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Messages - Matt C. Hoffman

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16
Straight, Inc. and Derivatives / I play a lot of other songs
« on: April 24, 2018, 12:07:37 PM »
as well -

You know this conversation jumps around the web  has a long string of threads , cool - I know you mentioned you weren't there- a person you know and are close  with was- I am grateful that you care - and do this.   

When I look back at what I have written and my experiences prior to turning 18 - and Elan being one of them for two years - and I write about it- on other sites you know there is some stuff there that well- it aint pretty and there is a pursuant of a justice goal that -well you have to dot  the  i;s and cross...

Yet when I read up on the AARC  or see something  like our film- "The Last Stop"  - I say something as well as -you know -tie in that time article ,which I read along with hundreds of thousands who were just appalled from reading -

I was triggered because save for that one story of how adult prisoners of war were being tortured  at lunch time everything else was present at Elan - Jesus  -( I may be able to pull wires across a box and make sounds that are pleasant to the ear - though I am worried I won't or can't  be able to put it up -  still my god man  triggered like  no bodies business ) I don't have the savvy to deal with Time Magazine online  to  copy and paste an article and make it stick - I have the change for the purchase  - yet not the expertise nor confidence to do it . Be nice if some kind soul would beast that  Time Article here on this thread as it travels.

I was triggered by that article because everything else they were doing to break these adult men -sadly Ajax I experienced for Two years - And I  can now very factually put into words the lunacy that I was subjected to in the name of -what - I want to know what they were trying to do - Because the stuff Elan put me thru was not designed to assist any living creature post that experience ,

I come here and have a conversation - and I factual state - and I Ajax have witnesses and I witness for many - so I stand tall when I look back read my words that I have replied back to you in regards to AArc and other hell holes - and I feel like I am just being honest in my ability now to clearly see - why and how I was pushed into doing something horrible to another person at the same time ( irony ) how I almost shut down or exposed Ricci's program when I, in a bizarre mental fog ,pushed to the point and had  an acute  psychotic break - by a place that was supposed to be saving me- and in this state I stabbed another adult at the time resident. I honestly don't remember the exact act it is not in my m- I do remember coming out of a weird fog like thing hearing my name being screamed  and then in utter horror as I am coming out of this fog - (Ronnie Evans was yelling for me and he seemed like miles away and it took a while but eventually I came back out of this strange fog) and suddenly realized    that I was holding a knife in my hand - I threw it on the floor and ran faster than I have ever in my life, away from that hell hole.  I am grateful to god that O have no actual memory of this event - I have a prior and after but not during - I was that far out there- and if there was memory that I  want  god to remove it is that and it aint there- so maybe he plucked it as it happened – no clue and can’t speculate.   

I made Joe Ricci scramble like he had never done, ever in his life - the adult  I stabbed came from a very affluent family - His brother was a Legal analyst for NBC. Ricci had to appease that adult boy’s parents ,and he had to get me back quickly , almost two  days of  running around in the Maine woods  before I finally found a road , and got caught. Ricci told them that he was going to make sure I got punished if they didn't or would not press charges.

And then this is where the sick that was Joe Ricci , Gerald Davidson , Martin Kruglik, and Morris Fink turned professional and they devised and carried out   a treatment  plan and participated in a treatment plan - that would be embarrassing  to normal kind human beings to simply hear me tell it , and found to be devoid of any therapeutic value as well  pure  extreme criminal  child abuse when the shock wears off after I have finished relating  -  And I really  haven't gotten into here on fornits as much - Yet I can very easily now talk about my particular brand of treatment  that I received post psychotic break - honest hindsight is 20/20.  I have witnesses  - 

I am also very empathetic to others who have experienced this form of criminal child abuse regardless of program  - just because ... Yet when I converse here I use words convey to  exactly how and what Elan did - and it was torture - That is the only way you can truly break a soul -

Elan broke me twice - well they tried real hard the second go round after that assault incident ,  Yet I don't think they really broke me completely the second time because  the therapy or what I received   after my psychotic  break  the extreme measures used to break   me - hard labor ,constant screaming - 50 haircuts a day for being a sick sick ,sick person - for three months , encounter groups of such haltered and those twisted Primal scream groups I don't think  it  took they had already broken me once - that was why that adult got assaulted

And the reason I say it didn't take because I am here now - if I had believed anything Elan was feeding me as truth at that  time I would have ended my life in my early 20's. instead I picked up the guitfiddle and it saved my life.    -

Ricci made sure I knew he was pissed that I had almost caused him to find another way to make a living and he had to scramble fast. He made sure and I believe it was his intent to make sure I did not survive  and I am sure most of those others like Morris Fink ,and Martin Kruglik ,and Jeffery Gottlieb were very surprised to learn that I had survived that insane therapy that they willingly  and gleefully imposed using a group of 24 residents in the house -to achieve their  means and loved every minute of making sure I suffered like no bodies business as They implemented such a revised and even sicker treatment plan - 

I think back to it all, it is bizarre to me that they really went a long with it - like I didn't have any input -and said no sorry I know I am not so lets put that crazy talk away still I would be spanked when I did and coerced to work in primal scream groups that had nothing to do with  me except be triggering . Nothing like having a bizarre form of out of body experience and you see or feel like you are watching you just going thru the motions of working on shit that to me in my core being just did not make sense - yet the pressure and constant barrage of the onslaught

So yeah I look back at what I have written and then I think back as to what I rise above and what so many didn't and I know why it was so unbelievably hard to function with all that insane crap that used exact text book by the book  Torture on ...., just like the Article in that time magazine - And then I realize that I wrote above that this is/was  used on children - and I am just freaking appalled .

