cults

Charles Manson turned a Beatles song about a fairground slide into an apocalyptic prophecy. But was ‘Helter Skelter’ really the motive behind the Manson Family murders, or the story that made an impossible prosecution possible?

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh promised enlightenment, freedom and a new kind of community. In Oregon, that vision became Rajneeshpuram: a desert city of red-clad followers, Rolls-Royces and political ambition that ended in surveillance, attempted murder and...

Shelly Miscavige, wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige, has barely been seen in public since 2007. Her absence inspired a missing-person report, years of speculation and a question that still follows the Church of Scientology: where is Shelly M...

In February 1974, armed members of the Symbionese Liberation Army dragged 19-year-old Patty Hearst from her Berkeley apartment. Weeks later, the kidnapped newspaper heiress appeared in a bank robbery photograph carrying a rifle and calling herself ‘T...

Heaven’s Gate fused Christian prophecy, UFO belief and science fiction into a promise of escape. When Hale-Bopp appeared, that promise led 39 people towards tragedy.

Scientology grew from L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics into a global organisation promising spiritual freedom through auditing and the Bridge. Former members and critics describe a far more controlling system behind that promise.

The Satanic Panic turned fears about child abuse, new religions and changing families into allegations of organised ritual crime. The McMartin Preschool case showed how suggestive interviews could make impossible stories feel official.