Approximately 145 rules reportedly governed life inside the Word of Faith Fellowship in Spindale, North Carolina. No television. No newspapers. No restaurants serving alcohol. No beards. No college without permission. No buying a car or house without approval. And the most disturbing rule of all, according to former members: no having children without the personal authorization of church leader Jane Whaley. Whaley, a former high school math teacher with no theological training, reportedly built the fellowship from a converted steakhouse in 1979 into an organization spanning the globe. At its peak, the church had approximately 750 members in North Carolina and nearly 2,000 in affiliated congregations across Brazil, Ghana, Scotland, Sweden, and other countries. Former members described the early fellowship as warm and welcoming — a community that offered purpose and belonging. But according to their accounts, the welcome was a recruitment strategy, not a permanent state. Members were allegedly encouraged to move onto or near the compound, take jobs at church-connected businesses, and cut ties with outside family. Once every pillar of their lives ran through the institution, leaving meant losing everything. Former members said Whaley reinforced her authority by claiming to be a prophet who received direct communication from God, and that the church allegedly catalogued members' most private confessions as leverage against departure. Tony Brueski begins a five-part Hidden Killers investigation into one of America's most secretive cults — starting with the question of how hundreds of adults handed over control of their most intimate decisions.

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