Our boys are being electrocuted, waterboarded, sexually assaulted... and left to die: Horrifying truth behind the videos that shame America
A college kid in New Jersey was shocked into a coma last fall, electrocuted in the basement of a fraternity he was hoping to pledge.
Its motto: 'Bettering the world through better men.'
The 19-year-old's name and the identities of the Alpha Sigma Phi brothers involved have been withheld by Rutgers University, its police department and local prosecutors.
No school suspensions or arrests have been made, and no details released three months after the October 2025 incident, which the fraternity's headquarters confirms was an act of hazing.
'At some point, water became involved,' Gordy Heminger, Alpha Sig's national president and CEO, said, refusing to elaborate on the details.
Heminger has distinguished himself among heads of national frats for seeming to take the hardest line yet against the kinds of dangerous and demeaning initiation rituals often forced upon pledges.
He swiftly shuttered Alpha Sig's chapter at Rutgers and booted about a third of its brothers from membership.
He also went a step further, announcing that in the coming weeks the fraternity will sue more than 30 of those students in what he touts as 'one of the most significant legal actions' ever taken by a fraternity to crack down on hazing.
After a 19-year-old was electrocuted in the basement of Rutgers' Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity (pictured), both the college and authorities have remained tight-lipped about the pledge's identity and the members involved
In an effort to hold the fraternity accountable, Gordy Heminger, Alpha Sig's national president and CEO, has vowed to sue more than 30 students in the coming weeks to crack down on hazing
Despite it being the second lawsuit of its kind, following a smaller 2024 case involving the University of Virginia's Pi Kappa Alpha chapter (pictured), parents of deceased pledges told the Daily Mail the move is another case of 'grandstanding' by a national fraternity
The case marks the second suit of its kind, following a similar, albeit smaller one, filed in 2024 involving the University of Virginia Pi Kappa Alpha chapter.
'I wish I didn't have to do it. We believe we did everything we could to stop it and we didn't know what more we could do,' Heminger told the Daily Mail.
Yet the move is being criticized not just by Greek life boosters, but also parents who've lost sons in hazing rituals, many seeing it as the latest tactic by the powerful fraternity industry to duck accountability, even if it means throwing its brothers under the bus.
'This is nothing but grandstanding, posturing and virtue signaling by a national fraternity that has the ability to make the kinds of changes needed to save lives, but refuses to do it,' said Gary DeVercelly, whose son, Gary Jr, died in a 2007 hazing incident at New Jersey's Rider University.
David Easlick, the former longtime national head of Delta Kappa Epsilon, agrees, calling the case 'a huge money-making ploy by a fraternity that could absolutely control these houses if it wanted.'
Waterboarding, alcohol chugging and 'rush t**s'
Danny Santulli, who was rushed to the hospital for being forced to drink a copious amount of alcohol, and other pledges are seen walking single file to the basement with their shirts off and blindfolds on for their initiation into Phi Gamma Delta at the University of Missouri
Danny Santulli in 2020 before the incident
Santulli is now blind, unable to talk and in a wheelchair as a result of the brain damage he suffered
At the 'Pledge Dad Reveal,' freshman meet their 'Big Brother' and are forced to drink copious amounts of alcohol
Little is known about the condition of the Rutgers sophomore from Matawan, New Jersey, whom authorities reported was in critical condition and comatose at a New Brunswick hospital after his shock.
His hazing wasn't a one-off.
Wannabe frat boys have been put through lurid and in many cases tragic initiation rituals every semester of every school year for more than a century.
Over several weeks-long pledging periods, they are commonly forced to prove their fidelity by submitting to torturous physical exercises, ingesting bottles of hot sauce or chugging alcohol to the point of blacking out.
Some are told to supply pictures of so-called 'rush t**s' by reaching out to female students to solicit photos of their breasts, or to share videos of themselves in various sexual positions with co-eds.
Others have been beaten with wooden paddles, sexually assaulted with baseball bats and broomsticks, shocked with Tasers, burned with branding irons and left to fend for themselves as part of elaborate 'abandonment challenges' in the woods, often in freezing temperatures, naked while barking like dogs.
Hazing has led to alcohol poisoning, overdoses, falls from windows, roofs and bridges, drownings, hypothermia, car accidents and suicides.
In 2021, University of Missouri freshman Danny Santulli was pledging the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity when he participated in an event called the 'Pledge Dad Reveal,' a hazing tradition where freshmen meet their 'Big Brother' and consume alcohol.
