FACULTY OF EDUCATION
Masaryk University
Diploma Thesis
SECT AND SUICIDE IN CONTAMPORARY U.S.A.
Spring 2015
Supervisor: Student:
Michael George, MA Bc. Terezie Marková
Acknowledgements:
I would like to thank my supervisor Mr. Michael George, M.A. for the patient guidance and valuable advice he provided me with during the writing of this thesis. Further, I would like to thank my children Kristýna and Josef and my friend Jana Braborcová, who supported me practically and emotionally.
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Terezie Marková
Abstract:
The thesis attempts to map the history of violent and suicidal cults in the USA. In particular, it focuses on the circumstances and conditions that resulted in the voluntary death of the members of these cults. The aim is to uncover the roots of violence in a community of people and the process during which a person becomes absolutely dependent. The special interest is paid to the personal convictions of the survivors in different periods of their lives.
Key words:
Sect, cult, community, group, violence, suicide, guru, cult members, dependence, faith
Language used:
English
Declaration:
I proclaim that I worked in my diploma thesis on my own and I used only the materials that are stated in the reference list.
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Terezie Marková 1
Introduction. The United States – Melting Pot 3
1. People Searching Their Way 4
2. Sects and Dangerous Sects 5
2.1. Faith, Religion and Sect 6
3. The Leaders 7
3.1 Jim Jones 8
3.2 David Koresh 11
3.3 Marshall Applewhite 13
4. Peoples Temple 16
4.1 People of the Cult 16
4.2. Peoples Temple in the U.S.A 23
4.3 Jonestown, Guyana 25
4.3.1 Life in Jonestown 28
4.4 Leo Ryan´s visit of Jonestown and the end of the cult 30
4.5. Conspirational theories 33
5. Branch Davidians 34
5.1 Branch Davidians – the Beginning 35
5.2 Life in Branch Davidians´ Community 36
5.3 Survivors from Waco 42
5.3.1 Misty Ferguson 42 2
5.3.2 Clive Doyle, Catherine Mattison, Sheila Martin, Ofelia Satoyo 42
5.3.3 Livingstone Fagan 45
5.3.4 Different point of view – Deborah Brown 46
6. Heaven´s Gate 46
6.1. Life of Heaven´s Gate Members 48
6.2 Philosophy of Heaven´s Gate 50
6.3 The End of Heaven´s Gate 51
6.4 Heaven´s Gate Surviving Members
6.4.1 Rio DiAngelo 52
6.4.2 Other survivors of Heaven´s Gate 57
6.4.3 Heaven´s Gate web pages still active 58
6.4.4 Sawyerhg´s blog 60
7. Psychology of pressure in cults and religious groups 61
7.1 Modern approach to manipulation and violence in cults and religious groups 63
Conclusion 63
Sources 65
3
MOTTO:
“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” (King James Bible, Mathew 7:15)
Introduction
The United States – Melting Pot
The world of today is miscellaneous, colourful, and astonishing. Nevertheless, sometimes people have to face to unexpected and painful troubles to which they are not prepared at all.
One of the most dangerous phenomena, a collective suicide, belongs to such problems.
The rare cases always shock the world. Deep knowledge of the issue is essentially the only prevention.
The selected area of this research is the United States, the scene of the most known cases. In particular, I intend to analyse the personality of the “gurus” who led their “flocks” and the reasons for such a blind obedience, which as a consequence led to the deaths of the hundreds of people.
There is no other country whose history is so complicated like developing and forming the United States of America. There is no country where, actually, nationalities and races from all over the world blend and co-exist together.
Native Amero-Indians had to cope with the influence of European settlers, who brought their culture and tried to learn them their way of life, thinking that it was the best way of solving the problems, caused by the differences of the two worlds.
Soon another culture was brought to America together with slaves from Africa. The
Afro-Americans were able to inherit their habits for generations. Other influences from other 4 parts of the world, e.g. the Chinese, who came to America to find a better life like the
Europeans from all possible European countries
All these nationalities have kept their cultural habits and religious traditions for generations. Christianity soon prevailed. The Jews, who came predominantly from Europe, brought Judaism. But Buddhism has been spread as well. Old Amero-Indian cults have never been forgotten and Shamanism and Animism attract people of today.
1. People Searching Their Way
No wonder, that inside such a various society, people meet different beliefs or philosophies much more often than in any other country. Especially those, who are not satisfied with their lives.
Anytime and anywhere, there have always been people in need, unlucky, suffering from diseases, with lots problems, desperate. There have always been such problems like homelessness, poverty, segregation, fatal diseases, accidents and disasters. People feel that this is not fair, that the world, society, system, church, God ... there is no justice! Economic crisis and major social changes in various countries are probably the consequences of crucial moments. However, such instances occur even in the most peaceful times. Most Czechs remember the incomprehensible “Kuřim Affair” a few years ago (Mokrý, “Kauza Kuřim: případ, který nemá v Česku obdoby,) or the situation regarding Imanuelits – Dvorský alias
Parcifal Imanuel. Luckily, the stories did not end with the death of the protagonists. (Křemen,
“Boj se sektou”) 5
But what is the reason which leads not only young, seeking, naive and inexperienced, but also experienced, well-educated and well-off people to the clutches of the sects. There is something wrong in the society where such a situation may arise.
When children feel that they are lacking something in the family, in which relations are not satisfactory, they try to find a balance in their lives and answers to their questions elsewhere. Having no opinion they cannot resist the pressure of intrusive faith interpreters, who introduce them quite a new world, loving community quite different from their families, a new way of life and philosophy that seems to have a solution to all problems and answer any questions in the world. It is not so easy to warn people against solving their problems like that, but people, especially young, should know about the dangers that can happen and be able to resist such “loving gurus”. The personalities of the leaders have many identical features and the way of life in communities is usually very similar. There is a way to detect that a person is manipulated or could be manipulated in time. The possible victim is able to resist only if their knowledge is adequate.
2. Sects and Dangerous Sects
In the second half of the twentieth century, most cases occurred in the United States, no matter how developed the country is. The most shocking cases were characterized by names such as Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple, David Koresh and his Davidians and Marshall
Applewhite´s Heaven´s Gate, but there were also some others.
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2.1. Faith, Religion and Sect
Most people believe in something. Even those who feel themselves to be atheists believe that there is something like a kind of “higher power” that could affect their lives. Personal belief is part of human´s personality and most people even in such country like the Czech
Republic, which is considered to be the most atheistic society in all over the world (WIN-
Gallup International, GLOBAL INDEX OF RELIGIOSITY AND ATHEISM – 2012, p. 4), proclaim that they believe in “something”. They cannot define this “something”, but due to the development and official propaganda during forty years of the rule of the communist party they probably feel ashamed to call it “God”. To believe in God or to be a member of a church is seen as a strange oddity or a sign of a low level of education by lots of people. At school we were taught that the believers were naive, not too intelligent individuals, mostly older women.
“Science is in irreconcilable conflict with religion. Religion since its beginning acts as unscientific belief”. (Brychnáč a kol.. 341)
Everything what was religious or non-materialistic was defined as unscientific. (Jandourek, p.
79). Nevertheless, the reminders of the old way of life have not been overcome”, stated communist leaders (Jandourek 80)
On the other hand, personal belief is usually affected by the culture and the most spread religion of the specific country, where the individual was grown. To find the exact definition of “religion” seems to be impossible. The word in English and most other European languages come from the Latin word “religio” which means “reverence for the gods”. Nevertheless, the word means much more. We need more dimensions to understand various religions.
Probably M. Langley describes the most exact characteristic of religion. There are at least six dimensions, which define religion:
1. Doctrine – the system which explains the reality
2. Myth – the stories about God, the Creation, etc 7
3. Ethic
4. Ceremonies, rituals
5. Opinion
6. Social dimension
(Langley, Allan, Butterworth 12)
Religions can be also divided into the groups of monotheistic religions, the most spread are
Christianity, Judaism, Islam (quite new Bahá´ism, the fusion of the previous three ones) and polytheistic religions like Buddhism, animism and a lot of others.
Nevertheless, sometimes in a church or religious community, a group appears, which bears some characteristics of a sect. Such a group usually, later or earlier, sets themselves aside the original group.
3. The Leaders
The first most important feature of sects is, basically, their leaders. The personalities that have been the souls and brains of the community. Their psychology is always unusual and very complicated. They tend to be intolerant, utilitarian and antidemocratic, in spite of the fact, that they glorify democracy. (Storr 15)
Nevertheless, the question is, why so many people were willing to follow them. Why they have dedicated their lives, families, friends, properties, jobs, hobbies, why they refused any advice. Why they were willing to give up everything and give up even their own lives. Why did their natural instincts completely fail, why they were able to kill their own children in the name of the ideology or because of their “Father” ordered or wished that.
8
Aspects that form a personality, usually consist of family, the environment in which they grew up and other effects.
All the sources that speak about the childhood of Jim Jones, David Koresh and Marshall
Applewhite emphasise loneliness, a lack of care and love, poor conditions and irresponsible parents. As children they were not accepted by their mates. They were not popular with teachers, too. (Storr 32; 38)
Generally said, they were not good students (David Koresh was even considered to be mentally disabled). (Storr 32)
3.1. Jim Jones
The first personality whose early years affected the later activities is Jones, who led to the fatal end the most numerous group.
James Warren “Jim” Jones was born on May 13, 1931 in Crete, Indiana. His childhood was probably quite lonely. His father James Thurman Jones was a partly disabled World War I veteran. He was an active member of Ku-Klux-Klan, where he spent most of his time. He had only a little interest to his son. (Elsass 129)
His mother had a variety of jobs. She probably had to go out for work, as she became a breadwinner for the family. So Jones was largely left himself and he felt alone. He had dark,
Asiatic appearance, which made him an outsider in the provincial town.
(Jones J. W.” Bio”)
Jones described himself as a lonely person and a “fanatic reader”. Mrs. Kennedy, the neighbour of the family, who mostly took of him, influenced his religious imagination since the early years. She often took him to the church. At about 10, he started to visit various churches and thought a lot about what he learned. He also started preaching to other children 9 and became better and better at public speaking. He often held funeral services for dead animals, which he allegedly found. Nevertheless, the others believed, that he found dead animals so often, that he probably killed some of them himself. (Rosenberg, “Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple”)
All of these facts probably influenced him a lot. As a teenager, he did not like common activities like sports. Dancing and drinking, he believed to be “sinful”.
(Jones J. W.,”Bio”)
Jones worked well at school, his IQ was evaluated from 115 – 118 points. (Storr 24)
Nevertheless, he concentrated his energy to the target he set off. He studied the works of
Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler, making notes of their strengths and weaknesses. (“Jim Jones´
Death“)
It is not clear what Jones really wanted when he grown up. He got married very early.
He met his wife Marceline Baldwin in the hospital, where he had a job. They had the wedding on June 12 1949, Jones was only 18 years old then. Nevertheless, nothing indicated any wrong thoughts or harmful intentions. Marceline gave birth to one child only, but they adopted children of various nationalities, racial and social background. One child was black, one white, one partly Native American and three Korean children. That was his way how to show to the world his ideas about racial equality of the mankind. (Lewis 96 – 97)
During his young days he was probably trying to find his own way. As I mentioned, he visited a lot of churches and tried to compare them. He made a special extract of all the religious beliefs and philosophical ideas he knew or read about in his mind. Nonetheless, he studied also communist and socialistic ideologies, which were quite close to him. (Hall 15;
17)
Only a couple of years after he marriage, he got a job at the Somerset Methodist Church in Indianapolis. He was a good, probably charismatic speaker and his reputation gradually 10 grew. His intention was holding racially integrated church services, but in the predominantly white neighbourhood his church did not have a deep interest in it. Consequently, Jones started his own community, which was called Wings of Deliverance Church in 1955. The religious group soon became known as Peoples Temple. (“Wings of Deliverance Corporate
Papers“ Alternative Consideration of Jonestown & Peoples Temple. 2013)
To attract more and more companions, he bought some time in the local radio for his sermons. When he moved his group in the mid 1960th to California, more than 100 members followed him. The following 10 years he expanded more and more, creating his own typical image, wearing black glasses, dark suits and slick-back dark hair.
