Jim and his wife, Heli

Jim LaMattery joined the Children of God in the summer of 1971 at the age of seventeen. After a five year tenure with the organization, he left the group in December of 1975 after attempting to stop a World Services personnel from raping a new Swedish convert. After his return to the United States, Mr. LaMattery completed his Comparative Literature degree at San Diego State University with the purpose of obtaining his Juris Doctorate. The custody battle for his two daughters, that were born in The Family, resulted in the court's desire to grant him sole and separate custody. Rejecting a final outcome of the case his ex-wife, Donna Marchbank, with The Family International's aid, kidnapped his daughters and held them hostage in Family communes for over thirteen years.

During the separation from his children, Jim established a Mortgage Company and Real Estate firm in San Diego, California. In 1993, Jim was reunified with his daughters and slowed his activity in his business to help his girls re-assimilate into secular life. Today, his oldest daughter, Kerenina, lives and works in the Health Industry in Texas, and his youngest daughter, Kristi, is finishing her degree in Philosophy with the intent to complete law school in California. Kristi is also one of the founders of a non-profit organization formed to assist children of the Children of God/ The Family International who have expressed a desire to obtain a higher education and live separately from the communes/homes of their parents.

As well as a practicing Real Estate Broker in San Diego, Jim has written his first novel regarding his experiences in the 1960's and his tenure with the Children of God. The novel is an inside look at the lifestyle, communal environment, and fundamental beliefs of many of his generation that sought a world different than the one they found themselves born into, and the dangers of establishing a community that was different from the norm. Jim now devotes his time to writing and speaking engagements for the purpose of informing the public about The Family International and their permeation into mainstream society.