He suffered from acute alcohol poisoning and, as a result, is now blind, unable to talk and uses a wheelchair due to brain damage. The case, his family attorney David Bianchi previously told the Daily Mail, was 'the worst fraternity hazing injury there has ever been.'
At least 334 young people have lost their lives to such rituals in the US since 1838, with 123 recorded hazing deaths just since 2000, according to HazingInfo.org.
Pledges being loaded into the back of a U-Haul van to be driven to a hazing event at Northeastern University
Other initiations involve physical beatings, often with wooden paddles, originally intended to convey brotherhood, pride and fraternity ritual
Jolayne Houtz, founder of HazingInfo.org who lost her son Sam Martinez to hazing in 2019, warned the Daily Mail that the Rutgers student may be 'attacked' despite being the victim, as the fraternity closes and members face consequences
The site's founder, Jolayne Houtz – whose son Sam Martinez died of acute alcohol intoxication after being hazed in 2019 – told the Daily Mail the numbers are likely far higher, noting that tens of thousands more young men have likely been injured, humiliated and traumatized, but fear coming forward.
'I keep thinking about what the Rutgers kid is going through. He's gonna be attacked as the reason they shut the house down and they're all in trouble.
'He's gotta know that people will hold it against him,' said Eric Oakes, whose only child, Adam, died in 2021 after being pressured to down an entire 40-ounce bottle of Jack Daniels during a hazing ritual.
Virginia Commonwealth University and the national office of Delta Chi tried blaming Adam for his own death, even though their students didn't bother calling for help after noticing he had collapsed onto the floor unconscious.
Recent lawsuits
San Diego State University's Phi Kappa Psi chapter (pictured) is facing a lawsuit after a hazing ritual allegedly left student Lars Larsen with a guitar smashed over his head one day and intentionally set on fire during a skit the next
Some aren't so lucky to survive their hazing ritual, which was the case for Phat Anh Nguyen who died on the basement floor of his fraternity in 2021 with a blood alcohol content nearly five times the legal limit for driving
Nguyen's fraternity at Michigan State University (pictured) forced him to drink until unconscious, shoved Cheerios in his mouth and pants, drew obscene words on his body with Sharpie and posed for photos with his unconscious body
Some hazing victims have come forward to take legal action.
Leonel Bermudez, a student at University of Houston, recently filed a $10 million lawsuit after being waterboarded by members of the Beta Nu chapter of Pi Kappa Phi.
Lars Larsen is suing after having a guitar broken over his head during a hazing ritual at Phi Kappa Psi's chapter at San Diego State University on one day, and the day later being intentionally lit on fire during a skit.
Frat brothers waited three hours before calling for medical help, despite third-degree burns on wide swaths of his body.
Former Phi Kappa Sigma pledge James Haussman filed suit last month after members of its Tulane University chapter not only struck his head with a 24-ounce beer can, giving him a concussion, but on later nights continued forcing him into hazing rituals that led to other head injuries and caused severe and long-term brain damage.
Pledges like Phat Anh Nguyen are no longer alive to tell their hazing stories.
The Michigan State University undergraduate was summoned to a so-called 'blackout' event at his fraternity in 2021 where students poured alcohol into his mouth, expecting him to drink until he went unconscious. Students posed for pictures with his limp body.
They shoved Cheerios in his mouth and pants. Some even used Sharpies to write 'Hump Me!' and 'Insert Here' on his anatomy before he died on a basement floor with a blood alcohol content nearly five times the legal limit for driving.
One student, after realizing Nguyen was dead, immediately sent instructions to fellow fraternity members: 'Bros delete anything you posted from tn.'
A code of silence
Eric Oakes, whose only child, Adam, died in 2021 after being pressured to down an entire 40-ounce bottle of Jack Daniels during a hazing ritual, told the Daily Mail the national hazing hotline is less about stopping hazing, and more to help frats 'legally cover their tails'
Houtz recalled how her son's frat Alpha Tau Omega's risk management team rushed on the scene after her son's death for 'damage control'
Silence, experts say, is an integral part of Greek life. Brothers in many fraternities are trained to first call their national home office, not police or the pledge's family.
In the meantime, the national anti-hazing hotline, 1-888-NOT-HAZE – which fraternities and universities encourage students to call to report hazing incidents anonymously – is managed by a law firm that defends fraternities in lawsuits.
'That hotline isn't about stopping hazing. It's about helping fraternities legally cover their tails,' said Oakes, who learned of his son Adam's death hours after Delta Chi's national office was made aware of it.
