Hoe is it we all KNEW that Rudy Giuliani would appear in this story long before he did?
18
R. H. Clark: Frigid? How could the smart smart women of Sarah Lawrence resist you? Maybe it's because you tried to frame them in terms of their sexual - rather than intellectual - value. SLC women don't put up with that.
5
The biggest unanswered question is why did Sarah Lawrence allow a student's father to live in the dorm? How ridiculous is that?!
64
Perfect recipe for a Netflix movie. Guaranteed it will be made. Living with his daughter in her dorm? How about all the other insane garbage this guy was doing.
14
Most comments are incredulous over how did he move into the women's dorm.
The article also talks about how he used all manners of physical and psychological coercion to manipulate these women
For a generation brainwashed into not fighting back against a bully, that is how this happened.
In the old days, you or your brother and his friends punched this guy in the face the first time he did this
But now, I am already the pariah of social media for mentioning this.The outrage is coming my way......
21
Many years ago, about 30, through a friendship with his then wife who against her families wishes had been bizarrely romanced by this man, Mr. Ray. We spent many nights discussing science and politics and visiting the strangest people in Westfield, NJ among other locations. It's sickening that I know him at all and have watched him destroy his kids and ex-wife and that she has to be affiliated with someone like this because of being a mis-led hopeful and naïve high schooler when she was first conned by Larry. Is he capable of what is being published here; absolutely.
35
Aside from the criminally colorful dossier on this guy, why in any sane world is an adult male non/student permitted (or at the least not expelled) from living in a dorm at what has traditionally been an elite women’s college????
For the majority of students, college is their first extended stay away from the security, guidance and rules outside the purview of their parents. The focus needs to get back to scholastics. The partying, co-ed dorms, where anyone can enter without a pass, need to return to a previous era that allowed excitable teens to be safely monitored in their transition to adulthood.
18
"He is now facing decades in prison..."
As a repeat-offender at the major felony level, a racketeer, and a person who has destroyed the lives of who-knows-how-many young women, Lawrence Ray deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison, not merely "decades" -- and preferably in a Super-Max facility with the worst of the worst.
14
After all maybe they are not so elite . It certainly doesn’t look like it. Maybe just a hype money making
Machine which needs monitored. And parents take a sober look before they entrust their children to a facility like this.
11
So where is Sarah Lawrence College in all of this?
As so many others have commented, how could this guy have been allowed to share a dorm room with his daughter (too much of a yuk factor right there)?
If I were a parent paying the big $$ for an elite Sarah Lawrence education, I'd be beyond angry. I hope an investigation of this is either in progress or imminent, and immediate steps have been taken to ensure the health and safety of the young women who attend the college and choose to reside in the dorms.
34
You write: "... moved into his daughter’s dorm room at Sarah Lawrence College ..." No further explanation? Another unremarkable day-in-the-life moment in The Big Apple?
15
Larry's mother Ingrid was a childhood friend of my mothers, attending high school together in Brooklyn. After not seeing Ingrid for 25 years she showed up on our door step with Larry. I will keep it short since there is almost too much to tell...Ingrid was blonde, charming, smoked Virginia Slims and she's the lady you want at your dinner party. She constantly lied about Larry, claiming he was a genius, on the cover of Time, and "the wizard of wall street". So she was a liar, he was a liar. This is learned behavior.
41
Narcissistic personality disorder/borderline personality disorder with other malignant traits.
26
If you had any doubts that here in the USA, anyone can do anything, and no one will try to stop them, this story is for you.
Since having police officers, lawyers, and social workers running from one mess to another doesn't seem to be working, how about trying some social norms? Yes, it would cut back on personal freedom, but that's the idea.
8
2018 Email to Alumni from SLC's President Judd:
"First and foremost, the College did not knowingly allow this parent to inhabit his daughter’s dormitory apartment, as claimed in media reports. The College has conducted a thorough search of its records across many offices as well as interviewed current and former staff responsible for the safety and well-being of students who were at SLC at the time of the events alleged to have occurred on our campus. On the basis of that review, we have found no evidence to support the claim that this parent lived on the campus during the 2010-11 academic year, nor that college employees who were responsible for our students’ safety ignored such reports or any College policy impacting student health and safety in this regard.”
FEB 12, 2020 post From President Judd:
"From the indictment, it appears that for some part of the fall semester in 2010, this parent stayed in his daughter’s on-campus apartment, in a clear violation of the College’s written policy on campus visits."
So did he or did he not live on campus, President Cristle Collins Judd? Why do you need an indictment to tell you what goes on at your own school? What does that tell you about the "thorough search" you supposedly conducted in 2018? Something is funky here. Take responsibility.
57
Another creepy sleaze like Epstein....
18
The type of housing and the living situation and conditions should definitely be emphasized more as a co-ed building with no RA actually in residence. There was a landlord who, eventually, evicted Mr. Ray. But this kind of housing should not be called a dorm.
Please read this longer article, "The Stolen Kids of Sarah Lawrence," about the students and Mr. Ray's situation: https://www.thecut.com/2019/04/larry-ray-sarah-lawrence-students.html
Mr. Ray is a master manipulator and persuader. He preyed on those students because they were vulnerable and easily influenced by his way of talking. When you're in college and extremely unsure of who you are, it's easy to get caught up in a person like that. I'm glad something is happening to this legitimate psychopath.
14
@Mary (edit to my original post)
I realized that I made a mistake in my earlier post. Ray did, in fact, move into his daughter's dorm at Sarah Lawrence- Slonim 9- which is a building on the campus.
Later he, his daughter, and other students rented out a different place that was not on the campus.
1
I recall, many moons ago while away at University, an underclassman was being brought into the sphere of an older man who lived off campus. I sat the younger student down and expressed concern that all in our social group had regarding this r'ship; fortunately, he broke off the interaction.
If you read the NY Mag article, Larry's tactics were very Est like for those of you old enough to remember that therapeutic technique. Lastly, I wonder the further implications of the lack of critical thinking in our educational system. They just test these kids to death and almost everything that was a part of a solid public school education has been removed!
