Mack W. Ford (March 18, 1932 – February 13, 2015) was an American fundamentalist Independent Baptist preacher and the founder of teen homes in the American South, most notably New Bethany Home for Girls in Arcadia, Louisiana. The operation of those teen homes was controversial due to allegations against Ford and school staff members of physical abuse, such as beating, and sexual abuse, including rape.
New Bethany Home for Girls.
Ford founded the New Bethany Home for Girls in 1971. During the decades of New Bethany's operations, reports of children being beaten and mentally abused. Ford was also accused of molesting and raping multiple students during the decades of the school's operation. One former student accused Ford of raping her in 1977.
Carol Cole, who was murdered at the age of 17 and found in Bossier Parish in 1981, in an unsolved murder case, may have been a student at New Bethany for a period of time, although no conclusive evidence has proven that Cole was ever a student at New Bethany.
In 1977, evidence of abuse was sent to a grand jury, but no indictments were made, after the first investigation of the New Bethany Home for Girls school.
Ford closed the New Bethany Home for Girls in 2001.
Death.
Ford died on February 13, 2015, at the age of 82, from a heart attack.
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