American Horror Story ’s latest speculation is Cult , looking at what happens when an enigmatical personality go a stride too far and thing reverse deadly . It ’s an interesting premise , specially considering it ’s using the 2016 US presidential election as its starting point , but it ’s not precisely unequalled .

There are plenty of famous furor that have popped up over the twelvemonth , like Jonestown , the Order of the Solar Temple , etc . But sometimes , it ’s the lesser - known ones that are more horrible . Plenty of them go on for old age , if not decade , because they bring off to fly under the radiolocation . A couple of them are still around to this day . Here ’s a selection of some of the weirdest , scariest , and most terrific cults that you may not do it about .

The Ant Hill Kids

Roch Thériault run a smalldoomsday cultin Ontario , Canada between 1977 and 1989 , exercising absolute control over a dozen adults and at least 26 kids , most of whom he ’d fathered himself with his nine paramour .

Before getting kicked out of the Seventh Day Adventists , Thériault had amassed a following byorganizing detox seminarsfor multitude test to drop by the wayside smoke or drink . He convinced several of them to quit their occupation and leave their family to survive with him in the wilderness , dubbing them the Ant Hill Kids because of how hard he demanded they work — and when I say demand , I think of he force them to break their own leg with sledgehammers if they refused .

Though he miscarry to predict the final stage of the world in 1979 , Thériault successfully became a sadistic cultus leader , demand absolute loyalty and punishing naysayers and doubters . He nailed child to trees , made his followers corrode their own feces , and when see red , he ’d strip them down and drub them , roll their hair out one - by - one , and many other forms of abuse . He also refused to take anyone to the doctor , insteadperforming surgeries himself(without anesthetics ) , which leave in one woman ’s death from pull out her bowel . He also killed a child during a fail circumcision , and one more died after being left outside during a blizzard as punishment .

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It was n’t until 1989 that Gabrielle Lavallée , having been brutally mutilate by Thériault on more than one occasion , at last fly the coop and adjoin authorities . Thériault was give a life sentence , but he was kill in 2011 by his cellmate . Still , a good portion of his following never recovered from their ill-usage , and have continued to obey his instruction .

The Carny Cult

It ’s a case of “ You ca n’t sit with us ” gone horribly , horribly untimely . In 1991 , a traveling carny named William Ault feel out that a couple of his cobalt - worker were involved in a cult squall Satan ’s Disciples , and he wanted in . Only problem was , Mark Goodwin , Jimmie Penick , and brother Keith and David Lawrence did n’t need him in their club . Ault , not need to give up on being one of Satan ’s Disciples , adjudicate to pressure the group with his knowledge that Penick and Keith Lawrence had killed an 18 - twelvemonth - old boy earlier that twelvemonth . Only it did n’t really work on the group .

The five member of Satan ’s Disciples drove Auld out to a secluded surface area , told him to lie on a makeshift altar , then go forward to mutilate and torture him . After draw and choke Auld , the chemical group conjure up Satan before cut an inverted cross into his dead body and killing him . They later switch off off his head and hand , then tried to burn him — when that failed , they dumped his soundbox in a field . Goodwin ’s father found the body , told police , and thecult was arrestedshortly later , serving between eight and 60 years for their crime .

Kashi Ashram

In the 1970s , a New York woman of the house saw vision of Jesus and two Hindu sprightliness guides , ease up herself a new name , and get going her own faith . Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati was the founder ofKashi Ashram , a spiritual group that became famous in the 1990s and early 2000s , and was beloved by celebrities likeJulia Roberts . The religion promised kindness and pity , but ex-wife - members accused Ma Jaya of turning herself into a immortal , telling followers : “ The guru is great than God . ”

allot to an investigating in theMiami New Times , dozens of former Kashi residents accuse Ma Jaya and the movement of physical misuse , psychological control , snatch , and sexual ravishment . These mostly included beatings , either performed by Ma Jaya herself , or ordering someone else to do it . At one point , she reportedly punish a son whom a extremity had molested by beating him , then painting his penis black and making him parade around the grounds of their chemical compound .

Ma Jaya was also haunt with children , perhaps as a result of cause several miscarriage with her second married man . Former members reported have to postulate Ma Jaya ’s permit to have kids , and some of them were coerced into handing over their baby to her for breeding . At least four mothers from 1978 to 1982 listed Ma Jaya or her husband as biological parents on their tike ’s parturition certification . But the worst offense had to be when Ma Jaya draw her 14 - year - old girl to wed an grownup member of the Christian church , ordering her to have sex with him and then checking to see if she was pregnant .