10
How does a grown man move into his daughter's dorm room? Doesn't the school have policies that would not allow such? My brain can't compute this.......
22
How does a college not know that a man has moved into a female student's residence hall? Some administration heads need to roll. The lawsuits by parents are probably already simmering--mine would be.
21
The story I kept hoping to read, but this 'journalist' never reports on it, is a sixty year old father holed up in a dorm room and. . . what circumstances lead to him conning his daughter into letting him move in? how many students did he traffic?
I guess dorms don't have staff these days? No one noted an aging man living in that dorm?
20
Though I am very much against treating college undergrads like children--which the very often are--this is a problem that really ought to be addressed. I recall a pair of manipulative older men lurking around campus in the guise of perennial students, whose real objective was to seduce students when I was a student at UTK. One of them was a middle-aged sexual predator with a phony Brahmin accent who was constantly in the dorms in which he did not live trying to get in the fellows' rooms and who today I discover has found his niche is South America taking pictures of very young men and placing them on his social media. The other was a fat old hippy who held court in the library study room and attempted to seduce young men with his supposed intellect and theories. To what purpose he did this will never be known as we were all too smart for him and he too dim. I wondered then, and I wonder even more today as a middle-aged man myself, why nothing was ever done to shoo these pathetic flim-flammers along on their way.
15
So this is trump without his daddy's millions to get him started in life.
22
How does a male adult move into a dorm room at a women's college and nobody notices?
11
@Publius
It's coeducational now. Someone in the SLC administration said it was perfectly OK for a father to be visiting his daughter in her dorm room.
Visiting???
9
Rule of Law in the US? Never heard of it.
1
Have things gotten so weird in the NYC area that this guy was skating under the radar until New York Magazine wrote about him?
15
Sounds like a candidate for White House advisor . . .
26
Can we be spared from hearing Bernard Kerik's thoughts on anything, ever again, please?
15
Seriously, when is the NYT going to look into Trump's Modeling Agency?
33
Wow! A guy by the name of Lawrence is involved with human trafficking at Sarah Lawrence College! You can’t make this stuff up! Disgusting and ironic!!!
7
If I read this anywhere except the NYT I would immediately dismiss the whole story as "fake news". I am still skeptical.
I just can't "get my head around" a 60 year old man living in a Sarah Lawrence dorm, using at least one Sarah Lawrence student in a sex-for-hire operation he was running.
Perhaps my problem is that I remember Sarah Lawrence from the 60's when I was in college. In my day Sarah Lawrence had a reputation for accepting and/or creating young women who projected aloofness if not frigidity.
Mr. Ray is portrayed as a 21st Century Dickensian villain. Do people like that really exist? (DJT, I know, I know.)
Is this narrative just law enforcement hyperbole? Please follow up.
63
@R. H. Clark I attended SLC and so did my son When I first read about this in New York Magazine, I too thought it had to be fake news. I'm glad this creep has been arrested. But I need a statement from Sarah Lawrence that explains everything about where the staff was, who knew what when, how in god's name this could have continued for as long as it did. Or, more to the point, how this crazy creep got "in" in the first place! And if SLC doesn't get out in front of this fast, they can stop expecting any more contributions from me. Who would EVER send their child, son or daughter, to Sarah Lawrence after this?!?! Not me!
92
@R. H. Clark
The New York Magazine article outlines much more comprehensively how Ray operated:
https://www.thecut.com/2019/04/larry-ray-sarah-lawrence-students.html#_ga=2.192489770.1043098252.1581461043-924242203.1570463010
15
Although I agree completely with the sentiment you express, I take issue with your not capitalizing “God” in your usage “in god’s name.”. Also, ?!?! is considered “schoolgirl style” in many institutions, but maybe not Sarah Lawrence College.
5
I'm an SLC alum and was stalked by a middle-aged man when I lived on campus. Because of that I had a lot of interface with campus security and was pretty impressed with the way that they dealt with the situation back then. It's really sad and disappointing to see how the college dropped the ball here.
136
Sarah Lawrence has been and is one of the most expensive colleges in the country. Room and board is currently over $15,000 but why would anyone pay it when it is apparently so easy to move in unnoticed. A well deserved reputational disaster about which so far the college is silent.
104
@Andrew : the story is fascinating and bizarre but I can't get past "middle aged man moving into a college dorm". Nobody noticed this? a GIRLS dorm? and nobody reported it, or said anything?
57
@Concerned Citizen The dorm that he moved into was coed. It was a two-story house with a private entrance. The RA lived in another of the 11 houses within the complex.
27
@emily - where the RA lived - so what - none of the students spoke up? Doesn't surprise me - most girls that age do not speak up for fear of something.
Did "daddy" have the same control over his daughter that he had over her female classmates - I smell a big lawsuit!!
Where was the Mother?
15
I lived in a residence hall as an undergraduate & as Faculty-In-Residence. There is no way a middle-aged man went undetected. If a Resident Advisor or Resident Director (R.A., R.D.) were unaware, a student would have brought it to their attention. It's simply not possible that no one knew.
The higher the prestige of the university, the more vigilant administration is regarding their public relations. There are layers upon layers of Student Life staff. This is not the 1950s or even the 1970s. Higher Ed is a nanny state.
279
Exactly. I can’t imagine that other students weren’t calling attention to his presence. When I was in school having an overnight guest of either sex in my age group in my dorm did not go unnoticed. Even if she was living in an alternative dorm situation it seems really odd that he would have gone undetected. Something is definitely off.
192
@Kim Watt From what I have read, they lived in what Sarah Lawrence describes as "cooperative living units. Each two-story unit includes eight single rooms with a common area and small kitchen". Perhaps the set up made it easier for someone to slip in unnoticed (or he charmed his way into staying there without raising flags). My undergrad campus had something like this and it was surprisingly easy to get away with all sorts of things in that hall from what I remember (the school had approx. 4000 students, so also small). I never lived there but had friends there.
