Well, I too have just stumbled onto this site and the memories aren't good at all.
I lived in Albany, Western Australia and was part of our local Catholic church when this mob turned up in the late 80's.
Although I was completely taken in by what seemed to be good people who needed help, I paid the ultimate price letting this lot into our family and our lives.
I don't want to go into the details suffice to say, Hemple was a liar and a thief. He could lie his way out of a concrete cell - which he did in Australia and the government was stupid enough to let them stay. A few of their members had US warrants out for their arrests, they had a pedophile among them and it was he who ended up in court and he is still here in Australia. They put up a convincing religious front only to be defrauding social security, ripping off the church - talk about wolves in sheep's clothing. They left in their wake a travesty of trauma.
Hemple said that women had no souls and the only way to heaven for them was through someone like him! What the...?
They had a young girl living with them, she was Grace's daughter.. she was abused and mentally tormented as were some of the other women.
As in most cults, there is the ever present meglamaniac (Hempel)and his side-kick Lawrence.. the dirt gets deep on those two.
If I sound a little peed off, you're right, if it's one thing I really dislike and that is folks that go around with the bible in one hand while sleeping with the devil.
He died of cancer - oh no, it turns out that he was ONLY human - he wasn't God after all...
I approached Laurence because he seemed like he had some intelligence, when I asked him what the hell do you stay here for and his reply was (and I quote) "he is the closest thing to God I know"... I then knew that the whole group were under his spell, a cult in every way!
There was a family there, father, mother, daughter, who left their 3 sons back in the US to follow this nutter... one day I hear Marilyn crying (the mother) she had received news that her youngest son had just taken his life back home. Tell me folks who does that to their children? What mother abandons her children? They had been on the go from the US for nearly 10 years from the information we could get, so she left him very young.. to follow some misguided religious zealot that had lost all sense of reality.
They professed to be celibate - what a crock that is... it was not until I moved in that I began to see the lie. They were very practiced at 'pretending' to be a celibate Benedictine community - B.S is all I can say.
Now Laurence and Grace are a number out in NZ taking the 'Steadfast' boat that Laurence built and running business making money which is what they are good at - and they are good at taking things that aren't theirs as well. Whats left of the group moved recently South of Perth, they had sold the winery they had and I only just found out that they had moved. I know that they are all old now, they have escaped paying for their wrong doings'(or have they???) i have no idea whether they were going to eventually join the other 2 in NZ - I always knew there was something going on with Grace & Laurence - don't get me wrong, I really don't give a hoot whether they hook up or not, what I don't like is the constant denials and lies about who they really are! If you're a religious community, fine, but don't use it as a front for other intent..at least stop lying!
Some may say I'm bitter and angry, and yep some of that is true my family paid a high price for their lies and deceit, however, that was back in 1990. I have since taken responsibility for being part of this cult. Hempel knew my weaknesses, he knew how he could hook me in and I obliged. But nearly 25 years later I have made it a priority to understand why I was drawn to such an abusive individual and much therapy later I work with young people so that they have enough of a strong sense of themselves that there is less chance of being sucked in by these types of people.
Maybe to all those who thought they were a great lot, all I can say is that maybe those were the early days before it completely went to his head.. we heard stories about young people taking their lives back in Boulder CA, when they had the ranch there. He openly supported 'Jones town' and said he knew the guy well and he was a good man!!! REALLY??
If you got one of the women on a 'bad' day they would tell all! Hempel's wife and son, tragedy for sure - says something about the old so-n-so!
Anyway if anyone wants to know about any family member that may have been there I am happy to write. The child that was with them was removed by Child Welfare but I have a feeling eventually they 'sucked' her back.
"Mother Sarah" also had a daughter, Alyce. Alyce had a son which was her way of escaping the group, trouble with that was the guy she got with was as bad as Hempel, I bumped into her in about 2001 and she had a new partner and another little one, she would only have been just 20 year old maybe. My understanding is that she had other siblings that had left the community earlier in the US.
If anyone knows Graces family, I had contact with them in the mid 1990's and they wanted to know where Letitia (Graces daughter)was. We actually made contact with her biological father, but have since lost those contacts.
I think I will leave it at that, if anyone wants further info from the group's time in Australia I am happy to chat.
Cheers, Elizabeth Olszewski