Oct 29, 2023

Man claims responsibility for Kerala blasts, says he is ex-Jehovah's Witness


Before surrendering, Dominic Martin had posted a video on social media that has now been taken down. “They teach anti-national ideas and I have tried multiple times to rectify this,” he said.

 

The News Minute

Written by :

Azeefa Fathima, Sukanya Shaji

Edited by :

Dhanya Rajendran

Published on : 

29 Oct 2023

 

Hours after multiple explosions at a Jehovah’s Witnesses prayer meeting in Kalamassery’s Zamra International Convention Centre on Sunday, October 29, a Kochi native surrendered at the Kodakara police station in Thrissur, claiming responsibility for the attack. The police stated that the man identified himself as Dominic Martin, and according to reports, he arrived at the police station around 1.30 pm claiming that he was previously part of Jehovah’s Witnesses and that he placed the explosive devices at the convention because he was disillusioned by the group’s partisan, anti-national ideologies.

Dominic was arrested by the police and is being questioned. Police teams also reached his house in Kochi and are questioning his wife. According to sources, Dominic submitted videos to the police of the IEDs and how he allegedly executed the blasts. Speaking to the media, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) MR Ajith Kumar said that the man surrendered at the police station taking responsibility for the blasts and submitted some evidence. “He claims that he was a believer of Jehovah’s Witnesses. We are examining his claim and the evidence he submitted,” he said.

Before surrendering, Dominic had posted a video on social media that has now been taken down. In the video he says, “You all may have taken note of something that happened today. There was a bomb blast at a Jehovah’s Witnesses convention. I don’t know what exactly happened, but I know that it happened for sure and I take full responsibility for that. I was the one who executed the bomb blast there.”

Stating that he was posting the video to explain the reason behind his act, he said that he was with the group for 16 years. “Six years ago, I realised that the organisation was on the wrong track. They teach anti-national ideas and I have tried multiple times to rectify this, but none of them were ready to change. Living in this country, they teach that the country’s people are deplorable and that members should not mingle with them,” he said.

He alleged that children were being taught many “vile” things by the organisation, such as that they must not “eat toffees given by classmates” and anti-national things.

“I had to react. National parties won't interfere in this because religion is a volatile topic. You all should open your eyes. If action is not taken against those spreading such wrong ideologies, more people like me would have to give up their lives,” Dominic further said in the video.

Alleging that Jehovah’s Witnesses members only help each other, he cited that during the floods in Kerala too they had behaved the same way. “We should not curse the people of this nation by spreading the idea that any one group is superior,” he said.

Dominic went on to say that he would surrender at the police station and requested the media not to publicise how the blast was set off because this would make the process accessible and invite more destruction. “I am going to surrender before the police, no need to come in search of me. I would like to request the media not to telecast how the blast happened, the formula used. It would be dangerous. If it reaches a lay person, it can lead to dangerous things. The method of the blast should not be telecast by any media or social media.”

It is to be noted that Jehovah’s Witnesses was part of a case against singing the national anthem in the 1980s. The Supreme Court also ruled that people have the right to abstain from singing the national anthem on religious grounds.

Meanwhile, the police also detained a man from the Kannur railway station. Reports say he is a native of Gujarat, and according to the police, he was taken into custody as they were dissatisfied with his responses when questioned. As of now, the police have not disclosed any established connection with the Kalamassery blasts. Checks are being conducted at all railway stations across the state as part of the investigation.

There were reports of a blue car entering the premises of the convention centre just before the prayer started, with eyewitnesses stating that the person in that car had a bag. The police have confirmed that they are investigating this as well.

Earlier in the day, Kerala Director General of Police (DGP) Shaik Darvesh Saheb told the media that the blasts were caused by Improvised Explosive Devices (IED). He also said that a special team would be constituted for further investigations.

