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- [00:02]
Vanessa Richardson
Hi, it's Vanessa. If you're drawn to true crime stories about disappearances, there's a new Crime House original you should check out. It's called the Final Hours, hosted by Sarah Turney and Courtney Nicole. Sarah's an advocate for missing and murdered victims whose own sister disappeared in 2001. And Courtney is a true crime storyteller who's seen firsthand how crime can change a family forever. Together, they bring lived experience to every case, examining the moments just before a person disappears, the routines, the timelines, the small details that often get overlooked because every disappearance has a moment where everything still feels normal. Until it doesn't. Listen to and follow the final hours on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday. This is crime house. The world can be a pretty scary place these days. All it takes is a few minutes on social media to start wishing you could just leave everything behind and start over. That's what Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh offered his followers gave in the early 1980s, he moved from India to the United States to build a utopian community in rural Oregon. The town of Rajneesh Puram, named after the Bhagwan, was all about communal living and connecting with the natural world. Over the next few years, up to 3,000 people moved to Rajneeshpuram in search of love, community, and spiritual healing. And many of them found it. For a while, at least. But before long, Rajneesh Puram had become a nightmare, and the same people who once preached peace were now consumed by greed, paranoia, and power struggles. It all came to a head in 1984, when the people of Rajneesh Puram committed the largest act of bioterrorism in American history. From UFO cults and mass suicides to secret CIA experiments, presidential assassinations, and murderous doctors, these aren't just theories, they're real stories that blur the line between fact and fiction. I'm Vanessa Richardson, and this is Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes, a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Every Wednesday and Friday, I'll explore the real people at the center of the world's most shocking events and nefarious organizations. These cases are wild and I want to hear what you think at the end of each episode. Leave a comment wherever you listen. Be sure to rate, review and follow so we can continue building this community together. For early ad free access to both episodes, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts and Today I am thrilled to welcome two incredible guests, Sarah Turney and Courtney Nicole, the hosts of Crime House's newest show, the Final Hours. Welcome, ladies. I'm so excited to have you here.
- [03:21]
Sarah Turney
Thank you, Vanessa. Hello, everyone.
- [03:23]
Courtney Nicole
We are thrilled to be here. Thanks so much for having us on.
- [03:26]
Vanessa Richardson
Absolutely. Not only are Sarah and Cord incredibly talented creators, but they've lived through their own true crime experiences, which inspired them to become incredible advocates for justice. And every Monday, starting February 23rd, on the final Hours, they'll dive into some of true crime's most gripping cases, examining the smallest details and asking, could something have been overlooked? Sarah and Kourt will introduce this episode for me and then stick around afterward as I talk to them more about the Final Hours and why fans of conspiracy theories, cults, and crimes are going to love it. Kourt, will you get us started?
- [04:04]
Courtney Nicole
Yes, absolutely. So today, Vanessa is discussing the Rajneesh movement, an infamous cult that took over a small Oregon town in the mid-1980s.
- [04:13]
Sarah Turney
The group's leader, an elderly Indian guru named Bhagwan Shari Rajneesh, preached a message of love, tolerance, and togetherness. But his second in command had other ideas. Because of her, the group went down a dangerous path, one that turned this peaceful organ community into a war zone.
- [04:30]
Courtney Nicole
All that and more coming up.
- [04:37]
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- [05:07]
Vanessa Richardson
Co Parle Tu francais? Hablas espanol? Parle italiano.
- [05:11]
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- [05:41]
Vanessa Richardson
At the height of his power, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was a godlike figure to tens of thousands of people all over the world. But before all that he was just a curious young boy growing up in Central India. In 1931, Rajneesh was born Chandra Mohan Jain to a family of cloth merchants outside the city of Bhopal. His family's business was successful enough that they were able to send him away to get an education in school. Young Chandra quickly gained a reputation for questioning everything he was taught. Even when it wasn't popular, it was in a deeply religious country. He shocked his classmates by identifying as an atheist. As he got older, Chandra continued to explore revolutionary ideas. He studied socialism and went on to major in philosophy in college. There he became a skilled debater who loved to argue about high minded concepts with his fellow students. Chandra's abilities took him far, and by the late 1950s, when he was in his mid-20s, he was working as an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Jabalpur. It should have been the start of an exciting new chapter for Chandra, but instead he was miserable. He was plagued by doubts, questions and insecurities about the world and his place in it. And it wasn't the typical soul searching that a lot of 20 somethings do. Chandra was so upset, he suffered from debilitating headaches and deep depression. When modern medicine couldn't cure him, he turned