Tag: sarah
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Hulu’s new docuseries ‘Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawerence’ is based on a horrifying true story
Hulu’s new docuseries Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawerence brings the story of Larry Ray’s manipulation and exploitation of a group of Sarah Lawerence students to the small screen.
The story was brought to light in 2019 in a New York Magazine feature story which led to an FBI investigation resulting in Ray being sentenced to 60 years in prison for sex trafficking, extortion, conspiracy, and forced labor last month. The three-part docuseries features first-hand accounts of Ray’s abuse that spanned a decade. Here’s the true story behind the documentary:
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Who are the victims?
Ray first met the group of sophomores at Sarah Lawerence through his daughter Talia, herself a student at the New York liberal arts college. After his release from prison in the fall of 2010, Ray moved into Talia’s dorm, inserted himself into her friends’ lives, and gained their trust through “therapy sessions” he conducted. Ray’s victims included Talia’s boyfriend at the time, and her roommates Santos Rosario, Daniel Levin, Isabella Pollok, and Claudia Drury. Later Rosario introduced Ray to his sisters Felicia Rosario and Yalitza Rosario, who also fell under his influence.
After becoming a confidant of the young people, he convinced Talia and her friends to move into a one-bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side of New York where his relationship with the students escalated. He mentally and physically tortured them, coerced them into confessing to crimes they didn’t commit through sleep-derivation, verbal abuse, and sexual humiliation, and extorted hundreds of thousands of dollars from them and their families. He forced one young woman into sex work and pocketed the hundreds of thousands of dollars she earned from it.
Who is Larry Ray?
Ray’s sphere of influence and expert manipulation extended beyond the Sarah Lawerence students. Prior to his involvement with them, the Brooklyn native became close to former NYPD commissioner Bernie Kerik, a connection that lead to a stint as an FBI informant for a pump-and-dump stock scheme operated by a capo in the Gambino family.
“Larry Ray is a psychotic con man who has victimized every friend he’s ever had. It’s been close to 20 years since I last heard from him, yet his reign of terror continues,” said Kerik in the New York Magazine article.
FBI reports revealed that Ray was an unreliable informant and may have in fact used the role to cover his own complicity in the Gambino stock fraud scheme. In 2000, he was charged for his involvement in the scheme and was sentenced to five years’ probation. By 2007, Ray would again serve time due to a child custody dispute, which prosecutors argued was a violation of his parole. It was upon his release from that charge that he preyed upon the Sarah Lawerence students.
Where is everybody?
According to New York Magazine, it was Levin who first put the pieces together that Roy’s treatment of the group was characteristic of a cult. By 2016, Yalitza and Levin had escaped from Roy’s control, but the others remained under his dominance until his arrest in 2020. What began as a normal college experience ended in unimaginable horror for this group of students.
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New On Hulu In February 2023: Wu-Tang: An American Saga Season 3, Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence
It feels like the new year has only just begun, but it’s already speeding along quickly–February is right around the corner. A new month means a whole bunch of new content coming to Hulu. Some of that content will be available on February 1, while other shows and movies will be available a little later next month.
For viewers interested in true crime with a strong stomach for horrifying cult stories need look no further than Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence, coming to Hulu on February 9. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Zach Heinzerling directs a three-part series about the “psychological prison” parent and former CIA agent Larry Ray inflicted on students/members of an infamous Sarah Lawrence College sex cult over a decade. The official synopsis reads: “With unprecedented access, Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence excerpts striking first-hand interviews with conman Larry Ray’s victims… The series follows the story from the cult’s origins in 2010 on the Sarah Lawrence campus until its recent demise when the last members find their own paths to survival.”
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Sarah Michelle Gellar Supports Buffy Reboot But Doesn’t Want To Return
Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar has once again touched on her wish for the popular ’90s series to be revived. In a recent producer’s roundtable discussion for The Wrap, Gellar talked about her fondness for the show despite its complicated legacy stemming from creator Joss Whedon creating an allegedly toxic workplace environment.
“For so long, I was on a set that I think was known for being an extremely toxic male set, and so that was ingrained in my head that that was what all sets were like, and that women were pitted against each other–that if women became friends, then we became too powerful, so you had to keep that down,” Gellar said. “And now that I’ve had this opportunity to work with so many more women and men that support women as well, I realized how easy an experience it can be, but… unfortunately we’re still in that place where all of those departments a lot of times need to be women for us to have a voice.”