WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:05.200
This episode may contain content of a
graphic nature, including descriptions of physical and

2
00:00:05.240 --> 00:00:10.560
sexual violence against adults, children,
and animals. Listener discretion is advised.

3
00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:17.199
Hi everyone, I'm Teleia and I'm
Tanya, and together we are Crimes and

4
00:00:17.239 --> 00:00:38.880
Consequences, a true crime podcast.
Welcome back everyone to this week's episode of

5
00:00:38.920 --> 00:00:44.399
Crimes and Consequences. I am Tanya
and my lovely co host Taliah. Hello.

6
00:00:44.920 --> 00:00:48.759
We're a couple of lawyers who like
to talk about true crime and food.

7
00:00:49.240 --> 00:00:55.840
Yes, so that's our top two
topics of conversation. That law never

8
00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:00.600
law. No, and so we
you know, started this podcast and here

9
00:01:00.640 --> 00:01:03.799
we are, Yeah, here we
are. So i'd like to remind everyone

10
00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:10.159
to either hit subscribe or follow like
whatever app you're listening to if you're watching

11
00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:12.439
us on YouTube on True Crime Daily. And thank you to True Crime Daily

12
00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:18.120
for hosting us. Yes, I
am going to tell you a story about

13
00:01:18.760 --> 00:01:23.519
a cult leader in Japan. Okay, so I don't know. We don't

14
00:01:23.560 --> 00:01:25.959
have a lot of Japanese stories.
No, we don't. We have a

15
00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:30.599
few, but not very money.
So Shoku Asahara, he was born with

16
00:01:30.640 --> 00:01:36.879
a name Kaizu Matsumoto. Wow,
I'm impressed. Thank you. I'm March

17
00:01:36.920 --> 00:01:42.480
second, nineteen fifty five in Yatsushiro, Japan. He was one of seven

18
00:01:42.599 --> 00:01:49.439
children and his family was severely poor. They made mats, They were mat

19
00:01:49.480 --> 00:01:56.760
makers, and he was born with
infantile glacoma, which caused him to be

20
00:01:56.760 --> 00:02:00.319
partially blind. Okay, okay,
So due to this disability, he needed

21
00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:06.400
to attend a special school and he
attended a school for the blind. Was

22
00:02:07.080 --> 00:02:12.680
partially yeah, and he was kind
of popular sometimes with his his classmates because

23
00:02:12.719 --> 00:02:16.000
he could he did have partial sight, so he would able to like sneak

24
00:02:16.240 --> 00:02:21.240
kids out of the school sometimes and
they would go like an adventures. But

25
00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:28.120
anyway, yeah, anyway, when
he graduated, even though he did have

26
00:02:28.199 --> 00:02:32.439
this rapport with some of his classmates, nobody really had a lot of nice

27
00:02:32.479 --> 00:02:37.719
things to say about him, Like
for his time at the school. They

28
00:02:37.759 --> 00:02:43.599
said he was kind of a bully
at times, and they remembered him like

29
00:02:43.759 --> 00:02:49.039
his classmates and even teachers remembered him
as kind of someone who tried to manipulate

30
00:02:49.560 --> 00:02:53.159
other students, like he would try
to like get their money, like manipulate

31
00:02:53.159 --> 00:02:57.719
them out of their money and stuff
like that. One of his former teachers

32
00:02:57.800 --> 00:03:02.400
also mentioned that whenever showed was reprimanded
about anything. He would get upset and

33
00:03:02.439 --> 00:03:07.240
make threats to burn down the student
housing. Oh yeah, so he you

34
00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:12.039
know, it wasn't like like a
normal tantrum. It was like I'm going

35
00:03:12.120 --> 00:03:16.240
to burn this little downstream. Yeah. He completed his schooling at the Scope

36
00:03:16.240 --> 00:03:22.120
for the Blind in nineteen seventy seven, and he ended up studying after that.

37
00:03:22.240 --> 00:03:28.960
He ended up studying Chinese medicine and
pharmaceuticals in acupuncture, and he did

38
00:03:28.960 --> 00:03:30.680
that when he was around twenty two. I think he might have completed his

39
00:03:30.719 --> 00:03:36.039
studies around the time he was twenty
two. While he was figuring out like

40
00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:39.439
what his next steps in life would
be, Choko, he began to take

41
00:03:39.439 --> 00:03:46.919
an interest in religion, and his
interests led him into studying all different types

42
00:03:46.960 --> 00:03:53.240
of religions in their philosophies. He
dabbled in a few different ones like Christianity,

43
00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:59.120
Hinduism, Buddhism, and this one
kind of hand in hand with his

44
00:03:59.199 --> 00:04:03.120
own personal practice. Like he liked
to meditate and do yoga. So I

45
00:04:03.120 --> 00:04:09.080
think like the peaceful you know,
meditations maybe of Buddhism or Hinduism or something

46
00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:15.479
probably you know, help that.
So he was he really enjoyed the meditating

47
00:04:15.680 --> 00:04:20.560
and the yoga, so he began
teaching yoga classes. And as he's doing

48
00:04:20.639 --> 00:04:26.639
the yoga classes, he starts telling
his students about what he's been learning about

49
00:04:26.720 --> 00:04:30.800
religion. So soon after this,
there was a woman that would come to

50
00:04:30.839 --> 00:04:34.399
his yoga classes and she kind of
took an interest in him. Her name

51
00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:40.279
is Tomoko, and when she met
him, she was like smitten right away,

52
00:04:40.319 --> 00:04:42.920
like she knew this was the guy
she wanted to spend the rest of

53
00:04:42.920 --> 00:04:47.120
her life with. She was impressed
by his lesson and you know, his

54
00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:54.199
perception of the world. He had
told all of his students that, you

55
00:04:54.240 --> 00:04:58.639
know, you need to live like
a non violent life, and when Tomoko

56
00:04:58.720 --> 00:05:01.720
heard that, she was really impressed. You know, like he just seemed

57
00:05:01.720 --> 00:05:08.079
to be like a peaceful, well
rounded person. During this time, while

58
00:05:08.079 --> 00:05:15.279
he's doing these yoga classes and he's
meeting Tomko, Shoko's confidence was slowly rising

59
00:05:15.800 --> 00:05:18.519
and he was getting to the point
where some people were just coming to his

60
00:05:18.639 --> 00:05:25.879
yoga classes to hear about his religious
teachings. Okay, and these students quickly

61
00:05:25.879 --> 00:05:30.720
became his followers and they viewed him
as their spiritual leader. So this is

62
00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:35.439
all progressing to this. As time
went on to Moko and Shoko grew close

63
00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:41.560
and their relationship blossomed. They got
married in nineteen seventy eight, and their