56
@BrendaT NYC
They were informed but turned a blind eye. Expect millions to be paid by Sarah Lawrence to the effected families in restitution.
74
Mr. Ray spoke of his Marine Corps background I guess to make him sound like a tough guy...of course he was never in the Marine Corps. Perhaps if Sarah Lawrence which celebrates "diversity" was actually a "diverse" college with a few veterans as students or faculty, they would have seen through him in a heartbeat.
14
@KMK Yes. Because everyone knows that college aged young women are acutely keen on Marine culture. Please try harder to swipe at the elites.
8
@KMK Not to mention he apparently fooled Bernie Kerik, who is a veteran.
8
@KMK With all due respect, one does not need to be a veteran to see through people like this.
10
The future Lifetime movie or Netflix/Amazon multi-episode series should be really quite something!
8
Daddy issues still thrive. I wonder why in the cases of these young women. Perhaps people should watch "House of Lies," especially the British version (my preference), but also the US version.
4
@John Mack - It is "House of Cards" and you are correct, the British version is superior.
2
please, can we start talking about narcissistic personality disorder as a nation! our country is being run by them, as well as our corporations, our military. These people are winding their way to the top of very important positions with the express intention of having power over other people. The story of this twisted master manipulator is a perfect example of how narrcisists work, if we don't learn how to identify and protect ourselves from people like this we will find our country and our world falling more and more under the power of tyrants.
52
Don't you mean psychopath or sociopath? I forget the stats but people with that personality disorder are very common in the population. Most of them are not Ted Bundy mass murders just sail through life being destructive.
World expert on psychopthy: Dr. Robert D. Hare. Popular market books authored by him: Without Conscience: The disturbing world of the psychopaths among us. He co-authored: Snakes in Suits, When psychopaths go to work.
BTW if you use his psychopathy check list USA President Trump surely qualifies.
14
@Ian Turner
Incredibly well-stated. Our President, though boorish, ill-informed and juvenile, has used this exact same skill set to seduce multitudes. The future of our nation is in the hands of a megalomaniac, toddler tyrant.
19
@Ian Turner:
This is not a new phenomenon. It IS, however, new that the most extreme narcissists now go to extremes of behavior. They now are willing to boldly do illegal things.
trump, Barr, Zuckerberg, putin are all known people so afflicted. There are also heads of many corporations who are afflicted. These people take such large risks, that they benefit greatly when a few of their risks pan-out. When a risk doesn't pan-out, they take the "punishment" but wait for the next opportunity.
We see this in Ray's behaviors. He took risks to associate with shady mobsters. When things went well, all was good. When things soured, he hid and regrouped with other criminals among his coterie. Kerik, DiTommaso, and Rudy Giuliani were likely just a few of the many "mobster types" who he manipulated, got help from, and hurt.
Such deviant narcissists ARE dangerous. Society and the typical person is unable to detect them. The ones who had extreme violence in their childhood (or who hurt animals) may even become serial killers. These are very sick people, who have zero empathy for any other person, not even for their own children. It's why trump feels no remorse or guilt portraying his own daughter as a (his) sex-object. It's more than sick and deviant. It's dangerous.
Most psychologists cannot detect them, because these people over years have honed their skills at lying. Few experts specialize in this fundamental area.
Society's unprotected from these very dangerous people.
10
i was a student at sarah lawrence many years ago. how was it that the school allowed a father to live in a dorm???
27
IT IS NOT AN ALL GIRL'S SCHOOL! Sarah Lawrence has been co-ed for decades.
10
@Justine That's not the point. They seem to have had no over sight of the dormitory living that they offer to students. He wasn't just a man walking around on campus. He was living in housing.
5
@El That's correct. It's not the point, yet several people are commenting on it being an all girl's school as if that IS the point. So I'm clarifying that it is not.
3
Once again, more evidence that all the worst people in the world trace back eventually to Rudy Giuliani, and from there, to Donald Trump.
53
Oops. Made a mistake with my last post. Here is the real link to the article explaining how a parent just out of prison wound up living in his daughter's dorm room at Sarah Lawrence, and how the school dealt with it at the time:
https://www.thecut.com/2019/04/larry-ray-sarah-lawrence-students.html
10
@Allison Thanks for posting. Fascinating article.
1
When I was an undergrad at a women's college in the 1970s, one of the women in my dorm had her boyfriend move in with her. We complained to the housing department, and he was out. She also was banned from living on campus. Why was it so complicated at SLC?
41
Lots of juicy fodder for the media here, but the bottom line is that this rests on the school itself, and their lack of security, housing oversight and protective practices.
Ole Sarah must have been cooperating and enabling for a good cut of the vig- otherwise, how else would he get away with it for so long ?
22
So it turned out to be necessary to look at the New York article for context, only then the question of the creepy, sexually exploitative old man in the dorm who uses the access to his daughter's friends to satisfy his deviant urges is even more disturbing. Complaints were made to Sarah Lawrence: it doesn't appear that there was any response.
47
Uhmm, and in the less security awareness 90's I could not sneak a guest into my dorm room? How does an adult male live in his daughter's dorm room unnoticed, unchallenged by the college???
48
This guy will get a slap on the wrist, because our laws do not protect women and children from men they know. And they do not recognize the seriousness of crimes against women and children, unless they involve death.
21
@Dr. Girl while I am not saying there isn’t lack of protection of women as you state rest assured that this guy’s going down like a rock in a river. The SDNY doesn’t hold press conferences for defendants they are going to slap on wrist. Justice can be slow, but it has come for this guy in spades. In the interim you might enjoy the NY Daily News video linked in the article.
7
And this man's daughter let him *move into her dorm room*?! I hope the trafficked girl and her parents sue her for that. I can't believe it would be allowed by the college.
18
I highly doubt she “let” him. People like him utterly control those around them. Think: He was somehow successful in controlling those other students, who didn’t grow up under his control. How much worse was it for his daughter?
