In 2010, TV Actress Allison Mack was on top of the world. She was starring in the long running, hit TV series Smallville, had millions of fans, was making millions, was beautiful, and had thousands of men who would be grateful for the chance to date her.
A few years earlier, her friend and costar Kristin Kreuk brought her into a ‘self-help’ group called NXIVM and her life changed. Her involvement with the mysterious group grew from day to day. Even to this day – despite the arrest of leader Keith Raniere and Allison’s arrest expected soon – she continues to be a stalwart devotee. Some fear she has been brainwashed. Deeply hypnotized. Unable to think for herself.
As Artvoice reported, Mack is leading the remaining followers – designated as her slaves – despite her master Raniere being behind bars awaiting arraignment on charges of sex trafficking.
In this first of a series on how the cult captured Mack, we trace the roots of her involvement with NXIVM and how she started her affair with Raniere, whose followers call him Vanguard.
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Sometime in 2010 or thereabouts, Allison Mack left her computer open. There was an email on the screen. One of her friends saw it and was shocked: It was an email from Keith Raniere – leader of NXIVM – the sex-slaver, blackmailer and branding cult leader – to Allison Mack.
It read in effect: ‘If you and I want to have sex, you have to make a vow to have sex only with me. I have been betrayed before and once we become close – as you want — and I give my all to you, I cannot risk your betrayal. You must give me some collateral.’
At the time, Allison was considering dating actor Mark Hildreth – who recently broke up with Kristin Kreuk. All three were in the cult. But Allison had set her eye on Raniere – the leader. She threw Mark overboard in a heartbeat and jumped at the chance to be with Raniere – the leader of the ‘self-help’ group that she felt had changed her life.
Allison asked Keith what he wanted. She saved money from her acting career and invested it. Her net worth was estimated to be around $8 million. Raniere told her he wanted her to pledge her financial assets as collateral to ensure she would never betray him.
Keith told her, “What does it mean if you are not willing to pledge these assets? If you are not going to betray me, you will never lose your homes, your Orange County office building, or any of your savings.”
The giddy actress bought this argument. Paperwork was prepared and she signed a pledge that she would never sleep with another man the rest of her life and, if she did, Keith Raniere could file the deeds on her properties in his name and take the money from her bank account.
The problem with the scenario is that while Allison could have sex only with Keith, he made it clear that he would be with other women whenever he chose. And with this pledge of collateral, began a new phase in the life of Allison Mack.
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Stay tuned for Part 2: How Raniere took control of Allison Mack’s entire life
This is getting completely bizarre. It is understandable that some people are in vulnerable positions from time to time, but do these people have no one around? How can their parents, siblings, friends and colleagues turn a blind eye? You must notice something when that happens to a person.
Do these people not talk with each other? I mean within NXIVM. Imagine you were recruited with AM and you got to know her during group meetings, would you not start talking about issues after some time after trust has build up? I remember a co-worker who told me that a guy she did not know, who was 20 years older, asked her to go on a holiday with him. We joked about it and knew it was a bad idea.
Now imagine this creepy guy showing up and telling you he needs your bank account data and nudes for no good reasons. You would start laughing or turn around right away and tell your wing(wo)man Nicki what kind of moron that person is.
I question some of the timing too. Keith may have began grooming her in 2010 after she broke up with Chad Krowchuk but it may have been more like Spring 2012 when she was ushered into his sex liar. Prior to the 2012 Times Union story I had no idea who Allison Mack was. It was only after reading the series, the Acapella thread and Saratoga in Decline blog that I became aware of who she even was. Hell I didnt even know the dude walking thru my hood with a gaggle of women was a cult leader.
