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The Cult Dossier · No. 116 · Syncretic / Other Nrm

Lyman Family

the Fort Hill Community

1966 – present · Roxbury, Boston; Kansas; Martha's Vineyard; California

XII. THE WIDER FIELD — CONCISE ENTRIES

Quasi-religious

Who led it

MEL LYMAN (24 March 1938 – 1978), a musician who joined the Jim Kweskin Jug Band in 1963 and became the centre of a community in Boston.

What it worshipped and taught

Lyman himself. Community life in several houses on Fort Hill in Roxbury, a poor Boston neighbourhood, under his authority, with its own publications. After his death the community founded FORT HILL CONSTRUCTION.

Who was in it

Mel Lyman; Jim Kweskin; Mark Frechette and Daria Halprin, stars of Antonioni's Zabriskie Point, both members — Frechette died in prison on 27 September 1975 when a 150-pound barbell fell on his neck; David Felton, whose Rolling Stone article The Lyman Family's Holy Siege of America (23 December 1971) exposed the group.

How it ended, or where it stands

Still exists, quietly, after nearly sixty years.

The dead

1 in the bank robbery

Of note

Notable for durability and near-total media silence since 1978.

Its timeline

  1. 1966 Community forms on Fort Hill.
  2. SPRING 1967 The underground paper AVATAR launches; it runs until spring 1968.
  3. 29 AUGUST 1973 Frechette and two other members try to rob the New England Merchants Bank; CHRISTOPHER THEIN is killed by police. Frechette and SHELDON BERNHARD plead guilty, and Frechette gets six to fifteen years.
  4. 1978 Lyman dies, reportedly in Los Angeles. The community announces the death only in the MID-1980s and never produces a death certificate.
  5. Present The community continues quietly, running a construction business, largely closed to outsiders.

Its people

Mel Lyman

—

Founder, the Lyman Family · 24 March 1938 – 1978 · active 1966–1978

A musician who joined the Jim Kweskin Jug Band in 1963 and became the centre of a community in several houses on Fort Hill in Roxbury, Boston, with its own underground paper, Avatar. Two members were stars of Antonioni's Zabriskie Point; one, Mark Frechette, died in prison in 1975 after a failed bank robbery. Lyman's death in 1978 was announced only in the mid-1980s, with no death certificate produced.

Before the law. Never charged.

Where things stand. Deceased 1978. THE COMMUNITY STILL EXISTS, running a construction business, closed to outsiders — nearly sixty years on.

  1. 1966 Community forms on Fort Hill.
  2. SPRING 1967 Avatar launches; it runs until spring 1968.
  3. 23 DECEMBER 1971 David Felton's Rolling Stone article, The Lyman Family's Holy Siege of America.
  4. 29 AUGUST 1973 Frechette and two others try to rob the New England Merchants Bank; Christopher Thein is killed by police.
  5. 1978 Lyman dies, reportedly in Los Angeles; the community announces it in the mid-1980s.

Checked 2026-09-16

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