Author: Kelly Florence

Articles

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WiHM 2023: The Horror of Cults

The Horror of Cults

By Kelly Florence 

 

Recently, I finished the documentary Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence (2023) on Hulu. It follows the story of college students who fall in with the manipulative father of one of their peers. It’s a disturbing and horrifying look into how a manipulative person can gain the trust of others, slowly convince them to lie, steal, and perform other terrible acts all for his own service. I won’t get into specific details (I do believe the three episodes are worth watching on their own) but will warn you that the footage and audio shared in the documentary is beyond disturbing. How, you may ask? Because the perpetrator, Lawrence “Larry” Ray, recorded these students over the years he lived with them, having them confess to things they never did in order to hold the footage against them in the future. It displays abuse, both physical and mental, that may be too strong for many viewers. I, myself, needed to look away several times due the raw, real nature of the footage.

As we discovered in writing our 2021 book The Science of Serial Killers, truth can be scarier than fiction and, in this day, and age, recordings, body cam footage, and videos from other devices like doorbells offer true crime documentarians a plethora of clips to use. This, coupled with the recency of many of the crimes and testimonials of survivors, truly puts into perspective the scope of these incidents and the humanity of the victims.

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Articles / Guest Post

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Guest Post: Memento Mori

Memento Mori

By Kelly Florence

You never know how tragedy will affect your life or what gifts may come out of it. This was the case for me when I simultaneously lost my husband but met my best friend during one summer.

I was twenty-three years old, spending three months in the intensive care unit of a hospital next to my twenty-four-year-old husband. He was diagnosed with lupus only two years prior. Lupus is an autoimmune disease that causes the body to attack its own tissues. In the case of my husband, he had a stroke, and his lungs and other organs were failing. Treatment after treatment took place over that summer and it was a lot for a couple so young to go through. I would often be mistaken for his “girlfriend” due to our young age. Only family members were allowed to visit. I would have to assure the staff that I was, indeed, his wife and we had been married for four years already. Day after day, the only escape I would have from the monotony of the beeping monitors and the horrific sound of the life support system that was keeping him alive was a trip downstairs to the cafeteria or restaurant.

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