Then it dawns on me  I remember I was that child that this was used on - and people wonder why I got Elan exposed - got folks to assist me in closing that hell hole down so it could in my mind never hurt another child like it did me and the many that lie dead in the wake of its  long and lengthy corruptly protected legacy.

Why Elan Survivors have a movie and why I seek the last of the major goals, I made 18 years ago , the movie thing just fell out of the sky into my lap , an act of Grace and a labor of love  and that is to seek justice for all Elan survivors.
It is so odd to me when I write more factually here in my weird and sometimes hard to follow fashion about this stuff and I use words I don't scream or cuss I use my words and it just blows me away that I am speaking in truths  and facts - torture  has been and is being used on children today.

And then I think how in the hell do I know so much about this horrible, insidiously protected and  hidden industry and then it dawns on me just how much of a survivor of torture - And there are so many of us - So maybe that explains why I am pursuing what I have slowing been building- a case -

Sometimes I forget because of the knowledge just can be overwhelming as one tries to factually  use those true words  torture and using it on children. That I really do forget that I didn't learn of this in any college course -   , or books I learned of this first hand - sometimes it is good to take a step back - breathe and continue on once you catch your breathe .

It might do good to find out who in Alberta believes that using torture on children is okay - Hell it is really frowned upon in the united states also by the American public - when they finally understand what is being done to at risk and learning disabled as well as emotionally unbalanced children from chronic childhood life   abuse  or traumas from their primary care givers.

You need to find out who says this is okay - I would love to have a polite conversation with them about the facts.  Torturing children and making a buck on it doesn’t end well 

one way or another this story has got to end - one way or another this train has got to run.

17
Straight, Inc. and Derivatives / Re: A Boy Named Sue
« on: April 22, 2018, 09:02:01 PM »
Funny about 3 or 4  weeks ago I was speaking with an Elan Survivor who is from Canada.  And I asked him if he knoew of AARC -cause you know I have been following it. And he incidentally mentioned a place called Kings clear and the notorious Carl Toft. and when I checked this iut and discovered  that there were about 200 allegations of sexual abuse against boys in this provincial juvie hall where this sick pervert  worked. The population was the boys that were learning disabled had emotional behavioral problems.

I dare say Canada has a pretty big problem because Carl was convicted - yet the chronic sexual abuser only got a three year sentence. Blew my mind when my Canadian friend told me to check it out. I did and I was appalled, it is apparent that Carl should never be set free, yet he got a mere slap on his wrist .

So Ajax I asked him if he had heard of the AARC, and he said no though of all the Canadian provinces that one he could see support this sick way to make children change by using every  brainwashing technique very similar to the interrogations tactics used on prisoners , save for that one tasty item of where the4 American's blended an interrogates lunch , paper bag and all and fed it to him thru a tube into his  normally exiting opening of his alimentary canal.   Though I can imagine the sexual abuse that former clients of AARC say they have experienced more than makes up for that little feeding technique used to break the will of  an enemy soldiers.

It boggles the  mind to know that such young minds experience the same techniques used to break the will of enemy combat soldiers.

I have posted about  AARC on various sites yet this most recent  this conversation was taking place on our public facebook documentary page for our film "The  Last Stop " , the true story of the Elan school. Naturally I had to find the CBC film detailing the investigation into AARC, detailing the sexual abuses and all round sickness of that cult - and I have put this thing up on Reddit  long time ago - so I put it up eventually after looking for it here . And I put it up and decided to check it out again and darn if that film has not been taken down.

So I looked for it and yep that thing had vanished and I have been paying attention and it is just wow to me , so I wondered and you have sadly provided an answer  -

Alberta chooses to protect an a known based on its derivative , residential  treatment center for children that was so abusive that it was closed in the united states.  So it changes its name and run to Canada where man apparently the province of Alberta cares more about the money this place generates thru its tax revenues of the Canadian kind , fees etc. than it does about the mental/ health care that these young  teenagers are faced with Attack therapy that resembles the torture  techniques that were reported in the Time magazine article a few years back , detailing how these techniques were used on  captured adult enemy combat soldiers.

It just boggles the mind - children being subjected to these types of mental and physical onslaughts designed to break combat soldiers - yet everyone just smiles and fraudulently continues the lie that this is therapy .

