CULT KILLERS AND KILLER CULTS

Article BY MARTIN PROBEE - Art by Nate Milliner

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Cult leaders have always held an attraction for me, Manson’s glaring eyes coupled with the swastika tattoo on his forehead fascinated me as an impressionable adolescent, the glare of Jim Jones; that was more than just a little scary and maybe Koresh’s good looks did something for me too. Marshall Applegate and his “Heaven’s Gate” cult, which seemed like a bizarre episode of “Star Trek” were it not so sad, came later. The same question has always puzzled me: how come these guys were able to attract such a crowd of followers, women in particular, when as a teenager one girl would have done for me? What was it about them that enabled them to ask, no demand, such devotion from their followers that they would kill others and themselves? What would it have been like to have lived at Spahn ranch with Manson and his family? What made Applegate’s followers surrender their individuality to the extent that it was not easy to know whether they were male or female? Why did Jones’ followers allow him to beat them? Most of all why did they entrust their lives to their leader? And how did all end in death and disaster?

There are many theories about cults and their leaders, but with the possible exception of the Manson family and some of the Branch Davidians from Waco, the best source of information, namely the participants themselves, is not available because the cult ended with the death of the leader and his followers. That does not render the exercise futile because there is an abundance of evidence about these gentlemen and their followers for us to consider so that we may understand them both as people and to help us establish the rationale for their crimes, and also why their followers were so willing to follow them.

I have had an experience with a religious cult and briefly made the acquaintance of an individual who had aspirations to be a cult leader; they both helped to colour my understanding of those men we now describe as cult killers so I will relate my stories briefly.

One Saturday evening I happened to be making my way across Leicester Square in London to Tottenham Court Road tube station after having drunk a few beers in various Soho pubs when a man about thirty five years old was pushed into me by a gang of young men. He fell over and dropped the leaflets he was carrying onto the ground. The youths mocked the man briefly before making their way to one of the nearby fast food outlets. As I helped him to his feet, it became apparent that we were both from the north-east of England, Washington to be precise, and he seemed to know my sister. We chatted whilst making our way towards the tube station, as we parted he handed me one of his leaflets and asked that I read it on the way home.

The London underground is extremely crowded after the pubs have closed and so I forgot about the leaflet until the following day when I read it whilst drinking my Sunday morning cup of coffee. It appeared from reading the man’s leaflet that I had gone to the aid of the reincarnation of Jesus Christ the previous evening and that his mission was to save the world from disaster if only we would join his followers and worship him. There was a telephone number that I did not bother to ring and I doubt that anybody else did. What became of the man I will never know, but if he is not resident in a mental hospital it is unlikely that he continues to believe that he is on a God-given mission to save the world. One does wonder what difference there is between that guy and cult leaders such as Manson, Koresh, Jones and Applewhite, whose beliefs led them to murder.

On another occasion whilst walking towards the bus stop from the library in Newcastle one rainy evening after studying for my politics college course a pretty young woman, maybe nineteen years old, the same age as myself at the time hailed me, as I passed. Somewhat innocently I assumed that she wanted directions, her accent was slightly foreign, Swedish as it transpired and, to be fair, pretty young women do not usually need to attract male company if that is what they desire. Her name was Anna and she told me that she was a member of a local church group; after a brief discussion she invited me to the headquarters of her church, which was based in a part of the city frequented by students. The house itself was a lively sort of place, boisterous young men and women chatted as they made drinks of tea and coffee for themselves. It was definitely a happy house, so much was apparent. The young men and women smiled at me as they were quickly ushered away from the lounge though, leaving Anna and I alone.

I was asked to sit in a comfortable chair and my new found friend made me a cup of tea whilst we waited from her colleague, Greg to arrive. We were sharing a joke when he entered the lounge. And then things got serious. Greg was quite charming as he introduced himself to me and we spent a little time on small talk before he sat in a chair that was slightly to my right. He was somewhat older than both myself and Anna and had what I can only describe as worldly-wise feel to me. At least that is the manner in which he appeared to me, as a nineteen year.

The discussion between myself and Anna became more weighty with the arrival of Greg and quickly turned to religious matters. At the time I was a practicing Roman Catholic and whilst there were occasional differences of opinion between Anna and I about our respective beliefs, we did share a lot of essential aspects of our faiths.