His early life, his family, social background and probably even the political situation in the United States led Jones to his way. Jones as a child or teenager was strongly impacted by both social and injustice. He felt that he must be quite different from his father and his racist ideas. He turned off the atmosphere of the province town with the simple people, who were contemptuous and indifferent to him. That had to be especially difficult for him, as he felt himself as an exceptional personality and longed to be respected and admired.
Ideas proclaiming fairness, equality and justice for all the people has always became something that attracted sensitive people who felt themselves to be oppressed.
After all, these were ideas that Jesus preached, ideas that caused splitting up of the Catholic
Church and creating various reformation movements during European history. These ideas have always had enough followers. (Storr 25)
Jones himself called his community “Rainbow Family”. The “coloured” inhabitants, who considered him like an adherent of Martin Luther King and other personalities fighting against racial segregation. Nevertheless, Jones, who was latently mentally ill, was excellent at manipulating, especially emotional blackmail of his companions. One of his childhood mates 11 remembered that Jones loved visits of his friends, but, when one boy wanted to finish his visit earlier and leave, he almost shot him. (Storr 30)
He did not tolerate any opposition or disagreeing. That obsession culminated in
Jonestown where people were physically punished even because of a little suspicious of some behaviour that was prohibited. Finally, his followers were really “equal”, but as slaves. The strict rules he set in the community were intended to them only, not for Jones and a few of his favourites.
Was he really convinced that he is the chosen one, who brings a paradise to the Earth?
Probably, he was only fascinated by his own power, which finally killed him and all his community.
However, how strong can a man be to convince other people to do things that they would never even think about. He sexually abused any members of the group, always having an explanation for that. He ordered cruelly beatings, even for young children. Parents of the children listened to their crying and watched the torturing. Finally, he managed even to break the most basic human instinct – to survive, let survive and protect their children. Mothers killed their own babies or did not protect them from being killed. The most elemental human instinct, the maternal instinct, completely failed. (Storr 30; Jones; J. W. “Bio”)
3.2. David Koresh
Another “charismatic” leader who caused the death of his followers, even if he did not want to commit a collective suicide, was David Koresh.
But David Koresh was not his real name. He was born as Vernon Wayne Howell. His mother was only 14. He never knew his father and was brought up by his grandparents. He described himself as a lonely child. His schoolmates nicknamed him “Mr. Retardo”. He suffered from 12 dyslexia, nevertheless he learned reading phonetically. Some sources also proclaim that he was a bad student and dropped out of high school. (“Biography: David Koresh.“)
Professor Dick J. Reavis, journalist and activist who collected and elaborated lots of materials about events around Branch Davidians and Waco siege quotes that Koresh himself claims that he had failed the first grade twice and the second grade as well, so he attended a special school. Consequently, he and his schoolmates were bullied by other children from the same school. They called them “retarded kids”. But, when he was crying because of that, his mother explained him that he just had a learning disability. (Reavis 25)
Other sources say that he was an average student. However, he suffered from similar feelings like Jones. As young, Vernon also often visited the church, being taken there quite often by his grandmother. He also liked reading the Bible. His mother remembers that “he even managed to memorize The New Testament by his own when he was only 12. "He would go out in the barn and pray for hours," his mother recalled. "I've seen him sitting by his bed, on his knees for hours, crying and praying. “(Treen, “Zealot of God”)
Also, he was good at speaking, since his teens and liked to held speech to younger boys.
There was hardly any male representative in his childhood who could be seen as his ideal. His mother re-married, nevertheless Koresh did not get well with his stepfather, Roy Haldeman.
In fact, his mother, Bonnie, who left school in Houston, Texas because of her pregnancy, married another man, who had beaten two-year –old Vernon. Luckily for the child, the marriage collapsed soon. For some time Bonnie left her son and he lived together with her parents. When he was five, she married Roy. David Koresh called him a shady character.
(Reavis 23) Roy often spanked his stepson. David talked about him as “unfeeling and cold".
(Reavis 24). Nevertheless, his family, including mother, stepfather and half brother were guests at Mount Carmel and when Koresh was dying, he made a telephone call to his mother:
“Hello, Mamma. It´s your boy. They shot me and I´am dying, alright? But I´ll be back soon, 13 okay? I´m sorry you didn´t learn the Seals, but I´ll be merciful, okay? I´ll see ya´ll in the skies”. (“Beverley, Waco: Q & A, 5”).
All of these facts show that both Jones and Koresh were psychically harmed by the absence of the kind, but strong father or a person who would substitute him. Both of them may have longed for such a strong, kind personality, who knows what to do in every situation, that they transformed themselves in their mind into “fathers” of their groups, in spite of the fact that they treated their “sheep” cruelly very often. Both of them were intoxicated by their powers. Both of them could never stand even a shadow of disagreeing or the individuality of their sheep. According to Gallanter, “argues that outbreaks of extreme cultic violence can be linked to four conditions: isolation, grandiosity and paranoia, absolute domination and government mismanagement.”(1999: 179-184, in Lewis 151)
On the other hand, Hall, Schuyler and Trinh oppose than more than from inside the violence comes from “relationship between movement and social order. (1998, 2000 in Lewis
152)
3.3. Marshall Applewhite
On the contrary, Marshall Applewhite´s childhood was not so dramatic. He was a son of a Presbyterian Minister. His sister, Louise Winant remembered him as a lively boy.
“He was usually the president of everything. He was always a born leader and very charismatic. He could get people to believe anything. He was quite the family comic at times.
He knew how to do something he called an elephant walk that would always get everyone laughing.” (Holliman, CNN. Applewhite:From young overachiever to cult leader)
It is worth to mention that Applewhite was also a very talented musician who had a very beautiful voice. That may have helped him to gain his followers. He also taught music at the
University of St. Thomas in Houston and sung many roles in musicals and even operas. 14
“He was just a very loving, wonderful brother.” (Holliman, “Applewhite: From young overachiever to cult leader”)
He married and had two children and lived quite a conventional life, but Applewhite´s family life is not described in any sources in details. Nevertheless, he hid his homosexual orientation and had some affairs with men. According to LeDuc he was fired from one of them from the University of St. Thomas because one of them. He left his family for good in
1965 and in 1968 he and his wife divorced. When his father died in 1972 his emotional problems worsened. (Chryssides 5)
LeDuc states that he was cured in mental hospital then, as he heard voices, suffered from depression and he wanted to rid of his homosexual orientation
His companion, Bonnie Nettles and Applewhite met, according to him, in the hospital, when he went to visit his friend. His sister described the meeting differently. Applewhite had some heart problems and was treated in the hospital, where he had near-death experience. One of the medical staff in the hospital convinced him to join into her group. As Applewhite had always been interested in mysticism, he did. (Holliman, CNN. Applewhite: From young overachiever to cult leader)
Originally, Bonnie used to be a Baptist, but she became a member of the Houston
Theosophical Society and took part in meditation groups´ meetings. (Chryssides, p. 5)
Applewhite and Nettles created a very closed partnership, which lasted until Bonnie´s death.
Both of them divorced and left their families. Bonnie was three years older than Applewhite and had four children. They lived in a sexless partnership and created their new religion. First, they travelled along the country, sometimes had problems with money, sometimes they managed to convince some other people to join them on their journey. They were also accused of defrauding some money and stealing a car. But nothing prevented them from spreading their thoughts and gaining more and more people willing to share their ideas. 15
(Holliman, “Applewhite: From young overachiever to cult leader”)
Nevertheless, Applewhite had never appeared to be so cruel, sadistic or sexually aggressive like the other two mentioned leaders, Jones and Koresh. He only manipulated his sheep in a very sophisticated psychological way. This fact shows, that not only Koresh and
Jones, who finally behaved very cruelly and tortured not only psychically, but also physically even the youngest children or old people had the power to do their “herds” to do exactly what they wanted. Even such a soft, very complicated manipulation can convince well educated, reasonable people, who were allowed to leave the community anytime they wanted can force them to do something unbelievable.
While in Jonestown some people did not have any other choice and some were probably murdered, at least children and older or disabled people. In Santa Fe people even died during three days in three ways, disciplined and determined, leaving videotapes in which some of them were explaining what they are going to do.
One of the members who survived the event, even committed a suicide a year later, as he wanted “to join the rest of the crew” (Chryssides 4)
Psychiatrist Alfred Honig, an author of “The Waking Nightmare” and one of the US leading experts on schizophrenic behaviour gave an interview on March 31st, 1997 for magazine Salon. He explains that “there it is a very close relationship between religious mystics and schizophrenics.” The inner conflict of his hidden sexual orientation contributed to the development of hearing the “inner voices”, typical for schizophrenia. Applewhite is compared with Jim Jones and David Koresh. According to psychiatrist Honig, it is the power that “corrupts them. They break down and become psychotic.”
“We are going to be murdered. And when we are, after a three and a half days, we´re going to walk out into life in the next level above human.” (Broder, “Marshall Applewites´ Cry for
Help”) 16
Mr. Honig was also asked if it is possible to stop such psychotics who lead their followers to the death, especially, when Koresh and Jones reported what they would do. He answered that it was a fact that such people were assessed as “unusual and gifted” by some others and such interference is disrupted by too much freedom in the modern world.
He also answers the questions about the reason, which lead so large number of people to follow their “gurus” even to the deadly end. According to him, it was “cloning” the members, who were wearing the same dark clothes, the same haircut etc., that helped to manipulate them. They were kept in isolation, convinced, that the Doomsday is just coming, disillusioned, thinking that the “whole world is against them”. (Broder, “Marshall Applewites´ Cry for
Help”)
Applewhite´s psychical state and diagnosis is also described in J. Michael Mahoney´s work bout schizophrenia:
“Marshall Appplewhite was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, the direct consequence of his severe bisexual conflict and gender identity confusion. As the result of this illness, he was the catalyst leading directly to the deaths of 38 other people, himself included, ina mass suicide” (Mahoney 367)
According to Daily Mail, Applewhite was aware of his mental illness, having the records of his medical tests. The crisis culminated a few weeks before the suicide.
(Zennie, “New Age Followers…”)
4. Peoples Temple
4.1. People of the Cult
The cult, that eventually finished with a horrific, unbelievable and bizarre event - one of the most numerous collective suicides in the modern history of mankind. What power can 17 convince mothers to murder or let murder their own children? Why did it happen? Why nobody stopped the development of the events? Didn´t the community people have any relatives, friends, wasn´t there anybody being interested in their faith? Yes, there were such people.
One of them was Deborah Layton, a young woman, who eventually knew about the danger. It was she who convinced the officers to send the group of reporters and Senator Ryan to visit Jonestown in Guayana and test the conditions people lived in. Unfortunately, it was either too late and the safety of the visitors was not ensured enough, because there were so deep fears about it. More than 900 people died, 272 of them were children. But some people survived and were able to give evidence what had happened.
Deborah Layton, one of the cult members who were quite closed to Jones, wrote a book,
Seductive Poison about her life in the community, about Peoples Temple and Jones himself.
Lisa, Deborah´s mother, a German Jew, escaped from Holocaust in 1938 and safely lived in the U.S.A., but finally died by the violent death either. The events of the Second
World War deeply influenced her life and the way of thinking. (Layton 5 – 12)
She was in fact desperate and Deborah even did not know for a long time that her mother is a Jew. Deborah, her youngest child used to be a bit spoilt as a teenager and felt some problems in the family. (Layton 16 – 19)
When she met Jones she was strongly affected by his world. It was her brother who introduced her to the community. She saw happy people who were equal members of the community. She saw all the enthusiasm of people who were waiting to speak to Jones in person. She witnessed an alleged healing of an elderly woman during the first meeting. She was also amazed by the ideas of racial equality, real equality, as people, in fact, were segregated in fact. Jones criticised such problems like school segregation, differences between possibilities given to various groups of people. He also criticised Vietnam War and the 18 policies of the U.S.A. His imagination of an equal society, where there are no differences between people of any racial, social or economic background seemed to be attractive, especially for young people. His strange mixture of communism, socialism, Christianity and some other ideologies and religious emphasised everything what people dream about, nevertheless, the way how to achieve such society have always been impossible. Deborah even overcame such facts that Jones proclaimed himself to be the reincarnation of Lenin in one of his past lives and she could not understand well to the mixture and contradictions in all these figments. (Layton 31–44)
Like in the past, when the experiments of creating a “classless” society failed or finished by a disaster, people in the community were losing their independence and freedom step by step and, finally, in the Guayna´s jungle, they lived like slaves.
