Wendy Joan Biddlecombe Agsar - Cults that Kill: Shocking True Stories of Horror from Psychopathic Leaders, Doomsday Prophets, and Brainwashed Followers to Human Sacrifices, Mass Suicides and Grisly Murders

CULTS THAT KILL

Shocking True Stories of Horror from

Psychopathic Leaders, Doomsday Prophets,
Brainwashed Followers, Human Sacrifices,
Mass Suicides and Grisly Murders

Wendy Joan Biddlecombe Agsar

Text copyright 2018 Wendy Joan Biddlecombe Agsar. Design and concept copyright 2018 Ulysses Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized duplication in whole or in part or dissemination of this edition by any means (including but not limited to photocopying, electronic devices, digital versions, and the internet) will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

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For Sam

CONTENTS

Introduction

This is a revolutionary suicide. Its not a self-destructive suicide, so theyll pay for this. Theyve brought this upon us and theyll pay for that. I leave that destiny to them.

Jim Jones Death Tape transcript from November 18, 1978

The grizzly photos of 913 departed souls at Jonestown are hard to erase from your memoryrows upon rows of dead men, women, and children splayed out facedown in the mud, or their lifeless eyes gazing into the sky above the jungles of Guyana in South America, where Peoples Temple cult leader Jim Jones had promised them a truly equal society that they would build from the ground up. In reality, his followers had worked long and grueling hours in extreme heat clearing the thick terrain for the settlement. They subsisted on little more than rice and beans and were constantly subjected to Joness paranoia, delusions, and violence in the form of 24-hour sermons broadcast over loudspeakers that could be heard all throughout Jonestown; loyalty tests that encouraged members to inform on anyone who expressed a desire to leave; mock-suicide drills; and sexual abuse.

In November 1978, a delegation led by California Congressman Leo Ryan showed up to check on the welfare of Jonestown residents, many of whom had concerned family members back in the US who believed Jones was holding their mothers, brothers, and cousins against their will. The visit went smoothly at first, with a tour of the compound and evening entertainment performed for Ryan and his crew, but the following day, chaos ensued when Peoples Temple members told Ryan and his entourage that they wanted to defect and leave with him on the next flight out. Ryan and his group made it as far as a nearby airport before they were ambushed. Ryan and three other people died on the airstrip, while 10 others were wounded and waited nearly 24 hours before being rescued and receiving medical attention.

Back at Jonestown, Jones told his members that it was all over, that hed had a prophecy that a man on Ryans plane would shoot the pilot in the head and the people of Jonestown would be blamed, their children tortured. There was no other choice, Jones said, but to end it all. Jones urged his followers to ingest a deadly combination of Flavor Aid and cyanide, and a fleet of armed guards ensured his wishes were carried out. Parents squirted the deadly poison down their childrens throats and watched them foam at the mouth; elderly residents were forcibly injected. Other people were shot, as well as the dogs and cats that lived in the commune, and within hours Jonestown became the largest mass suicide in modern history (though survivors claim it was murder, not suicide, that claimed all those lives).

Flash forward nearly 20 years to the iconic and chilling photos of the 39 members of Heavens Gate lying lifeless in bunk beds, shrouded in purple sheets, and wearing black Nike Decades and armbands reading Heavens Gate Away Team. The UFO cult members, many of whom worked as computer programmers and web developers, believed that the appearance of the Hale-Bopp comet near Earth was the opportunity theyd been waiting for to get transported to the next human evolutionary level. Under the leadership of Marshall Applewhite, the cult members drank vodka and ate a mix of applesauce or pudding cut with phenobarbital (an anti-seizure medication), and tied a plastic bag around each others heads to speed up the process.

Killing yourself so you can be united with aliens in outer space? Giving your own child cyanide to drink? No way, youre likely thinking. I would never do that. Its hard to imagine being swept up by Jones, Applewhite, or another charismatic cult leader to the point where youd do anything they said and follow any order they gave, including murder or another bizarre criminal act. But these photos are proof that regular, everyday people have and continue to join cults, which often promote a very different message than the one they use to lure people to join.

Thousands of cults around the world are active today, and its estimated that between 2 and 5 million Americans have been involved in a cult at some point in their life. Certainly not all cults commit murder or force their members into mass suicide. And its true that only the most extreme, gruesome, and nefarious cults ever make it into the news. But many cults do share similar characteristics, such as an unwavering faith in an absolute leader and an intense devotion to an ideological cause, that lays the groundwork and possibility for criminal acts to take placeespecially when the leader is backed into a corner, as Jones was with a congressman and news team infiltrating his utopian commune.

Looking back at the disturbing photos from Jonestown or grainy television footage of the Heavens Gate mansion, one might think these were bizarre acts of a far-off, low-resolution, bygone age. But we still live with the aftershocks of these cults today, in addition to new cult activity, and continue to be fascinated by every new twist and turn in these sagas. Here are just a few examples:

When Charles Manson died on November 19, 2017, his body sat on ice in a top-secret location for four months as four men stepped forward to stake their claim to the maniacal masterminds body.

The following spring, the Netflix documentary Wild Wild Country introduced viewers to the Indian spiritual leader Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and the unthinkable actions of his followers to take over and maintain political control of the small town of Antelope, Oregon, in the 1980s, where they orchestrated a mass salmonella poisoning.

Twenty-three years after the 1995 sarin chemical attack in the Tokyo subway that killed 13 people and sickened thousands of others, Japan executed 13 members of Aum Shinrikyo in two waves in July 2018. This doomsday cult, which recruited new members at prestigious universities, was led by Shoko Asahara, who believed that he was both Jesus Christ and the first enlightened person since the Buddha.

In late 2018, a sex trafficking case continued to be built against Keith Raniere, who founded a multilevel marketing company called NXIVM in the 1990s. The organization has since taught an estimated 16,000 people how to raise human awareness, foster an ethical humanitarian civilization, and celebrate what it means to be human, according to their website. The courses, which detractors allege use mind-control techniques, cost thousands of dollars to join. In the fall of 2017, several women told the