Cult tied to bodies found in 2 nations Mass murder-suicide leaves 50 dead By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS Associated Press CHEIRY, Switzerland -- Twenty-one bodies made a neat circle on the floor of a red, mirror-lined chapel hid- den beneath the burning farm- house. were -,, ~;ssed in red, black and,,~, '~ cerem~, robes. Ten had plastic garbage bags tied around JOURET their necks with cords, and some had their hands bound. Twenty had bullets in their heads. In three ski chalets 90 miles away, police discovered more bodies, badly burned by fires apparently set by remote con- trol. In all, authorities found 48 bodies Wednesday, and indi- cations of a mass murder-sui- cide by a cult they hadn't known existed. The scenes were reminiscent of last year's fiery standoff between U.S. agents and Branch Davi- dian cult members near Waco, Texas, in which more than 85 people died. Clues led to Canada, where (See CULT, Page 10A) ~1~1~111I~ i~rl~ CULT DF..ATI-I$: Firefighters try to extinguish the bl~.e at Granges-sur-Salvan in the Swiss canton of Valais. At least 48 people, including several children, were found dead after fires destroyed a farm in Cheiry in the Swiss canton of Fribourg and three chalets in Granges-sur-Salvan. Two bodies were found in Canada. ~/~) .._~ ~': '!; III III II I Here's a list of threatened and real mass suicides in recent times, including the Switzerland tragedy: Oct. 5, 1994, CHEIRY, SWIT- ZERLAND: Members of a religious sect called the Cross and Rose car- ry out an apparent mass murder-sui- cide that kills 48 people. Two other bodies were found in Canada. November 1993, KIEV, UK- RAINE: Ukrainian authorities pre- ii vent a mass suicide with the arrest of 800 cult members who had come to Kiev believing that the end of the world was going to take place on Nov. 14, 1993. April 20, 1993, WACO, TEXAS: Seventy-eight members of the Branch Davidian cult led by David Koresh die in gunshots and a fire that consumes their Texas prair',e compound. Nov. 18, 1978, GUYANA: On the order of cult leader Jim Jones, 913 people die in mass suicide at their compound near Port Kaituma. June 1943, TARAWA: Rather than surrender to U.S. Marines, thousands of Japanese soldiers commit suicide by jumping off a cliff during the fight for the Pacific island. In all, 22,000 die. -- Knight-Rldder Newspapers '~10A DAILY CAMERA Thursday, October 6, 1994 FROM Cult tied to bodies found i (From Page 1A) .iwo bodies were found Tuesday 4n the charred wreckage of an unexplained arson fire. Police said the owner of the burned du- plex, Luc Jouret, led apocalyptic cults in both Canada and Swit- zerland and had rented one of the ski chalets where the bodies were found. - Investigators said the fires in both countries were set off by re- .mote-controlled electrical de- vices triggered by a timer or a itelephone call. Officials said the Swiss cult _was called the Order of the Solar Tradition, a group that draws on -Roman Catholicism and predicts the end of the world. In Morin Heights, Quebec, it was called Order of the Solar Temple. Jouret represents "an occult tradition with strong apocalyptic elements," said Johannes Aa- gaard, head of a European cult- monitoring organization based in Aarhus, Denmark. "He expects doomsday to be coming soon." Jouret, who is Belgian, was believed to have fled to Switzer- land last year after being charged with weapons posses- sion and conspiracy in Canada. Police said they did not know if he was among the people found dead Wednesday. Authorities were not ruling out the possibility that some of the victims were executed, investi- gating Judge Andre Piller said. "We are still reeling from what we found," he said after inspect- ing the underground chapel. "When we first walked in, it looked a wax museum. The bod- ies were lying in a circle with their heads outward." On the wall of the chapel was a picture of a long-haired, bearded man with a cape and a rose. A cassette tape attached to the door of the chapel explained some of the group's spiritual be- liefs, Piller said, but gave no rea- son for the killings. Police said they also found lit- erature referring to a sect called the Crois and Rose, believed to be an offshoot of the same group. The farmhouse, perched on a wooded hill over the-village of Cheiry, 45 miles northeast of Ge- neva, was sealed off from report- ers. The bodies of 23 people, in- cluding a 10-year-old boy, were found at the farm. In addition to the 21 people found in the cha- pel, the body of Albel bino, 70, was found in a ing house and another ! found in the farmhouse Villagers considered ( the farm's owner, but erty was listed in the "The Agricultural Firm of Cheiry," whos' ship was unclear. It also was not clear Giacobino had anythin with the cult. No othel were immediately identi Authorities said mos victims were Swiss, Canadian. The bodies en to Lausanne for a and results would not nounced for several da2 said. two nations Villagem