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| James Vincent Randazzo |
This is from NAW Aware:
James Vincent Randazzo was a student of Robert Burton in the early 1970s and perpetrated one of the legendary "Plays of Crime", that is, leaving Burton's teaching and taking other members with him. Some say he learned how to run a cult from his teacher.
"Randazzo had run away from the Fellowship of Friends (FOF), stealing ranch donations and other funds. The leader of the FOF, Robert Burton, then denounced him as a criminal. Randazzo had left behind a single pair of pants with a broken zipper, and Burton (always interpreting events as if they symbolized some higher truth) believed this was proof that Randazzo was 'damaged in that area' (i.e., he had sexual problems)."
"survivor" wrote on the Fellowship of Friends Discussion blog, August 5, 2007:
Although I was not a member of the Fellowship of Friends I am a survivor of a very similar group, a ‘spin-off’ of the Fellowship, called the Spiral of Friends. This group was created by James Randazzo a former student of Robert Burton. As with the FOF the SOF was a cult that was disguised as a genuine Fourth Way School and I am writing today to encourage others that have had the strength to ‘graduate’ from these criminal groups and those that may be listening to their conscience and trying to leave.[ed. - Also see this account from Stella and Harold Wirk's publication, The Wirk Shop. (Link defunct)]
In the case of the SOF Randazzo was brought to justice by the law, locked up in a federal prison for his crimes as a ‘teacher’ and the group has long been dissolved.
In the case of the FOF this has not occurred as yet but it will happen eventually, the signs of degeneration are very obvious now.
This blog has been an unexpected source of closure and healing energy for me even after 20 years since my experience of the SOF and I am now writing to send positive thoughts and energy to all those that can use it and to say thank you.