But probably in Guyana the kind, emphatic, wise leader transformed into a devil, who cares only about himself. Who claims freedom, modesty, cooperation, working for the community, but behaves quite differently. A long report about the situation in Jonestown was published in
25th January, 1979 in Rolling Stone´s magazine. Tim Cahill, the author, caught very interesting details of the tragedy. He picked up Jones´ inconsistence in the way of life he lead and the way of life that he ordered to lead to his followers. A few survivors confirmed the cruel beatings, long working hours, twelve-hour shifts every day following with classes.
People were forced to inform about the others, to fall asleep or complain about food, which mostly consist of maggoty rice with wild beans was taken as a serious offence. The most heartbreaking messages were those about children who were injected when they refused to drink the poison, about mothers, who voluntarily killed their babies, about others, who desperately fought for their offspring s lives and their children were taken off from them.
Even the pets did not avoid to their faith, they were either poisoned or shot either. (Cahill, “In the Valley of the Shadow of Death: Guyana After the Jonestown Massacre”) 19
Deborah doubts about Jones started step by step. He proclaimed himself to be “the only real heterosexual man in the community, the only real man”. He probably needed to strengthen his ego. He needed to be higher than all the others. To persuade some man about their hidden homosexual feelings he made them to have sex with them. It seems unbelievable that the men did not try to resist. One of them even long years later proclaimed that it was necessary for him to become aware of his deeply hidden homosexuality. (Storr 29)
For the first time Deborah trusted in Jones so deeply, that she did not hesitate about his claims and ideas. She explained to herself by a very strange way when she could see the men in the community who appeared to be clear heterosexuals and behaved like that. She thought that they are not aware of their hidden homosexuality. Moreover, women of the community were forced to proclaim that they imagine only the Father (= Jones) when they are together with their husbands. Sex was presenting like something that turns people away from the work for the community. Nevertheless, he had sexual contacts with various members of the group, both men and women. (Layton 54)
Jones fanatically wanted to completely control the others. The first victim of his obsession was his wife Marceline, who later regretted her decision to marry him. (Storr 26)
Deborah also mentioned how she wondered when Jones claimed in Guayana that the community does not have enough money to feed the people well. She was several times sent to start accounts in various banks in all over the world where there were large amounts of money. So she could not understand why the people suffer from malnutrition. Moreover, quite a large number of Jonestown inhabitants were young children.
But the problem of food was not the only one. People could not express their own will.
They could not decide about their own children. Families were ordered what way to live and where to live, they were often separated. People had to work hard in the fields all day long.
They also had to listen to long Joneses sermons. When elderly people felt asleep during them, 20 they were cruelly punished. Public beating was one of the way of punishing people. Other cruel punishments were invented for children. But also psychological punishments were quite common.
Nevertheless, more than a year before the Guyana tragedy, two reporters Marshall
Kilduff and Phil Tracy described opinions of ten people who quit from the community in their article Inside Peoples Temple in New West Magazine on August 1, 1977. Finally, they appealed for investigation of Jim Jones´ activities. Unfortunately, their appeals were not heard strong enough.
Among them were Elmer and Deanna Mertle of Berkeley, who confirmed cruel punishments. One evening their 16-year old daughter was hit 75 times on her buttock because she hugged and kissed her woman friend, who was homosexual. It seems unbelievable, that the family stayed in the community for more a year after the public beating of their teenage daughter, because they did not have any property or where to live. They had sold their house before moving to Guyana. But they remembered how Jones changed. First, “he taught us to be compassionate to old people, tender to the children.” (Kilduff, Tracy 34)
Lara Cornelious remembered how Jones held a snake in front of an old woman, who was in her eighties. She was scared, screaming, but he was continuing to hold the snake.
Terri Gobb talked about “healings” of cancer that Jones and his helpers practised. Jones
“cured” people from cancer by taking small napkins where small pieces of meat or animal viscera were wrapped – the napkins were hidden in a bag. Teri felt shocked when she discovered that. (Kilduff, Tracy 36)
Antony Storr mentions such an intelligent and educated people like lawyers, who let themselves completely led by Jones. Tim Stoen, a lawyer, who without any critic or doubts admired Jones, signed a letter in which he asked Jones to make his wife pregnant, because he 21 was sterile. Consequently, the lawsuit concerning custody of John Victor Stoen lasted long and the boy finally died in Jonestown. (Storr 27)
Nevertheless, the Stoen family became known before the tragedy. Grace Stoen was one of the group of former members of the cult who also decided to speak and gave an interview for the New West magazine. She described her and her husband´s activities in the community.
They were among “prominent”. Grace joined the temple after her marriage with Timothy.
She became a “leader among the temple hierarchy” taking care of bills. So she was conscious about the cult´s finance. Grace also confessed that she was also responsible for giving Jones the names of people who should be disciplined. She also confirmed that she and her husband gave all their property to the cult.
Grace described Jones´s behaviour as well. According to her, Jones became “more and more impatient”. He gave more sermons, longer and longer and lots of meetings, during which the tired, exhausted people were ordered to listen carefully. Once, a man even got sick.
She proclaimed that, in fact, she had never been a real believer.
Grace did not speak about her son John in the text. Nevertheless, below her photograph in the article, there is a note, that “They (Jones and his cult) have her five-year-year old boy.”
Grace left the Peoples Temple in July 1976 without saying to her husband, as she was afraid, that he would say that to Jones. (Kilduff, Tracy 36–38)
The case proves how Jones was able to persuade even the most educated people.
In November 18th, 2011 in the magazine The Atlantic remembers Teri Buford O´Shea in the article Drinking the Kool-Aid: A survivor Remembers Jim Jones written by reporter Jennie
Rothenberg Gritz recovers 7 years of her life with the church and Jim Jones. She was only 19 when she joined the community in Redwood Valley, California, U.S.A. She was homeless that time, her mother suffered from schizophrenia. Teri describes the people of the community 22 who were the reason why she did not leave the community much earlier. She became one of
Jones´s numerous secretaries.
Gradually she was becoming aware of Jones´s paranoia, as his behaviour and reactions reminded her of her schizophrenic mother. He dictated her long letters of 20 pages to various offices or members who had left the community. She also noticed how Jones arranged false attacks. He had some people who pretended to shoot in the jungle. But, one day, when an aluminium roof slipped off one of the cottages, he was really scared. And she thought:
“Wait a second – why hasn´t he been terrified all these other times when people were supposedly attacking us with guns? Now a tin roof falls and he´s scared? That´s when she realized that the guns weren´t real.” (Gritz, “Drinking the Kool-Aid:A Survivor Remembers
Jim Jones”)
But Jones´mental state can be detected from a long typed list of instructions for his people. The orders are confused and confusing at the same time, the list is a strange mixture of practical instructions for everyday life, like a question about the term of finishing wooden benches in the complex, another one asks to ridiculous “pick up any cats in Georgetown and take them to Jonestown”, to various warnings – “Any Socialism teacher that allows students to go to the bathroom will go on the New Brigade”, “Don´t make announcements on the speakers when guests are here unless its cleared by JJ personally.” “People who sleep in service go automatically on the New Brigade”. (“Instructions for March 1979”)
Teri Buford O´Shea escaped from the cult only three weeks before the mass suicide.
She changed her name for several years. But the worst thing for her was that she had to cope with her past, with the fact, that all the people she lived with for seven years died. This is the reason why she decided to become a social worker who helps to handicapped people. She may have suffered from a similar syndrome like, for example, those people who survived
Nazi concentration camps in the Second World War. She may have had some horrible twinges 23 of conscience that she survived while all the others, including children died. Teri also mentions how impossible was to escape for people with children. Jones longed to have such boundless control over “his” people that they were forced to sign several blank sheets of paper in order to use them against those people in case they wanted to leave. That was the reason why it was practically impossible to get children out of Jonestown. Some people, who wanted to escape or escaped were made to go back later. It seems unbelievable that all those people signed the sheets that served for blackmailing them.
The people in the community came from all the spectrum of the society.
There could be found young adults of upper-middle class backgrounds, used to live in even luxurious conditions. They were well-educated intellectuals, who were thinking about social and racial equality, who were against the Vietnam war and were trying to find solutions.
Probably, Jones welcomed people coming from wealthy families, because he needed their money. (Gritz, “Drinking the Kool-Aid:A Survivor Remembers Jim Jones”)
Nevertheless, a larger number of them were Afro Americans who came from poor ghettos and expected much better life than that they had lived. Finally, there were both blacks and whites who came from strong fundamentalist religious families and were searching for something that seemed to be better understood, something, that seemed to be more modern, adapted to the new conditions of life, answering the present problems and their solving.
(“The Assassination of Representative Leo R. Ryan, People´s Temple, and Jonestown”.)
4.2. Peoples Temple in the U.S.A.
All sources agree that Peoples Temple started in April the 4th, 1955, when Jones and his followers, numbered at around 20, founded a new congregation, which was called The
Wings of Deliverance. (Maaga 2) 24
The name was soon changed into Peoples Temple. It was before Easter 1959. First they dealt predominantly with charitable activities, the problems of poverty and racial equality.
Jones and his wife Marceline adopted children of various racial backgrounds to promote the idea. The group enlarged, but their idea of their own “promised land” stayed still unsolved.
By July 15, 1965 the group moved to Ukiah, California, where they started their first community settlement, the very first “promised land” in their way. A lot of the members sold all their property to be able to join the group. Nevertheless, in Ukiah Jones was not successful in gaining new members, the construction of the church lasted too long, so he decided to move his congregation site to another place. This new destination was San Francisco, where the Temple opened The San Francisco Temple on Geary Street. The following years were really successful for Jones. The number of the members increased to 3 000 people in 1973.
(“History of the Peoples Temple”)
Nevertheless, Jones probably felt that the media started to be interested in his group too much.
In 1973 he started planning a new migration – this time to another country outside U.S.A.
Finally, Guayana was chosen and land they had bought was prepared for the new comers.
According to the text The Death of Representative Leo J. Ryan, People´s Temple, and
Jonestown ”Understanding a Tragedy”, there are two theories about Jones´ philosophy and his motivation. The first considers him to be a socialist who only used religion to reach his objectives. But other researchers believe him to be a real believer who underwent an evolution into an agnostic and nonbeliever. They add that his expressing himself as a dual reincarnation of Christ and Marx is full of contradiction. (“The Death of Representative Leo J. Ryan,
People´s Temple, and Jonestown .Understanding a Tragedy”)
Finally, Marshall Kilduff and Phill Tracy emphasised in their warning article, which had been mentioned previously. 25
”... Jim Jones is one the state´s most politically potent leaders. But who is he? And what´s going on behind his church´s locked doors?...” (Kilduff; Tracy 30)
The reporters started the article with surprising and a little bit embarrassing situation when Jones had much bigger applause and cheering after his speech during one of the
September meetings (1977). Nevertheless, most of the listeners, some 600 from the total number of 750 belonged to Jones. It was a political issue. George Moscone winning in San
Francisco´s election for mayor in December 1975 was the result of massive support of the
People´s Temple members who arrived to vote him.
But it was not only politics that Jones tried to influence. Jones and his followers supported medical care centres as well as social programs, including free diagnostic and outpatient clinic, physical therapy facility, a drug program and a free dining hall. The dining hall was even larger than the city´s similar one. They also supported a free press. Finally, they even saved a pet clinic. (Nevertheless, the Temple dogs also died in Jonestown.....)
Then, witnesses, former Temple members are described and the final appeal of investigating
Jones and his activities, unfortunately, stayed unanswered. (Kilduff, Tracy 30)
4.3. Jonestown, Guyana
In 1977 Jones moved his congregation to the jungle in Guyana. He had bought the land three years before, in 1974, and sent some people to cut down the jungle in the place and prepare it for his “agriculture project”. Then about 900 members moved there.