On Sunday morning, three successive blasts were reported at the Zamra International Convention Centre in Kochi’s Kalamassery when a Jehovah’s Witnesses prayer meeting was underway, marking the end of a three-day convention. One woman was charred to death and at least 36 persons sustained injuries. Two of the injured, one a teenager, are in ICU in critical condition. Jehovah’s Witnesses is a religious sect that identifies as Christians but holds beliefs not accepted by most mainstream Christian sects. For example, Jehovah's Witnesses denies the Christian belief in the Holy Trinity. The sect does not celebrate Easter or Christmas and believes that mainstream Christian groups have deviated from the text of the Bible.

https://www.thenewsminute.com/kerala/man-claims-responsibility-for-kerala-blasts-says-he-is-ex-jehovahs-witnesses

Oct 27, 2023

Leader of La Luz del Mundo Megachurch Charged by Federal Grand Jury with Producing and Possessing Child Sexual Abuse Material


PRESS RELEASE

Leader of La Luz del Mundo Megachurch Charged by Federal Grand Jury with Producing and Possessing Child Sexual Abuse Material

Wednesday, October 25, 2023

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California

INDICTMENT
LOS ANGELES – A federal grand jury today charged the leader of the Mexico-based La Luz del Mundo megachurch with two felony counts alleging he produced and possessed child sexual abuse material (CSAM) depicting a 16-year-old victim.

Naasón Joaquín García, 54, previously served as a minister for the church in Santa Ana and, from December 2014, led the church in Mexico. He was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in June 2019 on state child sexual exploitation charges.

In today’s two-count federal indictment, García is charged with one count of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.

García is expected to make his initial court appearance and be arraigned in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles in the coming weeks.

According to the indictment, on May 6, 2019, García knowingly employed, used, persuaded, induced, enticed, and coerced a minor – identified in the indictment as “Minor Victim 1,” who was 16 years old at the time – to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct.

On June 3, 2019, García allegedly possessed an iPad that contained five videos depicting Minor Victim 1 engaging in sexual activity. Law enforcement seized the iPad when García was arrested at LAX.

García has been in state custody since then and in June 2022 he pleaded guilty to two counts of forcible oral copulation on a minor and one count of committing a lewd act on a child. He is serving a 17-year prison sentence for those crimes and is incarcerated at the California Institution for Men in Chino.

An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.

If convicted of both federal charges, García would face a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison for the child pornography production count and a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison for the child pornography possession count.

The FBI and the California Department of Justice’s Bureau of Investigation are investigating this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Catharine A. Richmond of the Violent and Organized Crime Section is prosecuting this case.

Contact
Ciaran McEvoy
Public Information Officer
ciaran.mcevoy@usdoj.gov
(213) 894-4465

https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/leader-la-luz-del-mundo-megachurch-charged-federal-grand-jury-producing-and-possessing

Oct 26, 2023

Historical Mass Suicides

Mass suicide is a form of suicide, occurring when a group of people simultaneously kill themselves.

November 18th

Overview
Mass suicide sometimes occurs in religious settings. In war, defeated groups may resort to mass suicide rather than being captured. Suicide pacts are a form of mass suicide that are sometimes planned or carried out by small groups of depressed or hopeless people. Mass suicides have been used as a form of political protest.

Attitudes towards mass suicide change according to place and circumstance. People who resort to mass suicide rather than submit to what they consider intolerable oppression sometimes become the focus of a heroic myth. Such mass suicides might also win the grudging respect of the victors. On the other hand, the act of people resorting to mass suicide without being threatened – especially, when driven to this step by a charismatic religious leader, for reasons which often seem obscure – tends to be regarded far more negatively.


206 BCE
Following the destruction of the Iberian city of Illiturgis by Roman General Publius Cornelius Scipio in 206 BC, people of Astapa – knowing they faced a similar fate – decided to burn the city with all of its treasures and then kill themselves.

133 BCE
At the end of the fifteen months of the siege of Numantia in 133 BC many of the defeated Numantines, instead of surrendering to the Romans, preferred to kill themselves and set fire to the city.

102 BCE

During the late 2nd century BC, the Teutons are recorded as marching south through Gaul along with their neighbors, the Cimbri, and attacking Roman Italy. After several victories for the invading armies, the Cimbri and Teutones were then defeated by Gaius Marius in 102 BC at the Battle of Aquae Sextiae (near present-day Aix-en-Provence). Their King, Teutobod, was taken in irons. The captured women killed themselves, which passed into Roman legends of Germanic heroism: by the conditions of the surrender three hundred of their married women were to be handed over to the Romans. When the Teuton matrons heard of this stipulation, they first begged the consul that they might be set apart to minister in the temples of Ceres and Venus; then, when they failed to obtain their request and were removed by the lictors, they slew their children and next morning were all found dead in each other's arms having strangled themselves in the night.



