In June, The Daily Beast published allegations from multiple women about former Aiden singer William Francis. The women claimed that Francis, who performs under the moniker William Control, “physically and emotionally abused women, ordered many of them to get matching tattoos of his initials, and even demanded contracts from his sexual partners or ‘slaves,’ signed in their own blood.” As one survivor, Stormie Somers, told The Daily Beast at the time, “What [Francis] considers BDSM—basically he just beats the shit out of you and brainwashes you to believe your sole purpose is to serve him and to worship him and that’s your job.”
“It went from crossing lines of consent to totally physical annihilation.”
Francis denied the accusations, writing in a June 7 statement, “I have, in the past, engaged in heavy role play and bondage relationships WITH consent. However, I do not engage in that sort of play anymore. And for anyone who feels as though I have hurt them or violated their consent, I am sorry. It won’t ever happen again. There are lots of things that have been said that are outright lies. I have never been with underage girls. I have never been involved in a ‘sex cult.’”
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The Federal Way Police Department in Washington declined to prosecute Francis for rape in the second degree, deeming the case “legally insufficient”.
Now, just a few months after a group of alleged victims claimed that he was running a “sex cult,” William Control is plugging new music on Instagram. One of his recently-released tracks, “Nothing,” contains taunting, cruel lyrics, seemingly urging an unnamed addressee (“You ugly lonely worthless human waste”) to kill themselves. A heavily auto-tuned Francis sings, “Here’s a knife and a bottle please just swallow it whole. And slit your own throat.”
“Here’s a rope and a razor blade,” Francis continues. “Because you’re nothing without me.”
While Francis doesn’t overtly say that he’s addressing his accusers, his lyrics are in keeping with sentiments that he’s previously expressed on Instagram. He captioned a September selfie, “It’s good to purge the emotional snakes you’ve let into your heart.” In one post, he dismissed the allegations as “a matter of bitterness and revenge.”
One of the women who came forward in June, Sarah*, told The Daily Beast that, having listened to the new track, she believes it to be a “very personal and direct attack.”
“In it he tells the subject that they are worthless, that they’re nothing without him, and that they should kill themselves,” she explained. “He goes on to describe the ways the subject should use to do so. It is absolutely vile and disgusting, just like him. He told me many times that I should kill myself, and also that I would one day kill myself for him, at a time of his choosing, and that he would watch. He said similar to many other of his victims too.”
Sarah continued, “The lyrics make light of mental illness, and of the severe distress that he has caused to scores of women over the years. His actions and his denials and his victim-shaming and his insistence on playing the innocent victim mean that we are forced to relive our abuse over and over again.”
Many of Francis’ accusers told The Daily Beast that he deliberately targeted vulnerable women. Vitoria Chan, whose social media posts last summer sparked a wave of allegations, wrote that, “I started to get groomed into this cult when I was 14 years old and went through extreme mental and emotional problems until I was 17 years old.” She accused Francis of, “Blurring the lines of consent, and targeting people who are UNABLE TO CONSENT due to their mental health instability.”
Sarah, who previously characterized Francis’ abuse as primarily “emotional/psychological,” told The Daily Beast that, “I have been diagnosed with PTSD as a result of the abuse I received from this man, and him attempting to stroll back into the spotlight have made the flashbacks and the nightmares and the anxiety and the suicidal thoughts (I have depression too) so much worse.”
On June 8, Francis informed his Facebook followers that he would be “shutting everything down completely,” adding, “I’m sorry to everyone but it’s best that I focus on my family and not have any more communication with the outside world.”
Clearly, Francis has had a change of heart. A week ago, he posted a clip from a new music video on Instagram, captioned, “To all you soy drinking beta nerds that live for social justice. This is for you.” The clip, from the official video for “All the Love,” shows Francis staring intensely while fondling a large gun. Sarah told The Daily Beast that after seeing the clip, she was determined to avoid the full video, but eventually found herself pressing play. It elicited “a mixed bag of emotions,” including fear, “because the entire video is him essentially masturbating a series of guns, cigarette hanging from his mouth, shooting them and pointing them at the camera.” She added, “This, along with the lyrics, was a clear threat toward his victims, to try and shut us up. He knows that the reason he’s got away with everything for so long is because people are terrified of him, and he wants to perpetuate this terror.”
In addition to brandishing weapons for YouTube views, Francis has also urged his fans to go after Salty, one of the first outlets to report on the allegations against the musician. Claire Fitzsimmons, the founder/director of Salty, told The Daily Beast, “It’s been a nightmare.” In a statement, Fitzsimmons recalled, “Hours after the story went live on our site, our site was hacked and taken down (the fatal error code was hidden in a widget). Salty’s page was also flagged and disabled from Facebook.”
Fitzsimmons continued, “When Salty became aware of William’s ‘stroll back into the spotlight’ (as one of his alleged victims called it) we launched a hashtag campaign #williamcontrolaltdelete to highlight his alleged abuse and the lack of justice served to these women. In response, he activated his following to flag our Instagram, and our page with 34,000 followers was subsequently disabled from the platform.”
“We feel that Salty is the victim of a violent silencing campaign from William Control—he is employing the same online-abuse tactics against us that abusers use online to actively silence their victims,” she concluded. “We are a femme created, indie publication without the protection that larger outlets have—as the editor I worry for our safety. Nobody is looking out for us. Instagram didn’t protect us against this abuser. Facebook isn’t.”
Sarah thinks that if anyone should be staying silent, it’s Francis. “You are nothing but a pathetic bully,” she said, addressing him directly. “Go away and stay away.”