The plans started in late March, 1977. There were some troubles in the background of the departure, especially financial. Taxes were not paid properly and that may have been the reason of the migration. (Hall 197–199) 26
Jones moved around the U.S.A. several times, nevertheless, here, in Guyana, he was able to control all the people perfectly. There was no contact with the external world. The people were completely isolated and had no idea what was happening.
“Jones also ensured that his followers received no news from the outside world: the single radio in the compound was monitored at all times, and letters going in and out of Jonestown were censored.” (Wunrow, “The psychological massacre: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple: An
Investigation”)
Soon after arriving in Jonestown Jones started periodical “white nights” in which he tested the loyalty of his followers and their willingness to die. (Ashcraft, Gallagher, p.30)
He also proclaimed that in the United States, African Americans would be herded into concentration camps, that there would be genocide in the streets.
This total isolation helped him to force his sheep to do exactly what he wanted.
That may have been his paranoia that led him to commit, in fact an extremely extended suicide ever. It was, in fact, an extended suicide, as Jones died as well.
The source “Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple confirms these words as well. After the death of the community 971 audiotapes were found in Jonestown. In a tape from 1972 Jones speaks about gas chambers prepared for people by government. In two tapes recorded in 1973 Jones speaks about that a dictatorship was being prepared and that concentration camps would be set to imprison anybody, especially all the blacks and poor white. In tape Q 987 recorded in Philadelphia in 1977 he proclaims that he heard it from the heads of the government of the United States. Finally, recordings from Jonestown itself increase in intensity. According to him, especially children would never be safe from crime, drugs, gangs, “and, then, finally, genocide patterns of ethnic weapons and concentration camps in which our people would have been destroyed” (“King Alfred Plan”) 27
Another tape, recorded in April 1978, might have brought some explanation of his psychic state and his imagination about the world and his own mission in life:
“I came to save you from jails, torture, concentration camps, a nuclear war, which your skin will roll off your back.”
He saw himself as a saviour. For the people, to whom he prepared much worse fate than when they were put into those concentration camps he spoke about .....
Nevertheless, there is one tape in which the very last moments of the congregation in Jones town were recorded. In the background of Jones´s fanatical speech, the desperate voices of the dying members are heard, crying children, screams of people in pain. (The Jonestown Death
Tape [FBI No. Q 042])
Was that another proof of Jones´s megalomania? He wanted to leave a record even of the last moments of the congregation, a mixture of sadism and exhibitionism, when he calls for the world – “See, what I was forced to do!”
Dr. Philip G, Zimbardo, a professor emeritus of Psychology at Stanford University tries to explain Jones´ “transformation”:
“Eventually, Jones found himself in a predicament. He could not revert
to a younger, more idealistic, less manipulative self. He had to
continue to abuse the authority he had won himself in order to
maintain control over his life´s work. If he failed to do so, those who
followed him so loyally might come to see him as a liar and a criminal,
rather than an infallible deity, and the church around him would
crumble.
But it is clear that by 1973, he understood his predicament. Either he
would achieve his end and become a social revolutionary that changes
the face of the modern world, or – in his own words – he would “bring 28
it all to a screeching halt.”
(Zimbardo, “On the Transformation of Jim Jones: From God´s Minister to the Angel of
Death.”)
He desperately captured an unlimited control over his people. The White nights, during them he tried if his people would follow him even to the fatal end proved their loyalty to him.
Nevertheless, he was never able to admit that he was not right, that he made a mistake, but he trapped in his own intrigues deeper and deeper.
“And herein lies a paradox: the more he worked to “control” the
situation, the less control he actually had. The more he manipulated,
the less freedom he had to steer the church in a new direction
without losing it completely. And the more that passed, the more
critical his role-playing became, because it would take less and less
to throw him and his church off track. This explains the move to
Guyana, the paranoia, and the extreme control of information.
However Jonestown was presented to the outside world – as a utopia,
as a religious commune, a socialist model, the Promised Land –
Jones had transformed it into a fascist state. And he did so with the
as quiescence, cooperation and participation of his followers.”
(Zimbardo, “On the Transformation of Jim Jones: From God´s Minister to the Angel of
Death.”)
4.3.1. Life in Jonestown
The practices, that he controlled his herd, started unbearable in Jonestown. Now, there was no communication with the entire world, no possibilities how to contact relatives, friends of offices. 29
Here could Jones develop his dream to perfection or, better to say – to absurdity.
People coming to Jones town had to show all their property, even the most private things, which were checked by “Confiscation Committee” and then they were allowed to keep only a few pieces of clothing. All the other things were taken, even medicine prescriptions and medicines or children´s favourite toys.
Deborah Layton refers how she had to hand in all her clothes except of “four T-shirts, jeans and changes of underwear.” The confiscated things were stored for future needs.
(Layton, 183).
Make up, hair rollers, colognes – even hygiene items were confiscated. That can remind us of the system, for example, in medieval Hussite camps, where people also handed in their property for collective use. (Němec, Čížek, “České země za husitské revoluce”)
But, like in Nazi concentration camps, people lost their identity together with their private property.
Another influence was a total lack of privacy, even in bathrooms and toilets. Deborah
Layton describes open air toilets in Jonestown, which were 15 or 16 seat latrines used by both males and females. Jones proclaimed that “there is no reason to hide such natural things.“ (Layton 191)
In spite of that proclamation he used his own one-seat private toilet equipped with traditional toilet paper, while all the ordinary members were provided magazine paper instead.
(Layton 195)
People were forced to work in fields at least eleven hours (Storr 28), but Gardner,
Williams and Sadri refer that it was even from twelve to fourteen hours daily (Gardner,
Williams and Sadri 5), while they were given non sufficient amount of food. As a result, most of them lost many kilograms of weight, suffered from malnutrition, diarrhoea and fever. 30
When an elderly former sailor collapsed from bearing heavy loads, he was cruelly beaten and forced to beg Jones for pardon. (Storr 28)
Nevertheless, Jones avoided any physical job in which he could sweat. He also had enough delicious food stored in his personal refrigerator. Jones consumed a lot of medicines, drugs, including tranquillizers and amphetamine, which resulted into complex personality disorder. That was clear from his endless sermons, when he illogically and chaotically jumped from one topic to another. (Storr 31)
In. Chapter 1.2.1. it was mentioned how Jones ordered cruel punishment for all the members, both children and adults. Mothers often had to watch the beating of their children
(Storr, p. 31). People were convinced that they are under a siege by an army. That anybody who wanted to escape would be shot. (Storr 28)
Jones even pretended attacks on his person. Once he broke a window and claimed, that the brick inside the room was thrown into him, but the pieces of glass were not inside.
It was his graduating paranoia, together with the possibility of total isolation, which changed the life of the community to the perfect concentration camp. (Storr 29)
4.4. Leo Ryan´s visit of Jonestown and the end of the cult
The roots of the background of a Leo Ryan´s visit go back to the year 1976, when a cult member, Bob Houston, died during a train accident on October 5, only a day after he announced his decision to leave the Peoples Temple. Mr. Sam Houston, Bob´s father, had doubts about the “accidental” death of his son and was speaking out. He was also worried because his two granddaughters were taken to Guyana. The story was published in an article
Scared too long in the San Francisco Examiner on November 13, 1977. Senator Ryan read the 31 article and was interested in the Peoples Temple. He also run into another story of Debbie
Blackey, who had left Peoples Temple. He also received petitions and mail supporting the activities of Jones. According to the source, the timeline of the events was following:
On October 4th, 1978, he requested House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman
Clement J. Zablocki´s permission to go to Guyana.
He left to Guyana on November 14, 1978, accompanied by a group of nine media representatives and eighteen Concerned Relative delegation.
The events during the following five days started in Georgetown, where Mr Ryan stayed in
US embassy and most of the delegation took rooms at Pegasus hotel. Ryan officially contacted Guyanese Foreign Minister Rashleigh Jackson to discuss the relations between he two countries. He also arranged a meeting between Ambassador Burke and the Concerned
Relatives group.
On November 17 they left for Jonestown by plane. The group members were welcomed in Jonestown, dinner was served for them and musical performance was also prepared. Ryan stayed in Jonestown to the following day, but the media group was not allowed to spend the night there and they returned at about 11 a.m. They interviewed Peoples
Temple members and saw the facilities in the settlement. Nevertheless, Mr. Ryan was attacked during his visit by a man named Don Sly, who tried to stab him, but he was stopped.
But, at about 3 or 3.30, approximately fifteen people asked Mr. Ryan to take them out from
Jonestown.
Between 4 and 4.30 p m. the delegation, including the defenders to wait for the planes, which should have arrived at about 5.10 p. m. Six passengers were loaded to the far end of the airstrip by Cessna, but one of the defectors, Larry Layton, opened fire. (3 -5)
Larry Layton was the only person who was sentenced after the events. He wanted to prove his loyalty to Jones, in fact, it should have been a suicide mission, because he wanted to kill the 32 pilot in the air. – (“Bell, Larry Layron and Peoples Temple:Twenty-Five Years Later”). At the same time Temple members´ armed group appeared in the airport in their tractor and trailer.
“Mr. Ryan, three members of the media and one of the defectors were killed; Miss Speier and nine others were wounded – five seriously. …
… shouting lasted about 4 or 5 minutes. The larger aircraft was disabled, but the smaller
Cessna took of fin the ensuing confusion. The attackers left the airstrip and the survivors sought various covers and protection through the night under the directions of DCM Dwyer”
(“The Assassination of Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy” 6)
According to the same source, the final events in Jonestown started at about 5 p. m., immediately after the assassination of Ryan and others. Jones ordered people to gather in the pavilion in the centre.
“Their medical staff brought out a galvanized tub of potassium cyanide mixed with tranquilizers and fruit punch. Parents squirted poison into their children´s mouths and then took the poison themselves. There was some dissent, notably from an older black woman named Christine Miller, who calmly asked Jones why the children had to die. Nevertheless, it appears that most of the adults died more or less willingly, although this is contested. More than 200 children were murdered, however, and perhaps as many as 100 seniors were involuntary injected. In Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, where the Temple maintained a residence for members who were en route to Jonestown or needed medical attention in the city, a Temple leader received the order to kill herself. She gathered her three children into a bathroom and killed them by cutting their throats before she cut her own. At the end of the day, 5 Americans had died on the Port Kaituma Airstrip, 3 had died in Georgetown, and 9O9 had died in Jonestown.” (Lewis 98)
Jones himself was found among his followers, he shot himself. 33
That was the very end of the dreams about the Promised Land, about equal society, about the life full of love and peace. Jones finished the leading his sheep to the fatal climax in the jungle.
(“Jim Jones´Death“ Famously Dead)
4.5. Conspirational theories
There have been also other views of Jones and the events. According to one he was a conscious agent of the CIA and Jonestown a slave camp organized by the CIA, a secret intelligence agency experiment. (Jeffrey, “Who was Jim Jones?”)
But another theory described by the same Jeffrey´s article presents Jones as a victim of the U.S. regime, who anted to escape to the persecution.
Nevertheless, the fact is that Jones admired Lenin and Stalin and saw the U.S.S.R. as a perfect society and he understood it as the only power that can resist to “American aggression and imperialism. And, as the proverb says “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” he planned cooperation and possible relocation to the U.S.S.R. He tried to find the best area in the Soviet Union and the members had to study Russian language and were even tested.
Jones was in touch with Soviet and Cuban embassies.
As a part of the preparations the Soviet Consul Fyodor Timofeyev made an official visit of Jonestown. Jones said to his companion, Dr. Nikolai Fedorovsky, that they were expecting about one hundred new members coming from the U.S.A., but that they were probably prevented from the journey. He also complained that material, tools and even medicines always come from the U.S.A. “in an unstable state” (“What was the People´s
Temple plan to move to the Soviet Union”)
Nevertheless, there were conspiracy theories about events in Jonestown. Ms Rebecca
Moore deals in her essay Reconstructing Reality: Conspiracy Theories about Jonestown 34 printed in The Journal of Popular Culture 36, No.2 (Fall 2002): 200-20. Ms Moore describes her opinion with a taxi driver, who reacted to her dialogue with her colleague. He explained he was a former member of the Air Force who had helped to evacuate the 913 bodies from
Jonestown. He proclaimed, that “CIA was definitely involved in Jonestown, but things got out of control when the congressman was killed.” (Moore, Reconstructing reality: Conspiracy
Theories about Jonestown) She quotes in the same article that the roots of the conspiracy theories rose shortly after November 1978. E.g. political activist Dick Gregory claimed that the CIA-FBI forces killed the people in Jonestown in order to use their bodies to smuggle heroin into the U.S. (Hall 305).
