Cult News

Yisrayel Hawkins, also known as “Buffalo Bill” Hawkins, self-styled “prophet,” polygamist and purported cult leader, has been busted for bigamy.

Hawkins is now being held by Texas authorities in jail pending bail set at $10 million dollars.

Subsequently, a child labor charge has also been filed against the incarcerated leader.

Hawkins created the so-called “House of Yahweh” (HOY) more than twenty years ago near Abilene, Texas, which he claimed would be the place of safety for humanity when judgment finally fell upon the earth.

However, as the faithful gathered around Abilene, it appeared that Hawkins used his prophecies to fleece his followers.

Many of the cult leader’s devotees lived in broken down trailers and paid Hawkins rent. They bought his teaching tapes, books, tithed generously and often either worked for free or were grossly underpaid.

And while HOY members suffered, some dying in poverty, Hawkins lived in luxury and maintained substantial real estate holdings.

Over the decades HOY has repeatedly been accused of child abuse, sexual exploitation of women and children, medical neglect, family estrangement and “brainwashing.”

CultNews (Rick Ross) hosted a television special late last year titled “Mind Control” for the A & E network that featured hidden camera footage of life inside the secretive HOY compound.

CultNews (Rick Ross) has also testified repeatedly as an expert witness over the years in custody cases regarding HOY, which resulted in the removal of several children from the group.

Last year authorities arrested one of Hawkins’ top followers, Yedidiyah Hawkins, who remains in jail accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl he was preparing to marry.

Many of Yisrayl Hawkins’ followers have changed their last name to Hawkins.

In 2006 Abilene police investigated the death of a 1-month-old boy whose death and burial had not been reported to authorities. The infants’ autopsy revealed that the cause of his death was malnourishment and traumatic asphyxiation.

No charges have been filed concerning the baby’s death.

Another Hawkins follower was convicted of bodily injury for helping perform surgery in 2005 on her neighbor’s 7-year-old daughter who later died. That woman later received probation.

HOY members have also been accused of breaking laws regarding food stamps.

On the network television special “Mind Control” one HOY member admitted that she was not only illegally in the United States on an expired visa living within the group’s compound, but also was working illegally for a dollar an hour at one of Hawkins’ businesses.

But despite this public disclosure authorities have not yet done anything concerning illegal adult workers within HOY.

It seems authorities in Texas have finally decided to crack down on Hawkins and his self-styled spiritual kingdom.

Yisrayl Hawkins has often predicted the end of the world, most recently he claimed in September of 2007 that the end of man’s governments would begin with nuclear war within 13 months.

This became yet another bogus forecast filed away by Hawkins with his other unfulfilled prophecies.

Ironically, it now seems that Hawkins the would-be prophet, couldn’t foresee his own end.

Update: A judge later reduced bail from $10 million to $100,000.00 on February 20th. Hawkins then made bail and was set free pending trial.