Reports about the Heaven's Gate cult members. The newspaper, the North County Times, down in San Diego is reporting that a raid on two storage sheds in San Diego has uncovered an arsenal of weapons. The paper says several assault rifles, shotguns, and other weapons were found. Authorities won't confirm or deny that report. Meanwhile, a Yuba City man apparently has killed himself in an imitation of the Heaven's Gate cult members. Authorities say the 58-year-old man was found dead yesterday in his trailer. He left a note saying he was joining the other 39 members on a spaceship. Tonight, two former members are speaking out about a spiritual sect based up in Tehachapi.

They say this sect, called the Phoenix Institute, has taken thousands of dollars from investors and not returned it as promised. Tehachapi arrested Leon Fort, says he loaned the Institute $120,000 and they refused to return it. His friend Ambeam explains that the group believes in a leader on a spacecraft called Hattan. He guarantees you a place that you won't go under if the planet were to destroy itself. They were going to buy gold and it would be here marked for us to decide what to be done with it. We had promissory notes that actually upon demand that they would pay whatever was asked for plus whatever the exchange price of the gold at the time would be. Forbes and Veeam say they are speaking out now to warn others about the Phoenix Institute. Now, Eyewitness News today tried to contact the leaders of the Phoenix Institute but they have not returned calls from our reporters.

As many as 10,000 people may have been exposed to hepatitis from eating tins of fruit cups at Los Angeles schools. Heaven's Gate cult members, the investigation is wrapping up here today, and San Diego County plans to auction off items found in the mansion. And while what happened here is still hard to believe for some, Extras uncovered another group that shares Heaven's Gate's mysterious beliefs in the extraterrestrial. And now, frightened former members are coming forward, saying they've been ripped off and the group is also stockpiling weapons. Rick Schwartz reports. High in the hills of Southern California, where green pastures meet ominous mountains, there's a small town with something to hide. A shadowy group called the Phoenix Institute for Research and Education has settled into Hatcher people. You get the feeling that you're on top, that you have the information the rest of the world doesn't have, you're one of the chosen few.

Betty Tootin was on the inside, now she's out. She says the Phoenix Institute is a cult that's ruining her life. I want this stuff stopped. I want other people to know what a sham this is. She's taking on the enigmatic leaders of the Phoenix Institute, Doris and E.J. Eckert. X-Ray obtained these rare photographs of the couple from another former cultist. And when you hear the Eckert story, you'll understand why their camera shot. Doris Eckert claims she received Hatan, head of the Host of God, intergalactic commission, here to help people through the earth changes. She says that she receives this through electrical impulses in her head. You heard right. The Eckers who live in this large compound in Tehachapi claim there is an all-knowing eight-foot tall alien hovering above the earth in the mothership Bethlehem and Doris can channel him. The atmospherians, aliens if you will, that would be stationed in Mount Shasta for instance were rotated on a basis of every six months in the beginning, especially because the atmosphere begins to track you and the memories go and you would find the alien beings that were not regularly rotated were very often lost to command.

The space theme is reminiscent of the teachings of Marshall Applewhite, who led the Heaven's Gate cult into mass suicide last week. We are returning to life from a visitation. He would beam up everybody into his spaceship that were... While Acolyte claimed his followers would have sent a spaceship trailing to Hale-Bopp Comet, the Echors claimed there was a two and a half mile long crystal buried in the mountain behind their house that allows them to receive the alien Hutton's prophecies. When the earth changes comet, the earth is supposed to be so devastated he would beam up everybody into his spaceship that were true believers. And their families. So you would be saved by beaming up.

Oddly, it wasn't the bizarre stories that spoiled Betty Tutin's fate. It was a financial battle with the Echres that began in Las Vegas. Betty claims the Echres convinced her to take advantage of Nevada's loose financial laws and open her own personal corporation. She showed us a table full of documents claiming the actors got her to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in the Phoenix Institute and she claims they refused to pay her back. This is white collar crime and it's done through mind control. Our sources tell us that this mini mall here at the Hatchipee is the nerve center for the Phoenix Institute.

