These cult leaders were the worst of the worst. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at the most manipulative, controlling, and violent cult leaders in history.
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00:00He could rail. I mean, he could just light up. I mean, his whole body punctuated what he was saying.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the most manipulative,
00:09controlling, and violent cult leaders in history.
00:12Boy, is this guy crazy. Is this a cult if I ever heard one? Yes, it is.
00:17It's a cult. I mean, it's the cult of cults.
00:21Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh. Rajneeshpuram.
00:23Do you consider yourself a god?
00:26My god. There is no god.
00:35By masking his true intentions with progressive ideas, Rajneesh amassed a sizable following.
00:41His teachings led him to be branded as a sex guru in his home country of India.
00:45His large following in the West resulted in him eventually relocating to the United States,
00:50where his true nature surfaced.
00:51I will go on trying to help people to be awake. The awakened man will be the new man.
01:00His acolytes lived in poverty while he led a luxurious lifestyle.
01:04Those in his inner circle tried to expand his political power through drastic means,
01:08including the first bioterrorist attack in the country
01:11and the attempted assassination of a government official.
01:14We want everyone to know that if you're going to use violence,
01:18that we will be ready to take whatever actions needed to protect ourselves.
01:23When he was eventually deported, an additional 21 countries refused him entry as well.
01:28Warren Jeffs, the fundamentalist church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
01:33I have been the most wicked man.
01:36As the leader of this sect that believes in multiple marriages,
01:40Warren Jeffs viewed women as objects,
01:42even counting several of his late father's wives among his 78 spouses.
01:47We went to a Monday morning meeting, and Warren was there with his father's wives.
01:53And he says, look at what the Lord has blessed me with.
01:56Those that refused were either forbidden from being wed again
01:59or had to flee the compound entirely.
02:02He used his position as leader to arrange several marriages,
02:05often between underage individuals and adults.
02:08His mistreatment against minors escalated,
02:10landing him a spot on the FBI's top 10 most wanted fugitive list.
02:14Although he's behind bars now, he's still revered within the church,
02:18underscoring how successful his coercion had been.
02:21I think that he was keenly aware of how to pick up on what is important to people
02:27and how to use that to manipulate them.
02:30Joseph DiMambro and Luc Jauret, Order of the Solar Temple.
02:34For some, running a cult is a collaborative effort,
02:36and both these men played a significant role within the Order of the Solar Temple.
02:41Both leaders, DiMambro and Jauret, were skilled manipulators
02:45who understood their followers' craving for spiritual secrets.
02:48Their organization utilized religious trappings,
02:51with DiMambro even claiming that his daughter would produce the next messiah.
02:54He even had another infant killed after believing he was the Antichrist.
02:58A curious mix of the Christian and the occult,
03:01the Order's beliefs were jealously guarded.
03:05Only the inner circle were allowed to know the central doctrines.
03:08When the tides started to turn against them, they took things to the final stage.
03:12In 1994, dozens of members were discovered dead in Switzerland,
03:17including Jauret and DiMambro themselves.
03:19Their impact didn't end there.
03:22In the following years,
03:23several more people ended their lives after believing their teachings.
03:26There has never been such a series of deaths,
03:29four separate incidents over a period of 15 months.
03:33Shoko Asahara, Om Shinrikyo.
03:35It's hard to believe that such a vicious organization started out as a simple yoga class.
03:45Shoko Asahara eventually accrued a large base,
03:48and his lessons focused on both self-improvement and faith,
03:51allowing him to cast a wide net.
03:54However, his intentions were anything but pure.
03:57His followers went through initiation rituals
03:59involving drugs or extreme physical discomfort.
04:02He also had a goal of overtaking the government,
04:05which led to him coordinating a disastrous attack on the Tokyo Metro
04:09that resulted in over a dozen deaths.
04:11This is the deadliest terror attack carried out on Japanese soil
04:15and remains the only sophisticated chemical warfare attack by a terrorist group.
04:20His thirst for power was unquenched,
04:22leading to several other violent incidents.
04:25But his hubris eventually led to his downfall,
04:28with his trial considered one of the most significant in Japan's history.
04:32After Tokyo, Japan rounded up all members and put them on trial.
04:36Thirteen got the death penalty,
04:37including Shoko Asahara, the would-be messiah himself.
04:41Paul Ntenge McKenzie, Good News International Church.
04:44It's terrifying to think about how much abuse occurs without people knowing.
04:48Police searched McKenzie's compound in Malindi
04:51and found 43 children living there without attending school.
04:55That's according to court documents at the time.
04:58McKenzie's brother says the court leader believed education was evil.
05:02There's no better example of this than the actions of the Good News International Church,
05:06the corrupt methods of which went on for decades before being discovered in 2023.
05:11Its leader, Paul Ntenge McKenzie,
05:14used people's fear of the end times to control them,
05:17while also demonizing the West.
05:19Everything from medicine to food was considered a tool of Satan.
05:23My wife told me she'd found a church that would take her to heaven.
05:27She said it was wrong to go to school and hospital.
05:30This led to his ultimate act of cruelty,
05:32a mass starvation event that he exempted himself from.
05:36He instructed followers to fast, saying it would allow them to meet Jesus.
05:40This led to the deaths of over 100 people.
05:43Sources say he told his adherents the world was going to end on April 15
05:48and Satan would rule for a thousand years.
05:50Rock Terrio, the Ant Hill Kids.
