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SAVAGE MESSIAH
This is the sensational inside story of a frightening Canandian cult leader and his eight "wives"- the first full account of a staggering reign of terror at Rock Theriault's two communes in Quebec and Ontario. A three-year publication ban on evidence was lifted only after Theriault pleaded guilty in January 1993 to a charge of second-degree murder. But even then much horrific material was never released. This book makes it clear that when Canadians read of a Charles Manson or a David Koresh, they cannot look complacently southwards and say "it can never happen here."
How did Theriault, who called himself Moses, maintain control over his eight wives and twenty-six children? How could someone once described as a "renaissance man" be so sadistic? How is it conceivable that the women he "married" stuck with him through torture, drunken orgies and the removal of their children by an appalled Children's Aid Society?
What sort of prophetic charisma led Rock Theriault's followers to work tirelessly for him in remote bush country and become unquestioning witnesses to -and victims of- his atrocities? How was Theriault able to charm his way past so many psychiatrists and social workers? Finally, what, if anything, can relatives or the police do to intervene in such a cult unless or until crimes are brought to light?
No one who absorbs this shocking story can take lightly the date on which Rock Theriault can apply for parole. No one who reads this remarkable piece of investigative reporting can fail to be compelled by the amazing narrative it unfolds.
How did Theriault, who called himself Moses, maintain control over his eight wives and twenty-six children? How could someone once described as a "renaissance man" be so sadistic? How is it conceivable that the women he "married" stuck with him through torture, drunken orgies and the removal of their children by an appalled Children's Aid Society?
What sort of prophetic charisma led Rock Theriault's followers to work tirelessly for him in remote bush country and become unquestioning witnesses to -and victims of- his atrocities? How was Theriault able to charm his way past so many psychiatrists and social workers? Finally, what, if anything, can relatives or the police do to intervene in such a cult unless or until crimes are brought to light?
No one who absorbs this shocking story can take lightly the date on which Rock Theriault can apply for parole. No one who reads this remarkable piece of investigative reporting can fail to be compelled by the amazing narrative it unfolds.
324 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 12, 2021
Canada’s very own Manson Family story and Waco Siege.
In 1977, at the age of 30, Roch “Rock” Thériault would compulsively binge leading to the divorce of his first wife and later finding salvation in religion. Despite his struggles with substance use, Rock would become a converted member of the 7th Day Adventist Church and effortlessly recruit younger adults in his pious crusade with evangelical ferver. His influence reigned supreme, and when he lost his membership due to the suspicion of Rock’s involvement in a local death in Therford QC, he took his commune with him. The rest of the story is straight fuckery.
Rock created his own bastardized religion of perverted Old Testament theology, pagan ritual, and eschatological beliefs of the blessed and the damned that drawn Rock to the Adventist religion in the first place. He was self-appointed as God’s emissary, and his followers believed him with conviction. It led to heinous acts of violence that are just morbid to mention.
I was a bit cautious reading this book. Unlike Helter Skelter, which was written by the prosecutor of the Manson trial, I didn’t know what to expect from a book like Savage Messiah. I was surprised to see it had a better narration than HS, and it was not nearly as dense with evidence and details of the trial. Both excellent books with different trade-offs. This one is an absolute lunacy of a crime story.
In 1977, at the age of 30, Roch “Rock” Thériault would compulsively binge leading to the divorce of his first wife and later finding salvation in religion. Despite his struggles with substance use, Rock would become a converted member of the 7th Day Adventist Church and effortlessly recruit younger adults in his pious crusade with evangelical ferver. His influence reigned supreme, and when he lost his membership due to the suspicion of Rock’s involvement in a local death in Therford QC, he took his commune with him. The rest of the story is straight fuckery.
Rock created his own bastardized religion of perverted Old Testament theology, pagan ritual, and eschatological beliefs of the blessed and the damned that drawn Rock to the Adventist religion in the first place. He was self-appointed as God’s emissary, and his followers believed him with conviction. It led to heinous acts of violence that are just morbid to mention.
I was a bit cautious reading this book. Unlike Helter Skelter, which was written by the prosecutor of the Manson trial, I didn’t know what to expect from a book like Savage Messiah. I was surprised to see it had a better narration than HS, and it was not nearly as dense with evidence and details of the trial. Both excellent books with different trade-offs. This one is an absolute lunacy of a crime story.
July 31, 2013
Reading this story scared the living shit out of me!! It always amazes me how some people can fall under the spell of a person such as this, even knowing the dynamics of why they do, I still have trouble accepting that they do. This man is pure evil. It made me physically ill to read about all the cruelties he exposed not just the adults under his spell to but also the little innocent children. May he rot in hell forever!