But it was, perhaps, only a matter of time before we disagreed about something fundamental. I am afraid that I forgotten the subject matter in question, but it was at this point that Greg entered the affray. Until this point I had only been mildly aware of his presence, but I had noticed that Anna looking in his direction for support when it became apparent that she was not able to convince me of the point she was aiming to make. I turned to face Greg and before he had chance to adjust, I saw that he was staring at me with a tremendous intensity, not scary, but it was slightly unnerving for me to become aware that he had been examining me so closely for quite a considerable time. He smiled as he spoke to me and freely acknowledged that my views were deeply held and had been carefully considered. And then he continued with a brief resume of the points we had been discussing before handing me the holy book of his religion, which he indicated included the answers to my concerns and many others. He smiled warmly at me again and said that his church encouraged discussion about its faith, but as a preliminary step it would be useful for me to attend a residential weekend course nearby, which was taking place that weekend where I would learn about the faith in greater detail. As it happened I was to participate in a training event that weekend, as I was a buddy track star at the time and so I could not go.

I have wondered what might have happened had I done so. If events had been different, a lonely young man who was lost for something to do on a cold, rainy evening might have found the temptation to attend a weekend with friendly young people too much to resist. I never came across the group again, but Greg did remain in my memory, as did Anna. Clearly Greg was not a Manson, but unlike the man I met in Leicester Square, he did share on characteristic of what traditionally we have come to accept that an essential attribute of the leader of a cult, namely charisma.

So what is charisma and why is it so important that a cult leader possesses this characteristic? In particular, how does it lead the recruitment of their followers and what role does it play in their crimes? Words such as magnetism, self assurance spring to mind, as does the ability of a charismatic person to arouse devotion and enthusiasm, which can, on occasions, appear to have as its source a divinely conferred power. They also have tremendous powers of persuasion.

Jesus Christ was undoubtedly charismatic, as was Mohammed and the Buddha. It is also fair to say that there are many captions of industry, such as Donald Trump and Richard Branson, and sportsmen and entertainers too, who share the characteristics of a charismatic personality. Some may well have taken conscious decisions to appear to be charismatic, whilst were so because it was just part of their personality.

A question you may be asking yourself is whether your boss is shaping up to be the next cult leader. Well, let’s hope not, but it is worth while asking why our cult leaders became infamous rather than famous. The answer, I believe, goes beyond the mere assertion that these men were all insane. Whilst they share many of the characteristics of successful businessmen and entertainers, they differ in some crucial respects. The major one, in my opinion, being that their narcissism goes way beyond any form of wrongly held self- belief or arrogance exhibited by those outside of cults. Charisma is not a bad thing provided it is based on positive values, such as a real concern for others, although persons with such a personality may well be considered to be obsessive, ruthless and overly dominant by others. The behaviour of a cult leader on the other hand, more closely resembles that of a psychopath than a captain of industry in several respects and there are a number of characteristics that separate them from other charismatic individuals. First, they are lacking in empathy for others or perhaps that should be that they lack what we sometimes refer to as a conscience. Second, their values differ widely and are inconsistent with those held by the community as a whole. Third, they pursue power at all costs. Fourth, they are usually possessed of what I will describe as a very bad temper.

I think we can appreciate that all these character flaws were present in our friends, Manson, Jones, Applegate and Koresh and readily appreciate that they probably played a significant role in their crimes. What is more puzzling thought is why they were able to persuade their followers to join them when one might have thought that intelligent people would have recognised the character flaws of their leaders and the danger to which they were to expose themselves. To put that another way, we must question why anybody would have joined Manson’s family and got caught up in “Helter-Skelter’. It also seems extraordinarily naïve for anybody to believe that it was a good idea to go to a new planet with Applewhite because planet earth was being recycled. And what was it about Jones that led his followers to commit “revolutionary suicide” or who would be dumb enough to think they could take on the entire USA government at Waco with Koresh?

