The Process Church of the Final Judgment

The Process, Its “Death Issue”, Timothy Wyllie, David Berkowitz and Charles Manson…

The Process Church of the Final Judgment was a dark-robed cult-like religious movement that existed with members first in the United Kingdom and then in the United States from around 1963 to 1974.

The Process Church of the Final Judgment was a dark-robed cult-like religious movement that existed with members first in the United Kingdom and then in the United States from around 1963 to 1974. The group was popular among hippies and was linked to both Scientology and Satanism while preaching of four gods or deities making up the “Great Gods of the Universe” known as Jehovah, Lucifer, Satan, and Christ.

The groups connection to Scientology was based on its founders Mary Ann MacLean and Robert de Grimston Moore who were original members of the Church of Scientology until they left under a belief that they could better use technology to increase the effectiveness of “group work” they called “Compulsions Analysis,” something the two were working on before marrying and went off to create their own group in “The Process Church of the Final Judgment.”

Considered by some as “shadowy” and “charismatic” Moore was expelled from the Process Church in 1974 after his relationship with MacLean became strained over another woman as well as disagreements on how the Church should be ran. Moore later attempted to create his own new following which failed; he disappeared from public view thereafter. According to LA Weekly, Mary Ann MacLean was a high-end prostitute in London prior to meeting Moore and forming the group together. Without Moore, she changed the name from The Process Church of the Final Judgment to “The Foundation Church of the Millennium” also changing its teachings to primarily Christian belief.

The Process Church of the Final Judgment originally found its links to Satanism from rumors or urban legends which suggested the Church was involved in ritualistic killings and sacrificing while its association with Charles Manson was due to rumored links to the Tate-LaBianca murders by investigators. It had been believed that Manson himself was either a member of the Church or the Church’s teachings had influenced Manson, neither of which were ever established, although the accusations alone badly damaged the church eventually leading to its collapse.

In 1971, author and poet Ed Sanders published the book “The Family: The Story of Charles Manson’s Dune Buggy Attack Battalion” later renamed simply “The Family” with an entire chapter titled “The Process,” Chapter Five, which claimed that Manson was a member of The Process. This prompted a defamation lawsuit against the publisher whom agreed to remove the chapter in future English versions of the book after a settlement, however, many books were sold in its original form. A similar lawsuit was brought in Britain, this time going to trial and the Process Church lost that suit.

Timothy Wyllie who was one of the first members of the Process, wrote a book titled “Love, Sex, Fear, Death: The Inside Story of The Process Church of the Final Judgment”. In that book, the author says although the Process visited Manson in prison during the trials for its “Death Issue” of “Process Magazine”, Wyllie confirmed that Manson had never been involved in the local Chapter, further reiterating in an interview with Richard Metzger from Dangerous Minds, that there was not even a ‘grain of truth’ to the accusations and that it was the Churches fault by making themselves “so mysterious” enabling people to cast just about any accusation.

In 1997, reporter Maury Terry interviewed serial killer David Berkowitz, known as the Son of Sam and the .44 Caliber Killer, for Investigative Reports “Son of Sam Speaks: The Untold Story” with Bill Kurtis. In that videotaped interview, Berkowitz specifically mentioned and blamed The Process Church of the Final Judgment for his killings. Berkowitz stated that he would meet with the cult at Untermyer Park in Yonkers and that other members of the Process were involved in the Son of Sam killings and that he took the fall to cover for the Cult.

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