Rick Ross

Was it called the Yellow Deli?

Yeah, that's the 12 tribes. That's a cult group. What is that? That owns a chain of delis. It was originally a group started by a guy by the name of Gene Spriggs in Chattanooga, Tennessee. And they believe that they are the chosen new Israel and their leader is the prophet. They called him the prophet Yonek. Well, yes. Gene Spriggs died rich. I mean, he had a yacht. He had multiple homes.

I mean, he lived the good life. But his people would flip real estate for him. They would rehabilitate homes in upstate New York and around the country. And then that would add to the group's coffers. and they had a chain of restaurants called the Yellow Deli, and they also had cafes that served what I think they call a mate, which is a South American kind of tea or coffee or something.

And this would be the way that Gene Spriggs made money, because these people would work for basically nothing but room and board. So they would be living in group houses that would have designated leaders, and they would be there within this community, and they would work at the cafes for the real estate business or rehabilitating or doing whatever Spriggs wanted. for nothing but room and board.

No health insurance, no Social Security, nothing. And then they'd be raising children in the group. And these children would not be well treated. And they would not be schooled past the age of 13. And they would be beaten. Spriggs would have children beaten with like balloon sticks that they would dip in resin and then whip the children.

One mother who hired me, her name is Lori Johnson, and she lived in upstate New York. She became involved with her husband in the 12 tribes. He really was devoted. And she began to have doubts because she saw how hard it was on her kids. She had two little children. And she wanted to leave. Her husband wouldn't leave. Divorce, custody battle. Laurie gets custody.

Husband disappears with the two children. It took nine years before the FBI found those kids. I did a Jerry Springer show. Where were the kids? They were hidden within the community in Florida, and no one knew where they were. And Lori had been without her children for nine years when they recovered them.

Her husband was arrested, and the FBI returned the kids, and I would work with those children. Then I think one was... 14, and the other was maybe 12, thereabouts, minor kids. But they had not been with their mother for years. And that was because of this group that owned the Yellow Delis, 12 tribes headed by Gene Spriggs. And I would appear with Lori on a very early Jerry Springer show.

And in that show, Laurie would show pictures of her kids, tell her story, and leaders from 12 tribes also appeared on the show with me. And I would then talk with them at the hotel that we were put up in. And I would say to them, Why don't you guys just give Lori back her kids?

And then people will think that you're not so bad, that you're not a bad cult because you're being sensitive and caring about this mother who wants to be reunited with her children. And they would repeatedly just say to me, oh, well, you know, we don't know where the kids are. We don't know where they are.

And then they would make outrageous accusations that Lori was immoral, that she was a harlot, whatever, really totally baseless. But the point is they would not come clean. And eventually the children were found in the community. And when I talked to the children, they most definitely knew.

They told me that Gene Spriggs specifically knew where they were and that other leaders in the group knew where they were and that they were deliberately hidden from their mother for years. Wow. Wow. So is that whole organization? The organization is still going. I'm not clear as to who's really running it.

I mean, it may evolve and change, but it's been a very authoritarian, very destructive group for many years. And do you know, Sean, at one time, they had contracts with Robert Redford, Sundance Catalog, Trader Joe's, and Estee Lauder to do packaging in regards to products.

But when it was exposed, and I had a part in that, there were former members who told me about these sweatshops where these members of the group were working. And unbeknownst to these companies, their product was being packaged and produced through this often child labor, illegal labor.

Well, that was eventually exposed, and they were raided by New York labor authorities, and those contracts were shut down. But Spriggs used to use companies like Estee Lauder, Trader Joe's, Robert Redford Sundance Catalog, to make money off of his people. He was basically selling them as like slave labor, and they were working under extraordinarily difficult conditions, often unsafe.

And so they were raided. And after that, one of the leaders of the group, Eddie Weissman, who I appeared with on this Jerry Springer show, he called me on the phone and he said, you know, Rick, you're a son of a... bitch, you know, you're so bad. You realize the money that you've cost the families in 12 tribes and they don't have the money because of the raid and you're responsible for that.

You should be ashamed of yourself. And I said, look, Eddie, come on, give me a break. You and your wife, Jeannie, are living the good life because you're leaders and you were working children illegally. Now, the Bible teaches that you're to obey the laws of the land, that you're to submit to civil authority. That's what is taught in the New Testament.

And you willfully went against the law, and you did it for what? So that you and Jeannie could live better? So that Gene Spriggs can have multiple homes? Don't come to me and tell me that I'm the bad guy. You're the one that broke the law. And somewhere along the line, I heard a click, And that was the end of him listening to what I had to say.

But that group, whenever you go to a yellow deli, whenever you have one of their mates, you are contributing to the 12 tribes cult.

You know, I've heard their food is good, their matés are good, but I wouldn't give them a penny. And look, I feel great sympathy for the people that, in my mind, are trapped within that group. Because you have to realize the children were born into that group. There's an old generation that was raised in 12 tribes.