This episode may contain content of a graphic nature, including descriptions of physical and
sexual violence against adults, children, and animals. Listener discretion is advised.
Hi everyone, I'm Teleia and I'm Tanya, and together we are Crimes and
Consequences, a true crime podcast. Welcome back everyone to this week's episode of
Crimes and Consequences. I am Tanya and my lovely co host Taliah. Hello.
We're a couple of lawyers who like to talk about true crime and food.
Yes, so that's our top two topics of conversation. That law never
law. No, and so we you know, started this podcast and here
we are, Yeah, here we are. So i'd like to remind everyone
to either hit subscribe or follow like whatever app you're listening to if you're watching
us on YouTube on True Crime Daily. And thank you to True Crime Daily
for hosting us. Yes, I am going to tell you a story about
a cult leader in Japan. Okay, so I don't know. We don't
have a lot of Japanese stories. No, we don't. We have a
few, but not very money. So Shoku Asahara, he was born with
a name Kaizu Matsumoto. Wow, I'm impressed. Thank you. I'm March
second, nineteen fifty five in Yatsushiro, Japan. He was one of seven
children and his family was severely poor. They made mats, They were mat
makers, and he was born with infantile glacoma, which caused him to be
partially blind. Okay, okay, So due to this disability, he needed
to attend a special school and he attended a school for the blind. Was
partially yeah, and he was kind of popular sometimes with his his classmates because
he could he did have partial sight, so he would able to like sneak
kids out of the school sometimes and they would go like an adventures. But
anyway, yeah, anyway, when he graduated, even though he did have
this rapport with some of his classmates, nobody really had a lot of nice
things to say about him, Like for his time at the school. They
said he was kind of a bully at times, and they remembered him like
his classmates and even teachers remembered him as kind of someone who tried to manipulate
other students, like he would try to like get their money, like manipulate
them out of their money and stuff like that. One of his former teachers
also mentioned that whenever showed was reprimanded about anything. He would get upset and
make threats to burn down the student housing. Oh yeah, so he you
know, it wasn't like like a normal tantrum. It was like I'm going
to burn this little downstream. Yeah. He completed his schooling at the Scope
for the Blind in nineteen seventy seven, and he ended up studying after that.
He ended up studying Chinese medicine and pharmaceuticals in acupuncture, and he did
that when he was around twenty two. I think he might have completed his
studies around the time he was twenty two. While he was figuring out like
what his next steps in life would be, Choko, he began to take
an interest in religion, and his interests led him into studying all different types
of religions in their philosophies. He dabbled in a few different ones like Christianity,
Hinduism, Buddhism, and this one kind of hand in hand with his
own personal practice. Like he liked to meditate and do yoga. So I
think like the peaceful you know, meditations maybe of Buddhism or Hinduism or something
probably you know, help that. So he was he really enjoyed the meditating
and the yoga, so he began teaching yoga classes. And as he's doing
the yoga classes, he starts telling his students about what he's been learning about
religion. So soon after this, there was a woman that would come to
his yoga classes and she kind of took an interest in him. Her name
is Tomoko, and when she met him, she was like smitten right away,
like she knew this was the guy she wanted to spend the rest of
her life with. She was impressed by his lesson and you know, his
perception of the world. He had told all of his students that, you
know, you need to live like a non violent life, and when Tomoko
heard that, she was really impressed. You know, like he just seemed
to be like a peaceful, well rounded person. During this time, while
he's doing these yoga classes and he's meeting Tomko, Shoko's confidence was slowly rising
and he was getting to the point where some people were just coming to his
yoga classes to hear about his religious teachings. Okay, and these students quickly
became his followers and they viewed him as their spiritual leader. So this is
all progressing to this. As time went on to Moko and Shoko grew close
and their relationship blossomed. They got married in nineteen seventy eight, and their
lives as a married couple appeared happy, and Shoko's followers respected to Mocho as
his wife, like, you know, she's their spiritual leader's wife, and
so they did give her some honor and things like. That's how they treated
her. Together, they had six children, wow, four daughters and two
sons. A lot of kids. It is a lot of kids. And
according to some reports, although this was never proven to be factual, there
was speculation that the couple neglected the daughters while they gave their sons all their
love and affection. I mean, I don't know if that's true, but
it's been reported. Okay, Shortly after starting his family, Shoko needed to
find a way to provide you know, like okay, yoga instructure and probably
