In her book, The Program Inside the Mind of Keith Raniere and the Rise and Fall of Nxivm,Toni Natalie says her brother John Natalie committed suicide.
Here is the pertinent excerpt from the book:
“… on March 12, 2009, I had the misfortune of revisiting Vanguard’s warped views on suicide, when my brother John took his own life. Like my parents, he was suffering because of what Keith was doing to us. John was a wreck. He was seven years older and had regarded himself as the man of the house from a very young age. He felt responsible for me, responsible for my mother. He wanted to protect me from my tormentor, but there was only so much he could do.
“John communicated sporadically with Keith for years, always trying to negotiate my freedom—as he’d done when I left back in 1999. But this was not a fight among equals. NXIVM had unlimited resources, while ours were tapped out. Keith was surrounded by a coven of brainwashed witches who would fly hither and yon at his command. My brother was desperate, exhausted, financially ruined, and mentally broken. He was taking strong medications to treat angina and hypertension. He was drinking too much. And he was in regular contact with Keith all through the winter. There were emails, phone calls, even a personal visit from Vanguard’s fixer, Kristin Keeffe. The autopsy lists the cause of death as suicide by a lethal combination of metoprolol and diltiazem, John’s heart medications.
“I thought about my brother, so damaged, so empathic, and wondered what fucked-up messages Keith had communicated to him in months days leading up to his death….. How many more lives would Vanguard claim before he was stopped?”
Now, this sounds dramatic and intense. Another chapter in the life of a woman who has been victimized so often. In her book, she says she had to give up her son, she went bankrupt for 10 years, was in constant litigation for 20 years, and, to top it off, her brother committed suicide – all because of Keith Raniere.
Wow. This is Patient Zero, Victim Number One, and Little Orphan Annie all rolled into one..
But let’s parse what she wrote about John to see what Toni wants us to believe about her brother. At least, I’ll tell you what I would think about him if her story is true.
Toni writes “on March 12, 2009,… my brother John took his own life…. he was suffering because of what Keith was doing to us. John was a wreck. He was seven years older and had regarded himself as the man of the house …. He felt responsible for me, responsible for my mother. He wanted to protect me from my tormentor, but there was only so much he could do.”
Poor, weak, little John. He wanted to protect Toni but he had shriveled balls. He couldn’t stand up to fight big, bad Keith.
John tried, but he was only a little guy. He couldn’t take it anymore. So, he offed himself, right? He wanted to protect lil’ sis’ Toni from her tormentor but he did not have the guts and the balls to stick it out – to fight like a man and protect his sister. No, the coward dog killed himself – and left poor Toni to fend for herself.
Toni continues: “John communicated sporadically with Keith for years, always trying to negotiate my freedom…. But this was not a fight among equals. NXIVM had unlimited resources, while ours were tapped out.”
So, it boils down to money. Money makes man. And John is no man, if Toni’s story is true. He couldn’t compete financially, so he took the easy way out and killed himself – leaving Toni to fight all alone. Someone should piss on John’s grave if Toni’s story is true.
If it were me, I would have killed Keith before I’d kill myself – and let the state execute me –f any of this was true. If there was really no way out for John, as Toni says – no way for him to protect his sister and mother – so outgunned by Nxivm’s money – and so distraught from how Keith was harassing Toni and him and their mother – if he was any kind of a man – he would have killed Keith, then killed himself.
But no, coward John took the easy way out – and left his sister and mother to fight the mighty monster all by themselves. This shit stain of a man – wicked John Natalie – ran from the fight – according to Toni.
Toni continues, “Keith was surrounded by a coven of brainwashed witches who would fly hither and yon at his command. My brother was desperate, exhausted, financially ruined, and mentally broken. He was taking strong medications to treat angina and hypertension. He was drinking too much. And he was in regular contact with Keith all through the winter. There were emails, phone calls, even a personal visit from Vanguard’s fixer, Kristin Keeffe.”
Whoa! So Kristin Keeffe, one of the wicked coven, came hither to poor, little, weakling, baby boy John, and persuaded him to commit suicide! Phone calls and emails from Keith and a visit from coven witch Keeffe? [Keeffe told me she did not visit John and disputes this as a total lie.] If Toni is telling the truth, Keeffe, in effect, literally was sent to persuade John to commit suicide.
And Toni accuses Raniere of doing the same – filling the doltish John’s head with crazy, destructive suggestions.
