
Seattle Holy Rollers Killings: The End to an Oregon Love Cult (2003) - smacktoward
https://www.historylink.org/File/4263
======
tomcam
This is a well-written piece, and it seems almost a bit whimsical. And then
you read the last paragraph.

One of the most remarkable essays I’ve ever read.

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rdtsc
Fascinating read. The recent equivalent is probably
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NXIVM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NXIVM).
They had all kinds of strange rituals branding, slavery, sex trafficking.
Given the caliber of people involved I think it received relatively little
media attention.

I wonder if they still conduct regular meetings even though the company is
technically dissolved. Will they pick a new leader? If all the blackmail
material was exposed at trial is it still useful to them, or they have to
generate new versions of it...

~~~
Zimahl
NVIXM wasn't as salacious of an organization as it has been portrayed in the
media. It was a self-help organization. The leader was a loon, a non-
monogamist, and built himself up as a pseudo-spiritual leader/guru. Not that
it makes it right but the branding and the 'slavery' only occurred to a
handful of women at the top of the organization. I don't think there was any
'sex trafficking'. Very few people saw the sexual stuff because only specific
individuals were groomed to make it to that level.

The CBC produced a podcast[1] which talks with one of the women who was
branded. What is intriguing is no one wants to talk bad about the teachings of
the organization because they felt they got something positive out of it. But
the crazy shit at the top is what crashed the organization.

[1] [https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcasts/current-affairs-
informatio...](https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcasts/current-affairs-
information/uncover/)

~~~
cat199
> NVIXM wasn't as salacious of an organization as it has been portrayed in the
> media. It was a self-help organization. The leader was a loon, a non-
> monogamist, and built himself up as a pseudo-spiritual leader/guru. Not that
> it makes it right but the branding and the 'slavery' only occurred to a
> handful of women at the top of the organization.

And how exactly do you think a loon can pull off a sex slavery operation
_without_ having all of this tiered and staged brainwashing? Just go up to
random people on the street and ask 'hey, I'd like to brand you and make you
my sex slave, interested?'

~~~
Zimahl
You completely missed the point. Almost all of the NVIXM followers had no clue
this stuff was going on at the very top of the organization. Yes, specific
individuals were groomed to move up in the organization, but the leader wasn't
grooming them for 'sex slavery'. The high-ups knew that the leader was non-
monogamous and slept with women from the organization, but even the woman from
the podcast who talks about being branded hadn't ever been approached by the
leader.

The media just loved to jump on the 'sex cult' idea and then portrayed it as
that's what it was. The branding had nothing to do with anything sexual - it
was done as a 'sorority'-type initiation for the higher-up women. The slavery
was also part of the 'sorority' and didn't really have anything to do with the
leader.

Listen to the podcast and you'll understand.

~~~
GauntletWizard
You're the one who is not understanding here. All of this "nothing to do with
anything sexual" grooming had one specific, simple goal: Make these women feel
both powerful and powerless: That they had been chosen and been given gifts,
and that their life would fall apart without the approval of their
benefactors. These grooming behaviors can be leveraged into the salacious
story that was NVIXM's downfall.

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JoeAltmaier
This guy is a perfect example of someone who 'needed killin'. Which is a valid
defense in some states (but not California).

~~~
CalChris
Which states and what’s the legalese?

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Here's a discussion:

[https://www.texascrimelaw.com/character-evidence-in-
murder-c...](https://www.texascrimelaw.com/character-evidence-in-murder-
cases.html)

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tictoc
Is there a site or place where I can find more stories like this? Cults like
this fascinate me, especially from like the 60s and 70s. I know about the
rainbow family a little bit, but I'd like to learn more about the underbelly
of the flower power movement.

~~~
Analemma_
[1] is a 20-part article about the rise and fall of Rajneeshpuram, a city
built in Oregon (why is it always Oregon?) in the 80’s to house the followers
of an Indian guru-slash-cult-leader. If you’ve never heard of Rajneespuram,
definitely check this out (there are other resources if you don’t have time
for the long article, I think 99PI did an episode on it): the story meanders
into gold Rolls-Royces, international drug and arms smuggling, and bioweapon
terrorist attacks.

[1]:
[https://longform.org/archive/tags/rajneesh](https://longform.org/archive/tags/rajneesh)

~~~
tictoc
Oh this is perfect! I was worried that it was a podcast or a documentary.

~~~
defen
There _is_ a documentary on Netflix about it called _Wild Wild Country_ that's
almost entirely primary-source video (they recorded everything) and modern-day
interviews with former members and government officials. It's fascinating.

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cmonfeat
The legacy of this one guy and his cult of personality is pretty amazing. I
think this would make a fascinating Paul Thomas Anderson movie.

