Mack W . Ford, Founder of Controversial New Bethany Home for Girls, Dies
By Rebecca Catalanello
The man who founded New Bethany Home for Girls, where some former students say they were abused, has died. Mack Ford, 82, was found dead inside his home shortly before 8 p.m. Wednesday (Feb. 11) by a relative, Bienville Parish Coroner Don Smith said. Ford's death appears to be from natural causes, but Smith said his office will be conducting an autopsy. Ford, a high school dropout turned Independent Fundamentalist Baptist preacher, opened New Bethany in 1971 on a former penal farm turned convalescent home off Louisiana Highway 9 in Arcadia, La., about 50 miles east of Shreveport. Over three decades until it closed its doors in 2001, New Bethany took in sometimes hundreds of girls a year, according to newspaper accounts and court documents. Ford marketed the school as a home for wayward youth -- "a mission project to the incorrigible, unwanted rejects," he told attorneys in 1997. "Destitute, lonely, prostitutes, drug addicts." But many of the former residents who found themselves behind the barbed wire gates of the compound have relayed -- to police, media, social workers and others -- stories of harsh, physical and mental abuse that included beatings, solitary confinement, and, more recently, sexual abuse. Three women in 2013 traveled to Louisiana to tell law enforcement that they were sexually abused by Ford while at the home. NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune chronicled the journey in a story focused on one woman, Jennifer Halter of Las Vegas. Sick with a cancer-like illness, she wanted to tell law enforcement about her abuse as her dying wish. A year later, four women testified to their abuse before a Bienville Parish grand jury. In January, the grand jury, which had been convened by former Bienville Parish District Attorney Jonathan Stewart, declined to indict Ford, citing issues with Louisiana's statute of limitations for such crimes. Since then, Stewart's replacement, Danny Newell, promised to take a second look at the case. Simone Jones, 47, one of the women who said Ford molested her when she was a teenager, said that she learned of his death late Wednesday from Michael Epps, the Louisiana State Police investigator who spent a year looking into the sexual abuse allegations that he took to a grand jury. "I'm angry," Jones said. "No justice ... There are hundreds of people who are never going to see any type of justice be done." Ford's death comes four days after the Bossier Parish Sheriff's Office began investigating whether there may be a connection between New Bethany and an unidentified woman who was found on Jan. 28, 1981, in a wooded area stabbed to death. The woman, now known as "Bossier Doe," was wearing shoes and socks not unlike those required of New Bethany residents at the time. A name, "D. Davies," was written inside her shoes with marker, just as former residents say they had to do. State officials attempted to close the school in 1980 after Ford refused state inspection. They later raided New Bethany in 1988 and again in 1996 following complaints of abuse at the home -- efforts that Ford fought in court, maintaining the state was violating his civil rights because it opposed his fundamentalist Christian views. "The bureaucrats don't want us to teach them our faith," he said in a 1988 sermon following the state's removal of 28 residents from the home. But neither he nor anyone else at the girls' home was ever prosecuted for any of the reported abuse, despite numerous confirmed reports documented by state social workers. In addition to the girls' home, Ford opened several boys homes, including in Longstreet, La., and Waltersboro, SC. In both of those locations, abuse allegations resulted in criminal charges, though not against Ford. In 1981, Longstreet school manager L.D. Rapier was arrested and charged with cruelty to children after four boys ran from the home and told authorities they'd been beaten. The charges were eventually dropped. In 1984, South Carolina authorities closed the Waltersboro home after they found a 14-year-old sleeping in a windowless padlocked cell, where he had been for several days. Two employees there were charged with unlawful neglect of a child and kidnapping, and they eventually pleaded to a lesser charge of false imprisonment. Ford continued to live at the former New Bethany compound, located at 120 Hiser Road, in Arcadia, until his death. In 2013, Ford refused NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune's attempt to interview him, asking two reporters, "Are y'all going to hell or you going to heaven?" He then threatened to throw one of their cameras in a creek. W.T. "Dub" Darnell, now pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Sulphur, La., worked at the home from 1975 to 1980. He said Thursday that he remembers a Ford much different than the person critics describe. Ford was a forceful preacher, Darnell said, but he had a burden for helping troubled youth. "He was a very compassionate man about doing what he was doing, about rescuing young people," said Darnell. He said his congregation continued sending Ford $50 a month in recent years as a show of support for the work he had done in the past. "We don't leave people hanging loose," he said. Darnell said he never witnessed the abuse former residents describe. "I'd have to have seen it in order to believe it," he said of the accusations by former students that they were sexually abused. Ford's estranged son-in-law, former Louisiana College vice president Timothy Johnson, said that Ford's wife, Thelma Ford, resides in a nursing home. Thelma and Mack Ford would have been married 66 years this year, according to court documents. Together, they had seven daughters, and adopted two more children, a boy and a girl. Johnson said that Ford's family members are unlikely to speak publicly about Ford or his legacy largely because of the great backlash they may face by former New Bethany residents and other critics. "To do so gets you written about as being complicit or protecting a rapist," Johnson wrote in an email message. In 2013, Johnson acknowledged in an email message to Louisiana College leaders that a girl complained about sexual abuse at the home. He said he "sent all girls home and closed the doors." The exchange was recorded in the online blog, Chuckles Travels. Asked by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune last year if he ever reported the sexual abuse complaint to law enforcement, Johnson declined to discuss it citing the advice of an attorney. In 2001, Johnson was on the board of directors when it voted to close New Bethany, citing the expense of ongoing legal battles. Bobby Watkins, 42, of Waco, Texas, was a resident in the home from 1986 to 1991, when the school housed boys on part of the campus. He called the news of Ford's death "shocking" and said it leaves him with a host of unanswered questions. Watkins said he was orphaned and abused before being sent to Arcadia, and New Bethany became home to him between age 13 and 18 -- the only home he knew. He says he was never mistreated in the home, but he does not disbelieve the statements of those who say they were. He remembers being instructed to hide in the woods in 1988, when social workers arrived to interview residents. He remembers being shuttled to Waltersboro, S.C., soon thereafter with a group of other boys. He remembers a night in 1991 when the Fords suddenly and temporarily shuttered the school amid an allegation of sexual misconduct involving Ford. "Do I believe something happened," Watkins said, "I do believe something happened. What, I don't know." Teresa Frye, 47, of North Carolina, was a resident at the home in 1982. She said she was still processing news of Ford's death on Thursday morning. For years, Frye has been involved in an ongoing effort to help reconnect former New Bethany students and to raise awareness about the conditions so many children faced in similar boarding homes. "I'm numb," Frye said. "But I'm starting to get angry." Darnell said that in recent years, Ford would mail out letters to his supporters. In them, Ford would talk about his wish to one day reopen the home. * * * * * Rebecca Catalanello can be reached at rcatalanello@nola.com and 504.717.7701.
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