73 BCE

The 960 members of the Sicarii Jewish community at Masada collectively killed themselves in 73 AD rather than be conquered and enslaved by the Romans. Each man killed his wife and children, then the men drew lots and killed each other until the last man killed himself. Some modern scholars have questioned this account of the events.


700

In the 700s, the remnants of the Montanists were ordered by Byzantine Emperor Leo III to leave their religion and join Orthodox Christianity. They refused, locked themselves in their places of worship, and set them on fire.


1303

In India, the mass suicide, also known as Jauhar, was carried out by women and men of the defeated community, when the fall of a city besieged by the enemy forces was certain. Some of the known cases of Jauhar of Rajput women are at the fort of Chittaur in Rajasthan, in 1303, in 1535, and 1568.


1336

In 1336, when the castle of Pilėnai in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was besieged by the army of the Teutonic Knights, the defenders, led by the Duke Margiris, realized that it was impossible to defend themselves any longer and made the decision to kill themselves, as well as to set the castle on fire in order to destroy all of their possessions, and anything of value to the enemy.


1568

The self-immolation (jauhar) of the Hindu women, during the Siege of Chittorgarh in 1568


1653

During the Great Schism of the Russian Church, entire villages of Old Believers burned themselves to death in an act known as "fire baptism".[11]


1792

In 1792, Revolutionary France abolished slavery in its Caribbean colonies. However, in 1802 Napoleon decided to restore slavery. In Guadeloupe, former slaves who refused to be re-enslaved started a rebellion, led by Louis Delgrès, and for some time resisted the French Army sent to suppress them – but finally realized that they could not win, and still they refused to surrender. At the Battle of Matouba on 28 May 1802, Delgrès and his followers – 400 men and some women – ignited their gunpowder stores, killing themselves while attempting to kill as many of the French troops as possible.


1803

During the Turkish rule of Greece and shortly before the Greek War of Independence, women from Souli, pursued by the Ottomans, ascended the mount Zalongo, threw their children over the precipice and then jumped themselves, to avoid capture – an event known as the Dance of Zalongo.


Bekeranta (1840s)

In 19th century British Guiana, Awakaipu, an Arekuna shaman, established a settlement of indigenous tribesmen called Bekeranta (Berbice Creole Dutch meaning "Land of the White People") at the base of Kukenán-tepui. In approximately 1843 or 1844, Awakaipu instructed his followers to violently murder each other in order to reincarnate themselves as white people. Unofficial figures put the death toll at around 400, which included men, women, and children.



1906

A Balinese mass ritual suicide is called a puputan. Major puputan occurred in 1906–1908 when Balinese kingdoms faced overwhelming Dutch colonial forces. The root of the Balinese term puputan is puput, meaning 'finishing' or 'ending'. It is an act that is more symbolic than strategic; the Balinese are "a people whose genius for theater is unsurpassed" and a puputan is viewed as "the last act of a tragic dance-drama".


Yogmaya's Jal Samadhi (1941)

Yogmaya Neupane and her group of 67 disciples committed the biggest mass suicide (Jal-Samadhi) in Nepali history, by jumping into the Arun River (China–Nepal) in 1941.


1943

In the final phase of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, many of the fighters besieged in the "bunker" at Miła 18 killed themselves by ingesting poison rather than surrender to the Nazis.


1945

Germany was stricken by a series of unprecedented waves of suicides during the final days of the Nazi regime. The reasons for these waves of suicides were numerous and include the effects of Nazi propaganda, the example of the suicide of Adolf Hitler, victims' attachment to the ideals of the Nazi Party, a reaction to the loss of the war and, consequently, the anticipated Allied occupation of Nazi Germany. Life Magazine speculated about the suicides: "In the last days of the war the overwhelming realization of utter defeat was too much for many Germans. Stripped of the bayonets and bombast which had given them power, they could not face a reckoning with either their conquerors or their consciences. These found the quickest and surest escape in what Germans call selbstmord, self-murder."



On 1 May 1945, about 1,000 residents of Demmin, Germany committed mass suicide in the advent of the Red Army's capture of the town.



1944

Japan is known for its centuries of suicide tradition, from seppuku ceremonial self-disemboweling to kamikaze warriors flying their aircraft into Allied warships and banzai charge during World War II. During this same war, the Japanese forces announced to the people of Saipan that the invading American troops were going to torture and murder anyone on the island. In a desperate effort to avoid this, the people of Saipan committed suicide, many jumping from places later named "Suicide Cliff" and "Banzai Cliff". Similar cases of mass suicide by Japanese civilians and colonial settlers also happened during the subsequent Battle of Okinawa and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria.



