The
1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack was the food poisoning of more than 750 individuals in
The DallesThe Dalles is the largest city and county seat of Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The name of the city comes from the French word dalle , what the French-Canadian employees of the North West Company called the now-inundated rapids of the Columbia River between the present-day...
,
OregonOregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, United States through the deliberate contamination of
salad barA salad bar is a buffet-style table or counter at a restaurant on which salad components are provided for customers to assemble their own salad plates. Most salad bars provide lettuce, chopped tomatoes, assorted raw, sliced vegetables , dried bread croutons, bacon bits, shredded cheese, and various...
s at ten local restaurants with
salmonellaSalmonella is a genus of rod-shaped, Gram-negative, non-spore forming, predominantly motile enterobacteria with diameters around 0.7 to 1.5 µm, lengths from 2 to 5 µm, and flagella which project in all directions...
. A leading group of followers of
Bhagwan Shree RajneeshOshō is the Japanese reading of the Chinese he shang , meaning a high-ranking Buddhist monk or highly virtuous Buddhist monk. It is also a respectful designation for Buddhist monks in general and may be used with the suffix -san...
(now known as Osho) had hoped to incapacitate the voting population of the city so that their own candidates would win the 1984
Wasco CountyWasco County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oregon. The county is named for a local tribe of Native Americans, the Wasco, a Chinook tribe who lived on the south side of the Columbia River. In 2000, its population was 23,791...
elections. The incident was the first
bioterrorismBioterrorism is terrorism by intentional release or dissemination of biological agents ; these may be in a naturally-occurring or in a human-modified form.-Definition:...
attack in the United States, and the single largest bioterrorist attack in United States history. The attack is one of only two confirmed terrorist uses of biological weapons to harm humans.
Having previously gained political control of
AntelopeAntelope is a city in Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The population was 59 at the 2000 census.-History:The Antelope Valley was probably named by members of Joseph Sherar's party who were packing supplies to mines in the John Day area. Sherar became known as the operator of a toll bridge...
,
OregonOregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, Rajneesh's followers based in nearby
RajneeshpuramRajneeshpuram, Oregon was an intentional community in Wasco County, Oregon, briefly incorporated as a city in the 1980s, which was populated with followers of the spiritual teacher Osho, then known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.- History :...
sought election to two of the three seats on the Wasco County Circuit Court which were up for election in November 1984. Fearing they would not gain enough votes, Rajneeshpuram officials decided to incapacitate voters in The Dalles, the largest population center in Wasco County. The chosen biological agent was
Salmonella entericaSalmonella enterica is a rod shaped, flagellated, aerobic, Gram-negative bacterium, and a member of the genus Salmonella.-Serovars:...
Typhimurium, which was first delivered through glasses of water to two county commissioners, and then delivered on a larger scale at salad bars and in salad dressing.
Seven hundred and fifty-one people contracted
salmonellosisSalmonellosis is an infection with Salmonella bacteria. Most persons infected with Salmonella develop diarrhea, fever, vomiting, and abdominal cramps, 12 to 72 hours after infection. In most cases, the illness lasts 3 to 7 days; most affected persons recover without treatment...
as a result of the attack, of whom 45 were hospitalized. There were no fatalities. Although an initial investigation by the
Oregon Public Health DivisionThe Oregon Department of Human Services is the primary health and human services agency of the government of the U.S. state of Oregon. The ODHS was established in 1971 as the Oregon Department of Human Resources but renamed in 1999...
and the Centers for Disease Control did not rule out deliberate contamination, the actual source of the contamination was only discovered a year later. On February 28, 1985, Congressman
James H. WeaverJames Howard "Jim" Weaver is a former Democratic U.S. congressman from Oregon.-Early life:Weaver enlisted in the United States Navy at the age of seventeen and served in World War II on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific...
