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{ Editor's Note: Background music: Tune Down by Chris Joss}
(B-roll noise of coals burning)
Rocket Olsen : Civil liberties lawyer, Raleigh Cameron has a secret to his ribs.
Annabeth Justice (in studio): That’s reporter Rocket Olsen.
Raleigh Cameron: Alright, so first you have to cook them low and slow, I don’t do a rub, just some seasonings…you don’t want to touch the meat too much. Then for the sauce, I do a mix of hot sauce, brown sugar, Worcestershire, secret spices and lots of ketchup--
Rocket Olsen: Ketchup ? (laughter) Really ?
Raleigh Cameron: Yeah, the cheaper the better.
Rocket Olsen (Voice Over): Raleigh’s ribs are actually quite the hit at this cookout in San Costa, Florida—a small suburb about an hour from Miami. Like most good parties there's food--lots of food.
Rosa Erikson: This is um, it’s like a banana pudding.
Sam Morgan: I’ve got fried chicken, fried fish, fried pickles--
Rocket Olsen: Fried everything ?
Sam Morgan: (laughter)Yeah, fried everything.
Juliana Clark: This is a potato salad. I put it in this container because we burned it last time.
Rocket Olsen: You burned potato salad ? Okay, I have--I have to ask…How ?
Juliana: I thought it had to be cooked. I know now. (Background laughter)
Rocket Olsen (Voice Over): There’s also music, dancing, and an impromptu Twister contest fraught with accusations of cheating.
Distance female voice #1: Did you say red or--
Distance female voice #2: I thought you meant blue! I (undecipherable)
Distance male voice #3: (scream) Whose body bends that way ? How are you doing that ?
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{Editor's Note: Background Music: Moving On by Nick Cave}
Annabeth Justice (In studio): This yearly get together sounds like any family reunion or group of friends getting together to escape their daily grind. And in some ways it is. But all of these friends have one very important thing in common--they escaped a cult. I’m Annabeth Justice and this is Devious.
Annabeth Justice (in studio): Our story today comes from reporter Rocket Olsen, who you heard from earlier.
Rocket Olsen (soundbite): Hi !
Annabeth Justice (in studio): Rocket spent two years with members of the former cult for an oral history project.
Rocket Olsen (Voice Over): Everyone has a story they felt like they were meant to tell. I thought I got my story five years ago when I first meet Rhett and Juliana Clark during Hurricane Katrina. He was a Coast Guard Rescue swimmer, she was a relief volunteer They were this young all-American looking couple with a new baby helping fight the good fight.
But it turned out there was more than what appeared. They’d both been apart of the United Light commune raid that had happened a few years earlier. Now, unless you’re from the area you’ve probably never heard of United Light, but it was a cult started by the Caine family in the 1960’s.
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{Editor's Note: Background Music: Window Album Leaf }
{Insert reading of pages 5-6 of United Lies}
Rocket Olsen (Voice Over):And it turned out Rhett and Juliana weren’t just part of that story—they were central to it. Junior Lt. Rhett Clark is a clean cut guy, always cracking jokes, dark hair, gorgeous green eyes. But has this tattoo. It’s a solid black band around his arm.
Rhett Clark: It’s covering a brand that, uh, he gave me because I got to work with him. It’s what he did to the people he wanted to keep close. I wasn’t really into it a the time, but I felt like I couldn’t say no…After the trial I couldn’t look at it anymore...he didn’t brand everybody but I let him do it to me. Hurt like a bitch.
Rocket Olsen: The ‘he’ he it talking about it is Simon Caine. He took over United Light from his father in the mid 70’s. Clark was paid, along with other young, troubled boys to keep order in the commune through any means necessary. Juliana Clark, then Juliana Reese, was forced into a marriage with man 36 years her senior and that was how they met. The cult manifest itself in small ways in their life. Like at their home in Freeport, Lousisna which Juliana shows me around.