64
00:05:41.560 --> 00:05:47.040
lives as a married couple appeared happy, and Shoko's followers respected to Mocho as

65
00:05:47.120 --> 00:05:50.639
his wife, like, you know, she's their spiritual leader's wife, and

66
00:05:50.680 --> 00:05:55.879
so they did give her some honor
and things like. That's how they treated

67
00:05:55.879 --> 00:06:00.560
her. Together, they had six
children, wow, four daughters and two

68
00:06:00.639 --> 00:06:02.480
sons. A lot of kids.
It is a lot of kids. And

69
00:06:02.560 --> 00:06:08.160
according to some reports, although this
was never proven to be factual, there

70
00:06:08.240 --> 00:06:14.639
was speculation that the couple neglected the
daughters while they gave their sons all their

71
00:06:14.639 --> 00:06:15.879
love and affection. I mean,
I don't know if that's true, but

72
00:06:16.399 --> 00:06:23.120
it's been reported. Okay, Shortly
after starting his family, Shoko needed to

73
00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:28.839
find a way to provide you know, like okay, yoga instructure and probably

74
00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:31.480
isn't that much. Yeah, probably
isn't paying that much. So he eventually

75
00:06:31.519 --> 00:06:36.800
opened up his own pharmacy, which
specialized in Chinese medicines. But he was

76
00:06:38.079 --> 00:06:41.839
up his own pharmacy. Yeah,
but he was a little shady in this

77
00:06:42.759 --> 00:06:48.279
and in his business, and he
was eventually arrested for selling fake remedies to

78
00:06:48.360 --> 00:06:54.839
his customers. He was charged with
fraud and convicted in nineteen eighty two for

79
00:06:54.959 --> 00:06:59.519
practicing pharmaceuticals without any sort of license. That's why I was wondering. Yeah

80
00:06:59.600 --> 00:07:02.879
he was. Yeah, he just
opened it and decided to start, by

81
00:07:02.879 --> 00:07:08.360
the hell not right like, Yeah, after all this happened, his business

82
00:07:08.399 --> 00:07:13.240
got shut down obviously, and he
went bankrupt. He had to serve a

83
00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:16.920
twenty day sentence. That's it,
yep, And he was fined two hundred

84
00:07:16.920 --> 00:07:20.600
thousand yen, which is equivalent to
about eight hundred dollars. That's not then

85
00:07:20.680 --> 00:07:24.560
the time now, but it's nineteen
eighty two, so that's kind of a

86
00:07:24.560 --> 00:07:28.360
lot of money in nineteen eighty two. Yeah, okay. A little while

87
00:07:28.480 --> 00:07:33.480
later, Shoko had begun to infiltrate
his own yoga classes and meditation sessions with

88
00:07:33.720 --> 00:07:41.399
the religious teachings. And things really
started to change after Shoko attended a Himalayan

89
00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:46.839
retreat and after the retreat, he
bragged about achieving satori, which translates to

90
00:07:47.079 --> 00:07:56.439
spiritual enlightenment at this retreat in the
Himalayas. And you know, now I'm

91
00:07:56.480 --> 00:08:00.920
better than you, Yes, now
I have this this spiritual awakening. So

92
00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:05.079
with all of this new found enlightenment, he ended up find like being the

93
00:08:05.120 --> 00:08:13.000
founder of a group called om Shinrikyo, omshin your om Shinrikyo and translated to

94
00:08:13.120 --> 00:08:18.839
English, it means supreme Truth.
This was his own religious group. Oh

95
00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:22.160
I okay, yeah, you know, start your own pharmacy, your own

96
00:08:22.160 --> 00:08:28.560
religious group, right, why not? And amazingly it grew in membership like

97
00:08:28.600 --> 00:08:33.519
almost right away. So as Shoko
is rising up as a powerful leader in

98
00:08:33.559 --> 00:08:39.679
his quote unquote peaceful you know,
teachings and his peaceful community of followers,

99
00:08:41.600 --> 00:08:45.200
all of this popularity went to his
head, of course, and I bet

100
00:08:45.200 --> 00:08:50.360
those followers donated money into him.
Oh yeah, definitely right, and the

101
00:08:50.960 --> 00:08:56.919
really started to like his own personal
like getting the big head and you know

102
00:08:58.120 --> 00:09:01.840
that kind of thing really started to
take off. His ego, Yeah,

103
00:09:01.879 --> 00:09:03.559
his ego. Thank you. I
was looking for that word. In nineteen

104
00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:11.159
eighty six, because the religious group
was recognized legally by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government

105
00:09:11.879 --> 00:09:16.480
and he that's when he was like
filed the right tax papers or something like

106
00:09:16.559 --> 00:09:22.159
they're they're official official recognized by the
government. And at this point he now

107
00:09:22.240 --> 00:09:28.200
proclaims himself as the Holy Pope,
as Tokyo's Christ and there of the country.

108
00:09:28.360 --> 00:09:33.440
What the fuck is this? Yeah? And this fame eventually got him

109
00:09:33.480 --> 00:09:39.279
on the cover covers of magazines.
He was on TV. He gave lectures

110
00:09:39.480 --> 00:09:45.320
at various colleges. He wrote books
What are we doing wrong? I don't

111
00:09:45.320 --> 00:09:48.279
know. We're not you know,
we're not. I mean, we're not

112
00:09:48.360 --> 00:09:52.799
like his egomaniacs. Yeah. I
needed, like, you know, needed

113
00:09:52.840 --> 00:09:54.279
to be an ego maniac to do
crap like this. Yeah. I needed

114
00:09:54.279 --> 00:10:01.399
to have higher self esteem. Yes, yeah, I am the Savior of

115
00:10:01.519 --> 00:10:07.600
the of the country of Sterling Heights, Michigan. I know this is crazy.

116
00:10:09.200 --> 00:10:13.320
One of the books he wrote was
called Declaring Myself the Christ? What

117
00:10:13.679 --> 00:10:18.600
the hell? Declaring my mm hmm? And this is his way of telling

118
00:10:18.600 --> 00:10:24.679
everybody that he is the one and
only Christ. He told us his followers

119
00:10:24.080 --> 00:10:31.600
that he was the only truly enlightened
master in all of Japan, that he

120
00:10:31.720 --> 00:10:35.240
was the only person that could wash
away sins. And he also said,

121
00:10:35.240 --> 00:10:39.360
you know, end times are coming, so y'all gonna get your shit together,

122
00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:43.080
right, all right, all right. He bragged about his ability to

123
00:10:43.240 --> 00:10:50.240
levitate. He banned books that weren't
the ones that he wrote. These are

124
00:10:50.240 --> 00:10:52.840
for his followers. He banned a
limited amount of books they can make.