gave a speech in the
United States House of RepresentativesThe United States House of Representatives, commonly referred to as the "House," is the lower house of the bicameral United States Congress, the upper house being the United States Senate. The composition and powers of the House and the Senate are established in Article One of the Constitution...
in which he "accused the Rajneeshees of sprinkling salmonella culture on salad bar ingredients in eight restaurants". At a press conference in September 1985, Rajneesh accused several of his followers of involvement in this and other crimes, including an aborted plan to
assassinateAn Assassination is the targeted killing of a public figure.Assassinations may be prompted by ideological, political, or military reasons. Additionally, assassins may be motivated by financial gain, revenge, personal public recognition, or mental illness....
a
United States AttorneyUnited States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...
, and asked state and federal authorities to investigate his allegations.
Oregon Attorney GeneralThe Oregon Attorney General is a statutory office within the executive branch of the state of Oregon, and serves as the chief legal officer of the state, heading its Department of Justice with its six operating divisions. The Attorney General is chosen by statewide partisan election to serve a term...
Dave FrohnmayerDave Frohnmayer is the 15th President of the University of Oregon. He was appointed president on July 1 1994. His last day as president was June 30, 2009. His tenure as president is the second-longest after John Wesley Johnson. He is the first native of the U.S. state of Oregon to run the...
set up an interagency task force between the
Oregon State PoliceThe Oregon State Police is the main state law enforcement agency of the U.S. state of Oregon. They have been charged to enforce all of Oregon's criminal laws and to help local law enforcement agencies with their duties...
and the
Federal Bureau of InvestigationThe Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency. The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
, and executed
search warrantA search warrant is a court order issued by a judge or magistrate that authorizes law enforcement to conduct a search of a person or location for evidence of a criminal offense and seize such items or information....
s in Rajneeshpuram. A sample of
bacteriaThe bacteria are a large group of unicellular microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...
matching the contaminant that had sickened the town residents was found in a Rajneeshpuram medical laboratory. Two leading Rajneeshpuram officials were
indictedIn the common law legal system, an indictment is a formal accusation that a person has committed a criminal offence. In those jurisdictions which retain the concept of a felony, the serious criminal offence would be a felony; those jurisdictions which have abolished the concept of a felony often...
and served 29 months in a minimum-security federal prison.
Planning
Several thousand of Rajneesh's followers had moved into the "Big Muddy Ranch" in rural
Wasco CountyWasco County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oregon. The county is named for a local tribe of Native Americans, the Wasco, a Chinook tribe who lived on the south side of the Columbia River. In 2000, its population was 23,791...
and established a city called
RajneeshpuramRajneeshpuram, Oregon was an intentional community in Wasco County, Oregon, briefly incorporated as a city in the 1980s, which was populated with followers of the spiritual teacher Osho, then known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.- History :...
. They had taken political control of the small nearby town of
AntelopeAntelope is a city in Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The population was 59 at the 2000 census.-History:The Antelope Valley was probably named by members of Joseph Sherar's party who were packing supplies to mines in the John Day area. Sherar became known as the operator of a toll bridge...
,
OregonOregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
(population: 75), whose name they changed to "Rajneesh". The group had started on friendly terms with the local population, but had soon turned negative due to the public's unenthusiastic response to the commune's ongoing expansion. After being denied building permits for Rajneeshpuram, the commune leadership sought to gain political control over the rest of the county by influencing the November 1984 county election. Their aim was to win two of three seats on the Wasco County Circuit Court, and the sheriff's office. Their attempts to influence the election included the "Share-a-Home" program, in which thousands of homeless people were transported to Rajneeshpuram in an attempt to inflate the constituency of voters for the group's candidates. The Wasco County Clerk countered this attempt by enforcing a regulation that required all new voters to submit their qualifications when registering to vote.
The commune leadership planned to sicken and incapacitate voters in
The DallesThe Dalles is the largest city and county seat of Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The name of the city comes from the French word dalle , what the French-Canadian employees of the North West Company called the now-inundated rapids of the Columbia River between the present-day...
