01x05 - The Baby Garden, On the Way to the Heaven

[bunniefuu]

THE FOLLOWING EPISODE CONTAINS
DESCRIPTIONS OF CHILD ABUSE

WHICH MAY BE DISTURBING TO SOME VIEWERS

[producer] Please introduce yourself.

[speaking Korean]

[interpreter] I am the heartless woman
who caused the uproar

at the Baby Garden incident
that occurred in 1996.

SUN YEONG-RE

FORMER MEMBER OF THE BABY GARDEN
MOTHER OF CHOI NAK-GWI

I'm Nak-gwi's mother, Sun Yeong-re.

[traditional percussion]

[chanting]

[bells jangling]

I'm deranged.

I'm mentally ill. Completely insane.

[woman shouts]

[woman shouts]

Because Nak-gwi was very light-skinned,

everybody said
that he was adorable and beautiful.

They all loved him.

[man 1] When I was investigating
this incident,

one of the biggest questions I had was

"Who on earth was Nak-gwi's mother?"

[sighs]

Well...

I can't even call myself a mother.
I can't use that word.

I'm a bad and horrible human being.
I'm evil.

I wish somebody
would just stone me to death.

I'm a horrible person.

I wish I was dead.
I don't deserve to live.

- [producer] Stop it, please.
- [sobbing]

I'm such a horrible person.

I just can't forgive myself.

After a period of silence,
the religious cult has returned.

The Baby Garden's
four cult leaders were arrested

for stealing money from their followers,

and murdering three of their members
for disobeying their leader.

KIM KI-SOON
FOUNDER OF THE BABY GARDEN

[newscaster] The leader Kim Ki-soon
created the cult.

She deceived her followers

by promising them eternal life
and heaven on earth.

Our sources say that she deified herself

and brutally assaulted
followers who didn't obey her.

A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD BOY, CHOI NAK-GWI

STARVED FOR ONE WEEK
AND BEATEN UP IN A PIGPEN

CHANGED HIS NAME FROM NAK-WON TO NAK-GWI
AS "HE WAS POSSESSED BY AN EVIL SPIRIT"

TIED UP IN A PIGPEN AND FED HUMAN WASTE

[newscaster] Nak-gwi, the son of the cult
member Choi Myeong-h*, was five years old

when he was beaten to death
in a pigsty in 1987.

[Yeong-re sobbing]

[sighs]

I can't change anything
about what happened.

I'm so ashamed to even be alive.

So ashamed.

[somber music]

[choral church music]

IN THE NAME OF GOD: A HOLY BETRAYAL

THE BABY GARDEN, ON THE WAY TO THE HEAVEN

[ominous music]

ICHEON

ARIRANG WORLD

SYNNARA

[man] Come out when you're done.

Jeong Hye-sun!

[group talking]

Come on, stop, wait a minute.

You need to do it fast and then come out.

[blows landing]

I don't want to watch it.
I... I didn't know it was this bad.

It's horrible.
I was just following orders.

I... I didn't know
what was going to happen next.

It's so different to watch it this way.

It breaks my heart.

CHOI NAK-GWI
5 YEARS OLD AT THE TIME OF THE INCIDENT

My name is Sun Bok-re.

FORMER MEMBER OF THE BABY GARDEN,
AUNT OF CHOI NAK-GWI

I am Nak-gwi's aunt.

I participated in the m*rder
of an innocent boy.

He was my little nephew Nak-gwi.

It was summer.

Back then, I was working at a factory.

My afternoon shift was ending.

I got a call.
Kim Ki-soon wanted to see me.

She called me to her chambers
and I sat by her feet.

She said that

Nak-gwi had pooped
and smeared it all over the walls.

That he was possessed.

She said we needed to discipline him,
but his mother was at work

and his father was gone,
so then I had to discipline him.

She said Nak-gwi was in the pigpen.

[pigs grunting]

So I went there.

When I got there,

they had taken
all of my nephew's clothes off

and tied him up.

He was left in the pigpen
with his hands tied behind his back.

I couldn't leave because people...
had followed me there

to see if I would do as Kim Ki-soon said.

So I had no choice
but to follow her orders.

FORMER MEMBER
TOOK PART IN THE BEATING OF CHOI NAK-GWI

I went to beat him up too.