It is always good to read your postings/comments  be nice if there was a way to get ahold of that investigative Canadian report. ( again ) speaking of films you  might be interested in our film - we mention a lot of places that are doing this exact same thing  of abuse as a viable form of therapy, as insane as that sounds in todays day and age - it is what unsuspecting parents fall for  due to the deceptive marketing practices that places like AARC employee during their fundraising practices that were caught on tape in that expose.

And then they wonder why their child appears to have more problems later in life than they did upon entering the facility , when the reality of the trauma surfaces in that human being in the form of PTSD or severe depression - and leads to a very sad or truncated life. 

Yeah man Johnny Cash wrote some great songs - didn't he? 

18
I wonder why-  this  article- at the bottom under the heading  Troubled Teens Troubled  History - left out the known suicides that have occurred at Diamond Ranch Academy.  Curious and odd  don't you think?  that reflects  a danger  as well as  the fact they hire anyone  apparently criminals to work worth children.

When the meadia reports on certain "programs" found in  this insidious industry they leave out parts for example  - the  fact of these suicides   is  important in the telling of the Diamond Ranch Academy's Legacy.

I mean if you are going to lay out the fact that Diamond Ranch hires criminals  of the worst kind to work with children - aren't the  suicides as  important and part of this story since it is part of the trouble history of Diamond Ranch  Academy .

The media tells only part of the story - This has got to change in regards to the zietgiest of the TTI.   


19
You are welcome  Dananamanit -  it was a good question-  I like to write - so I really should be thanking you. lol.  I didn't mean to a  duh  you - I reckon I introduced myself as a person who went to Elan- I was there from  74 to 76 - no I had anger issues  prior to Elan  issues from one of my primary care givers criminal sadistic abuse, that I turned inward 

A month and half after being in the insanity of Elan - I tried to escape permanently  by drinking a bottle of Qwell shampoo - back in those days it had the skull and cross bones on the label - it was poison- that's how bad it got. 

Some times - I get triggered  - and I know that toxic people will intentionally trigger you- for what ever reason ( the fact that they are sociopaths  or frauds  or just sick  doesn't matter. )  - and then you really have to have the guts to truncate  those toxic relationships -  its not running away from it - it is sadly really the only solution. So to be able to identify and set boundaries - can be the another way to keep the lunacy at bay.

It is lot like putting yourself in a position of being  triggered by a toxic person by just talking to them and then  expecting different results- it just doesn't happen you lol learn soon  or you suffer many times and wonder why, eventually you will figure it out . 

 -  Food can be trigger for me - Tater tots -  I remember eating them after many a beating- before dinner. Beatings  sometimes so painful you couldn't  sit properly for days it took weeks for the bruises to go away until the next beating. Then out right crazy sick emotional abuse that camr along with the beatings -or simply was just tag teaming the physical abuse -( uggh)  -   

Yeah food can trigger me - though that delves more back into the  PTSD thing than really the anger thing for me  - that I deal with on a daily basis by becoming  friends with those horrible memories - then they don't jerk me around as much- such as  those demon Elan strings. You are in charge of how much you want to feel about those painful memories, the sickness of the Elan therapy -  I can eat Tater Tots sure  -  but they still take me back to the times of horrible  pain- the first 15 and half years  of my life .  Therefore  I really don't plant myself in front of a big ole plate of Tater Tots much , lol   though  over the years it came to be something I noticed that had a triggering- not in a good way feeling in the pit of my stomach - so yeah I am not a fan now -     

Sorry Hindsight - lol yes - it is what we learn from pertaining to mistakes or realities of insight  or it can be used to gauge our personal  growth  as we look back  honestly over the years.  imho.

Thank you for your nice reply.  look it is good to laugh - no worries.   

20
The Troubled Teen Industry / What is wild about this book-
« on: February 18, 2018, 06:29:21 PM »
Felice - is that it includes Circle S Ranch - along with Elan and the mother of them all coming in at number one was Synanon.

I read this thing , I need to go back and give it another once over -  if memory serves - didn't Elan  and some of its henchmen have a 15 y.o. boy beaten in its infamous  "Ring" - the ring  had already been documented in the NBC reports by Carl Roberts in 1979 as the ring according to Joe Ricci didn't exist and then he  proceeded to tell Carl you see in this corner you have the house champion and in this corner you have the house bully - lol

It was so funny to see old Joe Ricci  contradict himself almost in the same breath concerning the ring and those harsh words "corporal  punishment" - lol - Elan went beyond corporal  punishment- into becoming a serial  violent brutal sadistic child abusing criminal enterprise that made its money getting children to do the dirty work

They- the adult  directors/ Employees  directed this horror show of a hell hole -by having us  the residents to abuse the living daylights out of each other on a daily basis -   

So if memory serves Elan as joe said put the  house bully - in this case it was  Phil Williams  in the ring -his crime complaining of head aches - meant that he was malingering - and this was a serious crime in Elan and in the wisdom of Jeffery Gottlieb , Jim Rubino and Jon Ricci - a relative of joes -  all felt that the punishment for Phil merited to be put into  the ring for this terrible crime -

My point is that the ring was used at a directors whim- Phil was no more a bully than what Elan was already trying to make him out to be just by being in the Elan program itself. It was a  eat or be eaten atmosphere.

