Today Show on Da Free John, 1985

John: Boyd Maston reports this morning on a religious
cult he feels people should know more about before they get involved
in. Good morning, Boyd.

Boyd Maston: Good morning, John. This is a group
called the Johannine Daist Communion. It’s headed by a man named
Da Free John. There are about 1,000 active members, mostly in California.
The church says they have another 20,000 on their mailing list,
receiving church publications. The question, of course, with any
cult is: Are the members just practicing religion outside the mainstream,
or are they being brainwashed? Some ex-members of the JDC say Free
John is brainwashing and abusing people, and many of his followers
don’t realize what he is doing. I should warn you, some of these
stories are very graphic in their descriptions. &91;singing crowd&93;
It looks like a typical Sunday morning service, no different in
tone from thousands of others. But this is a new religion, with
hymns of praise for a new messiah. The followers are absolutely
devoted to a guru calling himself Da Free John, the Master.

Female Follower 1: I see Da Free John as divine.
Yes, I do.

Male Follower: He is the divine himself.

Female Follower 2: I can only tell you what I feel.
If there is a god, Da Free John is such a one.

Maston: Da Free John, the beneficiary of these misty-eyed
testimonials, is a 45-year old ex-New-Yorker, named Franklin Jones.
He has bookstores around the world from which he has sold hundreds
of thousands of copies of his writings and tapes.

Jones &91;from tape&93;: I don’t want your enthusiasm to
be superficially generated by the books that I write. I want you
to consider them.

Maston: That’s the public image of Jones, the disciplined
guru. There’s another side of Master Da his church wants to hide.
Many of his teachings were taken off the market, particularly after
Jonestown. Listen to this recording, no longer available.

Jones &91;from "The Gorilla Sermon" (Dawn
Horse Records)&93;: The guru gives you his garbage, and he expects
you to throw it away. But you meditate on it. &91;Jones laughs.&93; If
you turn to me, I will destroy you.

Maston: Some of his followers now say he does just
what he promised. They claim their lives were nearly destroyed by
Jones through psychological, physical, and sexual abuse.

Jacky Estes (ex-cult member): There was only a handful
of the women he hadn’t taken sexually. And this involved getting
them drunk, having them stand up and strip, and then taking them
in the bedroom.

Mary (former member): He could do whatever he wanted
with his women that way. He lined a bunch of us up, and took off
all our clothes and cut all our pubic hair. You know, if he wanted
to cut their hair, he cut their hair. He owned them. I mean we were
owned.

John Krajewski (former member): I ended up giving
up my own personal morality and adopting his morality.

Maston: Many of Free John’s 1,000 loyal followers
deny these stories of aberrant behavior. But then they have little
direct contact with the master. Since 1983 he’s run the church from
a remote Fijian island, purchased from actor Raymond Burr for 2.1
million dollars. Master Da lives there with an inner circle of 40
devotees, including a harem of 9 women, one of whom is Julie Anderson,
a 1976 Playboy centerfold. The lifestyle for Jones and his inner
circle, according to Beverly O’Mahony, is anything but godlike.

Beverly O’Mahony (ex-cult member): He would instruct
women to defecate in bed with their husbands during the sex act.
I saw some of his wives urinate on him.

Maston: For eight years O’Mahony was a Jones disciple
with access to the inner circle. She charges that when she decided
to quit the cult last year, she was held on Fiji against her will.

Beverly O’Mahony: I was there for a week asking,
"Get me a helicopter, get me a boat, get me anything. I want
to go." And I was not allowed to go.

Maston: O’Mahony has filed a $5,000,000 lawsuit against
Da Free John and his California-based church, the Johannine Daist
Communion. Also named in the suit is her ex-husband, Brian, president
of the church.

Brian O’Mahoney (president JDC church): These allegations
are extreme in nature and are intent on either destroying us or
getting money.

Maston: JDC church leaders refuse to answer specific
charges against Da Free John. They have responded with a lawsuit
against their most vocal critics, including Brian’s ex-wife Beverly.
There is no comment from the man in charge.

Maston &91;with Brian O’Mahoney&93;: Can we talk to Da
Free John?

Brian O’Mahoney: No, he has never spoken to a member
of the press, or to a member of the public.

Maston: Can we go to Fiji?

Brian O’Mahoney: Well, no, you can’t. We reserve
the right to privacy. We reserve the right to maintain our meditation
sites as sacrosanct, sacred places.

Maston: Neither were we allowed to visit this church
owned estate in Hawaii &91;picture&93;, where several women told us they
were sexually molested by Free John. Pekoe Panico, who lived there
while married to a member of the inner circle, added these details
about the secret life of Franklin Jones.