Put in such stark terms, it does seem pretty silly, almost incredible, that a sane person would want to join a cult that might lead you to lose your life or to kill others. But that doesn’t tell the full story. I don’t think they were simply innocent fools. That seems unlikely. Applewhite’s followers were of various ages, as were those of Koresh and so were Jones so we can’t simply attribute it to the innocence of youth, as might be the case with Manson. In many cases, they came from good backgrounds or held well thought religious beliefs. That would suggest that those following our cult leaders were not, for the main part, foolish individuals who were unlucky enough to stumble into the hands of a maniacal cult leader. No, other factors came into play.

For a cult leader to recruit I think that the charisma he exhibits has to be somehow connected to matters that are in the public consciousness at that time. That factor must be of real importance to the recruit too, much than the population as a whole. And the recruit feels just a little bit smug about it too – that is, perhaps, a factor that the cult leader feeds on, consciously or otherwise.

First things first though; what is it about our cult leader that makes him want, or perhaps more correctly, need a community? There are many people who hold what we would consider to be weird views and keep their opinions to themselves (or have the tendency to sit next to me on long distance bus journeys!). A glib answer is that the leader needs a community to feed his narcissism. Doubtless, that is true, but there is more. Linked with narcissism is something akin to an unusual concept of fatherhood. After all, we refer to the Manson family. Koresh assumed the role of father to his community (and husband to many of the women too). Similarly Jones and Applewhite controlled every aspect of the lives of his followers – and sadly their deaths too. The role of the father is essentially a balance between love and discipline, and in a cult that is frequently the case too and our cult leaders may well have fed on the unmet need of their followers for both aspects of their life.

The leader also needs a community that is capable of carrying out his mission without question. Koresh needed people with firearms experience, Manson’s followers had to be capable of killing groups of people with the utmost brutality and Jones knew that his followers were likely to have to kill children with cyanide. Not all of the community members would perform these tasks, but the cult killer needed to know that his community would include people who would follow his command when he gave the order to kill. So, how did he do this?

Let’s start with Manson, the man with the reputation of ending the sixties, the decade of peace and love and understanding. I can barely remember the decade, as it ended before my twelfth birthday, but I can vaguely remember hippies with long hair, clad in afghan coats stinking of the rain and petchuli lotion, not the best person to have sitting next to you on the bus on the way home from school. My friends and I used to snigger at them when they passed us on the street. They were weird. It was about the only thing that I could agree with my parents at the time. So, I was a square, but most people were at that time. The hippies were the exception. Nobody knew what they were about or what they believed in except that it seemed like it was nothing to us. We had an expression at the time to describe lazy people – they were “hippy,” that was an abbreviation for “hippy lazy”. And I think that kind of sums it up. We didn’t think hippies were thoughtful characters who had a special insight into esoteric matters, such as eastern philosophy or yoga and such like, they were simply layabouts who couldn’t get a job or behave normally, like proper folk, eh like us.

There wasn’t any great tension of which I was aware between hippies and the population as a whole, skinheads apart who might on occasion beat them up for no apparent reason. They simply existed in a different universe and it suited them fine. For the most part. But there were a number of serious hippies who believed the dream and lived it too. Some joined Manson’s family. How did that happen?

Manson set himself up as guru in Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco, along with many others who also established a community of followers. These gurus shared one factor in common, namely their desire to create a world founded on peace, love and understanding: individual rights were paramount. Their followers distanced themselves from conformists and were readily identifiable by their colourful clothing and long hair (in the case of the young men). To be a hippy alone at that time would have rendered you open to ridicule and so those who embraced the hippy philosophy gravitated to places like Haight-Ashbury.

It is inevitable that a youthful and impressionable youth in such an environment would have been drawn to a guru or two. They would impart information of a novel and esoteric nature, to the tyro hippy that he could use to counter the arguments of the squares; he would also be made to feel important and assured that others are like him: he is not alone. Mmmm, not unlike the situation that I found myself in when I met Anna and Greg. Maybe. Whilst Jones and Koresh used religion to attract their flock, the approach that they used was broadly similar. Their followers were not content with the teachings of conventional religion (as is often the case today) and were receptive to new and exciting interpretations of religion that were provided by their guru. They also had the love and belief in them as a person from their guru, and that was so much more exciting than the minister at their local church. Maybe there’s a lesson there for organised religion: over to you Priests and Vicars. On face value, Applewhite is somewhat different, but not significantly so. His followers were older and perhaps better educated than those of other cults, but they shared something with their brethren, namely, the possibility of life outside of our planet. It might also have pleased them to have life with love but without sex.