isn't that much. Yeah, probably isn't paying that much. So he eventually
opened up his own pharmacy, which specialized in Chinese medicines. But he was
up his own pharmacy. Yeah, but he was a little shady in this
and in his business, and he was eventually arrested for selling fake remedies to
his customers. He was charged with fraud and convicted in nineteen eighty two for
practicing pharmaceuticals without any sort of license. That's why I was wondering. Yeah
he was. Yeah, he just opened it and decided to start, by
the hell not right like, Yeah, after all this happened, his business
got shut down obviously, and he went bankrupt. He had to serve a
twenty day sentence. That's it, yep, And he was fined two hundred
thousand yen, which is equivalent to about eight hundred dollars. That's not then
the time now, but it's nineteen eighty two, so that's kind of a
lot of money in nineteen eighty two. Yeah, okay. A little while
later, Shoko had begun to infiltrate his own yoga classes and meditation sessions with
the religious teachings. And things really started to change after Shoko attended a Himalayan
retreat and after the retreat, he bragged about achieving satori, which translates to
spiritual enlightenment at this retreat in the Himalayas. And you know, now I'm
better than you, Yes, now I have this this spiritual awakening. So
with all of this new found enlightenment, he ended up find like being the
founder of a group called om Shinrikyo, omshin your om Shinrikyo and translated to
English, it means supreme Truth. This was his own religious group. Oh
I okay, yeah, you know, start your own pharmacy, your own
religious group, right, why not? And amazingly it grew in membership like
almost right away. So as Shoko is rising up as a powerful leader in
his quote unquote peaceful you know, teachings and his peaceful community of followers,
all of this popularity went to his head, of course, and I bet
those followers donated money into him. Oh yeah, definitely right, and the
really started to like his own personal like getting the big head and you know
that kind of thing really started to take off. His ego, Yeah,
his ego. Thank you. I was looking for that word. In nineteen
eighty six, because the religious group was recognized legally by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government
and he that's when he was like filed the right tax papers or something like
they're they're official official recognized by the government. And at this point he now
proclaims himself as the Holy Pope, as Tokyo's Christ and there of the country.
What the fuck is this? Yeah? And this fame eventually got him
on the cover covers of magazines. He was on TV. He gave lectures
at various colleges. He wrote books What are we doing wrong? I don't
know. We're not you know, we're not. I mean, we're not
like his egomaniacs. Yeah. I needed, like, you know, needed
to be an ego maniac to do crap like this. Yeah. I needed
to have higher self esteem. Yes, yeah, I am the Savior of
the of the country of Sterling Heights, Michigan. I know this is crazy.
One of the books he wrote was called Declaring Myself the Christ? What
the hell? Declaring my mm hmm? And this is his way of telling
everybody that he is the one and only Christ. He told us his followers
that he was the only truly enlightened master in all of Japan, that he
was the only person that could wash away sins. And he also said,
you know, end times are coming, so y'all gonna get your shit together,
right, all right, all right. He bragged about his ability to
levitate. He banned books that weren't the ones that he wrote. These are
for his followers. He banned a limited amount of books they can make.
You know, he banned sex, which with six kids, I'm thinking he's
not banning sex. Sex would in sex. I don't know. I don't
know. He obviously did it. What is this? I know he just
started to get really bold with his predictions and his teachings and controlling yes,
and he was just popular. His popularity is just continuing. I don't understand,
No, I don't. Okay, Now, this religious group starts to
get a little culty. Okay, not that you know, every religious group
is cult, but it started to get culty because they became more and more
exclusive and limiting their contact with the outside world. A lot of the followers
broke ties with their own family that didn't yeah that right to please showco and
you know, like that was the only way they could fully commit themselves to
this group. Some of them. The his life then started to become a
life of secrecy, and the group was very secretive. Some members, yes
exactly. Some members were being subjected to intense shock therapy, like they started
doing weird shit like you know, to the members. Some were given hallucinogenic
drugs. The members were also forced to completely worship Choko and only him.
One member was caught carrying around a picture of an Indian saint, and when
it was found out, Shoku went absolutely crazy. So people that had made
comments even about leaving the group were held against their will. You know,
they were oh, yeah, yeah, I get this, it's cult.
Yes, and they were forced to give Choko huge amounts of money, all
their money and the right. Many people who'd made their wishes known that they
wanted to leave the group eventually were killed. Their announcements were made public.