05:53Rock had this amazing ability when you were talking to him
05:57that he seemed to focus all of his attention on you
06:00and you felt this powerful presence.
06:03For some, evil runs to the very core.
06:06The torture that Rock Terrio inflicted upon members of the Ant Hill Kids
06:09is enough to horrify even the bravest people.
06:12His savagery knew no bounds,
06:14with some members being forced to break their own limbs with hammers.
06:17They were also forced to hurt each other to prove their loyalty to Terrio.
06:21He took a knife and stabbed through the hand,
06:25basically sort of crucified her hand to the table.
06:28Some members also underwent extreme medical experiments,
06:31allowing him to perform surgeries on them,
06:34ultimately cutting some of their lives short.
06:36His terrible actions ultimately led to him being sentenced to life in prison,
06:40where he deservedly spent the rest of his days.
06:43For two brutal operations, which he was entirely unqualified to perform,
06:47the homeopathic guru who called himself Moses found himself behind bars.
06:53David Koresh, Branch Davidians.
06:55David was our Christ giving us the truths from God.
07:03His impact both pre- and post-mortem has been disastrous.
07:07Starting out as a member of the Branch Davidians,
07:10Koresh used his influence among other members to secure authority in the late 1980s.
07:14He had warped ideas surrounding women and took several wives,
07:18with some allegedly being underage.
07:21Rampant child abuse allegations and growing weapons collections
07:24raised several red flags among officials.
07:26You have guns?
07:27Yeah, we have some.
07:29It makes nobody's business whether we have a gun or not at this place.
07:34Guns are the right of Americans to have.
07:36Eventually, the tensions between him and the government mounted,
07:40culminating in the controversial Waco siege.
07:42They came on the property with two cattle trailers and got out.
07:46They started shooting.
07:48Well, it definitely was not us that shot first,
07:50because I remember the first rounds I heard were the M60 and the .50 caliber.
07:56We didn't have any of those weapons.
07:58While he ended up dying, his influence unfortunately lingered.
08:02Timothy McVeigh, the perpetrator behind the Oklahoma City bombing,
08:06was so angered by the events that he planned his own horrific revenge,
08:10which ended up taking place on the anniversary of Koresh's death.
08:17Boy, is this guy crazy.
08:20Is this a cult if I ever heard one?
08:21Yes, it is.
08:22It's a cult.
08:23I mean, it's the cult of cults.
08:24Not every cult leader needed to resort to aggression to get their way.
08:28While Marshall Applewhite didn't use sex or violence as a means of control,
08:32that doesn't make his actions any less insidious.
08:35He insisted that he was one of the witnesses referenced in the Bible,
08:38and preached that he and anyone who followed him
08:41would reach salvation via a spaceship on the Hale-Bopp comet.
08:44See, it says,
08:46We've been away and now we're going back.
08:50He forced people to look and dress the same,
08:53along with giving up everything that made them individuals,
08:56including their families and sexualities.
08:59He was able to manipulate them into believing that self-elimination
09:02was the only way to ascend,
09:04leading to a now infamous mass death event
09:06that's still referenced in pop culture today.
09:09If we even turned out to not be what we were,
09:13they are 10 times what they have ever been, and they know.
09:16Charles Manson
09:18The Manson Family
09:19The rantings of a madman.
09:21Charles Manson in full flight.
09:24Fault makes strong.
09:25Good pain, understand pain.
09:27Not bad.
09:29Pain's not bad.
09:30It's good.
09:30The symbol of the dark side of the 1960s,
09:33Manson cultivated a dangerously loyal following.
09:36Taking advantage of the hippie movement,
09:38he somehow appealed to a number of young people.
09:41He believed a race war was imminent,
09:43and that it would result in himself being made the master of a new world.
09:47I'm not asking you.
09:48I'm telling you.
09:49You do exactly what I say.
09:51Manson planned several appalling events that he believed would ignite this war.
09:55The most notorious by far was the slaying of Sharon Tate and several others,
10:00whose status turned the crime into a media spectacle.
10:03By the time the Manson Family was caught,
10:05they had taken nine victims,
10:07and were suspected of a dozen more killings.
10:09Manson was swiftly re-imprisoned,
10:12where he rightfully spent the rest of his days.
10:14The Manson Family killing spree
10:16is a crime that will most likely continue to confound
10:20and horrify for the next 50 years.
10:23Before we continue,
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10:38Jim Jones, People's Temple of the Disciples of Christ.
10:42With his seemingly endless charm and confidence,
10:44he became the archetypal cult leader.
10:47He could rail, I mean, he could just light up.
10:49I mean, his whole body punctuated what he was saying.
10:52He attracted a following,
10:54many of whom believed he possessed healing powers.
10:56After officials began investigating him,
10:59he moved his base of operations to Guyana.
11:01There, they were subjected to harsh living conditions,
11:04including a lack of food and various forms of abuse.
11:08When Jonestown was eventually investigated by a U.S. representative,
11:12Jones had him murdered.
11:13He then ordered a large-scale death event
11:16with over 900 people being forced to drink a poisoned beverage,
11:20while he secured a quick exit by gunshot.
11:22He is the mass murderer.
11:24And you asked me before what I felt about Jim Jones,
11:26I think he's a monster.
11:27Which cult leader do you think had the most horrific methods and impact?
11:31Let us know in the comments below.
11:33The mind that you had as a human is aborted,
11:38and the soul that was given to you is filled with next-level information,
11:43next-level mind,
11:45and a new creature is born.