forget about information and study sessions. Preach John Africa First in this context. Put John Africa in people's heads. Then, if people ask questions, answer them. Ease into preaching at study sessions. Put out a little bit of information first, then get into preaching. Don't say John Africa is God. Just say y'all better understand who we talking about. People will relate to this because they are used to being preached to their whole lives. Use Richard Pryor as an example, how he was read to run it down. Preach it.

Beth: 15:51

John Africa told us this would happen. Run down personal experiences. Example Lee Singh, epileptic, fits, al's back, et cetera. Elaborate. Did you know when people came to this organization? They were cripples, whores, alcoholics, dope addicts. Look at them now. People's hair wouldn't grow Grows thick.

Beth: 16:11

Now, if you keep mentioning John Africa's name, they will get closer to him. Example they pumped enough water in headquarters to drown us, but couldn't drown us. Shot enough bullets to kill us, but couldn't kill us, because the power of John Africa was all around us. John Africa said he'd bring us out alive. Said the system couldn't kill us, and they didn't. John Africa predicted these things. Run examples. Put out you know I ain't lying. You saw it. Saw what John Africa did to this city. He MOVE the cops back so blacks could walk through them like Jesus walked on water. Oceans of cops MOVE back. You blacks are free of these cops because of what John Africa did. Cops are more careful now. You can go to court and look the judge in the eye because of what John Africa did. The city knows it already. Cops know it, mayor know it and y'all should have been knowing it.

Beth: 17:04

Wake up Day is coming soon, when everybody's going to have to acknowledge who John Africa is. Here's the difference between John Africa's power and preachers Church's power. John Africa make a shout in person, get off the floor and come to your senses. Takes a faint in person and wakes them, the fuck up. The preacher makes them dance and shout, but when John Africa walks in the room, they stop dancing and start listening. The preacher makes them faint and fall to the ground, but John Africa picks them up off the floor and brings them to their senses, sobers them up. John Africa gets inside the person and wakes them up, makes them see themselves for the first time. Church will make people, drunk, scream, holler and fall out on the floor, but John Africa will sober them up, pick them up off the floor.

Beth: 17:50

This is lifestyle. People who haven't heard it and don't accept it, not us, because it makes the MOVE people high, makes us holler and shout. The principle won't let nobody get away with nothing. MOVE people overlook that. If the judges get it, the cops get it, then so will we. When we violate God, the principle, don't make no allowances, it'll happen to us. It's questions that keep a person from being strong. When a hurricane comes, all that is strong will stand and all that is weak will fail. John Africa, that is when guidelines are read. MOVE will stand, but the lifestyle will fall. The powerful stays and the weak leaves. Everybody remembers MOVE. The powerful stays and the weak leaves. Everybody remembers MOVE, but Ramp is forgotten, even by cops, because MOVE is powerful and stays in people's minds, but Ramp was weak and was forgotten. They didn't even hold no memorials or nothing. We should keep in our minds that everything we do, we do for John Africa and we can't go wrong.

Beth: 18:49

I mean, can you even imagine having to be around a diva like Vincent Liebhardt, let alone be under his full control, day in and day out? Nightmare Vincent Liebhardt was a full-blown megalomaniac, a sociopathic narcissist with a God complex and exactly zero to back it up other than the fear and loyalty he could squeeze out of the people around him. And from these pages their own words, it's obvious. He was thrilled his followers were on trial for murder, because he wanted the attention. He needed the attention and he wanted more of it. This wasn't about justice, this was about branding this man. Vincent Lepart didn't want to just be obeyed, he wanted to be worshipped. This is Prothelitizing 101.

Beth: 19:39

These pages literally tell MOVE members how to spin their courtroom appearances into performances, how to use the media, how to talk like preachers, how to implant Vincent's name like a brand. He's not teaching them how to win their trial, he's teaching them how to sell him. The Messiah complex isn't a side note here, it's the entire strategy. And it's not just for the followers, it's meant to manipulate the public too. These pages are both indoctrination and a PR campaign. They're a how-to manual for controlling minds inside the cult and out.

