McCook native, televangelist, Skype exorcist features in magazine

PHOENIX, Arizona -- An American radio and television evangelist who lived in the McCook area in the late 1950s and early 1960s is gaining worldwide attention as an exorcist who provides counseling for people who have problems with violence, self-mutilation, multiple personality disorders, Satanic ritual abuse and molestation.

The Rev. Bob Larson, who is now the pastor of the Spiritual Freedom Church in Phoenix, Arizona, is featured along with his daughter, Brynne Larson and her friends, Tess and Savannah Sherkenback in the August 22, 2016, edition of 'People' magazine.

Larson credits his time in McCook, as a young musician, for triggering his concerns about the occult and the destructive influences of rock music. Later in life, he incorporated his guitar playing into some of his sermons.

In the final years of the 1960s, the focus of Larson's preaching centered mainly on the leftist political ideology, sexually suggestive lyrics, Eastern religious mysticism and anti-social behavior of many of the era's rock musicians.

During the late 1980s and into the 1990s, Larson repeatedly debated, interviewed and confronted Satanists.

By the late 1980s, in what would come to define his later ministry, the Rev. Mr. Larson was often heard performing exorcisms of callers on the air. The subjects of Satanism and Satanic ritual abuse were frequent topics of discussion. Death metal performer Glen Benton of Deicide became a regular caller.

After trying fiction writing for a period of time, Larson returned to the radio airwaves in 2004.

Today, Larson remains active. His ministry professes to offer an alternative counseling outlet to people who have problems with violence, self-mutilation and other destructive behavior.

In 2013, 'Vice' magazine taped a video of Larson's visit in several small towns in Ukraine, where he performed exorcisms with three young women -- his 18-year-old daughter, Brynne Larson, and her friends, Tess and Savannah Sherkenback.

Larson also offered in 2013 to perform exorcisms over Skype (for a donation at that time of $295).