Yeah, and I don't know. The story I'm telling you is not about
those people, unfortunately, because I don't know any details about them. But
there was one man who was brought into the group by his daughters, and
after only a few weeks he somehow managed to escape after being forced to purge
his system. And the way that the group members purged their system was that
they forced themselves or each other to drink just gallons of hot water every day,
to the point where they would throw up. Like that's how you purge
oh your system? Okay, I don't know. Well, I'm not going
to try that. No, I'm not going to try that either. Soon
enough. Rumors now are beginning to come to the surface about this group and
the violence that was going on within the organization, and they're supposed to be
peaceful. Remember right, Choko was publicly being referred to as a cult leader
now in the media, rather than a religious leader. One man who was
an anti cult attorney started to give showcos anti cult attorney, Let you specialize
in I do family law? What about you? I'm an anti cult attorney.
I want to do it. I want to be an anti ship.
We should change our firm. We're going to add it to our business cards.
Right, anti cult, I don't family law? Criminal and anti cult?
Yes? Call us getting yes exactly. So Shoku, this this attorney
started giving Shoko some trouble after he'd been hearing about the group because he's like,
okay, he's anti cult obviously, and he's like, okay, what's
going on. But shortly after, like he started ruffling some feathers, this
attorney he mysteriously disappeared. What yeah, and none of his family members were
ever seen alive again. So him and his family, what, yes,
you should just do a whole story on these people. I really should I
know. It was later discovered that the lawyer and his family were murdered in
November of nineteen eighty nine, So by the beginning of November or not.
By the beginning of nineteen ninety, the group had roughly ten thousand members.
Ten thousand Japan alone. Oh my gosh, I was seeing a couple of
hundred. No, there were also thousands of followers that participated around the world.
Some people were in Germany, some of the United States, but most
of the other followers were in Russia, and I don't know why. At
one point, Shoko actually preached his teachings to a stadium filled crowd of roughly
fifteen thousand people. That's crazy in Moscow. Fucking nuts, isn't it in
Moscow? In Moscow, in like the eighties? Okay, he got in
somehow, right, all right? Okay? There were offices and branches of
this group, like the business Yeah, set up in each country that was
dedicated to the cult. In their operation in nineteen ninety, the cult tried
to infiltrate Japanese politics so that they could influence the government. The cult members
nominated twenty five of their disciples to be candidates for parliament. However, none
of them were elected to the government. Thankfully. After this attempt, the
Japanese government made it official like olmshin Koru and ELM Shinrikyo. Sorry, I'm
saying it wrong. That's the name of the group they The government is like,
they are not a religious group. They're definitely a cult, right,
there's no way, no taxes, exemptions, Yeah, no exceptions for them.
The cult members were upset that their attempt to infiltrate the government failed,
so they began to think, like, how can we get the general public's
notice? Like, they were looking for ways to attack the general public.
They began to obtain guns, they created organic missiles. But why do they
want to attack the public? I'm the reasoning behind it was never made clear
to me, because you know, it's just they decided that they wanted to
get noticed and they wanted to hurt people. And I don't know where the
philosophy some revolution, That's what I'm thinking, Like, yeah, and the
thinking behind it is, you cause like some kind of you know, public
terrorist attack or something that then it's going to cause the country to go into
war maybe, and you know, cause all this devastation and things like maybe
people will join your side because they're against the government exactly. Like that's what
I'm thinking. I don't know, that's what I'm thinking. There was right,
they got their got They ended up getting their hands on massive quantities of
the nerve gas called saren and one. At one point this cult had billions
of dollars stashed away. What yeah, somehow they were generating money money,
Okay, Billians and we are doing something wrong. Well we're not. We're
not crazy. Cult leaders are forming our own religion on crimes and consequences.
Please don'tate. In July of nineteen ninety three, a liquid version of the
of anthrax was released from atop the roof of an eight story high building owned
by the cult. And this happened in Tokyo on So this happened like this.
This was released in July, like early July. So a few days
earlier, on June twenty ninth, residents of eastern Tokyo began smelling an odor,
and they reported this foul smell to local environment Health center. The following
day, June thirtieth, forty one, members of the community had made reports
of the smell, and those who had been exposed told the officials that they
experience in coomedy, a complete loss of appetite and nausea. I didn't even
know there was liquid anth me either. The things, hey, the more
you know, right, the things consequences learn. Authorities wanted to go inside
the building to check things out, but nobody in the cult on this entire
building, and they were like, no, you're not allowed to come in
here. They wouldn't consent to a search, so and I'm not sure why
they didn't get a search warrant, But the authorities then started to look like
around the building's exterior, they collected air samples and now they're watching the building.