Pekoe Panico: He parties with people. There’s a lot
of money spent on alcohol and drugs, and things that he purchases
for his wives.

Maston: Did you see Franklin Jones using drugs?

Panico: Yes, I did.

Maston: What drugs?

Panico: Marijuana and also an over-the-counter drug
called "rush."

Maston: We were allowed to visit the church’s 700
acre sanctuary in Northern California. This popular meditation retreat
was also for many years the site of what the cult now describes
as helpful sexual teachings by Franklin Jones.

Brian O’Mahoney: There were occasions in which people
were allowed to express themselves sexually in anyway they chose.
We all whole heartedly participated in that.

Maston: Da Free John participated with you?

Brian O’Mahoney: On some occasions, yes.

Mary: I got herpes from Da Free John.

Maston: Mary, who doesn’t want her true identity
revealed, was 22 when she joined the cult. She claims her study
with the master included forced participation in a pornographic
movie.

Mary: He was able to create this aura that what we
were doing was for our own good. And I was psychologically completely
sucked in.

Maston: Many ex-cult members echo her sentiments,
saying they worshipped because they were brainwashed by the charismatic
Da Free John. Jacky Estes is a former member of Jones’s inner circle
of wives.

Estes: I don’t think I had a will to speak of because
of the indoctrination, and the alcohol, and what was being done.
I was 20 years old, and I believe anyone is subject to mind control
at certain aspects of their life.

Maston: Susan Lesser and Franz Bakker continue to
believe in the power of the Master, and travel the world spreading
the gospel according to Da Free John.

Susan Lesser &91;church representative&93;: Da Free John
is a hero, an American hero. It happened in America. He’s not Jim
Jones. He’s not a bad person, a manipulative and exploiting person.
That is a terrible thing to say.

Franz Bakker, M.D. (church spokesman): We are not
like everybody else. Good, I don’t want to be like everybody else.
Give us a break. Leave us alone. Who cares, as long as I don’t hurt
anybody. And we’re telling you, and &91;Lesser&93; she’s been there, and
I’ve been there, nobody has been hurt.

Panico: I feel I was seriously hurt. And I feel there
were people even more seriously hurt than I am.

Mary: As far as I’m concerned, I feel I was one of
the lucky ones. I got out alive. I got out with my sanity intact.

Maston: The leadership, while admitting to some sexual
experimentation over the years, says everybody was an adult and
participated of their own free will. As you heard, some ex-members
disagree. Tomorrow we will look at the children in the church and
meet the millionaire who is bankrolling much of the operation.

Today Show on Da Free John, the following day.

Jane Pauly: Boyd Maston yesterday told us of charges
leveled against the cult &91;Da Free John’s&93; by former members, and
this morning he’s back to tell us about the children in the cult.
Good morning, Boyd.

Boyd Maston: Good morning, Jane. The charges that
we aired yesterday included accounts of Da Free John orchestrating
bizarre sexual practices, forced sex, drug use. The church admits
some of those things happened, but they say it was always adults
involved, and that it was of their own free will. When it comes
to the will of children, of course, they choose only what they are
taught. So the question is: What are they being exposed to? A couple
of points to keep in mind when watching this report: Da Free John
is an ex-New Yorker whose real name is Franklin Jones. He calls
himself a guru, a yogi, and has set himself up as god incarnate
in human form.

Jones: Your yogi’s a bastard, a mad man, and absolutely
mad and absolutely dangerous.

Maston: Absolutely dangerous, that’s how Franklin
Jones describes himself, a mad divine guru living on an isolated
island in Fiji.

Jones: You must yield everything to me. You must
yield yourself in your body, your self with you.

Maston: Thousands have yielded to Jones in the 13
years since he created his new religion. Disciples have sacrificed
money and labor to build a cult with an estimated $10,000,000 worth
of property, including his Fijian island, an estate in Hawaii, and
a 700-acre sanctuary in Lake County, California, all monuments to
the glory of Da Free John.

&91;pause with music&93; There are 300 children being raised
as followers of Master Da. Some former members say the kids undergo
heavy indoctrination.

Mark Miller: We are taught from an early age that
the guru is god, and that they should submit to him, and that they
should live their life in total devotion to him.

Child &91;in church class&93;: Be overwhelmed by god. Do
only what will please the Master.

Maston: Followers of Franklin Jones are encouraged
to send their children to the church’s school here in Hunter, NY.
The children study not only the usual academics and sports, but
also the teachings and works of Da Free John. Their instruction
includes learning about Master Da’s miracles, his supernatural power
to change the weather, heal the sick. This 16-year old student believes
her infant sister was saved at birth by Franklin Jones’s magic touch.

