Ed asks: In fantasy and science fiction worlds, ending a cult is just a matter of killing the leader. How would that work in the real world, or at least a realistic setting?

Resources Mentioned:

The Wrong Way Home: Uncovering the Patterns of Cult Behavior in American Society, by Arthur Deikman

Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology, by Leah Remini

The Unbreakable Miss Lovely by Tony Ortega

Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall

Waco: A Survivor’s Story by David Thibodeau

Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor’s Story of Life and Death in the People’s Temple by Deborah Layton

Stories from Jonestown by Leigh Fondakowski

A Manual for Creating Atheists by Peter Boghossian

Radical: My Journey out of Islamist Extremism by Maajid Nawaz

Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche by Haruki Murakami

Girl on a Wire: Walking the Line Between Faith and Freedom in the Westboro Baptist Church by Libby Phelps