We’ve all finished Wild Wild Country by now, yes? Great, because there’s an equally bizarre tale of another cult led by a charismatic leader and his (allegedly) ruthless right-hand woman unfolding as we speak.
Last week, a man named Keith Raniere, co-founder of an Albany-based self-help group/pyramid scheme called Nxivm (Pronounced “Nexium,” like the heartburn medication) was arrested in Mexico and extradited back to the U.S. on federal charges of sex trafficking. According to the FBI, Raniere, who went by the nickname “Vanguard,” had been living in a $10,000-a-week luxury villa with a group of women he referred to as his “slaves.”
“Slaves” were allegedly coerced into sexual contact with Raniere and expected to perform menial labor for his closest and most loyal female followers, a “secret sorority” called DOS (Dominos Obsequious Sororium, or Master Over the Slave Women). “Slaves” were allegedly restricted to a 500-800 calorie a day diet—Rainere, you see, prefers thin women, not to mention that starving people are easy to control—and forced to wear “fake cow udders over their breasts” while being publicly humiliated if they disobeyed. They were also expected to offer up damaging information on themselves that could be used as “collateral” if they tried to leave the group. Raniere’s teachings on the subject of sex are vastly different than those of the aforementioned Rajneeshee, preaching that women are naturally monogamous and men naturally promiscuous.
Once recruited, new “slaves” were branded with a symbol incorporating Raniere’s initials, along with those of DOS’s alleged leader and Raniere’s alleged second-in-command—Smallville’s Allison Mack. (You may also remember Mack as the love interest on the FX series Wilfred.) Until quite recently, Mack was the leader of a Nxivm women’s subgroup called Jness, which ironically preached “female empowerment” in a series of self-help classes. Top Jness students were then invited to join DOS, which Mack allegedly helped form as “a united group of women branded in the name of Mr. Raniere and Miss Mack—which will be a force for good, and a female force against evil.” The most elite of those were then allegedly invited to join Rainere at his compound.