The next morning, on July first, the neighboring buildings heard really loud
noises that then they there was a mist that was released like coming from the
build the roof of the building. The myst was seen coming out of one
of two cooling towers that were on the roof, and as the day went
on, about one hundred and eighteen complaints were filed about these odors to that
Environment Health Office. Choco and the cult ended up vacating the building on July
second and taking everything with them, the odor and the mist. It later
came out was that it was the cult trying to aerosolize aerosol aerosoli the antra.
I don't know. I just made it up, trying to make it
like in an aerosol. Yes, I guess, okay, they're trying to
do that to the anthrax so that they could create like an entire outbreak in
the neighborhood and anybody in the cult getting hurt by this. Apparently not.
They must have had their windows shut lea no no, but I'm thinking they
didn't go outside or anthrax and all that, like I know, and they're
handling it. I don't know. Choko believed, like okay, so this
is the philosophy. He believed that if there was an epidemic, then a
world war would commence and he would then be the ruler of the world.
So that's what was the reasoning. Like I said, yes, yes,
And if this mist had been ingested, the anthrax spores affect the throat,
stomach, intestines, and esophagus, and the person that ingested it would most
likely die if it went untreated. Thankfully, though nobody was seriously hurt.
Nobody died from that mist that was released. They just got sick. Yeah,
they just got sick. So Shoko was you know, the the idea
behind it. Like I said, the world war and stuff like that.
Choko used to preach about, you know, end times was coming and this
was a way to hasten end times. Obviously, like had this massive I
don't know why you would have a massive world war maybe, but it was
nonviolent. I know. That's the that's that is the riddle. And you
know, the followers were told, you know, if this happens, we
have this epidemic whatever and we have this war, that the Followers would be
the only ones left on earth. And so that's one of the reasons why
they went along with it, besides being completely brainwashed. After this nineteen ninety
three attack failed, the cult struck a second time in nineteen ninety four.
This group was fearless as they tested saren gas on different things to make sure
it would harm and kill people. I don't think it's saren gas. I
know, I would love they buy that from They got a lot of it.
I'll tell you exactly how much as the story goes on, But they
get a lot of it. I don't know. They can just go to
Walmart, No, to kill someone. It takes a very very tiny,
tiny amount. But you can't just purchase that Amazon something, right, Like,
where did they get it in the nineties, I don't know. I
think of a couple of countries. If somebody was doing something shady, if
you had enough money, you would get there, you'd set So. Yeah,
once their testing was complete, like once they were like, okay,
this is definitely going to kill people, they decided to direct their attack at
a neighborhood where a bunch of judges lived. And I don't know how you
find this out, but they targeted the judges because these judges had ruled against
the cult in several disputes. When they struck with the sarin gas, five
hundred people got severely sick and eight people died. And none of the eight
people that died were the judges, right, they were truly innocent, Not
that the judges weren't, but they were truly innocent people. The gas was
released from a truck that was parked near the housing complex where the judges lived,
and that's how it was released. The judges were some of them were
injured by inhaling the gas, but they ended up surviving. And even though
the cult had tried to poison the community like the year earlier with releasing that
gas on the roof. Nobody, like nobody really suspected them in this attack
on the judges. So and nobody was charged in that attack. I think
of the judges, we know, I know, be horrible, I know,
right, like I mean, they're just ruling, just doing their job,
like you know when they rule against us, I know, and I
don't like them exactly, Like my argument was excellent. But anyway, this
attack made obviously people in the neighborhood, people in that area of Tokyo,
very fearful. Yeah, and they did have a right to feel that way
because and it's terrorism, Oh absolutely, it's terrorism. Yeah, they were
right to feel that way because the cult was working on an attack on the
public, like on an even more grand scale. So happening, this huge
attack that they plan it happened on March twentieth, nineteen ninety five. A
few members of the cult carried bags filled with saren gas onto five different trains
that were about to depart for Central Tokyo. Sarin gas, as I mentioned,
is extremely deadly. There's no way of detecting it. It has absolutely
no smell, it doesn't. Nope, And the small amount of less than
a milligram can kill a human and less than a milligram less than a milligram,
it's made up of similar components to pesticides and rubbing alcohol. Well,
now that you've told everybody how to make to make it, you know you
got to look that up on the internet yourself. Once these five cult members
boarded their separate train lines, they timed out their attacks perfectly, so,
witnesses say. Witnesses to this attack say they the men board the trains,
one was seen wearing huge sunglasses and a surgical mask. But the mask didn't
alarm anyone because you know a lot of people wore them in Japan, like
around hay fever season and stuff. After the man found a seat on the
train, he began fidgeting with a rectangled shape object that was wrapped in newspaper.
