The argument escalated into violence, and Fischer ultimately beat Witzig to death with an iron bar.
A simple disagreement over a ladder had ended in murder inside Riker's strange mountain kingdom.
The same year, Riker's obsession with Adolf Hitler would bring him into even greater trouble.

Riker had openly expressed admiration for Hitler and had written letters supporting the German dictator and his policies. In 1942, the FBI arrested Riker on sedition charges connected to his correspondence and pro-Hitler propaganda.
Riker was ultimately acquitted.

His attorney, the legendary San Francisco lawyer Melvin Belli, successfully defended him by portraying Riker as essentially a crackpot.

But the label seemed almost too simple for a man who had built an entire community around himself.
As the years progressed, Riker's disciples began to dwindle, and the hypocrisy surrounding the Father became increasingly difficult to ignore.

Riker preached celibacy to his followers and would not even allow married men and women to reside together. Yet the “fork-tongued Father” had lived a very different life himself, marrying several times and maintaining relationships while demanding that his followers sacrifice those same freedoms.
The kingdom that Riker had built around obedience was beginning to crumble.

Riker's political ambitions continued as well. He ran for California governor four times—in 1938, 1942, 1946 and 1950—but each campaign ended in defeat.

Fortunately for California, the Father's religious and political rants did not appear to translate into votes.
By the 1940s, Holy City was beginning to lose the very thing that had made it successful—traffic.

The newer Highway 17 route bypassed the old Santa Cruz Highway, quietly pulling motorists away from Riker's roadside kingdom. As fewer travelers passed through, fewer tourists stopped, and the strange little city began its slow decline.
The community would continue to lose followers, money and influence. Then came the fires.

Holy City would ultimately be set ablaze on more than one occasion, destroying many of the structures that had once made the compound such an unusual sight in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The fires were described as mysterious, and rumors of arson circulated for years.

In March of 1947, another disturbing death occurred.
Fifty-five-year-old Italo Christafani, a laborer and Holy City resident, was found with a noose around his neck, hanging from a tree outside the home of Father Riker.
Perhaps he had chosen that location hoping for some sort of divine intervention. Perhaps there was another reason.
No one would ever truly know what was going through Christafani's mind.

No suicide note was found, but according to the coroner, his death was ruled a suicide.
As Holy City continued to decline, Riker's own kingdom began slipping from his control.

His wife, Lucille, died in 1950. Riker would eventually lose his position of authority within the community, and by the late 1950s, much of what remained of Holy City had been destroyed by fire.

The settlement was officially disincorporated in 1959.
What had once been promoted as the headquarters of the world's “perfect government” was becoming a ghost town.
By 1966, the elderly, self-proclaimed “Father” of Holy City himself would make a surprising turnabout.

After decades of convincing others that he was the light leading them toward everlasting life; after decades of demanding worldly possessions from those who believed in him; after years of preaching racial supremacy, celibacy and his own version of Christianity; after building an entire kingdom around his own teachings—the aging William E. Riker made a remarkable confession of faith.

At the age of ninety-three, Riker converted to Roman Catholicism. He had never been a Catholic priest.
He had been the self-proclaimed “Father” of Holy City.
Now, near the end of his life, he had converted to the Catholic faith, seeking salvation through the very religion that was entirely separate from the belief system he had spent decades preaching.

The man who had spent his life declaring his own path to salvation was now seeking salvation through the Catholic Church.
Three years later, on December 3, 1969, William E. Riker died at Agnews State Hospital in Santa Clara County.
He was ninety-six years old. After Riker's death, Holy City became nothing more than a ghost town. The fires, neglect and passing of time erased much of the compound, leaving behind only fragments of the strange kingdom Riker had created.

According to a 1969 San Jose news account, Riker's fifty-eight-year-old nephew, Gifford Riker, was involved in the funeral arrangements for his uncle. Riker's recent conversion to Roman Catholicism reportedly created a dilemma over where the former “Father” should ultimately be laid to rest.
Gifford nevertheless expressed admiration for his uncle and reportedly stated that he was working on a new Bible entitled “Saint Riker.”

