A nude model, five bodies and the Mormon assassination plot attempt

[CShine]

This may be the year of the celebrity trial - Michael Jackson the King of Pop on child molestation charges, the basketball star Kobe Bryant accused of rape, the legendary record producer Phil Spector indicted for murder - but the kookiest, darkest, most grimly compelling court case in America may well be one that is receiving almost no media attention at all. This week, a jury in Martinez, a small town outside San Francisco, will retire to consider the bizarre, brutally violent cult surrounding one Glenn Taylor Helzer, a lapsed Mormon accused of bludgeoning and dismembering five people in an elaborate extortion racket intended to hasten the second coming of Jesus Christ. Helzer, a former stockbroker who has already pleaded guilty and faces the death penalty, exerted a charismatic hold over an eclectic group of followers including his younger brother, a former girlfriend turned Playboy centrefold model, and a self-described "good witch" who once offered to raise money for Armageddon by appearing in porn films.

The first two victims were elderly former clients of Helzer's, who were forced to write cheques for $100,000 (£55,000) while being tortured and held under the influence of the date-rape drug rohypnol. The third victim was Selina Bishop, 22-year-old daughter of the blues guitarist Elvin Bishop, who was initially part of the gang but was then slaughtered to ensure that she did not testify against the others. Her mother, Jennifer Villarin, and her mother's boyfriend were the fourth and fifth victims. The star witness in the trial was a former housemate of Helzer's, Dawn Godman, who calmly described how she held up the severed heads of three of the victims while another member of the gang bashed their teeth out with a hammer and chisel to make them harder to identify. She also explained how Helzer had hoped to feed the severed bodies of the victims to his pet rottweiler before deciding this was impractical, stuffing them in duffel bags and dumping them in the Sacramento river delta instead.

The culmination of Helzer's plan was to have been an operation codenamed "Brazil", in which he would send South American orphans to Salt Lake City to kill the 15 elders who run the Mormon church. According to Godman's testimony, Helzer imagined he could blame the murders on the "government behind government" and take over the leadership of the world's 12 million Mormons himself. Helzer was excommunicated by the Mormons in 1998, which is about the time he started declaring he was the one true prophet of God and devised something called "the 12 Principles of Magic" that included the exhortation: "No such thing as right and wrong."

His ex-girlfriend Keri Mendoza, who went on to become Playboy's Miss September 2000 under the name Kerissa Fare, told the court Helzer had given her the confidence to send her modelling shots to the magazine. "It was special just to know him," she said.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=531658

[mistertrickster]

1. The one thing that mystifies me--not the killings, the beheadings,

the mutilations, and the psychotic conspiricies to overthrow a church--that one thing is

how did this loser manage to snag a Playboy centerfold?

Surely, this proves beyond any doubt that the gods have a sense of humor--and a mordant, morose sense of humor at that . . .

[colorado_ufo]

2. You are equating celebrity with sanity.

Just because this young woman made Playboy centerfold does not mean that she is mentally and emotionally healthy. As Ann Landers used to say, she definitely has "strudel in her noodle."

[Wright Patman]

3. 'Ladies Love Outlaws'

in the words of a Waylon Jennings song.

To continue the musical theme, it looks like Elvin Bishop's daughter "fooled around and fell in love."

Bishop's appearance was once insulted by Charlie Daniels in the early 1970s back when Charlie was a "long-haired country boy" who proudly smoked pot. He sang, "Elvin Bishop sittin' on a bale of hay; he ain't good lookin', but he sure can play."

Being insulted by Charlie Daniels is like being called ugly by a frog.

[Poiuyt]

5. Damn, I must be doing something wrong!

[qb]

4. Bizarre! This sounds like the Mormon equivalent of "Angels & Demons"

by Dan Brown

(edit changed "Angles" to "Angels")