By Steven Casale
Suicide as an interstellar ticket to a spaceship before Earth self-destructs. A race war that requires the murder of a pregnant woman before it begins. These are just a few of the warped beliefs of history's deadliest cults.
Although many of the cults featured here began as offshoots of an already established religious practice, they soon went down a dark and deadly path that led to extreme manipulation, mass suicide, and murder.
JIM JONES AND THE PEOPLE'S TEMPLE
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The People's Temple made its mark in history with a mass suicide that occurred on November 18, 1978 in Guyana. Formally known as the People's Temple of the Disciples of Christ, the religious movement was founded in Indiana by Jim Jones (feature image at top), a frustrated American Communist who believed in the power of faith healing to prompt social change.
In 1974, after having left Indiana and establishing a physical church in San Francisco, Jones rented land in the South American country of Guyana. There, he created the People's Temple Agricultural Project, which at first had only around 50 members. It was informally known as Jonestown. Many of his followers went to live in Jonestown in an attempt to escape what they viewed as fascism creeping into the United States. Jones preached that the land in Guyana was a social paradise hidden from the all-too-inquisitive American press.
By 1978, Jonestown had nearly 900 members. Congressman Leo Ryan decided to visit Guyana to investigate allegations of abuse at Jonestown. A few Jonestown members expressed a desire to leave the commune, and Ryan assisted in their escape. After leaving the commune and arriving at the airport to return to the U.S. the group encountered armed Jonestown security guards. The guards opened fire on the escapees, killing the congressmen and a few others.
The following evening, Jones ordered everyone at the People's Temple Agricultural Project to drink a cyanide-laced grape-flavored Flavor Aid. According to the BBC, 914 people died as a result, including 276 children. It was the single greatest loss of American civilian life at the time.
THE MOVEMENT FOR THE RESTORATION OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF GOD
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A breakaway cult from the Roman Catholic Church, the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God arose in Uganda after Joseph Kibweteere claimed to have had visions of the Virgin Mary. The core belief was that the world would inevitably end on January 1, 2000 and that in order to be right in the eyes of God, one must strictly adhere to the Ten Commandments. Some members even went so far as to stop speaking, in order to eliminate the possibility of breaking the ninth commandment ("Thou shalt not bear false witness"). Other important tenets included refraining from sex and taking up fasting.
Once January 1, 2000 passed without an end to the world, many members began to lose faith in the teachings of the cult. And so, the leaders prophesied that the world would actually end in March and gathered over 500 cult members inside a church. Soon after the congregation began, the building burst into flames, killing everyone inside. A few days after the fire, authorities discovered hundreds more bodies at various sites associated with the cult, the victims of poisoning, strangulation, and/or stabbing. According to The New York Times, the official police report concluded that 778 people died in the tragedy. While police initially assumed the leaders of the cult perished in the fire, they now believe that two of its figureheads, including Kibweteere, may still be at large. Such a possibility supports a running theory that the deaths were not the result of mass suicide but of mass murder.
THE MANSON FAMILY
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In 1967, Charles Manson loosely organized a group of followers under what came to be called the Manson Family. Though not specifically a religious cult, the Manson Family incorporated ideas from Scientology, Satanism, and various new age ideologies. He told his followers that the United States was on the brink of an apocalyptic race war known as Helter Skelter--named after, and believed to be foretold by, The Beatles' song.
Manson, who was convinced that black people would win, had a plan; he and his followers would hide out in a secret city below Death Valley and emerge once the dust settled as leaders of the new world. But there was a catch: The war needed to begin. So in August 1969, Manson ordered a twin set of killings to instigate the battle, including that of film director Roman Polanski's pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, and supermarket executive Leno LaBianca.
The Tate murder occurred on the night of August 8, the LaBianca murder August 9. Both scenes were emblazoned with words written in the blood of the victims: "Death to Pigs", "Rise", and "Healter [sic] Skelter."
