Centerton Mayor Ken Williams said he has been living under an assumed name for nearly 30 years. He had been mayor since 2001.

Williams told authorities he was born Don LaRose and that in the mid-1970s, he was a preacher in Indiana. He said he was abducted and brainwashed into forgetting all about his life as Don LaRose.

It was a double life he had never acknowledged, Williams said, because he didn’t even realize it existed until he had recently taken a truth-serum injection.

As Williams regained his memory, he said, he realized that he had a wife and two kids but that he had decided to leave and take on a new identity to protect them.

“I had no choice. The choice was to watch my family killed before my eyes or go with these people, and I chose instead to run,” Williams said.

He wouldn’t explain from who he was running, saying only that he had been brainwashed.

“I had multiple shock treatments,” Williams said. “It took five years to get my memory back.”

Williams said he took his current identity in 1980 when he moved to Centerton. His full name — Bruce Kent Williams — was taken from a man who died in a car crash back in 1958, he said.

“What happened in 1980 — whether it was right or wrong — I did it under the threat of my family and for my own survival,” he said.

The information went public, Williams said, because he runs a Web site about Don LaRose and his disappearance. LaRose’s former family found the Web site and started inquiring about its author. They found the site registered to a Ken Williams and went from there.

Williams said his current wife is standing by him and the two of them want to continue living in Centerton. He said he plans to continue living as Ken Williams.

Also, his resignation was signed with two names, he said.