The fact is that Phil Williams- a ward of the state of Maine was put into the ring at elan and forced to fight  for the crime of malingering- by complaining of headaches  - as a result of this forced fighting incident Phil Williams subsequently died on December 27, 1982.

What is insane is that this book , a judicial study of places listed in your original post  that have been  suggested for judges and social workers to place juvenile delinquent types - came out in 1982-  That is the  same year that Elan as some one else so eloquently put it recently- "Elan employees get away with the killing of  Phil Williams."

Funny no investigation was started into this young boys death until 34 years after his death- March 13 ,2016 - I wonder if this book emboldened Joe Ricci as he was stroked to believe that he really could get away with the killing of a Maine State ward, apparently the protection Joe Ricci and his employees and Elan received from Maine -corrupt as it was, allowed them  to do just that. 

Who in the hell did this study on Elan? what information did they use? - where are the interviews ?  those are the questions I would want answered - Good find Felice - hell of a sick book - still I am going to have to give it another purview- as sick and twisted as it seems to be-  The Kids that no one wants-  ya put them in the meat grinders - Jesus this study is whacked and it became a book to advise Judges?

The bigger question who pushed for this study or lobbied using the info found in this study of the most abusive  programs of them all- as a placement for children -that no one wants - very chilling book.

Yikes

Matt 

   

       

21
lol - sorry your comment made me laugh. I was in Elan - anger issues - lol - triggering knee jerk reactions - quitting jobs - yeah when I was younger -Then again having a partner  for 25 years and children has helped - focusing  on learning an instrument for the past 34 years certainly helped me cope with it- especially  in the early years after exposure to Elan's sadistic , brutal ,violent indoctrination and the insane tools used to make the Elan resident  individual fit the "program's" one size fits all model. 

I think part is that the "program" especially ours - just so darn violent- taught or ingrained us to being  angry...... thinking albeit incorrectly -that an outwardly angry person wasn't  a suicidal person. The adult untrained  Elan employees  didn't understand that there were reasons why children had rage and not anger issues - as they soon discovered as they pushed abused children to be angry.

 -  So coupled with the "program " and in our cases  the insane mentality  of the misguided staff - they didn't teach us constructive ways to deal with our anger - as for the rage that they encountered - they just beat us down until they felt we could control it  -  and  I am sure many have  used those skillz   from the "program" itself, that were   learned/taught or beaten into our sub consciousness's , seriously faulty anger   coping skills every time since - and for some of  us there is a triggering element or component .

 - and then whoa

- yeah it is hard or it can be sometimes - maybe age has something to do with it  - or simply having had to deal with issues like this (since friends told me in my early 20's that if I didn't chill I would be dead from a  heart attack before I was 40 - that milestone passed almost 20 years ago -  being aware something wasn't righ tand trying to self fix it  with what ever tools one had  )

It has not been easy though hindsight is truly 20 -20 and time helps us mellow a bit I believe   - plus therapy- good competent therapy because most if not all have PTSD for just having been in one of these violent " program " rtc. Sadly I ran in to that rather late in life also curtsey of Elan -they also convinced us that Elan was it.There was no other form of therapy for us - no pills- no nothing - they were in fact "  the last stop."

And that wasn't true at all about Elan- it certainly wasn't the last stop though it was very capable in it's ability in  brainwashing us into believing that it fraudulently was  -     

And if we didn't make it after Elan -  Elan had a really sick off hand way  of promoting that there was always the option of suicide - . Anger issues - yeah sorry it kinda made me laugh .

Honestly I wish I hadn't believed Elan was the most fucked up- last stop on the planet- and had found competent mental assistance when I was much younger - maybe the guitar  was my therapy - at least it helped with the depression -the acute post Elan depression - who knows.   

peace

Matt 

22
is available - The film is excellent -the message of the film is powerful. This film is a direct indictment against the unregulated insidious abusive "troubled Teen industry" that exists in todays day and age - we mention other programs in our film. It is very professionally done - I believe survivors of any program  will be pleasantly surprised, please share and support our film.

Thank you all and many blessing to all. 
 
 It can be purchased here.  http://thelaststopfilm.com/see-it/

23


Re: Justice for Phil Williams?
« Reply #9 on: February 22, 2017, 07:42:12 PM »

Quote
Modify
Remove
 No- ( it does exist no oops about it) this is the page and what was written  in the paper, to continue with seeking justice for Phil Williams.
5 eyeball plus witnesses to what happened to Phil Williams Jr results in insufficient evidence- in my opinion the state of Maine has a severe conflict of interest/ and or the generational corruption that Joe Ricci cultivated starting with the  criminal/false  ruling in a house fire that was started by a resident. 1973 Joe Ricci  got the Standish Fire Marshal to  state the cause as being  electrical in nature - instead of Arson - so Ricci could collect the insurance monies. That is when and how long this imo "generational corruption" has been protecting the Elan legacy.

