You are listening to the Roberta Glass True Crime Report, putting the true back in true crime.

From New York City, Roberta Glass is now on the record.

When I arrived early to the Southern District of New York Federal Courthouse for Larry Ray's sentencing, I was surprised to see that there was already a fairly large amount of people waiting

to get into the courtroom. Known as the Sarah Lawrence College Sex Colt Case, the trial turned out to be one of the most extraordinary

trials and also one of the most obscure and slept on true crime stories of the decade. Why did the

majority of the public ignore such an explosive and fascinating trial? For one, it's a complicated story. Larry Ray was released from

prison and went directly to his daughter's college housing in Tony, Bronxville, New York. Ray became a

psychological Svengali, a daddy figure to his daughter's friends. Ray's M.O. was to feign interest in his victim's lives,

find their weakness, and exploit those weaknesses for his financial gain. He beat, tortured,

threatened his victims in front of each other, creating a climate of fear and cooperation. And when he

had total control over his victims, he convinced them

that they had poisoned him, poisoned their own family members, or just destroyed his possessions.

Then Ray demanded his victims make it right, or Ray would alert law enforcement. And instead of a

college diploma, his daughter's friends would

be serving hard time for their crime in prison. Making amends to Ray always meant handing over money,

week after week, year after year. Larry Ray didn't just lead a cult. He turned bright, promising,

talented college students into suicidal

zombies. This didn't happen by accident. Ray's computer searches, looking up mind control,

and cults were some of the strongest evidence that Ray's undue influence and the suffering

he inflicted did not happen by happenstance. The fact that Larry Ray did all this at my alma mater, Sarah Lawrence College, made the trial both personal and horrifying. Despite having received my diploma from Sarah Lawrence College decades ago, there's one thing about that college that never changes.

It's an extremely small campus and everyone knows everyone else's business.

Sarah Lawrence College has a strict policy that students are the only ones allowed in their

...