And this was the bag of gas, of the sarin gas. And
I don't know what kind of bag it was, Like, I'm thinking,
is it a ziploc? What is it? Like? I was curious,
but I don't know. At the following stop, the man put the bag
on the floor of the train and he walked quickly off the train. As
soon as he stepped foot on off the train, the people noticed that the
newspaper around the bag was damp, and immediately some people start to panic.
As soon as the gas hit the train car air, people's eyes began to
burn, their heads began to pound, and someone yelled out, it's it's
gas. There was an elderly man who was sitting next to the attacker.
He wasn't moving at this point because he was already dying. How long does
it take too? I mean, it's almost immediate. Oh, it's in
saren. Gas is a nerve gas. Oh my, so it affects you
know, it affects you severely. It can make a person immobile, like
almost immediately because the enzymes in your body, Like it attacks enzymes and they
stopped working in a short amount of time, and your muscles just stop.
Oh my gosh. Can you imagine? Now? Do you suffocate because your
lungs and stuff don't work? I believe so like everything stops, everything stop,
everything stops. Several passengers were on their knees because they weren't able to
stand anymore. Several people collapsed to the floor. Those who had minor symptoms
were able to move, but they had to crawl up three flights of stairs
just to get outside, like out of the subway in the subways. In
the subway, yes, these trains. Many of those infected began vomiting,
where others were stiff as a board, lying on the ground like your I
think your muscles just tense up too. Many who made it out weren't able
to see initially because the gas had blinded them. In mere minutes, the
same exact thing was happening on the four other because they tied it. Yeah,
they timed it for this all to happen like simultaneously. Thousands of people
were rushed as quickly as possible to hospitals where a seren an a dote which
is called a tropine was given. So thankfully there is a how they know.
They just knew by the symptoms that I think so. I think so.
Each of the cult members when they dropped their bag filled with saren gas,
they all used the same technique to get the gas into the air,
and every called me member had an umbrella with them. This is how they
did it. And on the tips of the umbrella was sort of like a
sharp point or like a knife, so when the bag was dropped, the
member punctured them with the tip of the umbrella and after the punk, after
they punctured them, they then quickly got the hell out. Yeah, got
off the trains, so they timed it like with the next stop or what
have you, and they gotten to get away vehicles that were left at the
scene undetected. I never heard the story before, I know, I can't.
I kind of remember it happening, but not really. As the saren
gas was getting into the air, that's when the passengers became infected. And
the trains are going along their route and at each stop, infected passengers would
get off, and then more people would get on because they don't know.
They don't know, and that's how it ended up being so widespread. And
even those that were trying to help the people that were sick and infected,
they came into contact it, contact with it, like being on their shoes
and clothes. Two victims in particular were employees at the subway who found the
bags of gas and tried to dispose of them, and both of them died
hours later. Yeah, the attack that went down that morning killed a total
of thirteen people, and yeah, I'm surprised it wasn't more. But it
injured five thousand, five hundred people who had come into contact with the seran
gas that day. Many people who survived are still dealing with the effects of
coming into contact. I'm sure their nervous system was damaged. The government didn't
name the cult as the perpetrator immediately, but within a few days the police
raided over twenty branches that belonged to the COLT. Twenty branches. Yeah,
I told you they had like ten thousand people. And when officers made their
way into the cult's compound, they kind of found like just weird, weird
stuff. Oh, I bet each there were fifty little cubicles, and inside
each one of them was a cult member just laying on a blanket. Every
single one of the fifty members located first seemed to be malnourished, but a
lot of them told officers that they'd been fasting on their own accord. Six
members had to be rushed to the hospital in such bad shape that they were
wow. As the police searched further, they found a young woman in a
large container who'd been kept there against her will for at least two months.
What, Yeah, two months. Yeah, and I don't know what kind
of container it was, but I'm thinking it was small. I don't know.
