Cops: Mentally-ill nursing home resident killed elderly roommate

SCOTTSVILLE, Ky. -- A man who called himself The Reverend dialed 911 to say he was the father of the human race.

The phone call last month was the first time the Scottsville Police Department had heard of the 35-year-old self-avowed devil worshipper born Robert Reynolds, who had legally changed his name to reflect his status in the Reynoldsianism faith of his invention.

The police department checked on The Reverend at the Scottsville Manor nursing home, where he lived because of a long battle with schizophrenia. But he'd made no threats and committed no crimes, said Scottsville Police Chief Jeff Pearson. He only insisted he was the patriarch of civilization.

About a week later, he walked to the nurse's station and announced he'd killed his 71-year-old roommate Gary Glueck, police said.

The Reverend was ordered Wednesday to undergo a mental evaluation before the murder charge against can continue through the court system. Handcuffed in an orange jumpsuit, he told Allen County District Judge Martha Harrison repeatedly that he wanted to make a statement. She advised him against it and appointed a public defender, who met with The Reverend and promptly asked the judge to order a competency assessment.

The Reverend didn't make his statement.

He had a website and several Facebook pages, where he described himself as a devil worshipper, schizophrenic and the star of the "easy-listening satanic" genre of music, which he said he created.

The argument he had with his roommate started when he wanted to listen to the satanic music and Glueck, who shared room No. 15, objected, The Bowling Green Daily News reported.

CBS affiliate WLKY reported that police said he stabbed Glueck with an ink pen, then choked him to death with a lamp cord after an argument.

The Reverend's family declined to comment on the record about his struggles with mental illness.

He posted dozens of rambling poems, essays and videos online. In the videos, he smoked cigarettes and stroked his beard and talked illogically to imaginary companions.

In one, he said he'd found a way for the impotent and gay men to reproduce. He had invented a drug called Zexifor, made from tree moss, aged particles and honey for taste. He gave birth to an invisible infant, he said, and would meet the "infant" on the porch of his house again 20 years in the future.

In another, he strummed a guitar, without a shirt on, a giant star tattooed on his shoulder, and sang of "Satan, the father."

He wrote over and over that he is a "Reynoldsian music star" and an "easy listening satanic star." He said he was standing in for God and offered to be interviewed by the media. He created his own holidays, alphabet and a system of mathematics he called Reynoldsiantics.

He expressed admiration online for Charles Manson, Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan, and the Marquis de Sade, the 18th-century French aristocrat, whose writings of brutal sexual cruelty spawned the word sadism.

But court records indicate he does not have a history of violence. The police chief said they'd received no complaints of violations from the nursing home, which cares for the physically and mentally disabled. His writings and videos do not center on ritualism, Satan or brutality. Rather they maunder on about his inventions, delusions and his quest for personal awakening.

On Facebook, he acknowledged his condition and his living arrangements at Scottsville Manor.

"Living here would be difficult if I didn't have a disability too, but since I do, it's alright," he wrote in January. "Everybody here is disabled in some way. Scottsville Manor is a home."

He later posted about supporting assisted suicide.

"I'm schizophrenic and there's no cure," he wrote on Jan. 27. "Everyday folks here at the home have to do everything for me, but I need it. With no thought that life will ever improve why must I live this way?"