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© History Oasis
The disturbing world of notorious cult leaders, from Jim Jones to Dwight York.
We’ve put together a list to show their shocking histories and the bizarre facts that defined their controversial legacies.
Jim Jones was an American cult leader who founded the Peoples Temple and orchestrated a mass murder-suicide of over 900 followers in Jonestown, Guyana in 1978.
He performed fake faith healings using chicken gizzards to simulate tumors, and that he forced his followers to rehearse mass deaths multiple times before the final deadly event.
Charles Manson was an American criminal and cult leader who orchestrated a series of brutal murders in 1969, including the killing of pregnant actress Sharon Tate.
Manson had connections to the Beach Boys, even recording a song with them, before he formed his infamous "Family" and embarked on a murderous spree driven by his apocalyptic "Helter Skelter" philosophy.
David Koresh, born Vernon Wayne Howell, was a controversial cult leader who claimed to be the final prophet of the Branch Davidians, a religious sect based near Waco, Texas.
His leadership ended in a tragic 51-day siege by federal authorities in 1993, which culminated in a deadly fire at the Mount Carmel compound.
This resulted in the deaths of 79 Branch Davidians including Koresh himself—amid allegations of child abuse, polygamy, and weapons stockpiling.
Marshall Applewhite, founder of the Heaven's Gate cult, led 38 followers to commit mass self-inflicting deaths in 1997, believing they would board an alien spaceship hiding behind the Hale-Bopp comet.
In preparation for their "ascension," Applewhite and several male followers underwent voluntary castration. All members wore identical clothing and Nike sneakers when they died.
Shoko Asahara, born Chizuo Matsumoto, founded the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo and masterminded the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack that killed 13 people and injured thousands.
The cult had also manufactured enough sarin to potentially kill 4 million people, developed a failed anthrax bioweapon, and even attempted to build 1,000 AK-74 assault rifles.
Sun Myung Moon was a controversial South Korean religious leader who founded the Unification Church, claimed to be the Messiah, and gained notoriety for officiating mass wedding ceremonies involving thousands of couples.
Moon was honored at an event in the U.S. Senate office building where he was crowned "King of Peace" while wearing a golden crown—despite his previous conviction for tax evasion and accusations of brainwashing followers.
L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, led a controversial life filled with outlandish claims and bizarre incidents, including allegedly practicing black magic rituals with rocket scientist Jack Parsons and later claiming to have "broken up black magic in America."
Perhaps most shockingly, Hubbard created a paramilitary organization called the Sea Org, where he reportedly punished members by confining them in the chain locker of ships.
He even allegedly ordered a 4-year-old boy to be locked in one for two days and nights.
Rajneesh (also known as Osho) was a controversial Indian guru who founded a large spiritual movement in the 1970s-80s, attracting thousands of Western followers to his ashram in India and later to a commune in Oregon.
His organization engaged in shocking activities including attempting to rig local elections by infecting salad bars with salmonella, amassing a fleet of 93 Rolls-Royces for the guru, and allegedly plotting to assassinate public officials. He was eventually deported from the United States.
Keith Raniere, founder of NXIVM, was convicted in 2019 of sex trafficking, forced labor, and racketeering for running a cult-like organization that branded women and kept them as "sex slaves."
Raniere sexually abused underage girls, forced women to be branded with his initials, and collected blackmail material from members to ensure their compliance.
Warren Jeffs, the former leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), was convicted of child sexual assault and sentenced to life in prison for his role in arranging marriages between underage girls and adult men.
At the height of his power, Jeffs reportedly had up to 78 wives, including girls as young as 12, and controlled a secretive polygamist community where he reassigned wives and children between men.
He predicted apocalyptic events, and maintained his authority even while imprisoned through revelations he claimed to receive from God.
Joseph Di Mambro was a French cult leader who co-founded the Order of the Solar Temple, a group that blended New Age beliefs with Templar traditions.