to alternative methods. Chandra started running 10 to 16 miles every day, followed by hours of meditation. And eventually he had a breakthrough. One night in the early 1960s, Chandra achieved a state of total enlightenment while meditating. His headaches were gone. His inner demons had been conquered. After a life of questioning everything, Chandra had finally found an answer. And he wanted to share it with the world. Over the next few years, the man who was born Chandra Mohan Jain adopted a new name. Bhagwan Shari Rajneesh. The rough translation is the blessed one. And before long, he started giving lectures about his blessings to anyone who would listen. Rajneesh argued that people need to embrace science, capitalism and advanced technology in order to improve their lives. And he criticized the strict rules of organized religion and preached that true spirituality comes from enjoying life to the fullest. And perhaps most shockingly, he told his audiences that sex was a divine natural activity that should be celebrated, not repressed. These ideas were incredibly controversial, especially in a deeply traditional country like India. Raj's teachings were conditioned, condemned by many established religious and cultural figures. But they were very popular with young people both in India and abroad. By the late 1960s, Rajneesh was so successful that he quit his university job to travel the country giving lectures to massive audiences. Come 1970, 39 year old Rajneesh settled on a name for his philosophy. He called it the Neo Sanyas International Movement. And he established a spiritual community near Bombay where where students could come to learn more about it. Rajneesh's teachings drew from Zen Buddhism, Hindu traditions and modern psychology. To help followers achieve personal transformation, those who came to his community, known as an ashram, practiced a method he developed called dynamic meditation. The goal was to rid yourself of emotional baggage. Sessions started with participants jumping, shouting, and dancing until they were out of breath. Once they were completely exhausted, they would begin to meditate. Meditate supposedly free from the repressive energies that had been holding them back. Sometimes, though, it took extra work to release those energies. In some sessions, participants would scream, hit each other, or even engage in group sex before beginning their meditation. When it came to Rajneesh and the ashram, tens of thousands of students found inner peace there. This included many well to do young people from Europe and and the United States who'd become interested in Eastern religion and philosophy through the hippie and new age movements. They donated huge sums of money to Rajneesh, bought clothing and jewelry from the ashram's arts and crafts center, and encouraged their trendy friends to visit and do the same. By the late 1970s, Rajneesh was no longer just a humble guru. He was the leader of a large and complex religious organization worth tens of millions of dollars. So to keep everything running, he hired one of his most devoted students to take on the business side of things while he focused on spiritual matters. She was a 29 year old woman named Ma Anand Sheila. She'd grown up in India and attended college in the United States, where she married an American man in 1972. She and her husband had returned to India on a spiritual quest of sorts. That's how they first encountered Rajneesh and his teachings. Now, just a few years later, Xi was in charge of the movement's business affairs. And she would play a leading role in all the drama, chaos, and criminality that would engulf it in the years to come. Starting with a move across the world in 1980, Rajneesh decided it was time to leave India. Although he was just 49 years old, he had a lot of serious medical conditions, including diabetes, asthma, and a prolapsed disc in his spine. He needed high quality medical care that was only available overseas. On top of that, the Indian government had started to challenge his group's tax exempt status. Now they were threatening to shut down the ashram unless Rajneesh paid them a fortune in back taxes. So on May 31, 1981, Rajneesh, Sheela, and 17 other disciples quietly left India and flew to the United States. Sheila, who was a US Citizen, had obtained a medical visa to allow Rajneesh to enter the country. Once they arrived, she used the ashram's funds to buy a mansion in New Jersey for Rajneesh. Meanwhile, she traveled the country in search of a permanent home for their movement. Sheela was looking for a dry climate, which would be better for Rajneesh's health. And she wanted to set up shops somewhere isolated where the outside world couldn't interfere with the ashram's work. After a few months of viewing properties all over the Western U.S. sheila finally found the perfect spot to build their utopia. It was a 64,000 acre plot of land in central Oregon called the Big Muddy ranch. Sprawling over 100 square miles of dry hills and canyons in Wasco county, the ranch had been more or less abandoned for the past 20 years. On July 10, 1981, Sheila bought the property for $5.75 million. That's over 20.5 million in today's money. Within days, a small group of Rajneesh's followers arrived at the remote, undeveloped site to prepare for their guru's arrival. They called their new home Rajneesh Puram. It was supposed to be a place of peace, love and harmony. But with Sheela around the that vision quickly crumbled.
- [13:38]
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- [14:35]
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contractor we found on Angie.com to be our kid's legal guardian? Because he took such good care when redoing our basement that we knew we could trust him to care for our kids.
- [14:43]
Sarah Turney
We only met a month ago.