Now inside this unmarked building, workers produce a variety of so-called health products, and this newspaper called Contact, in which Commander Hattan allegedly delivers his message to followers. The paper is published weekly and sent to thousands of followers nationwide. It features counterculture articles like this one alleging Henry Kissinger ordered the creation of the Ebola and AIDS viruses. Although the rooms in this complex appear closed and abandoned, our sources recognized several cars and assured us Institute members were inside, working on the paper. No one would come out to talk to us until this man appeared. Tell us how the Eckers made all their money. He refused to identify himself, but our sources later confirmed he is indeed an editor of content. I think your questions are impertinent and none of your business, and I don't have any comment, so bye. This is not a cult and we're not doing anything wrong and we don't like having our privacy invaded by people on the attack.

But former institute members say it's Doris and E.J. Ecker who are on the attack against them. If I became very adamant and out against them publicly, I believe that there are fanatics amongst them that could take a weapon and come and kill him. This man is a former member of the Institute who asked us to conceal his identity, fearing repercussions from the Eckers. He says he has reason to believe the Eckers have stockpiled weapons either on their property or in their son-in-law's home, which is said to have a two-story underground bunker. After I got out of the group, I became acquainted with an individual that was there and he saw their stash of weapons, automatic weapons. You might make a note that this is brought against PNCE. I will tell you a little bit more about him later.

Accumulation of weaponry. And so I believe that they could be very vicious. Now the FBI tells Extra that it's investigating the Phoenix Institute for Research and Education, but they cannot comment on our story. Now, a little more about what the investigation has turned up here. County officials say cult members led a very structured life. All television viewing had to be pre-approved and their seats were all assigned. Now my co-host Libby Weaver... Theos with more on the mother of this bizarre cult. I think that's it. I prefer to respond to you on film, so if you'd let me continue that, I'll let you continue. terminology is my association and we want to disassociate the package of records given here will give you plenty of background the courts have been in litigation for some time your story tells you about George Green taking the gold, we started a lawsuit and the sheriff up there made him dig up the gold in his backyard and take it into the court.

The court voted in the favor of the cost of bank of America and amended the debt. George felt that he had earned that goal in some way. And he had up to that time published some 50 in the New Jersey. The first 50. He had borrowed $150,000 from the Institute to assist him with his publishing. Now he has consistently represented himself as a slow millionaire. He stated in court that his value was between $4.5 and $5 million. But his always indicated that he was a lovely person, but because he had some cash flow problems and he dreamed up the Phoenix Institute as a way to have other people from outside be able to put money into the project so that to help in the publication and any other projects that we might have.

We were urged early on to do some experimental farming and we've done that. We have here, leased a piece of property, I think it was in 1992, 160 acres out of Cumberland Valley, and we raised a tree called a spelt grain. I don't expect that anybody knows what spelt is, but it's an ancient grain, is I protein disadvantage very tough fall and to get it out of that fall you have to have a special piece of equipment manufacturers in Germany and once in a while in Canada we got one from him.

So we could clean and vacuum and run our stuff all the way to the flower out here on the farm. And that's where Mr. Hintz got into the picture. Hintz represented himself to be a farmer. And he was in Montana. He heard about the Institute's journals, journalists to George Green's travels, and over a period of time, corresponded back and forth, and finally came back, came down here to Dr. Fong. Well, it turned out that he was a sticky finger, a certain leaf. And, but we didn't know that that way, and he seemed to be articulate and an active participant in the thing. And we changed, the board members of the institute changed, and he was elected president of the board of the institute.

While he was president, he told us that his mother was making an investment loan to the institute, that's not a note it turned out that he's got that money from another person the note was made payable to his corporation and so basically in the long run $7 million loss or $1,000 loss to us because we have to pay off the person who thought she was meantime understand that he's recently been terminated from his most recent employment because there were shortages found.