Di Mambro orchestrated a mass murder in 1994, which included ordering the murder of a 3-month-old baby he believed to be the Antichrist, simply because the child shared a similar name to his own daughter and he hadn't been consulted on the naming.
Adolfo Constanzo was a Cuban-American serial killer, drug dealer, and cult leader who operated in Mexico during the 1980s, leading a group known as the Narcosatanists. They combined drug trafficking with occult practices and human sacrifice.
Constanzo's cult murdered at least 15 people, including American student Mark Kilroy, and used their victims' body parts in ritualistic ceremonies involving a cauldron containing items such as a human brain and a dead black cat, all in the belief that these sacrifices would provide magical protection for their drug operations.
Bonnie Nettles, co-founder of the Heaven's Gate cult, believed she communicated with aliens and a 19th-century monk named Brother Francis before meeting Marshall Applewhite in 1972, leading to the formation of their UFO-based religious group.
Despite Nettles' conviction that she couldn't die, she succumbed to cancer in 1985. This prompted Applewhite to shift the cult's theology from physical ascension to heaven via UFO to viewing the body as a disposable "vehicle" for the soul—a change that ultimately culminated in the group's infamous mass murders in 1997.
Ervil LeBaron, known as the "Mormon Manson," was a polygamist cult leader who ordered the killings of at least 25 people, including his own brother and pregnant teenage daughter, using the doctrine of blood atonement to justify the murders.
Even after his imprisonment and death, LeBaron's influence continued through a 400-page "bible" he wrote in prison, which included a hit list that led to simultaneous murders years later, known as the "4 O'Clock Murders."
Yahweh ben Yahweh, born Hulon Mitchell Jr., was the founder of the Nation of Yahweh, a controversial religious movement that gained thousands of followers in Florida during the 1980s.
Despite initially earning respect for his business and charity efforts—including having a day named after him by Miami's mayor—Yahweh ben Yahweh was later convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and served 11 years in prison for his involvement in a case where his followers were linked to over a dozen murders—including some committed by a former NFL player.
Claude Vorilhon, born in 1946, was a French pop singer and sports car journalist before claiming an extraterrestrial encounter in 1973 that led him to found the Raëlian Movement, a UFO religion.
Rebranding himself as Raël, he promoted controversial ideas like human cloning and "sensual meditation," participated in professional auto racing in the 1990s, and faced legal troubles and government bans.
All while asserting that advanced alien scientists called Elohim created all life on Earth through DNA manipulation.
Anne Hamilton-Byrne, the founder of an Australian cult known as "The Family," claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and led a group that illegally adopted children, dyed their hair blonde, and administered LSD to them as part of an initiation ritual.
Despite amassing a fortune estimated at A$50 million and evading authorities for years, Hamilton-Byrne was eventually arrested in 1993. But only received a $5,000 fine for making a false declaration.
Credonia Mwerinde, a former shopkeeper, brewer, and prostitute, co-founded the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God in Uganda, which grew to have thousands of followers based on her claims of Marian apparitions and apocalyptic predictions.
Mwerinde is believed to have orchestrated a mass murder of over 500 followers in a church fire when her doomsday prophecies failed to materialize, after which she disappeared and remains wanted by Ugandan authorities.
Jeffrey Lundgren, a self-proclaimed prophet and cult leader, murdered a family of five in Kirtland, Ohio in 1989, believing it was necessary to "prune the vineyard" before seizing the Kirtland Temple for Christ's second coming.
Lundgren attempted to delay his 2006 execution by claiming his obesity would make lethal injection cruel and unusual punishment, but was ultimately put to death after exhausting his appeals.
Dwight York, born in 1945, founded several black nationalist and religious groups before establishing the Nuwaubian Nation, a UFO religion that combined elements of black supremacism, cryptozoology, and conspiracy theories.
In 2004, York was convicted of child molestation and racketeering in what is believed to be the largest child molestation case ever prosecuted against a single person in the United States, with over 200 counts involving dozens of children, and he is currently serving a 135-year sentence while claiming to be an extraterrestrial from the planet Rizq.
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