The Worst Cults from History You've Probably Never Heard Of

Cults fascinate those of us outside of them, especially from a psychological point of view. Using an array of tools, cult leaders can manipulate their followers into doing horrifying and incredible things. It's can be difficult to fathom.

The cults we know showcase both the dark side of the human psyche, and our own strange weaknesses and foibles of both mind and spirit.

While we all might be familiar with cults like the Manson Family and Synanon, there are (other) smaller cults that often escape notice. There's a lot to be learned from these cults, however. Both about ourselves and the truth of our natures too.

The worst cults you've never heard of.

When we take a look at smaller cults, we are let in on a secret world of manipulation, isolation, and escalating extremism. From nightmare cults like the Ant Hill Kids, to the relatively benign Order of the Solar Temple, when we face these social experiments for what they are, we face the truth of who we are as a species and a society.

The Blackburn Cult

The oldest cult on this list, the Blackburn Cult (also known as the Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven) was established in 1922 by Mary Otis Blackburn and her daughter Ruth Wieland Rickenbaugh Rizzio. After seeing what they believed to be angels, the two women came to believe that Jesus would return to the Earth. Even stranger than that, they claimed these angels were going to lead them to lots of gold and oil.

Totaling 9 followers and 2 leaders, the cult set out for Simi Valley, California. Once there, they set about building a small community for themselves - which was mostly composed of a few cabins and temples.

All sorts of strange events and mysteries were attributed to the cult in their years in Simi Valley. The body of a teenage girl was found under the floorboards of her parents' home. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that she had been involved in cult. In another horrifying incident, a woman was locked up in a brick oven (as some sort of strange medical treatment).

The cult was never conclusively proven to have been involved in the above murders, but May Otis Blackburn was accused of fraud in 1929. A former member made a claim that she defrauded more than $50,000. When authorities got involved, it was discovered that she had actually defrauded her cult members out of more than $200,000. She was convicted of the frauds in 1930, but was later released and moved to Lake Tahoe with the remaining members of her cult.

Ho No Hana Sanpogyo

Not always widely recognized, Japan is a home for many minor cults that are as interesting as they are varied. Ho No Hana Sanpogyo is one such cult, with a leader whose obsession with feel led to a $900 foot inspection which was not only mandatory, but a total fraud too (shocker).

Leader, Hogen Fukanga, made the bold claim that he was a combination reincarnation of both Jesus Christ and the Buddha. Unquestionably, doubling down on this belief widened his net, and he could soon gather a following of devoted members who allowed him to diagnose problems in their lives simply by reading their feet. Eventually (thankfully) members wised up, though, and the cult quickly unraveled thereafter.

The Ant Hill Kids

The Ant Hill Kids are single-handedly one of the most disturbing and nightmare-inducing cults out there. Formed in Canada between 1977 and 1989, this horror-fest was run by dementor-in-chief, Roch Theriault. Although small by some doomsday cult standards, this coven of ghouls left a lasting mark on the community they entrenched themselves in. Even now, Ontario bears the memories (and the scars) of Theriault's reign of terror.

Made up primarily of Theriault and his dozens of concubines, this cult got its start in the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Initially, Theriault ran a series of detox seminars while still a member of the church. These were aimed at helping members move beyond the abuses of drugs, alcohol, and smoking.

This quickly escalated, however. Before long, Theriault was convincing members of his seminars to leave their families and live with him in the wilderness. He demanded hard physical work, and preached this as a means to clearing the mind and the spirit. This physicality soon ventured into the realm of torment, though. Members who did not comply had their legs broken with sledgehammers.

His transition from extreme detox hippy to demented cult leader was swift. After being kicked out of the church, his behavior turned sadistic. He nailed children to trees, forced followers into home-surgeries, amputated limbs as punishment, and even forced cult members to eat their feces (all of which they did).

In 1989, member Gabrielle Lavallée was horrifically mutilated by the cult leader. Lavallée escaped, though, and contacted authorities after a hellacious nightmare that nearly took her life (but, seemingly, not her resolve). She lived to see her captor and tormentor given a life sentence. Justice did not entirely prevail, though, as Roch Theriault was killed by his cellmate in 2011.

Order of the Solar Temple

Don't worry, it's not all horror and sex crimes. The Order of the Solar Temple was a relatively peaceful cult that had a big focus in New Age theology and aliens. Essentially, they believed that all of life was a sort of mirage. It wasn't real. And when life was over, we simply spiritually moved on to other planets.

Between 1994 and 1997, however, more than 70 of its members fell victim to murder-suicide events. In every situation, members were wearing ceremonial robes, which carried with it the idea that the events came with a great deal of planning. These deaths haven't stopped the group, though. They are still around and committed to their beliefs to this day. While it's hard to really tie down concrete numbers on most cults, membership is estimated to hover right around 150–500 members for the Order of the Solar Temple.

The Carny Cult

Did you ever hear about the Carny Cult? Probably not. This was a blip on the cult radar which kicked off in 1991 after a traveling carny (named William Ault) discovered some of his fellow carnies were engaged in a new cult called Satan's Disciples. This cult, however, already had a number of members (4 to be exact) and they weren't open to new members. Ault's hand was forced and - blackmailing the cult - the wayward carny found himself in an even stickier place.

