2007
- June 8, 2007 The Deadly Messiah, Very Bad Men - Real Mysteries, WE TV
Synopsis:
...self-appointed messiah Roch Theriault in Quebec in the late 1970s. He told Gabrielle Lavallee that she could be saved...a man who would become one of the most punishing cult leaders in recent years...
...Roch beat, abused, molested, and even operated on them - with fatal consequences. And as his narcissism and alcoholism grew, so did the severity of his crimes...
2004
- August 1, 2004 Cult wife toiled at seniors' home, Ottawa Sun, Canada
SHEDIAC, N.B. -- A woman jailed for helping cult leader Roch Theriault hack off one of his wives' arms with a meat cleaver has spent the last two years working at a seniors' residence, a newspaper reports. The Moncton Times and Transcript said yesterday that Chantal Labrie, 46, was forced to quit her job...
...Theriault and Labrie were arrested in 1989, when they and two other commune members pleaded guilty to aggravated assault for amputating the right arm of Gabrielle Lavallee.
The incident took place in August 1989 at the Ant Hill Kids commune near Burnt River, about 100 km northeast of Toronto...
- January 23, 2004 Saskatoon writer nets Twain script, Amy Jo Ehman, The StarPhoenix, Canada
The phone rings, and Sharon Riis excuses herself from the conversation...
...Last year, she walked the red carpet to accept the Genie Award for the screenplay of Savage Messiah, based on the true story of a social worker determined to shatter the grip of cult leader, Roch Theriault, over his eight wives and 26 children. Originally made for TV, Savage Messiah grossed more than $1 million when it was released into theatres in Quebec...
2003
- June 3, 2003 Premiere screening for "Savage Messiah," Malta News - MaltaMedia.com (...Savage Messiah is the true story of a social worker who rescues a large gruop of mentally and physically abused children from the grip of a charismatic cult leader, Roch Theriault, who calls himself Moses. He is a charming but diabolic genius who presides over a bizarre doomsday commune that includes the 26 children he fathered and his harem of eight wives...)
- June 2, 2003 Savage Messiah - European Premiere Screening, di-ve.com (...Savage Messiah is the true story of a social worker who rescues a large gruop of mentally and physically abused children from the grip of a charismatic cult leader, Roch Theriault, who calls himself Moses. He is a charming but diabolic genius who presides over a bizarre doomsday commune that includes the 26 children he fathered and his harem of eight wives...)
- February 14, 2003 Egoyan's Ararat wins best picture at Genies, Canadian Press via CTV.ca (...The best actor trophy went to popular Quebec star Luc Picard for his mesmerizing performance as deadly real-life 1980s cult leader Roch Theriault in Savage Messiah...)
- February 14, 2003 Ararat big winner at Genies, CBC News (TORONTO -
...Best actor nominees Christopher Plummer and David Alpay were snubbed for their roles in Ararat, with the Genie going to Luc Picard for his permormance as real-life cult leader Roch Theriault in Savage Messiah.
"Reactions were kind of mixed because it's not the type of movie you fall in love with. People watch it and find themselves very troubled," said Picard...
...Savage Messiah won three Genies, including best supporting actress award for Pascale Montpetit.)
- February 14, 2003 Ararat takes 5 at Genies, The Globe and Mail (...Montreal actor Luc Picard won for best actor in the movie Savage Messiah (filmed in English for television but dubbed to French for its popular theatre release in Quebec). He plays a deranged cult leader who terrorizes his female followers. Pascale Montpetit won best supporting actress for her work in the same film, which was inspired by the true story of cult leader Roch Th�riault...)
- February 13, 2003 Ararat wins best picture, Luc Picard, Arsinee Khanjian win acting Genies - Canadian Press via Associated Press via Yahoo! News (TORONTO (CP) - ...The best actor trophy went to popular Quebec star Luc Picard for his mesmerizing performance as deadly real-life 1980s cult leader Roch Theriault in Savage Messiah. Although filmed in English for television, the story was so notorious to Quebecers that it was dubbed back into French and released theatrically in Quebec, where it proved a major box-office draw...)
2002
- Top box office Qu�bec single feature films, Qu�bec, 2002 Quebec Institut de la statistique du Qu�bec (...5 Savage Messiah...)
- July 11, 2002 Quebec cult leader Theriault denied parole, Canadian Press via CTV.ca (DORCHESTER, N.B. � Cult leader Roch Theriault, who once used a meat cleaver to amputate the arm of a concubine, was denied parole Thursday on the grounds he represents an ongoing danger to society...) (Video included.)
- July 11, 2002 Cult killer denied parole, CBC News (Video & Photo of Gabrielle Lavallee included.)
Convicted killer and cult leader Roch Theriault has been denied parole. He's from Quebec, but is in his 13th year of a life sentence at Dorchester Penitentiary.
One of his victims, Gabrielle Lavallee, was at Thursday's parole board hearing...
..."This man is a very subtle, extremely manipulative. He's a psychopath. To me, to my eyes, he's a psychopath."...
...three of Theriault's wives continue to make conjugal visits bearing him more children...
- July 11, 2002 Murderer's request for release denied, News Writer c/o Tracey Madigan, CBC Montreal (Montreal - Roch Th�riault's request for release from prison Thursday has been denied.
Th�riault, 57, also known as Moses, has been in prison since 1989...
...Quebec resident Gabrielle Lavall�e, one of Th�riault's victims, travelled to New Brunswick to block his release...) (Photo of Roch Th�riault included.)
