Some stray thoughts on Nancy Salzman

What year did Nancy Salzman graduate high school?

Online, the year is reported as 1974.

She apparently went to Cranford High School in Cranford, NJ.

But according to at least one source who knew her, she actually graduated in 1972.

Nancy was born in July 1954.  So, if Nancy graduated in 1972, she would have been 18. But if it was 1974, she would have been 20 – rather a late age for high school graduation.

Nancy’s yearbook picture is found in the 1972 yearbook for Cranford High.

There seems to be no further reference to her in the 1972 yearbook other than her picture – which led one observer to question whether she actually graduated in 1972. 

 She went to nursing school in New Jersey, not Pennsylvania, as originally  reported. 

Nancy is Jewish. Her mentor, Keith Raniere, told her she was, in her previous life, Adolf Hitler. Because of this, Keith explained, Nancy had a lot of good works to do to overcome her bad karma and undo the wrongs she had done in the world in her past life. Keith offered to help her.

Nancy used to go to Kristin Kreuk’s house when Kreuk was holding NXIVM events at her home. This was early on in Kreuk’s NXIVM career.

Nancy is reported to have guided Kruek in setting up Girls By Design. Part of the discussion included how “we” could attract young girls to learn the wondrous teachings of NXIVM and its founder, Vanguard.

Nancy once said that Vanguard’s discovery of Rational Inquiry was the greatest human discovery since man invented writing.

Nancy seems to have admitted in court that she lied about having a master’s degree.  It may be that part of the NXIVM technology she mastered is the one Vanguard is best at: telling lies, making up phony credentials and awards, etc. 

Nancy apparently does not even have a bachelors in nursing. She attended a now-defunct hospital nursing program that led to an RN but not a bachelors degree, according to one source.

While her bio says she went to Muhlenberg College – a liberal arts college in Allentown, PA – it appears that the college does not offer a nursing degree. An informed source tells us that actually went to the now-defunct nursing program at nearby Muhlenberg Hospital.  

Nancy was given the title Prefect by Vanguard. While Vanguard is a word that means the founder of a new thought movement, Prefect is a far lower rank. A Prefect is a high school monitor, or lower ranking official who enforces petty disciplinary rules and watches underlings.

Since Raniere thought of his marks or students as imbeciles and gullible children, the name Prefect is fraught with meaning.  Nancy’s role was to monitor and control the children and report to Vanguard – who would puppeteer everything – and everyone – including Nancy.

I found it fascinating that when Barbara Bouchey and the other 8 women left NXIVM in 2009 because Raniere had been exposed as a sex addict and had swindled Bouchey out of more than a million dollars, he managed to blame Nancy for the fallout.

She bought it – perhaps thinking her Hitler-karma was affecting the whole organization. I can see her weeping and taking the blame and admitting to insiders that it was her fault and that Keith had shown her why and how it was true she spoiled everything.

Clare Bronfman was promoted above her and, in time, Nancy’s salary was suspended and she had to ask Clare for her expenses. For a woman who had previously had a company-paid budget of more than $40,000 per year for clothing, that had to a bitter pill to swallow.

One time, Nancy told someone that if she had accepted Keith Raniere a little quicker and had not been so skeptical, the good that the two were doing would have affected the world’s karmic energies so profoundly that 9/11 would never have happened.

In this respect, Nancy Salzman was responsible – at least in part – for 9/11.

Despite her foibles, Keith trusted that Nancy would not steal his money. He allowed her to store his cash in her home. One time, she told a friend of mine that she had more than $1 million in cash hidden in her home.

Kristen Keeffe told Barbara Bouchey that at one time, there was $2 million in Nancy’s house. And she thought it had likely grown to much more than that by 2015.

When the Feds raided Nancy’s home, right after Raniere’s arrest in late March, they found $520,000 in cash.

It is quite possible, knowing that Raniere was arrested and the Feds were investigating, that Nancy got rid of most of the cash in her home before the raid, while leaving only $520,000 behind.

Nancy reportedly had breast cancer and recently had a radical mastectomy. Court records show she had recent “surgeries” – plural.  She has not been to court since her arraignment in late July.

Her daughter, Lauren, has been granted an exemption from her own home detention to visit her mother daily at her home while she is recovering from her surgeries.

According to court records, Nancy once required Susan Dones to write an email to Nancy saying she was enamored with Nancy in a romantic way.

Nancy kept the email. It was kind of a early version of collateral.

When Susan Dones and her partner, Kim Woolhouse, left NXIVM and filed for bankruptcy, NXIVM intervened to block it. NXIVM’s lawyers released the email Susan had written to Nancy to show Kim that Susan was unfaithful. 

This was quite a group to join and Nancy was its Prefect.

More to follow on Nancy Adolf Loshin Pike Salzman.   

Frank Parlato