Ironically, the man who had spent his life placing himself in the center of the public eye was ultimately buried in an unmarked grave at Santa Cruz Memorial Cemetery.
No grand monument.
No great memorial.
No final proclamation from the Father.

According to cemetery records and information reported at the time, William E. Riker lies beside his wife, “Mother” Lucille Riker, and near several former Holy City disciples.
Had it not been for researching Lucille Riker and tracing the family connection, the Father's final resting place might have remained unnoticed, and then, in 2016, Holy City entered yet another strange chapter.

The remaining 142-acre property was purchased for approximately six million dollars by Silicon Valley couple Robert and Trish Duggan, prominent members and major financial supporters of the Church of Scientology. The sale added another unexpected twist to the already bizarre history of this mountain community.

A place once ruled by a self-proclaimed spiritual leader, built around his own religious beliefs and white supremacist ideology, had now passed into the hands of a wealthy couple closely associated with another controversial religious organization.

Today, only a few ruins and remnants remain as a reminder of Holy City. The old mountain road remains and the signs are fading. The buildings are disappearing.
The kingdom is nearly forgotten.
But the remnants of Holy City still stand as a reminder of a man who once convinced others that he was their path to heaven—and built an entire city to prove it.

​Another unusual enigma of the Santa Cruz Mountains is the history of Holy City.

Located along the old Santa Cruz Highway, just off what is now Highway 17, this strange and controversial community once stood as a peculiar roadside attraction between Santa Cruz and the Santa Clara Valley. Although Holy City was located in Santa Clara County, at the southern edge of the county within the Santa Cruz Mountains, its history has long been intertwined with the old road leading travelers toward Santa Cruz. Today, only a few ruins and remnants remain as a reminder of what was once a thriving, bizarre and highly controversial religious compound.

Holy City, as it was known, was dedicated to the belief in a “Perfect Christian Divine Way,” later referred to as “Perfect Christian Divine Science.” The teachings consisted of racial segregation, abstinence from alcohol, celibacy, communal living, separation of the sexes and white supremacist beliefs.
Founded by the self-proclaimed religious leader William E. Riker in 1919, Holy City began with approximately thirty followers. Riker eventually acquired roughly 142 acres, and the community grew to nearly 300 followers during its peak years. Riker referred to himself as “Father,” but he was not a Catholic priest or ordained Catholic clergyman. The title was one he bestowed upon himself as the leader and spiritual authority of his own peculiar kingdom.

Prior to founding Holy City, Riker himself was a self-proclaimed preacher, palm reader, mind reader and traveling religious showman. His sordid past carried him across the country through preaching, street peddling, mystical acts and schemes that helped him separate unsuspecting followers from their money. Riker was a master manipulator and bamboozler, and Holy City would eventually become the greatest stage upon which he would perform.

But Riker's disturbing history did not begin with Holy City.
Before the mountain compound was established, Riker's religious organization was already facing serious accusations. In 1921, allegations made by members of the Schwartz family sparked a federal investigation into Riker's organization. Riker was charged with grand larceny, conspiracy against public morals and child endangerment, although the charges were eventually dismissed.


​One of the most disturbing accounts came from Alexander Schwartz, whose wife, Frieda, had been a member of Riker's organization. The Schwartzes alleged that their children had been taken away from them and placed under the control of the group.

Alexander testified that the children were beaten and tied between trees to be “stretched” by other members of the organization.

Four children, including one of Riker's own children, were eventually removed from the colony by juvenile court authorities.

The allegations did not stop there. Frieda Schwartz also testified that Riker forced female members into sexual relationships with him and that when she and another woman became pregnant, Riker ordered them to obtain abortions. These were allegations presented during the investigation, not convictions, and the charges against Riker were eventually dismissed.

Still, the testimony painted a disturbing picture of what life inside Riker's organization could be like.

Long before Holy City became a strange roadside attraction in the Santa Cruz Mountains, there were already people accusing the “Father” of abusing the very followers who had placed their trust in him.

