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James_H

And I like to roam the land
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I was introduced to this subject by this excellent podcast.

Serial killers are insane, prone to exaggeration and delusion, and often inveterate liars. Amid some of their wilder claims, several notable serial killers, such as David Berkowitz and Henry Lee Lucas, have stated that they were killing on the orders of a cult. Is there any way it could be true?

Basically, it seems that some serial killers have claimed to have worked for or have been part of a wider network, often a satanic cult who commit murders as sacrifices. It seems like most of these claims are paper-thin (Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole seem to have given colourful confessions to many murders they didn't actually commit with the complicity of the police who just wanted to mark the cases 'solved').

In the podcast they conclude that the closest thing to a real-life version of this was the case of Adolfo Constanzo, the leader of a palo cult in Mexico and sorcerer to the stars of the crime world, who gruesomely murdered as part of his magickal endeavours (along with sacrificing zoo animals).

I recently learned more about the murderer David Parker Ray and his accomplices (I don't recommend, the details of his crimes are distressing in the extreme). One thing that struck me is though his main M.O. was to keep sex/torture-slaves, he made various claims of satanism and anti-christianity. He decorated the R.V. he committed his crimes in with a sign saying 'Satan's Den' and told one of his victims that he was part of a satanic sex-cult. Though he did work with his girlfriend, daughter, and other friends to commit his crimes, he apparently stopped claiming to be involved with satanism.

David Berkowitz's satanic cult claims:
After his admission to Sullivan prison, Berkowitz began to claim that he had joined a Sataniccult in the spring of 1975. He had met some of its members at a party, and he initially thought the group was only involved in occult activities such as séances and fortune-telling; the group, however, gradually introduced him to drug use, sadism, crime and murder. Berkowitz states that he knew roughly two dozen core members in New York—the "twenty-two disciples of hell" mentioned by the Breslin letter—and he also claimed that the group had associates across the USA who engaged in drug smuggling and other illegal activities.

And perhaps more far-fetched, Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole's claims of being indoctrinated into a cult called The Hand Of Death:

Henry tells of his indoctrination into a nationwide Satanic cult, and says that he was trained by the cult in a mobile paramilitary camp in the Florida Everglades in the fine art of killing. Other training involved abduction and arson techniques. The first task he was given was the murder of one of the "students," a young black homosexual who had betrayed his oath to the Devil. He slit the man's throat and later that same evening, a Satanic ritual was performed in which the dead man's heart was cut out, his blood drained, and his body dismembered. All of the initiated members of the Hand drank the dead man's blood and ate pieces of his flesh. The remains of the body were then burned at an altar.

There were several hundred students at the Hand of Death training camp, coming from six different countries; over half of them were women. The camp provided unlimited access to all kinds of drug taking, which was encouraged recreational activity.

Another case is that of the Ripper Crew, a rare group of four serial murderers and torturers, who claimed to be a satanic cult. Once again, the details of the crimes are upsetting.

Does anyone else have any more information about this subject? Could there be anything in it? In all the cases mentioned above (apart from Berkowitz), the killers did manage to find like-minded individuals to work with, as hard as that is to imagine. So is it possible for people to maintain a murder cult and keep it under the radar?
 
I dunno. This sounds more like murderers trying to make their crimes less sordudnand more exciting by hinting that they are part of a wider conspiracy.
 
I dunno. This sounds more like murderers trying to make their crimes less sordudnand more exciting by hinting that they are part of a wider conspiracy.
I agree, most of the confessions seem like fantasy, or attempts to get off the hook. I guess it ties in with conspiratorial ideas in society that there were mysterious satanic cults out there, hidden from view. I still think it's an interesting trope though.
 
There are a couple of Stephen King books with plots that resemble this idea, i.e. of devotees of supernatural (or alien) beings who abduct and murder or otherwise process victims. The perps sometimes travel around in RVs, either alone or in convoy.
 
The Thuggee cult could fall into the definition of a 'serial killer cult', being a secret group who carried out murders according to their religious beliefs.
 
Yes but it would make a great film or mini-series. Names changed and exaggerated of course.

Similar ideas have been explored in various crime series - "Criminal Minds" for example. There's probably some films dealing with the topic as well... Swifty?
 
Similar ideas have been explored in various crime series - "Criminal Minds" for example. There's probably some films dealing with the topic as well... Swifty?

The new AHS, Season 7, Cult has a Killer Clown Cult. Not sure yet if they're Satanic. Its set post the Trump election and there's also an aspiring local politician who is a cross between Milo Y and Richard Spencer.

I guess these Satanic Cults would differ from those who sacrifice people to specifically summon up Satan/Demons or raise the dead (Necromancy). A recent example of the latter is The Dorm (on Netflix). I'd give it 6/10.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3587064/
 
The Fall River killings

The investigation into the brutal killings resulted in a tabloid media frenzy, with headlines that seemed to confirm the most outlandish ‘Satanic Panic’ fear-mongering. In the end, ‘The Fall River Cult Murders’ became the most sensational criminal case to come out of the city since Lizzie Borden stood trial for butchering her parents nearly a century earlier.
 
