So…. here’s a story for you.
This homicidal AA member got 40 months in jail for making a death threat against the director of an addiction treatment facility:
In the message, Mr. Groom threatened to go to the facility and shoot the recovery center’s president and chief executive officer, Janina Kean, according to police.
Mr. Groom stated that he wanted a completion letter from the facility for rehabilitation time he spent there from July 26 to Aug. 16, 2010.
“If I don’t get the letter, I’m going to come up there with a .357 magnum, which is cocked and loaded, and shoot that (expletive) (Kean),” Mr. Groom said, according to court documents.
“I am in fear for my life, the 76 patients, and the 43 staff members that work here,” Ms. Kean told State Police. “I would like around-the-clock police protection at High Watch.”
That’s High Watch Farm Recovery Center, which has an interesting story:
High Watch has a rich historyconnected to both the New Thought movement and more profoundly, Alcoholics Anonymous. Bill W., co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, established High Watch Farm in 1940 as the first 12 Step treatment center in the world. The debate over the role of Alcoholics Anonymous versus the role of professional treatment can be traced back to the first days of High Watch Farm. It was at that time, AA’s future was set to remain independent from the business of “treatment” for alcoholics. Today, AA’s widespread use of the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi is attributed to Sister Francis (Etheldred Folsom), the woman who gave the farm to Bill W. in 1940. The colorful history of High Watch begins with Sister Francis.
It’s a magical tale of how Bill W. was inspired to establish the very first AA front group. Along with Wilson’s “Let’s Be Friendly with Our Friends” pamphlet, the High Watch story might be of interest to those AAs who insist that Alcoholics Anonymous has nothing to do with the whole treatment industry that has grown up around it.

Bill and Lois, Frolicking


