VIDEO: 5 Scariest Cults

Countless cult have formed throughout history. Some were… fine, while others were straight up terrifying – adopting strange practices, creepy ideologies and lifestyles that were plain wrong.

Anyone can write on Evonews. Start writing!

This video presents the scariest known cults.

Manson Family

According to Wikipedia, the Manson Family was a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s, led by Charles Manson.

They gained national notoriety after the infamous murder of actress Sharon Tate and four others on August 8, 1969 by Tex Watson and three other members of the Family, acting under the instructions of Manson. Group members were also responsible for a number of other murders and assaults, and the attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford.

Actor Al Lewis, who had Manson babysit his children on a couple of occasions, described him as “A nice guy when I knew him”. Through Phil Kaufman, Manson got an introduction to young Universal Studios producer Gary Stromberg, then working on a film adaptation of the life of Jesus set in modern America with a black Jesus and southern redneck “Romans”.

Stromberg thought Manson made interesting suggestions about what Jesus might do in a situation, seeming strangely attuned to the role; to illustrate the place of women he had one of his women kiss his feet, but then kissed hers in return.

At the beach one day, Stromberg watched while Manson preached against a materialistic outlook only to be questioned about his well-furnished bus. Nonchalant, he tossed the bus keys to the doubter who promptly drove it away while Manson watched apparently unconcerned.

According to Stromberg, Manson had a dynamic personality with an ability to read a person’s weakness and “play” them. Trying to co-opt an influential individual from a motorcycle gang by granting him access to “Family” women, Manson claimed to be sexually pathetic and convinced the biker that his outsized endowment was all that kept the “Family” females at Spahn ranch.

On May 18, 1969, Terry Melcher visited Spahn Ranch to hear Manson and the women sing. Melcher arranged a subsequent visit, not long thereafter, during which he brought a friend who possessed a mobile recording unit, but he himself did not record the group.

By June, Manson was telling the Family they might have to show blacks how to start “Helter Skelter”. When Manson tasked Watson with obtaining money supposedly intended to help the Family prepare for the conflict, Watson defrauded a black drug dealer named Bernard “Lotsapoppa” Crowe. Crowe responded with a threat to wipe out everyone at Spahn Ranch.

Manson countered on July 1, 1969, by shooting Crowe at his Hollywood apartment. Manson’s mistaken belief that he had killed Crowe was seemingly confirmed by a news report of the discovery of the dumped body of a Black Panther in Los Angeles.

Although Crowe was not a member of the Black Panthers, Manson concluded he had been and expected retaliation from the Panthers. He turned Spahn Ranch into a defensive camp, with night patrols of armed guards. “If we’d needed any more proof that Helter Skelter was coming down very soon, this was it,” Tex Watson would later write. “Blackie was trying to get at the chosen ones.”