Eugene Hoff

Eugene Hoff (alias Abraham Ophion) was the cult leader of the Church of Wisdom and Sight.

Background[]

Eugene was known to the police as a con-artist. He was arrested four times in the '80s for check forgery and counterfeiting, identity theft, and various fraud. Eugene started working for a Pentecostal church, called the Christian Tabernacle of Grace. He initially signed up for a Bible study, but after a couple of months, he asked the Reverend Tucker for a more active role. Tucker made him the director of faith ministries. His discussion groups had nearly 100 members. He strayed from the beliefs of the church, when he preached that the serpent was Christ. Eugene had a tattoo of this serpent on his right arm. After Tucker fired him, ten families left the church as a result.

One of the families that followed him to the Church of Wisdom and Sight were the Buchmans, but they withdrew from the church, after Carl Buchman found Eugene in his daughter Janie's room, with him being down to his shorts. Carl and his wife Simone told the police that the cult made a drastic change when Eugene became paranoid. He kept telling his followers that they were going to be punished for their beliefs and that their government had plans to kill them all. He said that they had to be ready to defend themselves. This led to the collecting of weapons, trips to the firing range, and storing food. Eugene started separating the married couples because he said that they couldn't be soldiers of God if they were slaves to the flesh.

John Cramer joined Eugene's cult with his wife, Cindy, and their two-year-old daughter Melanie during the '90s. Eugene shot John through the head and stashed him inside a wall of his house. He then told Cindy that her husband had left her. He got a noise citation from the police for doing construction in the middle of the night. Cindy sought comfort in the cult, and eventually became Eugene's "wife" and changed her name to Sarah. Her "husband" impregnated her, and she gave birth to Samuel. Her son would later die when he was nine years old, along with five other children, at the hands of one of Eugene's followers.

Charisma[]

Eugene used all of the women and girls of his cult for sexual favors, Melanie being no exception. Melanie gave birth to a boy, Eugene's son, but he died shortly after. She then got pregnant again when she was eleven years old. During her second pregnancy, she had to be admitted to the St. Catherine's hospital. There, she told Detective Olivia Benson that her "husband" Eugene was the father of her unborn child.

Benson immediately went to Eugene's house to talk to him about Melanie. She, and her back-up comprised of Officers Green and Zermeño, got shot at from his building. They requested assistance, and a team of ESU's stormed Eugene's place. Unfortunately, they were already too late; six children and an adult were found dead. Eugene and his wives escaped through an underground tunnel. Of the seven victims, six of them turned out to be fathered by Eugene. One of them was a sixteen-year-old girl, who already had a two-year-old son that was also Eugene's. All of the children were killed by the adult, who then committed suicide under Eugene's orders.

Eugene tried to pick up some money from a bogus account from the New York Savings Bank, but he didn't realize that the police was already on to him. When he realized that he was going to be arrested, he tried to commit suicide with a knife, but Detective Benson managed to stop him. It didn't take long for him to be released again, however, and he took Melanie with him. He had a good reason to keep Melanie alive, because she had a two-million dollar trust fund, which was only available when she turned 21 or had a baby. Eugene and Melanie went into hiding.

During an investigation into the death of John Cramer, members from the Crime Scene Unit found his remains inside the wall of Eugene's house. Detective Benson confronted Cindy with his belongings, and her loyalty towards Eugene began to diminish. She told Benson the hidden location of Melanie and Eugene. Benson and Zermeño found Melanie, without Eugene, but they soon spotted him inside the warehouse carrying a bag of groceries. Zermeño and Benson pointed their guns at him and ordered him to surrender. Melanie shot Zermeño in the leg, and then pointed her gun towards Benson. Eugene kept telling Melanie to shoot Benson as well, while Benson tried to convince her to lower her gun. For a while, it seemed that Melanie was going to shoot Benson, but she eventually shot Eugene. She said that she had to do that because he was lying. He said that he was greater than God, but according to Melanie, nobody is. (SVU: "Charisma")

Known Victims[]

1980s: Several unspecified crimes of check forgery and counterfeiting, identity theft, and various fraud
1980s-1990s: Janie Buchman (attempted to commit statutory rape with)
1990s: John Cramer (shot through the head)
1990s-2000s:
- Melanie Cramer (committed consensual statutory rape with and impregnated twice)
- Numerous unnamed girls (all committed consensual statutory rape with and impregnated)
- One of his unnamed daughters (committed consensual statutory rape with and impregnated)
2004:
- October 27: The townhouse mass murder-suicide (committed by one of Eugene's followers under his orders):
  - The unnamed female shooter (committed suicide after the massacre)
  - Samuel Ophion (his son with Sarah/Cindy; killed)
  - One of Abraham's unnamed daughters (killed)
  - The unnamed child born from Abraham and the above victim (killed)
  - Three of Abraham's unnamed children (all killed)
- October 28: Melanie Cramer (kidnapped; was rescued the next day)
- October 29: The warehouse shooting (committed by Melanie Cramer under his orders):
  - Officer Zermeño (assaulted; shot in the leg)
  - Detective Olivia Benson (assaulted)