In the summer of 1993, while other teenagers were making plans for the six-week school holidays, 14-year-old Stefanie Hinrichs sat alone in her bedroom wanting to die. For months her cries for help had gone unnoticed in her deeply religious community where her unravelling depression had been blamed on Satan for trying to tempt her from the ‘true’ path The Lord had chosen for her.
Disturbingly, the ‘true path’ involved marrying her paunchy, middle-aged brother-in-law, William Kamm, the bizarre and charismatic leader of a controversial doomsday cult whose disciples were prepping for the end of the world at his fortified compound on the NSW south coast.
For two years, Stefanie’s German family had lived a life of piety and prayer in the reclusive Roman Catholic Order of St Charbel outside Nowra, where Kamm – also known as ‘Little Pebble’ – was revered as a God.
From his “promised land” in Cambewarra, the self-proclaimed prophet had seduced a global following of half a million with his sensational claims that he spoke to God through the Holy Mother, who appeared to him in miraculous monthly apparitions.
Among the many divine directions Mary delivered was the revelation that Kamm, 44, had been chosen to save his flock from the end of the world and lead them into a ‘new era’ in paradise. But in 1993, Kamm’s messages had taken a more sinister turn when he claimed he’d been told to choose 84 “mystical spouses” to bring forth a new race for his new “Garden of Eden”.
This story is from the March 2023 edition of The Australian Women's Weekly.
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This story is from the March 2023 edition of The Australian Women's Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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