Sinister Societies

James King was a self-empowerment guru working around Seattle in the 1990s. His ideas about “God-life” and enlightenment attracted a small band of followers who underwent an intense recruiting process. It was later revealed that King used the process to manipulate women into sleeping with him. 

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The mysterious death of a South Korean business tycoon was the closing chapter of a bizarre saga dotted with the start of a church, maritime disasters, and a mass killing-suicide. Hannah and Suruthi dive into the life of “Little Child” Yoo Byung-eun and his Evangelical Baptist Church. 

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In the early 2000s, a small Pentecostal sect in Sweden began adopting unconventional beliefs and practices on their way to cult infamy. Hannah and Suruthi discuss Knutby Filadelfia, its leaders — the “Bride of Christ” Åsa Waldau and predatory pastor Helge Fossmo — and how “texts from God” manipulated one vulnerable member into committing murder.

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A preacher and his wife establish the House of David in 1902 after coming to believe they are the fated “seventh messenger” of God. The Purnells relocate to Lake Michigan, get an influx of money from two investors, and prepare for eternal life with their followers… by building an amusement park, baseball team, and the world’s largest miniature railroad. But in the 1920s, sexual abuse allegations cause Benjamin Purnell to hide out for years.  

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One Sunday in 1975, Elbert Eugene Spriggs broke away from his church to form a new one. A few name changes, global settlements, and multimillion dollar businesses later, the group is most infamous for repeated allegations of child abuse. 

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After a restaurateur finds massive success with a natural food cafe in Los Angeles, he changes his name and starts a commune. Suruthi and Hannah take it back to the ‘70s to trace the life of Jim Baker – polygamous practices, occult imagination, doomsday predictions, and all.

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Since the ‘70s, thousands of people have come together every year for peaceful gatherings in national forests. But these so-called Rainbow Gatherings are plagued by a history of disappearances, deaths, and at least one massive diarrhea incident. 

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From meditation retreats to murder conspiracies… Hannah and Suruthi limber up to the story of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh — the self-proclaimed “Sex Guru” whose teachings attracted thousands to his now-infamous ashrams in India and Oregon.

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John Alexander Dowie founded the Christian Catholic Church as well as a commune called Zion in 1896 after performing miracles as a faith healer. But while he lived a lavish lifestyle, his critics called him a fraud. And it wouldn't be long before his followers agreed.

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In the 1990s, a teenager in Kentucky got into a role-playing game about vampires and the occult. A few years later, he was drinking his friends’ blood, adopting an ancient vampiric identity, and planning murder with his vampire clan.

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