SOUTH CAROLINA
The Post and Courier
Christina Elmore
A Baptist preacher who once owned a wayward boys home that closed its doors 30 years ago in Walterboro amid accusations of physical abuse and kidnapping has died.
Mack Ford, 82, of Louisiana, was found dead in his home around 8 p.m. Wednesday, The Times-Picayune of New Orleans reported. He appeared to have died from natural causes, according to the news outlet, though an autopsy was scheduled.
Ford’s name gained notoriety locally in 1984 after two children who ran from his New Bethany Baptist Church Home for Boys in Walterboro complained to authorities of the conditions there.
Colleton County sheriff’s deputies raided the facility in May of that year and found evidence of a jail-like cell, handcuffings, beatings and spankings with a plastic pipe that had been referred to as “the rod of correction,” authorities reported at the time.
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