I was brushing my teeth after lunch
and people were looking for me outside.

They said that Nak-gwi
had been possessed by Satan.

Agaya said we had to exorcise him.

So I followed them.

They said he should eat feces,

so I took some with my hands
and put it in his mouth.

Then Nak-gwi
pushed it out with his tongue.

He pushed it out twice.

[woman 2] Then she said each one of us
should take a stick, line up and hit him.

- [blow lands]
- [pig squealing]

[Bok-re] I think there must have been
some nails attached

to the stick I used to hit him,

because he was bleeding.

When I saw the blood,
I just tossed the stick aside and left.

Any other child
would have cried out for his aunt.

They should have done something,
they should have stopped it.

[woman 2] I hit him a few times.
Everybody took turns beating him.

We said "Leave his body, evil spirit.
How dare you come here, Satan?"

We kept beating him up.

- [blows landing]
- [pig squealing]

SIX DAYS BEFORE NAK-GWI'S DEATH

AUGUST 8, 1987
THE BABY GARDEN, ICHEON

[mournful music]

FORMER MEMBER
WITNESS OF CHOI NAK-GWI INCIDENT

I remember well that it was summer break.

I don't know exactly what I did wrong,
but I was told I was no better than a pig.

I lived in that pigpen the entire summer.

Nak-gwi was already there
when I got there.

NAK-WON: NAK-GWI'S ORIGINAL NAME

Tied up.

What really sickened me,

no food was given to him all day.

Not even water.

There was... this pipe that pigs drink from.
Water only came out if you pressed it.

So I gathered water in my hands

to help Nak-gwi drink some.

[woman] He wasn't there for more
than ten days, but it was at least a week.

One night he went to the kitchens,
he was hungry.

He went there and said,
"Ma'am, I'm hungry."

[Yeong-re] It's pretty far away,
even for a grown man.

PIGPEN, DINING ROOM

He was probably hoping
there'd be some food left,

so he walked all the way there,
because he must have been very hungry.

The kitchen lady went straight
to Kim Ki-soon, saying "Agaya, Agaya!"

"I think Nak-gwi
is really possessed by a spirit."

"He hasn't had anything to eat,

but he still has the energy
to come all the way here."

So they immediately
took him back and tied him up.

They didn't even let him drink water.
They just tied him back up.

When I learned that, I was...

After two days,
Kim Ki-soon beat him up again,

even though he was too weak... to cry.

I saw her hit him.

I saw it right in front of my eyes.

[pigs squealing]

She was hitting him,
but he couldn't even scream.

He was hit so many times.

He should have been
screaming in pain, in tears,

but he just couldn't.

[blow lands]

Instead, he had his eyes wide open.
I remember that.

But he wasn't really looking at her.

He was just a baby.

He was an innocent child.

It looked like he didn't even know

why he was there.

After that, Nak-gwi left us,

and that was it.

SUN BOK-RE, AUNT OF CHOI NAK-GWI
TOOK PART IN THE BEATING OF CHOI NAK-GWI

I knew I would remember that day.
It was pouring rain.

I saw my nephew's shoe
outside the bathroom.

AUGUST 14, 1987

When I saw that shoe, I couldn't believe
that my nephew had died.

[Yeong-re] When all that happened,
I was at the market.

I found out about the incident

the day after he died in the pigpen.

Kim Ki-soon asked me to come see her.

AUGUST 15, 1987

She said "Nak-gwi is gone. He's dead."

"When he died,
his face was twisted like a cat's."

She said, "I need somebody to be
a scapegoat to teach people a lesson."

"And there are other parents
that are very faithful."

"Since your family joined last,

and don't have enough faith,

it would've been hard for you to stay here
without sacrificing Nak-gwi."

"But now, you will receive
the blessing of the heavens

because of Nak-gwi's sacrifice."

"You should cooperate in this matter."

"Just do as I say."

THE DANCE OF HEAVEN,
SPINNING NAKED

[newscaster] Ms. Kim Ki-soon was one
of Pastor Lee's best students.

Lee sparked controversy
by dancing naked with his followers

at a worship ceremony in the late '70s.

NAKED WORSHIP
PASTOR LEE KYO-BU

Ms. Kim's worship ceremonies,

where she sings popular songs
while wearing thin, see-through pajamas,

seem to be influenced by Pastor Lee.