said they had no idea the sect existed. Twenty-five bodies, including several children lying next to each other, were found in three chalets in a ski area at Granges- sur-Salvan in Valais canton, about 45 miles southeast of Ge- neva. Police said they found 15 bod- ies at one chalet and two at an- other. Later in the morning, they found eight more bodies in a third chalet, which was de- stroyed by fire. Police called off the search of the third chalet late Wednesday, fearing the structure would collapse. Valais police spokesman Carlo Kuonen told Swiss radio there was no sign of force or violence at the chalets. "Apparently they were some- how put to sleep," he said. Po; lice said the victims may have been given an overdose of some type of drug. Police in Canada said the bod' ies found there Tuesday in a ru- ral area outside Montreal had not yet been identified. Const. Michel Brunet of the Quebec provincial police said the man and woman were wearing medallions engraved with dou- ble-headed eagles and Latin in- scriptions invoking the fabled Four Horsemen of the Apoca- lypse. Hss issue arrest warrants for two doomsday cult leaders /ORLD IE It leader ~ins a ery/SBA Associated Press LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- Arrest warrants were issued Friday for two leaders of a doomsday cult. Investigations showed that many of the 53 merribei'S "WhO di*~fi~ ih :erland and Canada may have been murdered. Warrants for Luc Jouret and Joe di Membro, also identified by au- thorities as Joseph di Mambro, said they were wanted on suspi- cion of arson and premeditated homicide. Thomas Krompecher, chief pa- thologist at Lausanne university hospital, said Friday that Jouret and di Mambro were not among the five bodies identified sofar. Di Mambro~ known as the "Dic- tator" to his followers, and Jouret visited their chalet hours before elaborately rigged bombs set off fires in it and other buildings asso- ciated with the cult, an investiga- tor said Friday. Jouret, a 47-year-old Belgian doctor, has been described as the charismatic leader of the dooms- day Order of the Solar Tradition. He frequently held lectures pre- dicting the end of the world. However, there were jncreas. jng reports that di Ma~bi'o, an elusive 70-year-old French-Cana- dian, was the mastermind and con- trolled the financial strings. Lydie Revaz, who runs a gro- cery store near the chalets, told Associated Press on Friday that Jouret bought at least 50-60 gar- bage bags from her on the day before the fire. "He really had an armful," she said. "He seemed a bit nervous." Many of the 53 victims, includ- ing five in Canada, had plastic bags '6,~r th~fir'hefid~. Di~a/nbro is ,co- owner with Jou~et of'a luxurious complex in the Laurentians north- west of Montreal that burned hours before the fires in Switzer- land. Canadian authorities said they were sure that a baby and two adults found Thursday in the building were murdered because they had stab wounds. Documents showed that sever- al cult members had been involved in a dispute with the cult's.J.eacters OVer money, one investigatorsaid:'- ?~Ptij i" [~ Rdcky Moun. talnNews S~t., Oct. 8, 199~':' Suicide cult leader remains a mystery Associated Press MONTREAL -- Luc Jouret was a mysterious and charming man. Perhaps he still is -- the greatest mystery about the cult leader is whether he's alive. Until that question is dnswered, authorities investigating the deaths of his followers in Switzer- land and Canada are limited to the memories of people whose paths crossed with the founder of the Order of the Solar Temple. They tell of a charismatic man, a man of erudition, accomplishment, wealth -- and a complex theology including the belief that the world is on the verge of fiery annihilation. Montreal's law enforcement offi- cials saw a mixed picture. On one hand, they prose- cuted him on weapons charges Jouret i!n 1993. Yet, Jouret and his co-defendants "looked like businessmen, there was nothing crazy about them," prosecutor ~ean-Claude Boyers told Canadian Press. Jouret was born in the Belgian Congo -- now Zaire -- in 1948. He received a medical degree in 1974 in Belgium and studied ho- meopathy, a controversial form of medicine based on the theory that diseases can be cured by giving patients small doses of substances that in healthy patients would pro- duce symptoms similar to those of the disease. It's not known when he went to Canada or when his following de- veloped in Switzerland. Police in Switzerland said they had no reason to investigate Jouret before this week's fires. People in Belgium said Jouret was loved by his patients but spurned by the traditional medical establishment. Cult members injected with drug before de More bodies discovered at house in Canada owned by sect leader Luc Jouret Rocky Mountain News Wire Services C!tiY, ~ -- One cult member wrote her family that she had come to Switzerland to die. Another said the cult was "leaving this earth" to escape "the h~sies and oppression 6fthis WOrld." ,, Investigators struggled Th~rs- day to explain the deaths of 48 fol- lowers of the mysterious Order of the Solar Tradition, amid reve- lations that some victims had been injected with a powerful drug. And three more bodies were discov- ered at a house in Canada owned by cult leader Luc Jouret. One was an infant and the bodies showed signs of violence. There was still no sign of Jouret, and Afifhbrities said they did not know if he was alive. Police deta'med severalpast~and p, resent members of the cult for qUesti6n- O~LSO IVillagers had suspicions about cult members on quiet WORLD farm/44A ing and launched an international search for Jouret. Investigating Judge Andre Piller said autopsies showed that at least some of the 23 victims found Wednesday in a burning hillside farmhousein 'Ch'eiry had Beeh in-: jected with "a powerful, violent" drug that could have killed them. Piller said he was concerned that although many of the bodies discovered in the farmhouse also had bullet wounds, no weapons were found near the bodies. Police said earlier that the 25 other bodies found in three ski chalets in Valais, about 45 miles from the farmhouse, showed no signs of violence and appeared to "have been put to sleep." Canadian police on Thursday eti~›d'v~fekt' ~:-l~eal~ 'three more bodies, including' ~ ~i 'child, in a house owned by J Montreal. Two bo found earlier at th~ was destroyed in Tuesday. Piller said doctt that several of the were entangled in the cult's leaders o~ Bernard Geiger, Valais canton, whez 25 people were fc several children, s belie~r~all the cult: ed to die. SWISS SECT SUiC~~ ' '" .... Rocky Mountain News Fd., Oct 7, i 99 Ir, llage had no hint of carnage to come ii;'i~iiiti; ii~;7~iFo. from local inhabitants By Alexander G. Higgins Assod~t~/Pr~ CHEIRY, Switzerland -- No one in this small village in the hills of western Switzerland paid any at- tention when Albert Giacobino's farm drew the usual weekend crowd of visitors. Cars pulled past the fruit trees up the long, winding driveway to the farmhouse, set amid rolling green pastures. No one pried into their lives or knew that the basement of the barn contained secret worship rooms. And no one knew that perhaps some of the weekend visi- tors failed to leave the farm as usual Sunday afternoon. "It's very quiet here. Nobody sver bothers anybody," said May- ~r Albert Torche, who is also an Jndertaker and volunteer fire- ~ghter who helped put out the .]ames. "I knew them enough to greet :hem, but I didn't know their ~ames," said Made-Claire Dutoit, 33. Even though some of the 280 ~illagers had suspicions about the strange comings-and-goings, no ~ne took any action. Sometime between Sunday and hidnight Tuesday, 23 people were riled or killed themselves in 2heiry, 45 miles northeast of Ge- leva. Twenty of them had 22-caliber ~ullet holes in the head. Some ~rere suffocated with gray plastic rash bags tied over their heads. ~ome had their hands bound, but here were no signs of struggle. "Everything was peaceful," said nvestigating Judge Andre Piller. "It looked like a wax museum. Their faces were all white." The faithful gathered in a red room behind a secret door hidden in the paneled wall of the barn's innocent-looking tavern room. Their religious observance bore a similarity to Christianity. There was a communion cup and an altar. The literature left behind indicat- ed they read the Bible. No drugs were found, but police say some may have been used to tranquilize the members. Piller said there were even several emp- ty bottles of champagne lying around. Whatever happened, someone meant to hide the evidence by burning the bodies. But two elabo- rate bombs failed to explode, pos- sibly because the phone system was out of service most of the day. The bombs -- containers of gasoline and butane gas linked together -- were wired to a device so that they could be triggered by a telephone call or a timer. At least one other bomb did explode in an upper floor. But the resulting fire that destroyed the farmhouse didn't reach the base- ment, where 19 bodies, some clad in ceremonial robes, lay in a ritual circle. Three others, including a 10- year-old boy, lay dead in an adja- cent room. Giacobino himself was dead in his bedroom in the gutted farmhouse. Some 45 miles east of Geneva, in the canton of Valais, another fire three hours later destroyed three chalets. Twenty-five bodies were found in them, and Giaco- bino's car was parked nearby. The victims in Cheiry were Swiss, French and Canadian. By late Wednesday, Giacobino was the only body identified. Doomsday sect claimed persecution Assodated Press~ of nearly 50 people claimed th centuries-old heritage of a grou founded by Christian knights wh fought in the Crusades to regai the Holy Land from Muslims. Like the medieval Knights of th Templar who were outlawed fc heresy and immorality, the Orde of the Solar Tradition felt itse persecuted. A cult