And they finally decided to let him go. Now, that's Mr. Green, because he wants to hold on to the gold, has been nibbling at every person that he thought he could talk to, to try to get them to switch over to his side in order to help him retain the gold. Still sitting in the court. That's four years ago. I've been litigating Madden ever since to try to get it released. game the Supreme Court is ruled why don't you explain why people And when they say, mind control and brainwash, they came here. Nobody asked them to come here, number one.

So where was the brainwashing? Was that before they came? No, it was never touted as ever being, well, I don't know what George Green said out there. It was never touted as being an investment. And anytime that EJ talked to anybody about it, it was always, look, it is a time of preparation for care. If you're in Los Angeles, for instance, you know you may very well have an earthquake and heavy expenses or something. Don't put anything anywhere until you take care of yourself. The whole program was based, and I think you should make sure she has a copy of George Green's on his financial stationery, the program. But it wasn't like you come in and you invest in gold.

Over and over and over and over again, it was made very clear, we are not metal stealers. we could purchase that if say you want $20 then $20 would purchase gold that went to the bank to be used as collateral and then it could be borrowed against but it always was borrowed against it was always bank collateral and then if it did not belong to the lender and this I don't think, I don't think Paul got it clear to you though from what I saw of Paul's. Well you almost saw it on the 40th. Well I realize that. And this is like, you know, they said yesterday, oh my God, we've got a full two minutes out of, you know, five hours.

Well, we understand that, but the major point that you need to understand about the Phoenix Institute is not other than I have given any rights to anything over to the Institute. And if they ever sold, it would be a matter of income back to the Institute. We're doing projects, and one of the projects, like I told you before, was at 200, and yes, it is still there. there and we're working on it and it's going to get done and it's going to be right over here on Capitol Hill and I expect now it's more like a three to four hundred million dollar project. Yes and there will be with it another several million dollar television network and it's all already the The architects have already drawn it. These are humongous-sized domes, like 30 stories high.

And it'll be over Capitol Hill. How about if, what we have told our viewers are two things. This is the group, and this is what we understand them to believe. And then as we started to do investigation, we also heard from the people on the financial transactions, which I see as separate, but somehow there are some connections what if you were to explain how the financial things really are and we'll let Doris explain the part of the thing. Does that make sense to you? I know what we have told our viewers and so that's where I think we need to carry this forward. I've worked my way at this for a little longer, and it may come clear to you, if not to me, I'm sure, it may come clear to you how to handle it better. There are two or three other points that we need to make.

at this particular instant, because the price of gold was down. If the price of gold was at $700 per ounce instead of $350, it would make a lot of sense to everybody who heard this story. Or if gold was having a very rapid run-up right now, it would make sense. But gold is then as high as $840 per ounce in the bank. Now it's $3.50. There isn't any reason not to do it, because at some point in time you were $840. arithmetic would indicate that in the top half of the year, gold ought to be somewhere around $2,000, which is based on a few things.

That's the value. So, there was a fallback position for the Institute, and I must give George credit for this, I think, and he was a security license against it. Obviously, if the loan goes to $800 a ounce, most of the money that has been borrowed against it can be paid back, and also, the person who made the loan or the corporation who made the loan could get a substantial profit, but not all of it. which is anticipated to take several months when it takes off. Remember, gold doesn't do like a stock market. Gold goes pretty fast. Because gold is the opposite to a paper pen. Gold is the real stuff that don't do much very often, but when it does, you want your money to go to real estate or something, hard assets, they call it.

So, during this run-out, the Institute has to purchase, it has credit. Now, as the price of gold gets more, it has more credit. So it can buy more gold. And it buys more gold, two or three more times, and at 800, and we've done computer studies on this to make sure that it's okay, and somewhere around $600, $650 per ounce, price of gold, everybody can get their money back. It's sold out at that point, you pay off the loans, you get the money back. That's the fallback.

