(Script from The Frankie Files Podcast Ep. 10. Listen to this article on Spotify now).
The Sarah Lawrence sex cult in New York has been getting a lot of media attention during March because there is an ongoing trial against Lawrence Ray aka Larry Gecco for 16 counts. The story is long and a bit of a beast to cover. But I feel the story is worth covering regarding mind control and cults.
Why? We are seeing in real time testimony of a very mentally deranged individual prey upon young people away from their parents and take control of their lives, sexually, financially, domestically and socially. He eventually controlled all aspects of several of the young people he recruited.
I will do my best here to use several sources to piece together the long and twisted story of how this happened, and you will join me in disbelief that it was right under everybodies noses, just like my recruitment and enslavement in a cult.
The techniques used by Ray - I have determined - are trauma based mind control. He - like many cult leaders - may entice you with improving yourself and preaching about human potential, and soon you are entrenched in financial obligation, sexual assault, torture and entrapment. Coercion was a constant for this man who convinced those around him that he was the victim of a government plot due to being an informant in Italian and Russian mob cases from 2000 on.
Cults and human and sex trafficking happen right under our noses folks, and that is one of the reasons I am whistleblowing about the cult I was in that is still going on once called Morningland, now named the Monastery in Long Beach California.
These leaders use psychological warfar, manipulation, and exploit the specific vulnerabilities of each recruit. It's like a symphony of mental chess games they are playing, one game with each individual, then playing them against each other. I have seen this before. But, my criminal cult leader died before any conviction took place. They got away with everything.
First I will outline the people involved in a quick Dramatis persona.
The location:
Sarah Lawrence College is an elite and expensive sprawling campus set on 44 acres far enough out of the city to feel country. It is accessible by train and tuition runs 60,000 a year and room and board run $1500 more a month.
Lawrence Ray is a divorced ex-convict estranged from one of his children and ex-wife. He is close to Talia Ray who is the daughter that attended Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers New York. In 06 he was sentenced to 5 yrs probation, violated terms of that probation and was re-arrested in 07. He violated those terms and then served 6 mos. in jail.
Talia Ray is was in 2010 a teen or 20 something daughter of Larry Ray living in a townhouse dorm with 7 or 8 other students.
Claudia Drury is one of the young women who was living in the townhouse on campus of Sarah Lawrence College who met Ray at age 19. She has testified and provided documents proving Ray eventually made her one of his prostitutes to pay him back for concocted damages to his step-fathers home which Claudia helped work on. (Head's up this was all made up, she didn't damage any pipes at his step-father's house).
Santos Rosario was in the dorm and met Ray at Sarah Lawrence College. He must regret it now, but he introduced his two sisters to Ray between 2010 and 2013.
Yalitza Rosario is the younger sister of Santos who the brother introduced to Ray and became an obedient member of the cult.
Felicia Rosario is a young woman who is the older sister of Santos Rosario and had documented mental collapse and attempted suicides while in contact with Ray.
Daniel Levin was recruited at some point through the dorm situation on campus, and suffered much pain at the hands of Larry Ray. He has published a book after attending a cult recovery group. The book is entitled SLONIM WOODS 9. Again that's a memoir about the experience with Larry Ray by Daniel Levin.
Isabella Pollok is being charged alongside of Ray to my surprise. It sure seems as if she is another victim. She has pleaded not guilty but is present on audio and video helping Ray hurt Claudia Drury.
Ray had background as an FBI informant and he had mafia ties to Al Capone AKA scarface accoring to Law & Crime.com by Dan Abrams, writer Adam Klasfeld.
Ray informed on securities fraud cases related to Garfalo Coppa Sr. Monterecchi, Persico, Lombardo. The mob familes involved in that case included Gambino, Bonanno, and Genovese.
He became an informant when he pleaded guilty on the case reporting on Italian and Russian mob activities.
Current charges against ray are: sex trafficking, money laundering, extortion, human trafficking, tax evasion, racketerring, forced labor. He has a 17 count indictment total.
It has come out in court reported on by the Daily Mail UK that Ray's phone included searches for mind control, cult membership and leaving, how to detect lying, coercive persuasion and brainwashing. Just a few google searches by a criminal mind, no big deal.
the NY Post reported on 3/30/22 a list of Johns who used services of the sex cult was accidentally leaked by US attorneys office for southern district new york last week.