Juliana Clark: I put all the baby pictures together on the mantle. So that’s Spencer's 2nd birthday. And then that’s Mason baby picture and that’s Rhett…don’t they all look so much alike ?
Rocket Olsen: But you don’t have any baby pictures up ? I mean of yourself.
Juliana Clark: I don’t. I don’t have a single one….Caine didn’t like cameras on the commune unless it was for business or something, so I have…very few images of my childhood. Which…I think is fine because it wasn’t all that… I didn’t really do anything.
Rocket Olsen: Juliana was born in United Light and never knew a life off the commune until she was arranged to marry someone off the commune at 18-years-old. When that didn’t work out, Caine decided she should marry him.
Juliana Clark: My first marriage…we weren’t into it, he even had a girlfriend and I was fine with that. We're still friends actually, all of us. I think Caine knew we weren’t really together so he decided to step in. With Caine… It didn’t even feel like a marriage. I was just…locked in this bedroom until he needed me and I didn’t know when…if it would end.
Rocket Olsen (VO): But it did end. She ran away with the help of her father who defected and the commune was raided. She and Rhett kept in touch as survivors and a few years later they got married and now have two young children, four-year-old Mason and two-year-old Spencer.
(Sounds of children playing tag)
Rocket Olsen : How do you think your experiences effect your kids ?
Juliana Clark: They’re too young to really understand…I want them to feel the security I felt on the commune and I want them to always feel loved and happy. I do anything to keep them happy. I also don’t want them to be scared of anyone like I was scared of Caine. I want them to know we can protect them.
Rhett Clark: I mean,
look, we know we can’t protect them from everything but we don’t let them go
off with people we don’t know, we make sure we know where they are and who is
talking to them…it’s part of the reason we live in Freeport…there is always
family that we can trust around. And, I’ve never said this out loud but I don’t
want Spencer to….I don’t want her to ever feel like Juliana felt, like the only
thing she is good for is being some man’s wife.
Rocket Olsen (voice over): Freeport, Louisiana is Rhett Clark’s hometown and it also happens to be about 30 miles from the former United Light commune.
Rocket Olsen: Do you ever go back to the commune?
Juliana Clark: (sniffing)Yes…I have…just to look and see what I (crying) sorry. I just like to see it sometimes because it was all I had…but now I have more and I’m happy I just…the commune was the place where I was a child and the most innocent is all gone. It’s strange.
Rocket Olsen: Rhett, you seem surprised by this.
Rhett Clark: I just…I’ve never been back. Ever. I’m too chicken {censor}
Rocket Olsen: So, what's next for you two ?
Rhett Clark: My wife's about to become a badass
Rocket Olsen: (confused laughter) What ?
Juliana Clark: Sorry, what he means is I stopped breastfeeding a few months ago so now I can get a tattoo. As soon as I figure out what to get.
Rocket Olsen (In studio): Like her husband, Juliana Clark was also branded by the cult leader. She tells me she's ready to cover up the marking permanently, just like Rhett had. But she doesn't have a black band in mind. She says she wants her family's name or something that reminds her of the happy times in her life.
Rocket Olsen: Whatever it is don't let that joker pick it out.
Juliana Clark: Believe me, I won't.
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Rocket Olsen: Everyone at the San Costa barbecue from the top of the show has a story like this. A story of fear. Raleigh Cameron, the rib guy ? His half brother was one of the few murdered for trying to leave United Light.
Raleigh Cameron: I miss my brother. He was a good dude, you know ? He didn’t just want to leave, he wanted to whistle blow, take the whole place down (throat clearing, sniffing) and he did. I feel like I fight everyday in his honor.
Rocker Olsen: So, once a year these survivors get together. Their kids play together. They catch up, talk through their hurt and celebrate that their community belongs to them. Together.
Juliana Clark: It seems like each year it gets bigger…This year my Dad came and he doesn’t normally even leave his house. I think…I think this will keep growing, I think we all will.
Annabeth Justice: Rocket Olsen’s book, United Lies, releases on May 9th.
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