, where most of the voting public of the county resided, in continuation of their efforts to rig the election. Approximately 12 people were involved in the plots to employ biological agents and at least 11 were involved in the planning process. No more than four appear to have been involved in development at the Rajneeshpuram medical laboratory, although not all of them were necessarily aware of the objectives their work served. At least eight individuals were involved with the actual distribution of the bacteria. The main planners of the attack included Rajneesh's chief lieutenant
Sheela SilvermanMa Anand Sheela is a former follower, secretary and spokeswoman for the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, later commonly known as Osho.-Early life:...
(Ma Anand Sheela), a trained
nurse practitionerA Nurse Practitioner is a registered nurse who has completed specific advanced nursing education and training in the diagnosis and management of common as well as a few complex medical conditions...
, and Diane Ivonne Onang (Ma Anand Puja), secretary-treasurer of the Rajneesh Medical Corporation. Salmonella bacteria were purchased from a medical supply company in Seattle and cultured in labs located inside the commune. Contamination of the salad bars was considered a "trial run". The group also attempted to introduce pathogens into The Dalles' water system. If successful, the same techniques were to be used closer to
Election DayElection Day in the United States is the day set by law for the election of public officials.For federal offices , it occurs on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November in even-numbered years; the earliest possible date is November 2 and the latest November 8...
. This second part of the plan was never implemented due to the commune deciding to boycott the election when it became clear that those brought in through the "Share-a-Home" program would not be allowed to vote.
Salmonella poisoning
Two visiting Wasco County commissioners were poisoned with glasses of water containing salmonella bacteria during a visit to Rajneeshpuram on August 29, 1984. Both men fell ill as a result, and one was hospitalized. Afterward, members of Sheela's team spread salmonella on
produceProduce is a generalized term for a group of farm-produced goods, not limited to fruit and vegetables. More specifically, the term "produce" often implies that the products are fresh and generally in the same state as where they were harvested. In supermarkets the term is also used to refer to the...
in grocery stores and on doorknobs and urinal handles in the county courthouse, but this did not produce the desired effects. In September and October 1984, they contaminated the salad bars of 10 local restaurants with salmonella, infecting 751 people. Forty-five people received hospital treatment, all survived.
The primary delivery tactic involved one member concealing a plastic bag containing a light brown liquid with the salmonella bacteria, and either spreading it over the food at a salad bar, or pouring its contents into salad dressing. The perpetrators referred to the contaminated liquid as "salsa". By September 24, 1984, more than 150 people were violently ill. By the end of September, 751 cases of acute
gastroenteritisGastroenteritis is inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, involving both the stomach and the small intestine and resulting in acute diarrhea...
were documented; lab results showed that all of the victims were infected with
Salmonella enterica Typhimurium. Symptoms included diarrhea, fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, headaches, abdominal pain, and bloody stools. Victims ranged in age from an infant, born two days after his mother's infection and initially given a five-percent chance of survival, to an 87-year-old.
Local residents suspected that Rajneesh's followers were behind the poisonings, and turned out in droves on election day to prevent the organization from winning any county positions, thus rendering the terrorist plot unsuccessful. The Rajneeshees eventually withdrew their candidate from the November 1984 ballot. Only 239 of the commune's 7,000 residents voted. The outbreak cost local restaurants hundreds of thousands of dollars and health officials shut down the salad bars of the affected eateries. Some residents would not go out alone out of fear of further attacks. One resident stated: "People were so horrified and scared. People wouldn't go out, they wouldn't go out alone. People were becoming prisoners."
Investigation
Officials and investigators from a number of different agencies were dispatched to The Dalles to investigate the cause of the outbreak. Dr. Michael Skeels, chief epidemiologist for the Oregon Public Health Division at the time, explained that the incident provoked such a large public health investigation because "it was the largest food-related outbreak in the U.S. in 1984".
