Michael Ryan told his followers that Luke Stice was a “mongrel” and “the seed of Satan” (per the New York Daily News). The amount of sexual abuse the child was forced to endure at the hands of cult members (including his father) is too grisly to mention, but it was all ordered by Ryan as a way to punish fellow cult members for having impure thoughts.
But the seemingly non-stop physical abuse was too much for the tiny child’s body to withstand. He was constantly being thrown around by Ryan, and one evening, the violence claimed the life of the 5-year-old — Ryan took his frustrations out on Luke one last time, throwing him into a bookcase. Luke landed on his head and was put to bed without his injuries being examined. He died later that night in his sleep and, under orders from Ryan, was buried by his father in a shallow grave on the property.
Without Luke to abuse, Ryan turned his sights on another cult member. This time, it was 27-year-old James Thimm who would be subjected to the majority of the cult leader’s ire. Angry that Thimm and Rick Stice had questioned his authority, Ryan demoted these two men to “slave” status and kept them chained on the porch. The two men were forced to sodomize each other as punishment, as well as forced to have sex with a goat (per Oxygen).
Rick Stice ran away from the cult on April 4, 1985, leaving Thimm to face the rage of Ryan alone.