Houtz, too, said the CEO and risk management team of Alpha Tau Omega rushed on scene after her son's hazing death at Washington State University to 'circle the wagons.'
'There's no doubt they were there for damage control – controlling damage to the frat itself, not those young men who had no one there really defending or guiding them,' she said.
When the Rutgers student was electrocuted last fall, one Alpha Sig member did call 911, but hung up before providing helpful information.
Responders geo-tracked his phone and arrived on scene as students were attempting to carry the comatose sophomore to a car and drive him to hospital.
'They had a moral obligation to get the man help because seconds count,' Heminger told us. 'Hanging up, that's one of the things that pushed (us) over the edge in terms of deciding to file the lawsuit.'
He said he has prayed for the 19-year-old who tried to pledge as an Alpha Sig and is expected to sue the fraternity, the members involved and Rutgers.
Wrist-slapping
Louisiana State University shut down Delta Kappa Epsilon (pictured) after it was uncovered that members ordered pledges to lie in piles of broken glass, kicked them with steel-toed boots and urinated on them - it was reopened four years before the ten-year ban
Alexander Rozas, 23, (left) was one of nine men arrested in connection with hazing at Louisiana State University. Joseph Harkrider, 19, was the youngest of the accused (right)
Many colleges and universities have tried to eliminate hazing, but with little success.
That's partly because some frats operate with no oversight or authority from the schools their students attend.
Even with those that do, college administrators and police often don't enforce anti-hazing policies and laws because they find it hard to monitor or control what happens inside frat houses or write hazing off as knuckleheaded, boys-will-be-boys behavior.
Colleges also often are reluctant to meddle with fraternities because they rely on them for much-needed student housing and for drawing students to enroll on their campuses with the promise of a built-in friend group and social life.
Many frat brothers go on to become financially successful and generous donors to their alma maters, or assume power as university regents or board members, judges, state lawmakers and members of Congress – unwilling to crack down on hazing traditions they took part in as younger men and recall fondly as meaningful rites of passage.
Fraternities also engender good will for raising money for worthy causes and contributing hours of service in their communities.
Frat brothers rarely are kicked out of school for taking part in hazing incidents. In the rare cases they are criminally prosecuted, they seldom go to jail.
Even when universities do take action by suspending chapters for hazing, they often don't carry through with sanctions.
Louisiana State University's Delta Kappa Epsilon chapter, for example, was ordered to shut down for ten years after pledges were kicked by members wearing steel-toed boots, made to lie down on broken glass, then urinated on.
It is now being allowed to reopen four years early.
Betraying the brotherhood
Frat hazing antics were famously exposed in the 1978 movie Animal House, prompting national fraternity leaders to take full control of local chapters after insurance companies refused coverage - now requiring students to pay a 'risk management fee' of $200 to $500 per semester
David Easlick, former head of Delta Kappa Epsilon's national office and current fraternity legal consultant, told the Daily Mail the fee is largely a 'facade' as members frequently lose coverage if the national office alleges policy violations
Since the 1978 movie Animal House exposed – and glorified – frat house antics, most insurance companies have refused to insure them.
That prompted national fraternities to take nearly total control over local chapters and band together to self-insure.
Most require students and their families to pay a so-called 'risk management fee' typically ranging between $200 and $500 per student a semester.
Yet those policies have broad exclusions for incidents relating to alcohol, sexual assault and hazing.
Members tend to lose their coverage when their national offices claim they've broken fraternity policies. It's a Catch-22 whereby a tragedy for which a student would need insurance is often the very grounds for denying it to him.
'The parents all think that their kids are ensured for a couple million, but they're really not,' said Easlick, who ran Delta Kappa Epsilon's national office for 29 years and now works as consultant on legal cases against fraternities.
'It's outrageous to be taking money, purportedly to protect individuals but at the same time knowing it's a facade.'
Headquartered far from their local chapters, national fraternities take the stance that they can't possibly monitor the day-to-day operation of their houses or control the private behavior of students.
Doug Fierberg, one of the nation's top hazing plaintiffs' lawyers, told the Daily Mail that expecting students to 'memorize a 250-page manual about policies and procedures' and oversee alcohol service barely out of their teens is asinine
Gary DeVercelly, whose son, Gary Jr, died in a 2007 hazing incident at New Jersey's Rider University, said the national office's current procedure is 'Russian roulette' and that they're setting up these young men 'to fail'
Their role, they say, is simply educational - imbuing members with principals of leadership and brotherhood and training them on policies and best-practices.