The investigation identified the bacteria responsible as
Salmonella entericaSalmonella enterica is a rod shaped, flagellated, aerobic, Gram-negative bacterium, and a member of the genus Salmonella.-Serovars:...
Typhimurium and concluded that the outbreak had been due to food handlers' poor personal hygiene, as workers preparing food at the affected restaurants had fallen ill before most patrons had.
Oregon Congressman
James H. WeaverJames Howard "Jim" Weaver is a former Democratic U.S. congressman from Oregon.-Early life:Weaver enlisted in the United States Navy at the age of seventeen and served in World War II on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific...
continued to investigate because he felt the officials' conclusion did not adequately explain the facts. He contacted physicians at the
CDCThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services based in Atlanta, Georgia. It works to protect public health and safety by providing information to enhance health decisions, and it promotes health through...
and other agencies and urged them to investigate Rajneeshpuram. According to Lewis F. Carter's
Charisma and Control in Rajneeshpuram, "many treated his concern" as paranoid or as an example of "Rajneeshee bashing". On February 28, 1985, Weaver gave a speech on the floor of the
United States House of RepresentativesThe United States House of Representatives, commonly referred to as the "House," is the lower house of the bicameral United States Congress, the upper house being the United States Senate. The composition and powers of the House and the Senate are established in Article One of the Constitution...
in which he accused the Rajneeshees of sprinkling salmonella culture on salad bar ingredients in eight restaurants. As events later showed, Weaver had presented a well-reasoned, if only circumstantial, case, whose circumstantial elements were confirmed by evidence when investigators gained access to Rajneeshpuram several months later.
In the week starting Monday, September 16, 1985, Rajneesh, who had recently emerged from a four-year period of public silence and self-imposed isolation at the commune, convened press conferences where he stated that Sheela and 19 other commune leaders, including Puja, had left Rajneeshpuram over the weekend and gone to Europe. Following their departure, he said, he had received information from residents that Sheela and her team had committed a number of serious crimes. Calling them a "gang of fascists", he said they had attempted to poison his doctor and his female companion, as well as the
Jefferson CountyJefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oregon. In 2000, its population was 19,009. It is named after Mount Jefferson. The seat of the county is Madras.-History:...
district attorney and the water system in The Dalles. He added that he believed they had poisoned a county commissioner and Judge William Hulse, that they may have been responsible for the salmonella outbreak in The Dalles, and invited state and federal law enforcement officials to come to the Ranch and investigate. His allegations were initially greeted with skepticism by outside observers.
Oregon Attorney GeneralThe Oregon Attorney General is a statutory office within the executive branch of the state of Oregon, and serves as the chief legal officer of the state, heading its Department of Justice with its six operating divisions. The Attorney General is chosen by statewide partisan election to serve a term...
Dave FrohnmayerDave Frohnmayer is the 15th President of the University of Oregon. He was appointed president on July 1 1994. His last day as president was June 30, 2009. His tenure as president is the second-longest after John Wesley Johnson. He is the first native of the U.S. state of Oregon to run the...
established a task force among local and
Oregon State PoliceThe Oregon State Police is the main state law enforcement agency of the U.S. state of Oregon. They have been charged to enforce all of Oregon's criminal laws and to help local law enforcement agencies with their duties...
, the
Federal Bureau of InvestigationThe Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency. The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
, the Sheriff's office, the
Immigration and Naturalization ServiceThe United States Immigration and Naturalization Service was a part of the United States Department of Justice and handled legal and illegal immigration and naturalization. It ceased to exist on March 1, 2003....
and the National Guard that set up headquarters on the Ranch to investigate the allegations. Feeling they would need greater authority to perform an effective search, and fearing that evidence might be destroyed, they obtained
search warrantA search warrant is a court order issued by a judge or magistrate that authorizes law enforcement to conduct a search of a person or location for evidence of a criminal offense and seize such items or information....