Beth: 20:15

But control only works when it's close and as time and distance stretches out, vincent's grip starts slipping. He's not in their ear every day. He's not dominating the room. He's not cutting off doubt before it forms. Without that constant reinforcement, something dangerous starts to happen. MOVE members start thinking for themselves. Some begin to question his strategy, question the activity, whether any of this ever made sense. Spoiler alert it didn't. Some whisper in the prison yard, some pass doubts in letters and of course Vincent finds out. That's when the I love y'all so much letters change. The love bombing gives way to guilt trips, then shame, then threats. The next letters aren't just intense, they're brutal. So I'm only going to read excerpts. It'll show what it looks like when a leader starts losing control and will say anything to get it back.

Nick: 21:14

You say you want freedom and blame the people for not having freedom. Motherfucker, what do you know about freedom? Stop lying, motherfucker. You don't want freedom, you want a fix. Because you don't know nothing about freedom, but you do know everything about dope, drugs, diversions, false freedom and you jonesing for a fix. But instead of saying you jonesing, instead of admitting you, an arm-scratching junkie, you try to justify your craving for distortion through the principle of freedom. You criminal motherfucker.

Beth: 21:45

Those are words from Nick Africa, frank James, to Edward Goodman, aka Eddie Africa, one of the nine MOVE members sentenced is from their own brother in the organization.

Nick: 22:12

This is a six-page letter typed and the letter ends like this you see, I told you before, motherfucker, every time you talk about the people, I'm going to come to they defense with the guidelines and rub your nose in that dumb shit you talking and I ain't gonna have no pity on you. We got women fighting everyday upstate, men fighting everyday upstate, and you coming with all this dumb shit you can't even prove out. I'ma keep your nose pressed in the shit you doing and don't try to say I'm insensitive. Motherfucker, you've been told that a hot stove will burn you. Now, if you want to keep sticking your head in the goddamn oven, I'm insensitive, motherfucker. You've been told that a hot stove will burn you. Now, if you want to keep sticking your head in the goddamn oven, I'm keep turning the heat up. Long live John Africa, the coordinator.

Beth: 22:58

This is how they spoke to each other. This is what they were told to write to each other Pure verbal abuse dressed up as discipline. And it wasn't random. Letters like this came after MOVE members started to drift, complain, think for themselves, and Vincent, through his inner circle, which Nick was a part of, cracks down on it. You're a junkie, you're a traitor. You're not craving clarity or freedom, you're jonesing for distortion. You say you want freedom, then get ready to be screamed at, humiliated, dragged through your past until you believe that even the desire to be free is evidence. You're the problem. Because if you're the problem, vincent remains the solution. That was brutal, and it gets worse from here. That letter written by Frank James, that letter written by Frank James, aka Nick Africa, louise James' only son, was likely from sometime in 1982, when cracks were starting to show in MOVE. Because by the fall of 1983, things really escalate.

Beth: 24:10

Vincent Lepart, who you know as John Africa, had MOVE into his sister, louise's row house on Osage Avenue after beating federal charges in 1981. And, as always, he brought the full weight of MOVE with him. Too many people, too many animals, too much trash, too much attention. He movified the place and Louise was the one who had to live with it. When she started pushing back, she was punished violently. Vincent ordered her own son, frank, to kill her. Frank James, known inside the group as Nick Africa, beat his mother under orders from his own uncle, vincent, and according to multiple sources, frank would have killed his mother if Vincent hadn't raised his hand and said not now, not yet. Louise escapes, she runs to her sister, laverne's house and both women become defectors, traitors. That mattered, because if Laverne turned her five children against Vincent, it could unravel everything. Two of them were in prison as part of the MOVE 9. So Vincent tightened the screws. He ramped up the surveillance. He started policing the thoughts of MOVE members who were still in prison, using letters and coded messages to root out anyone showing signs of doubt or disobedience.

Beth: 25:27

Which brings us to the next letter. This one is handwritten, it's undated, but I know who it's addressed to Deb, as in Debbie Africa, born Debbie Sims. She's Vincent's niece and the second oldest daughter of Laverne Sims, a longtime MOVE member who by this point had become a defector and, in MOVE terms, a traitor. The author of the letter, nick Africa, real name, frank James, debbie's cousin, and the man MOVE called their naturalist minister, as I have previously mentioned, MOVE members use multiple names. It isn't just about control, it's a tactic, a way to be stealth, to confuse outsiders and to slide letters past prison mailroom sensors. Sometimes men used women's names, women used men's names. Names were swapped, invented. Even longtime members I've interviewed told me yeah, that was normal, that's how it worked.

