Don Lattin

Jesus Freaks

A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge

Talking Points

Don Lattin is an award-winning journalist who worked for the San Francisco Chronicle for two decades. He has interviewed players on all sides of his stories,  completes extensive archival research, and presents his stories in an objective, chilling, “you are there” manner.

Description

In the tradition of Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven, Jesus Freaks is the story of a January 2005 murder/suicide that shed new light on the Children of God/Family International, one of the most controversial religious movements to emerge from the spiritual turmoil of the 1960s and 1970s. It is the story of Ricky “Davidito” Rodriguez, a child born into the inner sanctum of the Children of God, a new religious movement that sent thousands of hippies, leftists and “Jesus freaks” on a long strange trip into the messianic fantasy of cult leader David “Moses” Berg, and spawned a second generation that still struggles with that legacy.