Most prolific cult leaders

01

Roch Thériault

He amputated a follower's arm with a hunting knife, then ate her rib raw. Roch Thériault ran a Quebec commune from 1977–1989. His followers called him Moses. Some survivors defended him at trial.

02

Marshall Applewhite

Marshall Applewhite convinced 38 members to voluntarily castrate themselves, then drink phenobarbital-laced pudding to 'shed their containers' and board a spacecraft trailing Comet Hale-Bopp. Five had already been surgically castrated.

03

Jim Jones

Jim Jones rehearsed mass suicide with fake poison for years before making it real. On November 18, 1978, 918 died — 276 of them children. A gun was found in Jones's hand.

04

Jonestown

276 children died at Jonestown. The vat of Flavor Aid — not Kool-Aid — was found still full. Cyanide reached the bloodstream in under five minutes. Aerial photos showed bodies arranged in concentric rings.

05

Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God

Leaders of this Ugandan cult banned all speech to prevent lying; then in March 2000, they locked 530 followers inside a church and set it ablaze. Mass graves revealed hundreds more murdered earlier.

06

David Koresh

David Koresh declared himself the 'Final Sinful Messiah' and took 'spiritual wives' as young as twelve. He stockpiled 300 weapons inside Mount Carmel. The 51-day ATF siege ended in fire: 76 dead.

07

Order of the Solar Temple

In October 1994, 53 Solar Temple members died across Switzerland, Quebec, and France in synchronized rituals — stabbed, suffocated, shot, then burned. More followed in 1995 and 1997. Leaders claimed transit to Sirius.

08

Dwight York

Dwight York built a full-scale Egyptian pyramid on a Georgia compound, declared himself an extraterrestrial, and was convicted in 2004 of molesting over 100 children — some as young as four years old.

09

Shoko Asahara

Before releasing sarin on the Tokyo subway in 1995, Shoko Asahara sold his bathwater to followers for $800 a cup. He convinced a physician to murder members who tried to leave. He was hanged in 2018.

10

1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack

To swing a 1984 county election in Oregon, Rajneeshees poured salmonella cultures onto ten restaurant salad bars, sickening 751 people — the first bioterror attack on U.S. soil. The plot was conceived by Ma Anand Sheela.