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Actor in NXIVM Sex Cult Released From Prison

From Smallville to Jail Cell,
Allison Mack Is Now Free

Jul 5, 2023 8:37 AM CDT

From Smallville to Jail Cell, Allison Mack Is Now Free

Actor involved in NXIVM sex cult is released from prison after 2 years of 3-year sentence

(Newser) - NXIVM leader Keith Raniere isn't getting out of prison anytime soon, but one of the highest-ranking members in his sex cult is now free. Per Federal Bureau of Prisons records, former Smallville actor Allison Mack was released Monday from a federal prison in Dublin, California, as first reported in...

Kenya Wrestles With How Cult Deaths Could Have Happened

Cult Members Keep Trying
to Die, Even After Rescue

UPDATED

Jun 14, 2023 9:15 AM CDT

Cult Members Keep Trying to Die, Even After Rescue

65 charged with attempted suicide in Kenya; meanwhile, starvation death toll rises to 300-plus

(Newser) - The death toll from a Kenyan doomsday cult whose members fatally starved themselves has surpassed 300, making it "one of the worst cult-related tragedies in recent history," per Reuters . The adjusted number came after authorities exhumed 19 more bodies from mass graves in the nation's southeastern Shakahola...

Death Toll at Kenyan
Cult's Ranch Rises to 90

UPDATED

Apr 25, 2023 1:27 PM CDT

Death Toll at Kenyan Cult's Ranch Rises to 90

17 more bodies exhumed after pastor allegedly told followers to starve themselves

(Newser) - The startling numbers continue to grow in Kenya: The death toll at a ranch owned by a pastor who is accused of leading a religious cult and ordering his followers to starve themselves reached 90 on Tuesday. The new figure came after police exhumed 17 more bodies, per the AP...

Cult Investigation in Kenya Yields 21 Graves

25 Deaths and Counting
Linked to Alleged Kenyan Cult

Apr 23, 2023 9:15 AM CDT

25 Deaths and Counting Linked to Alleged Kenyan Cult

Pastor is in custody, accused of encouraging followers to starve themselves

(Newser) - Twenty-one bodies have been found so far on land owned by a pastor in coastal Kenya who was arrested for telling his followers to fast to death, per the AP . Malindi sub-county police chief John Kemboi said more shallow graves have yet to be dug up on the land belonging...

Cult Preacher Who Bragged of 'Kittens' Gets 8.6K Years in Jail

Televangelist's
Jail Sentence Is
Jaw-Dropping

Nov 18, 2022 8:55 AM CST

Televangelist's Jail Sentence Is Jaw-Dropping

Turkish cult leader Adnan Oktar gets 8,658 years behind bars

(Newser) - It doesn't look like Adnan Oktar is getting out of prison anytime soon. The 66-year-old Turkish televangelist—notorious for his rants against evolution and the "British deep state," and for surrounding himself with young women he called "kittens"—found out his fate Wednesday in an...

14 'Cult' Members Charged in Girl's Murder

Members of Religious Sect
Charged in Girl's Death

Jul 5, 2022 3:47 PM CDT

Members of Religious Sect Charged in Girl's Death

Parents of Australia's Elizabeth Struhs were previously charged; they prayed instead of providing insulin

(Newser) - Australian police on Tuesday arrested 12 members of a religious group who allegedly prayed for an 8-year-old Queensland girl as she lay dying, rather than providing life-saving insulin. Earlier this year, the girl's parents, Jason and Kerrie Struhs, were arrested and charged with murder, torture, and failing to provide...

He Won't Call It a Cult, but
Acknowledges 'Cultlike Things'

longform

Jun 14, 2022 9:35 AM CDT

He Won't Call It a Cult, but Acknowledges 'Cultlike Things'

In 'Esquire,' Jeff Gross tries to come to grips with decades he spent in Ganas commune

(Newser) - The story by David Gauvey Herbert in Esquire is in most respects about what its critics label a cult. If the Waco Branch Davidians were a 10 on the cult spectrum, this group—called Ganas—was more like a 5 or 6, renowned cult expert Rick Alan Ross tells Herbert....

For First Time, Heaven's
Gate Survivors Are Talking

Mar 3, 2022 1:10 PM CST

For First Time, Heaven's Gate Survivors Are Talking

To Diane Sawyer, 25 years after 39 died in cult mass suicide

(Newser) - Surviving members of the cult behind America's largest mass suicide are speaking out for the first time about the bizarre life they left behind. In an upcoming two-hour 20/20 special, Diane Sawyer speaks with two surviving members of Heaven's Gate "who share their stories for the first...

'Mother God' Is Dead.
Here's What Came Before That

longform

Sep 18, 2021 3:05 PM CDT

'Mother God' Is Dead. Here's What Came Before That

'Marie Claire' delves into Amy Carlson Stroud, the late leader of Love Has Won

(Newser) - The story made headlines in May : Police were told that the mummified remains of the female leader of Love Has Won (LHW) were in a Moffat, Colorado, home. In July, those remains—with missing eyes, glittery makeup, and a body wrapped in a sleeping bag and Christmas lights—were positively...

