On 27 June 1988, four murders took place across three different locations. All occurred in Texas at the same time: 4pm. The date, journalist Sally Denton would later note in her book The Colony: Faith and Blood in a Promised Land, marked 144 years since the killing of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism. The four […]
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JOHN HYRUM KOYLE WAS BORN in Spanish Fork, Utah in 1864. Raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, his family was sent to settle the area around the Muddy River in southern Nevada. He eventually brought a farm and settled down in Leland, Utah. In 1886, he claimed he was receiving spiritual visions during his dreams. He
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The Ku Klux Klan is a native-born American racist terrorist organization that helped overthrow Republican Reconstruction governments in the South after the Civil War and drive black people out of politics. It revived in the 20th Century as a social lodge and briefly became a nationwide political power. During the 1960s, the Klan fought the
Brian David Mitchell was a Mormon fundamentalist who kidnapped Elizabeth Smart in 2002. He held her captive for nine months, during which time he repeatedly raped her. Mitchell was eventually convicted of kidnapping and sexual assault and sentenced to life in prison. Mitchell was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1953. He was the
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Roch Thériault was a man with a mission: to save himself and his followers from the coming apocalypse. As a child, Thériault dropped out of school and started teaching himself the Old Testament. He was convinced that a war between good and evil was about to come, and that this would bring about the end of
The Iron Rod cult is a religious group that was founded in 1999 by Hyung Jin Moon, the son of the late Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification Church. The group is based in Newfoundland, Pennsylvania, and has a small following of a few hundred people. The Iron Rod cult is known for
Scientology is a religion that was founded in 1954 by L. Ron Hubbard. It is based on the belief that people are immortal spiritual beings who have forgotten their true nature. Scientology offers a variety of courses and auditing procedures that are designed to help people improve their lives and reach their full potential. Scientology
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athya Sai Baba (1926-2011) was an Indian spiritual leader who was considered by his followers to be a reincarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba, a saint who lived in the 19th century. Sai Baba was born in Puttaparthi, a small village in Andhra Pradesh, India. He began to exhibit miraculous powers at a young age, and
Dionysus is one of the most complex and fascinating figures in Greek mythology. He was the god of wine, festivity, madness, and wild frenzy. He was also associated with the theater, the arts, and fertility. Dionysus was a controversial figure, and his worship was often met with resistance. However, he was also one of the
The Rajneesh cult was a religious movement founded by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, also known as Osho. The movement was controversial in the 1970s and 1980s, due to the founder’s hostility, first to Hindu morality in India, and later to Christian morality in the United States. Rajneesh was born in Kuchwada, India, in 1931. He studied