That's not the only institute is a funder of project one of the projects if something happened those would suddenly become a demand something close to 200 of them cost a lot of them. She has assigned her royalties back to the Institute, which will help pay off his debt. I don't know that the farm can ever make a big killing, it's not in the cards, but the Institute is funding a mortar, jewelry manufacturer some of that some of those jewelry has already paid back if it wanted to make additional contributions to the institute to have work as a co-op build new ventures. Right in the beginning the business guys decided we'd like to have a little more industry attached to the West Bedroom.

So that's how it got started. And the majority of these people here either work here, one thing or another, or they're retired and they want to be here and volunteer their time. But I think, let's take Betty Newton for instance. Now back to that situation. She was told in the beginning that you cannot call your notes. There is a side agreement with these notes. she received interest all along the way so if you want both the airline side agreements I heard that she was she certainly did very high it was on the side will we will have a burst of the financial financial and at that time she would get whatever property and that's part of the agreement in the beginning those notes are not called even though they say from very man they're not calling so can I get that information from you as contestants I don't want to is that really worth it I'm not sure that that's worth it in time on your television I think what we need to say is we tried to work something out with Betty our best offer at that time was to try to get her 200,000 as soon as we could let me explain that because she has said something and we have the opportunity to respond our understanding You know, that's...

You're leaving out one of the most important things, when she wanted her money, she wanted it for her son, who was going to go into the development business with George Reed. She told us that she needed it because of a family member. There was no family member. I think it was she was couched in like it was a medical thing. No, it was not. She, George had asked, had gotten very close to her sons, and they were going to get her investment, if you want to call it an investment, they always do. They wanted their money back. They wanted it, everybody that George told to get their money back, they wanted it in gold, which was never, ever an option. They wanted it in gold, and George had said that you can input the gold with me, and I can roll it over through Puerto Rico and Costa Rica.

He owns a coffee plantation or two down there, he said. And we even know the person he was working with in Puerto Rico. And so any gold that he could gather up, he was turning into cash, only he was doing it offshore and very illegally. So he wanted Leon and anybody who got their gold, I mean their money back, he wanted it in gold so he could then manipulate it. And then he began to advertise while he was in Montana before he took off for Idaho. Quite recently he was on the air again advertising his big development skills, and people who would go to see him, he would promise them large parts of whatever development program he was in, large amounts of stock and stuff. that had actually leased or rented or borrowed three corporations to handle her business. And over a period of time, she gave a lot of money to George Green personally. And that was, that's their business, whatever. Then she loaned quite a lot of money to, over a period of time, to the Institute, at which time she would put portions of it into her corporations. I'm going to call them hers for now. They were never hers, but we'll call them hers. And at the time Betty Tootin left here, she went directly to Florida to this woman. And things really began to happen then.

George Green started a mailing program, which he already had going, and every letter would be different, a different story. In fact, one judge said, when he wanted another hearing and they had canceled the jury, the judge said, why would I go further with this so you could make up one more story? Now this is, you know, this is totally, anybody else would be wiped away, but he wanted that gold. And then his attorneys got onto this. And I'm going, please don't put this on the air because I don't want to get too farther, but this one attorney, George Abbott, is an old political buffoon. He is the town trump. And this Leon and Ann Beam, and that's another story in itself, went out to meet him and he became their lawyer. He has stripped them of over, I mean the last time we heard, and this was like three suits ago, They have stripped these people, and you talk about brain dead. You know, the man stood in this room and said, he already lies to us. Well, then why do you listen?

Well, he seems like a nice guy. Do you read the papers? I don't understand them. This poor man has a history. He is one of the Rocky Melindas, the Serpent family. He is wonderful. He is innocent. This man came along and through his life, he had such a mental illness that he was, I call it incarcerated.