Isabella Pollok and Felicia Rosario had accounts w/ huge sums of money transferred from Johns. Then 9 transfers to Tar Heel State Dems totalling $15,500 were present. The donations were made through ACT BLUE to condidates and groups. Ray's daughter worked for Lowell Simon State House candidate as a campaign manager.
But what is the lead up and the story? The best synopsis I found on this mess was at a newer Youtube Channel you should bookmark if you like true crime stories. The channel is called Scareful Stories. Her sources used include the New York Post, Daily Mail UK, and Inner City Press among others.
The following synopsis is using her video, and I truncate the story for brevity purposes. But guys, it's worth hearing the progression of how he brought these young people under mind control right in front of everyone. This is how it happens.
Larry moved in with the daughter on campus Talia, as he got out of prison. He started by taking on cooking and cleaning and having movies and discussions in the townhouse. They looked at Ray as a father figure. There were 7 or 8 people to each townhouse, that's their style of dorms, a bit different from the norm.
Student were disarmed by his helping role, and some began disclosing mental health issues to him that they were struggling with. Larry said he could help them despite having no training in the psychology field, and not being licensed. He went as far as saying he could help with mental discipline training he had learned in the government.
When one of the housemates Isabella Pollock went through a bad break up Larry stepped in. Laying in her bed he stroked her hair and moved soon into her room and slept there. Talias boyfriend voiced concern about a 50 y/o man bedding with a 19 y/o girl. But nothing came of that.
During winter break Larry called Isabellas parent and said she wouldn't be coming home for the break because Talia revealed to him she'd been sexualy abused by a family friend. He convinced Talia that her mom allowed this and going home would jeapordize her mental health.
Here is a side note from a cult survivor. It seems that this was his first recruit. He found her weakness, exploited it, and then used it to cut ties to her family giving him full access. He is now a replacement for family, and became a mentor and also got sex. Note, this is how it's done.
So during that winter break, Larry, his daughter Talia, Talia's boyfriend and Isabella hung out. Larry's friend gave him access to an apartment in NY city, so they went off campus. While there, Larry began to control their lives.
Note, this is why trafficking is so important. Larry successfully got these people off campus to a location he controlled. That is the first step up in his process, he's gaining a foot hold now. A control. Back to the story.
Larry chose what they ate, would wear, and where they would go. He even suggested Talia's boyfriend go off his anti-psychotic meds.
When the break ended they returned to the campus. Talia's BF was so concerned that he broke up with Talia.
Larry then began creeping into their minds using the Quest for Potential doctrine. Potentialism Theory. aka Q4P A lot of religious and non religious cults play on the human potential angle. It's now a whole business model which started in the 70's or maybe at the beginning of time? The Human Potential aMarket breeds cults and cult leaders. Back to the story.
Another roomate, Claudia became interested in Q4P. Though she had not liked Larry, he began having 1 on 1 meetings w/ her to win her over. She told others Larry had diagnosed her with schizophrenia. Claudia's friends were concerned about her sudden personality change and getting false diagnosis from a laymen, not a doctor.
Daniel Levin another housemate thought this was odd but women seemed to trust Larry Ray. The girls suggested he consult Ray (so Talia, Isabella and Claudia were already hooked and now recruiting for Larry). He was having girl troubles and Larry then suggested he break off the relationship. Turns out he had a motive. With nowhere to go for Summer and not wanting to go home for summer break, he was taken in by Larry and the gang.
They went to the 1 bdrm NY apt for summer . So it's Larry, Claudia, Isabella, Santos Rosario the other roomate, Talia, and Daniel Levin in a 1 bdrm apt.
Larry provided good dinners, deep discussion, nights out and movies. He began to share very personal things with the kids. He set up a doman name business and had all hands on deck to help him earn money. He began waking them with loud music which added the classic sleep depravation technique in the mix. This was conditioning. So it getting people to share personal info. This is to be used on a victim later of course.
