Brother Julius follower pleads no contest in killing, dismemberment of cult’s ‘chief apostle’

Hartford Courant/November 21, 2019

By David Owens

One of two men charged in the 2004 killing of the self-proclaimed “chief apostle” of the infamous religious cult known as “The Work” that was led by the late “Brother Julius” pleaded no contest Thursday to conspiracy to commit murder and is expected to cooperate in the prosecution of his co-defendant.

Sorek Minery, 43, of Burlington, faces a maximum of 20 years in prison at his sentencing, which will not occur until after the trial of Rudy Hannon, 74, who prosecutors say conspired with Minery to kill Paul Sweetman, who was second in command of the cult and called himself its chief apostle. Cult leader Julius Schacknow, who called himself Brother Julius, died in 1996 at age 71.

New Britain State’s Attorney Brian W. Preleski told New Britain Superior Court Judge Maureen M. Keegan that following Schacknow’s death, “there was a struggle within the cult for power between Joanne Sweetman and the victim.” Joanne Sweetman and Paul Sweetman lived as husband and wife, but there is no evidence they ever married. She conspired to have Paul Sweetman killed so that she could control the cult’s businesses, Preleski said.

“Mrs. Sweetman enlisted co-defendant Rudy Hannon, who is the biological son of Brother Julius, to eliminate Paul Sweetman,” Preleski told the judge. "That was in large part motivated by profit.” Joanne Sweetman died in 2011.

Minery and Hannon, who were both cult members, agreed in July 2004 to kill Paul Sweetman, Preleski said.

Minery, in a confession to New Britain detectives, said that Hannon worked for months to convince him that Paul Sweetman “needed to be killed because he was hurting his wife, Joanne Sweetman and that God would have wanted them to kill [Paul] Sweetman.” according to the warrant for Minery’s arrest.

During those conversations, Minery told police, he and Hannon decided the “murder should not involve a gun or knife because it was too messy,” according to the warrant.

Minery said he respected Joanne Sweetman and “looked up to her as a high religious figure” and that “because of this, he began believing Rudy Hannon and believed Paul Sweetman needed to die.”

On or about July 21, 2004, Paul Sweetman, who was 70, was beaten to death inside Blue Ridge Construction, Minery’s Plainville-based business. Police say both men worked together in killing Sweetman, but each has pointed the finger at the other in statements to New Britain detectives.

The case was dormant until 2016, when New Britain police were able to link a human leg found 12 years earlier at Shuttle Meadow Country Course to the Sweetman missing persons case in Southington. Detectives identified suspects and obtained warrants for Hannon and Minery. Both were arrested July 31, 2018.

Minery told police he arrived at the business to find Hannon standing over Sweetman’s body. Minery said Hannon, who had a key to the shop, asked for his help in disposing of the body.

They stripped Sweetman down to his underwear then loaded him into a freezer. Three to four days later, Minery told police, he returned to the shop to dismember the body with an electric saw.

He then put the body parts in garbage bags and placed them back in the freezer, he told police. He said he buried the head and legs in a shallow grave on land near the New Britain reservoir, and buried the torso and arms beneath the shed of his New Britain home, then poured concrete over them.

Hannon tells a different tale. Initially, he told police he delivered Sweetman to Minery’s shop and that Minery killed him. He claimed he thought Minery was only going to beat Sweetman, but admitted he helped put the body in the freezer.

Hannon, in an interview with New Britain police at the Nevada prison where he was serving a violation of probation sentence, eventually admitted that he watched Minery severely beat Sweetman until Sweetman vomited a large amount of blood, then fell back flat on the floor and folded his arms across his chest.

He said he then helped Minery load the body into the freezer. He said he believed Sweetman was still alive. Minery then placed a heavy bag or box of tools on top of the freezer to prevent Sweetman from climbing out, Hannon told police.

Joanne Sweetman reported her husband missing on July 24, 2004 and told police she’d last seen him on July 21. She explained her husband’s disappearance, according to a former cult member, by saying he had received a vision from Brother Julius to travel the world and to proselytize.

Sweetman’s killing might never have been discovered, but for a coyote that dug up one of his legs and dragged it onto Shuttle Meadow Country Club, where it was found Aug. 27, 2004.

New Britain police worked to determine whose leg it was, but got a break in April 2016 when they learned Southington police had an open missing persons case for Paul Sweetman. A detective obtained DNA from Sweetman’s son and the state lab determined the leg was from Paul Sweetman.

New Britain police searched the ground beneath the shed at Minery’s former home in New Britain and found a headless torso and arms. The medical examiner noted the extremities had been removed with clean cuts. The state lab determined the torso and arms were Sweetman’s remains.

Schacknow called himself the “sinful messiah," saying he had to sin to know what it was like. He was accused of having a voracious sexual appetite and of grooming girls and young women in the cult for sex.

Schacknow’s description of himself progressed from prophet to the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and finally to God almighty.

He operated in central Connecticut for more than a quarter-century, ever since he moved from New Jersey and proclaimed at an outdoor revival in Trumbull in 1970 that he was Jesus Christ reincarnated.

Several hundred idealistic young people, hungry for spiritual direction, flocked to the guidance of the long-haired, bearded preacher who wore a white robe and had mesmerizing green eyes.

He set up a base in Meriden and commanded national attention as a cult leader until, in 1976, he stopped making public appearances and turned to commercial enterprise.

Driven by what they saw as a holy mission to advance what he called The Work, Schacknow’s followers, numbering perhaps 300 at the cult’s peak, oversaw the building of an expanding, multimillion-dollar real estate and construction business.

The businesses all collapsed with the real estate downturn at the end of the 1980s, leaving behind a financial shamble and desertion by scores of followers.

Schacknow reportedly died at the home of one of the seven women in central Connecticut who he said were his unofficial wives.