Peoples Temple (1978)

On November 18, 1978, 918 Americans, including 276 children, died in Peoples Temple–related incidents, including 909 members of the Temple, led by Jim Jones, in Jonestown, Guyana. A tape of the Temple's final meeting in a Jonestown pavilion contains repeated discussions of the group committing "revolutionary suicide", including reference to people taking the poison and the vats to be used.

On that tape, Jones tells Temple members that the Soviet Union, with whom the Temple had been negotiating a potential exodus for months, would not take them after the Temple had murdered Member of Congress Leo Ryan, NBC reporter Don Harris and three others at a nearby airstrip. When members apparently cried, Jones counseled "Stop this hysterics. This is not the way for people who are Socialists or Communists to die. No way for us to die. We must die with some dignity." At the end of the tape, Jones concludes: "We didn't commit suicide, we committed an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhumane world."


The people in Jonestown died of an apparent cyanide poisoning, except for Jones (who died of an injury consistent with a self-inflicted gunshot wound) and his personal nurse. The Temple had spoken of committing "revolutionary suicide" in prior instances, and members had previously drunk what Jones told them was poison at least once before, but the "Flavor Aid" drink they ingested at that time contained no poison. Concurrently, four other members died in the Temple's headquarters in Georgetown. Four months later, Michael Prokes, one of the initial survivors, also committed suicide.


Move (1985)

The day that Philadelphia police dropped a bomb on the heavily fortified home headquarters of MOVE, a Black liberation group with a back-to-nature message that for years clashed with Philadelphia police. This sparked a fire that razed entire city blocks and killed 11 people inside, including five children — Phil, Tomaso, Delisha, and two sisters, Katricia and Zanetta Dotson.


 

MOVE (pronounced like the word "move"), originally the Christian Movement for Life, is a communal organization that advocates for nature laws and natural living, founded in 1972 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, by John Africa (born Vincent Leaphart). The name, styled in all capital letters, is not an acronym. MOVE lived in a communal setting in West Philadelphia, abiding by philosophies of anarcho-primitivism. The group combined revolutionary ideology, similar to that of the Black Panthers, with work for animal rights. MOVE is particularly known for two major conflicts with the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD). In 1978, a standoff resulted in the death of one police officer and injuries to 16 officers and firefighters, as well as members of the MOVE organization. Nine members were convicted of killing the officer and each received prison sentences of 30 to 100 years. In 1985, another firefight ended when a police helicopter dropped two bombs onto the roof of the MOVE compound, a townhouse located at 6221 Osage Avenue. The resulting fire killed six MOVE members and five of their children, and destroyed 65 houses in the neighborhood. The police bombing was strongly condemned. The MOVE survivors later filed a civil suit against the City of Philadelphia and the PPD and were awarded $1.5 million in a 1996 settlement. Other residents displaced by the destruction of the bombing filed a civil suit against the city and in 2005 were awarded $12.83 million in damages in a jury trial.


Solar Temple
Solar Temple (1994–1997)

From 1994 to 1997, the Order of the Solar Temple's members began a series of mass suicides, which led to roughly 74 deaths. Farewell letters were left by members, stating that they believed their deaths would be an escape from the "hypocrisies and oppression of this world". Added to this they felt they were "moving on to Sirius". Records seized by the Quebec police showed that some members had personally donated over $1 million to the group's leader, Joseph Di Mambro.


There was also another attempted mass suicide of the remaining members, which was thwarted in the late 1990s. All the suicide/murders and attempts occurred around the dates of the equinoxes and solstices, which likely held some relation to the beliefs of the group.


Aum Shinrikyo (1995)

Aum Shinrikyo was a Japanese doomsday cult that believed in an imminent apocalypse. In 1995, members released sarin gas on several Tokyo subway trains, killing 13 people and injuring thousands more2.


Heaven's Gate (1997)

From March 24 to 27, 1997, 39 followers of Heaven's Gate died in a mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe, California, which borders San Diego to the north. These people believed, according to the teachings of their group, that through their suicides they were "exiting their human vessels" so that their souls could go on a journey aboard a spaceship they believed to be following comet Hale–Bopp. Some male members of the group underwent voluntary castration in preparation for the genderless life they believed awaited them after the suicide.

