He watched his brother die from 200 lashes at age 9. Now he’s telling his story of cult survival

Allegan County, Michigan – Decades after his 12-year-old brother died in his arms, Daniel Yarbough returned to what was left of the House of Judah compound.

He sat alone for eight hours, surrounded by overgrown brush and scrub trees, and talked into a recorder.

He remembered, and relived, his hellish childhood at the religious cult where brutal punishments – whacks from a spiked club called “Big Mac” while locked in colonial-era whipping blocks – were said to be handed down by God.

Daniel Yarbough, then 9, watched in horror as his brother was given 200 “licks,” an unheard of number. By the 70th strike, John Yarbough stopped crying and screamed in agony. He begged the guards to stop. When his body fell limp, he was tied to a tree, in the standing position, until the last blow landed.

Then, an adult tried to lift him by his ear with pliers.

The July 4, 1983, death of John Yarbough exposed the House of Judah as a violent religious cult led by self-proclaimed prophet William A. Lewis and his henchmen.

Daniel Yarbough, 51, recounts his horrific childhood in his book, “Misled: A survivor’s journey from a cult childhood.”

It is available through Amazon.

The book is the first part of his memoir series about his early life growing up in a religious cult.

“I want to get that enlightenment to everyone in the world because it’ll save children,” he told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press.

“Men that are supposed to be men of God and they’re raping kids everywhere, and it’s still going on today. I’m like, everybody just drove past us. Drove right past us. Didn’t come in and check.”

His wife, Ria Harris, who helped write the book, said it was not easy for her husband to write the book and be forced to relive the horrors of his childhood. She said it isn’t easy to read, either.

“And I actually have a few of my friends that bought the book and they have been, to put it in real words, too afraid to read it,” she said.

“Because it is even a little that they knew from what I told them, it’s horrifying,” she said.

Lewis, once a charismatic radio preacher in Chicago, set up communal living on 22 acres in southwest Allegan County in the early 1970s.

Eventually, he ruled the compound with an iron fist. The Allegan County compound was deep in the woods, with armed patrols preventing escape. Followers believed they were doomed to the “lake of fire” if they left.

After John Yarbough’s death, the House of Judah relocated to Alabama.

Lewis died on Aug. 21, 2004, at the age of 84.

His followers, described as “Black Hebrew Israelites,” believed they were the chosen ones. White people were the devil and everyone outside of the camp were heathens.

The release of the book comes as the Yarboughs’ mother, the former Ethel Yarbough, recently died.

She was a central figure in Daniel Yarbough’s life despite her alliance with Lewis, who moved the cult to Wetumpka, Alabama, after leaving Allegan County.

She had been hospitalized since July. She died Nov. 29, in Wetumpka.

“But it’s still very tough,” Harris said. “And there’s still complicated feelings. …"

His mother, who later married Lewis, was the only one convicted in her son’s killing. She was sentenced to four to 15 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter.

She landed the last blows.

Two others were sentenced in Allegan County to one year in jail after pleading no contest to child cruelty.

Lewis and other, however, were cleared of state charges.

Three years later, a now-retired FBI special agent, Gene Debbaudt, convinced a federal prosecutor to file charges of enslaving children against Lewis and six others. They were convicted and sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to three years. Lewis was sentenced to three years.

The case was precedent-setting because Lewis and the rest were convicted of enslaving children who were in the custody of their parents.

Daniel Yarbough wrote about her reaction when John, also known as Jonah, had died in their old trailer.

“Mother’s desperate cries echoed through the trailer. ‘Jonah, Jonah, Jonah!’ she cried, but her screams had come too late. When she realized he was dead, Mother exclaimed, ‘I have to get My Lord,’ and left to inform Prophet Lewis that John John hadn’t survived,” he wrote in the book.

It was early in the morning. Men in the camp wrapped his body in a quilt, put him in the back of a pickup truck and left for a South Haven hospital. Police soon showed up and over the course of days removed 66 children from the compound.

They were sent to live with other family members or foster parents.

Daniel Yarbough said he and his brother were targeted by Lewis because both bore a strong resemblance to their father, who rejected Lewis and the cult.

Daniel Yarbough has grappled with uncertainty about his mother’s true beliefs. He thinks she recognized Lewis as a false prophet but also thinks she truly believed him to be a prophet.

Harris said the writing process for her husband was “almost a traumatic journey because to get all of this down, he had to relive it. That’s why it took so long, because to just have to sit in that space was a lot some days. So sometimes, you have to just walk away from it and come back to it.”

Yarbough has emotional and physical scars. He has burns on his face from a hot iron and burns on his arms. His buttocks were scarred by Big Mac.

He grew up hating white people. He was angry and rebellious.

He told MLive he eventually decided Lewis and the cult had taken enough from his life.

“Why spend the first part of your life in hell then choose to live the second part of your life in hell? I’ve been through that. I use that to elevate or help someone else.”