Authorities apprehended Manson and members of his killer family before the year was out. A trial began in 1970. In 1971, Manson and four members of the Manson Family were convicted in the Tate/LaBianca slayings. All four were initially sentenced to death, though their sentences were commuted to life after California repealed capital punishment in 1972.
ORDRE DU TEMPLE SOLAIRE
The Knights Templar was a rich and powerful military order sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church and tied to the Crusades of the Middle Ages. The Ordre du Temple Solaire was a shadowy cult that believed the Knights Templar still existed in hiding. Founded by Joseph di Mambro and Luc Jouret in 1984, the tenants of the French-based sect centered on the second coming of Christ and the unification of Christianity and Islam, with significant influence from the teachings of British occultist Aleister Crowley.
Ten years later, the highly secretive group turned deadly. In October 1994, they murdered a three-month-old baby of one of its members, an infant whom they believed to be the Antichrist. Soon thereafter, a wave of murder and apparent mass suicide swept through its ranks in Western Switzerland and Quebec. In Switzerland, the victims were found with bags over their heads and they had been shot. The bodies were arranged in a circle, and they were wearing ceremonial robes.
In total, about 30 people were shot and 15 ingested poison.
BRANCH DAVIDIANS
The Mount Carmel Center engulfed in flames on April 19, 1993. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The Branch Davidians arose in the 1950s as an obscure offshoot of the Dividian Seventh Day Adventists. The group was convinced that the end times were near and Christ's return was eminent. Anyone who wasn't aligned with the Branch Davidian movement was an enemy of God.
In 1982, a man named David Koresh joined the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, and quickly rose to power. He frequently claimed to be a messenger of God and at times even announced he was the messiah himself. Charges of sexual abuse were rampant under his rule. Authorities eventually investigated the group, which led to a deadly 51-day standoff at the Mount Carmel Center compound near Waco, Texas. On April 19, 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms initialed a final assault on the compound. A fire broke out in the course of the assault, the origin of which remains disputed to this day. According to reports on Frontline, 80 Branch Davidians died in the blaze, including 22 children under the age of 17.
AUM SHINRIKYO
Founded by Shoko Asahara in 1984, Aum Shinrikyo is the ultimate doomsday cult. Translating to "supreme truth," Aum Shinrikyo used Buddhism as a base belief system and incorporated doctrines from the Christian Book of Revelation, Hinduism, yoga, and Nostradamus--with the intent of "restoring original Buddhism."
Surprisingly, of Aum Shinrikyo was granted religious recognition from the Japanese government, but in the years that followed, authorities became increasingly suspicious. In 1995, the cult ordered the release of sarin gas into the Tokyo Subway, killing 12 commuters. All trails led back to Asahara, where the police found live captives, chemical devices, and enough poisonous gas to kill millions of people.
Asahara was arrested and jailed, though his ideas live on (albeit in a less deadly form) through other cult offshoots.
HEAVEN'S GATE
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Members of Heaven's Gate cult believed that Earth was on the verge of being recycled (known as the "great recycling") and that their only means of survival was to leave the planet itself.
Cult founders Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles proclaimed that they were, in fact, extraterrestrial walk-ins--beings whose souls had left the body and been replaced with a new soul. They advised their followers to ascend to the Next Level, which involved eliminating everything considered human from their lives, including family, sexuality, jobs, and material possessions.
When Hale-Bopp[ed] appeared in 1997, the founders told the followers that a spaceship was trailing the comet. Those who followed them into death would be saved from the great recycling. And so, 38 people were ordered by Applewhite to commit suicide in order to board the spaceship.
They ingested a mixture of phenobarbital and applesauce, washing down the deadly mixture with vodka and wrapping their heads in plastic bags to induce asphyxiation. Authorities discovered the bodies of the members plus Applewhite on March 26, 1997. All 39 were dressed in identical sweat pants, black shirts and brand new black-and-white Nike shoes. Armband patches reading "Heaven's Gate Away Team" graced their sleeves, an allusion to the fictional universe of Star Trek.