[man] I knew Lee Kyo-bu very well
when he worked as a pastor

in Iri Jeollabuk-do during the '70s.

He taught a life of integrity,
sacrifice, and morality.

I believe Lee Kyo-bu
had about one thousand followers.

If Kim Ki-soon is building
the new celestial kingdom,

then I will go there to be with her.

How should I put this?

LEE KYO-BU
SPIRITUAL TEACHER OF KIM KI-SOON

Kim Ki-soon was one of the followers
who used to come to my assemblies.

She was one of the church members.

She said, "I respect you
just as much as Jesus."

She said she would follow me.

Even other people
thought that she was like that.

[all calling out]

She was orphaned at an early age.

She was poor. She wanted to study hard,
in order to achieve glory and honor.

After she married the son of a pastor
and gave birth to a son,

she could no longer fulfill her dream.

KIM KI-SOON
FOUNDER OF THE BABY GARDEN

I think she had
a lot of regrets because of that.

And then, suddenly, incredibly,

people started following Kim Ki-soon
instead of Lee Kyo-bu.

I wasn't originally
one of Kim Ki-soon's followers,

and Lee Kyo-bu
was somebody who lived a pure life.

In some ways, he actually
set a good example for other people.

I was one of Mr. Lee's followers because
I loved listening to his teachings.

FORMER MEMBER

CULT PASTOR ARRESTED
LOCKED UP AND BEAT EIGHT PEOPLE

Back then, I ended up in jail
for two years and six months.

After that incident,
Pastor Lee went to prison.

And while he was gone, Kim Ki-soon
appeared and took over the preaching.

A lot of people thought that the spirit
of Mr. Lee had moved on to her.

Shortly after, Kim Ki-soon realized,

if she used my name,
she could take advantage of that.

Those people would follow her, even
to a pit of fire, to their certain death.

It wasn't very hard for Kim Ki-soon
to win over Lee Kyo-bu's community.

She said she had gone
to visit Lee Kyo-bu in prison,

and that he asked her to personally
take care of his followers.

[wistful ambient music]

When she came back from prison, she told
us about the conversation with Lee Kyo-bu.

KIM SEONG-KEUN
FORMER MEMBER

She told us that
Mr. Lee himself had asked her

to take care of us,
lead us and keep us united.

She said that Kyo-bu was like a matchmaker
who matched her with the community.

She said, "He's like John the Baptist
of the old days."

"But I'm here now, so you must follow me."

[Bong-sik] That was the beginning
of Kim Ki-soon's rise to power.

She became the leader
while Lee Kyo-bu was away.

She told us to call her
by the name "Agaya."

[choral church music]

[Yeong-re] She said "I'm Agaya,
a three-year-old baby."

She couldn't go to Heaven
unless she was a child.

[woman] When we sang songs,
we had to look at her.

While we sang hymns too,
we looked at Agaya.

[woman singing in Korean]
♪ O, great and amazing peace ♪

♪ It is a gift from Agaya ♪

It was first called The Garden of Eden,
but then she changed it to Baby Garden.

BABY GARDEN COLLECTIVE FARM

THE BABY GARDEN, ICHEON, GYEONGGI-DO

[calm, romantic music]

She said, "I will create heaven on earth."

LEE SOON-BOK
FORMER MEMBER OF THE BABY GARDEN

"We're all one family.
We're all brothers and sisters."

And we believed her.

At first we lived in our own homes,
but then we lived communally.

She tricked people.
She said the apocalypse was coming

and only her followers
will enter the millennial kingdom,

so basically, the only way you could
save you soul was in Baby Garden.

I remember she said, "Only the chosen few
may enter the kingdom."

And that's how about 300 or 400 people
decided to live communally.

[woman singing in Korean]

[gentle piano music]

You must all realize
that this is actually love.

People all around us say that it's love,
and they're not wrong.

It is love. This is proof of that.

In her mind, Kim Ki-soon
had created a doctrine back then.

HOUSE OF LOVE

It was simply called "Love."

In order to go to this... kingdom,

where you can live forever,
all you had to do was love.

[Ki-soon] Now, I will open
the door of love.

She emphasized love and said God is love.

When she said those kinds of things,
people totally believed it.

When I heard her, I really thought
it was heaven on earth.

