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Tag Archives: cult

Episode 166: Mormon Doomsday Cult

Friday, September 2, 2022

It’s difficult to keep things straight in this complex and ongoing case, but here’s the short story. Lori and Charles Vallow were members of the LDS church who lived in Arizona with their five children from Lori’s four previous marriages. In 2015, Lori became obsessed with a series of apocalyptic books by Chad Daybell, an […]

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Episode 160: Interview with a Vampire

Monday, June 7, 2021

Roderick Ferrell and Heather Wendorf were best friends at school in Eustis, Florida before Rod moved with his mother to Murray, Kentucky. In Kentucky, he began dressing in black and talking about vampires. When he visited his friends in Eustis over Thanksgiving of 1996, he said he’d formed a vampire cult and got four of […]

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Episode 132: Darryl La Ray Johnson Sentencing Hearing

Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Darryl La Ray Johnson, 32, of Great Falls, Idaho, pleaded guilty on March 1 2017 to possession of marijuana. In May, he went to court for a sentencing hearing after spending five months in jail. At the beginning of the hearing, he fires his attorney at the hearing and asked to represent himself. He goes […]

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Episode 112: Manson follower Brooks Poston police interview

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Brooks Poston was a member of the Manson family who testified for the prosecution during the Tate/Labianca murder trial. This recording was made on 3 October 1969, after Manson’s arrest for the Tate/LaBianca murders, when Poston was interviewed by the Inyo County police. As Poston explains, he was a devout follower who believed in Manson’s […]

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Episode 106: Deposition of “The Apostle”

Saturday, August 10, 2019

This episode contains highlights from the 2015 deposition of David E. “The Apostle” Taylor, of J.M.M.I Ministries in St. Louis, Missouri. Taylor is being questioned by attorney Colleen Ronayne as part of a divorce suit filed by Ricky Frazier, the ex-husband of one of Taylor’s “volunteers” Deborah Frazier, who has donated over a million dollars […]

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Episode 74: Pastor Timothy Omotoso Trial

Thursday, October 25, 2018

  Pastor Timothy Omotoso is currently on trial in the High Court in Port Elizabeth, South Africa (though proceedings are on hold until December). Omotoso is a charismatic Nigerian televangelist with a taste for garish jackets who, until his recent arrest, led the popular Jesus Dominion International congregation. Omotoso, 60, along his two co-defendants, Lusanda […]

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Episode 68: Steven Fishman Scientology Interview

Wednesday, September 5, 2018

This episode contains parts 1, 2, and 6 of a seven-part interview conducted with Steven Fishman in November 1988 by false memory expert Richard Ofshe, and attorney Marc Nurik. Fishman was currently facing several criminal charges relating to a mail fraud scheme he’d set up when he was working as a financial planner for the […]

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Episode 34: Charles Manson Parole Hearing

Monday, November 20, 2017

This morning, Charles Manson’s existential parole finally ran out. In 1971, Charles Manson was found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the deaths of seven people – including the actress Sharon Tate – all of which were carried out by members of the group at his instruction. Manson also received first-degree […]

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Episode 25: Squeaky Fromme Competency Hearing

Sunday, September 3, 2017

Lynette Alice “Squeaky” Fromme was a member of the Manson family. On the morning of September 5, 1975, Fromme went to Sacramento’s Capitol Park, where President Gerald Ford would be speaking, dressed in a red robe and armed with a semi-automatic pistol that she pointed at the President. The pistol’s magazine was loaded with four […]

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Episode 18: Heaven’s Gate Exit Statements

Friday, July 21, 2017

“The media will tell all kinds of lies about us, describe us as a crazy UFO cult. We know that. We know the kind of things they’ll say about us. That we’re all brainwashed by some kind of guru,” says one of the members of Heaven’s Gate in his exit statement. He knew what we […]

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