...some serial killers have claimed to have worked for or have been part of a wider network...

Sounds like standard self-exculpatory whining. Up there with "I was only obeying orders."

Didn't work at Nuremberg; shouldn't work today.

maximus otter
 
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I think there were at least theories being floated about some sort of occult angle to a series of murders that were actually very reminiscent of the Son of Sam ascribed to the....( cue Hammer Film music )

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_of_Florence

I think generally serial killing tends to be something of a personal more solitary past-time ( with some notable exceptions of course - but generally it seems to be one other partner ).

But that extremely brutal cult-related, cult-inspired or ritualistic crimes take place I have no doubt at all.

A couple of cases worthy of mention

the murder of a 3 month old baby boy by Joseph di Mambro of the Canadian / French Order of the Solar Templars

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/20/world/quebec-police-say-baby-was-target-of-cult.html


Also the ritual murder of a Nun by a Priest

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...priest-is-accused-of-murdering-nun-58012.html

The area of violent crime where there does seem to be a very strong overlap with satanic cult activity is prostitution & sex trafficking - & this proposition always figured as part of the whole Satanism mythos

As I would define any type of cult as generally malignant, aimed at some form of abusive control or exploitation of their members - financial, emotional & very often sexual aswell as such they can operate under any variety of religious or spiritual guise. I think Satanism tends to play into this picture to the extent it is a "technique" rather than some massive Dennis Wheatley style phenomenon - one obviosuly designed to instill a maximum amount of coercion or fear over its subjects

There are at least 2 other cases which have been well researched & elaborated on of a similar scale to the idea of an organised Son of Sam cult

the Franklin Case in Nebraska - a story first publicised by John de Camp - a state senator & a former aide to CIA director William Colby. There are 2 books on this - The Franklin Cover Up by DeCamp himself & The Franklin Scandal by Nick Bryant & a Granada tv documentary Conspiracy of Silence - which involved the not uncontroversial researcher Tim Tate - that gained a reputation for being suppressed by the US broadcaster who commissioned it

& The Finders - a child trafficking cult run by a certain Marion Petty. These both exhibit political connections which have muddied the waters considerably

In this interview with a retired New York detective involved in the Son of Sam investigation whose official remit was human trafficking & says he dealt with cult/satanic crime as a related spin off of that

[Original Link Lost. Likely video replaced. Specifics of the ritual sacrifice of Etan Patz ('the first missing kid on a milk carton') begins at around 30 mins in, but you may want to back up to hear about John 'Tiny' Lentini, the alleged biker witness].

RETIRED NYPD SERGEANT REVEALS SON OF SAM, SATANIC CULTS, CHILD TRAFFICKING AND SACRIFICES,​


Mike Codella is a retired NYPD Detective Sergeant who has worked in some fascinating and prestigious units including the DEA, Secret Service Task Force, Missing Persons Squad, Special Frauds Squad, and the West African Task Force to name a few.

https://rokfin.com/stream/20375/RET...ATANIC-CULTS-CHILD-TRAFFICKING-AND-SACRIFICES

The journalist Jenny Kleeman also did a story concerning the sex traffic into Italy from Africa

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/...ria-sex-lies-black-magic-reporter-feature/235

The Fall River Cult was basically a prostitution operation & its figures large in the Son of Sam / David Berkowitz back story.
 
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and another one from South Africa

Sex workers ‘groomed for satanic rituals’

https://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/sex-workers-groomed-for-satanic-rituals-1999937

Community Safety MEC Dan Plato told Weekend Argus the connection between gangsterism and satanism was a massive problem in Cape Town.

“The gangster and drug trade on the Cape Flats is closely linked to satanism. Youngsters we interview, that’s what they tell us.

“They’re groomed to kill, to see blood.”



Alberto Sicilia-Falcon a major drug trafficker in the 70's of Cuban background was similarly said - in James Mill's The Underground Empire - to be an initiate of a "devil cult" of some voodoo/santeria type

sorry I'm probably hi-jacking this thread rather blatantly now - although I will add that another important element in the old SRA / satanic panic mythos ( the "where are all the missing people" issue ) was the use of prostitutes or similarly marginalised / exploited women to produce babies for unspeakable uses - food for thought
 
I've just watched the very interesting documentary film Cropsey, which makes a link between Staten Island urban legends about a child-killing boogeyman living in some woods and abandoned buildings, and a man named Andre Rand, who turned out to have been camping out and killing children in those areas for real. (Side note: perhaps there should be thread on urban legends about sexual predators that turn out to be real, such as this guy, Purple Aki and Peter Scully).

