Double life: Centerton mayor is pastor who disappeared in 1980
Posted on Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Ken Williams traveled a long and winding road that led him to assume a false identity and leave his true name, Don LaRose, behind.
With his wife sitting next to him at their home in Centerton, the town's mayor - born in Pennsylvania as Don LaRose - patiently recounted an outrageous story that includes being abducted and having his memory erased.
"I came home from work a little early and told my wife our whole world is about to crash down because I am Don LaRose, and I am Ken Williams, sort of," he said in an interview he initiated with Daily Record reporters Tuesday night. Earlier Tuesday, in two separate interviews, he denied to the same reporters that he's been living under a false name.
The story that tumbled out is as astounding as it is convoluted.
Williams claims he was abducted, forced into the back of a van and brainwashed with an electric machine attached to his forehead, which made him forget his life as a minister and believe he was Bruce Kent Williams.
Williams said Tuesday he only learned who he was after treatment with the truth-serum sodium amytal, which returned parts of his memory.
In 1977, Williams - who was still using his given name, LaRose - and his then family moved to Hammond, Ind., where he became pastor of the Hessville Baptist Church in 1978. Williams said he made many public speeches then about his abduction and received publicity about the alleged event.
In June 1980, LaRose disappeared. Many believe he'd been abducted again. In fact, he walked away from that life - and his wife and two daughters.
A Web site, www.donlarose.com, details the alleged story of Williams' abduction and the events that followed. A search of the Web site's domain owner revealed Ken Williams in Centerton registered the domain name in March 2007.
Williams denied that fact repeatedly early on Tuesday, saying he didn't know why the site was listed under his name. Even after being presented with a photo of Don LaRose from 1978, Williams denied the likeness.
But later Tuesday, he decided the evidence of his true identity would be impossible to deny further, so he told his wife, Pat - whom he married in 1986 - the truth about his life, then called The Daily Record, he said.
"I guess I had hoped it would go away," he said in explanation of his earlier denials.
Williams created the Web site earlier this year, he said, because he wanted to get the story of his abduction out in hopes of getting attention from law enforcement, whom he believes ignored his cries for help following the alleged abduction.
"My biggest frustration was that the system did not work and actually worked against me," he said, still visibly frustrated that authorities never believed his story.
Williams said he contacted law enforcement multiple times, begging them to investigate the alleged abduction, but ultimately he was told that if he called again he would be arrested for filing a false complaint.
The lack of help from law enforcement, coupled with continued threats from his alleged abductors, led Williams to abandon the identity of Don LaRose and live as Ken Williams instead.
"As far as I'm concerned, the whole system was not working, and I had no place to go," he said. "I guess I kind of lost it."
Although Williams never legally changed his name, he has been using the name and Social Security number of Bruce Kent Williams, who was killed in a car wreck in Norwich, N. Y., in 1958. Williams said that while he was in his abductors' custody, they provided him with the identification information of Bruce Kent Williams.
"Reusing that name was the only thing I knew to do," he said.
"There's not been anything malicious about it," he said of the lie he has been living. "It's been a way to preserve my life because the authorities wouldn't do anything."
Even with his secret revealed and his future in Centerton uncertain, Williams said the backlash that will likely come will not compare to the issues he faced in his earlier life.
"I'd say my life was ruined back in 1975," he said.
Williams said he will probably resign as mayor of Centerton. He is worried about whether he can "hold his head up"when people learn of the events of his life.
"This is a pretty big, outrageous thing," he said. "I think that someone who is going to be a mayor and leader in a community has to have credibility with the staff, the people and with the city council."
"I hope they don't feel betrayed," he said of his constituents. "I did this in some sense on the rebound and certainly out of fear for my life and the life of my family."
Williams said that while revealing his secret provided some relief Tuesday night, he still fears the threats from the past will return.
"My fear is that they might go after some of my family," he said.
Williams had a wife and two daughters in his former life. He and his current wife do not have children together.
Williams has lived nearly two decades worried that someone will recognize him as Don LaRose.
At one point, before moving to Arkansas, three men in suits approached Williams at a store and asked Williams if he'd seen the face in a photo they had, he said. The photo was of Williams, but the investigators did not recognize him because in the store, he had a long beard and long hair.
"My knees just gave out when I saw that photo," he said.
Another close call, he said, was in his early days of working at radio station KAMO in Rogers. He and another radio personality were assigned to be anchors for a regional telethon benefiting cerebral palsy research.
"I hoped everyone would be in church and nobody would recognize me," he said.
Apparently, nobody did.
Williams' wife of 21 years, Pat, who is on a feeding tube following a surgery in April, learned of much of her husband's past Tuesday night during the interview with Daily Record reporters.
Her demeanor toward him was loving, and she said she was not angry.
"I love him," she said. "I'll stand by him. We're in it for the duration.
"He'll always be Ken."
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