In May 1997, two ex-members of Heaven's Gate, who had not been present for the mass suicide, attempted suicide, one succeeding, the other becoming comatose for two days and then recovering. In February 1998, the survivor, Chuck Humphrey, died by suicide.


Training centre for release of the Atma-energy (1998)

Training centre for release of the Atma-energy was known for a police and media scare, in which an alleged attempt to commit ritual suicide took place in Teide National Park in Tenerife in 1998.



Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God
Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God (2000)

On March 17, 2000, 778 members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God died in Uganda. The theory that all of the members died in a mass suicide was changed to mass murder when decomposing bodies were discovered in pits with signs of strangulation, while others had stab wounds. The group had diverged from the Roman Catholic Church in order to emphasize apocalypticism and alleged Marian apparitions. The group had been called an inward-looking movement, that wore matching uniforms, and restricted their speech to avoid saying anything dishonest or sinful. On the suicide itself, locals said they held a party, at which 70 crates of soft drinks and three bulls were consumed. This version of events has been criticized, most notably by Irving Hexham, and a Ugandan source states that even today, "no one can really explain the whys, hows, whats, where, when, etc."


Béchard Lane Eckankar (2004)

In August 2004, ten dead bodies were discovered, all in a sleeping position, inside a two-story house located at Béchard Lane in the suburb of Saint Paul, Vacoas-Phoenix on the island of Mauritius. They had been missing for a number of days, and large loans had been contracted by some of the victims a short time before their deaths. Several of them were active members of the Eckankar sect. The main gate and all doors of the house had been locked from the inside, and the interior was in tidy order when police broke into the house.



Adam House (2007)
Adam House (2007)

In 2007, in Mymensingh, Bangladesh, a family of nine, all members of a novel "Adam's cult", committed mass suicide by hurling themselves under a train. Diaries recovered from the victims' home, the "Adam House", related they wanted a pure life as lived by Adam and Eve, freeing themselves from bondage to any religion, and refusing contact with any outsiders. After leaving Islam, they fell out of boundaries of any particular religion.


Burari Deaths
Burari Deaths (2018)

The Burari deaths, also "Burari case" and "Burari kaand", refers to the deaths of eleven family members of the Chundawat family from Burari, India, in 2018. Ten family members were found hanged, while the oldest family member, the grandmother, was strangled. The bodies were found on 1 July 2018; in the early morning after the death. The police have ruled the deaths as mass suicide, with an angle of shared psychosis being investigated.


Shakahola Massacre (2023)

In April 2023, 110 dead bodies were found in the Shakahola forest, near Malindi, Kenya. Rescued survivors stated that they had been ordered to starve themselves to death by Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, leader of the Malindi cult. As of July 2023, the death toll has risen to over 400.


Good News International Church was responsible for the deaths of over 400 people in Kenya

Good News International Church was responsible for the deaths of over 400 people in Kenya
According to the BBC, a Christian doomsday cult "Good News International Church" in Kenya was responsible for the deaths of over 400 people, including children, in an apparent mass suicide. The cult leader, Pastor Paul Mackenzie, is accused of inciting his followers to starve themselves to death in order to reach heaven faster. 

The cult's leader, a pastor, ordered his followers to starve to death in order to meet Jesus. The cult was preparing for the end of the world.

The death toll has been rising as more bodies are exhumed:

  1. 303 people: Died after 19 bodies were exhumed
  2. 403 people: Died after 12 more bodies were exhumed

Autopsies on more than 100 bodies showed that the victims died of:

  1. Starvation
  2. Strangulation
  3. Suffocation
  4. Injuries from blunt objects

30 people, including the pastor, Paul Mackenzie, were in custody over the deaths of 337 followers.

Imprisoned 'apostle' of Mexican megachurch La Luz del Mundo charged with federal child pornography


October 25, 2023

 

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The head of a Mexican megachurch who is serving more than 16 years in a California prison for sexually abusing young followers was charged Wednesday with two federal crimes involving a 16-year-old girl, prosecutors said.

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted Naasón Joaquín García, 54, on two charges of possessing and producing child pornography, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.

When he was arrested in California in 2019, Garcia had an iPad that contained five videos depicting the then-teenaged girl engaging in sexual activity, the statement said.

“We did not indict until after the state case was finished,” the U.S. attorney’s office added in an email.

