Theodore Rinaldo

Theodore Anthony Rinaldo (March 11, 1944 – February 13, 2000) was an American charismatic religious leader, businessman, and convicted child sex offender. During the 1970s, Rinaldo and his associates formed and operated a non-profit corporation, Ellogos, and several profit-making businesses based in Snohomish, Washington, including Eden Farms, Cascadian Publishing, Golden Gallery, and Ted Anthony & Associates, among others.

In 1979, Rinaldo was arrested on seven charges, including felony counts of statutory rape, indecent liberties, and intimidating a witness. Later that year, he was convicted of third-degree statutory rape for having sexual intercourse with one minor girl and of taking indecent liberties with another.

Rinaldo was born in 1944 in Oneida, New York into a Catholic family. He attended Oneida High School (class of 1963), but being a borderline juvenile delinquent, never earned a high school diploma. After some friends were killed in an automobile accident, he resolved to study to become a priest. However, he also explored a number of other churches, and ended up becoming the "black sheep in a Catholic family."

He attended a Bible college in New York state, but dropped out after about a year. After leaving Oneida, he worked at a variety of odd jobs, never spending more than a year in one place. In an interview with the Everett Herald, Rinaldo said that he had been an ordained minister "for a brief time", but later declined to identify the church which had ordained him.

Rinaldo eventually ended up in Tucson, Arizona, where he spoke at a religious meeting attended by Paul Goff. Goff invited Rinaldo and his family to live in his Tucson guest house, where they resided for three months.

In 1969, Rinaldo moved to Seattle, Washington, accompanied by Goff. Together, they started having nightly meetings in a Seattle area home. Rinaldo also started a leather importing business. Eventually, Goff moved back to Tucson, while Rinaldo remained in Seattle.

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