After Ault's fumbled attempts at blackmail, the group invited him out to a secluded area (where they drove him up to a makeshift altar). Excitement turned to fear when the group, instead of welcoming Ault, bound and gagged him. They then tortured and mutilated the desperate man, driving him right into the arms of death as they invoked Satan and called on him to give them special powers and wealth.

When they were finished, the 4 men (Mark Goodwin, Jimmie Penick, and brothers Keith and David Lawrence) cut off Ault's head and hands. They also attempted to burn him, which failed. In the end, they dumped his body in a field. The horrible sight was discovered by the father of two of the men involved. All four members of the cult were later arrested, tried, and sentenced to a range of 8–60 years between them.

Superior Universal Alignment

A UFO cult that even I was unfamiliar with, the Superior Universal Alignment was a pseudo-religious cult formed in Brazil in the 1980s. Led by Valentina de Andrade, the group believed Jesus was an alien. Even more interestingly, they believed he would return to rescue believers before the end times. (Hello? Scientology?)

That's not where they proved problematic (or, really, even all that strange) however. Where the cult really became an issue was in their strange belief that all boys born after 1981 had to be "purged" from the world.

Andrade forced followers to leave their families behind and abandon their children, all in an effort to be cleansed enough to join her on the "spaceship". Predictably, though, things got violent between 1989 and 1993 when the cult began sexually assaulting, mutilating, and killing young boys.

In total, at least 19 boys were victimized or killed by the semi-religious sect. They ranged in age from 8 to 13 years old. While six of them died, another five of them (at least) were never found. Some escaped, but not before being drugged and subjected to the horrors of assault and mutilation.

Kashi Ashram

It's never a good sign when a new religion is formed on the back of hallucinations, but that's exactly how Kashi Ashram got its start in the 1970s. Conceptualized by a New York housewife who renamed herself Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati, the spiritual group took off and became a favorite of beloved celebrities like Julia Roberts.

Initially centered on the ideas of compassion and universal humanity, the cult spiraled out of control (as all cults do) when the leader imagined herself as a real, living deity among mortals.

After its last explosion in early 2000s, Kashi Ashram fell under the eye of authorities. Soon, former members began coming forward with disturbing tales of financial misconduct, physical, mental, emotional, and even sexual abuse. As if that wasn't bad enough, it was also alleged that Ma Jaya had engaged in kidnapping and beatings - including the beating of a child who accused a church member of molestation.

It was alleged that Ma Jaya passed away in 2012, but none really know for sure. The cult, however? It continues to thrive to this day and is still in existence around the world.

The Fall River Cult

One of the least talked about cults, the Fall River Cult was a horrifying nightmare headed by pimp Carl Drew and his girlfriend (sex worker) Robin Murphy. This cult was discovered when the body of 17-year-old trafficking victim Doreen Levesque was found placed outside of a Massachusetts high school. She had been badly beaten, and her hands and feet were bound. Police were baffled. And this confusion only amplified when the body of another sex worker was discovered on a "makeshift altar" a year later.

In the end, it was discovered that sex workers from around the area were being abducted and sacrificed in rituals organized by Drew and Murphy. The two believed that human sacrifice would bring them power and success, as well as a favor and access from Satan.

The cult was busted only after a sex worker named Karen Marsden (a part-time girlfriend of Robin Murphy) reached out to authorities. She feared she was going to be the next victim, but authorities didn't take her claims seriously. Tragically, that all changed when Marsden's toothless skull was discovered. In April 1980, Carl Drew was arrested in relation to Marsden's death - along with another man who was associated with another murder.

Girlfriend and accomplice Murphy later plead guilty to second-degree murder, but was given a reduced sentence for her role after agreeing to a plea deal in which she would testify against Drew and accomplice Andrew Maltais.

The Vampire King Cult

Marcus Wesson was the 57-year-old leader of the Vampire King Cult. For decades, this incestuous family cult ran in total secrecy. Wesson controlled his followers through traditional means of manipulation and physical abuse (textbook). But he mixed his strange delusions with Christianity and vampirism.

Believing that Jesus was a vampire, he taught his followers that the end times were upon them. He shut his sons and daughters up inside his home and separated them from one another, fearing they would form incestuous relationships. Meanwhile, Wesson took his own daughters as wives - abusing them so horrifically they were unable to bear children as adults.

In 2004, Wesson announced that he was moving his daughters and their children to Washington State, which set alarms bells off (at last) in loved ones. Fearing for the safety of the children, police were called. But Wesson took action into his own hands. Covered in blood, he stepped out of his compound and revealed his horrors.

Behind the house were piled the bodies of his children - 9 in total - surrounded by antique, vampiric coffins. Rather than give up his power, Wesson had killed his own family. He sits on death row to this day, convicted of 9 counts of murder and several more counts of rape and sexual assault.

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The main takeaway? There is no one hard-and-fast rule with cults. They can happen anywhere, and anyone can fall prey to them. Being honest about this aspect of our society is one of the prime keys by which we can prevent these cults from popping up in our own communities.

We don't need cults to thrive. We need to acknowledge our deeper truths and show up for self-fulfilling lives that matter.

© E.B. Johnson 2024