Mistakes were turned into transgressions that must be worked through in the group until there is a breakthrough. Larry demanded confessions, very communist and cult in nature there too. They faked it when there wasn't a breakthrough, because of peer pressure. Confessions which were often fake to appease Larry, were turned into debt for things they did wrong. Let the money scams begin.
Claudia's parent would talk to her for hours in an effort to separate her from Ray but she was convinced that his direction was improving her as a person. This is the classic difficult when someone has control of your every day life, the parents are not present to break that control up. Now they risk estrangement, that happened to me. My mom was estranged systematically and then they kicked her out and kept us kids. This stuff is textbook cult leader modus operendi.
Claudias parents evern reported their concerns to the campus Dean at Sarah Lawrence College about a 50 y/o father living in a dorm with students. Two meetings yielded only a comment that they cannot control a dad wanting to visit his daughter. Amazing stuff.
There are other complaints on record about him living on campus too.
Daniel was now under the spell too like Claudia and Isabella. After suggesting DAniel break up w/ his girl friend, he suggested he date Isabella. Not just that, he decided to help coach them through sex which sometimes involved jumping in to a three way. Yikes.
So take note of the just noticable differences with which Larry manipulated things into happening. 1) he got them to help him create income for him via go daddy doman sales. 2) tricked them into paying him for repars or transgressions after demanding all be known and confessed to the group. 3) He began sexually controlling them. Back to the story.
Claudia and Daniel went to study abroad for a year (lucky them huh?). However Larry kept a finger on them by having them Skype call him and coach them through sex on cam while he watched. What a swell guy.
Now Larry began recruiting. Santos Rosario introduces his sisters to Larry from off campus. Yalitza was a student at Columbia and the other sister of Santos Felicia was a Harvard Graduate doing a medical residency in Los Angeles. Larry convinces Felicia to ditch her residency and come live in New York. He convinces her that she's also a target of the widespread conspiracy after him. Once in New York he beds her. Another person under his control.
He would call Felicia his wife and also Isabella too. Alrighty them. The amount of delusion is palpable now. Claudia was now back at school on campus and Daniel stayed to live at the NY apt. with Larry.
Things got weirder as Larry got bolder. Locks and handles were removed from all doors to eliminate privacy.
Those parents who questioned their kids involvement w/ Larry were told by the kids he's helping not hurting us. Parents were more afraid of not alienating their kids at this point, a common trick played by cults and religions.
Meanwhile Larry convinced Claudia that her mother never loved her. Next Larry got the kids to get money from their parent for perceived damages owerd.
Claudia, Isabella, Yalitza and Felicia were put to work on his step fathers house in North Carolina. None of that was in their lesson plans, see how off course they are now?
he told them they damaged a drainage ditch while doing forced labor for him, and they owed him hundreds of thousands of dollars. Kids got money from their parents for the alleged debt. Claudia asked one friend of hers for $500,000.
Both Claudia and Santos parents went to police w/ Santos so convinced he owed damages that he told his folks he would kill himself if they didn't give him money to pay back Larry. Relenting, they sold their home to get the money.
Police told parents they are adults and allowed to associate w/ whomever they want.
By senior year, Daniel attempted to distance himself. Larry's daughter missed a college application deadline and Daniel was told that was his fault. Larry then tortured Daniel with seran wrap and foil sexually. Daniel knew he did nothing but could not get away at that point. Daniel was made to wear dress and parade through the lobby at the NY apt. until seen by neighbors.
Claudia was not at Columbia but still unable to work off the debt with an after school job that Larry claimed she owed him. She began prostituing herself to pay him back. At $8,000 a session, he got all the cash. She also attempted suicide during this time, in face so had Yalitza and Isabella during their time with Larry. Great guy.
Larry's friend tried to evict him from the NY apt. and all three women displayed at the trial babble of Govt. conspiracies on trial.
Talk of them poisoning Larry and each other surfaced but somehow was ignored by the courts. You have to wonder where the buck stops in t his story.
They loved Larry and saw him as a victim of the govt. Daniel joined a group for cult survivors and began to see what he was put throught. Claudia told a friend about the toruture of being tied to a chair and soffocated off and on for hours with celophane and the friend helped her to move out and get help.
