Man Accused Of Killing
His Children Told
Them He Was God
By Marcus Warren
The Telegraph - UK
4-9-4
"The nine children had six mothers, of whom two were Wesson's
daughters and one his niece."
NEW YORK -- A man accused of murdering nine of his children told them
that he was God and ordered the older ones to kill the younger ones
and then commit suicide, a Californian court was told.
Marcus Wesson, 57, is said to have sexually molested his daughters and
inflicted "week-long spankings" on them if they broke rules such as
not talking to men from outside the family.
Fresno police described finding the children's bodies in a pile in a
bedroom when they searched Wesson's house. Eight of them, aged from
one to 25, had been shot in the right eye. The ninth had been shot in
the left eye.
The eldest child was the mother of another of the dead children.
Wesson was the father of both. The nine children had six mothers, of
whom two were Wesson's daughters and one his niece.
Wesson had lectured the children in 1995 about the need to commit mass
suicide if the police or social workers threatened their way of life,
the court was told.
A detective said: "He would ask them, 'If the time came, would you be
ready to die for the Lord?' ".
Kiani Wesson, one of the surviving daughters and the mother of two of
the victims, told police that, if the authorities tried to break up
the family, "the older ones would kill the children and commit
suicide".
Rosie Solorio, a niece of Wesson's, whose child by him was also among
the victims, told another detective that Wesson called his girls "his
soldiers". When the time came to commit suicide, the eldest ones were
to "go out and kill the rest of the family members that were no longer
in his house", she said.
Wesson has pleaded not guilty to murdering the children as well as to
multiple charges of sexually abusing the girls who lived with him as
far back as 1988.
Some of his alleged victims he "married"; others he told he was
preparing for marriage.
Wesson was obsessed with David Koresh, head of the Branch Davidians
who fought FBI agents at their compound in Waco, Texas, in 1993, the
court heard. He allegedly wanted to create a similar cult within his
own family.
Family members told police that they were ordered to watch reports
about Koresh whenever they appeared on television.
The man on the screen was doing God's work, he would tell the
children, who were forced to read the King James Bible twice a day and
listen to Wesson's "sermons".
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/04/10/
wwess10.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/04/10/ixworld.html
.
|