The film gives some discussion to the far-fetched theory that Rand was in fact working to bring children to satanists, or the Process Church of the Final Judgment, for sacrifice purposes — or that he was a kind of Jim Jones figure to other homeless people in the area, and led his own satanic cult. What's interesting is how many of those interviewed believe it. There's even a local woman who has built up her own religious following in opposition to the supposed satanists who have infiltrated Staten Island society.

At one point the film-makers get visibly freaked out as they explore one of the abandoned buildings in the dark, only to hear people approaching. The strangers turn out to be a bunch of local kids who are also looking for satanic cultists to scare themselves with.
 
Not exactly on topic, because they were caught after an unsuccessful attempted murder, but the 'Noordhoek rippers' Frans Du Toit and Theuns Kruger claimed to have been part of a satanic cult. They were apparently trying to play into the satanic panic craze of the time at trial, claiming to have been brainwashed satanists but later to have changed their ways. However, it does appear that other people were involved, gathering in graveyards to do 'satanic stuff', including urging Kruger to desecrate a grave.

Casefile episode on the subject, be fully warned that the details are exceptionally gruesome and depressing.

There's another 'fortean' aspect to the case. While the victim, Alison Botha was left for dead by the pair, she had an out-of-body experience, floating above her body and apparently being offered the choice of dying or not. She chose not to, and returned to her body, managing to survive against exceptional odds.
 
A user has replied with more info.

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1 hour ago (edited)
In case anyone interested in more details: I used to live just across the road from this building. It was kind of a big deal back in the day. Even some of my classmates has visited the place. There were a lot of rumors about horrors inside. This place was also popular among people who want to end their live, and there were some succsesfeull attempts, There also was a lot of accidents, because this place was very dangerous. Unfinished open elevator shafts, holes in the floors, etc. Despite this, there was an extreme illegal ice rink in the flooded basement at some point. Because in the winter all the water inside freeze. And it was quite popular. Anyway, now this hospital not just demolished. After demolision, the space became vacant, so... There is a massive residential complex in the place where it used to stand. And i assume that residential buildings are finished, and people soon will start to move in.
 
In this interview with a retired New York detective involved in the Son of Sam investigation whose official remit was human trafficking & says he dealt with cult/satanic crime as a related spin off of that

[Original Link Lost. Likely video replaced. Specifics of the ritual sacrifice of Etan Patz ('the first missing kid on a milk carton') begins at around 30 mins in, but you may want to back up to hear about 'Tiny' the biker source].

RETIRED NYPD SERGEANT REVEALS SON OF SAM, SATANIC CULTS, CHILD TRAFFICKING AND SACRIFICES,​


Mike Codella is a retired NYPD Detective Sergeant who has worked in some fascinating and prestigious units including the DEA, Secret Service Task Force, Missing Persons Squad, Special Frauds Squad, and the West African Task Force to name a few.

https://rokfin.com/stream/20375/RET...ATANIC-CULTS-CHILD-TRAFFICKING-AND-SACRIFICES

I've fixed this link to the missing video (I think).

It's a frustrating interview with an interviewer who allows his subject to ramble off point and then leads him astray himself with rambling tangents, but, that said, the content is not without interest, especially if, as he claims Pedro Hernandez, the man convicted for Etan Patz, is not in fact the guilty party and that the Process Church of the Final Judgment were involved.

My completely subjective sense is that the detective himself seems to lack the guile to effectively deceive anyone beyond a bit of casual exaggeration.

A bit less rambling here:

 
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An occult group called the 'Abrasax Institut' was connected by media and police to the child rapist and serial killer Marc Dutroux (mispelled in the article below as Dufroux and Duttoux) and his accomplices. In this case it looks like a bit of 'satanic panic' scapegoating. The reality of the case was so awful that it may feel more comfortable for some to frame it in garish satanic terms. (EDIT: to elaborate on this point, I think it's similar to werewolf legends - the evil acts that some people are capable of are so incomprehensible to most of us that inventing some supernatural agency makes them seem easier to understand)

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/police-raid-centre-of-satanic-sect-1.118865
 
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I've read a lot about the Process Church Of The Final Judgement, and I've come to the conclusion that most, indeed probably all of the horrific stories about them are bunk. They were just a really weird religious group with some Scientology connections; the main reason they've been cast as murderous Devil-worshippers seems to be that in their early years they looked real scary, with their witchy black robes and German Shepherd dogs, and the fact that Satan and Lucifer were entities they dealt with as part of their religious beliefs. The Process is known to have not practiced magick.

Much of the grim and eerie legend surrounding The Process originated with Ed Sanders' fascinating though unreliable book on the Manson Family murders titled The Family. He had to edit all references to The Process out of the book after the first edition, because The Process sued him and won. He also conflates the OTO with the Solar Lodge Of The OTO, a cultish group led by one Jean Brayton and having no connection with the legit OTO, and repeats as truth some wild tales of ritual grue involving Charlie's posse that he got from a young acid casualty named Sunshine Pierce, who was briefly entangled with the Family.
 
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