s and subpoenas; 50 investigators entered the Ranch on October 2, 1985. Dr. Skeels found glass vials containing salmonella "bactrol disks" in the laboratory of a Rajneeshpuram medical clinic. Analysis by the CDC lab in Atlanta confirmed that the bacteria at the Rajneesh laboratory were an exact match to those that sickened individuals who had eaten at local restaurants. The investigation also revealed prior experimentation at Rajneeshpuram with poisons, chemicals and bacteria, in 1984 and 1985. Dr. Skeels described the scene at the Rajneesh laboratory as "a bacteriological freezer-dryer for large-scale production" of microbes. Investigators found a copy of
The Anarchist CookbookThe Anarchist Cookbook, first published in 1970, is a book that contains instructions for the manufacture of explosives, rudimentary telecommunications phreaking devices and other dangerous and illegal items; while some have merit, other 'recipes' have been shown to be flawed or dangerous or both...
, and literature on the manufacture and usage of explosives and military biowarfare. Investigators also believed that similar attacks had previously been carried out in
SalemSalem is the capital of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, which runs north through the city. The river forms the boundary between Marion and Polk counties, and the city neighborhood...
,
PortlandPortland is a city located in the Northwestern United States, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the state of Oregon. As of July 2008, it has an estimated population of 575,930, making it the 29th most populous in the United States. It has been referred to as the most...
and other cities in Oregon. According to testimony, the plotters boasted that they had attacked a nursing home and a salad bar at the
Mid-Columbia Medical CenterMid-Columbia Medical Center is a hospital complex in The Dalles, Oregon. In June 1992, Mid-Columbia Medical Center became the first hospital in the world to implement the Planetree concept of patient-centered care facility wide and in 2007 the hospital was recognised as a "Designated...
, but no such attempts were ever proven in court. As a result of the bioterrorism investigation, law enforcement officials discovered that there had been an
aborted plotThe 1985 Rajneeshee assassination plot was a conspiracy by a group of high-ranking followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh to assassinate Charles Turner, the then-United States Attorney for the District of Oregon...
by Rajneeshees to murder
Charles TurnerCharles H. Turner is a former United States Attorney for the District of Oregon. Prior to his presidential appointment as U.S. Attorney, Turner worked under his predecessor, Sidney I. Lezak, for 14 years. He was appointed as Lezak's replacement by President Ronald Reagan.As U.S...
, a former
United States AttorneyUnited States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...
for Oregon.
Prosecution
The mayor of Rajneeshpuram, David Berry Knapp (known as Krishna Deva or KD), turned
state's evidenceTo turn state's evidence is when an accused or convicted criminal testifies as a witness for the state against his associates or accomplices. Turning state's evidence is occasionally a result of a change of heart or feelings of guilt, but more often is done in response to a generous offer from the...
and gave an account of his knowledge of the salmonella attack to the
Federal Bureau of InvestigationThe Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency. The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
. He claimed that Sheela said "she had talked with [Rajneesh] about the plot to decrease voter turnout in The Dalles by making people sick. Sheela said that [Rajneesh] commented that it was best not to hurt people, but if a few died not to worry." In Miller's
Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret WarGerms: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War is a #1 New York Times Nonfiction Best Seller. It was written by The New York Times journalists Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg, and William Broad...
, this statement is attributed to Sheela: According to KD's testimony, she played doubters a muffled tape of Rajneesh's voice saying that "if it was necessary to do things to preserve [his] vision, then do it" and interpreted this to mean that killing people in his name was fine, telling doubters "not to worry" if a few people had to die. The investigation did uncover a September 25, 1984 invoice from American Type Culture Collection, showing an order received by the Rajneeshpuram laboratory for
Salmonella Typhi, the bacterium that causes the life-threatening illness
typhoid feverTyphoid fever, also known as enteric fever, Salmonella typhi or commonly just typhoid, is an illness. Common worldwide, it is transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with feces from an infected person. The bacteria then perforate through the intestinal wall and are phagocytosed...
.