Having secured his recruits and assembled the community, the next step was to retreat from the world to a sanctuary where the community could grow, and also to ensure that the recruits did not simply wander off if something better came along. Manson went on his bus tour that led to Spahn ranch, the others to their select communities in the countryside away from the cities or to the jungle in a foreign country in the case of Jones. The retreat is also important to the leader because it enables him to immerse the community in the teachings and it gives him the opportunity to observe the community and select the chosen few who would abet him in his crimes – the inner circle.

Steps had to be taken to ensure that the community remained intact or it would quickly disintergrate, long sermons by the leader alone would not achieve that aim. The easy availability of drugs and sex would help to achieve that aim, as would the warm glow of Manson when he smiled at you. Jones beat some of his followers, not the best way to keep them friendly you might think, but sado-masochists aside, his community may have seen this as an example of “father knows best” and accepted their fate on that basis, some of those beaten may have welcomed the personal attention of Jones too. Koresh had his apocryphal religious teachings to keep his community together. His belief that the world was to end shortly may well have led his supporters to cling to him so he could ease them into the next world and speak on their behalf. Like all good story tellers, Koresh might have ended each preaching session with a “cliff hanger” so the community waited in eager anticipation for his next sermon. Applewhite removed sex from the agenda, a step that would have led Manson’s supporters to desert him. But Applewhite’s community being somewhat older might just have welcomed this aspect of their life. In return, they received love from him and each other and so, one assumes, they were happy that they did not have to bother with the courtship ritual. They could concentrate on their life in their community instead and prepare for their forthcoming trip to the new planet, steps that Applewhite would actively encourage to ensure his continued support and devotion.

Each community, be it a cult or organised religion needs an inner circle of followers. There is nothing new in that. Christ has his twelve disciples who were an inner circle of his many followers. Readers will be aware of inner circles at work too, those creeps (if I may describe them in such terms) who hang on every word the boss utters; eat lunch with him and get chosen for all the plum tasks: and they never have do any work. Apologies dear reader if you are one. Guess what? I am not. Levity aside, the creation of an inner circle is one aspect of community life that cults have in common with organised religion and they do so for the same reason, namely to ensure that the community remains intact and that it achieves its aims.

An inner circle is essential to any community because they are prone to attract members quickly and so steps have to be taken to retain them or the community will cease to exist. Communities in general, but particularly religious ones, attract members easily because they deliberately set out their beliefs in such a manner so they are perceived to be all embracing to the category of people that they aim to attract. Anybody who appears to fulfil the membership criteria will be allowed to join, provided they are not undesirable in other respects, although they may be placed under a form of close, but secret observation in the early days of their membership. After the honeymoon period, the challenge that the community faces is retention and it achieves that aim by the creation of inner circles that are exclusive to a restricted number of community members, who are invited to join. Sometimes these groups meet in secret, but usually their existence is open knowledge to the community. In a church group, typically one will receive a tap on the shoulder from an existing member of the community with an invitation to join a prayer group for example. The important factor is that entrance to that group is selective, it not like being asked to fill the vacant position of scout leader because nobody else will do it. Cults are the same.

The creation of an inner circle is essential for the leader for a number of reasons. It does, of course, feed his ego to have worship at a more personal level than from community members as a whole. It is somewhat closer to marriage than courtship given the closeness of the relationship between the leader and the members of the inner circle, but the leader is the dominant personality in the partnership. That worship is something that all cult leaders crave and so its value cannot be underestimated. The inner circle and the leader spend more time together than others members of the community do and, one imagines, there is a greater degree of honesty between them. If there are any sexual relations between the leader and members of the inner circle then that too will enhance the closeness, although there may not be any true intimacy, but the inner circle member may not recognise that.

The leader also needs the inner circle to reinforce the belief system that exists in the community; he cannot be everywhere and like all families there will be some dissidents. Inner circle members may also act as spies too to ensure that undesirable community members are ejected as quickly as possible.