125
00:10:54.919 --> 00:10:58.480
You know, he banned sex,
which with six kids, I'm thinking he's

126
00:10:58.519 --> 00:11:03.120
not banning sex. Sex would in
sex. I don't know. I don't

127
00:11:03.159 --> 00:11:09.799
know. He obviously did it.
What is this? I know he just

128
00:11:09.799 --> 00:11:16.000
started to get really bold with his
predictions and his teachings and controlling yes,

129
00:11:16.240 --> 00:11:22.600
and he was just popular. His
popularity is just continuing. I don't understand,

130
00:11:22.799 --> 00:11:28.039
No, I don't. Okay,
Now, this religious group starts to

131
00:11:28.039 --> 00:11:33.480
get a little culty. Okay,
not that you know, every religious group

132
00:11:33.519 --> 00:11:37.440
is cult, but it started to
get culty because they became more and more

133
00:11:37.519 --> 00:11:43.679
exclusive and limiting their contact with the
outside world. A lot of the followers

134
00:11:43.720 --> 00:11:50.080
broke ties with their own family that
didn't yeah that right to please showco and

135
00:11:50.360 --> 00:11:54.559
you know, like that was the
only way they could fully commit themselves to

136
00:11:54.639 --> 00:12:01.559
this group. Some of them.
The his life then started to become a

137
00:12:01.559 --> 00:12:07.600
life of secrecy, and the group
was very secretive. Some members, yes

138
00:12:07.759 --> 00:12:13.799
exactly. Some members were being subjected
to intense shock therapy, like they started

139
00:12:13.799 --> 00:12:18.799
doing weird shit like you know,
to the members. Some were given hallucinogenic

140
00:12:18.879 --> 00:12:24.960
drugs. The members were also forced
to completely worship Choko and only him.

141
00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:30.960
One member was caught carrying around a
picture of an Indian saint, and when

142
00:12:30.960 --> 00:12:35.679
it was found out, Shoku went
absolutely crazy. So people that had made

143
00:12:35.720 --> 00:12:39.039
comments even about leaving the group were
held against their will. You know,

144
00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:43.879
they were oh, yeah, yeah, I get this, it's cult.

145
00:12:43.279 --> 00:12:48.320
Yes, and they were forced to
give Choko huge amounts of money, all

146
00:12:48.360 --> 00:12:52.240
their money and the right. Many
people who'd made their wishes known that they

147
00:12:52.240 --> 00:12:56.240
wanted to leave the group eventually were
killed. Their announcements were made public.

148
00:12:56.519 --> 00:13:01.519
Yeah, and I don't know.
The story I'm telling you is not about

149
00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:05.159
those people, unfortunately, because I
don't know any details about them. But

150
00:13:07.399 --> 00:13:11.279
there was one man who was brought
into the group by his daughters, and

151
00:13:11.360 --> 00:13:16.600
after only a few weeks he somehow
managed to escape after being forced to purge

152
00:13:16.639 --> 00:13:22.320
his system. And the way that
the group members purged their system was that

153
00:13:22.600 --> 00:13:28.919
they forced themselves or each other to
drink just gallons of hot water every day,

154
00:13:28.960 --> 00:13:31.360
to the point where they would throw
up. Like that's how you purge

155
00:13:31.679 --> 00:13:35.919
oh your system? Okay, I
don't know. Well, I'm not going

156
00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:39.320
to try that. No, I'm
not going to try that either. Soon

157
00:13:39.440 --> 00:13:45.000
enough. Rumors now are beginning to
come to the surface about this group and

158
00:13:45.039 --> 00:13:48.720
the violence that was going on within
the organization, and they're supposed to be

159
00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:54.039
peaceful. Remember right, Choko was
publicly being referred to as a cult leader

160
00:13:54.320 --> 00:13:58.639
now in the media, rather than
a religious leader. One man who was

161
00:13:58.679 --> 00:14:05.080
an anti cult attorney started to give
showcos anti cult attorney, Let you specialize

162
00:14:05.120 --> 00:14:09.559
in I do family law? What
about you? I'm an anti cult attorney.

163
00:14:09.639 --> 00:14:11.440
I want to do it. I
want to be an anti ship.

164
00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:15.879
We should change our firm. We're
going to add it to our business cards.

165
00:14:15.960 --> 00:14:20.639
Right, anti cult, I don't
family law? Criminal and anti cult?

166
00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:26.759
Yes? Call us getting yes exactly. So Shoku, this this attorney

167
00:14:26.840 --> 00:14:31.120
started giving Shoko some trouble after he'd
been hearing about the group because he's like,

168
00:14:31.159 --> 00:14:33.600
okay, he's anti cult obviously,
and he's like, okay, what's

169
00:14:33.639 --> 00:14:39.679
going on. But shortly after,
like he started ruffling some feathers, this

170
00:14:39.720 --> 00:14:46.279
attorney he mysteriously disappeared. What yeah, and none of his family members were

171
00:14:46.279 --> 00:14:50.000
ever seen alive again. So him
and his family, what, yes,

172
00:14:50.919 --> 00:14:54.480
you should just do a whole story
on these people. I really should I

173
00:14:54.559 --> 00:14:58.559
know. It was later discovered that
the lawyer and his family were murdered in

174
00:14:58.600 --> 00:15:03.360
November of nineteen eighty nine, So
by the beginning of November or not.

175
00:15:03.440 --> 00:15:07.960
By the beginning of nineteen ninety,
the group had roughly ten thousand members.

176
00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:15.080
Ten thousand Japan alone. Oh my
gosh, I was seeing a couple of

177
00:15:15.200 --> 00:15:18.399
hundred. No, there were also
thousands of followers that participated around the world.

178
00:15:18.759 --> 00:15:22.000
Some people were in Germany, some
of the United States, but most

179
00:15:22.039 --> 00:15:26.240
of the other followers were in Russia, and I don't know why. At

180
00:15:26.279 --> 00:15:33.200
one point, Shoko actually preached his
teachings to a stadium filled crowd of roughly

181
00:15:33.279 --> 00:15:39.639
fifteen thousand people. That's crazy in
Moscow. Fucking nuts, isn't it in

182
00:15:39.759 --> 00:15:45.679
Moscow? In Moscow, in like
the eighties? Okay, he got in

183
00:15:45.720 --> 00:15:50.759
somehow, right, all right?
Okay? There were offices and branches of

184
00:15:50.840 --> 00:15:56.320
this group, like the business Yeah, set up in each country that was

185
00:15:56.320 --> 00:16:03.279
dedicated to the cult. In their
operation in nineteen ninety, the cult tried

186
00:16:03.320 --> 00:16:10.200
to infiltrate Japanese politics so that they
could influence the government. The cult members

187
00:16:10.240 --> 00:16:15.120
nominated twenty five of their disciples to
be candidates for parliament. However, none

188
00:16:15.159 --> 00:16:19.639
of them were elected to the government. Thankfully. After this attempt, the

189
00:16:19.759 --> 00:16:26.360
Japanese government made it official like olmshin
Koru and ELM Shinrikyo. Sorry, I'm

190
00:16:26.360 --> 00:16:30.440
saying it wrong. That's the name
of the group they The government is like,

191
00:16:30.600 --> 00:16:33.960
they are not a religious group.
They're definitely a cult, right,

192
00:16:34.080 --> 00:16:40.279
there's no way, no taxes,
exemptions, Yeah, no exceptions for them.