January 26, 2016
Oh, dear God, what a horrible story. This guy combines the worst features of Jim Jones and Charlie Manson, but he's crazier than both of them put together. Just read it and see for yourself. This story is also a powerful testament to the human pain threshold. (She said, shuddering...) Well written, with a group of Children's Aid Society social workers emerging as the unexpected heroes of the piece.
February 23, 2023
One man's quest to make 120 Days of Sodom real
Absolute insanity. If it weren't true it would be too unbelievable to publish, not just in the breadth and depth of Thériault's crimes, but the fact that a dozen other (apparently) sane adults offered themselves up as victims. I will never yell at a horror movie character for being an idiot again, nothing can top these people. I know you should remove the plank in your own eye before removing a speck in another's, but god damn is it hard. Their actions make ardent nazis look like bastions of independent thinking and skepticism.
"But you wouldn't be able to resist after a decade of torture" some would say, but I wouldn't have even gone to one of his shitty seminars in the first place, and if I had, I would've left the second he wanted me to build a shack in the mosquito infested Quebec wilderness (like the four Gaspé escapees), let alone AFTER HE CHOPPED MY ARM OFF. These weren't children raised in a cult, they weren't intellectually incapable (again, apparently), and the majority of them had families who wanted them back and would've taken them back in a second. Most of them left and voluntarily came back multiple times. At that point, they're no longer victims, but accomplices. Rather than jail Thériault, they should've given him a Crown stipend and kept up the commune as an experiment in psychology (after sterilizing him of course). As it is, he was killed in prison in 2011. At least I can rest easy knowing that only Maryse (relatively deserving as the first post-Gaspé escapee) got to keep her children. When Gisèle whined at the end that her children's adoptive family wouldn't let her see them, all I could think was that you could probably find methheads more able to care for a child than her.
It's an emotive tale, to the say the least. Maybe you'll have more sympathy for its subjects than me. Unfortunately, as a work of scholarship, it leaves almost everything to be desired. There is no sourcing of anything, anywhere, with three court evaluations of Thériault provided as appendices. I've seen reddit posts with better sourcing. The authors note that a lot was derived from interviews, but where and when did these interviews take place? What language where they interviewed in? Were police interviews used? Two chapters are composed of quotations from various commune members, which is better than nothing, and some other specific quotations are attributed to specific people. That's about it. There's no way to read between the lines of who's claiming what, because we don't know who's claiming what.
Comprehending what's going on is made difficult due to a lack of list of people or a timeline. There are two Francines, two Gisèles, a Marise and Maryse, at least two Jaqcues, two Greniers, etc. The fact that the personality of most of the commune members is overshadowed by Thériault doesn't help. They also do that annoying as hell "journalism" thing where you have to set the scene with pointless physical details or backstory. Thériault being descended from Acadians who resettled in Quebec adds nothing to the telling.
There are some memoirs by commune members, but they're of course in French. There is L'alliance De La Brebis by Gabrielle Lavallee (the one who didn't leave even after HE CHOPPED OFF HER ARM) in 1993, Roch Theriault Dit Moise by Francine Laflamme from 1997 (curious about this one, as she's one of the three women who still backed up Thériault, and thus got convicted), and Frères de sang - Les fils de Moïse by his two eldest sons (described as taking part in child sex crimes in this book).
Absolute insanity. If it weren't true it would be too unbelievable to publish, not just in the breadth and depth of Thériault's crimes, but the fact that a dozen other (apparently) sane adults offered themselves up as victims. I will never yell at a horror movie character for being an idiot again, nothing can top these people. I know you should remove the plank in your own eye before removing a speck in another's, but god damn is it hard. Their actions make ardent nazis look like bastions of independent thinking and skepticism.
"But you wouldn't be able to resist after a decade of torture" some would say, but I wouldn't have even gone to one of his shitty seminars in the first place, and if I had, I would've left the second he wanted me to build a shack in the mosquito infested Quebec wilderness (like the four Gaspé escapees), let alone AFTER HE CHOPPED MY ARM OFF. These weren't children raised in a cult, they weren't intellectually incapable (again, apparently), and the majority of them had families who wanted them back and would've taken them back in a second. Most of them left and voluntarily came back multiple times. At that point, they're no longer victims, but accomplices. Rather than jail Thériault, they should've given him a Crown stipend and kept up the commune as an experiment in psychology (after sterilizing him of course). As it is, he was killed in prison in 2011. At least I can rest easy knowing that only Maryse (relatively deserving as the first post-Gaspé escapee) got to keep her children. When Gisèle whined at the end that her children's adoptive family wouldn't let her see them, all I could think was that you could probably find methheads more able to care for a child than her.