They had two months against her will. Oh my gosh. That's like
solitary confinement in the dark, like sensory deprivation. Yeah. Right throughout the
entirety of these multiple raids, Choko took to radio broadcasts and he sent videotapes
like to the media to say he was completely innocent of these attacks. And
after these broadcasts and recordings were public, like, he just kind of disappeared,
like they couldn't find him right away. In one of the broadcasts,
Choko made statements to all of her followers. He said, quote, disciples,
the time to awaken and help me is upon you. Let's carry out
the salvation plan and face death without regrets end quote. Upon his disappearance,
he left three luxury vehicles in a hotel parking lot located in Tokyo, and
he was suing people at the time for about three hundred thousand dollars for the
raids. He ended up filing lawsuits. Yeah. His lawyer said that since
the cult practiced boot Buddhism and they were non violent, it was impossible for
the cult to be responsible for the saran gas attacks. The lawyer also said
that the raids were quote unprecedented religious prosecution end quote. During the raids,
the police found enough chemicals the saren gas on the compound, on the compound
two that could have been used to the point to kill. It was about
fifty tons of saren. He said, it takes like one yeah, it
will millions millions of people. That's crazy, isn't it. Like I don't
know where you get fifty tons of saren. I'm gonna not name those countries,
but yeah, right. Choko was laying low and he released another tape
to the media where he said, you know, he was confused why by
the police thought I didn't do it. The chemicals that were seized were used
to make saren. He's like, why would you think that? Oh so
it was chemicals used, Yeah, and it could have created about fifty tons.
Yeah, but why would we do that? Why are we going to
use that chemicals? Chemicals? And just coincidentally, there were saren gas attacks
on the subway, but it wasn't us. No, even though we have
all the chemicals to make it. Okay, He went on a rant that
he and his followers were victims in a poisonous attack courtesy of the United States.
Poisonous attack. I like that part too, courtesy of the US.
Yeah, ex blame the United States, Yeah, because because they care about
the cult, you know, like anybody. Yeah, anybody in the United
States government gave a shit about what he was doing. But as all this
is taking place, the surviving victim's health was improving, but more and more
patients were coming in claiming they were attacked or poisoned in the attack. The
symptoms that the newer patients were experiencing weren't physical ailments, they were psychological,
and the entire area was scared that there was another attacking. When's the next
one coming? Right after the subway attack, there was a few more incidents
that the cult orchestrated. One was an attack on the chief of police.
He was shot for investigating the cult. More attacks happened than included poisonous gases,
but they were much smaller and than the attack on the subway. On
May sixteenth, nineteen ninety five, Choko, along with forty of his followers,
were arrested for murder. They finally found him one hundred and thirty facilities
belonging to the cult were raided by hundreds of officers thirty facilities. Yeah,
the officers were wearing tactical gear looking for the suspects responsible for the attacks.
This search was televised and found on his Mount Fuji property. He was hiding
out with his wife and children. The Mount Fuji site took the police over
three hours to search because there were secret passages and tunnels all over the place.
That's cool, I know. Choko was found sitting alone in one of
the meditation chambers, and when he was placed under arrest, he didn't resist.
This was the most public arrest that Japan had had up to this point
in its history, and there were hundreds of reporters on site. He's like,
I am peaceful, I am I am just me, you know,
I am. I am partially blind, and I am a peaceful man,
and you know. Yeah, after the arrests, the public was terrified of
the cult and what the followers would do in retaliation because they haven't arrested everybody
in the right people. The police had actually waited to arrest Shoko because they
had on their they had on their radar the most dangerous members of the cult,
so they wanted to grab all of them before, yeah, before they
got showco so that you know, they couldn't retaliate. Out Of the forty
one people arrested, twenty five of them, which included Shoko, were charged
with murder. Over one hundred and fifty members were arrested following the subway attacks.
Most of them were only charged with minor offenses that were not related to
the Sarah attacks. And they did that just so they could like arrest them
and bring them in to question them. The cult was linked to over two
dozen deaths, and the police were criticized heavily in the country for not doing
anything about the attack that killed eight people in nineteen ninety four. Oh yeah
right, remember that one. And Shoko was eventually found guilty for orchestrating that
attack in nineteen ninety four. The frustrating trial of Shoko and his followers took
eight years to complete, and it started in nineteen ninety six. Choko refused
to answer any questions and he only made statements that were just stupid. But
finally, on February twenty seventh, two thousand and four, Choko was found
guilty and he was sentenced to death to death to death to death when the
judge read off all of the guilty verdicts. Because he's also being tried along
with other cult members, it took over four hours to read all of the
verdicts for all of the crimes. I mean this a lot. This is
a long time until a very long time. That's very you know, core
can be boring. Yeah, Like, can you imagine While the sentence was
being read, Shoko smiled with his arms crossed because he's an asshole. Yeah,
he snorted, He yawned, he scratched his head, and he mumbled.