193
00:16:40.759 --> 00:16:45.080
The cult members were upset that their
attempt to infiltrate the government failed,

194
00:16:45.279 --> 00:16:49.600
so they began to think, like, how can we get the general public's

195
00:16:49.720 --> 00:16:53.879
notice? Like, they were looking
for ways to attack the general public.

196
00:16:56.120 --> 00:17:02.360
They began to obtain guns, they
created organic missiles. But why do they

197
00:17:02.360 --> 00:17:07.920
want to attack the public? I'm
the reasoning behind it was never made clear

198
00:17:07.960 --> 00:17:12.599
to me, because you know,
it's just they decided that they wanted to

199
00:17:12.599 --> 00:17:17.880
get noticed and they wanted to hurt
people. And I don't know where the

200
00:17:17.920 --> 00:17:22.279
philosophy some revolution, That's what I'm
thinking, Like, yeah, and the

201
00:17:22.359 --> 00:17:27.920
thinking behind it is, you cause
like some kind of you know, public

202
00:17:30.839 --> 00:17:34.440
terrorist attack or something that then it's
going to cause the country to go into

203
00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:38.759
war maybe, and you know,
cause all this devastation and things like maybe

204
00:17:38.759 --> 00:17:42.519
people will join your side because they're
against the government exactly. Like that's what

205
00:17:42.559 --> 00:17:47.319
I'm thinking. I don't know,
that's what I'm thinking. There was right,

206
00:17:47.880 --> 00:17:52.039
they got their got They ended up
getting their hands on massive quantities of

207
00:17:52.079 --> 00:17:56.839
the nerve gas called saren and one. At one point this cult had billions

208
00:17:56.839 --> 00:18:02.039
of dollars stashed away. What yeah, somehow they were generating money money,

209
00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:07.519
Okay, Billians and we are doing
something wrong. Well we're not. We're

210
00:18:07.559 --> 00:18:12.279
not crazy. Cult leaders are forming
our own religion on crimes and consequences.

211
00:18:14.759 --> 00:18:19.960
Please don'tate. In July of nineteen
ninety three, a liquid version of the

212
00:18:21.200 --> 00:18:26.599
of anthrax was released from atop the
roof of an eight story high building owned

213
00:18:26.640 --> 00:18:33.039
by the cult. And this happened
in Tokyo on So this happened like this.

214
00:18:33.039 --> 00:18:36.200
This was released in July, like
early July. So a few days

215
00:18:36.319 --> 00:18:41.359
earlier, on June twenty ninth,
residents of eastern Tokyo began smelling an odor,

216
00:18:42.079 --> 00:18:48.119
and they reported this foul smell to
local environment Health center. The following

217
00:18:48.200 --> 00:18:52.480
day, June thirtieth, forty one, members of the community had made reports

218
00:18:52.519 --> 00:18:57.400
of the smell, and those who
had been exposed told the officials that they

219
00:18:57.440 --> 00:19:03.119
experience in coomedy, a complete loss
of appetite and nausea. I didn't even

220
00:19:03.160 --> 00:19:07.240
know there was liquid anth me either. The things, hey, the more

221
00:19:07.279 --> 00:19:12.880
you know, right, the things
consequences learn. Authorities wanted to go inside

222
00:19:12.920 --> 00:19:18.599
the building to check things out,
but nobody in the cult on this entire

223
00:19:18.640 --> 00:19:21.400
building, and they were like,
no, you're not allowed to come in

224
00:19:21.400 --> 00:19:26.079
here. They wouldn't consent to a
search, so and I'm not sure why

225
00:19:26.079 --> 00:19:30.920
they didn't get a search warrant,
But the authorities then started to look like

226
00:19:32.039 --> 00:19:37.279
around the building's exterior, they collected
air samples and now they're watching the building.

227
00:19:38.039 --> 00:19:44.440
The next morning, on July first, the neighboring buildings heard really loud

228
00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:52.319
noises that then they there was a
mist that was released like coming from the

229
00:19:52.359 --> 00:19:56.440
build the roof of the building.
The myst was seen coming out of one

230
00:19:56.480 --> 00:20:00.480
of two cooling towers that were on
the roof, and as the day went

231
00:20:00.519 --> 00:20:04.960
on, about one hundred and eighteen
complaints were filed about these odors to that

232
00:20:06.160 --> 00:20:11.319
Environment Health Office. Choco and the
cult ended up vacating the building on July

233
00:20:11.480 --> 00:20:18.759
second and taking everything with them,
the odor and the mist. It later

234
00:20:18.880 --> 00:20:27.359
came out was that it was the
cult trying to aerosolize aerosol aerosoli the antra.

235
00:20:29.880 --> 00:20:32.200
I don't know. I just made
it up, trying to make it

236
00:20:32.240 --> 00:20:36.640
like in an aerosol. Yes,
I guess, okay, they're trying to

237
00:20:36.640 --> 00:20:41.039
do that to the anthrax so that
they could create like an entire outbreak in

238
00:20:41.079 --> 00:20:44.960
the neighborhood and anybody in the cult
getting hurt by this. Apparently not.

239
00:20:45.079 --> 00:20:48.240
They must have had their windows shut
lea no no, but I'm thinking they

240
00:20:48.279 --> 00:20:51.839
didn't go outside or anthrax and all
that, like I know, and they're

241
00:20:51.839 --> 00:20:56.839
handling it. I don't know.
Choko believed, like okay, so this

242
00:20:56.920 --> 00:21:00.920
is the philosophy. He believed that
if there was an epidemic, then a

243
00:21:00.960 --> 00:21:04.720
world war would commence and he would
then be the ruler of the world.

244
00:21:06.119 --> 00:21:10.039
So that's what was the reasoning.
Like I said, yes, yes,

245
00:21:11.880 --> 00:21:17.359
And if this mist had been ingested, the anthrax spores affect the throat,

246
00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:22.160
stomach, intestines, and esophagus,
and the person that ingested it would most

247
00:21:22.200 --> 00:21:27.720
likely die if it went untreated.
Thankfully, though nobody was seriously hurt.

