Who is Larry Ray?
Lawrence Grecco, also called Larry Ray, was born in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn, New York. New York Magazine reports that in the 1980s, he was employed on Wall Street and provided consulting services to various fields such as insurance, construction, and gambling. He did not complete a college education.
Larry briefly served in the military, as reported by The Cut. He only spent 19 days in the United States Air Force, but he maintained connections with notable military figures such as the late Marine Gen. Charles Pitman and retired Marine Commandant Gen. James L. Jones.
Larry Ray also asserted that he had been employed by the CIA, but there is no proof that he ever served as an intelligence agent for any branch of the United States government.
New York Magazine reported that, based on a statement from his defense team, Larry’s diagnosis included histrionic and narcissistic personality disorders, as well as indications of pseudologia fantastica or Munchausen’s disorder.
The Sarah Lawrence College Scandal
Larry Ray, often referred to as the head of the Sarah Lawrence “sex cult,” was described in a much harsher manner by U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in a statement issued after his conviction in April 2022. Williams labeled Ray as a predator and an evil individual who committed heinous deeds.
Larry was found guilty of 15 criminal charges, including sex trafficking, extortion, and participating in a conspiracy to commit racketeering. This happened after he moved into his daughter’s dorm at Sarah Lawrence College. He also abused her classmates and other acquaintances- physically, psychologically, and sexually, for a decade in three different states.
As per the reports, Larry Ray compelled certain individuals to engage in prostitution, menaced to dismember someone else, and documented coerced and fraudulent admissions of guilt from each one, confessing to illegal acts and transgressions they did not commit.
According to the indictment, Larry used a knife to threaten his victims at least twice and also choked a male victim until he lost consciousness in another incident.
The indictment also states that during the summer of 2011, Ray lived with some of his roommates in a one-bedroom apartment in New York City and they introduced him to multiple other victims.
According to the legal charges, Ray engaged in abusive behavior towards the group for nearly a decade. He coerced at least five students into sending him a combined amount of approximately $1 million, which he then proceeded to launder.
Additionally, the indictment states that Ray subjected one female victim to sex trafficking and compelled her, along with two other female victims, to work without compensation on a relative’s property in North Carolina.
The Cut initially broke the news about Larry Larry’s tyrannical rule, prompting a police inquiry into the accusations against him.
Following his detainment and sentencing, the cult has been a focal point on Law & Crime’s podcast, Devil in the Dorm, as well as the upcoming 2023 Hulu docuseries, Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence, and the Lifetime movie, Devil on Campus: The Larry Ray Story, which debuted on June 23, 2024.
Larry Ray’s Conviction
According to NBC News, Larry Ray was given a 60-year prison sentence in 2023 and was required to surrender over $2.4 million.
During the sentencing, Judge Lewis J. Liman of the Manhattan federal court described Ray’s offenses as “particularly heinous,” as reported by NBC News. In a statement following the sentencing, U.S. attorney Williams referred to Ray as a “monster”.
“For years, he inflicted brutal and lifelong harm on innocent victims. Students who had their lives ahead of them. He groomed them and abused them into submission for his own gain.”
Williams continued,
“Through physical and psychological abuse, he took control over his victims’ minds and bodies and then extracted millions of dollars from them. The sentence imposed today will ensure Ray will never harm victims again.”
According to the Bureau of Prisons, Larry Ray, who is now 64 years old, is currently incarcerated at the U.S. Penitentiary McCreary in Pine Knot, Kentucky. The bureau has set his release date for March 29, 2071.