6
@Liz
You have to read the New York article - at "thecut" to get a better feel for why she would be very dependent on him, and how he has fooled people much more savvy - or certainly experienced - than his daughter and their friends. Like most sociopaths he can pick up on someone's vulnerabilities - whatever they need or want -whether they are a student at Sarah Lawrence - or a certain former Mayor of New York.
8
The New York magazine article suggested Sarah Lawrence's housing administrators looked the other way when this guy lived on campus. Perhaps he intimidated them into silence. The school's "live and let live" vibe no doubt contributed to this as well. I'm very thankful my daughter was wait-listed there and is going to Occidental instead.
24
I'm sorry, but is Sarah Lawrence really an "elite" New York college? The acceptance rate is over 50%.
24
@David Take a look at some of the professors over the years including current faculty. Take a look at the graduates and their accomplishments. "Elite" is a word use liberally by schools of far less stature than Sarah Lawrence, a very small school that has punched far above its weight for long, long time.
17
@David, Elite may also refer to the price of tuition. Sarah Lawrence usually is among the five most expensive.
According to New York magazine most of Lawrence Ray’s (or whatever name he was using) crimes occurred after he left SLC when he was living with former students on the Upper East side.
2
@Li Li well said. A lot of these comments seem to come from a place of envy and resentment.
8
People are wondering how this could have happened. Remember that we are living in the "woke" era in which other people's bizarre behavior is supposed to be none of our business, particularly sexual behavior. Your dorm mate was sleeping with your other dorm mate's father? In the era of "sex positivity" it's none of your business and if you complain, you're not woke, you're a prude, you have "issues," maybe you're even the dreaded conservative.
24
Perfect!
This guy has all of the skills, prerequisites and work history to be a member of the current president's cabinet.
130
Here's a quote from the NYMag article:
"For years, he has silenced his victims by intimidating them physically, psychologically, legally, and, when all else fails, by public shaming and harassment. Says Ray: “My intentions are honorable intentions,” he says. “It’s the way I’ve lived my life, even through 20 years of this.”
Does this remind us of someone else from the same NY cesspool? Not making an explicit allusion here, just think that's a nice, concise pull-quote into the thinking of a sociopath...
74
@leslie devries You are not 'suggesting' that Donald Trump 'may' have known 'Mr. Ray' are you?? New York, in some ways seems like a small town-where everybody on a 'certain level' knows everybody else. (Wink!)
3
"Bernie Kerik's best man" should be the first clue.
47
Just the type of fella you'd want to bring home to meet your parents. NOT!
4
Heads should roll from the top down. Yes, millions will be paid out by Sarah Lawrence. The daughter should be prosecuted, as well.
37
@Sua Sponte I'm certain she was a victim too.
7
@Sua Sponte Shouldn't the daughter also be considered his victim?
7
I seeMartin Scorsese's next film.
12
@Frenchie yeah it will probably run 4.5 hours if the Irishman is any indication.
1
@Frenchie
There could be a lot of therapeutic fun in casting it. So many choices...sad!
2
I cannot begin even to pretend to understand this dystopian story about a dormitory in one of America's most respected, progressive and prestigious small colleges, once home to such scholarly giants as Rudolf Arnheim.
A student's convicted and jailed father living with her in a student residence only detected after inflicting serial, disabling damage to her peers?
How could? How could? How could? Any cogency further than this entirely escapes me.
59
@John LeBaron
Rudolph who? Sorry to inform you but Rudy never attended Sarah Lawrence, an all girls school at the time, unless he posed as a transvestite.
1
@B. S. B He taught at Sarah Lawrence
6
@B. S. B. My wife attended, and loved, SLC. In particular, she revered Professor Arnheim. As for intellectual superstare, perhaps I should have the more familiar Joseph Campbell but Arnheim and others were justly celebrated in his own right.
2
I got lost at, he moved into her dorm! How in today's security conscious world does a grown man move into the dormitory of an elite women's college? The entire story is bizarre, but I can't help but to keep gravitating back to that one simple question!
72
@j24 Me too. I was an RA in college, I always knew when someone was staying with a student on the floor. If a father was staying for multiple days/weeks at a time, I would've let my Hall Director know ASAP. Not OK.
24
@j24 I am also puzzled by this part of the story. Either this is not entirely true or someone at the school has a lot of explaining to do !
17
@j24 Other sources state it was a residence on campus owned and managed by a landlord.
9
Why the focus on the college being to blame? Yes, it's bizarre that they didn't now this. But a lot is not clear in this article. How long was Ray in the dorm? A year? Two months? Two weeks. Why don't we know that? Maybe because it's not as juicy if you learn it was for two weeks? At some point he and some of the students involved moved into an apartment, where a lot of the manipulation continued and/or was started perhaps? Not excusing the college or Ray, just suggesting that one needs more information before deciding who deserves the most outrage.
14
@bounce33 Read the original article.
8
@Kerry Thanks. Sounds like it was most of the school year! It is surprising that the college didn't have a clue about it. This information would add perspective in this article. Even so, I don't think the major "bad guy" here is the school. I can name several baddies in this story, including some of the unbelievably naive parents and, of course first and foremost, Ray.
Like many commentators, this story is astonishing. There is no way that college authorities would not know that a student, who was a 60 year old male, had moved into a residential dorm. We are not speaking is an overnight stay but a guy living in the college dorm. Once the college officials learned of this situation, moreover, they had a duty to intervene and evict the guy. This situation was not only inappropriate, it posed a real danger to students. I hope that someone, a student or parent, files a claim against Sarah Lawrence and that the state and federal authorities demand an explanation.
61
@Christopher Rillo Do Sarah Lawrence dorms have RA's? Is that even a role now?
Ray's personality profile is a perfect match with "predator."
This time throw away the key.
31
Sometimes I feel like I am living a boring average life. Then I read about guys like this and I am glad I am.
112
It doesn't matter if Sarah Lawrence didn't know of his presence in college housing (which, btw, strains credulity). The point is Sarah Lawrence SHOULD have known. That's good enough to make them liable.