By comparison, Toni herself is much tougher. Nobody could get her to off herself – and it was her that Keith was going after, not John.
John killed himself because he could not protect Toni and his mother – at least that’s what happened according to Toni.
Toni Nata-LIE
Toni continues, “The autopsy lists the cause of death as suicide by a lethal combination of metoprolol and diltiazem, John’s heart medications. I thought about my brother, so damaged, so empathic, and wondered what fucked-up messages Keith had communicated to him in months days leading up to his death.”
I wonder too. I wonder how Toni thought she could get away with this story of a weakling, bastard, asshole, coward, ball-less brother – if it wasn’t true. He’s no man who would kill himself to get out of the fight and let his sister [and mother] fight alone.
But is this story true?
According to numerous people, John was anything but an emasculated fool. He was not the type to kill himself. In fact, he considered himself a tough guy. Not a guy to run from a fight. Good or bad, honest or dishonest, John Natalie was, at the very least, not a physical coward.
He would not have thought Keith too formidable, according to those who knew him. In fact, several people who knew him told me that he thought his sister Toni was a user and liar.
On top of that, two sources with intimate knowledge of John’s communications told me that John, on occasion, proposed business opportunities to Keith, which Keith declined. This is not the act of someone who is determined to protect his sister from a monster.
Why would he suggest investing opportunities to Keith if he thought Keith was Toni’s tormentor? Could it be that John knew Toni was lying about Keith being a threat to her?
John Died of a Heart Condition, Not Suicide
One of the Natalie family friends told me that at the time of his death, everyone knew John died of a heart attack, not suicide.
The obituary reads, “Contributions may be made to the American Heart Association”.
Why would the family suggest contributions be made to the American Heart Association if John committed suicide?
I spoke with John’s girlfriend of 20 years – Lisa LoPresti – who was with John the day he died. I asked her if John committed suicide?
Lisa said, “Absolutely not. He didn’t commit suicide. I have his autopsy report. He died of Afib.”
[Afib is atrial fibrillation (also called AFib or AF) and it is a quivering or irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia) that can lead to blood clots, stroke, heart failure, and other heart-related complications.]
Lisa continued, “He called his doctor when he didn’t feel good that morning. He died in the evening.”
But Toni says he killed himself.
“It’s absolutely not true,” Lisa said. “John didn’t want to die.” He thought he could ride it out. He was basically having a heart attack the whole day.
But why did Toni say it was suicide?
Lisa seemed angry that Toni would make up this lie about the man she lived with for 20 years. Lisa said, “John didn’t talk to his sister in over two years. She doesn’t know what happened.”
Whoa! Toni did not talk to her brother for more than two years? Why was that?
Toni Natalie with her brother John Natalie. In her book, she calls John her hero but then disgraces his memory by saying he killed himself rather than stand and fight –- leaving his mother and sister to fight Keith Raniere by themselves.
Toni Natalie’s whole book is about how she is a victim of Keith Raniere and how she fought back. It is dramatic to throw in a death in the family – caused by Keith. I get why she felt it added to the story.
Still, how many people do you know who would disgrace their brother’s memory by claiming he committed suicide when he didn’t, just so they could make their book more dramatic?
It is unfair to John’s memory and to his family. According to his obituary, John was survived by his children, John Jr. and Dori Natalie; grandchildren, Sydnie, Jacob and Isabella; brothers, Mark and Tony Natalie; nephew, Michael DeCook; and god-daughter, Melissa VanSchaick.
Is it fair to make a mockery of John and his death to these people – just to sell more books?
Should the record show – for his children and grandchildren to read – that John died a coward?
Toni asks in her book, in connection with John’s suicide, “How many more lives would Vanguard claim before he was stopped?”
My question is, how many more of Toni’s lies will the Frank Report expose before her book is withdrawn or reclassified as fiction by the publisher?
Toni closes her book with a final mention of John and his suicide.
She writes, “After my brother died in 2009…. I got a tattoo of a favorite expression of John’s, a spin on Aeschylus. I think of that quote, and of my brother, as I leave the courtroom for the last time: ‘In war, truth is the first casualty… but not this time.'”
This is one sick lady.
Toni Nata-LIE has a tattoo on her back which reads, “‘In War, Truth is the First Casualty. . . But Not This Time”. She claims she got this tattoo because her brother John committed suicide. But he did not commit suicide, so what the hell does the tattoo mean?