248
00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:36.960
Nobody died from that mist that was
released. They just got sick. Yeah,

249
00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:41.039
they just got sick. So Shoko
was you know, the the idea

250
00:21:41.119 --> 00:21:42.200
behind it. Like I said,
the world war and stuff like that.

251
00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:48.599
Choko used to preach about, you
know, end times was coming and this

252
00:21:48.799 --> 00:21:52.440
was a way to hasten end times. Obviously, like had this massive I

253
00:21:52.440 --> 00:21:56.880
don't know why you would have a
massive world war maybe, but it was

254
00:21:56.920 --> 00:22:03.039
nonviolent. I know. That's the
that's that is the riddle. And you

255
00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:06.680
know, the followers were told,
you know, if this happens, we

256
00:22:06.759 --> 00:22:11.039
have this epidemic whatever and we have
this war, that the Followers would be

257
00:22:11.079 --> 00:22:15.279
the only ones left on earth.
And so that's one of the reasons why

258
00:22:15.319 --> 00:22:19.279
they went along with it, besides
being completely brainwashed. After this nineteen ninety

259
00:22:19.279 --> 00:22:26.000
three attack failed, the cult struck
a second time in nineteen ninety four.

260
00:22:26.079 --> 00:22:32.160
This group was fearless as they tested
saren gas on different things to make sure

261
00:22:32.200 --> 00:22:36.119
it would harm and kill people.
I don't think it's saren gas. I

262
00:22:36.200 --> 00:22:41.079
know, I would love they buy
that from They got a lot of it.

263
00:22:41.119 --> 00:22:44.400
I'll tell you exactly how much as
the story goes on, But they

264
00:22:44.400 --> 00:22:45.000
get a lot of it. I
don't know. They can just go to

265
00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.440
Walmart, No, to kill someone. It takes a very very tiny,

266
00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:56.680
tiny amount. But you can't just
purchase that Amazon something, right, Like,

267
00:22:56.720 --> 00:22:59.720
where did they get it in the
nineties, I don't know. I

268
00:23:00.079 --> 00:23:03.279
think of a couple of countries.
If somebody was doing something shady, if

269
00:23:03.279 --> 00:23:08.160
you had enough money, you would
get there, you'd set So. Yeah,

270
00:23:08.640 --> 00:23:12.079
once their testing was complete, like
once they were like, okay,

271
00:23:12.119 --> 00:23:18.279
this is definitely going to kill people, they decided to direct their attack at

272
00:23:18.279 --> 00:23:22.599
a neighborhood where a bunch of judges
lived. And I don't know how you

273
00:23:22.640 --> 00:23:27.839
find this out, but they targeted
the judges because these judges had ruled against

274
00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:33.920
the cult in several disputes. When
they struck with the sarin gas, five

275
00:23:34.079 --> 00:23:40.680
hundred people got severely sick and eight
people died. And none of the eight

276
00:23:40.720 --> 00:23:44.240
people that died were the judges,
right, they were truly innocent, Not

277
00:23:44.319 --> 00:23:48.160
that the judges weren't, but they
were truly innocent people. The gas was

278
00:23:48.200 --> 00:23:52.680
released from a truck that was parked
near the housing complex where the judges lived,

279
00:23:53.920 --> 00:23:57.720
and that's how it was released.
The judges were some of them were

280
00:23:57.839 --> 00:24:03.440
injured by inhaling the gas, but
they ended up surviving. And even though

281
00:24:03.480 --> 00:24:07.640
the cult had tried to poison the
community like the year earlier with releasing that

282
00:24:07.720 --> 00:24:15.319
gas on the roof. Nobody,
like nobody really suspected them in this attack

283
00:24:15.359 --> 00:24:18.519
on the judges. So and nobody
was charged in that attack. I think

284
00:24:18.559 --> 00:24:22.039
of the judges, we know,
I know, be horrible, I know,

285
00:24:22.279 --> 00:24:26.400
right, like I mean, they're
just ruling, just doing their job,

286
00:24:26.920 --> 00:24:30.720
like you know when they rule against
us, I know, and I

287
00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:38.119
don't like them exactly, Like my
argument was excellent. But anyway, this

288
00:24:38.200 --> 00:24:42.759
attack made obviously people in the neighborhood, people in that area of Tokyo,

289
00:24:42.920 --> 00:24:47.279
very fearful. Yeah, and they
did have a right to feel that way

290
00:24:47.359 --> 00:24:51.240
because and it's terrorism, Oh absolutely, it's terrorism. Yeah, they were

291
00:24:51.319 --> 00:24:53.920
right to feel that way because the
cult was working on an attack on the

292
00:24:53.960 --> 00:25:00.960
public, like on an even more
grand scale. So happening, this huge

293
00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:06.240
attack that they plan it happened on
March twentieth, nineteen ninety five. A

294
00:25:06.279 --> 00:25:11.960
few members of the cult carried bags
filled with saren gas onto five different trains

295
00:25:12.400 --> 00:25:18.480
that were about to depart for Central
Tokyo. Sarin gas, as I mentioned,

296
00:25:18.559 --> 00:25:22.640
is extremely deadly. There's no way
of detecting it. It has absolutely

297
00:25:22.880 --> 00:25:29.279
no smell, it doesn't. Nope, And the small amount of less than

298
00:25:29.440 --> 00:25:34.559
a milligram can kill a human and
less than a milligram less than a milligram,

299
00:25:36.839 --> 00:25:41.519
it's made up of similar components to
pesticides and rubbing alcohol. Well,

300
00:25:41.519 --> 00:25:44.680
now that you've told everybody how to
make to make it, you know you

301
00:25:44.720 --> 00:25:49.359
got to look that up on the
internet yourself. Once these five cult members

302
00:25:49.559 --> 00:25:56.799
boarded their separate train lines, they
timed out their attacks perfectly, so,

303
00:25:56.880 --> 00:26:02.200
witnesses say. Witnesses to this attack
say they the men board the trains,

304
00:26:03.200 --> 00:26:07.559
one was seen wearing huge sunglasses and
a surgical mask. But the mask didn't

305
00:26:07.599 --> 00:26:12.480
alarm anyone because you know a lot
of people wore them in Japan, like

306
00:26:12.559 --> 00:26:18.920
around hay fever season and stuff.
After the man found a seat on the

307
00:26:18.960 --> 00:26:25.000
train, he began fidgeting with a
rectangled shape object that was wrapped in newspaper.

