Faith and ‘The Family’ — The Case of Ricky Rodriguez

The sexually abusive sect had their messiah, then a murder-suicide

Loading rounds into the magazine of a gun at the kitchen table, Ricky Rodriguez filmed a videotape. Serving as a traumatic manifesto, the next day he was going to seek vengeance against the system that abused him. A knife sat there, too, beside duct tape, a drill and gags.

At age 2, his father, David Berg, had called him a prophet and a savior. Now, at 29, he wanted to take down the cult he was raised in…