- [14:44]
Vanessa Richardson
Angie the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects@angie.com In July 1981, Ma Anand Sheela, second in command to the new age guru Bhagwan Shree rajneesh, bought a 64,000 acre ranch in an isolated corner of Wasco County, Oregon. They named the site Rajneeshpuram. Rajneeshpuram's neighbors didn't know what to make of the settlement. At first, the closest town was the tiny community of antelope, population 75. Most of the residents were retired ranchers, not the sort of people who were up to date on New Age meditation and enlightenment. As far as they knew, Rajneeshpuram was supposed to be a small river religious community of a few dozen people. But not long after the property sold, it became clear that the new owners had much bigger plans. The only road to Rajneeshpuram ran through Antelope, and within weeks of the sale, hundreds of people were passing through town on their way to the site. Residents quickly learned how to identify which ones were Rajneesh's followers. Per the guru's instructions, they all dressed in colors of the setting sun, like red, pink and orange. Locals started calling them Red People or Rajneeshis, but Rajneesh's followers preferred to be referred to as Sannyasins, a Sanskrit word meaning those who have renounced all selfish desires. While some of the Sannyasins flocking to Rajneesh Puram had followed Rajneesh from India, most of the new arrivals were Americans coming from major cities on the west coast. Their average age was 34 years old, and they were mostly upper middle class professionals, accountants, lawyers, architects, college professors, and doctors. Rajneesh's followers weren't gullible college kids. They were successful people who'd gotten sick of the rat race. They'd read about Rajneesh in magazines or attended meditation classes run by his disciples in the U.S. now they were coming to Rajneesh Puram in search of a more spiritually fulfilling life. What they found when they arrived was a cluster of tents and no running water. So they got to work building a paradise. For years, Rajneesh had taught that hard labor was its own form of meditation. His followers often repeated the saying, work is our worship. At Rajneeshpuram, they put that belief into action, funded by tens of millions of dollars from Rajneesh's nonprofit. Between 1981 and 1983, about a thousand Rajneeshis happily worked 12 to 16 hours a day, seven days a week, turning an abandoned ranch into a small city. Rajneesh's well educated followers were perfectly suited to this task. Those with expertise in agricultural science cleared out more than 3,000 acres of land to plant wheat, sunflowers and vegetables. Other followers who'd been trained in Engineering built a 400 foot dam to create a 45 acre reservoir which they used for irrigation and drinking water. They built roads, houses, a sewer system, a 10 megawatt electrical substation, a recycling plant and an airfield to transport Rajneeshis around the growing community. They brought in a fleet of 85 school buses which became the fourth largest public transit system in Oregon. Rajneesh's followers worked hard for their community and in return, the community provided for them. Everyone in Rajneeshpuram was given three vegetarian meals a day, free of charge. Residents lived rent free in shared a frame houses scattered around the settlement and all clothes and toiletries were provided. But the real highlight of living in Rajneeshpuram was was daily contact with Rajneesh himself, who lived in a compound surrounded by fruit trees at the center of the community. Every day at 2pm all the Rajneeshis would stop what they were doing and line up next to the road that ran through the community. Then Rajneesh would ride through the streets in a convoy of his 74 Rolls Royce limousines. As his car passed by each side, Sannyasin would bow and murmur the Hindu greeting namaste. But Rajneesh never replied. In fact, he hadn't said a word since he'd left India. Shortly before he arrived in the United States, Rajneesh told members of his inner circle that he was going to stop speaking. According to him, a key component of achieving enlightenment was releasing worldly attachments. He worried that his followers had become so fixated on his public statements that they'd formed an unhealthy attachment to him. By going into silence, he hoped to break that attachment and inspire his sannyasins simply through his presence. As a practical matter, this meant his second in command, Ma Anand Sheela, was now the face and voice of the entire movement. She'd become the primary president of Rajneesh Foundation International, a tax exempt organization that collected donations from followers all over the world. And she had full control over the organization's multi million dollar budget. She served as the de facto mayor of Rajneesh Puram, directing the commune's activities from a luxurious house next to Rajneesh's and through a network of mostly female managers, coordinators and spies. She kept tabs on everything and everyone in the growing town. Sheila used her power to enforce absolute loyalty and sideline her enemies. Rajnishis who criticized her or asked too many questions were deemed negative and assigned menial, unpleasant jobs. Other members were instructed not to talk to them. And Sheila took steps to isolate her critics from physically as well. On one occasion, Shela ordered 11 people who'd gotten on her bad side to have their blood tested for aids. With help from the commune's medical director, a woman named Ma Anand Pooja, Sheila produced fake positive test results for all of them. These followers were eventually exiled from Rajneesh Puram, supposedly for the safety of the rest of the community. But Sheila didn't just use her access to the medical director to force her enemies out of Rajneeshpuram. She also used Pooja to keep people who knew too much from getting out. When three high ranking Rajneeshis began talking about leaving the commune, Pooja told them they were overworked and needed to rest. Then she put them on heavy sedatives that left them bedridden for weeks. Another Rajneeshi was given multiple doses of an addictive sedative called Quaaludes while being treated by Pooja at the clinic. As a result, the woman grew addicted to the drugs and became dependent on Sheela and the cult to keep her supplied. One follower who published the local paper in Rajneeshpuram saw what was going on and wrote a letter to Rajneesh. She wanted to warn him about Sheela's actions. But before he could receive it, Sheila intercepted the letter. The woman later fell ill with a mysterious ailment and was taken to the medical clinic where doctors performed a medically unnecessary hysterectomy on her. Afterwards, Pooja prescribed the woman medications that left her mentally and emotionally unstable for years