General Jim,

            After reading all of your articles posted in your mailbag section and also Mr. B. Shank’s webpage, pieces of the puzzle are coming together. I watched the Dr. Phil telecast and I must admit grew very angry towards your group there in New Mexico. But after going to your webpage I realized that there is more to this “shed story” than what was presented by the lady who said you held her captive.

           I’m still skeptical, but some of your refutations (yours, Capt. R. Johnson’s, Brad Shank’s) cut through a lot of my skepticisms.

           Was or was not this lady held against her will by you guys?—her whole argument hinges on this question. Who is telling the truth? If she really was forced to live in that small shed and eat only a few sandwiches a day, without a bathroom or water, why doesn’t she charge you people for imprisoning her? I hope you publish my letter.

           Dale, T.G.

Dear Dale,

            You have your wish, your letter is posted. It is impossible to put up all letters we get. I select one here, one there. This section of our webpage is not intended to become an all-consuming hobby of mine.

          Let me repeat once again what I’ve already posted. Here is a quote from the Dr. Phil Show of Sept. 21, 2006—a small portion at the end of his opening speech:

“[MS] says her worst punishment was being locked in a windowless shed for 10 weeks with only stale peanut butter sandwiches.”

          This “peanut butter sandwiches” theme runs throughout all, I said ALL of her stories presented in the many TV and newspaper interviews.

          Allow me to quote just one or two old newspaper statements here. The following is from an article written by Dale Vargas in the Sacramento Bee, March 16, 1988 issue.

“A 39-year-old Sacramento woman is suing FLM [i.e., ACMTC] claiming the unorthodox Christian group held her CAPTIVE for 6 months last year...”

“[MS] who had been a member of the group since 1982 was VIRTUALLY IMPRISONED last January...”

“During that time, her diet consisted of small, stale peanut butter sandwiches . . . For 6 months, she said, she was not allowed to bathe or have any hot water. Frequently she did not have access to a bathroom.”

          This is what MS herself told the reporter. This ought to get any person in his or her right mind to start thinking.

          CAPTIVE—VIRTUALLY IMPRISONED—NOT ALLOWED TO BATHE. Why even bother asking for hot water, MS, if we forbade you from bathing? Oh, maybe she needed hot water to wash down those 6 stale peanut butter sandwiches—maybe? This brings us to food for thought:

“Food for Thought”

Many times MS claims she was fed 6 stale peanut butter sandwiches a day for 10 weeks, no water was mentioned for drinking. This would add up to 420 sandwiches.

          In other places, MS seems to claim that she was fed 6 stale peanut butter sandwiches a day for 6 months, no drinking water being mentioned. This would add up to 1086 sandwiches. Not bad! At times she says she had only minimal access to a toilet, and in some places she seems to imply that she had no access to a toilet. In either case, I guess she must have released her bowels (at least somewhat) in the corner of that dirty ol’ dark shed, or she MUST have held her bowels for, perhaps, the entire 10 weeks? or even 24 weeks? If this is the case—that she held her bowels—she ought to be in the Guinness Book of World Records for holding in either 420 or 1086 peanut butter sandwiches without having to go to the bathroom!

          MS doesn’t mention what the other ladies ate. Capt. R. Johnson stayed the entire duration in the “shed” with MS...what did she eat? MS never tells us. Let us just guess—she ate the same number of sandwiches as MS. If this was true, then both of them together consumed 840 sandwiches in 10 weeks or for 24 weeks it would be 2172 peanut butter sandwiches—with no drinking water mentioned. Let us say that they did release their bowels in the shed’s corner...