George Feigley (June 23, 1940 – April 13, 2009) was an American church leader. He has been described as a sex

cult Cults are social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term ...

leader. Feigley served over 32 years in prison for sex crimes against children, from 1975 to 2008. In 1971, Feigley founded an organization he called the Neo American Church (not be confused with the more notable and unrelated Neo-American Church, a

psychedelia Psychedelia usually refers to a Aesthetics, style or aesthetic that is resembled in the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience produced by certain psychoactive substances. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic ...

n religion founded by Arthur Kleps in the mid-1960s) and the associated Neo American School. The church and school were located in

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Harrisburg ( ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,099 as of 2020, Harrisburg is the ninth-most populous city in Pennsylvania. It is the larger of the two pr ...

. Church doctrine emphasized the transcendent or mystical power of

orgasm Orgasm (from Greek , ; "excitement, swelling"), sexual climax, or simply climax, is the sudden release of accumulated sexual excitement during the sexual response cycle, characterized by intense sexual pleasure resulting in rhythmic, involu ...

. According to police reports, it also advocated the use of children for sexual gratification. While leading the cult, Feigley authored several publications under the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

G.G. Stoctay. These included a book entitled ''The Sale of Lillian'', which described the

sexual abuse Sexual abuse or sex abuse is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using physical force, or by taking advantage of another. It often consists of a persistent pattern of sexual assaults. The offender is re ...

of a 10-year-old girl, and contained graphic illustrations of such abuse. The

charisma () is a personal quality of magnetic charm, persuasion, or appeal. In the fields of sociology and political science, psychology, and management, the term ''charismatic'' describes a type of leadership. In Christian theology, the term ''chari ...

tic Feigley, who called himself "The Light of the World", gathered a small group of followers, mostly women, into his church. As of 1983, the group, which at one point had numbered over twenty persons, included about ten adults, one or two of whom were men (five children of group members were then living in foster homes where they had been placed by the state).

Imprisonment, escape, and re-capture

Feigley led the church in freedom for only about five years, as he was arrested in 1975 on multiple counts of

statutory rape In common law jurisdictions, statutory rape is nonforcible sexual activity in which one of the individuals is below the age of consent (the age required to legally consent to the behaviour). Although it usually refers to adults engaging in sex ...

indecent assault Indecent assault is an offence of aggravated assault in some common law-based jurisdictions. It is characterised as a sex crime and has significant overlap with offences referred to as sexual assault. England and Wales Indecent assault was a broa ...

, and corrupting the morals of minors. He was found guilty of statutory rape of two teenage girls and was sentenced to 10 years to 20 years in prison. His wife was found guilty of corrupting the morals of minors. Notwithstanding his imprisonment, some of Feigley's followers remained loyal, roaming to follow him as he was moved from prison to prison or when he was a fugitive. In 1976, Feigley scaled a prison wall at SCI- Rockview and fled to

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

. While he was on the lam he hid at a farm near Thornton, West Virginia, which he and his followers referred to as the "Aaron Farm". He was apprehended in 1978, but escaped from the Taylor County Jail in Grafton less than a month later while awaiting extradition back to Pennsylvania. He was assisted in this escape by fellow prisoner James Lee Gilbert, who joined the cult after engineering the escape. After his second escape he was free for two months before he was recaptured, hiding on another farm near Sneedville, Tennessee. In 1981, plans for Feigley to escape from SCI- Graterford by

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

were uncovered. In response Feigley was transferred to Western Penitentiary. His women followers visited him regularly at the State Correctional Institution at

Huntingdon, Pennsylvania Huntingdon is a borough in and county seat of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, in the Middle Atlantic states region of the Northeastern United States. It lies along the Juniata River about east of larger Altoona and west of the state capita ...

. The organization continued to operate; a 1983 raid on Feigley's home found young children playing with sex toys and boxes of child pornography. Feigley's wife and others pleaded guilty to corruption of minors and were sentenced to prison. In 1983, James Lee Gilbert and another of Feigley's followers, Laura Seligman, died in circumstances that led authorities to believe they were intending to break Feigley out of prison. (They drowned in a sewer line close to Western Penitentiary where Feigley was then held.) In 1994, while still in prison, Feigley was convicted of instructing his wife and another man over a prison phone to rape a 14-year-old girl. Feigley was found guilty of conspiracy to commit involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and sentenced. Because of problems with the search warrants, Feigley's wife and the girl's mother were able to plead guilty and receive probation.

Prisoner activism

In 1996, while imprisoned, Feigley co-founded the prisoners' advocacy website and

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

prisoners.com, along with his wife Sandra. He contributed to the website to the extent possible while he was in prison. The organization was purported to be "the voice of the imprisoned" and criticized the

Pennsylvania Department of Corrections The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PADOC) is the Pennsylvania state agency that is responsible for the confinement, care, and rehabilitation of approximately 37,000 inmates at state correctional facilities funded by the Commonwealth of ...

for alleged

abuses Abuse is the act of improper usage or treatment of a person or thing, often to Distributive justice, unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, assault, violation, rap ...

. It also provided information useful to prisoners and their loved ones. The website also featured biographies of and works of art by prisoners, and health essays by Feigley under the pseudonym "Professor Stoctay". However in addition to this advocacy for prisoners, the site was also used to publish some of Feigley's rationalizations for his crimes. As of April 2019, the website is defunct.

Release

Feigley became eligible for

parole Parole, also known as provisional release, supervised release, or being on paper, is a form of early release of a prisoner, prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated ...

in 1990, but parole was denied then and at each subsequent annual review. Having served the full time for all his convictions, Feigley was released from prison on August 15, 2008, to some consternation. His convictions were not covered under Pennsylvania's

Megan's Law Megan's Law is the name for a federal law (and informal name for similar state laws) in the United States requiring law enforcement authorities to make information available to the public regarding registered sex offenders. Laws were created ...

s (his 1976 conviction preceded Megan's Law, and conspiracy to commit involuntary deviate sexual intercourse — his 1994 charge — isn't covered under the law), so he was not required to register as a sex offender, nor was he on parole as he had served his sentences in full. His return home was met with a crowd of protestors. A neighbor circulated a petition to prevent Feigley's return to his home.

Death

Feigley, who left prison in poor health, died on April 13, 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Feigley, George 1940 births 2009 deaths">1940 births"> ...

Imprisonment, escape, and re-capture

Prisoner activism

Release

Death

See also

References

References