Ricky Rodriguez

Richard P. Rodriguez (born David Moses Zerby; January 25, 1975 – January 9, 2005) was an American member of a religious cult called The Family, formerly known as the Children of God (COG), who murdered one of his childhood sexual abusers, Angela M. Smith, and then died by suicide.

During Rodriguez's childhood, he and his mother Karen Zerby and adoptive father David Berg, both of whom were leaders of The Family, traveled across the world to convert followers.

Berg believed Rodriguez was called upon to become a prophet during biblical End Times.

From a young age Rodriguez was brought up in a heavily promiscuous environment and was sexually abused by numerous people, including a cohort of nannies, as described in the Family-published document titled "The Davidito Book".

Despite leaving The Family and finding marriage, Rodriguez struggled to adjust to life outside the cult and sought revenge for his abuse.

He left his wife in Tacoma, Washington, and traveled across the U.S. in an attempt to find Zerby.

After learning his former nanny Angela M. Smith was in Tucson, Arizona, he stayed with people he knew there until he settled in an apartment.

Richard P. Rodriguez was born on January 25, 1975, in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, as David Moses Zerby.

His mother was Karen Zerby, the spiritual leader of the religious cult Children of God (COG), and his father was a Spanish hotel waiter named Carlos whom Zerby had "Flirty Fished", a practice in which female cult members would have sex with men to draw in potential converts.

Rodriguez was unofficially adopted by David Berg, the group's founder and Zerby's husband, and was given the nickname "Davidito" and often referred to as "the prince".

Rodriguez's legal name was changed multiple times as he traveled across the world with Berg and Zerby as missionaries.

However, no official adoption by the two ever took place and he was cared for by "nannies", young female members of the group.

He was also raised alongside Techi, Zerby's daughter.

On May 2, 1978, Berg declared in a publication that Rodriguez and Zerby would one day have the power to "call down fire from Heaven and devour their enemies".

He also predicted they would both be killed and raised from the dead "3 days" later, and Rodriguez would go on to guide followers as a prophet during biblical End Times.

Many who knew Rodriguez said he grew shy and uncomfortable around group members because his status as a supposed prophet made him prominent.

While growing up in the COG, Rodriguez was frequently exposed to adults engaging in sexual intercourse at Berg's home as part of the group members' sexual "sharing".

When he was ten months old, Zerby and Berg asked Sara, one of Rodriguez's nannies, to start creating a document titled "The Davidito Book" (also referred to as "The Story of Davidito").

The book contains descriptions of sexual interactions between the child Rodriguez and adults, most of which was previously sent out to members in the form of pamphlets called Davidito letters.

The 762-page document included photos of Rodriguez with naked teenage girls and being present during the group's orgies.

One of his nannies, Angela M. Smith, who was also Zerby's personal secretary, was included in the photos, in one of which she is undoing his pants; the picture is captioned "Undressing ... for Sue!"

(Smith).

The material also contained captions and text written by Berg commenting on the situation in a sexual manner.

Berg later ordered "Davidito" and similar documents that had been created to be purged or references to sex removed, but former members were able to establish its existence by distributing the material via email.

Davida Kelley, who lived with Berg from the age of 13, said Rodriguez was sexually abused "[by] all the adult women. Most of them, at least", including Zerby.

According to an article by the Los Angeles Times, Berg reportedly had sex with numerous female members of the group; in an effort to prepare Rodriguez to do the same when he became leader, he was put into "teen training", in which he would have sex with multiple older teenage females every afternoon.

In 1986, the COG, which was now called The Family (eff. 1978 ), banned sex between minors and adults along with Flirty Fishing.

Berg died in 1994, and Zerby, alongside her then-husband Peter Amsterdam, took full leadership of the cult.

A British court, headed by Lord Justice Ward, issued a verdict during an investigation related to a 1995 trial, stating that the Davidito book was an example of Berg's promotion of pedophilia within the group, and that the leadership considered it a guidebook for adult–child relationships.

Amsterdam, as ordered by Ward, distanced The Family from Berg's writings on child upbringing.

In 1996, at 21 years old, Rodriguez moved to a Family-owned home in Budapest, Hungary, where he met his girlfriend Elixcia Munumel, who returned with him to Zerby's home in Oporto, Portugal, and lived with him there.

In 1999, the couple told Zerby they were going to The Family's compound in Mexico, but instead Munumel went to England and Rodriguez went to the United States.

Rodriguez stayed at the non-for-profit charity The Family Care Foundation's headquarters in Dulzura, San Diego, California.

He sold a car Zerby had given him so Munumel could meet him in Tacoma, Washington.

Rodriguez and Munumel married in a minister's home.

On January 7, 2005, he recorded a video, saying he needed to take retribution for abuse in The Family—including his own—alluding to murder.

The next day, Rodriguez invited Smith to his home for dinner, where he stabbed her to death before driving to Blythe, California, and killing himself.

The Family urged its members to disregard media reports about Rodriguez and Smith, and a spokesperson for the group said reports neglected to show Smith as a victim.

Another former member considered it, out of other suicides in the group, to be one of the worst moments in The Family's history, and noted that it corroborated other stories of abuse within the group.

Experts on cults noted that while murder was unjustifiable, Rodriguez's anger towards members of The Family was understandable, and cult specialist Rick Alan Ross described his suicide as an outcome from one of many individuals who suffered in "one of the most horrifically abusive and destructive cults in American history".