He'd been instructed two different times to stand as the verdict was being read,
and he wouldn't, so it took five guards to make him stand.
Seriously, just fucking stand, do it. At the time of a sentence,
Shoko was forty eight years old. Twenty two years later, on July
sixth, twenty eighteen, Shoko, along with six other cult members, were
finally hanged. Wow, Japanese hangings are done in secret. I didn't know
this, and I know I didn't either. And there are no warnings given
to the prisoners who are being executed. Yeah, like, you know,
I guess you don't have like an execution date. They just come surprise,
it's your turn. Oh yeah, which that would give me great anxiety,
great anxiety. Yeah, but in he had what what did I tell you?
Twenty two years? Yeah, to think about, like could today be
the day? But one of the one of the downsides I guess of having
this surprise is not even families of the victims or even like the attorneys of
you know, the people being executed, are notified prior to the sentence being
carried out. It's thought that show Goo along with the other members, were
made aware of their death day only a few hours prior to it actually happening.
Family members of the victims wished that they were made aware of the execution
so they could have possibly, you know, heard, maybe what their last
words would have been before they were executed. Maybe they would have given a
reason. I've talked to him, figured out every day, every week,
whatever, Right, And he got twenty two years yeah, yeah, right,
Like if he was going to say something, he had a lot of
time to say it, to say it to them. But they want closure,
you know, I can understand my family members would want closure. Wife
Tomko, Yeah, she was arrested in nineteen ninety five for conspiracy to commit
murder. She was found guilty. She was able to appeal as soon as
she could, stating she didn't even participate in the subway attacks, so why
are you pinning this on me? But she was convicted and sentenced to six
years in prison in nineteen ninety nine. She was released in two thousand and
two, so she only served a few years. Upon her release, she
changed her name I would too, It's Akari Matsumoto, and she moved back
into the home she shared with three of her children. Tomoko tried to appeal
the court. Tried to appeal to the court to get Shoko's ashes like after
he was executed, but that request was denied. Sorry in twenty seventeen,
and this is just a footnote to maybe the weird family dynamic of Tomoko and
Shoko. In twenty seventeen, one of their daughters came forward and stated that
at the age of two, she was forced to live in a room with
no windows, and when her brother was born, her life became a lot
worse. She received little to no attention, and when she tried to stay
with her mother, Tomoko turned her away. None of Choko's children were allowed
to call him dad since he was the leader of the cult. Shoko didn't
think that the term dad gave him enough respect that he thought he deserved.
Whenever the children were punished, their penalties were severe. I bet he forced
the children to eat omelets that had broken pieces of clay inside, and they
were forced to stand outside in torrential downpours when they disobeyed anything like they were
told to do. Even though some of this was contradicted by other members of
Shokos offspring, as soon as their parents were arrested, the children did everything
like all of the children did everything in their power to remove and distanced themselves
from the cult. Two of Schoko's children they'll remain in touch with him up
until the day he died, and they tried even to get his death sentence
revoked after the boys, I'm not sure. I bet you I would probably
bet money on it, and unbelievably, the cult still remains active to this
day. What it has since been renamed to elf A L E P h
okay, I'm thinking okay elf allop. I'm not pronouncing the pH, I'm
pronouncing it like an F. But it's But it's been renamed to and it's
still I'm not sure, but yeah, that's my crazy story about the Japanese
subway attack island. Yeah, carried out by a religious quote unquote cult and
they're crazy ass megalomaniacter. This kind of story is fascinating me. How someone's
ego gets so big, I know? And how do you get so many
people to follow? We're trying to get people to follow, like what like
and how do you get convinced people like, Okay, yeah, we're gonna
make this Sarah gas and we're just gonna kill a bunch. We're just gonna
kill thousands of innocent people on the subway because the end tis no, like
it's crazy secret like that. I don't know, right, I don't know
anyway, Well, thank you all for listening and watching and or watching,
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