308
00:26:25.519 --> 00:26:29.119
And this was the bag of gas, of the sarin gas. And

309
00:26:29.160 --> 00:26:30.039
I don't know what kind of bag
it was, Like, I'm thinking,

310
00:26:30.079 --> 00:26:33.279
is it a ziploc? What is
it? Like? I was curious,

311
00:26:33.319 --> 00:26:37.720
but I don't know. At the
following stop, the man put the bag

312
00:26:37.759 --> 00:26:41.000
on the floor of the train and
he walked quickly off the train. As

313
00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:47.599
soon as he stepped foot on off
the train, the people noticed that the

314
00:26:47.640 --> 00:26:53.559
newspaper around the bag was damp,
and immediately some people start to panic.

315
00:26:55.519 --> 00:27:00.079
As soon as the gas hit the
train car air, people's eyes began to

316
00:27:00.079 --> 00:27:03.759
burn, their heads began to pound, and someone yelled out, it's it's

317
00:27:03.839 --> 00:27:08.119
gas. There was an elderly man
who was sitting next to the attacker.

318
00:27:08.680 --> 00:27:12.240
He wasn't moving at this point because
he was already dying. How long does

319
00:27:12.279 --> 00:27:15.799
it take too? I mean,
it's almost immediate. Oh, it's in

320
00:27:17.160 --> 00:27:21.759
saren. Gas is a nerve gas. Oh my, so it affects you

321
00:27:21.799 --> 00:27:27.200
know, it affects you severely.
It can make a person immobile, like

322
00:27:27.240 --> 00:27:33.319
almost immediately because the enzymes in your
body, Like it attacks enzymes and they

323
00:27:33.359 --> 00:27:37.039
stopped working in a short amount of
time, and your muscles just stop.

324
00:27:37.200 --> 00:27:41.440
Oh my gosh. Can you imagine? Now? Do you suffocate because your

325
00:27:41.480 --> 00:27:45.960
lungs and stuff don't work? I
believe so like everything stops, everything stop,

326
00:27:47.079 --> 00:27:52.119
everything stops. Several passengers were on
their knees because they weren't able to

327
00:27:52.200 --> 00:27:57.440
stand anymore. Several people collapsed to
the floor. Those who had minor symptoms

328
00:27:57.519 --> 00:28:03.079
were able to move, but they
had to crawl up three flights of stairs

329
00:28:03.160 --> 00:28:07.839
just to get outside, like out
of the subway in the subways. In

330
00:28:07.880 --> 00:28:12.920
the subway, yes, these trains. Many of those infected began vomiting,

331
00:28:14.359 --> 00:28:18.279
where others were stiff as a board, lying on the ground like your I

332
00:28:18.279 --> 00:28:22.039
think your muscles just tense up too. Many who made it out weren't able

333
00:28:22.079 --> 00:28:27.599
to see initially because the gas had
blinded them. In mere minutes, the

334
00:28:27.680 --> 00:28:33.559
same exact thing was happening on the
four other because they tied it. Yeah,

335
00:28:33.559 --> 00:28:38.319
they timed it for this all to
happen like simultaneously. Thousands of people

336
00:28:38.440 --> 00:28:45.279
were rushed as quickly as possible to
hospitals where a seren an a dote which

337
00:28:45.359 --> 00:28:48.839
is called a tropine was given.
So thankfully there is a how they know.

338
00:28:49.039 --> 00:28:52.400
They just knew by the symptoms that
I think so. I think so.

339
00:28:53.920 --> 00:29:00.839
Each of the cult members when they
dropped their bag filled with saren gas,

340
00:29:00.559 --> 00:29:04.799
they all used the same technique to
get the gas into the air,

341
00:29:06.440 --> 00:29:10.160
and every called me member had an
umbrella with them. This is how they

342
00:29:10.160 --> 00:29:14.319
did it. And on the tips
of the umbrella was sort of like a

343
00:29:14.359 --> 00:29:18.319
sharp point or like a knife,
so when the bag was dropped, the

344
00:29:18.440 --> 00:29:22.279
member punctured them with the tip of
the umbrella and after the punk, after

345
00:29:22.359 --> 00:29:26.400
they punctured them, they then quickly
got the hell out. Yeah, got

346
00:29:26.440 --> 00:29:29.160
off the trains, so they timed
it like with the next stop or what

347
00:29:29.319 --> 00:29:33.440
have you, and they gotten to
get away vehicles that were left at the

348
00:29:33.480 --> 00:29:37.920
scene undetected. I never heard the
story before, I know, I can't.

349
00:29:37.960 --> 00:29:41.839
I kind of remember it happening,
but not really. As the saren

350
00:29:41.880 --> 00:29:47.599
gas was getting into the air,
that's when the passengers became infected. And

351
00:29:47.720 --> 00:29:52.160
the trains are going along their route
and at each stop, infected passengers would

352
00:29:52.160 --> 00:29:56.400
get off, and then more people
would get on because they don't know.

353
00:29:56.559 --> 00:30:02.119
They don't know, and that's how
it ended up being so widespread. And

354
00:30:02.200 --> 00:30:04.480
even those that were trying to help
the people that were sick and infected,

355
00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:10.160
they came into contact it, contact
with it, like being on their shoes

356
00:30:10.200 --> 00:30:15.240
and clothes. Two victims in particular
were employees at the subway who found the

357
00:30:15.240 --> 00:30:18.559
bags of gas and tried to dispose
of them, and both of them died

358
00:30:18.680 --> 00:30:25.640
hours later. Yeah, the attack
that went down that morning killed a total

359
00:30:25.720 --> 00:30:30.200
of thirteen people, and yeah,
I'm surprised it wasn't more. But it

360
00:30:30.279 --> 00:30:34.480
injured five thousand, five hundred people
who had come into contact with the seran

361
00:30:34.599 --> 00:30:41.200
gas that day. Many people who
survived are still dealing with the effects of

362
00:30:41.319 --> 00:30:48.119
coming into contact. I'm sure their
nervous system was damaged. The government didn't

363
00:30:48.200 --> 00:30:52.319
name the cult as the perpetrator immediately, but within a few days the police

364
00:30:52.400 --> 00:30:56.759
raided over twenty branches that belonged to
the COLT. Twenty branches. Yeah,

365
00:30:56.839 --> 00:31:03.079
I told you they had like ten
thousand people. And when officers made their

366
00:31:03.119 --> 00:31:07.319
way into the cult's compound, they
kind of found like just weird, weird

367
00:31:07.359 --> 00:31:14.720
stuff. Oh, I bet each
there were fifty little cubicles, and inside

368
00:31:14.759 --> 00:31:18.960
each one of them was a cult
member just laying on a blanket. Every

369
00:31:18.960 --> 00:31:25.279
single one of the fifty members located
first seemed to be malnourished, but a

370
00:31:25.279 --> 00:31:30.240
lot of them told officers that they'd
been fasting on their own accord. Six

371
00:31:30.319 --> 00:31:33.559
members had to be rushed to the
hospital in such bad shape that they were

372
00:31:33.880 --> 00:31:38.240
wow. As the police searched further, they found a young woman in a

373
00:31:38.319 --> 00:31:42.759
large container who'd been kept there against
her will for at least two months.