to come. With Pooja under her thumb, Sheela was free to run the cult as she saw fit. But the people inside Rajneeshpuram weren't the only ones who felt Sheila's wrath. People in the nearby town of Antelope weren't happy about the cult's activities. Residents lived in Antelope because they liked the peace and quiet. None of them wanted a full blown city in their backyards, let alone the steady stream of trucks, construction equipment and busloads of visitors that passed through town on their way to and from the commune. The Antelope Town Council filed lawsuits trying to get county and state officials to withdraw Rajneeshpuram's building permits. This made Sheela furious at town hall meetings and in statements to the press, she insulted the residents of Antelope, calling them rednecks and bigots. In an open letter to the governor, Sheila referred to Antelope as a town where, quote, unproductive, indolent old people go to mark time until they die. But her sharp tongue wasn't Sheela's only weapon. Ahead of Antelope's next local election in November 1982, Sheila bought properties all over town and sent Rajneesh's followers to live there. Come election day, the Rajneeshis outnumbered the locals. As a result, the mayor of Antelope and the entire town council were voted out and replaced by Rajneeshis. They ultimately dropped all the town's legal challenges to Rajneeshpuram. Shortly after, they officially changed the name of Antelope to Rajneesh. After that, most of the original residents moved away. Once again, Silla had outmaneuvered her opponents, but the battle between Rajneeshpuram and the outside world was only getting started. When the Rajneeshis first arrived in Oregon, Sheila had gone out of her way to project a positive image to the rest of the state. She invited reporters, legislators, and curious residents to visit Rajneeshpuram, where they were given tours by attractive, charismatic cult members. So for the first year or so, most Oregonians outside of Wasco county had a generally positive outlook on Rajneesh and his followers. But that all changed after the takeover in Antelope. People across the state had seen Sheila's hostile statements and watched as her group more or less stole the town. They didn't like what they saw, and they were determined to make their feelings known. Every afternoon, Rajneesh and his convoy of Rolls Royces would drive to the town of Madras, 70 miles away. He and his entourage would stop at a gas station to buy a drink and then turn around and go back to Rajneeshpuram. In early 1983, after the takeover in Antelope, the people of Madras started lining the streets near the gas station with protest signs, heckling Rajneesh as he drove past. In response, Sheila started sending busloads of Rajneeshis to Madras to act as counter protesters. This continued for several months. It got so bad that local law enforcement feared a riot would break out. Finally, the county district attorney intervened and managed to persuade Rajneesh to stop his daily visits. It was a rare case where the Rajneeshis actually backed down, but state and county officials were growing increasingly alarmed. Once upon a time, they thought Rajneeshpuram was an eccentric religious community, strange but harmless. Now they saw it as a cult, and they were terrified of what might happen. A decade earlier, Jim Jones had ordered over a thousand of his followers to commit mass suicide at his Jonestown commune in South America. Concerned about a copycat event, state and county officials started keeping a closer eye on what was happening in Rajneeshpuram. Of course, increased government oversight didn't sit well with Sheila. She wanted to exercise total control without having to answer to anyone. So in the summer of 1983, she started taking steps to cut off Rajneesh Puram from the outside world. The guided tours ended. Visitors had to sign three separate forms, be issued an identification bracelet, and pass through multiple security checkpoints. These checkpoints were staffed by members of the Rajneeshpuram Peace Force. This was the commune's police department, who wore red uniforms and carried submachine guns at all times. Unsurprisingly, government officials ran into problems whenever they tried to go to Rajneeshpuram. In 1984, the county planner repeatedly tried to visit the commune to conduct a land use assessment, but members of the peace force blocked the road and refused to let him pass. In response, three members of the Wasco County Commission requested a meeting with Sheila at the commune. The men were granted access, but after their meeting, they returned to their car to find one of the tires had been slashed. While they waited for the tire to be changed, Sheila offered them some water. Pooja, who ran the medical clinic, brought it out to them. On the their way home from the commune, two of the commissioners became violently ill and had to be rushed to the hospital. They suspected they'd been poisoned. It was definitely concerning, but the issue was they couldn't prove it. And at the time, they had bigger fish to fry. Another election was coming up, and it looked like Sheila was plotting a second takeover. In August 1984, Sheila announced that Rajneesh Puram had launched a new charitable effort to solve America's homelessness crisis. Under her Share a Home program, Rajneeshis began approaching unhoused people on the streets of Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and other major cities. They offered them bus tickets to Rajneeshpuram, where they were promised free housing, food, and jobs. Within weeks, as many as 4,000 thousand unhoused people had been bused into the commune. But many of the new arrivals had criminal records and mental illnesses. They weren't well suited to the commune's farm labor, and the Rajneeshpuram Peace Force had their hands full responding to a surge of violent disturbances. In some cases especially unruly residents were given tranquilizers against their will to keep them from causing trouble. But but none of that mattered to Sheila. All she cared about was making sure that all the new residents were registered to vote in Oregon as soon as possible. In November, multiple members of the Wasco County Commission would be up for re election, and two Rajneeshis with close ties to Sheila were running for seats as write in candidates. If all the beneficiaries of the Sherrah Home program voted the way Sheila told them, they they'd be able to oust the other people on the ballot. That meant they'd be able to reinstall Rajneeshis on the County Commission, where they could shut down any further oversight of the cult. Still, it wasn't a foolproof strategy. There were tens of thousands of voters in the county who were vehemently opposed to the Rajneeshis. So Sheila came up with a bold plan to win at the ballot box. Bioterrorism.
