Cult leaders have fascinated true crime enthusiasts for years. After all, there’s something so sinister behind the charismatic personality of these individuals. Millions of people have fallen under a cult leader’s spell and been swayed to believe the message they are preaching.
History has given us many perilous cult leaders, each more dangerous than the last. Here are 10 of the worst cult leaders to have ever walked the planet.
1. Jim Jones (Peoples Temple)
Jim Jones founded the Peoples Temple in Indiana during the 1950s. He believed in racial quality, which caused many people to be fooled into thinking he was doing good. In reality, Jones was a sinister Socialist who manipulated over 900 members of his temple to drink a cyanide-laced punch, resulting in their mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana.
2. Charles Manson (The Manson Family)
There are many dark chapters in Hollywood history. One of the worst was in the 1960s when an aspiring musician named Charles Manson formed a quasi-commune. Manson was a paranoid conspiracy therapist who believed the apocalypse was coming. He commanded his followers to brutally kill seven people, including actress Sharon Tate. The horrific nature of these crimes makes Manson one of America’s most notorious cult leaders.
3. Marshall Applewhite (Heaven’s Gate)
Heaven’s Gate was founded on the idea that people could make it to the “kingdom of heaven” by boarding a spaceship. According to the cult’s leader, Marshall Applewhite, the only way to get to the afterlife was by leaving behind the physical body and allowing the soul to travel freely. Applewhite and 38 of his followers drank a fatal mixture of phenobarbital and vodka to reach the Hale-Bopp comet in 1997.
4. David Koresh (Branch Davidians)
David Koresh took control of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas in the 1980s. Like other cult leaders, he believed himself to be an all-powerful prophet. In 1993, after a 51-day siege by federal agents, his compound caught fire under mysterious circumstances. The fire cost Koresh and 76 followers their lives, including many children.
5. Shoko Asahara (Aum Shinrikyo)
Cult leaders are found all over the world. In Japan, one of the most notorious was Shoko Asahara, founder of Aum Shinrikyo. This cult was founded on warped Christian principles and a strong belief in an apocalyptic future. In 1995, Asahara ordered his followers to execute a sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, killing 13 and injuring thousands.
6. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Rajneesh Movement)
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s blended many spiritual beliefs and practices into his Oregon commune. This attracted thousands of followers in the 1980s. To affect the voting pool in an upcoming election, Rajneesh ordered his followers to deliberately contaminate the salad bars with salmonella at 10 local restaurants in 1984. Over 700 people suffered from food poisoning as a result.
7. Anne Hamilton-Byrne (The Family)
Not all cult leaders are men. Anne Hamilton-Byrne was active in 1960s Australia, She convinced her followers she was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. Throughout the decade, she adopted several children and raised them in isolation. These children were subjected to abuse and forced to consume mind-altering drugs, all under the guise of spiritual development.
8. Warren Jeffs (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)
As leader of the FLDS, Warren Jeffs was in control of thousands of people. He believed wholeheartedly in the idea of polygamy, and many of the marriages he arranged involved underage girls. Thankfully, this cult leader’s reign of terror ended in 2006 when he was arrested and convicted for sexual assaults on minors.
9. Adolfo Constanzo (Narco-Satanists)
While many people enjoy learning true crime stories, many are not familiar with Adolfo “The Godfather” Constanzo. He was a cult leader, serial killer, and drug dealer whose group murdered at least 20 people. Constanzo convinced his followers that these victims were sacrifices, providing magical protection for their drug trafficking. In 1989, he asked one of his followers to kill him before he could get arrested.
10. Joseph Di Mambro (Order of the Solar Temple)
Many cult leaders encourage mass suicide among their followers. Joseph Di Mambro, who co-founded the Order of the Solar Temple in the 1990s, believed he was born with the Antichrist inside of him. In a room known as the “Sanctuary,” many followers “connected with the world of the invisible” by murdering other members and committing suicide. There were 74 deaths.
Final Thoughts
Monsters and ghosts are scary, but they don’t hold a candle to these perilous cult leaders. These tyrannical zealots had a dark influence over their followers and manipulated them into following twisted spiritual beliefs and exploited vulnerabilities. Many tragedies were caused at the hands of these cult leaders. Their actions serve as chilling reminders of the potential dangers of never second-guessing or questioning thoughts and behaviors.
Alyssa Serio has been a writer and editor since graduating from Aurora University in 2014. In her free time, she loves reading, playing volleyball, and watching any horror movie (even the bad ones) with her husband.