These dangerous cult leaders have charmed, lied and brainwashed their followers into committing unimaginable acts of devotion.
Not all cults are inherently dangerous; in fact, most new religious movements from the mid-1800s forward have been called 'cults' at some point. The trouble lies in the limited worldview that cults can inculcate, which in turn makes it difficult for members to see their actions as anything but normal – even when they include mass suicides, attacks, and abductions. In a sociological sense, such groups are small to international networks of people who share deviant beliefs. In practice, though, they are usually centered on charismatic personalities with an appetite for violence and disruption.
The following six men number among the most delusional – and most dangerous – such cult leaders.
Jim Jones – The People's Temple
By 1977, Jonestown faced growing scrutiny for scarce supplies, armed guards, preaching-by-loudspeaker, and regular suicide drills. The following year, former members even asked the US government for help in ending the cult and regaining their families in Jonestown. The following year, a California Congressman visited the cult and offered safe passage for any defectors, but he and 4 others were gunned down at their airstrip. On November 18th, on Jones' orders, over 900 remaining members committed the largest mass suicide in history, drinking cyanide and Valium-laced Kool Aid at the Jonestown Massacre. Jones, meanwhile, shot himself among his closest followers – following them to death.
Charles Manson – The Family
Together, they terrorized Hollywood with a murderous campaign that started with director Roman Polanski's house. There, his core followers – Charles "Tex" Watxon, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian – stabbed and killed Polanski's pregnant wife Sharon Tate, using her blood to write "pig" on the front door. They also shot, stabbed, and killed would-be witness Steven Parent and Tate's friends – stylist Jay Sebring, writer Wojciech Frykowski, and heiress Abigail Folger. Kasabian, though, was too horrified to participate and later served as a star witness. The Family's reign of terror continued with supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, whose deaths were to fuel the coming race war. However, they were caught after vandalizing Death Valley National Park. Manson himself was never found guilty of committing murder, but he remains in Corcoran State Prison in California, where every application for parole has been denied.
David Koresh – Branch Davidians
By the 1990s, Koresh claimed to be the voice of God and to have cracked the Book of Revelations' Seven Seals. He moved his followers to their Waco compound and preached the need for an "Army of God" with a cache of weapons to face the coming apocalypse. Koresh also instructed his followers in the practice of spiritual weddings, by which God chose brides of all ages for him. After investigations into sexual abuse, the FBI and Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, & Firearms raided the compound on February 28, 1993, leading to a 4-hour gunfight and 51-day standoff ending with 76 dead and Koresh having shot himself.
Shoko Asahara – Aum Shinrikyo
By the 1990s, Asahara had recruited 10,000 followers who believed that he was a savior and future emperor. They used political organizations to influence the government after failing to get their members into elected office but eventually released sarin gas in the Tokyo Subway System in 1995. With 13 dead and thousands injured, the crime led to dozens of members' arrests, including Asahara and his wife. Police soon discovered live captives, drugs, explosives, weapons, and chemical weapons including anthrax and large stores of sarin gas. Asahara's trial lasted from 1996 to 2004 due to a scandal involving a defense attorney, but he was finally convicted. The cult's remaining members distanced themselves from him and denounced terrorism – becoming Aleph in 2002.
Joseph Di Mambro – Order of the Solar Temple
In the 1980s, the OST moved from Switzerland to Quebec, where membership peaked around 400. However, Di Mambro's heavy hand in naming children and choosing who could even have children led to declining membership. Even after the sect returned to Switzerland in 1991, his claims that his children were divinely conceived led to tension. In September of 1994, two members killed themselves in a Quebec chalet after murdering former members, the Dutoit's, and their infant son, whom Di Mambro saw as the antichrist. Meanwhile, in Switzerland, Di Mambro and Jouret's inner circle staged a last supper before setting fire to their buildings in Cheiry and Granges-Sur-Salvan. Around 100 died in the flames, with most perishing by tranquilizers, gunshots, and asphyxiation. Jouret and Di Mambo believed the flames would send them to a new planet, but it only revealed their underground, mirror-lined chapel, filled with the bodies of the OST's doomed inner circle.
Marshall Applewhite & Bonnie Lu Nettles – Heaven's Gate
As members of "A Level Above Human", the duo made national news and narrowed their group to the most dedicated. When Nettles died of cancer in 1983, Heaven's Gate lived on through unusual diets, castration, and gender-neutral clothing. They soon moved to a mansion, "The Monastery", in San Diego, California, and established a successful computer business to support their ads and Beyond Human: The Last Call videos. In March 1997, 38 followers took their lives using phenobarbital and asphyxiation to reach the spaceship hidden in the Hale-Bopp comet's tail. To this day, representatives maintain their website.
Please do not confuse which is right and wrong - Grey
We don't even like outsiders anyway - Purple
Some of humanity's faith is really nonexistent or there are no faith - Black