103
@Leslie
You just read a story about how corrupt NY police & politics are, which includes Rudy and Trump and the Russians, and your first concern is who should be sued?
rest assured the well off children will get the care and compensation no one thinks the poor folks similarly treated deserve and only ever get by random luck. If any of those girls is there on merit scholarship I bet she gets the short end.
22
Mr. Ray appears to be a life long corrupt scam artist - one of many. As everyone knows, the real scandal here is how this went on in a dorm at Sarah Lawrence for long.
32
Should receive no Mercy or deals
He is a criminal who wilfully abused these vulnerable kids
Looks like the daughter recruited them
14
Only a fragile mentally unstable individual would be susceptible to this con. At that age, I would have run screaming from an old dude like that. It takes low self esteem with uninvolved parents. Did they never visit their kids. Did they not notice this creepy old guy LIVING in their kid's house? EEU. My husband was a psychologist and helped prosecute the boy scout leader pervs. He would not even allow a male pediatrician or babysitter after what he saw.
These kids need a huge dose of scepticism. As noted in the article, they were all misfits of some sort -- so again where were the loser parents?
12
@Mary Rivkatot: Pretty harsh judgment. I suggest reading the full article for a better picture: https://www.thecut.com/2019/04/larry-ray-sarah-lawrence-students.html
The parents did try to intervene, multiple times. The guy was running a cult, for all intents and purposes, and one of the first thing a cult leader does is isolate his victims from their families. It is a horrible story, and this man did serious damage, not only to the kids, but to the parents of these kids. He broke up one family and bankrupted another. The parents were helpless, as their adult children refused to listen to them, Sarah Lawrence did nothing to assist them, and the man managed to con many other people -- some of them quite powerful -- with his lies. You are right that it would have been better had these kids been raised with a healthy dose of skepticism, however. It's not always the most positive of traits to cultivate, but skepticism can certainly protect people from falling prey to cults.
16
It’s wonderful you were never victimized. Truly. Those of us who have been, know. These people who do things like this are expert in the long game, expert in fooling others. They’ve had a lifetime practicing their craft. Parents who raise their kids to be kind and compassionate are not to blame. They’re doing their best to raise good human beings. People who are empaths, especially, are typically targeted. Anyone who has already suffered trauma is vulnerable, particularly “good” people. They just don’t see it coming, then beat themselves up with shame, making them all the more vulnerable. The entire blame—all of it—lies with the perpetrator.
23
The prosecutor in this case was right when he said that "If you are not angry when you hear this story, you have no soul".
Mr. Ray is a complete lowlife and should spend the rest of his life in jai.
Sarah Lawrence College should be sued for the negligent supervision of these students and their dormitories.
The college claims they did their own investigation and found no evidence to substantiate these crimes. Sounds like a cover up to me.
43
There are no "master manipulators". Only an abundance of willing marks.
@A. jubatus
Plenty of both but definitely more marks.
...says a master manipulator.
9
@A. jubatus One function of education should be to make people less gullible. This college seemed to not be providing all the mental nutrients.
3
Why does the media, including NYT, refer to Kerik as “former NY Police Commissioner” without adding “convicted felon”?
People should be reminded that he is a corrupt, convicted felon every time they see his title.
93
Just another crooked NYC louse, like his buddies Kerik and DiTommaso.
Hard to believe Trump has passed him over for an appointment, he'd fit right in. Maybe Rudy's got him on retainer?
As for how he lived in a dorm room, rich people are experts at ignoring things until they impact them directly. I'm sure it was easy.
32
Sounds like a Trumper to me.
37
Mr. Ray should consider running for president. He appears to be everything Republicans are looking for.
81
I don't understand any of this -- especially at a so called better college. Dorm residents notice everything. How was anyone okay with a dad moving in!? I can't believe not one person protested. Where are the dorm heads or RAs or whatever Sarah Lawrence calls them? And why would these women be so gullible and under the thrall of, clearly, a loser dad, down and out? If I was a SL student or parent, I would be flipping out and looking for a transfer or refund.
30
@Andy I was going to say basically the same thing about the college -- namely, how the heck did this happen -- except as to the gullibility part, I'm not inclined to blame the victims, and I will add that there was a classic Law & Order episode ("Girlfriends") from 1996 about a father/daughter prostitution ring at a fancy local college. Makes me wonder if this guy saw that episode and took it as career advice rather than a "ripped from the headlines" warning. Spoiler alert -- in that episode the father goes to prison as his daughter, who was probably the real killer, says to him, with a hint of a smirk, says, "daddy you know I'll visit you."
12
Whether or not the college knew that this man was living in a dorm - and how could they not know? - what is the college's exposure to litigation on this? Do they have adequate reserves? Why would anyone send their child to this school? and how long until the college declares bankruptcy?
11
I don't understand how a grown man could be living in a student dormitory and not attract attention. Didn't anyone notice this? Didn't anyone report it? Call me crazy, but I didn't think anyone but a student was allowed to live in a STUDENT DORMITORY. Methinks that the school has some 'splainin' to do.
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@Julie Chilton
I'm with Julie on this one. I spent my entire adult life in and around universities, first as a student and then as a faculty member. I fail to see how any adult could pull this off. There had to be a number of other people in charge of that dorm looking the other way. And students had to be collaborating with him right from the beginning. Bizarre failure of elementary security all round.
16
can't wait to watch the movie
7
And his doppelganger is in the White House
59
How was he living with his daughter in a dorm room?
26
There is no way nobody noticed a middle aged man living in an all-girls university dorm, and there had to at the very very least been one girl who brought up
some complaint about his shenanigans. Didn’t a damn parent say something when they visited their kid?
Yeah someone in that administration was doing him a favor, did Epstein have some connection? Granted the college crowd was a little too old for him...
30
Sarah Lawrence has been a co-Ed school for sometime. Someone who went there tells me that he thinks the school started admitting men in 1968 although I haven’t verified that date.
