Evil Web: A True Story of Cult Abuse and Courage

by Mary Rich, Carol Jose

Mary Rich, an average, attractive, reasonably intelligent woman, allows herself and her family to be drawn into a twisted cultist's evil web in this often horrifying and bizarre but gripping and compelling true story.

Cutting herself off from relatives and friends, she willingly follows him on a fanatical journey, thereby sentencing herself, her husband and their children to a prison of abuse and terror.

Leading them on their odyssey of torture and torment is Ronald Larrinaga, a charismatic, Bible-waving sociopath. He utilizes religion and fear to trap, enfold and render his victims helpless. As time passes, the Rich family become completely enslaved and follow his every dictate. The tension builds as they endure physical abuse, starvation, despair and suffering as tests of their obedience.

When the FBI and police confront Larrinaga, he eludes detection until Mary breaks the shackles of mind control, freeing herself and her family, then bringing their torturer to justice.

Evil Web depicts a battle for the soul, waged between the forces of good and evil. It is a story of terror, of despair, of struggle and ultimately of courage. Most important, it is a story of survival and of rebuilding.

Genres: True Crime, Cults

200 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first heard this story as featured in an episode of Brainwashed also called Dangerous Persuasions. It intrigued me and struck me as being different from most of the other stories on the show. It's different from other cult like experiences I've read about for two reasons. One Mary and her husband Jack left or kicked out Ron cause he was too crazy. In the show it was once in the book three times they left. Why knowing what a horrid person he was do you keep coming back? It made feeling bad for them especially Mary really difficult and also made her seem incredibly stupid. The other thing that baffled me was what was the attraction to him in the first place? I have read up and watched various documentaries on Jonestown and Waco and both Jones and Koresch were always described as charming and charismatic, there's still people who admire David Koresch to this day. It wasn't until people were already deep under their spell that they showed their true colours. Ron Larrinaga came across as a loud mouthed abusive asshole long before the Rich family got pulled in. As I said they kicked him out three times. Mary doesn't really come across as too intelligent either. She struck me as a religious zealot. Getting upset that her husband didn't value religion as much as she did and subjecting her children and herself to horrific abuse at the hands of a madman. At one point Mary is being beaten and begs for it to stop for her punishment to end. Very soon after her husband and the children that escaped show up to try and rescue her and her children and she refuses to leave. I really wanted to like Mary. I saw her and heard her speak in that show and she seemed like such a sweet person, but her actions throughout the book toward her husband and her family made it very difficult. I was proud of her husband when he said it was all her fault. He said over and over he didn't trust Ron and wanted to get away but she kept insisting on staying with this monster. I was hoping there would be a reason give or a better explanation than I just wanted to serve God and be a good Christian so I went along with him. Maybe if Ron had started out more like Jones or Koresch and been kind and charming, or in the case of Jones offered something like healthcare or good works in the community, or building interracial communities before civil rights were in full effect before he went off the rails and murdered hundreds of his followers but Ron Larrinaga was loud, obnoxious and a free loader from the start and both Mary and Jack knew it and Mary in her religious fervor dragged her family into the depths of hell even though her gut told her to run from this guy. I guess the moral of the story is trust your gut always and it's okay to be Christian but don't believe or trust any who rambles scripture loudly for hours on end.

[Bethany-may Dennison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. This book was horrifically graphic, and I thought to myself "I, the 12 year old girl I am, should really not be reading a story as twisted as this" yet I continued. And why? Because this novel is such an amazing book to read. My heart goes out to the poor family's that went through this undescribable ordeal. The fact that this is a true story really makes me think how such sick people can be in this world. However, the way these words were put made me want to read on after ever page I got. I desperately wanted to close this book and never look at it again because it made me feel nauseous, yet I read it fully to the end. This is not something I will re-read but I shall remember it till the day I depart this earth..that is unless I get dementia. But that is far from the point. This book is excellent and I recommend it to anyone who likes to read about real life, depressing ordeal's people have been through over a long period of time.

[Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt this was very well written and it definitely had my emotions through the roof

[Ashleigh]

This is the book about the group of sisters that were on Dr. Phil recently. Bad reviews on Amazon.

[Kyla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unbelievable but true.