Allison Mack : Devil in a Blue Dress
Meeting the NXIVM Sex Cult Villain
Image Via New York Times: The actress Allison Mack departing a courthouse in Brooklyn last spring. She pleaded guilty to charges related to her involvement in Nxivm. Credit…Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
Cults are a prevalent and terrifying force in America. Nxivm was disguised as an organization offering courses on “personal growth”, with attendance in the thousands. Rainere had recruited two powerful and charming women to help him groom women into belonging to him for sex. Allison Mack became very close to Laura Salzman, the president of Nxivm. Raniere wanted the women to become his sex slaves so he had Allison lead events for women where she could find the right people to groom into what this monster desired.The events would be disguised as “women empowerment”. Mack was so close to Raniere, and powerful. Allison listened to her leader when he asked her to brand his women. Allison loved this idea, telling the women it was a bond of “sisterhood” while holding them down to burn a symbol joining K & A — the initials of herself and Raniere.(1)
Allison Mack was arrested in Brooklyn by the FBI on April 20, 2018, on charges of sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and forced labor conspiracy. On April 24, 2018, she was released on a $5 million bond and held under house arrest under the custody of her parents in California. She was charged with recruiting women into “DOS” or “The Vow”, a sex cult propagated by Nxivm that presented itself as a women’s self-help group. On April 8, 2019, Mack pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and racketeering charges, and was scheduled for sentencing in September 2019. The conviction was postponed by the court to grant sufficient time to conduct pre-sentencing investigations. (2)
I was working at a coffee shop in midtown New York City on East 50th briefly during the spring of 2019. The manager had told me at some point when I first started working there that Allison had been a regular previous to being placed on house arrest. I found this unsettling as I had read a news story in The Hollywood Reporter from May 2018 detailing the involvement of the charismatic actress in this twisted cult. I didn’t consider I’d ever see her since she had been on house arrest for a long time. Lo and behold, after her trial on April 8, 2019, she returned to the shop for her regular order — large coffee with steamed oat milk and a flax seed blueberry muffin. I had come into a busy morning and without looking up asked her name to write on the paper cup for the barista. She said “excuse me?” in a tone that would suggest I should know her name. “Your name?” I repeat then look up to meet eyes with her and take in the tiny but terrifying cult leader. “Allison” she says with a cheery voice and smile. Chills run down my body but I maintain professional composure.
In person, Allison is a miniature tanned goddess, blonde hair elegantly pulled into a bun, small gold chain necklaces around her neck, and a spaghetti strap cotton dress. I was grateful the interaction had been brief. She sat for a while at table facing the window and stared off into the distance, for quite some time. She returned the following day, it was a Saturday so the rush had been early in the morning and had mostly passed. The crowd was mainly tourists families getting breakfast before going out and sightseeing. Allison walked in with a weepy face, but when she looked at me she broke out into a huge smile.
I could immediately see her appeal to those women who didn’t know the harm she intended for them. She approached me like we were going to be friends, warm and bubbly. I knew she was an actress, especially being an actress myself, I could see through the act. I was terrified. After I took her order she sat down in the same place she had the day before. This time she was working on a laptop, and staring off again, for quite some time. There was a communal in the center of the seating area that a family had left a large number of plates for me to clean up. I went over to clean it up, using a bus bucket, trying to not to look at Allison. However, as I’m places dishes in the bin, Allison packs her things and comes up to me, very close, with a huge smile, asks “Do you want me to help you?” I froze internally, but managed to politely smile and reply “no, that’s okay thank you.” She was so sweet and warm when she approached me, I thought to myself “this woman is still dangerous.” Also, it is completely unheard of for a customer anywhere to offer to help a staff member clean up. I was very shaken after she left for the rest of my shift, I had read the recent news story where she had plead guilty to her charges in court, saying she’s changed. “ “I believed Keith Raniere’s intentions were to help people, and I was wrong… I can and will be a better person,” she stated. (3) I didn’t see a woman who enslaved, starved and held down and branded other women with her own and Raniere’s initials, trying to be a better person. I saw that Miss Mack is still an active predator. Allison returned that next Sunday morning, she tried to engage with me, but thankfully my hyper-active manager unknowingly wedged in between us giving me a moment to get away and not talk to her. She had looked excited to see me and said “Hey!” like we were great girlfriends now. She looked disappointed when they started taking her order instead.
The next day I was off from work, but still feeling extremely freaked out by the weekend of Allison Mack Sex Cult Queen. I went back to the same news story and found the District Attorney’s office in charge of prosecuting Mack. I called the office and the secretary didn’t seem to want to pass me through so I had to explain that I was calling about somebody who is dangerous. When I spoke to the DA, I explained how Allison had behaved when I met her. She asked me exactly what it was I wanted. I replied “listen, obviously I know who she is and keep up with the news. Not everybody knows and she shouldn’t be around other women.” The DA sighed, “all right well you can file a police report,” she said. I played along like I might do that, but really didn’t want any further connection with this monster woman. I also didn’t feel any direct threat, I was more concerned that she was walking the streets of New York City and interacting with people. Thankfully for the remainder of my time at that coffee shop, I never saw her again. Most likely it is because she still wears her ankle monitor and they were able to track her movements.
On January 31, 2020 the news broke that not only were Keith Rainere and Allison Mack grooming and branding women as sex slaves, they were running a pyramid scheme as well. Members had become dependent on Nxivm because these two would brainwash them into thinking that they could not make any decisions without paying upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars for courses. and their leadership. As time goes on and sentencing appoaches, more terrors continue to come to light at the hands of Raniere and Mack.
Allison Mack was served in the Nxivm civil lawsuit on Feb 3, 2020 at 3:36 pm. She is still under house arrest in her childhood home living with her parents in Los Alamitos, Orange County, California.
