Church of Love 1965

David Lowry started the Church of Love in 1965 he originally operated it out of a farm house in Hillsdale, Ill. He lived there with his wife Maria Esther Mireles also known as Mother Maria. They created the church to target the souls of desperately lonely men. Lowry mailed out pictures of what pretty young women he called Angels. In 1965 he began recruiting college girls and younger girls to pose nude for him, they all signed a consent allowing him to use their photos. He then created profiles for over 100 young girls, they were called Angels of Love. No one ever met the Angels just Lowry and his wife Maria. His followers were led to believe that the women were fallen angels who had known sin. They were told that Mother Maria had purified them again or as they said she "Revirginized" them (Friedman, Shaw, and Tamarkin, 1989). If the followers mailed in a donation between $15 -$30 dollars they could write to any one of the Angels in the Catalogue and receive a response. One victim claimed to have written about 1500 letters in a four year time period to five of the angels. The majority went to an angel named Vanessa whom he called his love bride. He mailed her pictures of different things that meant a lot to him. The angels wrote back he said "They gave me a feeling of security that someone really cared about me." (Friedman, Shaw, and Tamarkin, 1989). The money donated by these victims was allegedly going to be used to build what was called Chonda- Za. This was supposed to be heaven on earth, where the angels could stay with their new bodies and devote themselves to the men of the church. This place was pure fiction just like the Angels; those ladies never knew what they were posing for. From 1981 to 1985 the Church averaged more than $1 million dollars a year. He got the Idea for the Church of Love after publishing a book in 1960. Lowry wrote about his travels through Mexico what he called a Bachelors paradise. He received such an overwhelming response than he was convinced that there was a lot of men out there that didn't have any self-confidence and had a hard time with relationships that he thought he was the answer to their problems. So he established a mail order club that he called the Lonely Hearts club. He ran this club for a number of years. Later in 1965 he incorporated it under COL international or as it was known Church of Love. He obtained mailing lists from different men's magazines and the Lonely Hearts club members. Lowry mailed out information about the Church of Love and what its main purpose was to thousands of men. Allegedly the church was Found by a teenager girl from Mexico, whom later became his wife and was now called Mother Maria. The letters were very convincing and claimed that Mother Maria had been called by God to establish a new Garden of Eden. This placed was to be called Chonda- Za. The letters went on to explain that it would take time and money to build this place. Also the letters told where Mother Maria and the Angles were living until this paradise was complete.

The men were offered a lifetime membership for $30 dollars each. Once they joined they got a lot of benefits. One of which was a monthly newsletter that Lowry named The Templian. This newsletter gave updates as to how things were going on the retreat, and also the newsletter featured a lot of self-help articles (NA, 1992) There were also photos of the angels or a letter from them featured also. These pictures were claimed to have been of women living on the retreat. When they really were just of models Lowry used. Many men fell in love with these angels and wrote to them regularly. They claimed to have received responses from then, these letters were written by Lowry and the 30 employees he had. He was smart enough to use a different stationary for each Angel and signed their names to the letters. The men grew very emotionally attached to the angels. Some to the point that they left everything they owened to the Angel's in their will. Others made plans to retire in Chonda-Za while some planned to drop everything and move there when it was built. The men were also told that the Angels had needs and were asked to send Money for this. They were mailed letters telling them of their needs and were asked to send money to help them. Some of the needs were such as the following: Money to pay Hospital bills for Angel Susan who was in a car accident, A new Coat for Mother Maria, Money to Pay Taxes on the retreat, New motor for the Well , Vacations for the Angels, typewriters, sewing machines and the biggest of all Money to buy the property for Chonda-Za. The men believed all of this seeming as between 1982-1985 the Church received approximately $4.5 million dollars. On top of the money they received tons and tons of gifts such as; jewelry, stereos, food, and clothing. They received so much that Lowry ran out of room for them and started giving them to employees and even sold a lot during his famous sidewalk sales (NA, 1992).

People became suspicious of Lowry and found it odd that his printing company would have sidewalk sales where they sold the lingerie sent to the angels by the church followers. Lovesick men kept coming to Hillsdale in search of the retreat and their angel. In 1986 the Moline police had received so many complaints by this time that along with the FBI, IRS and Postal Service launched an investigation into Donald Lowry's Church of Love. Some Followers still didn't care that they had been scammed. They testified on his behalf during his trial, one man claimed to have gotten a since of peace out of donating $25,000 to the Church (Friedman, Shaw, and Tamarkin, 1989).

Once the Church of Love came under investigation Lowry shut it down. He mailed letters to all of the followers telling them that the angels and