In return the members of the inner circle are made to feel important by the leader himself and by his approval of them, which will be apparent within the community too. The inner circle member may be assigned a ceremonial role at family meetings or wear special clothes. They are now a person of significance in the community.

Inner circle members also have the somewhat dubious honour of seeing the leader as he really is. The church Minister might, for example, swear in their presence, something he would never do in front of the whole community. The cult community may well see their leader as a benevolent all loving individual who cares for nothing other than their welfare and is loaded with charisma. But with the inner circle, he may well be angry, he could appear callous and it will be apparent that he is without complete empathy to the community members as a whole. This is because he is able to be his real self with the inner circle. He can forget about the necessity for charisma when dealing with them because he has already gained their complete approval and fed their emotional needs. Narcissism in this form, especially the aggressive behaviour, may well have the effect of subduing the will of the inner circle members too and lead them to be subservient to the leader, a factor that could have removed the part of the brain that might have baulked at the order to kill.

Harking back to an earlier point I made about charismatic individuals rising with the hierarchy of corporations, that is true, but individuals who exhibit the personality traits that I have described rarely progress very far because most places of work have systems in place to prevent that happening.

Perhaps the most important need that the cult leader has for the inner circle is to carry out the aims for which he created the community. Mostly that aim is related to an ill that the leader perceives to exist in the outside world. Again, there are parallels with organised religion here. Churches exist to worship the God-head figure and to do that means that the evil in the world must be overcome.

Koresh’s religious belief was that the world was shortly to end as a result of a terrible battle between good and evil. So it would follow that his inner circle would need to be knowledgeable about guns and explosives and possess the personality to enable them to defend the community from the might of the government, when attacked. Koresh had already instilled in them the belief that the government represented the powers of evil. Manson’s teamsters had to be capable of murdering his victims with knives as well as guns with a high degree of ferocity to ensure that the murder scene was as gory as possible. Perhaps Jones had the most difficult task of all; he had to be clear that his inner circle would be capable of forcing cyanide down the throats of children leaving them to suffer a terrible death. Similarly, Applewhites men had to be terribly calm, as they were tidy up the remains and bed-rooms of their dead colleagues before killing themselves.

It does then take a special kind of person to become a member of the inner circle and it is not easy to see that not everybody would make the cut. One point it may be worth mentioning at this point is brain-washing. When crimes such as those committed by our cult leaders occurs one frequently hears this word mentioned. I can almost see an Alabama sheriff, overweight and sucking on the butt of a thick cigar, shaking his head as he looks at the cameras of media saying, “those kids were brain-washed.’ Apologies to any Alabama sheriffs who may be reading, but I don’t think it is as simple as that: cult leaders did not practice some form of sorcery. It was more subtle than that. Some of the devices that the cult leaders used to recruit their inner circle members will help to demonstrate that point.

Contemporary music was an important feature to many cults and it is not easy to see why. When I was at school, we all considered it was terribly trendy when guitars were introduced into worship in church and sniggered at the “oldies” who didn’t like it – we were so superior. Doubtless cult members felt the same. Koresh was a decent musician although he did not achieve commercial success it is likely that music featured strongly in his preaching sessions. And it may well have reinforced the leader’s message especially if particular songs were performed frequently, as that can serve to reinforce messages that have been associated with those tunes. Marshall Applewhite had an interest in music from an early age too and became a music professor so one can also imagine that he used music to disseminate his message to his followers too. Jim Jones too, but it is Manson that we most associate with music. His music is also available for you to listen to on-line if you like; it is somewhat old fashioned to my ears, but I did detect some talent there, as did those in the music industry at the time, notable Terry Melcher, to whom we will return later in this article.

Manson believed that Beatles were talking to him on their white album, a belief that seems preposterous today. But our approach to music today is different to what it was in the late sixties. Back then we would listen to music in a room specially devoted for that purpose. It was the only activity that took place in that room. Nowadays it seems to me that listening to music is, for the most part, something that takes place whilst doing something else. Back then, you paid a lot of attention to the music and to the lyrics, and you listened to the tracks on an LP in the order they were set out and did not hope from track to track as seems to be the practice with ipods and the like. You frequently listened to a particular album over and over again.

