Scary Terri | 3. Marital Issues

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Before we get started, I just want to let you know that we do discuss suicide in this episode,

so please listen with care. Glenn Cooley was a student at North Texas State when he met Terry.
He started showing up at CDBMS meetings before he could even drink alcohol.

He was that young.

Sandy Brown here.

He wasn't super tall, 5'8", 5'9".

You know, he had a very kind of calming voice.

Glenn dropped out of college to be with her, and soon he became Terry's right-hand man.

He was 20 years old when they wed. She was more than 10 years his senior.
So Terry had the upper hand in that way, but she was also his spiritual teacher, the one guiding his development, telling him how to think in counseling sessions. I got some insight into how Terry was behind closed doors with students,

thanks to those taped consultations with a follower named Dorothy.

Terry could be charming, affable, a cheerleader if something good happened in your life,

but also spent an awful lot of time telling Dorothy what to think.

This went way beyond wanting to be revered as a teacher. At one point, it seems Terry was able to convince Dorothy that she had temporarily lost control of her own mind.
I was wondering, too, has anyone taken any of my faculties? No. Oh.
Nobody else. I got your faculties back.
Oh. You already got them back.
I'm still in the process of working with them, but for the general provinces, we got most of them back. Oh, that's quite a process, I understand.
Well, that's wonderful. Yes, it is.
It's nice to have your faculty back. Yeah.
You're a busy, busy being. If she had this much control over any old student, it's hard to imagine how much sway she had over Glenn, a young man who was totally dependent on her, who used to sit close to her in group meditations so he could hold her hand.
It must have been quite an unwelcome surprise for Terry when Glenn started thinking for himself, started questioning whether Terry was actually full of shit. She and Glenn were having marital problems.
Janine, from the last episode, said the last time she saw him, he had just about had enough. I remember overhearing a conversation at Sandy Cleaver's.
Sandy was expecting me, but she didn't know I'd gotten there because I'd come in the kitchen door, said hi to Wheezy, and moved on. Sandy was confronting Glenn, and he was saying, you guys are just buying a bunch of bullshit.
And Sandy said, that is not true. This is, and then she was explaining Terry's behavior, explaining Terry's something.
And he was animated and intense about questioning her or questioning what she was saying or questioning what she was doing. I never put that together either.
By the winter of 1976, Glenn and Terry were splitting up. Glenn was moving on, and so was Terry.
She'd started seeing Ben Johnson, another younger man who'd later become her third husband. It was looking like Glenn Cooley had gotten out, out of his marriage, out of CDBMS.
One night, February 2nd, just after the divorce was finalized, Glenn left Dallas for Flower Mound, Texas. It's a quiet community on Grapevine Lake, about 30 minutes outside the city.
His parents had a cabin out there. It's this wide, pristine lake, perfect for summer sports on the water and for reflecting on your life after a long and tumultuous relationship that just ended.
According to reports at the time, Terry, her new beau, Ben, and another follower named Alice Hoffman went to the cabin.

They wanted to check on him, but were horrified by what they saw.

They opened the door and walked in.

And there was Glenn, fully clothed and in his bed.

An open can of beer on the nightstand, along with pills, Valium, and an anti-anxiety drug. He laid there motionless, a foamy residue spilling out of the corners of his mouth.
He was non-responsive, dead on arrival. There's no doubt she killed him.
These shark eyes. Those cold, dark eyes.
The most sophisticated sociopath I've ever observed. Left behind a series of bizarre diaries and writings associated with Terry Hoffman and a group she founded called the Conscious Development of Body, Mind, and Soul, Inc.
The payoff was going to be in the other spiritual realms. It was not going to be here.
Are those items that are used to control and combat, shield against black lords, are those your teachings? I invoke the fifth minute. That it was a cult? I didn't know that.
From Sony Music Entertainment, this is Scary Terry.

I'm Jonathan Hirsch.

Chapter 3. Marital Issues.
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Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates Pet Injuries and Additional Coverage and Subject to Policy Terms. For the people who got involved with Terry, faith was a bedrock of their lives.
Many, if not most, had been raised in some sort of Christian denomination. CDBMS was a replacement for that faith.
And like their traditional faith, the glue that kept their families together. But in a twisted irony, it seemed that getting close to Terry could rip your family apart.
Sandra divorced Chuck. Devereaux died on the Wailupe Peninsula.
Terry tried to break up Janine and her husband Rick. The list goes on and on.
And now Glenn Cooley was dead. But when Don and Alice Hoffman joined, it wasn't so cut and dry, hindsight being 20-20.
The couple were deeply troubled. They were looking for that faith, that place of community for their children.
They were desperate for answers. They needed to make sense of the unspeakable tragedy that had beset their family when their baby boy, Michael, accidentally drowned in the pool of their house in 1975.
That was, as you can imagine, very devastating for my parents. Really caused the whole family to question, why would God take this little innocent boy away? Janet was the middle child, Rick the oldest.
I was nine years old. She watched her mom and dad spiral after the baby died.
Mom blamed herself, of course, as any parent does, because he drowned. And then my parents were grieving a lot, and my mom was just, you know, sad all the time.
And I guess, so we started going to church, and that helped a little bit. The family bounced around to a number of churches.
They were turning to God because, you know, they needed that comfort, and they felt like as a family that would be a good thing to do.

And something about that tragedy had softened her father, Don Hoffman.

He was a yeller, and you were not allowed to make mistakes.

So that was kind of hard.

And then my mom was kind of the opposite.

She was more lenient to try to make up for him being so strict and hard on us.

I was always really close to her. I can see now as an adult that he did love me, but growing up, I never believed that he loved me because he was so hard on me.
But after the drowning, Dawn changed. He, I don't know if it's just losing a child, you appreciate the children you have.
The family was all dealing with the baby's death in their own way, but Alice and Dawn were focused on finding meaning and a spiritual path that would ease their pain. That's when Alice's sister introduced them to CDBMS and to Terry, who was Terry Cooley at the time on account of her marriage to Glenn.
That was her thing is she would take people in that had just lost a loved one or that were grieving and that are vulnerable. And then she would pray on those vulnerabilities and give them answers that they want to hear to kind of string them along.
Much like Sandra, Terry seemed to be drawing in Don and Alice through their grief, liberating them from their pain, but also indebting them to her. In the fog of that grief, no one in Janet's family could have imagined Terry to be the predator she really was.
The Hoffman family started attending conscious development meetings. They'd been going to a Lutheran service before that.
We would go and we would do meditations and it seemed all innocent and you'd feel better afterwards. So it kind of like sucked you in a little bit like, okay, I still have my beliefs in God.
This doesn't like go against that. Of course, my parents first started reading Terry's writings.
So there were quite a few booklets and she had a whole series of books that you could get and learn and everything. Terry also sold jewelry.
So she had this big line of her jewelry, like stones and that kind of thing, with gemstones and sterling silver. This was the jewelry Sandra had begun selling with Terry, that Janine had spent $25K on.
They'd incorporated into a business with the name Seedy Gems and Jewelry. She made a bunch of stuff, so that was all lined up against the wall.
And then we would go in and people would kind of look at that. And then they would, you know, talk.
And then we would all sit down. And then she would talk just a little bit.
But most of it was just the meditations. And she would have, sometimes you would sit in the chair.
Sometimes you could, you know, find a spot on the floor to lay down and get comfortable. It's very relaxing.
She would talk you through it. Like, usually it was like, okay, let's, you know, envision a swimming pool and you jumping into that pool and cleansing all your bad energy out of your body and that kind of thing.
And of course, Terry was front and center in all of this. Though she hadn't made much of an impression on Janet.
I didn't really think much of her. She was kind of a large lady, and she was actually kind of scary looking, to be honest.
She had long black hair, and she was a lot older than that picture that comes up on Google.

She said that talks would sometimes veer into these esoteric subjects,

like the planes of existence and things like dark forces that needed to be combated,

the Black Lords.

But for the most part, she felt like it was a welcoming place for her as a kid, at first.

She remembered Glenn Cooley, Terry's husband, when they joined CDBMS,

This is a production, at first.

She remembered Glenn Cooley, Terry's husband, when they joined CDBMS, being very friendly.

And Ben Johnson, too.

The man Terry would wed after Glenn.

Ben, he, yeah.

So he was this long-haired hippie.

He came to my house and taught me how to play the guitar. Taught me a couple of things.

I had an electric guitar at the time.

How's it going? So he was this long-haired hippie. He came to my house and taught me how to play the guitar.

Taught me a couple of things.

I had an electric guitar at the time.

House of the Rising Sun.

The very beginning to Stairway to Heaven.

He was probably a weed-smoking dude.

You know, of course, at the time, I wouldn't have known that,

but it was just very hippie, laid back.

Terry no doubt had a type. Younger, hippie-ish, a bit wounded perhaps, impressionable.
Certainly seems like some kind of pattern was beginning to emerge. But in the mid-70s, according to Janine, talk of Black Lords and fighting against evil energies and spirits starting to dominate the messaging at CDBMS.
Glenn was very unhappy with his life, that he was struggling as a jewelry maker, that his marriage to Terry was not going well. just seems like there were a lot of, and again, I think we piecemeal some of that together with just some of the discussions we had had here and there.
That's when Glenn cut bait. And not long after, he was found dead, alone in his parents' cabin on February 2nd, 1977.
But here Terry was, now for the fourth time, a mysterious and inexplicable death in her orbit. And while she would claim to grieve, the message to her flock belied any grief or remorse.
In fact, what members of CDBMS were led to believe was that Glenn's suicide was grist for the mill. Another step up the stairway to heaven.
An evolution, not an end to life. Glenn's death was definitely a staged thing that they knew about and expected to happen.
So he needed to move on to the next plane of existence. So Terry and one other person went to a cabin with him and he overdosed.
I don't know who it was. He'd left beer and pills on the nightstand.
But he'd left something else too.

In the safe at Terry's house, which she'd only noticed after his death. A will.
Giving away

everything he owned. Including the house he shared with his wife, Terry Cooley.
I, Glenn Cooley, give to Terry Cooley all of my property, both personal and real. This includes two boats, a 1972 Buick Limited, all jewelry and equipment for its making, all furnishings for the house on Dunhaven Road, and all cash.
According to Terry, she'd return to her home, the home she owned with Glenn on Dunhaven Road in Dallas, to find a handwritten document from Glenn in her personal safe. It was his last will and testament.
I ask that this last will of mine not be contested by anyone in any way for any reason. Last but not least, I give all my love to all my family and friends.
It appears as any last will and testament might at first. But when I read the next lines, I felt that familiar chill.
Something wasn't quite right. As explanation for all this, I can't really say what it is because of.
But I can say what it is not because of. It is not because of divorce with Terry, past drug experiences, inability to cope, etc.
But it is, I myself know, but don't have the words for. Don't blame this on Terry or Glenn's personal history.

Glenn made it sound like some big, unknowable force played a part in his death.

The Black Lords, perhaps?

Terry told police that before Glenn's death, he appeared depressed.

That she'd even advised him not to go to the cabin alone. There were discrepancies about what happened next.
A former member, Anonymous, told police Terry visited Glenn the night before. On the way there, she said it was time for Glenn to cross over, to exit the realm of the living.
Rick suspects it was his mother, Alice, who accompanied Terry that night and gave her account to the police. When the two entered the cabin that evening, Glenn told them he'd already downed the fatal dose.

But they didn't call 911.

They accepted his fate.

Other accounts say Terry and at least one other person arrived once Glenn was unresponsive, foaming at the mouth, the next day.

We'll never know what happened for sure, but one thing is certain. There's something strange about how each one of these wills specifically calls out Terry's character.
Devereaux describes her as a second mother. Glenn discourages his family from contesting the will or tying his death to his divorce with Terry.
It's all oddly personal and convenient. And there was, as with Devereaux and Sandra, something of a motive, the house they share, his nominal property.
But this wasn't some tremendous windfall. However, if Glenn were to decide to cross over, it would be helpful.
An early member of CDBMS, who knew Terry better than anyone, who loudly dissented against her practices of bloodletting and fighting the Black Lords?

Who fought her closest follower Sandra in the living room for all to hear?

And whom she eventually divorced? It'd be nice to not have him hanging over you, wouldn't it? But the message that trickled down to the faithful was a clever spinning of a deadly yarn. A message of hope, if you could believe it.
After Glenn died, Janet's parents sat her and her brother Rick down and delivered the news. My mom was good at communicating those kinds of things.
So I don't think she mentioned that she happened to find him, but she did tell us, she sat down and explained that he had OD'd on some medicine and that he was down dead. My mom told me about it, and they were really upset.

I mean, it was weird because it was like the first death that had happened. And at the time, it was like, well, here's the deal, you know.
They weren't like, oh my God. Normal enough for a parent to talk through a tragedy like this with her kids.

And perhaps not strange that Glenn's death didn't raise any alarm bells for her.

After all, Glenn did have a history of substance abuse.

But still, the talk Alice and Dawn had with their kids was odd.

They seemed to believe it was more than drugs that snatched Glenn from the realm of the living.

It was more like my mom was calm at the time and she was like,

okay, you know, he had been taken over by Black Lords and he needed to move on to the next plane of existence

so that he didn't create bad karma for himself.

Here we go again with the Black Lords.

And it was just like very matter of fact,

you know, this is what we believe and this is what's happened. And not like, oh my God, this man just killed himself.
It wasn't, it's like the reality, their reality had been skewed to think that this is okay because of this, because this is what we believe. Janet, at this point in her life, was not especially close to her father, Don.
And that feeling only grew as the years wore on. And he became closer and closer to Terry.
He didn't really talk about it. He was kind of quiet.
And my mom was always the one that would talk to me. Janet and Rick were shocked, disturbed to hear about Glenn's death.
But at the time, they accepted the version of events their parents relayed to them. Part of me is doing the freak-out thing, like, this isn't right.
And then the other part of me is wanting to believe, well, this is what my mom said, and I had complete, 100% trust my mom. So, like, parents have so much control.
Like, they can convince you of anything. They can brainwash you.
They can convince their children that this is okay because this is how it is, and this is the truth. This is the way, you know, this is it.
At this point, it's becoming clear to me that Terry is operating something more

than a front for her jewelry business or a loosely affiliated meditation group. This is a cult.
But Janet and Rick had no idea. They just saw their parents falling in deeper and deeper with Terry.
Over time, tears began to form within the group. We eventually became part of the middle circle, and then we became part of the inner circle.
This seemed to be the direction the Hoffman family was going in, conscious development followers, until tragedy struck again. After Devereaux died, my mom was like, I'm out.
This is really scary stuff. Alice and Don had found Terry after the death of their child, a senseless drowning.
Everyone in their way felt responsible.

My parents really never recovered from losing Michael.

It was just too big of a hit to their relationship and just everything.

I mean, no parent should ever have to bury their children.

And now another child has drowned,

except her death, like Glenn's,

was being viewed through the lens

of Terry's warped cosmology. But after Devereaux's death, Alice just wasn't the same.
She woke up. She realized how messed up this thing was.
And she told me her thoughts on it. She wanted me to come to my own conclusion.

After Devereux died, my mom was like, I guess because it was a child that they targeted, she just pulled out. She was like, just so you know, I don't think this is right and I'm not going to the meetings anymore.
She goes, you're welcome to go to the meetings if you want to, but I'm not going to go. This is what was happening.
This is what had happened. And she told me after Devereaux had passed away what had happened.
Janet's parents were now part of a close-knit circle surrounding Terry. They saw things that others did not.

Sandy Cleaver was very wealthy,

and Devereux had a pretty big trust fund.

And so I know Terry wanted to eliminate both of them because she knew the money would just go to her daughter.

So she told Sandy that her daughter

had been taken over by Black Lords

and she needed to move on to the next plane of existence, but she was going to need help transitioning. And they went out on that little raft in a no-swim area in Hawaii, where all the coral reefs were.
And the idea was they would both make it look like an accident, because they'd come in and they'd get all cut up and drown. Well, Devereux drowned.
So Gail's suspicions that Sandra and Devereux were both supposed to die that day are confirmed, at least according to Alice. Yeah, she told me what had happened.
And she said that Devereux and Sandy were both supposed to die in that accident,

but somehow Sandy didn't end up dying, ended up in the hospital.

This was not what Alice had signed up for. Janet and Rick and her husband Don were welcome to keep going to CDBMS meetings.
She was done. I still went with my dad a few more times to the meetings, and I brought my friend with me.
And she was like, I had a dream. And Terry was literally was literally like blasting into flames.

Like she just burst into flames and she became this evil, evil person.

And she was laughing and it was just really interesting.

And so she saw right through her and I was like, oh, wow.

So I really, after that, I didn't go anymore either.

I decided that I didn't want to be part of that.

It was just too crazy.

What Janet didn't know was that things were going to get much weirder and much worse.

Because Terry had Janet's father in her sights.

She wasn't content to have him as her follower.

She wanted him as her sights. She wasn't content to have him as her follower.
She wanted him as her lover.

Next time on Scary Terry.

Terry kept a tightrope around him.

She would always convince them

that something bad has happened.

Black lords have attacked you.

You're not going to be safe.

You're going to endanger your family

if you stay alive.

I remember screaming going, that's a bunch of bullshit. You know,

screaming that out going, great. So she's done it again.

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