According to a 1994 study published in the journal
Sociology of Religion: "Most sannyasins indicated that they believed that [Rajneesh] knew about Ma Anand Sheela's illegal activities." Frances FitzGerald writes in
Cities on a Hill that most of Rajneesh's followers "believed [him] incapable of doing, or willing, violence against another person", and that almost all of them thought the responsibility for the criminality was Sheela's – according to FitzGerald they believed he had not known anything about it. Carus writes in
Toxic Terror that "There is no way to know to what extent [Rajneesh] participated in actual decision-making. His followers believed he was involved in every important decision that Sheela made, but those allegations were never proven." Rajneesh insisted that Sheela, who he said was his only source of information during his period of isolation, used her position to impose "a fascist state" on the commune. He acknowledged that the key to her actions was his silence.
Rajneesh left Oregon by plane on October 27, 1985 and was
arrestedAn arrest warrant is a warrant issued by and on behalf of the state, which authorizes the arrest and detention of an individual.-Canada:Arrest warrants are issued by a judge or justice of the peace under section 83.29 of the Criminal Code of Canada...
when he landed in
CharlotteCharlotte is the largest city in the state of North Carolina and the seat of Mecklenburg County. Charlotte's population was estimated to be 687,456 in 2008, making it the 18th largest city in the United States. Residents of Charlotte are referred to as "Charlotteans"...
,
North CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties...
, and charged with 35 counts of deliberate
violations of immigration lawsIllegal immigration to the United States refers to the act of foreign nationals violating U.S. immigration policies and national laws by immigrating to the United States without proper consent from the United States government....
. As part of a plea bargain arrangement, he pled guilty to two counts of making false statements to immigration officials. He received a 10-year suspended sentence and a fine of USD$400,000, and was deported and barred from reentering the United States for a period of five years. He was never prosecuted for crimes related to the salmonella poisoning.
Sheela and Puja were arrested in Germany on October 28, 1985. After protracted negotiations, they were extradited to the United States and arrived in Portland on February 6, 1986. They were charged with attempting to murder Rajneesh's personal physician, first-degree assault for poisoning Judge William Hulse, second-degree assault for poisoning The Dalles Commissioner Raymond Matthews, and product tampering for the poisonings in The Dalles, as well as wiretapping and immigration offenses. The U.S. Attorney's office handled the prosecution of the poisoning cases related to the 10 restaurants, and the Oregon Attorney General's office prosecuted the poisoning cases of Commissioner Matthews and Judge Hulse.
On July 22, 1986, both women entered no-contest ("
AlfordIn the law of the United States, an Alford plea is a plea in criminal court in which the defendant does not admit the act and asserts innocence, but admits that sufficient evidence exists with which the prosecution could likely convince a judge or jury to find the defendant guilty...
") pleas for the salmonella poisoning and the other charges, and received sentences ranging from three to 20 years, to be served concurrently. Sheela received 20 years for the attempted murder of Rajneesh's physician, 20 years for first-degree assault in the poisoning of Judge Hulse, 10 years for second-degree assault in the poisoning of Commissioner Matthews, four and a half years for her role in the salmonella poisoning, four and a half years for the wiretapping conspiracy, and five years' probation for immigration fraud; Puja received 15, 15, seven and a half, and four and a half years, respectively, for her role in the first four of these crimes, as well as three years' probation for the wiretapping conspiracy. Both Sheela and Puja were released early for good behavior, after serving 29 months of their sentences in a minimum-security federal prison. Sheela was deported, and went on to run two
nursing homeA nursing home, convalescent home, Skilled Nursing Unit , care home or rest home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living. Residents include the elderly and younger...
s in Switzerland.
Aftermath
The OregonianThe Oregonian is the major daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. West Coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 1850...
ran a 20-part series on Rajneesh's movement, beginning in June 1985, which included an investigation into the salmonella incident. As a result of a follow-up investigation,
The Oregonian learned that Leslie L. Zaitz, one of their
investigative journalistsInvestigative journalism is a type of reporting in which reporters deeply investigate a topic of interest, often involving crime, political corruption, or some other scandal....
