They are disenchanted idealists and true believers. Most are sons of the working class who saved their middle-class dreams for the Black Messiah.

For him, they gave up money, jobs and family. They listened spellbound as he preached brotherhood and retribution. They believed with such loyalty that they allegedly killed for him.

These are the stories of the alleged "Death Angels" of Yahweh Ben Yahweh -- "total and maximum leader" of Miami's Temple of Love, Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Scruggs called him.

"They were his group who would, without question, do whatever he told them to, including killing people, " Scruggs said.

Sixteen members of the Yahweh Nation, including its leader, are awaiting trial on charges that they conspired to murder 14 people and hurl firebombs at concrete-block houses in Delray Beach.

A 17th suspect, Chicago-born Ardmore Canton III, once known as Absalom Israel, is a fugitive. Federal agents said he defected from the group and took a bus out of Little Rock, Ark., two months ago. His family hasn't heard from him since.

Prosecutors said Canton, 38, boasted to Yahweh followers that he had killed a "white devil." Allegedly, he showed them the left ear of the victim, Clair Walters, a homeless carpenter.

Since a federal grand jury indicted Yahweh and his devotees last month, many of the accused "Death Angels" have kept their pasts secret -- sometimes even from their own lawyers.

Now a profile emerges from court testimony, police reports and interviews with relatives, friends and lawyers.

The suspects' biographies are a tale of broken dreams, shattered families, disillusionment and a search for pride. Often, their only real bond is with Yahweh Ben Yahweh, a man they believe is the Son of God.

'IT'S GOD WILL'

The oldest indicted follower is Richard Ingraham, 48. He changed his name to Job Israel. Seven times a day he faces east with outstretched hands and prays to Yahweh.

Once, when police accused Job of stealing, he told them he was born in Jerusalem. His real hometown is New York City.

For 11 years, Job ran the Yahweh beauty shop at the temple in Liberty City. He wore a jogging suit and a beeper. He marketed Yahweh baby shampoo and Yahweh cocoa butter body lotion, $5 each for 8 ounces. He told his court-appointed lawyer, Dennis Kainen, that he once barbered Muhammad Ali's hair.

In court, Job declared himself indigent after prosecutors charged that he crushed a Yahweh dissenter's head with a tire jack. "It's God's will, " Job said of his arrest last month.

The youngest suspect is Michael Mathis, 24, accused in the 1986 Delray Beach firebombing. Handsome and muscular, Mathis was an all-star linebacker at South Miami High. He wanted to go pro. Like many indicted followers, he grew up among the working-class poor, with parents struggling on modest wages to provide for nine kids.

He found lots of admirers on the football field but "little respect off of it, " said his lawyer, Ron Polk. In 1983, Mathis enrolled in Upward Bound, a federal program designed to boost his C average and make him college-recruitable.

In 1984, he dropped out of school. Influenced by a friend, Mathis stopped by the temple to ask about Bible scriptures. He "wanted something to believe in more than himself." He found the group's regimented life style a challenge, Polk said.

For Mathis and other indicted followers, the Yahweh sect seemed "to address many of the problems that so many black people in America feel, " said Wendell Graham, attorney for Ahinidab Israel.