Judalon Smyth would make many abuse claims against Jerome Oziel before the trial was over. According to the Los Angeles Times, Smyth revealed that the affair took a strange turn when she moved in with Oziel’s wife and children. The surprisingly amicable arrangement led to her becoming close friends with his spouse, Laurel. During her time living in the house, Smyth claimed that Oziel behaved monstrously, raping and beating her, and force-feeding her drugs in a manner violent enough to give her blood blisters at the back of her throat. She also claimed that he attempted to hypnotize her, using the word “thorns” as a trigger phrase. Smyth began secretly recording conversations with Oziel before finally fleeing the house in March 1990.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, actress Heather Graham revealed that she has read the transcripts from Smyth’s tapes and that they really are truly bizarre. Graham, who plays Smyth on the show “Law & Order True Crime,” noted that Oziel does indeed say “thorns” many times during the course of their conversations for no apparent reason. In another one of the tapes Smyth made, Oziel tells Smyth that her mother was a witch plotting to feed her a poisoned apple, according to the LA Times.
Unfortunately, Smyth’s role in the trial earned her a degree of public ridicule; in an interview for the show “Murder Made Me” she stated, “There was one newscaster that called me a ‘nutball’ on the radio … It was frightening. Someone comes forward and then you crucify them” (via People).
