Open up your streaming service of choice and there’s a good chance it’ll offer a documentary series about one of America’s notorious cults.
we An insatiable appetite for these stories Something that will be a conversation piece with your coworkers the next day (like, “How did all these smart people get together?”) So deep?”). So it’s no surprise we’d want to take a peek at the properties these extremist groups used as bases. After all, cults need places to live. Cult.
What exactly does that look like?
Several The creepiest cults Some have bought properties in unexpected places, even next door. Many of these factions are gone, but their connections to the real estate industry remain.
Following a New York Post report about properties once linked to cults being listed for sale in Southern California, we looked around the country for some of the most legendary locations where cults once claimed real estate, land or homes.
Not all of them are on the market, but they all have fascinating stories that make them worth taking a closer look.
Southern California ranch with cult ties
This rural part of Southern California Go to market It occurred in February and comes with a macabre history.
The 12 acres of land is Spahn RanchIt was once used for filming TV shows like “Bonanza” and “The Lone Ranger” and Western movies, and later became home to cult leader Charles Manson and his followers.
Spahn Ranch is a 55-acre estate in Los Angeles County purchased by George Spahn in the 1950s. In 1968, Spahn, who was in his 80s and nearing blindness, allowed Manson and his followers to live on the property in exchange for daily chores. The historic ranch buildings burned in 1970 and are now part of Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park.
The property for sale is adjacent to Spahn Ranch, an estate known as “Xanadu” that has remained “secret and shrouded in mystery” for 75 years.
Offering $4.8 million, West Hills, CaliforniaIt contains several architectural structures as well as natural sites, such as caves where some of the Manson clan are said to have hid after murdering multiple victims, including actress Sharon Tate.
Another cult once lived on the site, calling it the “Fountain of the World.” In the 1940s, a man named Krishna Benta founded his own religion and proclaimed himself to be Jesus Christ. Benta was killed on the site in 1958 in a suicide bombing by a disgruntled follower. Benta’s cult declined in the 1970s.
San Francisco condo with ties to Jim Jones
Iconic cult leader before founding Jonestown Jim Jones He lived a low-profile life in an apartment in San Francisco, according to SF Gate. Haight-Ashbury Where Jones once lived.
The Indiana pastor relocated to the coastal city and started a new church called Peoples Temple, attracting thousands of followers, but after disturbing allegations of abuse emerged, he moved his congregation to Guyana.
In 1978, Jones instructed his followers in Guyana to drink Kool-Aid laced with cyanide, tragically resulting in the deaths of more than 900 men, women and children.
What’s next for NXIVM?
Many of us learned of the disturbing story of the twisted sex cult Nexusism through the HBO documentary The Vow.
The self-help program featured actors and was overseen by its leader, Keith Raniere, who was eventually convicted of multiple charges and sentenced to 120 years in prison.
but, Two characteristics Guns used by the cult were found in upstate New York. One of them belonged to cult-associated “Smallville” actress Allison Mack, who later pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in connection with cult-related sex trafficking. Mack served three years in prison and was released last July.
Her three-bedroom townhouse in Half Moon, New York, which she built in 1985, was rented for $1,800 a month until it sold in 2022 for $270,000.
Another nearby townhouse with ties to the cult appears to have been undergoing a complete renovation at the time the photo was taken. The home last sold in 2018 for $64,500 and is currently on the market for $148,000.
The listing states that the two-bedroom, 1,200-square-foot home offers “an incredible opportunity to transform this space into a home.”
And change will be needed. Apparently Raniere Reportedly Had sex with a sex trafficking victim.
Branch Davidian Compound, Waco, Texas
this Waco, TexasThis landmark location has mellowed out in recent times, but 30 years ago that was anything but.
Known as the Mount Carmel Center, the complex was a large complex used by the Branch Davidian religious group led by purported prophet David Koresh.
On February 28, 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms executed a search warrant on the premises and attempted to arrest several Branch Davidian members inside in connection with allegations of sexual abuse and illegal weapons.
The agents were repelled, and a firefight left four agents and six Branch Davidians dead. The compound remained under siege for 51 days. Siege On April 19, 1993, a fire broke out, killing more than 76 members of the Branch Davidian Church.
Thirty years later, a chapel was built on the site of the former compound, and 81 trees were planted in memory of the dead (the tree dedicated to Koresh was reportedly cut down by the pastor). Charles Pace ). The property is still owned by the church, and Pace appears to continue preaching online.
Rajneesh Ranch in rural Oregon
The ranch has many practical uses, and the cult seems to agree.
Here’s another property that was under the control of a cult leader in the 1980s. Oregon EncyclopediaThe 64,000-acre ranch in Wasco County known as Muddy Ranch was sold in 1981 to a Native American spiritual leader who decided to relocate to Oregon.
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh attracted some 7,000 followers from India, the United States and Europe, who quickly formed new villages in rural north-central Oregon.
As evidence mounted that the planned community was in fact a cult, the nearby town of Antelope, Oregon, grew wary of their new neighbors, claiming that the Rajneeshees were encroaching on the ranch’s agricultural uses.
The cult leaders were eventually charged with various crimes and fled the country in 1985.
Since 1991, Christian youth camps have been held Young Life Throughout the year, the facility was used as a ranch, summer camp and church retreat space.
If you’re interested, the land adjacent to Muddy Ranch is for sale – you’ll need to act fast as the 4,354-acre parcel is up for sale for $2,375,000. It boasts rolling terrain with views of the John Day River Canyon and is frequented by wildlife including Rocky Mountain elk, mule deer and turkeys.
Heaven’s Gate House near San Diego
The footage is both sad and bizarre: In 1997, 39 bodies were discovered in a home in Rancho Santa Fe, California. They were members of a “suicide cult” known as Heaven’s Gate, and were wearing matching Nike sneakers and wrapped in shrouds.
The cult held a variety of beliefs that combined “evangelical Christianity, New Age practices, and UFOs.” The group was led by a leader named Marshall Applewhite, also known as “Doe.”
“They were in uniform, they were apparently crazy about Star Trek, and they were all wearing Nikes. It was all incredibly bizarre.” Said Benjamin Zeller, author of “Heaven’s Gate: America’s UFO Religion.”
Believers had apocalyptic visions and believed a spaceship was hiding behind the tail of the Hale-Bopp Comet, but were convinced that they would need to shed their human form (through death) to transform into aliens.
The house where the fatal accident occurred has since been bulldozed, and the building that replaced it has an entirely new address to lessen the stigma associated with its past.
Built in 2006, the Mediterranean-style mansion is about 10,000 square feet and features a theater, gym, paneled library, wine cellar, five bedroom suites and a separate guest house.
The home sits on three acres and features an outdoor living room and kitchen, as well as a pool with a swim-up bar. It was last sold in 2010 for $4.6 million.