Insufficient evidence my right eye - it good to see  34 years after, this young mans death,  in my opinion,  that   this sick state wide corrupt protection is still in good working order - protecting imo a criminal organization- Elan  long after it was forced to close in 2011.

The article in its entirety is posted below.     


 Mobile Home Navigation Full sunjournal.com
Lewiston-Auburn
No charges in 1982 death of Elan student
By Lindsay Tice and Kathryn Skelton, Staff Writers
Published on Tuesday, Feb 21, 2017 at 8:08 pm | Last updated on Tuesday, Feb 21, 2017 at 8:08 pm
LEWISTON — After a nearly yearlong investigation by state police, the Maine Attorney General's Office has announced no one will be charged in the 1982 death of a local teenager while he was a student at the Elan School in Poland.
AG spokesman Tim Feeley said Tuesday that there was "insufficient evidence to warrant a prosecution."
He said an assistant attorney general, victim advocate and state police detective met last week with Phil Williams Jr.'s family to explain the investigation and the decision. Feeley declined to comment further.
Pam Williams, Phil's sister, said the family wasn't yet ready to talk about the state's decision.
Phil was 15 when, witnesses say, he was beaten by other students in the Poland school's infamous boxing ring because he'd complained of a headache. Phil later collapsed, turned blue and was taken away by staff. He died a day later.
His sister was 12 and in foster care at the time. She was told her brother died of a freak brain aneurysm. That's what the family had believed until last spring, when a stranger from Chicago showed up with Phil's curious, partially incomplete death certificate and the names of witnesses to his fight.
She told her story to the Sun Journal in March.
Within weeks, Maine State Police launched an investigation into Phil's death. Lt. Brian McDonough, head of the Southern Maine Major Crimes Unit, called it a "priority."
Founded by psychiatrist Gerald Davidson and businessman Joe Ricci, Elan operated from 1970 to 2011 as a private boarding school that catered mostly to troubled teenagers. Some of Elan's controversial tactics included ordering students to fight in a "ring" made up of other kids. It's one of the tactics to be featured in a New York filmmaker's upcoming documentary set to premiere in Maine in late April.
Davidson died in 1991 and Ricci died in 2001. After Ricci's death, the school was run by Ricci's wife, Sharon Terry, until it closed its doors in 2011.
Terry's attorney, Portland lawyer Ed MacColl, said Tuesday that Terry "was pleased to cooperate with the investigation" but he couldn't comment further.
Mark Babitz, the Chicago stranger who brought Phil's death certificate and witness statements to the family, said he was angry that no one would be charged in Phil's death but not surprised.
"I've got four witnesses that said it happened; what, are they lying? Why would they all lie?" he said Tuesday.
Babitz, a former Elan student who co-founded Elan Survivors Inc., is trying to organize a $50 million civil suit against the state of Maine on behalf of former students and residents.
"Elan Survivors Inc. is by far not done with Phil Williams," Babitz said. "He is our new poster child now for neglect in the state of Maine."
 
Pam Williams holds a photo of her teenage brother, Phil Williams Jr., last March. Phil died in 1982 while he was a student at the Elan School in Poland. After investigating for nearly a year, state police told the Williams family last week that there is not enough evidence to charge anyone in Phil's death.
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- Daryn Slover/Sun Journal


24
Elan School / Re: The Trailer for "The Last Stop "
« on: April 29, 2017, 09:25:35 AM »
Felice,  it is wicked good - here is the write up from the Lewiston Sunjournal  of the screening of the Last Stop that was shown yesterday at the Emerge Film Festival.