Beth: 26:22

Warning before this one the language is brutal. It's meant to cut deep because that's what MOVE did when someone was slipping or thinking too much, or tied by blood to a defector. Normally I'd use AI to voice this one, but I've read this letter out loud to myself more times than I can count. I know how it MOVE, what it's trying to do, so I'm going to read it to you, not because I'm an actor I'm not but because I want you to hear it the way I've heard it in my head.

Beth: 26:50

In MOVE Law we trust all praises to the order of life. The power of truth is final. Long live MOVE. Long live John Africa's revolution. Long live John Africa. Long live John Africa. Long live John Africa On a MOVE, deb.

Beth: 27:02

Long live John Africa, the coordinator. Get this message to Angela for me. I heard the things she'd been saying and every time she'd come out with some dirt. I'm going to let the guidelines MOVE law qualify itself. So I'm going to tell you like the coordinator tell people in the guidelines and let MOVE speak to her testimony.

Beth: 27:20

The coordinator direct us to deal with people who come with accusations by simply saying are you natural or are you civilized? How can you take a civilized reference and interpret a natural reference? You ain't natural. You are trained, schooled, programmed, perverted. When you can see you are not natural, you must see you are unnatural. Retardation is unnatural, defection is unnatural. So now, what are you basing your analysis of the coordinator, mama, on? You can't explain this contradiction and this is why you, a worthless bitch, a freak, because you are entertaining something you cannot explain, making you the question.

Beth: 28:01

I know you ain't been faithfully, honestly, reading all the MOVE law I've been sending you and I know why the information cuts into the thing you want to hold onto. You don't want to face your problem, your defection. You don't want to face the fact you, a nasty bitch, an empty minded motherfucker, you got a problem cursing the thing that curse your body. You don't want to call it what it is. You want to make excuses for it, pamper it. You want to call it. I just don't want to do the work.

Beth: 28:29

But you will not call yourself unworkable, because unworkable mean useless, worthless, lifeless, senseless, putting you in a position to forfeit everything that work. You see, you think you got the right to your body, but the thing you call Sims ain't got no right to your body, no more than industry got the right to water. The coordinator go on to explain in the guidelines that only mama got no right to your body, no more than industry got the right to water. The coordinator go on to explain in the guidelines that only mama got the right to the body. Notice it say the body, not your body, because the body is not yours. To claim it is mama's. You ain't nothing but an infection fucking with the natural flow of the body.

Beth: 29:07

Coordination, an intruder, an outsider, a deform, leeching off the body of life and trying to criticize the coordinator of life because you guilty, dirty, uncoordinated. The coordinator always say when you do wrong, you ain't got the right to nothing. Bitch, I ain't going to let you take that brain given you by mama and twist it to question mama. I ain't going to let you take mama's legs and donate them to this unnatural system to walk against mama. I ain't going to let you take that heart, belong to mama and contribute to the heartbeat of the Frankenstein MOVE is fighting. I ain't going to let you dissect the lungs of mama, steal the breath of mama, snatch the organ of mama to feed a distortion called Sims that you can't even produce. Bitch. What the fuck is a Sims? Show me a Sims, point to a Sims. I can show you my belief. My belief is life and I can show you life, but you can't show me no fucking Sims.

Beth: 30:03

You see you, a goddamn freak, a maniac, talking about how you feel like you got a right to question somebody. You ain't got the right to do nothing but be right. And you ain't right. You are as wrong as the reference that trained your dumb ass. You say you feel like mama is tactful. But those who understand MOVE law know mama is not tactful. Mama is natural. You ain't tactfully being kept here. You are naturally being kept here. You cannot leave nature. You think MOVE is an organization that is joined and left. You think life began and end with a number called age. You think love is addiction. You think totality is violent. You think loyalty is robotic, commitment pretentious correction, sadistic. You think absolution is crazy. You think coordination is education. You think the coordinator is crazy. You think coordination is education. You think the coordinator is a man. Think mama is a word. Think life is a career. Think truth is philosophized. You think solution is a tactic. You think righteousness is a trick.

