If puppets that look and behave a little too much like people freak you out, you're not alone, but when you combine such uncanny puppets with a children's entertainer and devout Christian who collected child pornography and conspired to kidnap and eat children, as Gawker reports, you've got the case of Ronald William Brown, the stuff of parent's nightmares.
Brown spent many years using puppets to educate children about the sins and danger of pornography on his Christian Television Network show with the help of an array of inarguably hideous puppets. Most recently, Brown was sentenced to 20 years in prison for child pornography posession, but according to Pinellas County, Fla. deputies, Brown also fantasized about killing, cooking and eating children, WPTV reports.
Brown pled guilty to possession of pornography, though authorities dropped charges of his conspiring to kidnap children. Local officials told WPTV that after Pinellas County Jail. U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents raided his mobile home, what they discovered was shocking: lewd images of children bound and gagged, a flier for a missing child and "images of children that appear to be deceased."
Authorities claim that Brown and co-conspirator Michael Arnett chatted online about their cannibalistic plans, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Brown met children he allegedly wanted to kidnap through his affiliation with the Gulf Coast Church in Largo, Fla, often serving pizza to neighborhood kids.
"I imagine him wiggling and then going still," Brown reportedly told Arnett during a chat session about his kid kidnapping and killing fantasies.
In May, Arnett was arrested on two counts of related to the production, distribution and possession of child pornography while U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigated his and Brown's lavicious plans.
Investigators recently said that Brown wrote out his murder fantasies on online forums and requested photos of dead children from people with like-minded inclinations. According to Brown, however, he never acted out on these fantasies.
In addition to 20 years in prison, Brown will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release and submit to probation reviews for the remainder of his life. He will also be prohibited from using a computer with Internet access.
"Perverted is not a strong enough word to describe what you have been engaging in," Judge James D. Whittemore said to Brown before issuing his sentence. "Horrific, that is getting close. Unimaginable, that is getting closer."
Click here to see the booking photo of Ronald William Brown, a soft-spoken Christian puppeteer who worked on a children's show for many years.
