Recorded at the 2017 Brisbane Writers Festival, Richard Fidler interviewed Journalist Chris Johnston and documentary maker Rosie Jones who investigated the origins of the cult The Family, and its two decades of operation and legacy.
The Family was started in Victoria in the 1960s by the beautiful and charismatic Anne Hamilton-Byrne, who convinced others she was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ.
She recruited wealthy and influential professionals and infiltrated a Melbourne psychiatric hospital in the days LSD was being used in psychotherapy.
Hamilton-Byrne acquired children, many through questionable adoptions, and raised them as her own.
Their hair was dyed blonde and they were made to wear identical clothing.
The stories of the children who came out of The Family are bizarre, shocking and tragic.