Most people fail to understand the decision to join a cult. It is difficult to understand the motivation of someone who gives up everything for a group with conflicting and unorthodox beliefs and practices. The potentially terrifying nature of cults did come into focus in the 1960s, when cult leader Charles Manson convinced his “family” members to commit a series of barbaric murders. This demonstrated that people who were brainwashed by cults are capable of anything, which is why cult activity has been at the center of some bizarre unsolved murders and unexplained disappearances.
The disappearance of the Tarkington children
Over the years, numerous armed clashes have occurred between law enforcement agencies and fanatical religious cults, and these have often resulted in violence. Believe it or not, one such confrontation has been taking place in Trinidad, Texas for 15 consecutive years.
John Joe Gray is the fanatical leader of a religious militant sect known as the Embassy of Heaven Church, an organization that rejects state power. In December 1999, Gray was charged with assaulting a state soldier. After failing to appear in court, he barricaded himself behind a hanging gate on his 47-acre forest ranch, refusing to leave the property and threatening violence against any intruders. At the time, it was believed that at least 15 members of the Gray family and their followers were hiding inside the complex. They have lived there ever since.
The most disturbing aspect of this story is an unsolved mystery involving two missing children. For three years, Gray's daughter, Lisa, was married to a man named Keith Tarkington. The couple had two sons, Joe and Samuel. Keith was thrilled by Lisa's iconic family and filed for divorce in April 1999. He received custody of his children when Lisa did not show up for their divorce proceedings. The last time Keith spoke to his ex-wife, the two sons were outside the gates of her family home, but he has not seen them since. Although Gray claims that Lisa, Joe and Samuel no longer live on their ranch, there have been no confirmed sightings for almost 16 years.
Despite the fact that there is a warrant for Gray's arrest, the authorities did not venture on his property, fearing that the situation could escalate into violent bloodshed. As a result, Kate Tarkington still does not know the fate of her two children.
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The disappearance of Charles Southern
In 1987, 39-year-old Charles Southern was a professor of English in Chicago. His life took a strange turn after he joined a cult spiritual sect known as the Conscious Development of Body, Mind and Soul, run by a woman named Terri Hoffman. Shortly after Southern went through one of her meditation sessions, his family found himself wandering the streets and rambling incoherently. Southern was hospitalized and soon became disillusioned with Hoffman and her sect.
Yuzhny had planned to take a vacation to India in December, but during that month he mysteriously disappeared without explanation. Yuzhny's family found his passport at their residence, indicating that he did not leave for the planned trip.
There were other disturbing clues as well. A vial of curare poison was found in the box. Some of Southern's clothes were folded on the dress chair to resemble the Nigerian tribal symbol of death.
The Yuzhny family also found two notes, which were his last will and testament. They named Terry Hoffman the executor of his estate, but the will was so poorly written that Southern's family doubts he was the author. This is not the only legacy that Hoffman has ever collected. Over the years, 11 individuals associated with the Hoffman cult have committed suicide or died under suspicious circumstances, and in many of these cases, their will named Hoffman as the beneficiary. In fact, before leaving his estate, Hoffman's husband committed suicide after filming a farewell video claiming he had fatal cancer. An autopsy showed no signs of cancer in his body.
However, there was never any evidence to bring criminal charges against Terry Hoffman, and Charles Southern went missing.
The Mills family murder
Several cult stories are more gruesome than the Johnstown massacre. On November 18, 1978, Jim Jones convinced over 900 followers of his cult, the Temple of the Nations, to take part in mass suicide by ingesting cyanide in their Johnstown commune in Guyana.
In one of his last entries, Jones mentioned a couple named Deanna and Elmer Myrtle. The Myrtles lived at the People's Temple for years with their five children, but they left after Jones beat one of his daughters. After they changed their names to Jean and Al Mills, the couple became very frank about Jones's questionable behavior. Jeannie has published a memoir of her experiences and has been very active in helping other people leave the cult. Jones often threatened retaliation against the Mills family, and 15 months after the Johnstown massacre, they were the victims of yet another tragedy.
On February 27, 1980, Al, Ginny, and their 15-year-old daughter Dafena were shot to death at their home in Berkeley, California. It was rumored that the Mills family was killed by a vengeful strike force consisting of the surviving members of the Peoples Temple. However, the investigation soon turned to the couple's 17-year-old son, Eddie, who remained unharmed.
Eddie claimed to have watched television in his bedroom while filming was taking place and did not know it was happening. Authorities deemed Eddie's story suspicious as there was no sign of a break-in, and Eddie had microscopic marks of gunfire residue on his arms. However, the murder weapon could not be found. In 2005, Eddie Mills was arrested on suspicion of killing his family.
In the end, there was no evidence of any charges being brought against him, so he was released and the murders remain unsolved.
The disappearances of Chantelle and Leela McDougall
In October 2007, 27-year-old Chantelle McDougall and her 6-year-old daughter Leela mysteriously disappeared from their hometown of Nannup, Australia. At the time, Chantelle was living with her 45-year-old husband, Simon Cadwell, who was also missing.
Chantelle contacted Simon when she was still a teenager. At the time, the family lived in a trailer owned by 40-year-old Antonio Popic, who also disappeared. They left everything, including their wallets and credit cards. They were last seen selling Chantelle's car for $ 4,000, but none of the money in her bank account was affected. However, things took a strange turn when investigators began digging into Simon Cadwell's background.
It turned out that he had previously lived in England under his real name Gary Feldman and, before moving to Australia, had stolen the identity of another Briton named Simon Cadwell. He lived under numerous pseudonyms over the years and was the head of the strange New Age religious cult. The cult followed the teachings of the Doomsday book, Servers of the Divine Plan, based on the idea of “servers” taking up a position on Earth to prepare for the impending apocalypse.
Chantelle McDougall and her daughter were also members of this cult and cut off all communication with Chantelle's closest relatives. All four missing people are believed to have traveled to a specific location to prepare for the end of the world, but there is no evidence that they ever left Australia. They have practically disappeared from the face of the Earth and have not been seen for over seven years.
Bethany Deaton's suspicious suicide
The International House of Prayer (IHOP) is a religious organization based in Kansas City, Missouri. One of their more than 20 worshipers is run by Tyler Deaton, who has been at the center of a controversy following the death of his 27-year-old wife Bethany.
On October 30, 2012, Bethany Denton was found dead in the back seat of a van near Lake Longview. A plastic bag over her head suffocated, and an empty pill bottle and a handwritten suicide note were found. Initially, authorities found nothing suspicious about Bethany's death, but nine days later, an IHOP police officer named Mika Moore entered the police station and confessed to killing her. He claimed to be acting on orders from Tyler Deaton.
Tyler came under fire for leading his worship group as a cult. All of his followers lived together in two gender-segregated houses, and he controlled every aspect of their lives. Tyler was married to Bethany for 10 weeks, but did business with other men, believing that his marriage would cure his homosexuality.
According to Mika, Tyler ordered him to kill Bethany because she was attacked by other men in the group and Tyler wanted to stop her from talking about it. Mika was subsequently charged with first degree murder. While Mika claimed that he faked Bethany's suicide note, his DNA was not found in the bag above her head, and analysis of the handwriting concluded that she probably wrote the note herself. Mika later retracted his confession, and with no other evidence of his involvement, prosecutors dropped the murder charge in November 2014.
Officially, Bethany Deaton's death is still considered a suicide, but there are still many suspicions about her death.
The assassination of John Gilbride
During the 1970s, a liberation group called MOVE was formed in Philadelphia, led by Vincent Lopez Liphart, who changed his name to John Africa. MOVE became known as an urban religious cult with a strong anti-government stance, and they had numerous laws.
On May 13, 1985, MOVE entered into an armed confrontation with the police at their barricaded hideout on Osage Avenue. There was a firefight and a charge of explosives was dropped onto the MOVE hideout. The charge caught fire with a gas cylinder. The ensuing fire destroyed the entire city block, killing 11 MOVE members, including John Africa. This won't be the last time MOVE will be at the center of controversy.
Years after Africa's death, his widow married John Gilbride, a white man 20 years her junior and fascinated with MOVEMENT. They had a son together, but ultimately Gilbride was dismayed by the radical cult practice of MOVE and filed for divorce. The couple became involved in a heated battle for their son.
In September 2002, at a detention hearing, Gilbride testified that the MOVE members had threatened to kill him. On September 27, Gilbride was just hours away from his first trial visit with his son when he was gunned down in a car outside a housing estate in Maple Shade, New Jersey.
Suspicion immediately shifted to MOVE, who responded with a statement that the government had killed Gilbride to frame them. They even implied that he could have faked his own death. So far, there hasn't been any evidence to definitely link MOVE to the murder of John Gilbride, which remains unsolved.
Disappearance of Rose Cole
In 1958, Charles E. Dederich founded a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program in Santa Monica, California called Synanon. As the years passed, Sinanon went beyond drug treatment and attracted people interested in alternative lifestyles. By the 1970s, it had grown into a dangerous religious cult.
It got to the point where anyone who joined Synanon was forced to transfer all their assets to them and become a lifetime member. Anyone who attempts to leave the cult will face serious consequences. By the early 1990s, the Internal Revenue Service had shut down Synanon for financial misconduct, and some of its members were even convicted of attempted murder. One of the unsolved mysteries surrounding Sinanon was the disappearance of a teenage girl named Rose Cole.
In 1972, Rose turned 15 and ran away from home. After she was found, Rose told the judge that she used and sold drugs, so she was sentenced to a court-ordered stay in the Sinanon treatment program. Months later, Rose Cole disappeared without a trace. The story goes that Rose ran away from Synanon at some point.
Her family received two letters from her in which she claimed to be living on the streets of San Francisco and suffering from a kidney infection. In her last letter, Rose expressed concern that Sinanon officials would find her, and said she would not write again until she was 18 years old and an adult. After that, Rose's family never heard of her, although there were unconfirmed rumors that she contacted her father in the 1980s to confirm that she was still living on the street.
While there is no evidence that Synanon caused Rose Cole to disappear, the organization's dark history has sparked much speculation.
The murder of Maureen Dutton
At about 6:00 pm on December 20, 1961, Brian Dutton returned to his home in Liverpool's Knotty Ash neighborhood and was shocked to find his wife, Maureen, lying on the living room floor. She was stabbed 14 times. Maureen looked after her two young sons, two-year-old David and 22-day-old Andrew. Both children were unharmed, and although David is believed to have witnessed his mother's murder, he was unable to reveal any clear details.
The investigation was bewildered by the crime, as nothing was stolen from the house and Maureen was not sexually assaulted. However, rumors began to spread that Maureen was the victim of a ritual murder perpetrated by a religious cult.
The cult followed the Polynesian god Tiki and was famous for offering sacrifices to Tiki during the winter solstice. An hour and a half before Maureen was found dead, witnesses reported seeing a mad woman on the bus, muttering about having to get to London to catch a plane. On the same day, a suspicious young man was seen vomiting behind a church in the Maureen area.
The day before the murder, a man posing as a doctor summoned another woman with a newborn baby to the Halewood house. The man examined the woman, but when her husband checked the doctor's records, he could not find any records of doctors under the name provided by that person. A few months later, a nurse was arrested for stealing drugs and equipment from three local hospitals. He posed as a doctor and had a distinctive tattoo on his arm identifying him as a fan of Tiki. However, the police were never able to link him to the murder. To this day, no one knows who was responsible for the murder of Maureen Dutton.
Disappearance of Alexander Olivia
In the early 1980s, a young woman named Rosemary Olive became involved with the charismatic Ulysses Roberson. She eventually gave birth to a son named Alexander, whom Ulysses renamed Salam.
Ulysses entered into abusive relationships with several different women who were forced to father their children and live together as a quasi-polygamous cult. Ulysses abused all his children. Alexander was his most frequent target, as he was a race, and Ulysses believed that the boy was harboring a demon in his body. When Alexander was four years old, Rosemary finally freed herself from the Ulysses cult and moved to live with her son in San Francisco. On November 9, 1985, Ulysses kidnapped Alexander from his home, and this was the last time his mother saw him.
Rosemary traveled to South Lake Tahoe to demand the return of her son, but Ulysses continued to beat her. Ulysses served one year in prison for assaulting Rosemary, but denied knowing about Alexander's whereabouts. After Ulysses was convicted of unrelated rape in 1997, two of his former girlfriends finally stepped forward and informed the authorities that shortly after Alexander was kidnapped from his mother, they witnessed Ulysses beat the boy with a piece. firewood and carried his lifeless body onto a van going to a remote area.
When DNA tests found traces of Alexander's blood in Ulysses' van, he was charged with Alexander's murder. Although Ulysses retained his innocence, he was convicted of second-degree murder in 2009 and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Alexander's body has never been found.
The disappearance of the witches of Carlos Castaneda
The infamous New Age figure, Carlos Castaneda, rose to prominence after the publication of a 1968 memoir entitled Teachings of Don Juan. The book recounted the magical adventures of Castaneda with a Yaki Native American shaman named Don Juan. Although the book has since been denied as fiction, it has sold millions of copies, and Castaneda also achieved success by teaching a movement technique called Tensegrity.
In the 1990s, Castaneda created a corporation called Cleargreen to promote Tensegrity and hired five women to assist in its work. However, Castaneda's operation was carried out as a cult, as all five of these women changed their names, abandoned their old lives and lived in complete seclusion with him as their lovers. They became known as the "witches" of Castaneda.
On April 27, 1998, Castaneda died of liver cancer. However, his death was kept secret and was not disclosed to the media for two months. By that time, Castaneda's witches were nowhere to be seen.
The five female followers of Castaneda were Amalia Marquez, Patricia Partin, Florinda Donner-Grau, Taisha Abelar, and Kylie Lundal. Soon after Castaneda's death, these women closed the Los Angeles building where they lived with him. The phone numbers for all these women were cut off and disappeared completely. Partin's car was soon found abandoned in the Panamint Dunes area in Death Valley National Park.
In 2003, the remains of a skeleton were discovered in Death Valley and were eventually identified as Partina. Her cause of death cannot be established, but is considered suicide. It is assumed that all five of Castaneda's witches went off somewhere to commit suicide after his death. Despite the fact that Cleargreen continues to operate to this day, no trace of the other four missing women has been found.