Feb. 2020 Larry Ray was arrested on 17 counts. Isabella was also arrested and charged of conspiring with Larry.
Larry and Isabella are being tried seperately and are facing up to life in prision.
Discovery so far includes 1462 documents, 320 audio files, 256 video files. Larry is accused of using ics and video to demean and control and extort people.
(Via corruptionbycops.com)
The Sarah Lawrence ‘sex cult’ trial was abruptly halted late Tuesday morning as defendant Larry Ray was taken away in an ambulance after suffering a medical emergency in court.
An attorney for Ray called for a break in the middle of proceedings today after his client shook and gasped behind his mask.
Judge Lewis Lima cleared the courtroom while court officers rushed in with a first aid kit and defibrillator and a medic followed on.
Ray, 62, was stretchered out of Manhattan Federal Court and onto a waiting ambulance outside.
The incident is the second time the trial has been interrupted in this way and came after close to three and a half hours of dramatic and disturbing testimony from former ‘cult’ member Claudia Drury.
Last week the court was forced to pause proceedings for several hours for Ray to recover from a seizure he suffered in lockup earlier in the day.
Sarah Lawrence ‘sex cult’ trial is delayed after defendant Larry Ray suffers medical emergency again
Sarah Lawrence ‘Sex Cult’ Trial Is Delayed After Defendant Larry Ray Suffers Medical Emergency Again
Some people details may find details from testimony offensive, proceed with caution
The Sarah Lawrence ‘sex cult’ trial was abruptly halted late Tuesday morning as defendant Larry Ray was taken away in an ambulance after suffering a medical emergency in court.
An attorney for Ray called for a break in the middle of proceedings today after his client shook and gasped behind his mask.
Judge Lewis Lima cleared the courtroom while court officers rushed in with a first aid kit and defibrillator and a medic followed on.
Ray, 62, was stretchered out of Manhattan Federal Court and onto a waiting ambulance outside.
The incident is the second time the trial has been interrupted in this way and came after close to three and a half hours of dramatic and disturbing testimony from former ‘cult’ member Claudia Drury.
Last week the court was forced to pause proceedings for several hours for Ray to recover from a seizure he suffered in lockup earlier in the day.
Larry Ray’s sex trafficking trial was halted Tuesday after the accused sex cult leader suffered another medical emergency in court
Ray, 62, was stretchered out of Manhattan Federal Court and onto a waiting ambulance outside shortly before the jury broke for lunch
He was given an oxygen mask as he was wheeled out of the courtroom to be treated by paramedics
Over two days of testimony, alleged victim Claudia Drury (right) told the court how Ray (left) allegedly forced her into a life of prostitution, abused her, and threatened to kill her after ingratiating himself with her and her friends when she was a student at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York
He was treated with oxygen before bring brought back inside the courtroom to resume testimony.
The former convict is on trial for allegedly sex trafficking his daughter’s friends from a dorm room on the campus of the elite New York liberal arts college.
The emergency marked the end of a morning during which jurors heard often-harrowing testimony from Drury, 31, as she chronicled in disturbing detail how Ray allegedly bullied and groomed her into a life of prostitution, convincing her she had to make amends for ‘egregious wrongs’ and repay debts of more than $100,000.
On Monday the court heard how Drury and fellow students were allegedly worn down by weeks of physical privation and psychological abuse doing hard labor at the home of Ray’s stepfather in North Carolina.
Tuesday, Assistant US Attorney Danielle Sassoon focused on the sexual grooming that, prosecutors claim, Ray used to funnel Drury into a life of prostitution from which he garnered more than $2.5million.
Drury told the court that Ray suggested she take part in a ‘gang bang’ telling her that sex with multiple partners was liberating and fun.
She told how he set her sexual challenges that she – already unravelling – took in a bid to win his favor and ‘make repairs’ for wrongs of which he accused her.
The accusations were primarily of damage to property but escalated to an insistence that she had poisoned him and his daughter, Talia.
‘He told me to take a cab ride and at the end of it instead of paying suggest I had sex with the driver instead,’ Drury told the court.
Isabella Pollok is accused of being Ray’s ‘lieutenant’ and conspirator
She also said that, by this time, she had built up so much ‘self-hate’ having ‘solidly taken on the role of sabotager’ in the ‘cult’ that she found an outlet and relief in the pain of BDSM.