374
00:31:44.000 --> 00:31:47.839
What, Yeah, two months.
Yeah, and I don't know what kind

375
00:31:47.839 --> 00:31:51.000
of container it was, but I'm
thinking it was small. I don't know.

376
00:31:51.279 --> 00:31:56.240
They had two months against her will. Oh my gosh. That's like

377
00:31:56.480 --> 00:32:02.599
solitary confinement in the dark, like
sensory deprivation. Yeah. Right throughout the

378
00:32:02.799 --> 00:32:08.880
entirety of these multiple raids, Choko
took to radio broadcasts and he sent videotapes

379
00:32:09.359 --> 00:32:15.200
like to the media to say he
was completely innocent of these attacks. And

380
00:32:15.759 --> 00:32:19.839
after these broadcasts and recordings were public, like, he just kind of disappeared,

381
00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:23.079
like they couldn't find him right away. In one of the broadcasts,

382
00:32:23.359 --> 00:32:28.759
Choko made statements to all of her
followers. He said, quote, disciples,

383
00:32:29.079 --> 00:32:31.759
the time to awaken and help me
is upon you. Let's carry out

384
00:32:31.759 --> 00:32:38.720
the salvation plan and face death without
regrets end quote. Upon his disappearance,

385
00:32:38.920 --> 00:32:45.720
he left three luxury vehicles in a
hotel parking lot located in Tokyo, and

386
00:32:45.279 --> 00:32:52.759
he was suing people at the time
for about three hundred thousand dollars for the

387
00:32:52.839 --> 00:32:58.799
raids. He ended up filing lawsuits. Yeah. His lawyer said that since

388
00:32:58.839 --> 00:33:04.359
the cult practiced boot Buddhism and they
were non violent, it was impossible for

389
00:33:04.480 --> 00:33:08.200
the cult to be responsible for the
saran gas attacks. The lawyer also said

390
00:33:08.200 --> 00:33:16.319
that the raids were quote unprecedented religious
prosecution end quote. During the raids,

391
00:33:16.559 --> 00:33:23.640
the police found enough chemicals the saren
gas on the compound, on the compound

392
00:33:24.559 --> 00:33:29.839
two that could have been used to
the point to kill. It was about

393
00:33:29.839 --> 00:33:34.160
fifty tons of saren. He said, it takes like one yeah, it

394
00:33:34.200 --> 00:33:42.640
will millions millions of people. That's
crazy, isn't it. Like I don't

395
00:33:42.640 --> 00:33:46.440
know where you get fifty tons of
saren. I'm gonna not name those countries,

396
00:33:46.559 --> 00:33:52.759
but yeah, right. Choko was
laying low and he released another tape

397
00:33:52.759 --> 00:33:58.720
to the media where he said,
you know, he was confused why by

398
00:33:58.720 --> 00:34:02.119
the police thought I didn't do it. The chemicals that were seized were used

399
00:34:02.119 --> 00:34:06.920
to make saren. He's like,
why would you think that? Oh so

400
00:34:07.119 --> 00:34:12.440
it was chemicals used, Yeah,
and it could have created about fifty tons.

401
00:34:13.199 --> 00:34:15.440
Yeah, but why would we do
that? Why are we going to

402
00:34:15.519 --> 00:34:20.639
use that chemicals? Chemicals? And
just coincidentally, there were saren gas attacks

403
00:34:20.679 --> 00:34:22.679
on the subway, but it wasn't
us. No, even though we have

404
00:34:22.800 --> 00:34:28.880
all the chemicals to make it.
Okay, He went on a rant that

405
00:34:28.960 --> 00:34:34.599
he and his followers were victims in
a poisonous attack courtesy of the United States.

406
00:34:34.880 --> 00:34:38.280
Poisonous attack. I like that part
too, courtesy of the US.

407
00:34:38.440 --> 00:34:44.079
Yeah, ex blame the United States, Yeah, because because they care about

408
00:34:44.119 --> 00:34:46.079
the cult, you know, like
anybody. Yeah, anybody in the United

409
00:34:46.079 --> 00:34:51.679
States government gave a shit about what
he was doing. But as all this

410
00:34:51.800 --> 00:34:57.000
is taking place, the surviving victim's
health was improving, but more and more

411
00:34:57.039 --> 00:35:02.119
patients were coming in claiming they were
attacked or poisoned in the attack. The

412
00:35:02.159 --> 00:35:07.280
symptoms that the newer patients were experiencing
weren't physical ailments, they were psychological,

413
00:35:08.280 --> 00:35:13.880
and the entire area was scared that
there was another attacking. When's the next

414
00:35:13.880 --> 00:35:17.280
one coming? Right after the subway
attack, there was a few more incidents

415
00:35:17.320 --> 00:35:22.840
that the cult orchestrated. One was
an attack on the chief of police.

416
00:35:22.280 --> 00:35:29.719
He was shot for investigating the cult. More attacks happened than included poisonous gases,

417
00:35:29.760 --> 00:35:34.800
but they were much smaller and than
the attack on the subway. On

418
00:35:34.880 --> 00:35:38.760
May sixteenth, nineteen ninety five,
Choko, along with forty of his followers,

419
00:35:38.800 --> 00:35:44.840
were arrested for murder. They finally
found him one hundred and thirty facilities

420
00:35:44.880 --> 00:35:50.280
belonging to the cult were raided by
hundreds of officers thirty facilities. Yeah,

421
00:35:50.800 --> 00:35:55.079
the officers were wearing tactical gear looking
for the suspects responsible for the attacks.

422
00:35:55.679 --> 00:36:04.159
This search was televised and found on
his Mount Fuji property. He was hiding

423
00:36:04.159 --> 00:36:07.519
out with his wife and children.
The Mount Fuji site took the police over

424
00:36:07.639 --> 00:36:14.079
three hours to search because there were
secret passages and tunnels all over the place.

425
00:36:14.679 --> 00:36:19.880
That's cool, I know. Choko
was found sitting alone in one of

426
00:36:19.920 --> 00:36:23.800
the meditation chambers, and when he
was placed under arrest, he didn't resist.

