Kate’s Story: Surviving Ritualistic Sexual Abuse as a Child

Kate Talley, former associate of David Hamblin and survivor of ritualistic sexual abuse, shares her story of abuse at the hands of an organized network in Utah.

On May 31st, the Utah County Sheriff’s Office announcement of an investigation into “ritualistic child sexual abuse” set off a chain of events which would eventually lead Kate Talley — a former associate of recently arrested accused sexual abuser David Hamblin — to come forward with her own story of abuse.

Over the last two months Kate has shared what she experienced and what she knows with The Last American Vagabond (TLAV). Once Hamblin was arrested in September, Kate decided she was ready to go public with her story.

In part 1 of this series, we introduced Kate Talley’s story of meeting David Hamblin, and how she says her ex-husband Eldon Talley, a knife maker based in Utah, fell under his spell.

Kate Talley first met Hamblin in 2008 when her former sister-in-law introduced her to the disgraced former therapist. Talley was seeking counseling relating to her own experience with ritualistic sexual abuse. It was also her experiences of abuse as a child that David Hamblin instructed her ex-husband to re-enact as some twisted form of therapy.

Growing Up Mormon

Kate Talley says her family were “a little bit of the ‘who’s who’ of Mormonism”. She traces her family’s lineage back to Nauvoo, Illinois and the founding families of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church. Nauvoo was the center of the Latter Day Saints movement during Joseph Smith’s life. After his death, most of the LDS believers would follow Brigham Young to Utah.

“I grew up with this really strong, rich pioneer history. We had been taught about the Mormon church and the founders,” Talley says. “I grew up being really proud of my roots and where I was from.”

However, it was from within this family that Kate Talley would experience the abuse which changed her life. While growing up in Payson, Utah, Talley says she was regularly abused by her grandfather from the age of 2 to 11 years old. The abuse only ended when her grandfather died.

“My dad’s father — who was the one that was abusive to me, him and his friends and the cult that he met with — he was the son of a doctor in the little town of Richfield, Utah,” Talley told TLAV.

Kate Talley’s grandfather was born into the the Mormon Church. He would eventually serve in the Army Special Forces during the Korean War. “It’s my belief that he was trained, with the Special Forces in the military, in the MK Ultra program,” Talley says.“I think it’s important to understand that the abuse I suffered was kind of, high grade, military abuse, including torture.”

Talley’s grandfather was also a pharmacist in Utah. Talley describes being drugged by him beginning at a very young age. She says these experiences lead to substance abuse issues later in life which she has since recovered from. “I know this played a part in my looking for something to numb my pain,” Talley stated.

“I know from speaking with members of my family that my grandfather was also abused, and so was his brother,” she says. “One of the reasons I am speaking up is because this is an ancestral problem and it’s passed down in the Mormon Church, and I think all churches a lot.”

Satanic Ritual Abuse

When discussing the abuse she experienced, Talley says that sometimes the abuse took on a “relaxed” form at family homes and events. “I was abused by him privately in his home when we would visit. I had a lot of abuse happen on holidays, at times when families get together,” Talley said.

Other incidents of abuse were done in a “ritualistic” manner involving a group of people. Talley describes being loaned out to her grandfather’s “cronies”. She says the ritualistic abuse often happened in rural settings, sometimes at night in a canyon in Utah county. “There were certain places they would meet, I believe it was private property of members of the cult. I remember being taken to a farm,” Talley recalls.

“I’m not exactly sure when my grandfather got involved in an organized cult ring… but he did participate in that organized satanic cult activity, that I believe has existed since the very beginning, the founding of the LSD church,” Kate Talley stated.

When asked why she chooses to describe the sexual abuse as “satanic” Talley says, “It’s Satanic because they pray to Satan in the rituals. I was forced to pray to Satan as well.” She says the rituals involved sexual abuse and torture, including hanging victims upside down by their feet.

Kate Talley believes certain leaders of the LDS church were also part of a “shadow organization” involved in the alleged Satanic ritual abuse. “I think there are Satanic cults that the leaders of a lot of organizations, not just churches, are involved in,” Talley states.

While the impact of the abuse affected Kate Talley in her younger years she has since found a path to healing her trauma. Part of that healing is offering assistance to other survivors of similar ritualistic abuse.

“I really believe there are people like me all over the world that are doing their part to speak up,” Talley told TLAV. “Honestly, this is one of the hardest things I have ever done, but it’s very important. It’s important that we listen to one another and we’re compassionate.”

“We can talk about really hard things. It’s the only way we’re going to get to a place where we can stop ancestral abuse of this kind. Where we can stop our young people taking their lives. Where we can stop this pervasive shame. And if we don’t start talking about really hard things, then institutions like the Mormon Church are not going to change.”