Manson and his community probably followed a similar pattern. Maybe the girls danced for the entertainment of Charlie, their leader and father, who probably smiled benevolently. The younger members of the family might have sang along to songs such as Ob-la-di, Ob- la-da, but I suspect Manson will have been looking out for the reaction of the family members when the more serious songs came on. “Bungalow Bill” introduced the concept of killing in the album, which was developed in “Blackbird” and “Piggies.” Doubtless, Manson would have joined in the laughter at “Sexy Sadie,” given that was the name by which Susan Atkins was known in the community. One can only speculate at the antics that took place whilst that track was played. The most important track, as far as recruitment of the inner circle is concerned well have been “Revolution”. If you listen carefully, the Beatles almost whisper “count me IN” in response to the question asking whether the listener wants to join a revolution. Back in the old days of vinyl and record players that would not have been so easy to hear, but with repeated listening Manson may well have thought that the Beatles had addressed that word to him and his followers. I can just about accept that Manson really did believe that the Beatles were talking to him on that track and so he may well have concluded that they were also passing a message to him on “Helter Skelter”. It is also possible that he decided that those of his followers who could hear the “IN” word were worthy of being a member of his inner circle, especially the girls.

The Manson girls came from a variety of backgrounds, but they shared one important
characteristic on which Manson pounced, namely their emotional vulnerability. He filled that void in the girls and they accepted it readily because it was a novel experience for them and one that they enjoyed. I have no doubt that their drug addled brains helped too, as that will have helped to detach their link from reality, as will have the isolation of Spahn ranch. But the primary cause of their recruitment to the inner circle of the family was their emotional weakness and Manson’s prescription was willingly accepted by the girls because it was preferable to the vacant lives that they had previously lived. I am loathe to describe Manson as a genius, but the recognition of this weakness in the girls and his ability to develop it for his own purposes is a skill based on an intimate knowledge of the human condition that few possess and so it is, perhaps, correct to acknowledge the people skills that Manson had and how he used them.

Tex Watson was a lost soul too and Manson would have been acutely aware that he needed another alpha male given the activities he was to ask the girls to perform. A good looking guy like Watson filed the position admirably. Although we are now aware that the girls were well able to perform the killings, Manson could not have been sure of that at the time. We don’t have a great deal of information about our other cult leaders, but one imagines that Koresh took steps to ensure that his inner circle members practiced the use of their firearms regularly and rehearsed various strategies to defend the compound in the event of attack and given the length of time it took to breech it one has to concede that they were well prepared. Jones killed his community with a cyanide laced drink, which is not an easy task to perform yet his aides did so with consummate ease so it is likely that Jones ordered a trial run using non-lethal drinks to ensure that the community would not be overly alarmed when called to the fountain of death and that they were ready for the ritual of death that Jones had prepared them for at an earlier stage (if not for the pain of a death by cyanide). Perhaps the inner circle killed a number of non-believers with cyanide before the big day too so they knew how to deal with the suffering death by cyanide inevitably causes. Similarly, Applewhite and his inner circle may well have done something similar whilst the rest of the community slept.

So, to the killings themselves. Manson’s were the bloodiest and perhaps the most intriguing. What was the motivation for the carnage? Helter Skelter is the perceived wisdom, the need to create a race war that would lead to Manson being called as leader following the abyss. But the name of Terry Melcher keeps appearing in the background. Was Manson simply angry at his failure to achieve success in the music business and blamed Melcher for that? Did that lead to the killings? We know that Manson visited the Tate house a short time before the killings and was rebuffed by the new tenants, who he considered treated him shabbily by sending him to the tradesman’s entrance. That visit suggests that Manson was aware that Melcher no longer lived at the property so it is perhaps unlikely that he ordered the killings simply to gain revenge on Melcher by killing him and his friends in the music business. It doesn’t necessarily follow that Helter Skelter was the reason for the murders though. We know that Manson thought that the Beatles were talking to him alone on the white album, and like so many killers before him he had consulted the book of Relevation for inspiration, a book of the bible that can be read in so many ways. It is also the case that Manson was rebuffed in his desire to be a professional musician despite having some talent and one can understand that would be a source of aggravation to him. The property he attacked was also occupied by members of the show business community, who Manson probably resented fiercely. He may well have felt angry with the world generally for its failure to recognise his talent. All these ideas coupled with a dose of racism, not to mention drugs could have led him to really believe that he had been chosen to begin Helter Skelter. Until such a time as Manson decides to tell us what was really going on in his mind at that time we will never know for certain, but my belief is that Manson was sincere in his belief in Helter Skelter. I think it is unlikely that he would have created such an elaborate device as Helter Skelter and been able to persuade his inner circle of its validity simply to get revenge on Terry Melcher and the music industry.