expert, Jeaz Luc Mayer, said he had received letter from a sect member sayin the followers were "leaving thi earth to find in all lucidity an freedom a new dimension of trut: and absolution .... " The cult had one active lodge i: Geneva where new members wer initiated into the bottom rung, o first order of the sect. At the far~. at Cheiry and the chalets i: Granges-Sur~Salvan where th, deaths occurred, initiations wer made into the highest order of th, cult, according to the investigatin~ magistrate, Andre Piller. Like its religious predecessors the order was hierarchical. It had: pope-like head and spiritual coun cil consisting of seven grand mas ters. One grand master was amonl the ritual circle of followers whos~ bodies were found in a chambe: under the burned farmhouse. Ht wore a black cape or robe and, lik~ the others, lay with his head to th~ outside of the circle. Autopsies suggest chaotic final moments Cult deaths: 'Someone or a group of people went berserk' By CHRISTOPHER BURNS Associated Press GRANGE-PACCOT, Switzerland -- Some vic- tims were shot repeatedly in the head, then hood- ed with plastic bags. One had needle marks and another was pumped full of bullets, suggesting chaotic carnage before a cult retreat was set af- lame. This is the scene emerging from autopsies of some of the 23 cult members found dead at the farm in the western Swiss village of Cheiry, among 48 bodies discovered in Switzerland on Wednesday, investigative judge Andre Piller told reporters Saturday. "Someone or a group of people went completely berserk," he said. "One person had two bullet holes in the head but no holes in the plastic bag on the head. An- other had three bullet holes in the head and one bullet hole in the plastic bag," he said. One body had eight bullet wounds to the head. "That was certainly homicide," he said. Another body containing large amounts of car- bon monoxide indicated the person was still alive when the fire was set and breathed in the com- bustion byproduct. "There's a real disarray. We don't understand any more just how the drama took place," Piller said. "We have a lot of work to do." Asked if all those found at the farm were mur- dered, he said: "We can't exclude that." He left open the possibility that some members may have committed suicide. Piller said that despite the global dragnet launched to find cult leaders .1oseph di Mambro- and Luc Jouret, "I don't know if they're alive or not." There was no official confirmation of Swiss radio and television reports Saturday that di Mambro was tentatively identified among the bodies. Of the 23 bodies found at the farm, only 13 had been identified, he said. The scope of the investigation grew Saturday with discovery of an elaborate incendiary bomb at a villa used by the cult in southern France. The bomb was similar to the ones used to set fires at cult houses in Switzerland and Canada, Piller said. No one was at the villa near Toulon, and French authorities defused the bomb. The bomb consisted of bottled gas fuel contain- ers connected to electrical wiring that could have been detonated by a telephone signal, sources close to the French investigation said. In Morin Heights, Quebec, Canadian police said Saturday that three family members whose bodies were found Thursday in a chalet co-owned by di Mambro and Jouret were killed several days be- fore fire destroyed the chalet. Antonio Dutoit and his wife Nicky were stabbed several times, and Dutoit appare.ntly was beaten on the head with a blunt object, said Robert Poeti of the Quebec provincial police. The Dutoits' 3-month-old son was found behind a water heater with a plastic bag over his head, authorities have said. Dutoit, 30, was born in Switzerland and worked in Canada as di Mambro's gardener. Syringes with traces or tranquilizers and poison were found in the house, police said. Cult members had somber last supper By CLARE NULLIS Associated Press GENEVA -- They were depressed and dis- pirited. They barely touched their langous- tines and lamb. Not one drop of alcohol passed their lips. Thirteen members of the doomsday cult who ate at a gourmet restaurant on the eve of a mass murder-suicide behaved as if it was their last supper, the restaurant owner said Saturday. "They seemed like broken people," said Christlane CapeIll. "I had the impression they knew it was.go- ing to be their last supper because of their mysterious behavior. It wasn't normal and I noticed as soon as they walked in," Capelli said from the St. Christophe restaurant near the small town of Bex. The cult's apparent mastermind, Joseph di Mambro, his wife and teen-age daughter were among the visitors late Monday at the restaurant. The following night, 48 bodies of cult mem- bers were found in a farmhouse and two cha- lets near Geneva; five others died in a re- lated case in Canada. Police have issued arrest warrants for di Mambro and cult lead- er Luc Jouret, although it remains unclear if the two are alive.