, had been placed as number three on a top-ten hit list by Sheela's group. Then-
Oregon Attorney GeneralThe Oregon Attorney General is a statutory office within the executive branch of the state of Oregon, and serves as the chief legal officer of the state, heading its Department of Justice with its six operating divisions. The Attorney General is chosen by statewide partisan election to serve a term...
Dave FrohnmayerDave Frohnmayer is the 15th President of the University of Oregon. He was appointed president on July 1 1994. His last day as president was June 30, 2009. His tenure as president is the second-longest after John Wesley Johnson. He is the first native of the U.S. state of Oregon to run the...
commented on the poisoning incident and other acts perpetrated by the group, stating: "The Rajneeshees committed the most significant crimes of their kind in the history of the United States ... The largest single incident of fraudulent marriages, the most massive scheme of wiretapping and bugging, and the largest mass poisoning." Looking back on the incident, Dr. Skeels stated, "We lost our innocence over this ... We really learned to be more suspicious ... The first significant biological attack on a U.S. community was not carried out by foreign terrorists smuggled into New York, but by legal residents of a U.S. community. The next time it happens it could be with more lethal agents ... We in public health are really not ready to deal with that."
The Rajneesh group is the only known organization to have cultured its own
pathogenA pathogen , infectious agent, or germ, is a biological agent that causes disease or illness to its host....
for terrorist purposes. Federal and state investigators requested that details of the incident not be published in the
Journal of the American Medical AssociationJAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association is an international peer-reviewed general medical journal, published 48 times per year by the American Medical Association...
(JAMA) for 12 years, for they feared a description of the events could spark copycat crimes, and
JAMA complied. No repeat attacks or
hoaxA hoax is a deliberate attempt to deceive or trick an audience into believing, or accepting, that something is real, when the hoaxer knows it is not; or that something is true, when it is false...
es subsequently occurred, and a detailed account of the incident and investigation was published in
JAMA in 1997. A 1999 empirical analysis in the journal
Emerging Infectious Diseases published by the
CDCThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services based in Atlanta, Georgia. It works to protect public health and safety by providing information to enhance health decisions, and it promotes health through...
described six motivational factors associated with bioterrorism, including: charismatic leadership, no outside constituency, apocalyptic ideology, loner or splinter group, sense of paranoia and grandiosity, and defensive aggression. According to the article, the "Rajneesh Cult" satisfied all motivational factors except for an "apocalyptic ideology". An analysis in the book
Cults, Religion and Violence disputes the link to
charismatic leadershipThe sociologist Max Weber defined charismatic authority as "resting on devotion to the exceptional sanctity, heroism or exemplary character of an individual person, and of the normative patterns or order revealed or ordained by him." Charismatic authority is one of three forms of authority laid...
, pointing out that in this and other cases, it was organizational lieutenants who played a pivotal role in the initiation of violence. Arguing for a contextual rather than decisive view of charisma, the authors state that the attribution of outcomes to the personality of a single individual, even a charismatic leader, usually camouflages a far more complex field of social relationships.
The media revisited the incident during the
2001 anthrax attacksThe 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, also known as Amerithrax from its Federal Bureau of Investigation case name, occurred over the course of several weeks beginning on September 18, 2001. Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to several news media offices and two Democratic U.S....
in the United States. The 2001 publication of
Judith MillerJudith Miller , is an American journalist. Miller, based in Washington D.C., was a prominent New York Times reporter with access to top U.S. government officials...
