Jonathan Hirsch
speaker
674 appearances
7 recordings
3 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard 13 Apr
Jonathan Hirsch’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Mar 2026 with 2.
Appearances
Gail and Chuck, in the middle of all this, did their best to provide a loving home for Devereaux and to keep the kids insulated from any of the weirdness going on with Sandra and Terry. They were sort of dancing around Sandra, trying to stay connected to Dev without getting too involved with her. It felt precarious, unstable.
And now, lawyers on both sides of the custody dispute were telling them, it could be dangerous.
Chrissy is Gail's daughter from her previous marriage. She was closest in age to Devereaux. Seeing Gail and her together, she's a carbon copy of her mom. silvery blonde hair, high cheekbones, perfect teeth. Chrissy loved Devereaux.
A few months before Devereux took that trip with her mom to Hawaii, she'd asked her sisters to stay the night with her at Sandra's. It was Sandra's turn to have her, but she'd also planned to host a conscious development meeting at the house, which made Devereux uncomfortable. She didn't want to be there alone.
Kristen figured it'd be your typical teenage sleepover. Junk food, manicures, movie marathons. It was anything but.
The house on Manning Lane in Dallas was just a five-minute walk from Terry's. A big front yard with a paved walkway towards the door. Large, sleepy oak trees hung over the walkway on either side. And inside the house, in the living room, all the people from CDBMS were there. From Dev's room in the back of the house, the girls could hear all of their voices.
They were a little creeped out by the whole thing, but also curious.
They agreed to go check it out.
Men and women from all walks of life were gathered around to listen to Terri. Preppy academics, long-haired hippies, young, wide-eyed seekers, and seasoned spiritualists.
Wait, what?
Chrissy never forgot what she heard that night. It was over 40 years ago, and it's seared into her memory. How can someone's blood be evil? Why were these adults acting like that was a perfectly normal thing to be talking about? Chrissy could tell immediately something wasn't kosher about the whole thing.
Never went back to the house Dev shared with her mom, Sandra. For a sweet kid, Dev had to deal with some pretty heavy stuff. At her dad's, she had the stability of a big family, a two-parent household, but she still very much loved her mom.
Chrissy told me that love seemed directed towards somebody else.
And as time wore on, Terry roped Sandra more and more into her group, conscious development of body, mind, and soul. Terry wanted her to help make and sell her jewelry, made of precious and semi-precious stones that they believed to have special spiritual qualities. They would travel for days at a time, leaving Devereaux with the family nanny, Louise Watson.
Then Sandra invited Devereaux on the trip to Hawaii. It was a bit of a surprise. But here was a chance for mother and daughter to spend time together. Terry would be there too. But that didn't matter to Devereaux. Sandra had in fact paid for the trip as a honeymoon present for Terry and her third husband, Ben Johnson. The invite put Chuck and Gail in a tricky spot.
And here was Sandra doing what everyone noticed had been lacking, spending quality time with her daughter. And they might have been doing weird stuff in the living room and talking about blood, but Debra wasn't involved in any of that, right? She had no undue influence from Terry Hoffman, as far as anyone knew. Chuck and Gail told her it was okay to go.
It was the last time Gail ever saw that young girl. The one she raised and loved was her own.
That night, Dev showed up unannounced to the house. She boarded a plane with her mother, Sandra Cleaver, and Terry Hoffman to Hawaii. They'd be there for a week.
February 25th, 1979. The picnic by the beach at Wailupe Peninsula. It was clearly not a safe place to be swimming.
It's the kind of detail Gail has played over and over again in her mind. Why would Sandra choose to take Devereux swimming there unless she knew it was dangerous and did it anyway?
Showing 561–580 of 674 · page 29 of 34
← Previous
Next →