The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Racial Cult Murder in Georgia?

Posted on | April 21, 2022 | Comments Off on Racial Cult Murder in Georgia?

It’s possible you have forgotten about these kooks:

In the early 1990s, cult leader Dwight York convinced his followers to relocate from upstate New York to rural Putnam County, Georgia, where they built “Tama-Re,” an Egyptian-themed compound of nearly 500 acres. York’s cult, the “United Nation of Nuwaubian Moors,” at one point had hundreds of members. It did not end well:

On May 8, 2002, 300 local and federal law enforcement officers in rural Georgia raided the Egyptian-themed compound of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors. The cult’s founder, Dwight “Malachi” York, had been arrested hours earlier — accused of molesting dozens of his follower’s children.
The police operation marked the beginning of the end for York, a pseudo-religious leader who eluded justice for decades while amassing a nationwide following for his bizarre blend of religion, mysticism and claims about alien life.
He was finally exposed by former followers, including his estranged son, and was later convicted in 2004 of transporting minors across state lines for sexual purposes and sentenced to 135 years in federal prison.

I blogged about the Nuwaubians in September 2020, but that wasn’t the first time I’d covered this bizarre story, as I’d edited a feature about Malachi York’s cult many years earlier when I worked at The Washington Times. Well, “file it and forget it,” as we say, but today my brother Kirby informed me that the United Nation of Nuwaubian Moors had resurfaced in a weird and disturbing way. South Carolina true crime blogger Eric Daume had become interested in an unsolved 2014 murder in Putnam County. There were no leads at all in the mysterious and grisly murders of Russell and Shirley Dermond. The elderly couple lived in a gated community on the shore of Lake Oconee. By sheer happenstance, while Daume was interviewing the local sheriff about the Dermond case, the sheriff mentioned the Nuwaubian case, without any thought that this might be relevant. Daume became curious, however, and he managed to turn up a clue, in the form of online comments from Nuwaubian cultists, who are still aggrieved over Malachi York’s incarceration. Was it possible that some of the Nuwaubians murdered the Dermonds?

 

Daume doesn’t prove anything, but he has certainly pointed out a few tantalizing clues that suggest this cult could be involved in a murder case that is otherwise inexplicable. Why would anyone want to kill two nice old retirees? Why was one of the victims decapitated?

You need to watch that video, which Daume says is just the first part of the story. Can’t wait to see the next installment.




 

Category: Crime, Georgia

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