Did you carefully read the article, some of his victims were men.
10
Sarah Lawrence, your response?
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@bronx girl
Sarah Lawrence responded. They say they will cooperate with the police investigation - as if they have a choice.
The police should be investigating Sarah Lawrence as well as Mr. Ray.
14
READ THE FOLLOWING:
https://www.thecut.com/2019/04/larry-ray-sarah-lawrence-students.html
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@Kevin Thank you for sharing this. Very informative article.
4
@Kevin, thanks. Seriously disturbing.
4
How on earth did he manage to move into his daughter's dorm without anyone noticing?
15
How in the world did he manage to live in the dorm? How was that allowed? Where was the oversight? In the form of resident advisors, deans, and so on?
And where were the parents of these girls?
A word of such reckless irresponsibility, on behalf of the school and the families, it's hard to fathom.
19
totally agree...
parents of ‘adult children’ must be strong and maintain a presence in their children’s’ lives and activities and draw limits for them when careless admins daydream.
"In 2010, apparently down and out, Mr. Ray, who had recently been released from prison on a custody charge, moved into his daughter’s dorm room at Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, N.Y., federal investigators said."
Here is the part I don't understand: How on earth did Mr. Ray move into his daughter's dorm room at Sarah Lawrence, and no one in the administration stopped it?
I teach at a college that has about the exact same enrollment as Sarah Lawrence, that is to say around 1,600 students (not a lot). I *guarantee* you that at such a small institution other people, including members of the administration, would know if a middle-aged man was living in a campus dorm!
How is it possible that no one at Sarah Lawrence ejected this guy from campus as soon as it was known he was living in an undergraduate dorm? It is inconceivable that this should go on unless Mr. Ray was in connivance with one or more persons in the college administration. I hope law enforcement agencies are exploring this angle.
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@Metaphor
The size is a really important factor to bring up. It's a small college, on a self-contained little campus. He would have been seen, repeatedly, and he would have been out of place, at the least. Being present 24/7 is not visiting. The administration must have turned a blind eye to it in the ultimate application of laissez faire.
7
@cheryl - As an alumna, I agree. Sarah Lawrence is a small school. I have no idea how this man was not noticed almost immediately. For those touting the isolation of Slonim Woods, an administration building is adjacent to this area and I fail to see how employees coming and going at normal business hours wouldn’t have noticed a middle-aged man in the vicinity of the Slonim Woods dorms. Yes, their set-up may have been different from other campus housing, but even so it was still student housing, and the campus is small: how did no one notice him? Did he never leave the apartment? Complaints about him were lodged, so obviously someone thought his presence there was weird and inappropriate. This whole situation is just beyond anything I’ve ever heard.
10
I hope the Times is working on story about how this guy managed to move into a Sarah Lawrence dormitory without Sarah Lawrence being aware of it. I was a Resident Advisor in college at a large state university, and I had to conduct surprise inspections of the dorms on my floor a couple of times a semester. My job was to look for fire hazards and unsanitary conditions, not homeless middle-aged felon dads, but I'm pretty (like 99.9% sure) that such a dad's presence would have come to my attention.
57
For all the commentors asking how he could have stayed in his daughter's dorm, the dorm was (and is) one of 11 private 2-story homes within a complex on the campus called Slonim Woods. It has a private entrance and is more secluded than other areas of campus, which is (or was while I was a student during the time he was on campus) not secured from the outside community.
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@emily Thank you for clarifying.
7
@emily Thank you. I am baffled thinking how a Dad could stay in a room with a bunk bed (ha ha). I wondered if it was more of a "house" than a "room."
appreciate the clarification.
8
@emily
Its amazing how many people hear the word "dorm" or "campus housing" and only think of freshman dorms where an RA lives down the hall and you have communal showers. Practically all American universities have "dorms" that are essentially apartment complexes.
12
The students, make and female, are adults.
6
@Deirdre English
Do you know any 18 year olds?
6
Feel so sorry for the victims and their families
Every one who could have helped or should have helped turned a blind eye
So sorry for the kids... hope that they get the help to pick up the pieces ...
The daughter should be charged too
She is in the know ...
7
@Ben
Yet the daughter is the most brainwashed of all. Can anyone imagine having this silver-tongued serpent for a father???
6
Waiting for parents to sue Sarah Lawrence. No dorm oversight?
I'm not a fan of suing, but this case might be an exception.
12
"Mr. Ray, who had recently been released from prison on a custody charge, moved into his daughter’s dorm room at Sarah Lawrence College." How in the world could a student's father spend even one night in his daughter's DORM room?
4
What I can't understand is how he gained access to the dormitory and remained there. The college is totally remiss. Don't they have Resident Associates supervising dorm life?
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@Plank How can a college be so stupid? My understanding is that the parents DID protest, and nothing was done. What normal father moves into his daughter's college dorm with young girls running around? Is that not an enormous red flag?
22
Suprised an RA might have also been manipulated by an expert con man who was the father of a fellow student?
10
All kinds of mob behavior - extortion, lying, assault - and really bad dudes seem to get back to Rudy Guiliani. Coincidence? Not to this New Yorker
193
@Judi:
If we investigate further, I'm sure we'll find links with trump as well. Seems this Mr. Ray and trump both hung around mobsters in the construction industry. So their paths likely crossed.
With the DOJ now prohibiting the FBI from investigating, we'll need a state with enough funds to investigate the many criminals in trump's past.
Though I'm convinced already.
I don't need more proof that trump is a major criminal.
11
Is it just me, or does it feel like these mob tied arrests feel a little too close to Trump?
83
Mayor Giuliani. I see now.
120
What's even more bizarre is that none of the young adults (victims) had the backbone to stand-up to an obvious creep. I always understood that most young women had fully-developed creepo radars by the time they hit pre-teen years. So, what happened? Had no one the backbone to tell the creepo to get lost.
And, yes, the college is responsible for safety and security, but surely it cannot be expected to babysit young adults long out of their swaddling clothes . . .