- [30:12]
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- [30:38]
Vanessa Richardson
Inc.
- [30:40]
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- [31:10]
Kaelyn Moore
Do you have a dark curiosity? Heart starts pounding Horrors, Hauntings and Mysteries is a weekly podcast hosted by me, Kaelyn Moore. Each week, I'll take you on a dark journey through terrifying true urban legends, bizarre true crime cases, chilling tales of backwoods horror, and more. So if you're looking to join a passionate community of the darkly curious, check out Heart Starts Pounding on the Free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. And remember, stay curious.
- [31:44]
Vanessa Richardson
Leading up to the November 1984 election in Wasco County, Ma Anand Sheela started busing thousands of unhoused people to Rajneeshpuram from all over the nation. She planned to register them to vote and replace the critics on the Wasco County Commission with Rajnishis. As the election approached, concerned residents and state election officials challenged the flood of new voter registrations. In court, Rajneesh Purim's lawyers responded by saying that all the new residents were American citizens who had a constitutional right to vote wherever they lived. While people all over Oregon breathlessly awaited a decision in the court case, Sheila was working on plan B. If she could ensure that a large number of Wasco county voters weren't able to make it to the polls on election day, the Rajneeshis would be certain to win. The commune's medical director, Ma Anand Pooja, started studying ways to poison people without killing them. In August of 1984, she even set up a secret laboratory where she tested different poisons on mice. She learned a lot. And soon, Pooja and Sheela decided to run a much larger experiment with human test subjects. In September 1984, small groups of Rajneeshis started traveling 90 miles north to the Dalles. It was the largest town in Wasco county and home to most of the county's voters. Instead of wearing red, the Rajneeshis dressed in normal colored clothes so nobody would identify them as followers of Rajneesh. And they brought along small Ziploc bags full of a light brown liquid, which they referred to as salsa. This so called salsa had been purposefully infected with salmonella, a bacteria that can cause severe illness and even death. Over the course of several visits, Rajneeshis covertly spread their salsa over vegetables and dressings at salad bars at 10 different restaurants in the Dalles. They also dumped their infected salsa on produce at local grocery stores and spread it on doorknobs at the county courthouse. Once their mission was complete, they returned to Rajneeshpuram to wait for the chaos to begin. Within days, people in the Dalles started getting sick. Local clinics and hospitals were small, swamped with patients suffering from vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramps, fevers, and chills. One victim, a 34 year old pregnant woman, went into labor while infected and gave birth to a baby who was born with severe septic shock. Both the mother and child barely survived. Thankfully, no one died during the outbreak. But by the end of the month, local officials estimated that more than 750 people had gotten sick and 45 were hospitalized. Public health officials and experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigated the incident. They traced the outbreak back to salad bars at multiple restaurants, but not back to the kitchens, which was unusual. And they found the same relatively rare strain of salmonella at all 10 restaurants, something that wouldn't happen in a naturally occurring outbreak. It would be months before investigators could prove Rajneeshis were responsible for the mass poisoning. But people in the Dalles were already suspicious of the cult and its confrontational leader. Even before they had proof, most residents of Wasco county correctly assumed Sheelah and the Rajneeshis had something to do with the outbreak. Even then, Sheelah still thought she could come out on top. Sheila's salad bar sabotage was the largest act of bioterrorism in American history. But as far as she was concerned, it was only a test run. Now that she knew salmonella was an effective poison, she planned to sneak it into the Dale's water supply days before the November elections. She hoped this would incapacitate tens of thousands of people, clearing the way for the Rajneeshis to vote in their preferred candidates. Fortunately, Sheila didn't get the chance to put her plan into action. In mid October, the courts ruled in favor of state election officials. Right away, they enacted new policies that made it much harder for the Rajneeshis to add their Share a Home participants to the state's voter rolls. Officials also disqualified thousands of new Rajneeshpuram voters after discovering they'd filled out their registration cards with fraudulent information. To make matters worse, people in the Dalles were so outraged by the salmonella attack that thousands of new legitimate voters registered specifically to vote against the Rajneeshi's preferred candidates on election day. All of the Rajneeshi candidates lost in a landslide. Sheila's plan had backfired spectacularly, and it set them back financially, too. Thanks to their many public controversies, the cult had been bringing in less and less money in donations over the past few years. And the Share a Home program had only made things worse. Housing and feeding thousands of unhoused people, many of whom had costly medical conditions, wasn't cheap. It's estimated that Sheila's failed election plot cost over a million dollars. Afterwards, she she discontinued the Share a Home program and kicked the participants out of Rajneeshpuram. Most of them were bused to nearby towns, where