- July 11, 2002 Quebec cult leader Roch (Moses) Theriault denied parole in New Brunswick, CP via Yahoo! News Canada (DORCHESTER, N.B. - Cult leader Roch Theriault, who once used a meat cleaver to amputate the arm of a concubine, was denied parole Thursday on the grounds he represents an ongoing danger to society...
...Theriault, 57, was sentenced in 1993 to life in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Solange Boislard, a long-time member of the survivalist cult...
...Gabrielle Lavallee, who had her right arm hacked off by Theriault in 1989, said Thursday he deserves to stay in jail forever...
...The charismatic Quebecer established a commune near Burnt River, Ont., in 1987, where he ruled over his concubines, 26 children and other followers...
...The story of Theriault and Lavallee is told in Savage Messiah, a new TV movie airing on The Movie Network and Movie Central.
Theriault continues to cast a spell over some of his followers, and conjugal visits with three remaining wives have allowed him to father a number of children while in prison.)
- July 11, 2002 Quebec cult leader Roch (Moses) Theriault denied parole in New Brunswick, canada.com network (Cult leader Roch Theriault,
who once used a meat cleaver to amputate the arm of a concubine, was denied parole Thursday on the grounds he represents an ongoing danger to society...)
- June 22, 2002 Savage sect, The Globe and Mail (A courageous social worker bucks the system and breaks up Roch Th�riault's unhappy family...
...The cult Th�riault inspired and dominated is examined in Savage Messiah, a Canadian-made film airing on The Movie Network. It's based on a 1993 book of the same name by Paul Kaihla and Ross Laver that tells the whole sorry story, in shocking detail.
The film, like the book, is a cautionary tale, focusing on the reasons so many were willing to follow Th�riault...)
- June 20, 2002 Cult of personality, The Globe and Mail (Playing a notorious cult leader...Quebec actor Luc Picard...
...is making his foray into English-language acting with Savage Messiah, the made-for-TV movie that airs on Sunday night...he plays a real-life character, Roch Th?iault, the cult figure who is currently in prison for a series of grisly crimes in a small Ontario town...)
- June 19, 2002 Quebec cult leader's chilling story told in new TV movie Savage Messiah, Canadian Press via Sympatico.ca (Canada came close to having its very own Jonestown or Manson family murders, says a Quebec woman who managed to flee the grasp of 1980s cult leader Roch Theriault after he cut off her right arm with a chainsaw...)
- June 19, 2002 Quebec cult leader's chilling story told in new TV movie Savage Messiah, Ottawa - canada.com network (Canada came close to having its very own Jonestown or Manson family murders, says a Quebec woman who managed to flee the grasp of 1980s cult leader Roch Theriault after he cut off her right arm with a chainsaw...
...The story of Theriault and Lavallee, one of his eight commune "wives," is told in Savage Messiah, a new TV movie airing Sunday night on the premium channels The Movie Network and Movie Central...)
- June 15, 2002 Verbatim declaration by Gabrielle Lavall�e before the members of the National Parole Board.
Fran�ais
Brief addressed to:
The members of the Parole Board
RE: The Parole of Roch Th�riault
Members of the Board,
This brief is submitted to you with the sole intention of justifying my categorical objection to the paroling of Roch Th�riault...
- May 13, 2002 Box-office update, Playback Magazine (Montreal: Savage Messiah (Moise), Mario Azzopardi's powerful psychological portrait of diabolical cult leader Roch Theriault, earned $666,850 in its first 10 days of release (Quebec only), with coproducer Muse Entertainment and Christal Films Distribution...)
- May 9, 2002 Cinemavault takes 'Messiah' global, Variety.com (Toronto-based Cinemavault Releasing has picked up worldwide rights, excluding Canada, to the psychological thriller "Savage Messiah," starring Polly Walker and Luc Picard....)
1994
- June 27, 1994 Questions on a cult: A coroner reopens the case of a baby's death, by PAUL KAIHLA, Maclean's (He is one of Canada's most frightening criminals, a charismatic cult leader who presided over a doomsday commune with his eight "wives" and their 26 children. For 12 years, Roch Theriault ruled his world like a concentration camp commandant, immersing his followers in a cauldron of physical, sexual and psychological abuse. Theriault's violent career ended in 1989, when he was charged with severing the arm of one concubine and killing another. But although he was convicted last year of second-degree murder, his case still raises many troubling questions...)
1993
- January 19, 1993 Cult leader gets life for killing disciple, The Toronto Star, Toronto, Ontario (A self-styled prophet, who called himself Moses and fathered 20 children by
nine women in a commune he founded near Lindsay, admitted yesterday that he had killed one of his cult followers.
Roch Theriault, 45, was sentenced to a life term - with no parole for at least 10 years...
...Theriault is already serving 12 years for chopping off the arm of another woman follower with a knife...
...in 1982 when Theriault was convicted of criminal
negligence after he castrated a commune member...)
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- Cult killer denied parole, CBC News (Video & Photo of Gabrielle Lavallee included.) July 11, 2002
- DVD Savage Messiah Amazon.ca
- DVD Savage Messiah (2002) A true story - Amazon.com
- Savage Messiah - Trailer
- A cult leader kills one of his followers, September 28, 1988, This Day In History, History Channel
Roch Theriault fatally wounds Solange Boilard in Ontario, Canada...
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