Beth: 31:03

MOVE law, academic, the guidelines and idea. You think of animal life as below people. Think of plant life as below animal life. You think water ain't got feelings. Think air ain't got feelings. Think soil ain't got feelings. You ain't conscious of the sun. You ain't conscious of the rain. You ain't conscious of the heartbeat in your chest, the breath in your lungs, the blood in your veins. You ain't conscious of the immediacy to rid life of your veins. You ain't conscious of the immediacy to rid life of this system. Because you ain't conscious of life. You are unconscious, dead, senseless. Your problem is you think and your thought patterns are calculated by civilization. That's why you a cripple bitch, that's why your goddamn head should be cut off, because you ain't doing nothing but misusing your head for a fucking cavity for the monster to hide in, throw in nature, the coordinator life mama. Out your head to make room for your monster teacher, your poison thoughts.

Beth: 32:05

This is an eight page letter. It's all this kind of talk. It's insane. And then he ends it. Long live John Afker, the coordinator, and a PS. Deb, send a copy of this back to me I'm too busy to do it and send a copy to Chuck. It's important for everyone there too. Nick, he's asking her to copy this. So is it for Debbie? Her middle name is Angela or is it for Debbie to send to her mother, laverne, I'm not sure, but the message is clear. If you talk to a defector, if you even question, or if Vincent just wants to turn up the dial on the control, then you get a letter like this. This is an eight-page typed letter. It is to Mike Davis, known as Mike Africa or Mike Africa Sr, and it is in a folder labeled Mike Info on Prison Activity.

Merle or Alberta: 33:10

On a MOVE. I heard about that stuff. You said to Debbie when she wrote you information MOVE law about the problems you have in with this activity.

Beth: 33:18

Based on my research, the author of this letter is either Merle Austin, aka Merle Africa, or Alberta Wicker, aka Alberta Africa. The coordinator's wife.

Merle or Alberta: 33:30

She told me your response was just doing your work and acknowledging the coordinator ain't gonna bring us home. What the fuck you mean by that. It sound to me like you saying MOVE law and acknowledging the coordinator ain't shit. Is that what you saying? Because if it is, then it shouldn't be no question in your head as to why you still in prison. Prison is where you belong, because you a criminal motherfucker.

Merle or Alberta: 33:54

I don't know who the fuck you think you are. You can just write some shit like that here and expect that people gonna accept it. You realize you talked about the coordinator like the coordinator a piece of shit, nothing. And you had the nerve to get an attitude with ria two years ago. You and rev, when she told y'all, neither of y'all respected the coordinator and ain't have no loyalty in ya. But now you explain this shit. You just spit it out, since you claiming what ria said about you ain't true, john. After the coordinator told MOVE people to not worry about a whole lot of legal foolishness, to put our faith in mama, do our work and we'd come home. That's what the coordinator said. Now is you saying something different? Is you disputing that?

Beth: 34:41

Imagine you're Mike. You're in prison. You wrote something to your partner, debbie, in confidence, and now you're finding out it's been leaked, you've been exposed and they're coming at you in writing telling you you deserve to be in prison. You're a criminal motherfucker. That's not just anger, it's coercive control. You isolate somebody, you betray their trust, you flood them with shame and then you reassert the party line so aggressively they start to believe that maybe they were wrong, that maybe they do deserve this.

Merle or Alberta: 35:16

If you is, then you substantiate it and don't be coming with that old, worn out shit about the old days. The old days was then. This is now, and the strategy the coordinator give us now is for now. I ain't stupid and I ain't no fucking freak for punishment. I ain't no masochist. I don't love prison. I want to come home too. Everybody does. But I know I'm still where I'm at because it's necessary for me to be here, and the same apply to you and everybody else on this activity.

Merle or Alberta: 35:45

And I ain't questioning that People ain't fit to be home around the coordinator at this point. If you don't believe this, all you got to do is look at yourself. What the fuck you going to do if you go home now? What you ain't got no faith in MOVE law, the coordinator, no loyalty, no real commitment. So what are you going to do if you go home? What good are you going to be to the org? What good can you be counted on for the coordinator? I mean, with the attitude you got, what's the point in you being anywhere near the coordinator? I know what you got in your head about the people, May 13th and all, but you see, that's because you ain't strong in faith, but I am. I ain't thinking like you. I know the coordinator ain't failed and I'm staying strong with my belief in the coordinator. MOVE law, mama. But you ready been ready to fall apart, sell out, go the fuck crazy at the drop of a hat, ain't you Talking that shit about?