In another part of Ms Moore´s essay is mentioned Dr. Beter, who deals with conspiracy theories. According to him, Jones organized Jonestown as a kibbutz. U.S. intelligence agents infiltrated Peoples Temple and converted Jones into “semiconscious agent of death and intrigue”. The dead body found in Jonestown and identified as Jones was not his, as he was taken to Israel for cancer treatment, where he disappeared. (Moore, “Reconstructing reality:
Conspiracy Theories about Jonestown”)
5. Branch Davidians
When Jonestown tragedy has aroused doubts about its background, in the following case such uncertainty is caused by the way how the group of Davidians died
The events connected with Vernon Howel alias David Koresh, where, finally, the members were killed during army forces attack, much strongly provoke questions about the background of it.
Those people did not really commit suicide, but the fact that they followed the orders of their guru, so indiscriminately that even mothers did not take the opportunity to escape with their children and stayed in burning buildings. (Storr 37) 35
5.1. Branch Davidians – the Beginning
The Davidian movement was founded by Victor Houteff in 1929 as a branch splinted of the Seventh Day Adventist church. Houteff, an immigrant from Bulgaria, longed to clear the church. In 1935 he and his wife founded a small community in Mount Carmel, where they bought some land. Their main target was to decipher the message of the Seven Seals in the
Book of Relevancy. After Victor Houteff´s death, it was his wife who lead the group, but some members had some doubts about it. Finally, Benjamin Roden and his wife, Lois became the leaders. When Benjamin died in 1978, his wife gained the control. She even prohibited their son George Roden to enter the Mount Carmel, as he wanted to become a leader as his father´s heir. (Cowan, Bromley 132-133)
Vernon Howel (alias David Koresh later) went to Mount Carmel in 1981 as a repairman and soon became close to Lois Roden. She was becoming weaker in reign in the community, and Vernon was a good support and help for her. After her death, he had to compete with George Roden for some time, nevertheless, finally, after an exchange of gunfire,
Howel and his followers took over the property. (Hall, Schuyler, Trinh 48)
Vernon Howel changes his name into David Koresh. Koresh is a Hebrew variant of a Persian name Kyros (Cyrus), a Persian king, who was later proclaimed as a Messiah. Like Kyros, who set the Israeli people from Babylon captivity, Koresh took his people out from a modern
Babylon, corrupted system surrounding them. (Cowan, Bromley 136)
Koresh went on his aim, uncovering of the Seven Seals Mystery. In 1985 during his visit in Israel, he had a revelation that he is the seventh angel from the Book of Revelation, that that is him who should open the mystery of the end of the World to the mankind. (Cowan,
Bromley 136)
36
5.2. Life in Branch Davidians´ Community
Koresh also had an apocalyptic vision as Jim Jones. He was also a very good speaker and he kept his followers in fierce and blind confidence in him. He based his apocalyptic visions upon the Book of Relevation and claimed that only his interpretation of it is correct.
He especially emphasized the Seven Seals. The prophecy, according to him, says that the days of the world would finish soon. He convinced his community that he himself had the power to break the seventh seal and when the God would establish a new kingdom of Israel, he
(Koresh) would be on the throne of the new kingdom and that their death was only a prelude to a better life to come. (Storr, p.34) Like Jones, he prepared his followers for an armed confrontation. He renamed his Ranch Apocalypse into the Mount Carmel. (Storr 34)
During the time, Koresh took control over the lives of his followers absolutely. Like
Jones he established “a state within a state”. He also talked about “metanoia” – a revolutionary rebirth.
The Everyday life of the community was perfectly controlled by Koresh. Visiting doctors and medical treatment were forbidden. There was no running water, no toilets and hardly any heating. People were ordered to keep strange dietary injunctions. One month bananas were the only fruit allowed to eat. It was forbidden to eat grapes and oranges at the same meal. One some days only vegetables were allowed, for others people could eat only fruit and popcorn. There were not prepared any hot meals and many people suffered from malnutrition. (Storr 35)
Children were cruelly punished, Koresh claimed that even eight month old babies should be beaten and pressured mothers to do that.
He also sexually abused women and especially young girls. He married fourteen year old
Rachel in 1983. They had three children. In 1986 he started having sexual contact with her 37 only twelve-year old sister. Finally, he claimed that he had a right to have a sex act with any woman in the community, including girls twelve or thirteen years old. (Storr 36)
Nevertheless, some members of the community, when they felt that Koresh forces them to provide him their daughters, sisters and wives left the community. Among them there were Marc Breault and his wife Elisabeth Barany. They moved to Australia in 1989, where they started campaigning against Koresh, proclaiming him to be a megalomaniac, polygamist and sexual abuser of children. He also pointed out the possibility of committing collective suicide by the members of the community. (Cowan, Bromley 138)
Marc Breault, a Roman Catholic joined the Branch Davidians in 1986. He witnessed when a thirteen-year-old Aisha Gyarfas spent night with David Koresh. Mr. Brault started using theological arguments against the Branch Davidians doctrine and alarmed the government.(Hall, Schuyler, Trinh Apocalypse observed: Religious Movements and Violence in North America)
There were especially two families who needed help: the Bunds and the Jewells.
David and Debbie Bunds left the Branch Davidians. David´s sister Robyn used to be one of
Koresh´s “wives” and gave a birth to a child that was left in Waco. She was scared because
Koresh was speaking about a child sacrifice. Mr Breault managed to encourage an Australian television team to do a report about the Branch Davidians. That warned against the cult strongly.
Mr Breault also focused on teenagers who were destined for the “House of David” as sexual partners of Koresh. Kiri Jewel, daughter of David Jewell, who had never been a member of the Branch Davidians, should be another of them. He warned Mr. Jewell what would probably happen to his daughter and Mr. Jewel obtained the temporary custody of the child when Kiri was sent to spend holidays with him. 38
Finally, Jannine Bunds, David and Robyn´s mother talked about her impression of mass suicide or homicide preparation, but Ms. Bunds was not really sure. (Hall, Schuyler,
Trinh 56 – 57)
As there were also other marks of possibility of committing the collective suicide Mr.
Marc Breault, David Jewell and their companions started spreading the information that the cult leader is planning the suicide about April 18th of 1993. The letter describing their results was delivered to the congressman from Waco, who provided the information to the FBI. This was the reason for the investigation, nevertheless, it was stopped for the lack of evidence.
Consequently, Koresh started collecting weapons at Mount Carmel to resist to the possible siege. But when in May 1992 grenades in a package to the Branch Davidians were discovered,
BATF (= Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) investigation started. (Hall, Schuyler,
Trinh 61)
All the information led to a reasonable suspicion of illegal activities in the group.
Finally, on Sunday, February 28, a fierce two-hour gun battle took place. Six Davidians and four ATF agents died. 51days longed siege of the Ranch Appocalyptica followed.
During the siege, all the media informed about the situation in the place. On 15th March, 1993
People magazine brought an article Zealot of God written by Joe Treen. Mr.Marc Breault gave an interview to the magazine as well. He warned again that all the members are prepared to die for Koresh. James Breckenrige, a cult expert at Baylor University in Waco, also warned what could have happened in Ranch Apocalyptica, that Koresh “is closer to being another
Charles Manson or Jim Jones” (Treen, Zealot of God)
In the article Koresh is also described as a person proclaiming himself to be Jesus, but who is far from Christian ideas, in fact, who has 19 wives, including teenage girls and who punishes children by severe beatings, including 8 month old babies. He had no idea how to 39 treat children, but he instructed parents that even the youngest babies need physical punishment.
Michele Tom proclaimed that Koresh was beating her eight-month-old baby daughter with a wooden spoon for half an hour. “When he finished, her bottom was badly bruised and bleeding.” (Treen, “Zealot of God”)
In the time when the mentioned article was published allegedly 15 people died and three including Koresh was wounded during 45minute shoot-out. 18 children were released, because Dallas radio station played a taped message of Koresh´s beliefs, which was the condition for allowing the children to leave. (Treen, “Zealot of God”)
The fact, that Koresh suffered an injury confirms his telephone call. He spoke to his mother about the situation. The dialog between Koresh and his mother was recorded.
(Beverley, Q & A, Q.5)
Other sources also confirm that Koresh was wounded the very first day, 28th of
February.. United States History pages in an article Waco Branch Davidians Siege quotes that he was shot when he came to the front door and his father in law was mortally wounded and later five more Davidians were killed. Four ATF agents were killed and sixteen wounded.
According to article Waco: The Inside Story, where the exact chronology of the siege is described states the same facts except the number of the Davidians who were killed. The same day Koresh´s tapes can be broadcasted on Dallas radio. Among the released children, nine- year-old Heather Jones brings a message written by her mother saying that all the adult will die immediately when the children leave out. On Sunday 7th the Davidians were refused to deliver milk for the children and they were asked to release them. But the following day, six gallons of milk were brought for them.
The next day electricity is cut off. During the next ten days, no progress is made. On
March 18th FBI uses a loudspeaker to tell to the Davidians that they will be “treated fairly if 40 they come out”. During the next days some women were released. On Sunday 21st FBI started playing very loud music to influence the psychology of people inside. Koresh and his speaker
Schneider interrupt conversation during the following days.
From 28th to 30th March Koresh meets with DeGuerin for dialogue several times. Two agents spend the 1st of April inside the Ranch Apocalyptica. Phil Arnold and Jim Tabor, two independent religion experts, talk on TV talk-show about the philosophy of the cult.
On Friday 9th Koresh sends some letters in which he expresses the they will not leave the complex.
On Monday 12th FBI officials bring up the plan to use tear gas. On April 14th Koresh proclaims that he wants to finish his explanation of the Seven Seals, he repeats that during the following days. The FBI continues with planning to use the tear gas bombs.
The very last day of the siege, April 19th, Koresh was informed that the tear-gas would be used at 5.59. Three minutes later the gas started to be sprayed. To answer, the Davidians started shooting. Other gas was delivered to various parts of the compound. The things started to go well for FBI first. Nevertheless, at around noon, three simultaneous fires could be seen.
Firemen made several holes in walls to people be able to escape. Shooting was heard all the time. When firefighters got inside the buildings in 12.41, they intended to find some survivors.
(Waco: The Inside Story)
The day was windy. Some eruptions could be heard and fire was spreading very quickly. When the agents finally entered to the ruins, they found a huge arsenal of weapons.
Nineteen men, thirty-four women and twenty-three children died, some of them were shot.
One child was stabbed to death. (Waco, “Branch Davidians Siege“)
Nevertheless, Douglas E. Cowan and David G. Bromley in their book Cults and New
Religions – A Brief History deal with the picture of the situation in media. They point out that
Koresh was described only as a devil, a sadistic, paedophile character, who wanted only 41 power and money. The media, for example, emphasized that children were used as human shields, being shown in windows. They suggest that they could be shown to prevent shooting and that Koresh was not heard, when he wanted to finish and read the Seven Seals. They also ask if the media portrait of the siege is misrepresented in order to cover the federal mistakes that the federal agents made. (139 – 145)
James R. Lewis also brings some questions, among them using the tear gas, exactle, 2- chlorobenzalmalononitrile or o-chlorobenzylidene malonitrile, shortly Cs gas. The fact is that the FBI considered using it for weeks, as they did not know the consequences that it could leave on children. There were no tests showing that. When Cs gas was used, people with children were gathered in inside rooms, especially in the kitchen and bunker. But the bunker had neither back door nor windows and little ventilation. Other problem is that when Cs gas comes into contact with water, creates hydrogen cyanide fumes. The only protection for the young children inside were used wet towels over their faces, as their mothers did not have such small gas masks. (118)
“Forty four of the Branch Davidian corpses tested positive for cyanide, some with enough to reach a concentration level in the blood to produce a coma or death” (118)
Secondly, the length of exposure and the concentration of the gas were unclear. The author asks if it was considered conscientiously. Finally, in fact, some people were trapped inside the buildings. Combat engineering vehicles – tanks – should pierce holes in walls to enable the people to escape. But some parts of the buildings collapsed, imprisoning some victims under them. (119)
Illustrated Guide to Religions by James A. Beverley presents the questions about the raid. The most tragic mistake was the fact that the FBI did not take Koresh´s theology seriously. (Beverley, Questions & Answers, Q.24. n.p.)