I lived there thinking it was heaven.

FORMER MEMBER OF THE BABY GARDEN

I truly believed that my soul
would live for eternity if I stayed there.

THEY ALWAYS SAID I'LL BE ABLE
TO LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER

WITH THE PEOPLE I LOVE WHEN THE WORLD ENDS

SO I STARTED FALLING INTO IT MORE

KIM KI-SOON TOLD US
THAT HIGHLY EDUCATED PEOPLE

LIKE PROFESSORS AND DOCTORS

WOULD KNEEL BEFORE US
AND SERVE US LIKE WE'RE KINGS

[in Korean] ♪ The door of love
Has opened ♪

♪ It has opened ♪

[man joins in] ♪ Chase ♪

♪ Love ♪

[shouting]

We need to love!

We all must love!

My sisters and brothers
who are wearing these ceremonial robes.

My brothers, who have received
the baby's blood!

- That's me.
- Love is not missing from anyone!

Agaya, Agaya, let us love.

She was my God and my Ruler, my Jesus.

I thought she was
the Second Coming of Christ.

OUR AGAYA WHO ART IN HEAVEN,
HALLOWED BE THY NAME

THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE
ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN

[man] To Agaya, the Ruler of Love.

We offer you glory and praise.

Ruler of Love.

We dedicate our laughter,
our singing and dancing to you.

[man] That's just how people work.

When you respect someone like they're God,

everything they do
seems beautiful and good.

We all thought that she really was God,

so we couldn't find
anything wrong about her.

[chuckles]

That's why I danced and danced so much.

[producer] With Kim Ki-soon?

Yes, I think I was the one who danced
with her the most back in those days.

[gentle piano music playing]

[man] We will become
your eternal source of joy.

Oh, Agaya, you are so beautiful.

[choir singing]

Kim Ki-soon told followers to go out
into the world and make money.

In order to build the millennial kingdom,
she needed cash.

[Sun-bok] We were very enthusiastic.

Back then, we didn't have much.

So the people who had more sold their
belongings and shared with all of us.

[man] Literally everybody
who went to live there

gave her their money when they joined.

Back in 1980,

I took three million won
and gave it to her.

The price of the land
was around 18 million won,

plus the 40 bags of rice.

I gave nearly 20 million won.

I just wanted to give her
everything that I had.

We didn't have money.

Not only us, but also
my husband's family didn't have much.

So the option they offered us,
since we had no money,

was to work for the community.

So we got on with it.
We got up very early every morning,

and we started selling fish cakes
and gimbap lunches.

We went to work on a daily basis,
even if it was pouring rain.

We never missed a single day of work.

We really tried our best. I don't think
I could have worked any harder than that.

FORMER MEMBER OF THE BABY GARDEN

There were about 300 people
in the community.

We started out by learning
how to fix basins.

Then I woke up very early in the morning
to sell gimbap and tempura rice cakes.

Honestly, I barely slept.

[chanting]

Sticky rice cakes!

Buckwheat jelly!

[laughs] I kept chanting that, even
though it was completely quiet outside,

and then someone would yell back,
"Hey, sticky rice cakes!"

And I would race up to their apartment
and make a sale.

Sticky rice cakes!

Buckwheat jelly!

Sticky rice cakes!

ESTABLISHING THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM

[man] With everybody working,
she made a lot of money.

DAEWOL-MYEON, ICHEON-g*n, GYEONGGI-DO

And with that, she was able
to buy more and more land.

On December 19th, 1982, she bought
some land in Icheon for the first time.

[Seong-Keun] She went there, took
a look at the empty fields and mountains.

She wanted a place to build houses on,

so she bought hundreds of thousands
of square feet.

When Baby Garden was established, we took
part in construction with our own hands.

The followers built everything themselves.

[man] Every single building and house

was constructed by the labor
of both men and women

who built everything
with their bare hands.

The followers did all of it.
We didn't hire anybody.

"We don't pursue pleasures."

"We will go to the eternal kingdom.
Our very own heaven on earth."

[thunder crashing]

Baby Garden? I was living
in the Devil's Garden instead.

My life ended up
being the complete opposite

of what I expected
when I first joined the congregation.

[newscaster] For most people,
the stories of the victims

of the religious cult Baby Garden
are beyond belief and imagination.