But then my background's medical, and when I heard they had fried him with electric shock treatments, I about, well, we just sat together and cried. I just said, Leon, I just can't believe this. And so I could understand Leon coming out here. He had been up to Rumpka. Well, now he had met George. And this seemed like maybe the truth of God. Well, God doesn't come out here and tell you that it's all right to commit suicide, it's all right to do these other things.

It's a lesson of responsibility for yourself. So, uh, he was here for a long time with his little 90-year-old mother that just, oh, she was just the sweetest thing, just loved to, anybody, everybody just adored her. And he now says that we took money from a 90-year-old woman, we didn't even take money from him. I didn't even know he put any money into anything. And they did it through his corporation. Well, that's fine because that's a shelter and this is vital business. So time goes on and he is living in a trailer. You know, I mean, it's a knife moving along. And for a while he lived up at the campground, Indian Hills. And lo and behold, one day came through two women from Tucson, Arizona. One was named Dorothy and the other was named as Anne Bean. And they were going to camp along the way. They were going to go to the East Coast and then back. And Dorothy had read one of the journals, maybe even the first one, Seeker Fool, which is just a fantasy.

And Dorothy wanted to stop here. So they were just going to be here a couple of days. And you know, they parked with their little tent right next door to Leon and Esther. Well, within two weeks, and B, after promising her friend she would not get involved, she had no source of income, none, and even told some of the people here, well, now she had found Leon, she didn't need a job. But this woman had moved into Leon's bedroom and became his mistress with his little 90 year old mother just about to pass out and die from the humiliation. And time even goes on by there. And we have two other people that came through or by or I think one is even loaned some money from Tucson. And so I don't know, because they were here, we had some kind of a little meeting, and EJ was to meet with those women later. And I remember that somewhere along in the meeting, here come these two women to speak to me, and I didn't know who they were.

And I knew that I had seen Ann, I didn't know who she was. I certainly didn't even know her last name. But because she rushed up there with them, and I said to them, oh you must be here with Ann. Well no, they certainly weren't. And so, after the meeting, you know, I didn't know what was taking place because they were obviously not even going to speak to her. So EJ met with them later that afternoon, and the only reason we are involved and it has his signature on these notes is he's treasurer of the damn corporation. Let me have Jake explain the signature. Well I want to finish this part because it's important. Leon was happy here. Betty Tootin was happy here. And then Commander wrote on somebody had asked the question about cults and groups and witchcraft and stuff like that. And the commander simply made a statement that witchcraft, regardless of what you call it, is a ritualistic thing, and it can be called a cult cause, and it really is not of God because you don't need a bunch of rituals or anything else to be in connection with God.

Well, suddenly I got a 15 page letter from Anne, and this did it. This did it. Well, then when E.J. met with these two women, they said, what is she doing here? It doesn't seem likely that she would be here. Oh, well, why not? Because she belongs to a witch's coven in Tucson. Now, this was presented, but hell, I don't see anything wrong if you've gone and you have looked around, you're searching, you're doing something. But that wasn't what did it. She lied. She put them down, she pulled Leon away, and pretty soon everything was menial and they're trying to steal from you and look they lied about me. Well then, proof came. And so Leon wouldn't let his mother come around us anymore or anything. And so there you have the story. I did talk to Anne and she did tell me some of those things. Of course, that was her version of it.

Okay, let me just put this on your table. I'm up here. Okay. I'm still camera shy. Very good, you know. I think we probably should never do that. I would like you to read this. Okay. Now that I've got it with me, I'd like you to study that that's something you've never called your group of home there was a graphic or text display at the bottom that has to be called you know you can actually say it it did say it on the screen itself we've never called we have never called your home a compound we're called Disney we have never shown pictures of your home no pictures or air journey no I noticed that and we've never mentioned that I didn't ever hear our name mentioned.