13
@PS Been awhile since I was lived in a dorm, but we had a RA (resident adviser) living there. Shouldn't someone have noticed a man living in a women's dormitory?
8
@PS : The college can be expected to know who is living in its own dormitories.
4
Predators groom their victims and then coerce the behaviour they want.
16
so what's the story about his prostitution. seems like this is more background info on a low life who should have been imprisoned decades ago but always managed to elude authorities?
29
@Arnie https://www.thecut.com/2019/04/larry-ray-sarah-lawrence-students.html
This article is long, but provides more info.
10
@Arnie The headline reads:
"The Bizarre Life of the Man Accused in the Sarah Lawrence Sex Case"
For the story on the sex case, take the second link in the article.
5
"he was living with his daughter at Sarah Lawrence College"
How is it possible for this to happen? No college official was aware of the arrangement? Why was this permitted?
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@David Henry
That is the first question I had: how could that simply happen without anyone noticing? Wouldn't other people in the dorm complain?
Anything could happen off campus - but even tho' colleges are no longer considered to be "in loco parentis," this is simply weird and allowed a dangerous predator to be a threat to everyone living in the dorm.
And he was friends with Kerik! if only "for a while." A real NY creepshow that defies fictional horror stories.
10
@David Henry - someone needs to investigate Sarah Lawrence college and the administration. Criminal indictments are needed. "No comment" is not an option from administrators. Parents -- would you send your child to this college for 4 years? Applications need to drop precipitously.
2
I think Trump would be interested in offering him a position, after a pardon of course.
95
I'd like to say this is one of the most bizarre stories I have ever heard but ever since Trump's presidency I have not yet found the topper.
46
I agree with Andrew. How in the heck does this guy move in to a college dorm??
Plus there is no mention of his daughters possible involvement.
This is a disgrace for a college that purports to be one of the finest in the nation.
75
How does a grown man move into a girls dormitory?
Where were the Sarah Lawrence administrators, staff, and resident hall advisors?
And what does this say about the judgement and lack of common sense of the Sarah Lawrence students?
104
There must be a Trump connection in there somewhere - New York, construction, Russia, prostitution, young women and crime.
132
A middle-aged felon living in a female college dorm. What could possibly be suspicious about that?
114
@Tim It was a co-ed dorm; a private house that upperclassmen petition to live in in groups of 8 friends, all with private rooms. I was a student there at the time, I went to parties at their "house" and had no idea, nor did anyone I know.
12
Surprise, surprise, this crooked sociopath was friendly with Rudy and had connections to the Soviet Union. Rudy reeks of corruption and anti-Americanism.
83
Never sending my child to Sarah Lawrence College. How clueless and disengaged is the administration there?
43
Wondering who else may be a member of this bottom of the barrel club of bloated, corrupt chums. I bet JE and HW may have been members...it seems their ilk...of course there is also another major player possibility, who shall always remain innocent...as ever.
14
The man is a sociopath--not psychotic. He schemes, lies, manipulates and intentionally commits acts against society, friends, young women and his own daughter. Lock him up quickly!
59
"A psychotic con man who has victimized every friend he’s ever had,” just like the President of the United States. I'm checking my watch to see how long it takes to connect the two. Throw in President Sleazy's best friend Jeffrey Epstein and the snakepit becomes truly grotesque.
140
Maybe Ray should be hired by Trump. Birds of a feather !
23
Once again, we find that Rudy Giuliani, the well-respected "organized crime fighter" is actually some sort of mobster. Rudy's father, Harold Giuliani was a mob enforcer who served time in Sing Sing. As the old adage goes, like father, like son.
175
Another friend of Rudy makes the news!
109
Giuliani’s friends: Kerik, Ray, Fruman, Parnas. All low-lifes who have been to prison or are on their way. As long as you get him some deals and buy him his scotches and cigars, he’s your boy. America’s Mayor.
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@Mjxs You forgot Trump!
12
This seems really, really bizarre. How does the father of a female student end up staying in a womens' dorm? Also, arent the victims super-smart women who ended up in an elite college (and not some unsuspecting victim of trafficking from a 3rd world country). If not these students, didnt their families know something was wrong? Did the college never suspect that something fishy was going on? What was this guy's daughter doing all this while - helping his father commit these crimes?
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@Ravi
Intelligence and family connections have nothing to do with being threatened with violence, blackmail, and retaliation against family, especially when the threat is an aggressive, shady, psychologically unstable man with underworld connections.
That's just another way to blame victims of trafficking and sexual violence- implying they are naive or too stupid to know what's happening to them.
26
@amy Yet it is also silly to behave as if no one had agency at any point. Who paid for her college tuition? Dorm life? There was never a point where greater gestures could have been made, including confronting this man in person (and calling the police if he got violent)? It doesn't make sense to shame girls recruited and trafficked by Epstein and his enablers, but we are never to ask what kind of environment people are in where there seemed to be an endless supply of girls who didn't understand that there is no way a 15 year old could ever be a real massage therapist?. Who was absent in their lives and why was street smart information absent as well? We can feel angry and sorry that something happened but also ask what steps can be taken to avoid what some experience-continuing abuse and exploitation by others. Sometimes people had great parents, happy childhoods+ still fall for abuse or indeed have no agency but we can believe and respect them+still sometimes ask about choices.
From early in the story, most readers+commenters seem to have noticed red flags in Larry Ray's presence in the school's dorm. That the students didn't see this, considered him a valid counselor, submitted to his babbling and allowed continuing destruction of boundaries WAS a mistake they should have been prepared enough in life not to make, certainly collectively. Life has plenty of intense types w starey eyes and manifestos and a detector for them can be worth more than a college degree.
7
@amy
Failing to call attention to obvious ways victims could have protected themselves is a way of generating more victims.
3
Reading the NY Mag article made the hair stand on the back of my neck. Its just seems something out of a horror movie.
30
@Ali
I glanced over the article. It wasn't necessary to read the details because there were none. I hope the writer and the NYT will present a more complete story next time.