Someone tipped off John Tighe that Allison was a marked woman and probably had already been seduced by Keith after observing some activity at Apropos.. It was shortly thereafter I had my first Ally Mack and Keith sighting as they strolled hand in hand thru Knox Woods on his foreplay walk. Unfortunately, Wayback Machine didnt capture that particular post or the comments. I remember emailing John to confirm that Ally Mack was now harem. Somewhere on the hard drive of my old computer I may have that email where I told him what he heard was true.. Then Allison disappeared from Knox Woods again (or I did not see her) only to resurface around 2015
I have a feeling it was around 2012 as well. If you look at her blog, everything is hidden before December 2011. I know she was blogging before then because I used to read it. Maybe that was her “new start.” I definitely recommend using Wayback Machine for her older blog posts. They’re more coherent that what is currently up there.
I knew her. Was in several courses with her. She seemed very introverted to me when she first started the courses. But I know others who knew her said she was a narcissist from the start. Keith’s requirement for a vow to only have sex with him seems cruel. At that point if you know you are only going to have sex with a tiny troll forever, why wouldn’t you just end your life? I suppose that statement could apply to either Keith or Allison.
“But I know others who knew her said she was a narcissist from the start.”
Maybe the acting industry just messes up a person’s sense of self when they start so early in life just like in Allison Mack’s case. It seems that many child actors have problematic adulthoods. There is also the pedophilia issue in the industry in addition to this that can cause such problems.
I also wonder if actors subtly begin to lie easier since their entire job is based on simulating truth in an artificial environment.
Every actor/actress except KK, though, right? Because she can’t do any wrong.
Nope. Even Kristin. Everyone except saints have lied in their lives. People tell white lies more frequently than other types. They make excuses. They rationalize to themselves. The don’t live up to their promises. All of these are forms of lies.
Kristin is no saint and never has been. Most people aren’t. That’s a far cry from doing illegal things or bringing people into a “sex cult” and lying about it.
The point being of what I previously said is that since simulation is part of their career, they have to be more wary of falling into something that can be easier for them. When people do the same thing over and over again, they get better at it, e.g., a person who has been playing guitar for twenty years can pick it up and more easily start playing smoothly than someone who picked it up six months ago.
Why do some people think that it’s one extreme or the other: “can’t do any wrong”?
There is plenty of granularity in life. Some things are black and white and many things aren’t.
I think with actors, there is also deep ambition, ego and narcissism (not all necessarily a bad thing in normal doses). Their job also involves lots of emotional exposure, and lots of rejection and external judgement combined with emotional highs. All of this flux can make you quite malleable in the right circumstance. Edmondson, Kreuk, Mack, Vicente etc don’t come across as having any awareness of any of this. A lot of their statements are self-rationalizing and exculpatory. I’m not sure they will ever understand why they were more susceptible than others.
I can’t argue with much of that.
Although I can’t say “*a lot* of their statements are self-rationalizing and exculpatory”. Most people have rationalized away things in their life. I can only make a judgement from a subset of what I’ve witnessed. And I have been a witness and more to a few of one of those person’s in particular.
There’s a bit more collateral than that. Please read this…
The documents of the charges filed by the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York against him which can be read here in a 25 page piece https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4421505-Complaint-and-affidavit-in-support-of-arrest.html
Refer to Mack as CC-1 in the documents and list more.
Inside that, it lists the collateral she was told to hand over. ( Bear in mind not all collateral needs to be true. It only has to give Keith something he could use against her )
1. Letter about her parents ( that would destroy them ) Possibly alleging abuse?
2. Signed over her home
3. If she ever had a baby he would have sole custody
4. Letter of alleged confession that would state abuse of her nephews ( obviously wouldn’t be true but social services wouldn’t know that ) If you write a letter they would ask why you wrote it.
Anyway, that’s what is reported based on emails the feds have. One of the girls before she escaped DOS took a photo of the collateral that was being held over peoples’ heads.
To be honest I think Allison was just very lost in her life and she fell in with the wrong crowd. After going through his courses for many years, her identity was replaced and unlike others who saw how wrong it was and left, she didn’t think she could as she’d already handed over collateral. Probably first her WEALTH, then once he had that, he had no trouble getting the rest of the collateral from her.
That’s why I don’t think she’s spoken out. She’s scared of what he will do like the other women.
Actress Sarah Edmondson was scared but she spoke out.
I feel for Allison and if I could sit her down. My words to her would be the following.