they were cut loose with no money and left for the locals to deal with. Sheila's plan was such a disaster that even her boss couldn't ignore it anymore. After years of silence, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh decided it was time to step back into the spotlight. Over the next several months, Rajneesh offered to give interviews to any news organization that wanted to talk to him. He was desperate to repair the cult's public image, but he had an uphill battle. He'd been a captivating public speaker earlier in his life, but now, at 54 years old, he wasn't as charismatic, especially on TV. And after three years of Sheila's rule, the damage was done. Polls showed that more than 2/3 of Oregonians were strongly opposed to the Rajneeshis. Soon, lawsuits started to pile up. The plaintiffs were former cult members, residents of communities the cult had targeted and unhoused. People who claimed they'd been abused during the share a home debacle. As if that wasn't bad enough, the state's largest newspaper, the Oregonian, was about to publish a lengthy investigative report port into Rajneeshpuram. And county officials started to crack down, issuing multi million dollar fines for building code violations at Rajneeshpuram. But Sheila was still a powerful figure in the cult, and she hadn't become any less confrontational. In early 1985, in response to the fines, Sheila ordered a group of her followers to firebomb the Wasco County Planning department offices in in the Dales. The blaze severely damaged the building and destroyed roughly half of the county's records and files. She also sent loyalists to the offices of the Oregonian to try to sabotage the newspaper before it could publish its story. The attackers were scared off by security guards before they could do any damage. So in a last ditch effort to maintain control, Sheila drew up a hit list of public officials, officials and reporters to assassinate, which included the state attorney general. But before she could put yet another murderous plot into action, Sheila learned the federal government had its eye on her. The IRS had opened an investigation into the cult's finances. Not only that, but Sheila learned she was about to be indicted for immigration fraud. It turned out out she'd helped arrange sham marriages so that Indian Rajneeshis could get green cards. But the biggest blow came when she found out Rajneesh wasn't coming to save her. He'd had enough of her mismanagement and manufactured crises and was ready to be done with her. On September 13, 1985, Sheela and several of her remaining loyalists boarded a private plane at the Rajneesh Purim airport and fled to Europe. She would never set foot in the commune again. But there wouldn't be a commune for much longer. Three days after Sheila left the country, Rajneesh held a press conference where he publicly called her and her associates, quote, a gang of fascists. In front of news cameras, he accused Sheila of the the salmonella attack in the Dalles, the firebombing, and the poisonings of multiple high ranking Rajneeshis. Even though he'd been present for all of this, Rajneesh claimed he didn't know about her illegal activities until now. Shortly after his press conference, an interagency task force of county, state and federal law enforcement officers set up shop at Rajneesh Puram to conduct a full investigation. They reviewed financial records and found that Sheila had committed widespread fraud, leaving the organization $55 million in debt. She'd wiretapped nearly every phone and private room at the commune, and when investigators searched the basement of her house, they found lab equipment containing samples of salmonella that matched the strain used in the poisoning in the Dales. At first, Rajneesh cooperated fully with the investigation and appointed reformers to leadership positions within the cult. But in late October 1985, a grand jury indicted him, Sheila, and several other leaders on 35 counts of immigration fraud. Like Sheila, Rajneesh tried to flee the country by plane, but was arrested at an airfield in North Carolina when his jet stopped to refuel. He eventually pled guilty, accepted a $400,000 fine, and was deported back to India on November 14. Rajneesh never returned to the United States and died in 1990 at the age of 58. One week after Rajneesh's deportation, the cult leaders gathered the remaining residents of Rajneesh Puram and informed them that the communist would be closing down by the end of the year. Over the next few weeks, the last of the Rajneeshis left the ranch and tried to return to their old lives. Meanwhile, the leaders Rajneesh had appointed tried to cover the cult's debts by selling everything they could find on the property. This included several pianos, a high tech flight simulator, and 85 of Rajneesh's Rolls Royce limousines. By early 1986, the once proud utopia of Rajneeshpuram had gone back to what it was before the cult arrived. An abandoned western ghost town. And later that year, the people responsible for the commune's collapse finally faced justice for everything they'd done over the past five years. In the summer of 1986, Shela Ma Anand Pooja, the cult's medical director, and several other co conspirators were arrested in Europe and extradited to the US to face charges. In an Oregon courtroom, Sheila and her companions pled guilty to a long list of charges, including attempted murder, wiretapping, poisoning, the Wasco county commissioners, and the mass salmonella poisoning in the Dales. Sheila was eventually given the maximum sentence of 20 years years in prison. But even though she'd stolen millions, terrorized her followers, and poisoned an entire town to try and steal an election, she only spent two and a half years behind bars. With good behavior and even better lawyers, she was able