It's an emotive tale, to the say the least. Maybe you'll have more sympathy for its subjects than me. Unfortunately, as a work of scholarship, it leaves almost everything to be desired. There is no sourcing of anything, anywhere, with three court evaluations of Thériault provided as appendices. I've seen reddit posts with better sourcing. The authors note that a lot was derived from interviews, but where and when did these interviews take place? What language where they interviewed in? Were police interviews used? Two chapters are composed of quotations from various commune members, which is better than nothing, and some other specific quotations are attributed to specific people. That's about it. There's no way to read between the lines of who's claiming what, because we don't know who's claiming what.
Comprehending what's going on is made difficult due to a lack of list of people or a timeline. There are two Francines, two Gisèles, a Marise and Maryse, at least two Jaqcues, two Greniers, etc. The fact that the personality of most of the commune members is overshadowed by Thériault doesn't help. They also do that annoying as hell "journalism" thing where you have to set the scene with pointless physical details or backstory. Thériault being descended from Acadians who resettled in Quebec adds nothing to the telling.
There are some memoirs by commune members, but they're of course in French. There is L'alliance De La Brebis by Gabrielle Lavallee (the one who didn't leave even after HE CHOPPED OFF HER ARM) in 1993, Roch Theriault Dit Moise by Francine Laflamme from 1997 (curious about this one, as she's one of the three women who still backed up Thériault, and thus got convicted), and Frères de sang - Les fils de Moïse by his two eldest sons (described as taking part in child sex crimes in this book).
April 28, 2018
Purchased this book and it arrived yesterday .
It took me a while to read and finish this book but finally managed last night.
The writing was good and I had never heard of this story so I think it was more me than the book.
I can understand women getting abused by men but letting these men abuse your child?no.
I was abused by my then boyfriend but during my pregnancy I realized I did not want my baby to live with him and be also abused or a witness and that was why I finally had enough and left him.Best decision I have made.
So reading that those women let him abuse their children repulsed me. Sorry no excuse for that.
It took me a while to read and finish this book but finally managed last night.
The writing was good and I had never heard of this story so I think it was more me than the book.
I can understand women getting abused by men but letting these men abuse your child?no.
I was abused by my then boyfriend but during my pregnancy I realized I did not want my baby to live with him and be also abused or a witness and that was why I finally had enough and left him.Best decision I have made.
So reading that those women let him abuse their children repulsed me. Sorry no excuse for that.
August 25, 2023
I’ve read plenty of cult books over the years and I have to say that some of the stuff in here is the worst I’ve ever read.
It was a bit of a slow start, but I persevered through those chapters and I’m glad I did.
There were a times I thought there was too much back story on things that only marginally affected the story. For example a history on the Mormon religion going back to Joseph Smith and Brigham Young all to introduce a fundamentalist Mormon man Rock had a handful of dealings with.
Apart from that I found it a good read. Not enjoyable in the least, rather it is shocking and sad.
It was a bit of a slow start, but I persevered through those chapters and I’m glad I did.
There were a times I thought there was too much back story on things that only marginally affected the story. For example a history on the Mormon religion going back to Joseph Smith and Brigham Young all to introduce a fundamentalist Mormon man Rock had a handful of dealings with.
Apart from that I found it a good read. Not enjoyable in the least, rather it is shocking and sad.
May 17, 2019
I started some research in this cult a few months ago & a friend of mine got me this book - I absolutely love it. I thought it had a great detailed accounts of some of the events & some definitely made me cringe. Compared to some of my previous research online, this book definitely delivers more information & images than most online sources I found!
December 24, 2023
Woah, perrito loco bueno pa' los delirios.
February 14, 2025
It's great but don't read it
November 3, 2025
this man makes me sick
February 20, 2012
I tried really hard with this book, but I just couldn't get into it. I do know the story for the most part since I have watched the movie. Like all books made into movies I suspect the book held more accurate details, but I'll never get to know. I sometimes have trouble reading books written by journalists, and this is the case with this one. They write in a style that doesn't always hold my attention, and to take a story as sensational as this one and make it a bit of a bore to read is really something.
December 7, 2014
This was an interesting read. I grew up in the area in which Rock settled in Ontario, and he was often in the news when I was a child. Our family had several random brushes with his group, luckily nothing worthy of being included in this book. Rock's murder (in prison) in 2011 somewhat reignited my interested in the group and I eventually got around to picking up this book. If you're interested in Canadian true crime stories, you might want to add this one to your list.
December 14, 2013
astonishingly scarey to think how one person's delusions of grandeur can so overwhelmingly destroy the lives of so many people
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews