Torture was a big thing for Michael Ryan. He believed that in order to please Yahweh, those who do wrong should be publically punished. Therefore he would brutally torture those who questioned his teachings. Often times as a form of torture, compound members would be forced to copulate with the communal goat as others watched. Members of the compound were made to listen to endless recordings of Wickstroms meetings (Coates, James). This was an easy and obvious form of brain washing done by Ryan to get his followers to continue believing in his words. That way they were hearing the information that Ryan was preaching from another source as well, making himself more creditable. At one point Rick Stice, who had fallen from favoritism with Ryan, was …show more content…
Ryan hand pained the numbers 666 on Luke’s back, marking his as the devil. Reports claim that Luke would be drenched in freezing cold water and forced to stay outside in the cold Nebraska weather all night long. There are a couple of different reports as to how exactly Luke Stice died, but everyone agree’s it was at the hands of Ryan. One report says that, Luke was dangled from a dog leash that was strung up in front of the house until he eventually hung to death (Coates, James). This report came from one of Ryan’s queens in court. She states that Michael Ryan forced her and the other wives to watch as Ryan performed these terrible acts on Luke. Another report suggests that Luke was beaten and thrown into a bookshelf or cabinet and hit his head. His wounds were then left untreated and he eventually passed away (Pluhacek, Zach). There was never a lot of mention as to how brutal the tortures got with Luke, mostly because of his young age. It is known that Rich Stice was when forced to bury his youngest son in a shallow, unmarked grave (Michael Ryan). These acts were mostly done to Luke to punish his father Rich for leaving the compound at one point and not fully trusting in Michael’s