Tally Hastings (age 16): She was just totally lifeless.
He put his hand on my sister’s stomach and on her head. A silvery
white light flowed through her, and she started to breathe. And
everyone couldn’t believe it.

Maston: The children believe these stories because
adult church leaders believe miracles like this actually happen.
&91;Talking to Franz Bakker and Susan Lesser&93; And Da Free John’s touch
brought her to life?

Susan Lesser &91;church representative&93;: Everybody who
was there witnessed that, yes. She turned pink and she breathed.

Maston: To achieve Master Da’s state of divine grace,
the children are told they must practice his disciplines, including
a strict vegetarian diet. However, in 1982 the adults who ran the
school decided it would be fun to give the children 14 and over
beer and wine. Drunken parties lasted 3 nights. The church now admits
that was a mistake. But the action didn’t surprise some of the former
members.

Joseph Kahn: We started having these drunken nude
parties in Los Angeles.

Maston: Joseph Kahn joined the cult at age 14 in
1972 and became Franklin Jones’s staff photographer for 9 years.

Joseph Kahn (ex-cult member): I was 15 years old,
and I was essentially encouraged to drink alcohol. My sister, who
was 10 at the time, was encouraged to drink alcohol.

Jessica Constantine: My first experience with him,
my first encounter, was at a drinking party. And he told me that
I was to take my clothes off.

Maston: Jessica Constantine said that she was only
10 years old when Franklin Jones first told her to strip naked.

Constantine: And I said, no, and ran out of the room.
Somebody had to go get me, and I had to take off my clothes.

Kahn: I saw him on a number of occasions instruct
adults to perform various sexual acts, and they were often unwilling.

Maston: Church leaders admit Jones still conducts
voluntary sex experiments among his 40 adult followers on Fiji.
The youngsters also visit the island, and half a dozen live there
permanently.

Beverly O’Mahony: I was stunned to join in drinking
with those kids, who range in age from, well, when I was there,
from age 4 to 9. And the children drank a hell of a lot more than
I did.

Maston &91;to Susan Lesser&93;: Is Da Free John concerned
about the welfare of the children?

Lesser: Oh, he’s concerned about all beings.

Maston: Would he allow the children to be exposed
to anything that would be harmful to them?

Lesser: Oh no, I don’t believe so. No, no, he is
very passionate about that.

Beverly O’Mahony: You are told when you are pregnant
and giving birth that your children are not yours, that they are
the Master’s.

Maston: The church denies this charge. But critics
point out that Jones has gathered a harem of 9 so-called wives with
him on Fiji, including a former Playboy centerfold. It’s a particular
concern to ex-members with children who are still in the cult.

"Isaac" (ex-cult member): I have a daughter
from a previous marriage that’s in it. I’m very concerned for her
because he has been interested in getting younger women in the future.

Jones &91;from tape&93;: Don’t you see how you all in your
immaturity work against me?

Maston: We were not allowed to talk to Da Free John.
Nor were we permitted on his Fijian island. But Neal Stuart certainly
has been there. He’s the deputy chairman of BSR Corporation, a high-tech
company with 13,000 employees. In 1982 Master Da wanted a remote
hermitage. So Stuart bought and donated the $2,000,000 Fijian island.
It is part of his total contribution of $3,500,000.

Neal Stuart: My trip to Fiji I was fortunate enough
to get a long hug from Da Free John.

Maston: Did you talk to Da Free John on that visit
at all, or did you just get a hug.

Stuart: The hug was totally sufficient. What am I
going to say to him? What is he going to say to me? I mean he’s
been talking for years now.

Maston: Free John has been talking for years, and
his message is being sold worldwide from church owned book stores
in Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and even London,
New Zealand, and Australia.

Andrew Parker: His ambitions, as far as I can see,
know no limit. He wants all of mankind to be his devotees.

Lesser: How could he fabricate 35 volumes worth of
spontaneous conversation if he was a fake? Read it, take it seriously.

Maston: But critics warn that the real Franklin Jones
is carefully edited out of the books and tapes sold to the public,
that his messianic speeches and bizarre sexual activities are kept
hidden from outsiders. Andrew Parker served on the board of directors.

Parker: He’s on an isolated tropical island. The
only people there are absolute fanatics. They would literally do
anything that he would ask them to do. Frank Jones and Jim Jones
may be more cut from the same cloth than I once thought.

Maston: Neal Stuart and many others have their only
contact with Da Free John through his writings, and they believe
them as real spiritual teachings. That’s the concern of a lot of
the ex-members, that these people do not realize where their money
is going and what they are supporting.