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Ma Jaya may have died in 2012 , but her legacy has not . Kashi Ashramstill existsto this day .

The Fall River Cult

It all started when the body of 17 - year - sometime sex worker Doreen Levesque wasfoundoutside a Massachusetts high school . Her wrists were constipate with sportfishing line , and she had been horrifically outfox and sexually assaulted . Police originally suspected one of her guest had done it , but one year later the body of another sex proletarian was discover on a “ makeshift communion table . ”

Later , a sex doer named Karen Marsden come frontward , fear for her aliveness , claiming that pimp Carl Drew and sex worker Robin Murphy , who was also Marsden ’s lady friend , were responsible for the slaying . She said Drew and Murphy were part of a demon - worship prostitution ring , and that they ’d perform rituals and human ritual killing deep within the forest . More so , she worried that she could be the next victim for cooperating with the authorities , though they did n’t take her concern seriously . Six months afterwards , Marsden ’s body was found – or rather , her toothless skull .

Drew was arrested in April of 1980 andcharged in Marsden ’s death , while another man , Andrew Maltais , was charged in connecter to one of the other slaying link to the alleged cultus . Murphy pleaded guilty to second - level execution and got a reduced sentence in central for hertestimony against the others . However , there are those who believe Murphy , an aspiring pimp herself with tie to the supernatural , was the literal mastermind behind the ritualistic cleanup . Others suppose the murders were n’t actually devil worship , and were sensationalized because of the Satanic panic of the 1980s .

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Maltais conk out while behind barroom , Drew has maintain his innocence during his entire least sandpiper in prison ( claiming Murphy was responsible ) , and Murphy has been in and out of her cell . Most recently , she wasdenied parolein March 2017 because the parole card thought she was untrusty .

Superior Universal Alignment

Valentina de Andrade was the drawing card of a eighties UFO cult calledSuperior Universal Alignmentin a distant part of Brazil . She claimed to receive messages from alien that God did n’t exist — rather , Jesus was an alien and he was go to get off a space vehicle to save true believers from the End Times . However , her prophetical beliefs derive with one caution : All boy endure after 1981 were possessed by iniquity andhad to be purged .

At first , de Andrade just exact that some couples release their tiddler over to other couples , grandparent , or other shielder so they ’d qualify to pass on on her spaceship . However , that did n’t bend out to be enough , and affair became violent . Between 1989 and 1993 , member of Superior Universal Alignment are believed to have sexually assaulted , mutilated , or killedat least 19 boysbetween 8 and 13 years onetime . Six of them died and five were never found , while the rest escaped — though some had been dose or mutilate ( including expurgation ) .

It took11 yearsfor Brazilian police force to gather enough evidence to bring de Andrade to trial , along with four male members of her cult , many of whom were prominent citizens in their remote Amazonian community . While all four of the Man plug into to the boy ’ murders were sentence to ten in prison , de Andrade was acquitted of all direction … because she was n’t in the surface area when the crimes were committed . And weirdly enough , de Andrade’sSuperior Universal Alignmentstill has an participating bearing online .

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Marcus Wesson: The Vampire King

In 2004 , 57 - year - old Marcus Wesson abuse out of his house in Fresno , covered in roue , and police knew that something had gonehorribly faulty . pile in the back of the house were the bodies of nine of his kids and grandkids , surrounded by antique casket .

For 10 , Wesson had civilize and controlled an incestuous category of followers through manipulation and strong-arm vilification . He followed his own spiritual practice that combinedChristianity and vampirism , believing the Jesus Christ was really a lamia , and that the End Times would be upon them when a police force military officer go far at their threshold .

Wesson kept his sonsseparate from his daughtersand refused to let them socialize with each other , in concern that they would break intimate feelings for each other . This is primarily because he considered himself God , and all his daughters were his next wives . Wesson started hook up with his girl in 1974 , sexually mistreat them as children so they could bear even more kids for him . It ’s believed he fathered about 18 children through seven women , five of whom were young fille at the clip .

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After Wesson had announce that he plan to move his daughters and their kids to Washington state , several members of his extensive family ( along with two nieces who had rebel against him ) show up to his compound anddemanded he free the kids . The police force were called , believing it was a standard hands battle , but it shortly turned mortal . Wesson was found guilty of nine count of slaying and several count of violation and sexual ravishment . He ’s currently sit on death row .

Clarification : The article previously said Ma Jaya died in 2003 , this has been corrected .

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Photo: Jae C. Hong

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