Marcus Wesson - Early Life

Early Life

Marcus Wesson was born in Kansas to Benjamin and Carrie Wesson and raised as a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Wesson claimed that his father was abusive and his mother was a religious fanatic. By the early 1960s, the family had moved to San Bernardino, California. After dropping out of high school, Wesson joined the Army and was stationed in Europe. Shortly after returning to the US and leaving the military, he became involved with Rosemary Solorio, a married woman living in San Jose. Soon Solorio broke up with her husband, and Wesson moved in with her and her children.

In 1971, Solorio gave birth to Wesson's son. At the same time, Wesson was cultivating a relationship with one of Solorio's daughters Elizabeth, telling her that God had chosen her to be his bride. In 1974, at the age of 8, Elizabeth married 27-year old Wesson in a homemade wedding ceremony. He began sexually abusing her at age 12. At age 14, they married legally when she became pregnant and, four months later, she gave birth to her first child. Eventually the couple had 10 children together, though one died as an infant. One of Elizabeth's younger sisters left her own seven children with them, claiming to be unable to care for them. Wesson never held a steady job and the family mostly lived off of welfare. They often lived in run-down shacks, boats, and vacant houses.

Wesson was abusive toward his wife and children. He prevented Elizabeth from participating in the children's upbringing. He homeschooled the children and taught them from his own handwritten Bible that focused on Jesus Christ being a vampire. He told the children that he was God and had them refer to him as "Master" or "Lord". He taught the children to be prepared for Armageddon and that the girls were destined to become Wesson's future wives. He separated the boys from the girls, fearing they would develop sexual feelings for each other. He had the boys stay in a shack in a heavily wooded area and the girls on a rundown boat for several months. Wesson sexually abused the girls when they were young and married them in homemade wedding ceremonies when they were around 7 or 9 years old. He "married" two daughters and three nieces, all of whom bore him children through the incestuous unions. The mothers never disclosed the identity of the children's father because Wesson threatened to harm them and their children if they spoke. Court records indicate that Wesson fathered up to 18 children with 7 women, including his own daughters and nieces.