AN INHUMANE KINGDOM

A BIZARRE GROUP
WITH BLIND FAITH LIVING ON A FARM

Forced to perform heavy labor from dawn,

any cult member could be k*lled
if they disobeyed their leader.

Their lives were literally hell.

THE BABY GARDEN, THE GARDEN OF EVIL

Baby Garden wasn't one
of the regular cults that one reads about.

KANG MIN-KOO, FORMER PROSECUTOR
IN CHARGE OF THE CASE

They brainwashed ordinary people,

and put them to work
almost like sl*ves or livestock.

[intense music]

THREE THINGS TO QUIT
IN ORDER TO ENTER THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM

[Bok-re] Compassion.
Material goods. Sexual desire.

We had to give up those things
to live forever in heaven.

TIES TO COMPASSION:
AN OBSESSION WITH YOUR FAMILY

At that time, honestly,
I would have done anything,

even k*ll my parents,
if Kim Ki-soon had ordered me to do so.

We had to let go of compassion.

Regardless of whether
it was your own child,

husband or mother.

Compassion made us weak, which is why
we had to get rid of it completely.

You couldn't even call someone "honey."

You couldn't think
of your own children as yours.

You had to think of them as other members
of the Baby Garden.

Back then, the kids
had to call their mothers "ma'am."

That's what they made them do.

SEVERING THREE TIES INCLUDING FAMILY TIES
YOUR FATHER BECOMES A RANDOM MAN

She wanted to put the mothers to work,

but the children cried
and clung to their skirts,

saying, "Mommy, I want this, I want that."

Kim Ki-soon couldn't stand
the sight of that.

I HAD NO REASON
TO CALL MY FATHER AND BROTHER

BUT I WAS TOLD TO CALL THEM "SIR,"
AND MY MOTHER "MA'AM"

I MISSED MY PARENTS SO MUCH,
BUT I HAD TO CUT MY TIES WITH THEM

I HAD TO LIVE
WITH ONLY KIM KI-SOON ALONE IN MY HEART

We had to live separately,

so all women slept among other women.

Men would sleep among men only.
We never slept as families.

MEN'S ROOM, KIM KI-SOON, WOMEN'S ROOM

I had to start working
as soon as I woke up.

Thinking back on it now, we were insane.

I must have been crazy,
I don't know what I was doing there.

At that place, only special people
were allowed to go to the hospital.

The rest of us took care of ourselves.

You had to have a severe illness
to go to the hospital.

When our arms hurt from work,
she told us to use moxibustion.

I would put moxibustion all over me,
shoulders, elbows, and stomach,

as a healing remedy.

This is where they did it.

I have a big ugly scar from it.

Life became so hard because of this.

[man] When you get moxibustion,

the area, well, it starts oozing.

So I was itching while I was working,
and I couldn't stand it.

There were a lot of aftereffects.

[woman] I felt like a squid over a fire.

It was painful and horrifying.

It was more painful than giving birth.

I have two big scars, two.

- [producer] Where?
- [woman] My belly.

TIES TO SEXUAL DESIRE:
AN OBSESSION WITH THE OPPOSITE SEX

Live alone.
Let go of sexual desire. Love nobody.

To love God was good,
and it was permissible,

but loving anybody else in this world
was not correct.

It was a sin for men and women to date,
or love each other.

FORMER MEMBER

If they did,
then it would be called adultery.

IF A MAN AND WOMAN WERE INVOLVED
IN SOMETHING RESEMBLING A RELATIONSHIP

THEY WERE TREATED LIKE sl*ves
THEY WEREN'T EVEN TREATED AS HUMAN BEINGS

TO A DEGREE THAT COULDN'T BE SEEN
ANYWHERE ELSE ON EARTH

Both women and men would become servants.

It didn't matter
if they were older than her.

She would treat them like servants.

So the situation was that

unless Kim Ki-soon let them go,
they had no freedom.

It was like they were in jail. They had to
do everything that a sl*ve would do,

like getting up very early in the morning
to start cleaning.

They would sleep way less than the rest,

so basically,
they lost all of their freedom and rights.

You had to keep your head down,

stare at the ground like a criminal.

[woman] I used to work with this one guy.

I began to depend on him emotionally.

Eventually, I liked him.

I was having a really hard time
because of my feelings.