Allison, we all make mistakes in life but this is a major screw up.
Like many people ( those who followed Charles Manson, David Koresh and Jim Jones, and so on ). No one starts out bad and chooses to do bad things. They are taught it.
The more lost a person feels, the easier they can be manipulated. Just like two people who come on stage for hypnosis. One is more susceptible to being hypnotized than another.
If i was in your shoes here is what I would do
1. Realize that everyone knows about what he has over your head. ( So no point worrying)
2. Realize that others have been sucked into cults and you are not alone ( You are not the first)
3. Realize that continuing to say nothing and not come forward is admitting you agree to all you have done
4. Realize that Keith no longer has anything over you. The courts may understand based on the blackmail and all that money you have and whatever else can still be yours but you need to come forward now and speak to cops and the feds. (That’s if you haven’t handed the money over already.)
5. Realize some people will stand with you IF you come forward and tell the truth (See how they have treated Sarah Edmondson who was a teacher in NXIVM ) they have rallied behind her because she told the truth.
The truth will set you free.
If you don’t do any of the above, you’ll reap what you sow. It’s not judgement. It’s just nature’s law.
What we toss into the world comes back to us.
I hope you manage to step forward and bring an end to Keith’s destructive reign over your life.
We miss the old Allison ( the one before keith )
I hope, though doubt, that Allison Mack will read your words.
But wasn’t Allison engaged to Sam Witwer in 2013/2014? So she lost all of her money/properties because she was in a relationship with another man? Wouldn’t Sam have stepped in to help his girlfriend/fiance? Doesn’t quite add up to me.
was she really engaged to sam witwer? the only results that come up when you google it are from two sites that i’ve never heard of before. both are/were famous enough that if they were engaged, sites like people, us weekly, entertainment tonight, etc would have had stories about it.
This is a link from In Touch on line magazine which is pretty mainstream: http://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/who-is-allison-mack-146387 about how Allison and Sam were in a relationship for three years. How could she be giving collateral to Raniere during this time?
article is from 2017, after the fact. i’m guessing they did the same search that gave me those 2 google results and didnt worry too hard about whether it was legit. when jensen ackles and danneel harris got engaged, cw celebrities with a similar level of fame, there were articles absolutely everywhere.
and it’s far from an article “about how Allison and Sam were in a relationship for three years.” it looks more like a recap of her wikipedia, plus a five minute google search. the allison/sam detail is one line in a very brief bio that reads like whoever wrote it has never heard of her before.
in fact, the only photos of them together are from smallville in 2008/a convention panel in 2009. seems more like a few fans shipped their characters together, and forgot it wasn’t real, than that they actually ever had a relationship.
I tried to search for photos of Sam and AM together post Smallville days and I couldn’t find any. I even looked through his twitter and I only saw a cryptic mention of “my girlfriend” circa 2014, but no mention of a name. But if you were Sam Witwer and you were being named as an ex-boyfriend to a woman now linked to a sex cult, wouldn’t you get on twitter and make a firm denial?
As talented as I think they both are and as much as I enjoyed the Chloe/Davis relationship is season 8 of Smallville, they were never outside of the show so I guess magazines/press weren’t interested in their romance?
look at the only site that actually “reports” on the engagement/breakup. it’s called ecelebrityfacts.com, and it reads like it’s been badly translated from another language. it’s also time-stamped “1 year ago.”
the full headline of the story is “Allison Mack called off her engagement with boyfriend Sam Witwer: Not getting married anytime soon. Her net worth is just amazing.” this is not a legitimate news site. i find it very hard to believe the writer of this story knows anything.
here are two quotes from this story i find funny:
“Allison’s personal stories are not found much in media. But the fact that she had shared her engagement ring with her boyfriend is not hidden. Starting to date in 2010, the couple were engaged in 2013.”
and
“Often chased by paparazzi, Allison’s personal life pulled quite a lot attention of media.”
tl;dr, the only supposed source on this relationship/break up is about as trustworthy as the knife.
from the site’s “about us” section:
:About the Content
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this is fan fiction.