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SURVIVOR; BY VINNIE CURTO

Vinnie Curto was born in East Boston, Massachusetts on July 10, 1955. His father, Jimmy Curto, was a raving, sick, alcoholic homosexual. Vinnie’s father and his drunken friends sexually abused young Vinnie, frequently raping him and performing other deviant sexual acts on him, while his mother, Loretta, stood by and let it happen.

When Vinnie was fourteen, his father forced him to pursue a boxing career. Jimmy Curto told his son that the only way he could ever be proud of him is if he won a boxing championship. He said if Vinnie failed in that, his only other alternative would be to commit suicide. To make his point, Jimmy produced a handgun and made Vinnie hold it in his hands. It is a memory that has haunted Vinnie for years.

To escape his living hell at home, at the age of sixteen Vinnie lied about his age and joined the Navy. Although the falsification of his age was later discovered and he was discharged, while serving he joined the boxing team and made many contacts that would benefit his career in the future. Vinnie’s decision to join the Navy not only altered his life, it may very well have saved it. After his stint in the military Vinnie joined the Olympic boxing team, where he made several more valuable contacts, including the legendary trainer Angelo Dunde

DOOMSDAY CULT; BY ALAN R. WARREN

Jim Jones convinced his 1000 followers they would all have to commit suicide since he was going to die. Shoko Asahara convinced his followers to release a weapon of mass destruction, the deadly sarin gas, on a Tokyo subway. The Order of the Solar Temple lured the rich and famous, including Princess Grace of Monaco, and convinced them to die a fiery death now on Earth to be reborn on a better planet called Sirius. Charles Manson convinced his followers to kill, in an attempt to incite an apocalyptic race war.

These are a few of the doomsday cults examined in this book by bestselling author Alan R. Warren. Its focus is on cults whose destructive behavior was due in large part to their apocalyptic beliefs or doomsday movements. It includes details surrounding the massacres and a look into how their members became so brainwashed they committed unimaginable crimes at the command of their leader.

Usually, when we hear about these cults and their massacres, we ask ourselves how it possibly happened. We could also ask ourselves, what then is the difference between a cult and a religion? We once had a small group of people who unquestionably followed a person who believed he was the son of God. Two thousand years later, that following is one of the most recognized religions in the world. This book in no way criticizes believing in God. Rather, it examines how a social movement grows into a full religion and when it does not. And what makes the conventional faiths such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism stand above groups such as the Branch Davidians or Children of God.

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