Membership in Yahweh ben Yahweh cult[edit]
[Michael the Black Man] Woodside first met Hulon Mitchell Jr., better known as
Yahweh Ben Yahweh, in 1980. Along with his brother, Ricardo, who joined the cult before he did, Woodside was reported to have played "a big role in the rise and fall of the [Yahweh ben Yahweh] cult".
[3] His mother, Johnnie Simmons, was also a devout member of the cult;
[4] he later left the cult with his sister after his mother died.
[5] He was one of 16 members of Yahweh ben Yahweh arrested and charged with one count of murder and one count of attempted murder in 1990.
[6] He was found not guilty of these charges by a
Florida jury in 1992, although Yahweh himself was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
[2][7] At the trial, Ricardo testified that he and Maurice attempted unsuccessfully to murder Eric Burke, a dissident member of Yahweh's cult, and that Maurice had also helped beat another cult member, Aston Green, unconscious.
[8]
Michael the Black Man (born
Maurice Woodside, but also known as
Michael Symonette and
Mikael Israel)
He briefly came to media attention in September 2008, when he accused
Oprah Winfrey of being the devil, and
Barack Obama of being endorsed by the
Ku Klux Klan, at one of Obama's speeches in
Coral Gables.
[
www.theatlantic.com
en.wikipedia.org