Elan film debuts at festival
By Lindsay Tice, Staff Writer
Published on Friday, Apr 28, 2017 at 7:07 pm | Last updated on Friday, Apr 28, 2017 at 9:09 pm
LEWISTON — For two hours Friday afternoon, Todd Nilssen stood in the back of the The Dolard & Priscilla Gendron Franco Center's screening room and watched people watch his film.
It was the first showing of "The Last Stop," Nilssen's just-finished documentary about the controversial Elan School for troubled teenagers in Poland. He was stressed, nervous.
But then: applause.
And more applause.
And strangers coming up and shaking his hand, fighting back tears, telling him they never knew Elan was so horrifying — "a demonic place," one man called it. They were shocked.
It was the reaction Nilssen had hoped for.
"Nobody knew it was going on," he said. "That's why I thought it was such a good subject for a documentary. Nobody knows that these places exist."
The film kicked off the second day of the Emerge Film Festival, a three-day Lewiston-Auburn event dedicated to independent films. Although it was a last-minute addition, the Elan documentary drew a crowd of about 50 people.
Elan was a private boarding school that operated between 1970 and 2011. Students, many from outside Maine, were typically sent there by courts, the foster care system or parents. By the time it closed in 2011, Elan was charging nearly $55,000 a year per student.
Over the years, the school was known for deploying such controversial tactics as forced boxing, physical punishments and screaming confrontations. Founders  Gerald Davidson, a psychiatrist, and Joseph Ricci, a businessman, publicly touted staff-encouraged beatings by other students, public humiliation and verbal "attack therapy."
Elan closed its doors in 2011 after declining enrollment and a dogged online campaign by former students determined to shut it down.
The two-hour film featured interviews with former Elan students and staff intercut with footage from a 1980s TV news expose on the school and re-enactments of students' stories of abuse. It led viewers from Elan's 1970 founding, through the school's philosophy and into the daily experiences of students — including some who had been abused at home, or had mental illnesses or autism.   
The film ended with a look at how Elan's now-adult students have fared. All of those interviewed said that after they left Elan they became addicted to drugs, got in trouble with the law, tried to kill themselves, had trouble functioning in normal social situations or struggled with post traumatic stress disorder.
"I have night terrors," one former student said in the film. "Most of the time I'm dreaming about Elan."
Nilssen, 29, attended Elan between 2005 and 2007 when there were about 200 students there. By then, some of the school's controversial tactics had changed, but not all.
Nilssen, a New York film editor, spent three years making "The Last Stop." He  dedicated it to "all the kids who took the ride down No. 5 Road," the Poland dirt road where Elan was headquartered.
After the showing Friday afternoon, seven former Elan students took to the stage to talk about their experiences and answer questions. Two cried as they spoke.
"I can't believe this stuff happened to people," said former student Matt Hoffman, choking back tears. "This place was not therapeutic. This place was not a school. This place was certainly not a place you ever wanted to be sent to. There were people who wanted to be sent to prison rather than stay in that place."
Some audience members said they knew of Elan only because, in later years, its track team competed against school teams in the area. Others said they knew of Elan's history because of Sun Journal stories about a 15-year-old Elan student who died after being forced to box other students. Many hadn't known much about the school at all.
"This is a very powerful presentation. In order to honor these students and the many that were at Elan, how are you going to roll it out to every state so they all see it?" one woman asked Nilssen. 
Nilssen said he hopes to show "The Last Stop" at other film festivals around the country and, ultimately, distribute it nationwide.
In the meantime, its second showing will be 8 p.m. Saturday at Clark's Pond Cinemagic in South Portland. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased online at TNfilms.ticketleap.com.
After two hours of anxious watching Friday, Nilssen was happy with the film's debut.
"I think it came out well," he said.
[email protected]
 
Filmmaker Rob Little, who has a film being shown at the Emerge Film Festival, works on preparing another filmmakers' project for screening at the Franco Center in Lewiston on Friday afternoon. He is the technical director for the festival.
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- Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
 
Jen Rioux, of Auburn, right, watches the drama unfold during the screening of "The Last Stop" at the Franco Center in Lewiston on Friday afternoon.
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- Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
 
People watch "The Last Stop," a movie about the Elan School in Poland at the Emerge Film Festival in the lower level of the Franco Center in Lewiston on Friday afternoon.
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- Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
 
Moviegoers watch a film entitled "Johnny Physical Lives" during Friday's screening at the Franco Center in Lewiston.
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- Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
Emerge Film Festival
The biggest day of the 2017 Emerge Film Festival is Saturday, with 15 movies and "short blocks" spread over two L-A venues, a noon reception and an evening awards show and reception.
 
Saturday's highlights include:
 
10 a.m.: "Women in Horror Film," shorts and panel discussion, at Community Little Theatre, Auburn.
 
Noon: "Tatara Samurai" (Japan), CLT.
 
12:15 p.m.: Reception at Rinck Advertising, Lewiston.
 
3:30 p.m.: "I Know a Man - Ashley Bryan" with Q&A, Franco Center, Lewiston.
 
4 p.m.: "Island Zero" by Maine's own Tess Gerritsen, with Q&A, CLT.
 
7 p.m.: "Peace, Love & Zoo" with Q&A, Franco Center.
 
9 p.m.: EFFy Awards and reception, Franco Center.
 
For a complete schedule, descriptions of all the movies being shown, tickets and more, go to emergefilmfestival.org.


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25
Elan School / Re: Justice for Phil Williams?
« on: March 29, 2017, 04:22:01 PM »
I agree , I was thinking more like $250,000,000. ( Yet the  State o Maine is poor ),didn't you know, Maine ,for years , had stooped to making money off of a  well protected criminal enterprise  that made it's money off of serial child abuse. This place was called Elan , it  also featured forced fighting incidents as one of its serial child abusing practices.

It was well documented , various videos going as far back as 1979, NBC reports "For the Childs own good ", Ricci speaks of the very practice,  thru 1983's children of Darkness documentary by Richard Kutok .

Good to seed you Felice , big smiles,  (hopefully this is Felice), I have the same digits holler when you can.