But then, Kim Ki-soon found out about it.

After that, I basically became her sl*ve.

I had to wear clothes
that were old and ragged,

and I had to work
even when others were asleep.

Back then, beatings were frequent.
She wouldn't do it in public, though.

- [producer] Right.
- She would take you somewhere else.

Beat you with anything.

I even saw her using a chain once.

It was a bicycle chain.

She beat people up whenever she wanted.

But she forced their relatives
to do it first,

saying the legal consequences would
be less if a family member did it too.

If somebody else beat you,
it would be grounds for as*ault.

But if it was a family member,
you could say it was disciplinary.

There were kids hitting their parents.

[woman] How was it possible for a child
to strike their own parent?

But in order to live there, both of us,

my older sister and I,
had to hit our mother.

Kim Ki-soon said my mother had gone crazy
because she was possessed.

And that my mother
had met with one of the guys,

that she had hugged him
and had sex with him.

She told us both to beat her up.

When my sister and I
started to hit my mother...

[sighs]

...everybody else began to beat her too.

A lot of things happened there
that are unthinkable for most people.

You really never knew
who would rat you out.

Everyone was spying on each other.

That is why I decided to run away
from home when I was in fifth grade.

[rail crossing bell ringing]

But some adults

from Baby Garden found me right away

and dragged me back to Icheon.

[poignant music]

It was in Icheon
where Kim Ki-soon started to beat me up.

I was beaten to the point of death.

I was covered in bruises from head to toe.

She didn't miss a single spot.

[producer] What about your parents?
Where were they?

Honestly, they couldn't interfere.

If they had tried to tell her to stop,
it would've been worse.

We would've all been beaten.

My mom must have been hurting,
but she kept silent.

You couldn't say anything to Kim Ki-soon.

It was absolute terror.

I lived in complete fear. Always.

She hit me all the time.

She got other people to hit me.

That was commonplace.

I was always afraid.

[Bong-sik] Some of the people
who escaped Baby Garden

began to share their shocking stories.

They said Kim Ki-soon had slept with
a lot of young male followers.

She forced everybody else
to live a life of celibacy.

But for herself,
she would pick the best young men.

She thought they were good-looking,
but also healthy.

So she would indulge her own desires.

At the time of the trial, I wrote
a news article about that situation.

MEN PLEAD FOR "LOVE MEETINGS"

Witnesses believed God touched them.

DANCES NAKED IN A LUXURIOUS BEDROOM

THROWING SEX PARTIES

She didn't do it with just anybody,
she only let her favorites do it.

I mean, isn't it obvious?

What did she do with them
behind closed doors?

I was young at the time.

I wouldn't just look away
when she showed me her breasts.

In that moment, I started to suck on them.

I really thought that she was my lover.

There were
a lot of young people back then.

Some were even younger than me.
We were all in our 20s.

When she gave us a hug
and patted us on the back,

we were absolutely ecstatic.

That display of approval made us happy.

[man 2] Kim Ki-soon likes
really good-looking people,

and also very young.

At the time, we thought that
our relationships with women and God

were one and the same.

How nice is it to think
that God was your lover?

That's why we all loved her
with such devotion.

When guys went in there...

FORMER MEMBER OF THE BABY GARDEN

...they were grunting and making noises.

I figured they were having sex.

- It was...
- [producer] You could actually hear them?

Of course!
You could hear them in there having sex.

There were always guys going in and out.

One guy would come out and tell
another guy to go inside her room as well.

When they came out,
their faces were flushed.

There were men who waited all night to go
in there, but they never got to do it.

I don't think she spent a single night
by herself.

Whenever they went in,
the women got jealous.

Because we were born women, we couldn't
experience her love like men did.

[laughs] We were all jealous,
I wasn't the only one.

[door opens]

[somber piano music]

[sighs] I got special treatment
back in Baby Garden.

FORMER MEMBER OF THE BABY GARDEN

Apparently,
I was pretty handsome back then.

Some of the members got jealous
because she treated me so well.

For example,
she would be eating the nicest food,

then she would take a couple of bites

and tell me, "Come sit over here.
Eat this instead."

The first time she called me,
she was lying on her bed in her pajamas.

She wore pajamas
that always showed her cleavage.

She said, "Wanna look?"

Then she showed me her breasts
and told me to touch them.

