The Finders (movement)

The Finders were an intentional community and a cult founded in Washington, D.C. in the early 1970s by former United States Air Force Master Sergeant Marion Pettie (1920–2003).^[1]

The Finders came to wider public attention when two members of the movement were arrested in Tallahassee, Florida in 1987 and charged with misdemeanor child abuse of the six children accompanying them, the two men having remained silent when, in a public park, the police inquired as to their identity and relationship to the children.^[2] The men were Douglas Ammerman and James Michael Holwell, both described as "well-dressed men in suits." They used a van to transport "six scruffy, hungry children" of varying ages between 2 and 11.^[3]

According to U.S. District Court records in Washington, a confidential police source had previously told authorities that the Finders were "a cult" that conducted "brainwashing" techniques at a warehouse and a Glover Park duplex raided by law enforcement. This source told of being recruited by the Finders with promises of "financial reward and sexual gratification" and of being invited by one member to "explore" satanism with them, according to the documents. Police sources said some of the items seized showed pictures of children engaged in what appeared to be "cult rituals." Officials of the U.S. Customs Service said that the material seized included photos showing children involved in bloodletting ceremonies of animals and one photograph of a child in chains.^[4]

Robert Gardner Terrell, who owned one of the raided properties, claimed ″We are rational people ... not devil worshipers or child molesters″ and ″anything we’ve done is based on the desire for the children to have the richest life they could have.″ According to Terrell, the recovered photos of naked children were of Holwell’s own children, and the dead goats shown in the photos mentioned by the Customs Service were already butchered with the children being taught how to prepare them.^[5] The men were released six weeks later, with the state of Florida dropping all charges against them.

Federal authorities concluded that there was no evidence of criminal activity. The authorities contacted the mothers of the children, who came to Tallahassee and retrieved them.^[3]

Despite this resolution, the issue was brought to wider attention in 1993 when Henry T. “Skip” Clements, an officer in private-sector consulting and a resident of Stuart, Florida, obtained a copy of the 1987 report which stated that the DC Police Department investigation into the Finders had been dropped as a "CIA internal matter." Clements alleged that the Central Intelligence Agency had compelled the U.S. Customs Service to cease the investigation, supposedly because the commune was used as a front to train agents. Clements' allegations drew the interest of two United States Congress members Tom Lewis and Charlie Rose, leading to an investigation by the Department of Justice into the Finders and the 1987 investigation.^[3][6] CIA spokesman David Christian asserted that the charges were a misunderstanding stemming from a company by the name of Future Enterprises Inc. being used to train agents, with one member of the Finders working as a part-time accountant there.^[7]

In 2019, the FBI released hundreds of documents related to The Finders, noting on the FBI Vault website that it was their most requested topic.^[3] Despite a lack of evidence or verification by the Washington, D.C. Police Department, the belief that these reports indicated a larger conspiracy became popular in some quarters.^{[citation needed]}

The Finders are often ascribed as an early example of Satanic panic in the U.S. Some authors have gone as far as describing the Finders conspiratorial beliefs as the 'Patient Zero' to other conspiratorial beliefs regarding the U.S. intelligence services allegedly covering up or taking part in sexual abuse.^[8]

• The Finders, FBI.Vault.gov