Matt

26
Elan School / Re: Justice for Phil Williams?
« on: February 22, 2017, 03:42:12 PM »
To continue with seeking justice for Phil Williams -


 

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Lewiston-Auburn
No charges in 1982 death of Elan student
By Lindsay Tice and Kathryn Skelton, Staff Writers
Published on Tuesday, Feb 21, 2017 at 8:08 pm | Last updated on Tuesday, Feb 21, 2017 at 8:08 pm
LEWISTON — After a nearly yearlong investigation by state police, the Maine Attorney General's Office has announced no one will be charged in the 1982 death of a local teenager while he was a student at the Elan School in Poland.
AG spokesman Tim Feeley said Tuesday that there was "insufficient evidence to warrant a prosecution."
He said an assistant attorney general, victim advocate and state police detective met last week with Phil Williams Jr.'s family to explain the investigation and the decision. Feeley declined to comment further.
Pam Williams, Phil's sister, said the family wasn't yet ready to talk about the state's decision.
Phil was 15 when, witnesses say, he was beaten by other students in the Poland school's infamous boxing ring because he'd complained of a headache. Phil later collapsed, turned blue and was taken away by staff. He died a day later.
His sister was 12 and in foster care at the time. She was told her brother died of a freak brain aneurysm. That's what the family had believed until last spring, when a stranger from Chicago showed up with Phil's curious, partially incomplete death certificate and the names of witnesses to his fight.
She told her story to the Sun Journal in March.
Within weeks, Maine State Police launched an investigation into Phil's death. Lt. Brian McDonough, head of the Southern Maine Major Crimes Unit, called it a "priority."
Founded by psychiatrist Gerald Davidson and businessman Joe Ricci, Elan operated from 1970 to 2011 as a private boarding school that catered mostly to troubled teenagers. Some of Elan's controversial tactics included ordering students to fight in a "ring" made up of other kids. It's one of the tactics to be featured in a New York filmmaker's upcoming documentary set to premiere in Maine in late April.
Davidson died in 1991 and Ricci died in 2001. After Ricci's death, the school was run by Ricci's wife, Sharon Terry, until it closed its doors in 2011.
Terry's attorney, Portland lawyer Ed MacColl, said Tuesday that Terry "was pleased to cooperate with the investigation" but he couldn't comment further.
Mark Babitz, the Chicago stranger who brought Phil's death certificate and witness statements to the family, said he was angry that no one would be charged in Phil's death but not surprised.
"I've got four witnesses that said it happened; what, are they lying? Why would they all lie?" he said Tuesday.
Babitz, a former Elan student who co-founded Elan Survivors Inc., is trying to organize a $50 million civil suit against the state of Maine on behalf of former students and residents.
"Elan Survivors Inc. is by far not done with Phil Williams," Babitz said. "He is our new poster child now for neglect in the state of Maine."
 
Pam Williams holds a photo of her teenage brother, Phil Williams Jr., last March. Phil died in 1982 while he was a student at the Elan School in Poland. After investigating for nearly a year, state police told the Williams family last week that there is not enough evidence to charge anyone in Phil's death.
Buy a print
- Daryn Slover/Sun Journal


Insufficient evidence my right eye- looks like there might be a severe conflict of interest on behalf of the state  of Maine.   

27
Elan School / Re: Justice for Phil Williams?
« on: February 16, 2017, 04:47:55 PM »
Thank you Che for your very kind words - I sent you an e mail - I don't use that hot mail account anymore - for over a year or longer  - you may need to check your junk folder  for my message -if you don't find it  let me know.

I apologize that my earlier post was some what incoherent - I have had the flu for the past week and got a secondary infection looked at today - so I do indeed know that I sometimes write more coherent posts - lol -  I   do however realize I was proving rjm's point, of being an illiterate  bore- lol- Yet you got what I was talking about because you know - right .

thank you again -  Mr. Gookin

28
Thank you  all for playing  is it  Juan's or is it  the juan standing behind juan concerning  his imported Elan program that he carried from the backwoods of Maine to his country of origin Argentina and named it IBICUY  - and why would the sock puppet  t-rex - who we all know is db run the bullshit that  he did. The sicknesses know no bounds .

And Juan Ferreria  posts on Elan survivor sites -  imo a sadist of the uber extreme-   bumping this up so it is easier for those interested to find . 

29
Elan School / Re: Justice for Phil Williams?
« on: February 12, 2017, 10:19:26 AM »
Early morning - well it is really late - late morning - can't wait for my late  midmorning guitar session- the sound of live  music, may it fill the air - Good morning to you Che' ,

Hey man for what it is worth - If it were not for Mark Babitz - I would not have been able to speak at this press conference .

you and I -I feel I can say this out loud have spoken  quite a bit  the story of Phil Williams - And quite frankly I had no idea as to how to get an investigation into this young mans tragic death nor the really the monies needed to get an investigation  started into, Phil's truncated life by a horrible place.

You are well aware that I have written about this everywhere , I really could think that I could tie  in Phil William"s story - Because you and I  both know that  everything I wrote was just hearsay - and that is not worth the strength of dirt - in any investigation- I guess all I got was some good conversation with you Che and just a pat on the back - oh forgive the little nutter he has been elianified . - ( au contraire as everyone has found out so far when we meet in person- think Augusta ,Maine State House ) - from the other folks in this End the fucking abuse groups - organizations found all over -   

Hell I believed the story when it was first brought to my attention in early 2003, right here on the fornits. Though  all I could do was write  about  it like a "broken record "  over and over to the point that well my friend Mark -(said to me that he was so damn tired of me writing this stuff over and over  and well he was going to see if there was any validity to this story) .