Actress Allison Mack
Is Now an Inmate

UPDATED

Sep 16, 2021 1:01 AM CDT

Actress Allison Mack Is Now an Inmate

Convicted in NXIVM case, she starts her sentence early

(Newser) - Update: Allison Mack is now behind bars. The actress started her prison sentence early, with the Bureau of Prisons confirming Wednesday that Mack entered its custody Monday. She's at a low-security federal correctional facility for women in California, NBC reports. The 39-year-old, best known for Smallville, was convicted in...

Allison Mack
Apologizes for
Her Role in
NXIVM Cult

Jun 28, 2021 3:31 AM CDT

Allison Mack Apologizes for Her Role in NXIVM Cult

'Smallville' actress will be sentenced Wednesday

(Newser) - Days before her sentencing in the NXIVM sex trafficking case, Smallville actress Allison Mack apologized for her role in the cult-like group. Mack, best known for playing Chloe Sullivan on the WB/CW series, wrote a nearly 800-word statement for the federal judge who will sentence her Wednesday describing the "...

Alleged Cult Leader
Dies, Followers Apparently
Can't Part With Her

May 5, 2021 9:40 AM CDT

Alleged Cult Leader Dies, Followers Apparently Can't Part With Her

7 members of Love Has Won religious group kept mummified remains of Amy Carlson in home

(Newser) - Police say a man returned to his rural Colorado home last week to find a mummified woman, who "appeared to be set up in some type of shrine." The face, with missing eyes, was caked in glittery makeup, and the body was wrapped in a sleeping bag and...

Big Twist in Case of Victimized
Sarah Lawrence Students

Mar 1, 2021 4:00 PM CST

Big Twist in Case of Victimized Sarah Lawrence Students

Isabella Pollok, painted as a victim of Larry Ray, now charged as accomplice

(Newser) - An unexpected twist in a bizarre case involving a group of Sarah Lawrence students that came into the public consciousness by way of a lengthy story from the Cut . "What happened to the group of bright college students who fell under the sway of a classmate's father?" Ezra...

Sex Cult Founder
Learns His Fate

Oct 27, 2020 5:28 PM CDT

Sex Cult Founder Learns His Fate

NXIVM leader Keith Raniere gets 120 years

(Newser) - Defense lawyers said self-help guru and NXIVM sex cult leader Keith Raniere should be sentenced to only 15 years in prison after being found guilty of sex trafficking, racketeering, and other crimes. But after hearing searing testimony from 15 victims Tuesday, US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis sentenced the unrepentant 60-year-old...

Heiress Sentenced
in Sex-Cult Case

Sep 30, 2020 5:05 PM CDT

Heiress Sentenced in Sex-Cult Case

Clare Bronfman gets 81 months for her involvement in Nxivm

(Newser) - An heiress is heading to prison for her role in an abusive cult that turned women into sex slaves, the New York Daily News reports. A judge sentenced Clare Bronfman, the daughter of late Seagram's billionaire Edgar Bronfman Sr., to 81 months in prison and fined her $500,000...

Amy Barrett
Is in a Group
That 'Speaks
in Tongues'

the rundown

Sep 27, 2020 3:00 PM CDT

Amy Barrett Is in a Group That 'Speaks in Tongues'

The media spotlight falls on a 'charismatic community' called People of Praise

(Newser) - President Trump's pick for the Supreme Court belongs to a tightly knit Catholic group called People of Praise—but what exactly is it? The media spotlight is falling on Amy Coney Barrett's "charismatic community" and reviving questions about its spiritual advisers, communal living spaces, and alleged connection...

'Jesus of Siberia' Arrested

Sep 23, 2020 1:58 PM CDT

'Jesus of Siberia' Arrested

Self-proclaimed Messiah accused of extortion

(Newser) - Sergei Torop isn't the Messiah but rather a very naughty man, according to authorities in Siberia. The traffic cop-turned-cult leader , also known as "Vissarion the Teacher" and "Jesus of Siberia," was arrested Tuesday in a special operation involving the military and several Russian law enforcement agencies,...

7 Killed in Panama
Exorcism Ritual

Jan 17, 2020 3:08 AM CST

7 Killed in Panama Exorcism Ritual

Police say residents were rounded up by preachers

(Newser) - Seven people—including a pregnant woman and five of her children—were murdered by preachers in a remote area of Panama holding a bizarre ritual to make them "repent their sins," authorities say. Ten people, including the children's grandfather, were arrested in an area controlled by the...

Cult Leader
Pushed Followers
to 'Paradise.'
Only It Wasn't

Aug 2, 2019 10:30 AM CDT

Cult Leader Pushed Followers to 'Paradise.' Only It Wasn't

Shin Ok-ju jailed 6 years for assault, child abuse

(Newser) - A doomsday cult leader who told followers they could avoid impending war with an escape to Fiji has been jailed for six years. In 2014, some 400 people followed South Korea's Shin Ok-ju to what she claimed was "the only paradise land written in the Bible" and a...

Sex-Cult Founder
Is Told His Fate

Jun 19, 2019 4:15 PM CDT

Sex-Cult Founder Is Told His Fate

Keith Raniere doesn't have the best day

(Newser) - Keith Raniere, the head of a New York state sex cult, was found guilty Wednesday on all counts, including racketeering—a charge that could send him to prison for life, New York Post reports. The 58-year-old co-founder of Nxivm spoke under his breath as the guilty verdicts were read, revealed...