Nxivm Trial: Cult Leader Forced Women to Starve Themselves to Be 'Wraith Thin,' Witness Said
In late 2015, Mark Vicente, then a senior member of the cultlike group Nxivm, became disturbed about the physical deterioration of some women in the organization, including the actress Allison Mack.
“I began to see a lot of the women just become wraith thin,” he said on Monday, while testifying in the racketeering and sex trafficking trial of Nxivm’s leader, Keith Raniere. “It began to look like their skin was translucent.”
Mr. Vicente, who said that he believed that a long standing concern over calories, weight and appearance had led some women in Nxivm to cultivate a “skeletal” appearance, testified that he approached Mr. Raniere to air his fears, saying that Ms. Mack seemed “broken.”
The response Mr. Vicente remembered was striking; Mr. Raniere told him: “Well, I’m trying to break her.”
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/13/nyregion/nxivm-trial-raniere.html