A movie will be out in a few years. Of course.
1
Only in New York, kids, only in New York!
1
@Stephanie Freeman Ward Only in New York? Maybe you should reconsider. There's been a fair amount of similar behavior in Washington these past few years. And who's running our foreign policy these days?
12
@Stephanie Freeman Ward
Yes, New York, New York. Who survives and how in the intense dog eat dog culture of New York? I mean, where the money is and the demand is great, take Real Estate, for example?
1
@Stephanie Freeman Ward
No, not only in New York. DC, Mar A Lago, Hollywood and lots of smaller places in between
7
How, exactly, does a grown man move into a girls' dorm? Journalism, people. You can't just say that (and it was the first line in Mr Weiser's initial reporting yesterday) and not explain that very bizarre situation.
154
@NYC -> Boston
Yes, that is exactly my (and lots of other readers') question. How on earth could any non-student – much less a middle-aged man – be permitted to spend even one night in a college dormitory, single-sex or coed? Even if the office of residence life was not aware of what was going on, surely a resident advisor had to have been. If not, that is absolutely unacceptable. I hope Sarah Lawrence has acted on this. They would do well to make a public statement to that effect, or risk losing enrollments. As a parent of a college-bound high school student, I would never consider SL for our daughter.
67
@Jeremiah Apparently this thing wasn't a classic dorm but more like an boarding house on campus. These hybrid format things, neither here nor there but the worst of both worlds, are always trouble, like "public private partnerships" that privatize profit and socialize risk. The overlap is where the goodies fall out. Campus has a line around it for a reason.
12
@NYC -> Boston
My daughter went to SLC for a year. The College has purchased the beautiful houses situated around the campus and uses them as dorms. There are still private residences scatter throughout the dorm houses. I have no problem believing that he could live there undetected.
Also, in the WAPO article it explains that he became a father figure to the young adults in the house.
When I told my daughter about the situation, she replied; "It would be SLC kids who don't really worry about an ex convict sleeping on their couch". They are quite liberal at the school.
4
Where were the college administrators and parents?
35
@HK On the take?
3
With this guy's background he was either going to end up in jail or a member of Trump's Cabinet.
60
@Pat Or both!
4
Sounds like just the kind of guy Trump wants in his administration. Maybe even in the Justice Department.
27
@David Not true. He’s ratted out almost everyone he’s been involved with. That doesn’t sit well with POTUS.
6
Sounds like the bio of any number of individuals in the current administration...
25
About 1991, a former girlfriend for 5 years (and stiill a friend) of mine graduated and got a masters from Sarah Lawrence. Barbara Walters gave the commencement speech. SLC was formerly one of the "seven sisters" of women's colleges. For people familiar withthis prestigious facility, this truly is bizarre.
25
Never a 7 sisters school. Those were Vassar, Pembroke, Bryn Mawr, Smith, Wellsly (sp ?) Radcliffe, Barnard. Sarah Lawrence was the progressive, artsy school, like mine - Bennington.
8
@Susan
Not Pembroke. Mt Holyoke.
8
@Concerned Mother OOPS. You're right. Previous poster did list Bryn Mawr. Mea Culpa.
I'm not understanding how a school could let this happen. And, why in the world did his daughter help him abuse other people?
9
@Another one To the first question, that's a real one. To the second, I have three names (and yes two are men): Don, Jr., Eric, and Ivanka.
18
@Another one
Well, you see, when you are under the thumb of a violent, manipulative, aggressive man who knows all your family members and maintains connections to underworld organizations, things are not so easy to just walk away from.
9
Sure seems to be a lot of open gray area at the intersection of business, politics and organized crime. Or is it all organized crime?
14
I am stunned that this man lived in his daughter's dorm room. Something is very wrong at Sarah Lawrence.
47
Reporting like this will provide fresh material we for another 20 years of the tv show Law and Order SVU. I bet Weinstein alone will be the basis for a whole season.
26
@Paco What about Epstein? He gets his own show me thinks.
After reading this tale of vice and corruption, I'm surprised the President hasn't intervened in Mr. Ray's prosecution and nominated him for a cabinet post. He seems to be an enterprising businessman, well-connected - he'd fit right in.
415
@Kristen Rigney -- or at least give him a medal! He sounds like Trump's type of guy.
51
@Kristen Rigney
The TDS is strong in this one.
Thanks for injecting Trump into a discussion that has absolutely nothing to do with Trump. You have helped make him an even happier man today.
No one better epitomizes the old adage that there is no such thing as bad publicity.
I was going to say Mr. Ray won't try to get help from a narcissist president, and will instead want to "win" acquittal on his own. Alpha narcissists don't want others to "save them", even another narcissist. This is why putin does not want help from trump (putin is an alpha narcissist, trump is not) -- however trump gladly accepts help from "master putin".
In terms of his legal defense, is Mr. Ray claiming that his brain injuries from his pummeling led him to do the crimes with/against his daughter? I wouldn't leave that past a deviant narcissist. Thankfully we have the timelines to reveal his lies.
In 2010, Ray manipulated and forced his daughter and her female friends into prostitution. By that time he was already deep into his life of manipulation and crime.
He was pummeled by Mr. DiTommaso in 2015, for having testified against him (Mr. Ray testified against him in 2012 and put him in jail). Ergo, the pummeling.
So his brain injuries came after he was sex-trafficking his daughter/her friends. Though, as narcissists are apt to "spin the world upside-down" using a grain of truth..... it is True that he =does= have a mental disorder. Though unlucky for him, his disorder did not originate when his brain was pummeled.
8
Perhaps I missed it, but how on earth was a mature man able to move into a college dormitory? It's hard to believe that none of Sarah Lawrence's administrators observed his presence or heard about it.
378
@Linda something is clearly amiss at Sarah Lawrence. I'll make a bet there are surveillance cameras that will tell the entire story in pictures.
21
@Linda
He may have paid them to keep quiet. There's a price for everyone, unfortunately.
14
@Linda I agree it’s a small school!
17