Doomed cults
The People’s Temple came to a gruesome end when its leader, Jim Jones, persuaded more than 900 followers to consume Kool-Aid laced with cyanide in November 1978 on the sect’s agricultural holding in South America, known to them as Jonestown. Jones preached of an imminent nuclear war and convinced his congregation that, after death, they would move to another planet and live a life of bliss. Chilling recordings, known as the death tapes, documented Jones’ last speech to his flock that evening.
Shoko Asahara started a yoga class in 1987. It quickly transformed into a cult called Aum Shinrikyo meaning ‘Supreme Truth’. After a failed attempt to win the 1990 Japanese elections, the blind leader began preaching that the end of the world would come in 1997. Asahara told his followers to prepare for Armageddon and they constructed nuclear shelters and communes.