When the "Murder at Ryan's Run" podcast launched, many people wondered what the connection was between the survivors leaving MOVE and the murder of John Gilbride. As the podcast has proceeded, and as I've continued to elaborate on these connections on this blog, I hope that it's become more clear. However, I still receive the question a fair amount so it seems worthwhile to expand on these points a bit. This week's episode of "Murder at Ryan's Run" contains some disturbing facts that illustrate the relationship between Gilbride’s murder and the survivors well.
Roughly six minutes into this episode former MOVE members, Josh Robbins and Whit Sims, explain that part of Bert's strategy for beating John in the custody case, and in continuing the abuse that she inflicted during their marriage, was to set Josh (who was 10 at the time) and June (who was 12) up to jump John. She instructed them to jump on his back and to scratch his eyes out and assured them that they wouldn't do any jail time because they were minors.
Josh and June had both know John since they were born. He had always been kind to them and they cared for him. Ria and Alberta worked hard to try to turn all of the children against John by claiming that he'd always been a government agent and that he actually wanted to kill them all. As if that wasn't enough psychological torture, she was now telling these two children that they had to scratch out the eyes of a man they had liked, one of the few adults who was always kind to them. If the situation had presented itself where Alberta had deemed this action necessary and June and Josh had not followed through then they would have been in very serious trouble and would have been ostracized and isolated.
One of the key things that connect John Gilbride and the children who were born in MOVE is that they were all expendable pawns in the eyes of Ria and Alberta. Alberta did not care at all about the damage that she did to those children as long as they were working to serve her agenda. Based on everything I've seen I don't believe that Alberta ever cared for or about John at all. I'm not sure if she's capable of empathy or care for others, though she is incredibly good at pretending.
When John started writing to the women at SCI-Muncy as a teenager I believe that she saw him as a mark right away. John was 20 years younger than Alberta and she knew she could use his desire for justice to manipulate him to do just about anything she wanted. John was able to provide her with the white child that she wanted as her heir. He worked around the clock to pay for her medical bills from In Vitro fertilization and other costs from Alberta's exorbitant lifestyle. By the time John left, Alberta had taken all she wanted from him anyway and she had no use for him anymore. This is exactly how Alberta still treats her current husband, Gary Wonderlin.
John and Zack in the summer of 1996
Alberta used the children in MOVE much the same way; having them clean her house, do her landscaping, and still make large donations, though they were struggling financially themselves. Alberta demanded that the young men in MOVE be more loyal to her than their own wives. Alberta and Ria forced all of the second-generation MOVE members into marriages as young teenagers and forced the young men to go to sex workers and report all of the details to Ria. More rebellious second-generation MOVE members like June were threatened with death by Alberta on many occasions, at some points going so far as to tell June that if she didn't watch it she would end up like John.
In John's situation and that of the children born in MOVE, it is clear that every adult MOVE member knew what was going on and no one did anything to put a stop to it. If you read the trial transcripts from the custody case it's obvious that all of the testifying MOVE members were following a well-rehearsed party line. They knew that what Alberta was saying about John being an abuser was nonsense, but they went along with it anyway. When John was murdered and Alberta claimed that he was still alive but he had also been killed by the government and the mob, everyone in MOVE knew that it was crazy, but no one called her on it. This is because it has always been MOVE's policy that people who go against the organization are fair game, this didn't start with Alberta. The same goes for the abuse of MOVE children. The kind of sexual and psychological abuse in MOVE did not start with Alberta, it goes all the way back to MOVE's foundation in 1972, and that's why no one called anyone out on it. It was completely encultured into the group and thus deemed as acceptable.
John's escape from MOVE in 1998 has some striking similarities to June's escape this past July. One major difference is that June made it out with her kids and John did not. John spent the rest of his life trying to protect his son but when he tried to explain to people what MOVE actually is no one would listen. This is the exact situation that the survivors who were born into MOVE faced. MOVE has been so good at crafting their narrative and protecting their image that it's been very difficult to convince people to look deeper. The political mandate that MOVE has as a result of May 13th,1985, and the fact that no one would listen, was what allowed John Gilbride to be murdered 19 years ago with so little outcry or investigation. As June is still in hiding and John's murder has still not been solved I hope that more people are listening now.
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