Because I could not contact you in person. I'm not going to use your name until I can verify the information. They didn't mention weapons because they honestly did. That was not in the record as a whole thing. What we did do was talk to Leon and hear the information from them, too. So I want to give you the opportunity to respond to that. Just like you explained a moment ago that another person had taken the money and this is what the agreement really was. I think you deserve that opportunity and the viewers would ask that question. So what did happen? Well, also it should be noted that we rent that house. I mean, Judge Jason, rent. I, you know, the house has never been a part of our program. All right.

Because it's your personal, as far as I know, your personal home and I could not verify that you were still involved with the group until I had talked to him, which I did not until then. Is the house on your page? No. The house is not on the footage. No mention of weapons is on the footage other than the stuff at the bottom of the screen. No mention of your name. The only thing me, and not even Carol, but the person introducing it, called it a spiritual sect. Which was something, frankly, we batted around the newsroom because we didn't know what to call you. And the word group was being used a lot. So, and we, we, we can't use the word group.

And the only real thing they did was that they tied in the Phoenix Institute, like with the papers, like it was all one big thing. And then the beliefs, the thing I clarified with Carol last week was, is that the institute is not engaged in the issue of belief. The paper may contain some stuff, and when the commander writes, people can believe what they want to believe. That's really not the business of the Institute. It was my understanding that the newspaper is one of the projects of the Institute. That seemed to be the accurate information. But if you would like to talk about the financial, clarify what is accurate, factual about the financial dealings of the Institute, I think my viewers would like to know that.

And if yours would like to explain what the beliefs are, I think my viewers would be interested in that. Those are the two elements that we need to consider. It strikes me that I don't want to even mix the two. If you wanted to come out either day after tomorrow or next week or something like that, then it is a separate thing. I don't believe that it's suitable under these circumstances to even connect the two. These are not far out books. These are based on absolute what is taking place in the world today. And I think what you might want to realize, Carol, is that you have a whole plethora of incredible stories. I don't know these people that I have written about, but I have gotten to know quite a few of them. And I bet I didn't bring it.

You mean written about as receiving from the commander? Uh, well, I'm talking about people like David Icke and people that have come to us basically through a commander. Somebody just sent something this very day, and I guess I wouldn't want to give you this original but for instance this is David Ike he is coming on Sunday to spend the afternoon with us all right here is Mark Phillips and Kathy O'Brien they have been here before she is out of the MK Ultra Mind Control government program these are the stories that really would put you on the map would you like to talk to us about the command again not really Doris they you know they have time first of all they're on a time schedule secondly if they had time and they can cover both they can agree to separate so it's as if they Well, I don't mean to be insulting, especially Carol, but I don't.

I have never found it worth that way. Well, then we can do one or the other. Would you like to respond to the financial aspects, or would you find it more appropriate to talk about the beliefs, which is where we started, just because we wanted to know what does a group believe, what do they not believe. And if it wasn't until after we started trying to get some information, we stumbled upon in other pastures. Kathy, if we could have a clear definition of truth as being the absence of a lie, then you could probably put all of that stuff in just a simple thing that there really isn't a shred of truth there. If you want to find what the truth is, you'd almost have to reverse what's said.

And what's happening even today is that truth is bigger than us. It's big and it's real. And we need to know it. And the people need to know it. And that's what you're here for. And it can't be minimized. And it even can't be maximized because it's truth. And this is just a source of that. And that's what we'd like to have go out, that you've been told lies by everywhere else.

And here's a place where you won't find it. And you'll find documentation and you'll find history and you'll find science and you'll find all the things that's been kept from us by people who want to control the world and make us worse than slaves. And this comes from Hitchcock? This comes from within us, within me. Commander represents my heart and my mind he's clear he's not deluded and he has a message for everybody and it's a hope and it's a future and it's a joy I don't know Wayne. I know what you're saying. And I thank you for the opportunity. And you know what I may do is at the end of my story I can say, give a simple explanation, perhaps restate some of the things that Mr. Lenzel said about the actual.