to get her sentence substantially reduced. She was released and deported to West Germany in December of 1988. Now the woman who once ruled an entire community of devoted followers has started a new life which isn't that different from her old one. As of 2025, Ma Anand Sheila lives in Switzerland where she owns and manages two retirement homes. I'd love to know what you all think about Sheila's punishment and the Rajneesh movement in general. Do you think Sheila got what she deserved after all that she did and all that happened? And had you heard about Rajneeshpuram before this episode? If you're in Oregon, do you know anyone who came into contact with the Rajneeshis? We'd love to hear your stories. Let us know in the comments however you feel. The truth is, the people who flocked to Rajneeshpuram weren't dumb or naive, and they were actually well educated, successful people who believed they'd found a better way of living. And they weren't necessarily wrong. For a short time, Rajneeshpuram worked. The Rajneeshis pooled their knowledge and their labor to make the desert bloom and created a self sufficient community where everyone had a purpose. Rajneesh Puram didn't fail because of those ideals. It failed because of the same forces that drove so so many Rajneeshis away from modern society in the first place. Greedy, untrustworthy people in positions of power. The residents of Rajneesh Puram weren't the first to try to build a better world, and they weren't the last. All we can hope is that someday somebody figures out how to make a utopia that stands the test of time. In Cult Watch this week, I'm highlighting the Kingdom of God Global Church. Established in the Detroit area in 2014, the Kingdom of God Church, or KGC, is run by televangelist David E. Taylor. In elaborate sermons broadcast online, Taylor performs what he claims are miracles, healing the sick and supposedly bringing dead people back to life. But he dedicates most of his energy to demanding donations from his followers. Many members of Taylor's church work in makeshift call centers at church properties, cold calling people to ask them to donate to Taylor's ministry. Followers are often forced to work for as many as 20 hours a day without pay. Not only that, but they're denied food, sleep and medical care until donation quotas are met. Members who fail to bring in enough money are punished with verbal and sometimes physical abuse over the past 11 years, Taylor's church has brought in nearly $50 million in donations. But that money isn't being used for charitable purposes. According to a federal indictment, Taylor and his wife have used the money to buy mansions, luxury cars, and even 125 pounds of crab legs. In August of 2025, Taylor and his wife were arrested on human trafficking charges for their treatment of church members. But that hasn't stopped the KGC's grift. On its website, you can still buy Taylor's dozens of books, including popular titles like My trip to Heaven and Interpreting animals you see in your dreams for $20 apiece. Like the Rajneeshis, followers of the Kingdom of God global church are seeking spiritual fulfillment in a fallen world. But in the end, what they're getting is exploitation and greed. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Vanessa Richardson, and this is Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes. And now I'm welcoming Sarah Turney and Courtney Nicole back to talk all about Crime House's newest show, the Final Hours.
- [48:17]
Sarah Turney
Thank you, Vanessa. Like I said in the beginning, we're just so excited to be here.
- [48:20]
Courtney Nicole
Agreed. We can't wait to share the Final Hours with everyone.
- [48:24]
Vanessa Richardson
So excited to be able to speak to you both. It really is an incredible show. I listened to the first episode and I was immediately hooked. There's so much to talk about, and I know you sat down with a few other Crime House hosts, so I highly recommend everyone check out those episodes of Murder, True Crime Stories and Serial Killers and Murderous minds. And before we dive into why, the Final Hours will be an instant follow for fans of conspiracy theories, cults, and crimes, I'd love to briefly get into your backgrounds so people can really know you. I just find the work you do so inspiring, and I would love to hear more about what brought you here. Sarah, if you don't mind, I'll hand it off to you.
- [49:00]
Sarah Turney
Yeah, of course. I'd be happy to. You know, in my case, it all started with the disappearance of my sister, Alyssa. I spent years trying to get answers and demanding accountability, but I just didn't think enough was being done. You know, the police also told me to get more media. So in 2019, I launched my own podcast, Voices for Justice, which featured my sister's story, and it's gone on to become an entire network where, you know, I help amplify cases like hers. That's one of the biggest reasons that I'm so passionate about the Final Hours. While we are covering a lot of major true crime cases, we're also focusing on lesser known stories that could really benefit from the attention. And I know that's something that's really important to court as well.
- [49:38]
Courtney Nicole
It 100% is. I know firsthand how frustrating it can be when you're not getting the answers you need. So growing up, I learned that someone in my family that I was really, really close with actually committed a violent crime. But it was this thing that kind of got swept under the rug. So when I got older, I decided to get involved myself and look through the case files on my own to try and get some answers. That experience left a lasting impact on me, and I decided to dedicate myself to shedding light on stories that deserve more attention and making sure the victims and their families are never forgotten.
