Tommy Garcia
My Story

When I was nearly sixteen years old, I ran away. I jumped on a freight train to start a new life. I was running away, but not from my family. In 1962, at the age of eight I had been taken from my family home in Los Angeles to be raised in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, on the 74 acre private estate of Father Divine, an African American man with millions of world-wide followers, who believed he was God.

Tommy Garcia – I am the child raised as the son of Father Divine. Inculcated and groomed to be the current day “Prodigal Son” and “Son of God”.

Tomas Guillermo Garcia My birth father. He lost his family, was threatened by cult members and accused of our murder, but never gave up hope that he would be reunited with his family.

Georgia Costa Garcia My birth mother. A bright, vivacious woman of Greek decent, a talented photographer who wanted to fulfill her spiritual emptiness.

Suzanne Garcia Shapiro My younger sister, Suzie, tragically even more vulnerable than I, was sent to live at one of the cults communal extensions in Philadelphia.

Father Divine A controversial charismatic preacher. Founder of The International Peace Mission Movement. His worldwide empire grew by exploiting victims of the Great Depression promising food, shelter & immortality in return for their devotion. A millionaire at the height of the Depression. Traveled in a custom made Duesenberg throne car, accompanied by a fleet of limousines.  Visited by Eisenhower, seeking support as he prepared to run for President. William Randolph Hearst was an established and outspoken critic. For those who believed in him, Divine was God. To critics, he was the consummate manipulator.

The cult mandates racial integration. Black & white roommates share the same bedroom, black & white alternated seating at meals, black & white intermix in a racial Utopia. But it is all through coercion. A cult where husbands & wives are separated upon entering & legally given new names. Publicly, sex was strictly forbidden yet I was severely scarred by sexual, emotional & mental abuse.

I am not the Son of God. No amount of wealth or power can make that lie worth living. Giving up all that was fashioned for me, in a strange ‘Manchurian Candidate” manner, successfully escaping my past, healing from the abuse, learning responsibiliy in the real world, being reunited with my father who never gave up hope & finding true love is who I am. Wth the unconditional love and support of my wife Lori, I have found and fulfilled my own destiny.