So to make the long of it short - when we get up for a" Ginger Bread Coffee filtered aged in bourbon barrels- Stout  !0.5 percent - it is the most delicious Stout - you might have some questions that I would gladly answer about this place or the back story as to how Phil ended up in Elan - that is almost a book in it's own right.

Mark Calls me up about a day later - he was already on his way up to Maine - and says to me Matt I am afraid you are right - and he said I think they beat this kid to death- At that point Che - at that point I felt an anger - at Elan - the clan -cabal - the former employess- Joe Ricci - Sharon Terry- Bill Diamond - Janet Mills - Angus King - Susan Collins  that I had not ever felt before -  I knew It was true in my soul since I read what those forlks wrote about it back in 2003 -

Yet Che' I was helpless in getting anyone to take me seriously and look for the evidence- you thank God you Che  would let me talk about it with and almost to me I felt you encouraged discourse -  - which turned out to be this poor soul's death certificate - it had not been completely filled out - and I learned that Elan  gained another aka- Elan one Corporation, Elan Two Corporation, the Elan Skool( sic on purpose ) and also as the Elan Center.

So Che as Broad and as sweeping as this can be taken - In a sense I think directly or indirectly - that even head statement also applies to you- because so many encouraged - till my friend Mark - who I actually do know and have for really years - had the skills and the compassion to delicately go about teasing out the evidence .

And of course when it was time I asked the witnesses to if they could to please step forward and do something that the employees of that place could not do -and that was the right thing .

I hate to brag - maybe its not since it is a  fact - I have a feeling that I know what sits in that investigative file - I may not have been there  -  but I sure know a lot of people that were - I don't have to know what they said to the investigators -   but I  do know what to do if the Attorney General of Maine - doesn't do her job and indict and prosecute -

death is death - it is what causes the death that well if it is caused by man and it is not in self defense - then the statute on that crime never expires -

What you think of Mark is your opinion - lol - (I have a different opinion ) I am sure you have your reasons - and ha I have seen some of his Art work if I may - just know -lol- regardless of how you may think of him he did the right thing .

therefore since I have come to understand that you are a soul with a sense  of fair play - I certainly appreciate your comment above about Mark .

And as always thank you Che' for continuing the convo-   

This is the link for the topic called the ring - that brought to my attention the death of Phil Williams Jr, back in 2003-                                 http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/index.php?topic=696.0

peace
Matthiam   

30
Elan School / Re: Justice for Phil Williams?
« on: January 28, 2017, 11:00:27 PM »
I was in Maine recently  Augusta ,Maine to be exact. I was invited by the HAAD Enough Inc. folks - to speak at a news/ press conference - concerning a victims rights bill.  This bill was being sponsored /written by a Maine Representative, A Mrs .Riley . Mrs. Riley also spoke.

When it was my turn to speak , I talked about how I had questions as to how  a place of business ; the Elan Center /Corporation / School , that was in the business of saving at -risk children,  ( imo albeit fraudulently ) ,  could kill one  of its very  children that it was supposedly saving , thru one of its brutal tools of compliance , the Ring . 

This conference/press release  took place in the Hall of Flags right outside of Gov'nr Lepage's office, in the state house of Maine , and down stairs from mister  Bill Diamonds ,state senate seat and Janet Mills office.

 I mentioned Phil Williams and his situation and how he was even a ward of the state of Maine and how his death occurred on December 27 , 1982 . Phil was barely 15 and three months old when his life was truncated by Elan's practices of  forced fighting as therapy.  I asked how could a child's death of this nature simply be swept under the rug ?  There was no investigation what so ever when this horrible event happened to Phil ending his life. Until  this past March 13 , 2016, when an investigation was opened into Phil Williams' Jr's  death, because  Mark Babitz found the in completed death certificate for Phil Williams  and got an investigation started - no autopsy had been completed either , yet his liver , eyes and heart were harvested, before the plug was pulled on Dec, 27,1982. 

I also asked how could a place like Elan could stay in business 29 years after the fact of this young boys death? 

Elan Survivor Mark Babitz also spoke at this conference . 

Kathryn Skelton of the sunjournal.com covered this event and wrote and article about this on 1-18-17 under the by line of Families: Cold- case unit isn't effective.

 I also spoke with many people in the legislative clerks office, and asked questions and I gave out brochures about our up coming Documentary called "The last Stop"  I also spoke With the Clerk of the Senate ,a Mrs. Ripley . I found nothing but support in my endeavor to seek justice for Phil Williams and Elan survivors. With who ever I spoke with in the Maine state court house . 

Bill Diamond and Janet Mills ( Maine state Attorney General) were no where to be found.  I guess it is getting a little hot in Maine isn't it mister Diamond and Mrs. Mills .

I will be going back to Maine  soon .       

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