Koresh is interesting too. If he believed the end of the world was nigh, why bother fighting the government? My belief is that like so many cult leaders he was not only deluded, but he wanted to play an active role in Armageddon; to put that another way: he was arrogant. Had he simply surrendered, his dream would not have been achieved. Being a mere spectator at the battle that was to lead to the end of the word was not an option for Mr Koresh, it was something that he could not tolerate. It may well be that the stock piling of weapons coupled with the assembly of what was in effect a trained militia constituted an action designed to ensure that he would be a leading player in the events that were to lead to the end of the world. I do not believe that Koresh intended to create Armageddon, his belief was that was to happen in any event; his aim was to be a leading player in the battle at the end of the universe. He would defeat Satan, in the form of the government, at that battle and emerge victorious to lead the new plan of salvation. Mmmm parallels with Manson there.

The deaths at the People’s Temple were well planned too and so it is unlikely that they were simply a knee-jerk reaction to the death of Congressman Ryan. “Revolutionary suicide” was how the deaths were described by Jones, or perhaps more accurately, how the concept was described to the victims. It constituted a protest against the condition of the inhumanity of the world. The timing of the two events indicates that there was, of course, a very clear connection. The murder of Congressman Ryan would undoubtedly have led to an assault on the Temple by the authorities. So Jones knew that the game was up. Whilst he had planned “revolutionary suicide” for some time, the death of Congressman Ryan speeded up the process. Jones was, of course, committed to social equilibrium and there is a suggestion that the suicides believed that they would move to another planet on death where they would life of bliss, presumably in a socialist paradise, ruled by Jones of course. So, perhaps the intention was that the cult members would always leave this earth and move to another where life would be wonderful and happiness there’s to enjoy. It is odd that such a barbarous form of death was chosen as the medium to achieve that aim, but it is possible that was the only form of mass-death that Jones could create in Guyana.

Applewhite too believed in the dream planet because earth was due for destruction and concluded that he and his followers would be transported to their new home planet. Thirty nine of his followers found the temptation too difficult to resist.

It makes me sad that so many people lost their lives following such bizarre beliefs. We can shake our heads in horror and disbelief that such events can occur, but I think it is worth us all pausing a while to examine a world in which such beliefs can take hold easily and ask if something is wrong. Philosophising aside, a couple of points remain. Why did Manson not participate in the Tate killings and why did Jones died by bullet and not cyanide. It has been suggested that was cowardice on the part of Jones and that may well be the answer. But it is an unusual decision all the same – did he feel superior to his community and so it was appropriate for him to die in a different manner to them? Did Manson want to argue that he was innocent of the crimes? Maybe. Or did he trust his children to carry out his wishes; they had grown up now and could be trusted to do the right thing? Again, I don’t think we will ever know the answer to these questions. Here’s a thought though: maybe Manson welcomed the death sentence because it would constitute a sacrifice on his part – he was to die for crimes he had not committed. He would be a martyr at least as far as his family were concerned. To some extent, the death of all our cult leaders suggests a craving for martyrdom. They wanted to die for their cause, on their terms – their death was an act of defiance to a world that could not understand and would not accept their values.

My last thought is more of an observation; we have not had a woman cult killer yet. Women have always killed and in Aileen Wuornos, we have a woman serial killer. So, why no women cult killers? Women can have charisma, many do. But is there is something in the female make up that prevents them from being narcissistic? I think that’s pretty unlikely. So maybe it is lack of opportunity. But as women gain positions of authority to a much greater degree and with far more frequency that has been the case in the past, maybe we will see one in the future. Watch this space.