's
Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War, which contained an analysis and detailed description of the events, also brought discussion of the incident back into the news. Residents of The Dalles commented that they have an understanding of how bioterrorism can occur in the United States. The incident had spread fear in the community, and drained the local economy. All but one of the restaurants affected went out of business. In 2005, the
Oregon State Land BoardThe Department of State Lands , one of the oldest agencies of government of the U.S. state of Oregon, is principally responsible for the management of lands under state ownership, as its name implies. Unlike most other department-level state agencies, it is not headed by a sole elected official,...
agreed to sell of Wasco County, including Rajneeshpuram, to the Colorado-based youth ministry
Young LifeYoung Life is a non-profit, Christian non-denominational, incarnational, parachurch ministry. Young Life consists of many branches of ministry but most commonly the name "Young Life" refers to the outreach arm of the organization directed towards high school students...
. On February 18, 2005,
Court TVtruTV is an American cable television network owned by Time Warner through its subsidiary, Turner Broadcasting. Named Court TV before 2008 , the basis of the network's programming has traditionally been live homicide trial coverage and other criminal justice programming; however, the network has...
aired an episode of
Forensic FilesForensic Files is a documentary style show which reveals how forensics and science are used to solve violent crimes, mysterious accidents, and even outbreaks of illness. The show is broadcast on truTV, narrated by Peter Thomas, and produced by Medstar Television, in association with truTV Original...
about the incident, entitled: "'Bio-Attack' – Oregon Cult Poisonings". The salmonellosis outbreak was also discussed in the media within the context of the
2006 North American E. coli outbreakThe 2006 North American E. coli outbreak was an outbreak, in two principal phases, of foodborne E. coli O157:H7, a potentially deadly bacterium that can cause bloody diarrhea and dehydration....
.
The book
Emerging Infectious Diseases: Trends and Issues cites the 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack, along with the
Aum ShinrikyoAum Shinrikyo, now known as Aleph, is a Japanese new religious movement. The group was founded by Shoko Asahara in 1984. The group gained international notoriety in 1995, when it carried out the sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subways....
group's attempts to use anthrax and other agents, as exceptions to the belief "that only foreign-state supported groups have the resources to execute a credible bioterrorism event". According to
Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945, these are the only two confirmed uses of biological weapons for terrorist purposes to harm humans. The incident was the single largest bioterrorist attack in United States history. In the chapter titled: "Influencing An Election: America's First Modern Bioterrorist Attack" in his 2006 book
Terrorism on American Soil: A Concise History of Plots and Perpetrators from the Famous to the Forgotten, author Joseph T. McCann concludes: "In every respect, the salmonella poisoning carried out by the cult members was a major bioterrorist attack that fortunately failed to achieve its ultimate goal and resulted in no fatalities."
See also
- 1985 Rajneeshee assassination plot
The 1985 Rajneeshee assassination plot was a conspiracy by a group of high-ranking followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh to assassinate Charles Turner, the then-United States Attorney for the District of Oregon...
- Biological warfare
Biological warfare , also known as germ warfare, is the use of pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, other disease-causing biological agents, or the toxins produced by them as biological weapons ....
- Deportation
Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The expulsion of natives is also called banishment, exile, or penal transportation. Deportation is an ancient practice: Khosrau I, Sassanid King of Persia, deported 292,000 citizens, slaves, and conquered people...
- Electoral fraud
Electoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about a election result, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates or both...
- Elections in the United States
The United States has a federal government, with elected officials at federal , state and local level. On a national level, the head of state, the President, is elected indirectly by the people, through an Electoral College. In modern times, the electors virtually always vote with the popular vote...
- List of terrorist incidents
- Public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals." It is concerned with threats to the overall health of a community based...
- Terrorism in the United States
A common definition of terrorism is the systematic use or threatened use of violence to intimidate a population or government and thereby effect political, religious, or ideological change.-1800-1899:...
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Homeland Security , responsible for identifying, investigating, and dismantling vulnerabilities regarding the nation's border, economic, transportation, and infrastructure security...
- Voting system
A voting system or voting theory, allows voters to choose between options, often in an election where candidates are selected for public office. Voting can be also used to award prizes, to select between different plans of action, or by a computer program to find a solution to a problem...
External links