True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

(Roch Theriault. Picture credit: mirror.co.uk) 

Continued from part three.... 

Roch had fled the scene and some of his followers went with him, others finally came to their senses and returned to their families. One thing was for sure, Roch's hold on people was starting to slip and now he was on the run but the police finally caught up with him 6 weeks later.

Roch and the followers who took part in his sick torture all pleaded guilty and went to trial. On the 18th of January 1993, Roch was sentenced to life imprisonment and was eligible for parole in 2009 but was not released. Some of his followers remained loyal to him whilst he was in prison and others were able to undo all of the brainwashing and see Roch for who he really was. 

Roch was said to have fathered at least 26 children, other sources say it's 30. What we do know for sure is that he fathered quite a number of children as part of his sick act of controlling the female members of his cult. 

Whilst in prison, Roch hit the headlines when it was revealed that a website called ''True Crime Auction House'' were trying to sell his art work and poetry. The guards at the prison described Roch as charming and charismatic. 

It seemed that karma finally caught up with Roch at the age of 63 when a fellow inmate (reported to be his cellmate at the Dorchester Penitentiary) named Matthew Gerrard MacDonald (60) stabbed Roch in the throat with a (homemade knife) shiv. Apparently the pair had an argument before this took place. After fatally stabbing Roch, Mathew calmly walked over to the guards of the prison and said ''That piece of sh*t is down on the range. Here's the knife. I've sliced him up.'' before handing them the knife. Matthew was already serving time in prison for murder. 

This case was horrific to say the least and I thank Jean Nicolas once again for requesting that I cover it. I hope I have done it justice. 

I've read a lot about cults over the years but this one shocked me and the more I researched, the more worse the details seemed to get. There has been a movie made about his case called Savage Messiah which I haven't seen but it's on my list. There's also a book of the same name available on Amazon. 

I kind of touched briefly on cults back in April of last year with my coverage of the Kentucky Vampire Cult and I know that some of my readers would like to see me do more in this vein as well as some paranormal posts which I also enjoy researching sometimes.

Let me know what you think of this case? Roch used to try and make excuses for his behaviour by saying that he had an abusive childhood to which his parents, relatives and family friends have all denied and Roch was notorious for making up lies. Was it the stomach operations he had during his first marriage to Francine that caused him to change or was he already like that? 

I hope my posts have given you an insight into this case and I look forward to hearing (or reading) your thoughts.

As always, thank you for the support and I will see you in my next post x

RIP to the victims of Roch Theriault.


Further reading & sources:

- Roch Theriault | Newspaper Article
- A Memoir From An Ex Female Member Of The Cult
- Roch Theriault | Murderpedia
- Roch Theriault | Wikipedia
- Savage Messiah | Book
- This day In History | Roch Theriault