Garcia is the head of La Luz del Mundo (The Light of the World), which claims to have 5 million followers worldwide. Believers consider him to be the “apostle” of Jesus Christ.

But prosecutors in California say Garcia used his spiritual sway to have sex with girls and young women who were told it would lead to their salvation — or damnation if they refused.

An email seeking comment from the church on the new federal charges wasn’t immediately returned Wednesday.

Garcia currently is serving a prison sentence at the California Institution for Men in Chino. Last year, he pleaded guilty to two state counts of forcible oral copulation involving minors and one count of a lewd act upon a child who was 15.

In exchange, California prosecutors dropped 16 counts that included allegations of raping children and women, as well as human trafficking to produce child pornography.

At the time, the church said that García pleaded guilty because he didn’t think he could get a fair trial after prosecutors withheld or doctored evidence and the agreement would allow him to be freed sooner.

Victims who spoke at Garcia’s trial objected to the plea deal, saying it was too lenient.

If convicted of the federal charges, Garcia would face 15 to 30 years in federal prison for producing child pornography and up to 10 years in prison for possessing it. A judge would decide whether he served the time concurrently or in addition to his state sentence, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

 

https://apnews.com/article/la-luz-del-mundo-leader-child-pornography-e0d3babd9c45463f26920176104a8c8c

 

Oct 24, 2023

True crime expert and This Morning's resident psychologist Emma Kenny starts brand new Killer Cults tour at Blackpool Grand

Lucinda Herbert
The Gazette
October 24, 2023

While cults are looking for vulnerability, the TV psychologist says it’s an ‘unhelpful myth’ that they will only target outsiders who are ‘easy to manipulate’.

Emma Kenny, who has her own cult following on social media, told Blackpool Gazette: “The last thing you want as a cult leader is people who can’t connect and can’t work, because recruiting clever and charismatic people makes a cult better.”

The truth is, cult recruiters are most likely to hone in on someone who is going through a ‘difficult transitional phase’.

Emma added: “It might be that you’ve just lost a baby, that you’ve recently got divorced, or you’re going through a grief process. Maybe you just feel like there isn’t much that holds you to your current life, and then somebody provides all those answers. That’s what makes it so powerful because so many of us will have those moments of vulnerability.”

Emma, 48, has presented countless true crime shows for the BBC and Crime & Investigation Channel, and is known for her phone-ins on This Morning.

Now, she kicks off her second tour at Blackpool Grand – delving into the psychology of cult leaders and their followers, while keeping her audience central to the discussion.

‘People think it will never happen to them’

She answers the question – how can ordinary people, living normal lives, choose to leave their families, friends and everything they have ever known to join a cult?

"A lot of people think these things will never happen to [them], but most of the things we do, are for the right reasons at the time, and are full of good intentions. Were not actively going out of our way to find ourselves in trouble.”

The UCLAN graduate posts true crime videos to her 219k+ YouTube subscribers. She does in-depth analysis on horrific mass murders, abductions and abuse cases, but always with empathy and compassion.

Emma compares cults to an abusive relationship: “You don’t get into a relationship because its domestically violent, you get into it because you’re in love and you think you’ve got a future and it feels great. It's only as time progresses, when you might actually be devoted and have really strong feelings for that partner, that the aggression starts.”

Unpicking the Branch Davidians and other notorious cults

During the 2-hour show, called ‘Killer Cults’, she will analyse some of the most notorious and infamous cases, including Jim Jones and The Peoples Temple, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians and Marshall Applewhite’s Heaven’s Gate.
What is it about the power and allure of cult leaders that makes them able to control the minds of their members? And why do these so-called spiritual leaders turn into malevolent murderers?

“The tour is to unpick the reality of the fabric of a cult, and if you are likely to find yourself in a situation where you unknowingly and unwittingly join a cult. [I ask] why people who are often incredibly intelligent, with great jobs and the world at their feet in so many ways – why would they follow some charismatic leader, sometimes to their death.”

Where can I get tickets for Emma Kenny’s new tour?

Emma Kenny’s ‘Killer Cults’ tour starts at Blackpool Grand Theatre, on Sunday 29 Oct 2023.

Tickets are available at this link or by calling the box office on (0)1253 290 190.

For a full list of tour dates vist https://www.emmakennytv.com/killercults

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/true-crime-expert-mornings-resident-112317116.html