42
5.3. Survivors from Waco
5.3.1. Misty Ferguson
One of the Branch Davidians who survived was Ms Misty Ferguson. At the age of seventeen she was the youngest person among those who managed to escape. Seven years later she described to Lee Hancock, a reporter of The Dallas Morning News the minutes inside the compound when she was fighting for her life. She described that she was practically trapped inside the building, stairways were blocked and the only way out was leaping from the second floor. She was badly burned. According to her, a tank damaged the staircases that then could not be used. (Hancock, “Waco survivor says tank damage hampered escape”)
5.3.2. Clive Doyle, Catherine Mattison, Sheila Martin, Ofelia Satoyo
Another Waco survivor, an immigrant from Australia, Clive Doyle claimed: ”group was strongly opposed to suicide and focused on Bible studies – not guns, violence or a coming war with outside authority.”
Nevertheless, more than 300 guns were found in the compound after the fire. (Hancock,
“Waco survivor says tank damage hampered escape”)
Clive Doyle was interviewed again ten years after the Waco tragedy again. Other two survivors, Catherine Mattison, an elderly lady and Ron Goins spoke with Alex Hanaford. His report was published in The Guardian on Tuesday 28, October 2003. In Article Return to
Waco Clive Doyle declares that he “still believes in David”. In fact, he confirmed the polygamy of the cult leader and the very young age of some of his wives, in fact, the age of
15. The question if his daughter Shari, who died in fire, was also married to Koresh, he did not give a clear answer. But he proclaimed that he would agree if Shari wanted do that. 43
Anyway, all the women, in fact, belonged to him, even if he did not have sex with them, and the men were his, too, according to Doyle.
Catherine Madisson eagerly agreed and tried to persuade that it was God´s will that
David had at about 100 spouses. She also explains that those who have not read the
“scripture” are not able to understand what David did and why.
Ms. Madison also mentioned the beating of children, which was widely criticized in the media. But she refused any cruel acts and that some children were bleeding after being spanked. In fact, she confirmed that all the children in the community had their “helper”, a wooden paddle with their names, which were used for physical punishment. But, according to
Ms. Madison, it was necessary and mothers finally accepted it. She also believed that everything that happened at Mount Carmel was the God´s will and that everything would be in his hands. “What David taught was dying for” (Hanaford, “Return to Waco”)
Clive Doyle gave more interviews twenty and twenty-one years later.
In interview for New Public Radio Mr Doyle, who was still living in Waco claimed, that he was still waiting for the resurrection of Koresh and other members of the group. He meets another survivor, Sheila Martin, every Sunday for studying the Bible. (Burnet, “Two Decades later, Some Branch Davidians still Believe”)
Only two days earlier an article The Standoff in Waco was published in The Texas
Observer magazine. Clive Doyle together with Ofelia Satoyo described the life in the community, the days of the siege and their lives after.
Mr Doyle remembers such ordinary things like growing food for the community, repairing buildings or going out for work downtown. He proclaims that the life of the community did not look like neither in a prison nor in a convent or monastery. When he speaks about the attack, he mentions the existence of the men´s dormitory, which confirms that men and women dwelt separately. 44
During the fire, Clive got outside through the hole made by a tank, but he was afraid that he would be shot. With other men they were discussing that there are snipers all around.
Ofelia Santoyo, who is still living in Waco as well, used to do common jobs like cooking for the community. She was proud to be a skilful cook. Her daughter and her children joined her later. Ofelia seemed to be very calm and submitted to her fate.
Ofelia describes that she was in the church when the gunfire started “and then everybody was carrying their guns.” Ofelia “was not scared, but excited. It was happening – exactly he had predicted.” (Koresh predicted the end caused by men in uniforms) Ofelia went to her daughter´s room. Nobody was there, but her bible which was lying on the upper bunk- bed was perforated with a bullet. But in the middle of the siege Koresh ordered Ofelia to leave and join her old mother, who lived with elderly women in a mobile house. She did not want to go first and her daughter with her grandchildren refused to go as well. Finally Ofelia obeyed the order, taking the bible with her.
Her daughter and her five her children aged from three to thirteen were found dead in the bunker when the siege ended.
Still Ofelia proclaims that she was sad, but not depressed. Her thoughts are positive, she proclaims. (Hannaford, “The Standoff in Waco”)
A year later Clive Doyle provided other interviews in which he repeatedly claims that nobody was held against their will. “We weren´t brainwashed” is the title of an article published in the Daily Mail on 24th of March 2014. Clive defends Koresh, in spite of the fact that he confesses that his own daughter Shari was married to Koresh when she was only fourteen years old.
Only a day later, another article was published in New York Daily News, written by
Carol Kuruvilla. Clive Doyle,now 72, stil believes that Koresh was the “chosen lamb”. The fact, that Koresh married his fourteen year old daughter Clive accepted as the God´s will. He 45 is still waiting for his resurrection and, that, the others of the group, will be resurrected as well.
(Kuruvilla, “Waco survivors await Branch Davidian leader David Koresh´s resurrection.”)
5.3.3. Livingstone Fagan
Another survivor who still believes and does not regret is Livingstone Fagan. His life story was described in The Telegraph on 24th March, 2013. Mr. Fagan was born in Jamaica, but his parents moved to Great Britain. He came to live with the Branch Davidians in 1992 with his family, having met the since his early twenties. During the siege his two young children, aged four and six were released together with other children and then were brought up by their uncle, so they survived. Livingstone himself was sent by Koresh to work as an envoy. He proclaims that he did not want to go. But his mother, wife and a lot of friends died in the fire.
Livingstone Fagan still passionately believes in Koresh´s words. He explains that the end of the world will come soon. He and other survivors clarify the Waco tragedy as the exact fulfilment of Koresh´s prophecy and expect all the other events he predicted, believing that he was the second Christ.
Livingstone, like the other New Davidians, does not have a problem with the polygamy of the cult leader, explaining that it was necessary to fulfil the Scripture Ore. He also refuses child abusing and justifies any contradictory facts claiming that David only followed the
God´s will.
Mr. Fagan admits that he was one of the men who were shooting. After the tragedy he was sentenced to prison, where he spent fourteen years. He lives a very simple life and does not regret anything. (Moreton, “Waco Siege 20 years on: the survivor´s tale”)
46
5.3.4. Different point of view – Deborah Brown
Nevertheless, Clive Doyle´s ex-wife and Shari´s mother describes the life and end of
Branch Davidians from a quite different angle. Only two days after the tragic end of the cult she spoke about her grievous story.
Debborah Brown´s parents took her to the cult when she was 14. Soon after she was forced to marry Clive Doyle. Clive, as immigrant from Australia, needed an American citizenship. But she was very unsatisfied with the conditions inside the community. She wanted to live on her own and lead her life by herself. Debborah left the cult four years later and took her two daughters with her. But Clive took both of them back during one of the visits. Slowly, the girls communicated with their mother more and more rare and coldly. The life with Branch
Davidians completely altered their personalities and Deborah was really worried about their safety as she knew that the “place could be really brutal.” Both of them were allegedly married to Koresh and had his children. Luckily during the siege the elder of the sisters,
Karen, lived in another place. Unfortunately, Shari died in Waco. The desperate mother wanted to bury her and was waiting for permission to be allowed to pick up her remains. She did not accuse FBI agents of Shari´s death, claiming that they did what was essential. (Flander,
“A Mother's Grief Grieving Mom: I Want Shari's Remains”)
6. Heaven´s Gate
Marshall Applewhite founded his first organization Human Individual Metamorphosis
(HIM) in 1975. They called themselves “The two”, travelling through America searching for some new “crew members” to join them. Once they travelled to a Colorado desert to welcome aliens whose visit had been announced, but they had never landed. When Bonnie Nettles died of cancer in 1985, Applewhite went on developing their theories. (Heddlesten, “The Heaven´s
Gate Cult”) 47
The meaning of the name Human Individual Metamorphosis was an evolutionary process of getting to a higher level of existence. Applewhite and Nettles nicknamed themselves several times. For some time they became known as “Guinea” and “Pig” to indicate being a part of a cosmic experiment. Soon they renamed again. They were “Bo” and
“Peep”, later “Do” and “Ti” (or “Te”), “Nincom” and “Poop” During their travels they recruited new members.
But the life in the cult had strict rules. The followers were ordered to split up with their families and friends. The mass media were prohibited. Sex, drugs and alcoholic drinks were forbidden. The members took new names, which ended in “-ody”. This ascetic way of life caused that the cult lost at about fifty per cent of its members. (Chryssides 9)
In 1976 the rest of the group was split into small groups called “star clusters” which bore names of star constellations. They resembled of monks wearing hooded anoraks. The group became richer in 1978, allegedly partly because of inheritance of $300,000, partly because of the contribution of the members themselves. They worked as repairmen or computer specialists.
When Bonnie Nettles died, Applewhite explained her death as relocating to the Next
Level, where she would be expecting other members to come. (Chryssides 8 – 10)
The psychiatrist Marc Galanter admits the possibility that both Applewhite and Nettles show symptoms of “the psychiatric syndrome of folie a deux”, in which one partner draws the other into a shared system of delusion. (178)
At the very beginning of the relationship with Bonnie Nettles Applewhite was fired from his post of music director, which might have started his psychical disease, she and
Applewhite decided to open the Christian Arts Center in Houston. The center offered various activities, like musical theatre, but a lot of lectures about astrology and spiritualism.
Nevertheless, the authorities of the church to which the building of the Christian Arts Center 48 belonged to expressed concern about the activities like séances and the Center was closed soon. As Applewhite lost his job, he was completely caught in Bonnie´s inner world. They opened another one called the “Know Place”, where they taught metaphysical theories. That was the crucial era of isolation from the outside world and developing their theories. (Cowan,
Bromley 151 – 152)
But in the beginning of 1973 they left Houston and started a “nomadic” period.
Applewhite and Nettles announced their “new identity” on 11 august 1973. According to them, they were the “two witnesses” about whom the Book of Revelation (Revelation 11:1-2 in Chryssides) speaks. They travelled even around Canada in a hired car, leaving notes informing about their coming. Nonetheless, they were arrested for defrauding some money and stealing the car, which they had not taken back in time (see also Chapter 3.3). During the six months spent in the prison Applewhite was developing his theology, especially the part dealing with extra-terrestrial influence existence the aliens. In 1975 the cult gained more than two hundred of followers, who joined them in various parts of the country where “The Two” organized their meetings. (Chryssides 6 – 8)
6.1. Life of Heaven´s Gate Members
People who joined the cult were predominantly “seekers of truth” who tried to search their own way of life. They experienced various beliefs and philosophies, like Scientology,
Catholicism or magic or were involved in environmental issues or women´s organizations.
They completely changed their lives in spite of the fact that some of them were quite successful students or had good jobs. Their age was different, beginning with people in their late teens to people in sixtieth. In Applewhite and Nettles´s concept each of them could find something familiar to them, but it was new at the same time. In fact, their teaching was 49 combination of Christianity, Hinduism and new UFO cults. A very important base was
Theosophy and spiritualism, which was Nettles´s sphere, while Christian part or their thesis came from Applewhite´s background. (Lalich, “Using the Bounded Choice Model as an
Analytical Tool: A Case Study of Heaven´s Gate”)
According to Applewhite and Nettles, extra-terrestrials landed in the Earth 2,000 years ago. Their names were “Do” and “Ti”. One of them took a form of a human – Jesus Christ.
