澳彩开奖

Cult evangelist Tony Alamo was ordered today to spend his remaining years in a place that nobody will confuse with heaven. A federal judge in Texarkana, Ark., sentenced him to 175 years in prison for transporting young girls he called his 鈥渂rides鈥� across state lines for sex. Before being sentenced, Alamo, 75, testified briefly and praised God. 鈥淚鈥檓 glad I鈥檓 me and not the deceived people in the world,鈥� he said.

The anti-Catholic, pro-polygamy, gay-bashing evangelist 鈥� whose birth name is Bernie LaZar Hoffman 鈥� was in July on 10 counts of taking girls across state lines for sex over a period of 14 years. His stepdaughter, Christhiaon Coie, wasn鈥檛 among them but, in an earlier with the 澳彩开奖鈥檚 Intelligence Report, said she was raped by Alamo when she was in her teens. 鈥淚 want to thank [the 澳彩开奖] for demanding justice when so many others turn a blind eye to so many pathetic cowards who hide behind Bibles, sheets and children,鈥� she said in an E-mail today as she awaited news of Alamo鈥檚 sentence.

Alamo met and married Coie鈥檚 mother, Edith 鈥� a name she soon changed to Susan 鈥� in 1966 and the couple began three years later in California. Followers say they were punished with beatings and food deprivation, and threatened with losing their spouses and children. Among other things, Alamo blamed the Catholic church for communism, Nazism and the two world wars.

The Alamos moved the cult鈥檚 headquarters to Arkansas in 1975. When Susan Alamo died of cancer in 1982, her husband kept her embalmed body in the dining room of their home for several months in the expectation that she would rise from the dead. Her casket eventually was interred in a heart-shaped mausoleum.

Alamo served four years in prison in the 1990s for income tax evasion. He resumed his ministry when he got out. Last year, federal agents raided his 15-acre compound in the town of Foulke, Ark., near the Texas state line, looking for evidence of sexual activity with underage girls. One teenager told the FBI that Alamo 鈥渕arried鈥� and had intercourse with her when she was 9. An informant told agents that she saw Alamo sometimes take more than one girl at a time to his bedroom, where he kept candy bars and a Barbie doll collection.

Three of Alamo鈥檚 child brides testified at his sentencing hearing. One, who said she became a 鈥渂ride鈥� at age 8, asked Alamo, 鈥淲hat kind of man of God does what you have done?鈥�

U.S. District Judge Harry F. Barnes told Alamo that one day he will face a higher judge than himself, adding, 鈥淢ay God have mercy on your soul.鈥� Alamo will remain in Texarkana for now, pending a Jan. 13 hearing to determine whether he should pay restitution to his victims. Then the judge will have him sent to a federal prison with hospital facilities.