On some level she felt that she deserved the punishment for all the supposed ‘wrongs of which, she said, Ray accused her across a sustained campaign of coercion.
She recalled one occasion on which Ray had participated in BDSM when she returned home during winter break from her year studying abroad in 2012.
She said: ‘I was at Larry’s. Isabella and Iban were there, and Larry instructed Isabella to bind me with my ankles to my wrists. She did very light impact with a whip.
‘Then Larry told Iban to use the same dildo he had on Dan [Levin on another occasion] to penetrate me and it didn’t fit, and it was very painful.
‘Larry told me, ‘Relax. Isabella can fit it. You’ll get there.’ But I didn’t.’
Drury told the court how, across months of constant abuse, she became convinced that she had caused more than one hundred thousand dollars’ worth of damage to the North Carolina property and that she had poisoned Ray, his daughter and others.
She came to believe that she had to repay the funds – money she simply did not have – and that she was at risk of going to prison.
Ray played on her fears, often speaking graphically about jail and what would happen to her there.
‘He talked about it for years and years. He described in detail the size of a prison cell, made me walk the size of a prison cell,’ she said.
‘He said I would never be able to listen to the music I wanted to [in prison], …that colors would fade.
‘He told me graphic things about what people would do to me. Because I was smaller [he said] that women would make me their bitch and he described how they would use the restroom and defecate and use my face and tongue as toilet paper.
‘He talked about it many times in many different ways.’
Ultimately, she said: ‘I felt extremely trapped, extremely overwhelmed.’
Detached from reality and from her parents – with whom she barely spoke at the height of her association with Ray – Drury claimed that she acceded to Ray’s suggestion that she turn to prostitution to pay him back.
She had, she said, once thought she could simply graduate and get a job and pay him back but, ‘that wasn’t nearly fast enough for Larry.’
The first time she saw a client, she said, she charged $700. She recalled the experience as ‘weird and creepy’ but said she was glad to get the money.
She intended to give $200 to Ray and keep $500 for living expenses. But, she said, Ray took the lot. That’s when she came to understand that is how it would be from then on.
Under Ray’s insistence, she said, she left her escort agency and went freelance in a bid to earn more and avoid the agency taking a cut.
She said: ‘I thought that I would go to prison [if I displeased Ray] but I also thought it was the only way I had to repair something I had done that was egregiously morally wrong…something that’s essentially unforgivable.’
Drury worked as a prostitute from the beginning of 2015 to April 8, 2019.
At her most profitable she saw three or more clients a day charging $2,000 an hour, $2,400 for two hours with fees rising in increments from there.
She said she handed most of her money to Ray and Isabella Pollok – his co-accused and so-called ‘lieutenant.’
On two occasions Ray told Drury and Pollok to be sexual with each other and others she said while he watched.
On other occasions Ray would use the props that he told her to buy for clients. Her voice dipping so that the judge had to remind her to speak up, Drury listed the props, ‘Handcuffs, crops, floggers, leash, collar, ball-gag, dildos.’
The difference, she said, between clients using these and Ray was that when she told clients to stop, she knew that they would.
With Ray, she said, ‘I was scared.’
She said that she continued to believe she owed Ray money, ‘until the day I left essentially.’
Earlier on Tuesday, a list of Drury’s alleged clients was inadvertently published online.
The list, which was entered into evidence under seal, included lawyers, businessmen and socialites throughout the Tri-state area.
The allegations involving the latest case were laid out in a lengthy article by New York magazine’s The Cut in 2019, that included accounts from some of the purported cult members.
Stay tuned for this unfolding story - it is truly a harrowing tale about how influence can enslave people, and there is always some opportunist out there ready to do it.
I am certainly left with nothing but sympathy for the unfortunate people who crossed Larry's path. I am also surprised his daughter isn't being tried but Isabella one of his recruits, is. I find it astouding how little accurate coverage is happening on this true cult story unfolding.
Larry Ray was found guilty on all charges and is awaiting sentencing. But those people can never be paid back what he took from them.
Listen to Frankie Files Podcast