Another landing took place in 1920, “Ti” and “Do” were the leaders of the expedition again and the members of the crew incarnated into human bodies. For a long time the aliens lived in the Earth secretly. Finally, they gathered around “Ti” and “Do” – “The Two” again as their followers.
The converts mostly lived like monks and nuns, including celibate. They led a very simple way of life. The differences between male and female members were covered as much as possible. Both men and women wore the same, uniform-like clothes including black trousers and black T-shirts. Applewhite himself even underwent castration and some other men followed him. According to one theory, “extra-terrestrials have no vocal, atrophied digestive system and no sexual organs. This is symbolic of three common religious disciplines: silence, fasting and celibacy.” (“Heaven´s Gate:Christian/UFO believers”)
First, in 1975 when the movement enlarged the cult members lived in “camps” where they “studied”. Each was given a partner and, moreover, they should try to create a mental connection with a “higher level” member. The “students” tried to adapt some of their personal characteristic to reach a higher level. In 1988 they left the nomadic way of life and hired houses to live in. Like the Branch Davidians the Heaven´s Gate members believed that the end of the world was approaching. But the Heaven´s Gate did not arouse any suspicion in spite of the isolation in which they lived. They run a successful web design company in their seat and were productive citizens. (Cowan, Bromley 158-163) 50
6.2. Philosophy of Heaven´s Gate
Bo and Peep, later Do and Ti, which were the names that Marshall Herff Applewhite and Bonnie Lu Nettles used based their religion on mixture of Christianity and UFO mythology. The combined Bible prophesies with popular theories about aliens who affect and control the mankind. It should be noted that Applewhite and his followers were also influenced by the contemporary science fiction culture and an interest in UFO. Rumours about area 51 and its alleged secrets also had been inspiration for them. “The members of
Heaven´s Gate took such science fact and fiction seriously; indeed, they watched The X-Files and Star Trek religiously.” (Robinson, “Who were Heaven´s Gate?”)
Bonnie Nettles influenced the teaching with Theosophy and spiritualism, she was also a member of the New Age movement and practised as a medium. (Lalich, “Using the
Bounded Choice Model as an Analytical Tool: A Case Study of Heaven´s Gate”)
“The Two” claimed that the right moment for them came when the Hale-Bopp comet appeared. They believed that there is a huge alien spacecraft hidden behind the object and that it should take them to their home planet and the comet itself is a sign of upcoming apocalypse.
“On Nov. 14, 1996, an amateur astronomer Chuck Shramek proclaimed that he had made a photo of a “mysterious object traveling behind Hale-Bopp. The announcement was discussed in Bell´s radio program focused on UFO matters and some “professional psychics” confirmed that they “detected the companion vehicle and found it to be inhabited by extraterrestrials.”(Robinson, “Who were the Heaven´s Gate?”).
Lately the news was uncovered as a hoax or simply a mistake, but that moment, probably started the final fatal decision of the Heaven´s Gate Cult.
51
6.3. The End of Heaven´s Gate
As the prophecies stated in the Book of Revelation about resurrection during three and half a day were interpreted as prophecies about spaceships.
Following the prophecy the members of Heaven´s Gate decided that the time was to leave their “human containers” or “vehicles”.
All of them carefully prepared for the “journey” They even left videos where they explained what they were going to do. Jwnody, a young, good-looking woman who helped
Richard Ford alias Rio DiAngelo or Neody (chapter 6.4) to become a new member of the cult, gives the impression of a calm, balanced and happy personality, smiling happily during her performance and finishing by the words “thirty-nine to beam up” (evoking Star Trek series) with the laugh of the others in the background. (“Heaven's Gate Students Final Exit Statement
JWNODY”)
ABC television, together with other media, broadcasted the farewell videotape. The members expressed their joy and excitement that they had been waiting for the day very long.
(Ayrees jr., “Families Learning of 39 Cultists Who Died”)
The members used “a mixture of barbiturates and alcohol to induce unconsciousness, followed by suffocation caused by a plastic bag placed over the head and secured at the neck with rubber bands. The bodies were dressed in black uniforms displaying colourful shoulder patches with the words ´Heaven´s Gate Away Team´ and each body had a travel bag next to it on the floor. The bodies were also neatly covered with purple shrouds.”
The evidence shows that there was no violence and that “the suicides were undertaken voluntarily” (Bromley, Melton 209)
The members of the group, who called themselves “classmates” were divided into groups. The first group of 15 people committed self slaughters with the assistance of eight 52
“helpers”, who probably removed the plastic bags from their faces and covered the dead bodies with the purple sheets. Then the next group of other fifteen people followed with the help of other eight “assistants”. Only two bodies were found uncovered and with the plastic bags on, so they were probably the last two “assistants”, who died without anybody´s help.
After the accidents Marshall Applewhite´s son, who had not met his father since he was a five-year-old boy, wrote an opened letter addressed to ”anyone hurt by the actions of Marshall
Herff Applewhite”, where he expressed that he was “deeply hurt by the knowledge that people have now lost their lives in connection with his father.” (Ayrees jr.,”Families Learning of 39 Cultists Who Died”)
6.4. Heaven´s Gate Surviving Members
6.4.1. Rio DiAngelo
Among the men who were voluntarily castrated was Rio DiAngelo, whose real life name is Richard Ford, gave an interview to Newsweek Magazine. The man was the first who discovered the dead bodies in the rented mansion house in San Diego on March 26th, 1997. He had received two videotapes where the cult members explained their decision before.
(Heaven´s Gate Members “Giggly” after castration”) The Associated Press
Rio DiAngelo who accepted a cult name “Neody”, gave an interview for the Newsweek magazine only a few weeks after the incident.
DiAngelo explained how excited their guru was during the comet Hale-Bopp approached to the Earth. According to Applewhite, it was a clear sign that the planet would be
“recycled”, nevertheless, behind the object there is an extra-terrestrial aircraft that should pick the cult members up to the “Higher Level” or “next level”, but it was necessary to leave their
“chariots” how human bodies were called inside the group, in the planet Earth. It was also 53 believed that “Ti”, Applewhite´s partner Bonnie Nettles, who died in 1985 had come into the
“top” much earlier to be able to arrange the coming of the rest of the crew, how the community members called themselves.
Di Angelo uncovered his childhood spent with labile and unkind mother and about the way he tried to overcome the troublesome moments spent with her as a little boy. He had changed several schools. As a young man he tried to find his way as a hippie, musician and artist. The searching led him to Eastern religions and philosophies. He was also captured by science fiction literature about aliens. Di Angelo also got married and had a child, but the marriage failed and he came back to live with his mother. The life he lived was unsatisfying for him, he had strange hobbies like making pictures of trash.
But one day in a hotel Marina Del Rey he met a nine unusual people who completely changed his life. Their look was not typical, both men and women wore almost the same clothes and haircuts and were talking about an Earth, where people are only vehicles for the souls and that it is possible to do something before the soon coming “recycling” the planet. Di
Angelo was amazed, feeling, that this is the truth, he was searching and immediately wanted to join the group. Nevertheless, it was not so easy, as the community allegedly did not take any new members, most of the old ones formed the group since the 1970th. But DiAngelo was determined and persistent.
So two of the members, Srrody and Jwnody (Jwnody was a young woman, who left a video where she talked about her confidence; mentioned in the next chapter), then explained the strict rules that each person in the community had to follow.
Di Angelo accepted the life without cigarettes, alcoholic drinks or sexual activities, as well as he gave up his previous life, however, he confirms how difficult was to abandon his son, who was nine. Later Neody told to a friend of his that, in fact, his son is not his child, but a child of his “vehicle” 54
He had his long hair cut and started to lead the simple and nomadic life of the community. He remembers the first meeting with the group leader, “Do” one month after
DiAngelo, now “Neody” joined the group. It was the period when the male members followed their guru and went to Mexico to be castrated, as it was almost impossible to find a surgeon willing to do that in the United States. Neody did it as well. Do preached that there are no sexes in the Higher Level and that sex is one of the obstacles that prevent to get to the top.
The members of the community completely became a part of it like a component of a machine.
Everything happened together. At least, people were divided into pairs to check one another.
They were asked to avoid “nonhuman thoughts” Sometimes, the group went to a desert to wait for the spaceship to come, but it had never arrived. During the last month of their existence, they moved to the ranch in Santa Fe to live there and to make some money by designing web pages.
Di Angelo also remembers that the life in the community, according to him, was a great fun, that they laughed a lot “all the time”, Treats were allowed as well, so they stored a large amount of ice-cream in the freezer. They sometimes visited films that were chosen for them by their guru, but also other cultural performance, like Circe de Solei or ZOO.
When DiAngelo joined the cult the rules became less strict, but still it was pointed out that their behaviour should follow their target, that means to be ready for the extra-terrestrials anytime by having no sex and controlling thoughts to be calm.
DiAngelo also mentioned that soon after the accident in Waco Do became worried and bought a few guns, but later he declared that Ti advised not to use them, as it was not the right way to the “Higher Level”.
Di Angelo was sent away from the cult´s mansion only about a month before the tragedy, but contacted the others by e-mail. When his friends did not answer, he allegedly knew what had happened, but he asked his boss Nick Matzorkis to give him a lift to Rancho Santa Fe after he 55 had got a message in a FedEx packet. Then he found the bodies of the other members calmly lying in their beds, dressed in black and covered with purple sheets. DiAngelo recorded his visit in the building.
All the time DiAngelo claimed that the members did not intend to commit suicide and their act was not a suicide. (Miller, “Secrets of the Cult”)
The fact that DiAngelo was chosen to explain the act and he went on years after.
Nonetheless, Applewhite-Do spoke in the number of satellite television broadcasts that the end would come very soon. “Do declared, “It´s harvest time. Harvest time means that it´s time for the gardens to be spaded up. It´s time for recycling of souls. It´s time for some to
´graduate´. It´s time some to be ´put in ice´ It´s time! (Zeller 2011:170 in Cusack and Lewis
02)
Five years later, a magazine U-T San Diego (Union Tribune) published an interview with Rio DiAngelo for The Associated Press. He claimed that he was living an ordinary life, exactly, he felt himself as a “slave to commerce”. His life differed much from the days spend in the Heaven´s Gate community. But he was in regular contact with his son again.
DiAngelo is still convinced that his friends did not commit a suicide, but they were “in an advanced level of being” (Seth, “Five years after Heaven´s Gate Mass suicide, last member still keeping the faith”)
Rio DiAngelo published his own statement eight years after the incident in
LAWEEKLY. He explained that he was satisfied with his life. He did not commit suicide like his friends, but only because he felt that he is the chosen person who should interpret to the world the truth about Heaven´s Gate. He was still convinced about the Do´s philosophy. 56
According to DiAngelo, the information in the media after the incident in March 1997
“was misinterpreted, exaggerated, sensationalized and censored.” (DiAngelo, “Rio´s
Statement”)
The same day was published DiAngelo´s interview that he gave to Joshuah Bearman.
The article is introduced with an illustration with DiAngelo himself standing calmly among the dead bodies lying on their bunk beds, empty cups of poison scattered all around his feet.
The text itself starts with the The Socrates´citation: “ We are imprisoned in the body, like an oyster in his shell.”
The text explains again the motives that led to the fatal decision. An interesting detail is mentioned. The triangular patch “Heaven´s Gate´s Away Team” was designed by Rio
DiAngelo himself.
The fact that Rio survived was a part of Applewhite´s plan. Rio left the group equipped with a computer, a camera and enough money. When he got a message after the incident, he immediately went back to record what had happened.
The article confirms that the exact date of the group members´ death is not known, but they were dying during three days. Rio remembers how he splashed his shirt with a cologne so as not to smell the decomposed bodies and went inside. He also informed the police.
During the interview DiAngelo was calm and friendly. His guru Do was still “the second coming of Jesus” for him and he felt that he was the one whose task is to inform people independently about the “truth”.
The reporter described their conversation as ”frustrating”, as well as for Rio himself.