- [50:11]
Vanessa Richardson
You are both absolutely incredible. It's so important, and it's something that I always strive to do on my shows as well. One thing I feel like this show and the final hours have in common is that nuanced approach to searching for answers. Of course, we're obviously tackling different subjects for the most part, but for people, people who like getting into the weeds and looking at cases from multiple angles, I know they'll love the final hours.
- [50:34]
Sarah Turney
Yeah, I think you said it perfectly. I think something that sets the final hours apart is how we're not taking everything at face value. Something that looks totally innocent, like the store someone went to or even the music they picked in their car, it could crack the case wide open.
- [50:48]
Courtney Nicole
Exactly. It's all about putting a magnifying glass on those small details and using them to zoom out on the case. Case as a whole. Sure, sometimes the official explanation is what really happened, but we don't want to take that for granted.
- [51:00]
Vanessa Richardson
That is so true. And maybe this is my tinfoil hat talking, but when things just don't add up, it's so important to go back to the basics, just back to the beginning, and see if there's anything that just might have been missed.
- [51:12]
Sarah Turney
Yeah, and for me, that goes back to our victim first approach. It's not about the big headlines or established thinking. We want to get into who they were as people, to really look at it from a human perspective. I think that's where a lot of the answers lie. Because at the end of the day, who a person is can tell you so much about what they do and why they do it.
- [51:30]
Courtney Nicole
Sarah hit the nail right on the head. While we're focusing a lot on the physical details from the investigation, the final hours is all about the people. We want to understand them through the lens of the evidence to look at the tiny moments that really tell us who they were and ultimately see. See if we can highlight anything that was initially passed over.
- [51:48]
Vanessa Richardson
It really is so compelling. And I have to say, again, what an amazing job you've both done on the show. I'm so excited for everybody to hear it. And as a reminder for the listeners, it comes out on Monday, February 23, with new episodes every week without any major spoilers. Can you talk about the first case you're covering and kind of tell people what's coming down the pipeline?
- [52:08]
Sarah Turney
Yeah, of course. Our first episode is about the disappearance of Jennifer Cassie. She's a young woman from Orlando, Florida, who went missing in January 2006. This one really caught my attention because it's one of those cases that got so close to finding out what happened but couldn't quite close the case. So naturally, there's a lot of different possibilities for what happened to her, and we wanted to explore as many theories as we could.
- [52:31]
Courtney Nicole
Yeah, it's one of those cases that really stays with you after you learn about it. Jennifer was such a remarkable woman, and it's heartbreaking that her loved ones are still searching for answers even. Even today. We want to bring attention to cases like hers, not just to help keep it in the public eye, but to also raise awareness and be advocates for bringing them justice.
- [52:49]
Sarah Turney
And that's something you're going to see a lot in the cases we talk about on the final hours. Whether the case is solved or not. We want to amplify the stories that really need to be told and aren't just rehashing headlines.
- [53:00]
Vanessa Richardson
Well, I have to say, you're both off to a great start. And the final hours bring such a compelling voice and nuance and heart, really, I feel like a lot of. A lot of heart. You guys are really in this. You've been through so much, and this show is amazing because of that. You don't get it in a lot of other true crime shows.
- [53:18]
Sarah Turney
Oh, thank you, Vanessa. That is very kind of you.
- [53:20]
Courtney Nicole
Yes, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. And it's been a blast to come on the show.
- [53:24]
Vanessa Richardson
You're welcome back anytime. So before we get out of here, can you tell us one last time where we can find the final hours?
- [53:32]
Sarah Turney
Of course, yes. So the final hours is audio only for now. So find us on your favorite podcast platform. Just search the final hours, new episodes out every Monday starting February 23rd.
- [53:43]
Courtney Nicole
And of course, be sure to, like, follow and review. It really helps us build the community so we can bring awareness to as many cases as possible.
- [53:51]
Vanessa Richardson
Sarah Kort, thank you so much again for joining me and I'm so excited for the final hours to debut and be out there out there. I'll be listening every Monday morning and I hope we can chat again soon. And before we get out of here, I'll let you take us out.
- [54:05]
Courtney Nicole
It would be an honor. So Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes is a Crime House Original Powered by Pabe Studios Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media, Rimehouse on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review and follow Conspiracy Theories, Cult and Crimes wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference.
- [54:28]
Sarah Turney
And to enhance your Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes listening experience, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode ad free, plus exciting bonus content.
- [54:39]
Vanessa Richardson
Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes is hosted by me, Vanessa Richardson and is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Consistency Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes team Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Natalie Pertzovsky, Lori Marinelli, Sarah Camp, Truman Capps, Leah Roche, and Michael Langsner. Thank you for listening. Hi, it's Vanessa. If you're drawn to true crime stories about disappearances, check out the new Crime House original the Final Hours, hosted by Sarah Turney and Courtney Nicole. Listen to and follow the Final Hours on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday.