At the beginning of the 20th century, many different sects and cults began to appear on American soil, some of which were the most terrible organizations that came to Earth from hell. Now readers will find out which of them have killed many innocent lives in the name of their faith.
In 1997, Marshall Applewhite, who organized the "Gates of Heaven" sect, managed to persuade 39 parishioners to voluntarily leave this world due to the collision of a planet with a comet. Until that moment, the preacher told people that he had come here from another world, as he had to help them return home. The man also told how 2000 years ago he was already on the planet in the image of Jesus Christ, but despite such nonsense, he had many supporters. The parishioners considered themselves ambassadors of extraterrestrial civilization, obliged to teach humanity with their knowledge. In the 90s, the community began to live in an elite suburb of San Diego, where there were many programmers among the people, searching for UFOs and earning money for the flock. But the order here was Spartan, as all members wore the same baggy clothes along with gloves,so as not to touch sinful things.
They rose every day at 3:00 to see the stars, after which they hid from the sunlight, drank lemon juice to cleanse their bodies, and memorized the Bible. Many men voluntarily castrated themselves in order to renounce worldly life. When the approaching heavenly body became visible from the ground, the shepherd immediately announced the end of the world and promised people that after death they would all be on a spaceship. Each parishioner died on his bed, next to which his belongings stood, drinking a strong dose of sleeping pills with alcohol. The brothers then put plastic bags over their heads and covered their bodies with purple silk scarves, after which their bodies were found by the police.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a special branch of Protestantism that emerged here in the 19th century. The founder of the sect was the farmer William Miller after studying the Scriptures, where he saw a message about the imminent coming of Christ. Despite the fact that the event did not materialize, the community itself already has 20 million followers. Only branches of its own began to appear in it, taking radical forms. One of these sects was the "Branch of David" led by David Koresh. The charismatic leader immediately called himself the Jewish king who came into the world before the Savior, after which he gathered a large community and took it under strict control.
Gradually, the sect became a small dictatorship of one man, who chose 19 women, making them his concubines. In the morning, men had to build a temple complex, after which it was the turn of the impregnable fortress, where the false ruler lived with his harem and guards. In the 90s, police officers suspected the sect of cruel treatment of children, but when they tried to enter the building, they were met by automatic fires. After that, the people were able to hold out in the fortress for 51 days, and during the final assault, the leader ordered the community to be set on fire, after which 90 people died with him in the fire.
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The Amish also became a unique human community that has not changed its way of life since the 17th century. They live without running water or electricity, following only a list of religious rules. Women are forbidden to wear jewelry, and all members of the community wear strict clothes, while for men the main pride is the beard. After marriage, they are required to shave their mustache, but grow it on their face. Recently, one branch decided to take revenge on its neighbors due to religious differences. Members of the sect broke into the homes of fellow believers and shaved off the hair of women and men, after which they were caught and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
But many of the rules within the community terrify modern people. In Pennsylvania, a scandal erupted when a poor family accepted help from an acquaintance, in gratitude for which a 14-year-old girl was given to a 51-year-old man. Then the young slave managed to give birth to the owner of two children, but what else is happening outside the walls of this place remains a mystery.
"The Charles Manson Family" became the most creepy sect in the country, as the future maniac was unlucky in childhood with his father, who abused the child. In the orphanage, he was regularly beaten by guards and raped by high school students. By his 30th birthday, he had a prison sentence, after which his philosophy of life began to be shared by followers in San Francisco. Most of them were former prisoners and hippies who became the children of the new preacher. They lived in Death Valley, where they organized orgies and carelessly spent their lives, but once the leader was invited by producer Terry Melcher, who did not appreciate his talent after the album was released.
The maniac did not forget his words, after which the family committed the loudest murder in history, called "bloody hell". She arrived at the director's former estate owned by Roman Polanski, after which she cruelly dealt with all the people in the house, including the star's wife, who was in her last month of pregnancy. Then the members of the sect kill the owner of the supermarket, after which the head was sentenced to life in prison.
Members of the People's Temple sect also suffered because of their shepherd Jim Jones, who from a young age actively preached on the street, after which he created his own community at the age of 24. He demanded that the flock spend most of the time in church, observe a strict daily routine, and not communicate with their relatives. Such measures became the reason for the media to describe the sect as a cult of tyranny. The founder leaves the country and, together with his followers, rents a land plot in the jungle of Guyana. A year later, the politician Leo Royan comes here, and 16 people asked him to take them home from here.
The leader was furious, but he could not publicly refuse this man. As he boarded the plane, a group of armed men killed him along with the guards, and in the evening at a commune meeting announced that all members would be persecuted by the American authorities. He considered the best way out of the situation to be a mass death, where the children were poisoned first, after which the adults themselves took the poison, and forcibly poured it into those who refused. The exact reason for such an event has not yet been revealed.
Author: Irina Reshetnikova