“I don´t expect you to believe me, Rio said at one point. I wouldn´t believe me. But this works”. (Bearman, “The Heaven´s Gate: The Sequel”)
Rio DiAngelo wrote an autobiographical book, Beyond Human Mind: the Soul
Evolution Heaven´s Gate in which his life story is presented. 57
“I can say with absolute, undeniable certainty that „Do‟ [AKA Marshall Applewhite] was a second coming of Jesus,” he said in an interview with CNN last year. (Milo, “Heaven´s
Gate Website Still Active”)
6.4.2. Other survivors of Heaven´s Gate
Rio DiAngelo was not the only member of the cult who did not commit suicide with his friends. Two other members also survived, but they longed to join the “team”. First Chuck
Humprey- Rkkody and Wayne Cooke – Jstody attempted to replicate the suicide only a year after, but Humprey survived. Nevertheless, his other attempt on February 17, 1998 was mortal.
(Chryssides, “Heaven´s Gate: Postmodernity and Popular Culture in a Sucide Group” 13)
In August 25, 1997 The Seattle Times informed about the previous day meeting, which attracted at about 75 people. Chuck Humprey, accompanied with the “Away Team” how other three former Heaven´s Gate members called themselves, presented a 70-minute long video with Marshall Applewhite´s discourse about the necessity of leaving the
“container” in the Earth and the ascension to the higher level of existence. The event, called simply “bizarre” by the author of the article, did not convince the spectators, who mostly came to make themselves understood to the incident a bit. Nevertheless, the presence of media made the meeting attractive for people who search for sensational events. According to the author, they “left just as sceptically as they arrived”
Some visitors were asked about their impression of the video presentation. Lyn Pon, a retired nurse, expressed her personal opinion. According to her, the members were too
“mentally fragile” and “lost souls”, unable to think and decide, depended on their leader, who was neither too brilliant speaker nor a charming personality. 58
Another visitor, Eldrie Simon, a computer student, found the video disjointed, dull and tedious and the followers feeble and dependent on their leader.
Humprey - Rkkody, who attempted a suicide only a short time before the meeting, but was saved, insisted, that he only wanted to give the right information to the public, not to enlarge the number the cult members or even open them the way to the suicide.
Janja Lalich, a cult expert and an author of A Case Study of Heaven´s Gate who also visited the event described Humprey as a person who is still under Applewhite´s influence.
Her opinion was confirmed a few months later when Humprey succeeded in his second suicide attempt.
One of Humprey´s fellows called Crlody, a young man who used to be a cult member only for three months, but he regretted that he had left the group. Only a few days after the incident in Rancho Santa Fe Crlody contacted Humprey to help him in spreading the
“message” about the cult. He felt that it was his duty. (Tran, “Heaven's Gate Survivors Try To
Explain Suicide Cult“)
6.4.3. Heaven´s Gate web pages still active
The website pages of the cult http://www.heavensgate.com/ are still working, as long as eighteen years after the suicide of 39 its members. That fact was commented in Peter V.
Milo´s article from May 2nd, 2012. The reporter wanted to investigate the owners of the domain and who the people running the pages were. A year before the article was published the pages were updated and the contact was removed. Nevertheless, the contact name was
Marc King and the as the owner of the pages was stated Telah Foundation. The only information, which the newspaper representative received my mail was that Telah Foundation 59 is formed by two people only. Their task was running the pages. They were also asked what they think about December 21st 2012. The answer was that there is no reason to worry about.
(Milo, Heaven´s Gate Websites still active)
The secret of the Heaven´s Gate pages was partly uncovered in another article, published in September 2014 in Gizmodo pages, a blog dealing with technologies.
Besides the explanation containing history and philosophy of the cult the author tried to find some surviving members. One of them was a mysterious man named Sawyer, who runs his own blog where he deals with issues around the Heaven´s Gate and communicated with the author by means of You Tube messages, gave some useful traces.
The Kings, Marc and Sarah, who got married after they left the group, were chosen to run the pages. They were chosen and prepared for the task by Applewhite himself a long time before the incident in Rancho Santa Fe. Therefore, they left the group following his instructions and quipped with cars and money. Nevertheless, they both seem to be still loyal to their leader and are very diligent about the answers they give. “… it seems to be more about keeping a promise than anything else. And if they do know what Do truly had in mind, at least for now, they're keeping their mouths shut.” (Feinberg, “The Online Legacy of a
Cuicide Cult and Webmasters Who Stayed Behind”)
The fact is that neither the Kings nor Rio DiAngelo, who probably were aware of what was going to happen, but did not do anything to stop their friends. Their behaviour shows that all of them still believe that it was the right way.
Psychologist Michael E. Nielsen, PhD. from Department of Psychology, Georgia
Southern University recommended the Heaven´s Gate website to his students. He wanted them to study deeply into the psychology of the leaders and members of the cult, appealing to the readers not to simplify the things and avoid to clichés of the sects. M. Nielsen also 60 mentioned Chuck Humprey – RKKody, who run other two websites with additional information and regretted that they were no longer available.
6.4.4. Sawyer´s blog
The person who calls himself Sawyer started writing his “Sawyerhg´s blog” in
September 2009. Since the date of writing this chapter it covers hundreds of articles, including Do´s texts, as well as videos. In the moment when this thesis was writing the last article was dated from February 22nd, 2015. The author deals with religion, cults, Christianity,
Jesus, Revelation, Muslims, but also with aliens, UFO, paranormal activities, space, astrology, as well as issues like homosexuality or bisexuality.
He advocates the Heaven´s Gate theories and develops them himself. Sawyer also defends Do and Ti and their teaching in Feb. 15th, 2015 against a man who tries to disprove them.
(“Comments against Ti and Do and their teachings and Sawyer´s responses”. February 19,
2015)
Another essay talks about Lovejoy comet and comments alleged large amount of various artificial objects in the solar system.
(“Comet Lovejoy´s “cloud (cloaked spacecraft)” in it´still Jesus´vehicle may still return with”.
January 10, 2015)
The very last record is dated in February 22nd, 2015. The author of the article is trying to ask questions about a small comet, which was the closest in February 19 2015. According to him, the comet is too small, moves unusually and the date when it appears allegedly remind of Hale-Bopp comet anniversary. (“Ti and Do´s Heaven´s Gate Hale Bopp Comet Anniversity in progress with A new highly unusual UFO comet”, February 22, 2015)
Another text from February 22, 2015 was taken from “ USA TODAY” Ad/Statement
May 27th, 1993. It is Do´s statements about recycling the Earth and his teaching about human 61 souls and bodies – “containers” (“Do (Returned Jesus/Moses/Enoch/ writes: “UFO CULT” resurfaces with the final offer in USA Today”)
The author of the blog keeps being absorbed by Heaven´s Gate teaching and goes on in spreading it, in spite of the fact, that he has not been a part of any larger organized group for many years.
The person is not identical with Rio DiAngelo, in the dialog with his opponent, he agrees that he lives in Vera Cruz, Mexico. He is separated from his family like DiAngelo, but he has got a daughter. (“Comments against Ti and Do and their teaching and Sawyer´s responses”. February 19, 2015)
7. Psychology of pressure in cults and religious groups
Chapters 5.3 and its subchapters deal with survivors of massacre in Waco. Chapter
6.3 and its following subchapters describe the philosophy of rare surviving followers of the
Heaven´s Gate.
Most of them remain loyal to their leaders and their teaching even years after their charismatic leaders died.
Psychologist Gerald L. Peterson, Ph.D from Department of Psychology Saginaw
Valley State University, wrote only a few days after the accident in Rancho Santa Fe.
Mr. Peterson describes a typical recruit of a new cult as a “young, idealistic, sometimes lonely,
… seekers, unsatisfied with life as it had been, feeling overwhelmed and dislocated from the family or the general community.” (Peterson, “Principles of Social Psychology in Group
Involvement”) Rio DiAngelo is a typical example of such a personality.
The author lists also most of possible places and occasions typical for recruiting new members. Rio DiAngelo´s story is similar again – he described like he had been captured by the new teaching during a two-hour presentation at the Marina International Hotel in Marina 62 del Rey. He described it as “a shock of recognition … Something just changed. (Bearman,
“Heaven´s Gate: The Sequel”)
Psychologist Peterson emphasizes that the feeling of voluntary involvement and epiphany is a key moment. What develops new member´s reliance are rituals and collective activities. At the same time the new recruit is continually separated from the outer world, which is explained as inimical to the group. The person is finally isolated from his/her former life, family, children, friends, co-workers, neighbors… The dependence is deepened by group discussions, when the things go wrong the fact is usually explained by the lack of purity, belief, by sins, real or only inner. A bad influence of the world outside is also something that harms their noble higher aims.
Mr. Peterson also mentions also the personalities of group leaders. Their power is based on their charisma first. Then they have to be manipulative, but able to act that they are strong, reliable and mysterious. They act that they keep special secrets and knowledge, that they are able to help to their followers, to change their lives or to redeem them. But then they start to abuse their powers by ordering to punish any “guilty” followers (especially Jones was a
“master” of cruel punishments - Chapter 4.2.1). Then the total isolation from the outside world and the impossibility of considering various views of the situation leads to the tragic end. “… we see again a price to be paid for beliefs, not critically examined, but wishfully embraced.” (Peterson, “Principles of Social Psychology in Group Involvement”)
Anthony Storr in the preface to his study of gurus also emphasizes that having a charisma is a key attribute of a guru. He also cites Eileen Barker, a leading expert in sociology of religion. “Almost by definition, charismatic leaders are unpredictable, for they are bound by neither tradition nor rules; they are not answerable to other human beings” (Storr 17)
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7.1. Modern approach to manipulation and violence in cults and religious groups
The previous chapter shows that not only the personality of the group leader is a key factor of creating a possibly violent cult. Other conditions that provoke violence in the group are also “exogenous factors” coming outside. These can be caused by media searching for sensations, state control agencies like child protective services. In the case of Waco there was an opened army offensive. Some members´ parents who feel animosity towards the cult are also felt as a provoking factor. (Lewis 8)
Another important factor of a cult development are local conditions, which means, that ideas, which were taken from a global religion like Christianity or, in the case of UFO cults, from general theories that are known in all over the world, the final summary of the new religion must be adapted into local conditions. That means that people, members of a particular society have similar conditions of life, they have to solve the same problems, resist to similar press etc. The local context should be considered. (Klenk 49)
Conclusion
My thesis tried to deal with three different cults, which ended fatally for most of their members. There were some similar features of the three events. Nevertheless, some factors were different. While in the case of Peoples Temple the suicide of the cult was openly conveyed, the members were prepared for the deadly end both physically and physically. The act of suicide was explained as a “revolutionary suicide”. Practically it was an extended suicide or the cult leader and the followers, who were under pressure for long months in the jungle, isolated and disorientated.
In the case of Branch Davidans their final fate was not a suicide in its literal meaning, but a consequence of the situation. 64
The last cult of Heaven´s Gate was not, in fact, violent physically. Unlike the previous twos the members had a freedom of movement, they probably were not humiliated of punished.
The psychical manipulation in the case of this cult reached perfection.
Neither psychologists nor philosophers brought an only theory about the violence in religious groups. People who join such groups are not violent at all. They do that to follow the noblest ideals. They were mostly kind, idealistic, devoting people, who wanted to spend their lives. Moreover, not all of them are not weak, submissive personalities, who need a powerful leader. They want to be strong, faithful and loyal to their ideology and their “gurus”. They want to resist to the “outer world” which is often explained like a wild, unfriendly, enemy environment. Everything coming from the outside is explained as a sign of their leaders prophecies. And, the outer world, especially in the case of the Branch Davidians tragedy, seems to confirm that. Some people live long years, even decades, of their lives in such unequal relationship, some even go on for the rest of their life, long time after their idol´s death.
Each human being has the right to choose the way of his or her own life. Nevertheless, the freedom of each person is limited by the freedom of their mates.
Parents, teachers and others should raise children as confident, balanced personalities, who do not need to seek for the care and dependence of those people who tend to manipulate others.
At the same time they should know that they do not have the right to command and manipulate others. The problems often begin at schools, ostracism, bullying and manipulation, and looking out at others are problems even among the youngest schoolchildren.
Therefore, we, teachers, bear the large responsibility for the children and the student´s future.
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