Child Sex 'Cult' Leader Freed From Prison

Aug. 14, 2008 — -- On Friday, after serving 33 years for sex crimes against children, George Feigley, 68, will exit prison and reenter society.

Because of the timing and the nature of his crimes, he is not subject to Megan's Law restrictions. He will not be ordered to check in with police or with a parole officer. He will not wear a tracking device.

He is expected to return to his house at 1316 Derry St. in Harrisburg, the residence where in 1975 prosecutors say he sexually abused children while acting as the charismatic leader of a sex cult and advocating the use of children for sexual gratification, according to police reports.

Feigley, who used aliases such as "G.G. Stoctay Ph.D." and "the Angel of Light," has long maintained that his Neo American Church was never a cult. But he had a group of devoted followers who risked life and limb for him.

In 1976, he engineered a daring escape by scaling a prison wall and fleeing to West Virginia where he'd started a commune and school. Police and FBI caught up to him in 1978, but he escaped again less than a month later while awaiting extradition. Nabbed again by the FBI in Tennessee, he was behind bars again in two months.

In 1983, according to newspaper reports, two of his followers died in what was believed to be another attempt to spring him from prison. A man and a woman crawled into a sewer line close to the Western Penitentiary only to drown when the Ohio River swept in.

In 1994, Feigley and his wife, Sandra, were back in court. Prosecutors said Feigley had been orchestrating the abuse of a minor from prison. While speaking on a prison phone, Feigley gave commands to his wife and another man on work release to have sex with a 14-year-old girl.

Feigley was found guilty and sentenced for conspiracy to commit involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. Because of problems with the search warrants, Feigley's wife and the girl's mother were able to plead guilty and receive probation.

In the 1970s, everyone in Harrisburg knew the name of George Feigley and the Neo American Church, which prized sexual pleasure above all else, on Derry Street.