Merle or Alberta: 36:39

We was coordinated to speak out. We was also coordinated to work. Be honest, respect the coordinator, love, revere mama. MOVE in harmony with life. When the fuck you gone do that.

Merle or Alberta: 36:51

You see, I know you just using that stuff about us being coordinated to speak out to people, news media et cetera, as an excuse to justify your sellout personality. Cover up your weak ass, brittle, wishwashy personality. But you ain't fooling me. I know you better than you think I know you. The coordinator is coordinating me that way. Anything I need to know about people in order to work with them, I know the coordinator. Bring it right to me because it's my activity to work with people on this activity. The coordinator put me on this activity for this purpose, and the coordinator have said this. You don't believe I can see you. Ask your wife, She'll tell you. She's seen the many examples of how powerful the coordinator's influence is in me and how the coordinator give me everything I need to deal with people, to push them to work, and the coordinator's influence is being felt. It's very effective. It's not only pushing others to work, it's pushing me. That letter to Mike was hard to hear, I know, but it's necessary.

Beth: 37:59

Because this is what it really meant to be inside MOVE. This is the reality, documented, typed, mailed and filed away. These letters aren't just angry words. They're evidence, proof of coercion, of totalitarian control. Of all eight criteria that psychiatrist Robert J Lifton laid out in his work on thought reform Milieu control, mystical manipulation, demand for purity, confession, sacred science, loading the language, doctrine over person, dispensing of existence. Every single one of those shows up in MOVE, right here in black and white on the page. And now think about the children. They weren't just written to, they were sat down one-on-one, face-to-face, and indoctrinated for hours, lectured, manipulated, berated, praised, love-bombed, shamed, told what to believe, what to feel, what to say, over and over again, starting as young as four years old. Those kids don't have paper proof of the coercion they endured, but these letters, these are the closest thing we have A paper trail of pressure and punishment, of mind control in action. And here's the part that should chill you. These weren't people in a foreign dictatorship. These were American citizens with constitutional rights, human rights. But once they were behind those prison walls and once MOVE had their hooks in them, they might as well have been in North Korea or on another planet, because they had no rights, not as individuals, not as parents, not even as human beings, just followers, property of the MOVE cult. And MOVE made sure they never forgot it.

Beth: 39:52

All of the letters I've shared in this episode are difficult to hear, they're difficult to believe, especially if you spent years buying into MOVE public narrative. It's not easy to accept that you were deceived. But I want to be clear about something You're not naive and you're not stupid. You just didn't have all the information. MOVE made sure of that. Because if you had seen these letters, if you have read what I've read, if you had witnessed the cruelty, the coercion, the verbal abuse and the God complex behind it all, you wouldn't have supported MOVE Not me, not you, not almost anybody, unless they're just as twisted as the people who wrote this shit, who created MOVE, vincent Lepart.

Beth: 40:36

And that's why it matters that this material is now public, because the point of investigative work, the point of journalism, is not just to expose lies, it's to ensure that no one can claim they didn't know the truth once it's been laid bare. So with that, I'm going to sign off, I'm going to go watch something funny on TV and shake off this MOVE mind meld and come back to earth and if you've made it this far, if you agree with what I said about the role of investigative work and the responsibility this podcast has to inform the public about what MOVE actually was and is, please share it. Share it with friends, with family, with co-workers not with kids they can wait until they're adults for this shit but especially, especially, share it with journalists, media outlets and public figures, especially the ones you see smiling in photos with MOVE. They may not know the truth, but after this they can't say they weren't told.

Beth: 41:35

I love hearing from everyone. Thanks for all of the emails over the past week. They are great and I am going to get to your questions in an upcoming episode. I promise you know how to reach me social media or email murder at ryan's run at gmailcom for tips, questions, comments, information about the unsolved murder of John Gilbride, shia Halloway going missing in MOVE as a child or any of the allegations in the podcast. Thanks for listening.