Shortly after midnight on September 7, a few hours before flying to Sicily to attend a gathering of New Age gay hippies, Benjamin Braithwaite expressed his excitement in text exchanges with his partner, whom he had left behind in Wales.
asserted
he → fly → Wales
Raised as a Jehovah’s Witness – a religion which sees homosexuality as sinful – Braithwaite had suffered such a troubled upbringing that he was estranged from his mother and had changed his first name to River.
asserted
he → raise → River
However, in recent months the university-educated artist had found the acceptance he craved by joining the Radical Faeries, a controversial cult founded at the dawn of the Gay Liberation movement in the 1970s, whose members explore their sexuality and spirituality at anything-goes camps in remote rural settings.
asserted
anything → educate → settings
Indeed, Braithwaite felt so happy at these freewheeling confabs, where gay men and women sit in ‘heart circles’ to reveal their innermost feelings, dine communally, entertain one another by performing music and drag shows – and pair off for sex whenever the mood takes them – that earlier this year he had left his caravan home in Powys to go ‘faerie hopping’ around Europe.
asserted
he → feel → Europe
‘You’re 35 now!
asserted
You → ’re → ?
Finally figuring your life out,’ Braithwaite’s partner, Jon Winston, messaged him as he prepared to attend his latest gathering at the ruins of a disused farmhouse in the hills of Contrada Piano Milo, south-east Sicily.
asserted
he → figure → Milo
‘Haha, well I’m off to a good start anyway.
asserted
I → ’m → start
Feeling happy and optimistic,’ came the jaunty reply, accompanied by a smiling emoji.
asserted
reply → feel → emoji
‘I’m so happy things turned out the way they did.
asserted
they → ’m → ?
Those were the last words that Winston, who is in his mid-20s, would ever hear from the man he fell in love with after they met online two years ago.
asserted
they → hear → love
Sometime around 3am on September 13, seven days after arriving in Sicily, Braithwaite’s naked and injured body was found inside the white tent he had pitched at the Radical Faeries’ gathering.
asserted
he → arrive → gathering
A satyr had been painted above a shrine of animal bones at the derelict and remote farm
River Braithwaite was found dead in his tipi-style tent
When I visited the remote farmstead last week, everything remained exactly – and eerily – just as it had looked that night when, alerted by Braithwaite’s fellow revellers, Carabinieri detectives swooped on the camp.
asserted
detectives → paint → camp
Following a winding track through the dense olive groves, I passed beneath a crumbling archway decorated with a stone unicorn and entered the yard of a ruined farmhouse, which seemed to have been turned into a makeshift theatre.
asserted
which → follow → theatre
One wall had been painted with the sinister image of a smiling satyr, a symbol of hedonistic pleasure, and beneath it stood a shrine of strange ornaments, animal bones, horns and candles.
asserted
shrine → paint → horns
Another wall was draped with a stage curtain, and an alcove had served as a dressing room, with racks full of exotic costumes, boxes of flashy shoes and colourful wigs, and dubious-looking props such as chains, leather straps, rubberwear and wartime gas masks.
asserted
alcove → drape → chains
The tables and floor were strewn with half-empty beer, wine and gin bottles, and the stubbed-out butts of whatever the audience had been smoking before the discovery of Braithwaite’s body brought their merriment to an abrupt halt.
asserted
discovery → strew → halt
Venturing inside his tipi-style tent, the detectives had found a chilling and squalid scene.
asserted
detectives → venture → scene
Early reports suggested Braithwaite was found hanging and had various injuries to his neck and body.
uncertain
Braithwaite → suggest → neck
But it now appears he was lying on a grubby mattress with a length of rope beside him, along with his belongings and a personal diary, which contained no indication that he intended to take his own life.
asserted
he → appear → life
The police are also said to have found a sharp knife beside the tent and various illegal drugs elsewhere in the camp.
asserted
police → say → camp
However, they are yet to discover how and why this freewheeling Yorkshireman, who had dropped out of mainstream society and was living in a Welsh caravan commune, died – and, crucially, whether anyone had been with him in the tent.
asserted
anyone → discover → tent
Meanwhile, with the post-mortem examination progressing at a snail’s pace – because, Sicilian police sources tell me, it is an ‘unusual’ case requiring rigorous forensic tests – there is all manner of lurid local speculation over the cause of death.
asserted
it → progress → death
While many in Canicattini Bagni, the nearest town to the abandoned farm, believe Braithwaite either committed suicide or died in a sex game that went disastrously wrong, it is also rumoured that he might have been murdered.
uncertain
he → abandon → game
Whatever the truth, however, his strange death has cast a shadow over an island striving to restore its reputation as a peaceable tourist destination after decades under the yoke of the Mafia.
asserted
death → cast → Mafia
And it has thrown an unwelcome spotlight on the secretive Radical Faeries, who meet in isolated rural encampments and now have many offshoots around the world.
asserted
who → throw → world
Sometimes described as a ‘cult’, a term to which many members object, the Faeries’ founders included the celebrated, Sussex-born gay liberation pioneer Harry Hay, who died in 2002.
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who → describe → 2002
Their philosophy has been explained in so many differing ways that there will be inevitable objections, however one characterises it.
asserted
one → explain → it
Announcing their forthcoming gathering at Featherstone Castle in Northumberland, a British branch called Radical Faeries of Albion presents itself as an ‘ever-expanding collective network of lesbians, gay men, trans, bisexuals, queer hetero people and anyone else in between, who come together to create vibrant, energetic and safe spaces to celebrate’ spirituality and sexuality.
asserted
who → announce → spirituality
But this group freely admits some people join ‘just to get laid’.
asserted
people → admit → ?
And in an interview with a newspaper last week, a disillusioned former member of another branch painted a deeply troubling picture of their activities.
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member → paint → activities
Having attended gatherings for several years, he claimed it was a ‘paganistic cult’ whose druid-like rituals were actually a ‘front for drugs and sexual and spiritual grooming’.
asserted
rituals → attend → drugs
‘When I heard about his [Braithwaite’s] death, I wasn’t surprised,’ said the source.
asserted
source → hear → death
‘I always knew that one day something like this would happen.
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something → know → this
There are some characters who are dark, manipulative.
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who → be → ?
I have seen this scenario before.
asserted
I → see → scenario
Someone who is attractive joins the Faeries and certain people take advantage of them, sexually and spiritually.
asserted
people → join → them
‘People often join the Faeries when they are at a low ebb and vulnerable.
asserted
they → join → ebb
some people are pushed into it.
asserted
people → push → it
I have heard of people being drugged and made to have sex without their consent.’
asserted
people → hear → consent
Among the LGBTQ+ community, the former member’s claims have caused outrage.
uncertain
claims → cause → outrage
…and 46 more, not listed.
The Aporia