She asked if I was shy,
and she said she was Love.

She told me to take off my clothes.

First, she asked to take off my pants.

She told me to show her...

And that's when she sexually assaulted me.

God, I don't want to think about it.

Makes me want to throw up.

[man 2] Now that I think about it,
she was strategically playing with us.

She deceived us while taking advantage
of naive young boys.

Guys like me thought of her
as a love interest,

so after we got a taste of those feelings,

we started working really hard for her.

[choral music]

It's absolutely unbelievable.

She basically enslaved each and every
person inside that organization

for her personal wishes.

The unique thing about Baby Garden
was its exclusivity.

They didn't evangelize.

Cults usually try to take in more people
to attract them and expand,

but Baby Garden made money
by exploiting their own members for labor.

With that money, Kim Ki-soon
could do whatever she wanted in the world.

AN OBSESSION WITH MATERIAL GOODS

[man] I was basically a sl*ve.

Kim Ki-soon's sl*ve.

They put every single person to work.

If you weren't a salesman,
you were a farmer.

If you were not a farmer,
they would find you some other use.

Even the old women would help,
trimming the vegetables and cooking.

Laziness wasn't allowed.

Sometimes I just wanted
to take a nap for five minutes.

I got so sleepy out on the street.
I needed to get rest.

Even if there was nothing to sleep on,

I wanted to nap on the ground
for five minutes to make me feel better.

THIS FOOTAGE DOES NOT CONTAIN
ANYONE FEATURED

[video narrator] On March 11th,
at Jongno 3-ga Station in Seoul,

a boy dressed in ragged clothes
boarded the subway train

and offered chewing gum
and chocolate to passengers.

- [man] How much?
- One fifty, sir.

[man] Ah, here.

[woman] They used kids to sell things,
they made the children act like orphans.

Little kids in elementary
and middle school.

They made them sell things to people.

"Go follow that person."

"Offer some to that lady over there."

They even made the kids beg.
All of them did it, every single one.

[wistful music]

FORMER MEMBER

None of my kids had the chance
to go to high school or anything.

FORMER MEMBER

Some of them were good students,

but they were not sent to school,

despite having potential to thrive.

She said
we didn't need to learn anything else.

We were at God's kingdom.

She actually forced us to stop studying.

So I dropped out of school
during the summer break

of my first year in middle school.

"You don't need school.
The world is ending."

She didn't let them study.

On the other hand,
her own kids were doing great.

They went to college,
and even studied abroad.

Of what I remember,

none of us were getting paid.

I didn't have access to my bank account,
I didn't even know I had one.

They opened bank accounts in our name.

They kept the checkbooks.
They handled it all.

They managed our bank accounts
and we lived on whatever they gave us.

That's just how we lived,
working whenever they told us to.

Using her followers' offerings,
the leader Kim Ki-soon

established a company
called SynNara Distribution,

a very influential company
in the music industry.

[man 2] SynNara Distribution
was established in 1982,

achieving spectacular growth
that has spread to rural neighborhoods,

making records available to everybody.

Back then,
she wanted to start a record business.

RECORDS

She bought wholesale vinyl records
and cassette tapes in Cheonggyecheon.

She started selling them to record stores.

She didn't have anything else
to spend our money on,

so she managed
to save up a huge amount of money.

THE BABY GARDEN IS A "RECORD KINGDOM"

THE LARGEST RECORD STORE
IN SOUTH KOREA WILL OPEN

SYNNARA MUSIC

[Sun-bok] They made... so much money.

I heard they were actually making...

FORMER MEMBER
WORKED AT SYNNARA

...an unspeakable amount of money.

FORMER MEMBER
WORKED AT SYNNARA

I think Kim Ki-soon's room was about
one and a half thousand square feet.

And when we got the money,

two-thirds of that room was filled right
up to the ceiling with all that cash.

[dramatic music]

I lived in terror.

[Min-koo] In the beginning,

I honestly thought that what was happening
could not be true.

That's how shocking it was.

[woman] They're all dead.

Yoon Yong-ung, Seo Jong-won,
Nak-gwi, Mi-gyeong, all of them.

It was completely beyond my imagination.

Still... it wasn't complete nonsense.

[dramatic music]

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TO PROTECT THE SUBJECTS' IDENTITY,
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