That leaves 19, 20 and 21-year-olds – typically with full class loads – appointed as 'risk management directors' in their frat houses, in charge of enforcing policies on sexual abuse, hazing and drug and alcohol use.
It puts the responsibility of monitoring and managing the serving of alcohol on students who, in many cases, are too young to drink.
'Some kid who has never had a job except for mowing lawns in the summer joins a frat mainly to drink and f**k and, by popular election, is expected to memorize a 250-page manual about policies and procedures and tell his buddies not to drink and f**k,' explains Doug Fierberg, one of the nation's leading plaintiff's lawyers in hazing cases.
'It's like Russian roulette,' DeVercelly added. 'They know it's only a matter of time before someone dies hazing and are basically setting the boys up to fail.'
Fraternities' legal structures leave parents – and their homeowners insurance companies – vulnerable to becoming named defendants in potentially finally ruinous lawsuits, even when their sons may not have been directly involved in hazing incidents.
Heminger told the Daily Mail that Alpha Sig's upcoming lawsuit will go after about 30 former members at Rutgers who were involved in the pledge's electrocution in October.
That, he noted, not only includes the brothers in the basement that night, but also those who realized the pledge was injured and didn't call for help, encouraged or participated in deleting posts from the chapter's social media, had any part in providing the 12 or so bottles of alcohol that were later found empty at the scene, or knew the hazing ritual was planned but didn't stop it.
He justifies the lawsuit on grounds that the former Rutgers members ignored risk-management training that took place only a few weeks before the pledge was shocked into a coma.
Their 'breach of contract,' as he likens it, cost Alpha Sig's national office membership dues, rent and 'reputational damage' to its 180 chapters nationally.
'All members are affected,' he said. 'They betrayed the brotherhood.'
'No pain, no gain'
Several fraternity members and parents - including three from Alpha Sig - said the lawsuit has caused confusion and concern; while none defended the Rutgers students involved, all feel legally exposed, and some fear being scapegoated by their national offices
Several frat members and parents we spoke with – including three affiliated with Alpha Sig – said news of the lawsuit has prompted confusion and concern.
None defended the students involved in the Rutgers incident, but all said they feel legally exposed and some fear being scapegoated by their fraternities' national offices.
'I guess you could say loyalties seem pretty divided. We pledge the frat and they can just cut loose on us. That seems kinda whacked,' said a recent graduate of a southern university where he served as his Alpha Sig chapter's risk management director.
One father, a personal-injury attorney with a son in a Colorado fraternity, knows about the Alpha Sig suit only because of his work and guesses that 'most parents have no clue how exposed we all are' legally.
'We pay top dollar to nationals, all parents do, and then they up and go after their own members. Whoopsie, there goes the retirement,' he said. 'But what are you gonna do? Tell your kid to quit the frat his junior year? Mess up his whole social life?'
Several parents of sons killed in hazing rituals told us their blame lies far more with fraternities' national offices than with the young people involved.
'It's easier for me to forgive a young man for doing something stupid than a whole industry structured to deflect responsibility,' said DeVercelly who, along with his wife Julie, spent 18 years trying to honor their son's memory by fighting for federal anti-hazing legislation.
They and other families pushed for requirements that all fraternities ban in-house drinking, even among 21-year-olds; employ live-in adult house managers who work independently of the national chapters; and end the pledging process altogether.
About 56 percent of federally funded colleges and universities are not fully complying with the Stop Campus Hazing Act, which requires them to implement anti-hazing policies and publicly post incidents, according to HazingInfo.org
Adam Oakes' father said even though the bill took ten years to pass, its equated to a 'nothing bill' and does little to hold fraternities accountable
National fraternities fought their efforts for more than a decade.
What ultimately passed in 2024 puts demands mainly on schools rather than fraternities.
The Stop Campus Hazing Act requires colleges and universities that receive federal funding to implement anti-hazing policies and publicly disclose hazing incidents on their web sites.
About 56 percent of school aren’t fully complying, according to HazingInfo.org.
Even those that have, including Rutgers, have made their reports hard to find and revealed few relevant details about the underlying allegations that would inform prospective pledges and their parents about risks.
'This bill took ten years to pass, and when it's passed, it's like a nothing bill, not really holding the fraternities accountable,' Oakes said.
The southern Alpha Sig alumnus countered that forcing frats to go dry and nixing their pledging rituals would take the fun out of frats and make nobody want to join them.
'No risk, no reward,' like they say. 'No pain, no gain,' he told us. 'When you're talking brotherhood for life, that has to come at a cost.'