Riker's original followers of Holy City were largely men, and the rules imposed upon them were severe. His disciples were encouraged to surrender their worldly possessions and live without the material comforts that Riker himself appeared to enjoy. Men and women were separated, marriage was discouraged, and celibacy was preached as part of Riker's supposedly perfect Christian system.

Yet the Father's own lifestyle did not always resemble the rules imposed upon his flock. Riker married several times, lived in a substantial home above the compound and enjoyed automobiles and other luxuries while his followers lived much more modestly. Followers were encouraged to relinquish their worldly possessions to Riker, while the Father continued to enjoy the benefits of the kingdom they helped build.

The contradictions did not stop there. Riker's teachings promoted white supremacy and racial segregation, yet historical accounts also describe an unusual contradiction in his treatment of people of Jewish persuasion. His ideology was a confusing mixture of religious fanaticism, racial doctrine, personal power and his own peculiar interpretation of Christianity.

Holy City was not merely a religious commune; it was also a roadside attraction. Riker understood the value of curious travelers, and the old Santa Cruz Highway provided him with a steady stream of potential converts and customers. He established a restaurant, gas station, dance hall, petting zoo, soda stand, barber shop, shoe repair shop and other attractions. Strange signs beckoned travelers from the roadway, announcing Holy City as the “New Jerusalem” and inviting the curious to stop and investigate.

Riker even erected enormous Santa Claus figures, some standing approximately twelve feet high, along with colorful carnival-like signs designed to attract motorists. Yet among the cheerful roadside attractions were much darker messages.
Signs displayed openly racist statements warning Asians and Black people to stay out of Holy City until they had, in Riker's words, learned their place.

It was a disturbing combination of roadside amusement and religious extremism; all wrapped together in one strange mountain settlement.

Between the 1920s and 1930s, while continuing to bleed his ever-growing fellowship dry, Father Riker lived above his kingdom with “Mother” Lucille. Their two-story home sat upon the hillside overlooking the compound, giving Riker a literal view over the people who had surrendered their possessions and their lives to his teachings.

Here, the “Father” delivered his sermons—or more accurately, his fanatical beliefs—to his followers.

Still insisting upon celibacy, abstinence and freedom from worldly possessions, Riker enjoyed many of the luxuries his sheep provided, including expensive automobiles. The contradiction between the austere life demanded of his disciples and the much more comfortable life enjoyed by their leader became increasingly apparent.

Opposing religious sects other than his own, Riker convinced his followers that Holy City represented a perfect form of government and his own kingdom.

To spread his beliefs even further, Riker established the radio station KFQU, giving him another way to spread his peculiar religious and political ideas beyond the boundaries of his mountain compound.

In 1931, further expansion of Holy City was underway. Riker acquired building materials from the Wessendorf & Staffler mortuary on Church Street in Santa Cruz after the building was destined for demolition. The structure was dismantled and the lumber transported up the mountain to Holy City, where it was used for further construction, including expansion of the women's dormitory.

Then, in 1935, something even darker would emerge from the shadows of Holy City.

According to contemporary newspaper accounts, a large fiery blaze illuminated the night sky as a twelve-foot cross, engulfed in flames, became the centerpiece of a strange gathering.
Fourteen people, including a ten-year-old boy, participated in what was reported as a ritualistic induction into the Ku Klux Klan. Individuals dressed in traditional white robes and hoods gathered around the burning cross while chanting. Approximately fifty additional spectators reportedly watched the eerie ceremony. When the ceremony ended, Father Riker and a member of the Klan were asked to speak.

Then, in an almost surreal ending to the night's events, everyone was invited back to the Holy City compound for coffee and cake.
Coffee and cake.

The bizarre gathering was a disturbing reflection of the racial ideology that had long been associated with Riker's teachings.
On October 13, 1942, another dark chapter would unfold at Holy City. According to the Santa Cruz Sentinel, a deadly argument occurred between two carpenters over the use of a fire ladder.

Fifty-eight-year-old Joseph Witzig wanted to remove the ladder so that he could use it on a project. Fifty-one-year-old Irvin Fischer argued that Witzig needed permission from Father Riker before taking it.