Andrea Yates' mom, brother lay blame with kooky preacher & Rusty

Now that the murder conviction of Andrea Yates has been overturned by an appeals court, it looks like her family (sans Andrea's hubby Rusty, who's filed for divorce) are ready to open up.

Andrea Yates' mother and brother appeared on Larry King Live on Tuesday night.

What went wrong?, Larry asked Yates' ma.

"Woroniecke," said mama Yates.

King paused, appearing a bit confused, and gingerly asked the elderly Mrs. Yates if that was the name she used for Satan (like Beelzebub or the Dark Prince, I guess).

Mrs. Yates and her son Brian had to straighten out The Kingster, who apparently has been too busy writing his USA Today column to read the clips on the Yates case.

Anyway, Woroniecke was Andrea and Rusty's preacher, they said.

The preacher sold Rusty and Andrea the bus that the family lived on for awhile.

Any of this ring a bell, Lar?

Rusty Yates didn't fare too well in the interview either.

Yates' brother told King that when he tried to explain to Rusty the serious nature of his sister's depression, Rusty's attitude was people with depression just need a "swift kick to the rear end."

Michael Woroniecki, the preacher at the center of the Yates case, now apparently is in Oregon, Brian Yates told King.

CourtTV's Crime Library reported on the preacher.

In particular, he emphasized that people were accountable for children, and woe to the person who might cause even one to stumble. He once stated, "I feel like I need a sledge hammer to get you to listen." He denounced Catholicism, the religion with which Andrea had grown up, and stressed the sinful state of her soul.

He also preached austerity, and his ideas were probably instrumental in the way the Yateses decided to live. As Andrea had one child after another, she took on the task of home-schooling them with Christian-only texts and trying to do what the Woroniecki and his wife, Rachel, told her.

"From the letters I have that Rachel Woroniecki wrote to Andrea," says Suzy Spencer on Mugshots, "it was, 'You are evil. You are wicked. You are a daughter of Eve, who is a wicked witch. The window of opportunity for us to minister to you is closing. You have to repent now.'"

According to a former follower, the religion preached by the Woronieckis involves the idea that women have Eve's witch nature and need to be subservient to men. The preacher judged harshly those mothers who were permissive and who allowed their children to go in the wrong direction. In other words, if the mother was going to Hell for some reason, so would the children.

Woroniecki had his say back in 2002, telling Channel 13 in a 2002 interview that Rusty was at fault for the drowning deaths of the 5 Yates kids.

One of Preacher Worniecki's former disciples paints the Yates' preacher
as an evil sumbitch. A devil graphic type thing shows up on your cursor if you peruse the site. At least it did on my computer. If the devil graphic type thing is only appearing on my computer, I may, you know, like need to brush up on my Scripture.