427
00:36:24.239 --> 00:36:29.719
This was the most public arrest that
Japan had had up to this point

428
00:36:29.800 --> 00:36:35.719
in its history, and there were
hundreds of reporters on site. He's like,

429
00:36:35.760 --> 00:36:38.360
I am peaceful, I am I
am just me, you know,

430
00:36:39.039 --> 00:36:43.159
I am. I am partially blind, and I am a peaceful man,

431
00:36:43.360 --> 00:36:47.199
and you know. Yeah, after
the arrests, the public was terrified of

432
00:36:47.199 --> 00:36:52.719
the cult and what the followers would
do in retaliation because they haven't arrested everybody

433
00:36:52.760 --> 00:36:59.840
in the right people. The police
had actually waited to arrest Shoko because they

434
00:36:59.840 --> 00:37:05.000
had on their they had on their
radar the most dangerous members of the cult,

435
00:37:05.400 --> 00:37:08.280
so they wanted to grab all of
them before, yeah, before they

436
00:37:08.480 --> 00:37:15.119
got showco so that you know,
they couldn't retaliate. Out Of the forty

437
00:37:15.119 --> 00:37:20.719
one people arrested, twenty five of
them, which included Shoko, were charged

438
00:37:20.760 --> 00:37:25.760
with murder. Over one hundred and
fifty members were arrested following the subway attacks.

439
00:37:25.960 --> 00:37:30.320
Most of them were only charged with
minor offenses that were not related to

440
00:37:30.360 --> 00:37:36.920
the Sarah attacks. And they did
that just so they could like arrest them

441
00:37:37.000 --> 00:37:40.400
and bring them in to question them. The cult was linked to over two

442
00:37:40.599 --> 00:37:45.119
dozen deaths, and the police were
criticized heavily in the country for not doing

443
00:37:45.199 --> 00:37:50.360
anything about the attack that killed eight
people in nineteen ninety four. Oh yeah

444
00:37:50.480 --> 00:37:54.800
right, remember that one. And
Shoko was eventually found guilty for orchestrating that

445
00:37:54.960 --> 00:38:01.199
attack in nineteen ninety four. The
frustrating trial of Shoko and his followers took

446
00:38:01.199 --> 00:38:07.639
eight years to complete, and it
started in nineteen ninety six. Choko refused

447
00:38:07.880 --> 00:38:15.679
to answer any questions and he only
made statements that were just stupid. But

448
00:38:15.800 --> 00:38:20.679
finally, on February twenty seventh,
two thousand and four, Choko was found

449
00:38:20.719 --> 00:38:24.559
guilty and he was sentenced to death
to death to death to death when the

450
00:38:24.679 --> 00:38:30.920
judge read off all of the guilty
verdicts. Because he's also being tried along

451
00:38:30.960 --> 00:38:37.119
with other cult members, it took
over four hours to read all of the

452
00:38:37.199 --> 00:38:39.400
verdicts for all of the crimes.
I mean this a lot. This is

453
00:38:39.440 --> 00:38:43.920
a long time until a very long
time. That's very you know, core

454
00:38:44.039 --> 00:38:47.880
can be boring. Yeah, Like, can you imagine While the sentence was

455
00:38:47.880 --> 00:38:52.239
being read, Shoko smiled with his
arms crossed because he's an asshole. Yeah,

456
00:38:52.280 --> 00:38:58.920
he snorted, He yawned, he
scratched his head, and he mumbled.

457
00:38:59.800 --> 00:39:04.679
He'd been instructed two different times to
stand as the verdict was being read,

458
00:39:05.199 --> 00:39:08.760
and he wouldn't, so it took
five guards to make him stand.

459
00:39:09.159 --> 00:39:15.440
Seriously, just fucking stand, do
it. At the time of a sentence,

460
00:39:15.480 --> 00:39:20.880
Shoko was forty eight years old.
Twenty two years later, on July

461
00:39:21.000 --> 00:39:24.880
sixth, twenty eighteen, Shoko,
along with six other cult members, were

462
00:39:24.920 --> 00:39:31.519
finally hanged. Wow, Japanese hangings
are done in secret. I didn't know

463
00:39:31.599 --> 00:39:37.000
this, and I know I didn't
either. And there are no warnings given

464
00:39:37.039 --> 00:39:40.639
to the prisoners who are being executed. Yeah, like, you know,

465
00:39:40.840 --> 00:39:44.840
I guess you don't have like an
execution date. They just come surprise,

466
00:39:45.119 --> 00:39:50.320
it's your turn. Oh yeah,
which that would give me great anxiety,

467
00:39:50.920 --> 00:39:53.400
great anxiety. Yeah, but in
he had what what did I tell you?

468
00:39:53.440 --> 00:39:57.239
Twenty two years? Yeah, to
think about, like could today be

469
00:39:57.320 --> 00:40:00.760
the day? But one of the
one of the downsides I guess of having

470
00:40:00.760 --> 00:40:08.880
this surprise is not even families of
the victims or even like the attorneys of

471
00:40:09.239 --> 00:40:15.119
you know, the people being executed, are notified prior to the sentence being

472
00:40:15.119 --> 00:40:21.599
carried out. It's thought that show
Goo along with the other members, were

473
00:40:21.599 --> 00:40:24.920
made aware of their death day only
a few hours prior to it actually happening.

474
00:40:27.039 --> 00:40:30.719
Family members of the victims wished that
they were made aware of the execution

475
00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.360
so they could have possibly, you
know, heard, maybe what their last

476
00:40:34.360 --> 00:40:37.400
words would have been before they were
executed. Maybe they would have given a

477
00:40:37.400 --> 00:40:42.639
reason. I've talked to him,
figured out every day, every week,

478
00:40:43.480 --> 00:40:49.400
whatever, Right, And he got
twenty two years yeah, yeah, right,

479
00:40:49.480 --> 00:40:51.320
Like if he was going to say
something, he had a lot of

480
00:40:51.360 --> 00:40:53.840
time to say it, to say
it to them. But they want closure,

481
00:40:54.320 --> 00:41:00.679
you know, I can understand my
family members would want closure. Wife

482
00:41:00.079 --> 00:41:06.039
Tomko, Yeah, she was arrested
in nineteen ninety five for conspiracy to commit

483
00:41:06.119 --> 00:41:10.079
murder. She was found guilty.
She was able to appeal as soon as

484
00:41:10.119 --> 00:41:15.199
she could, stating she didn't even
participate in the subway attacks, so why

485
00:41:15.199 --> 00:41:19.239
are you pinning this on me?
But she was convicted and sentenced to six

486
00:41:19.320 --> 00:41:23.519
years in prison in nineteen ninety nine. She was released in two thousand and

487
00:41:23.519 --> 00:41:28.480
two, so she only served a
few years. Upon her release, she

488
00:41:28.599 --> 00:41:32.960
changed her name I would too,
It's Akari Matsumoto, and she moved back

489
00:41:34.000 --> 00:41:37.559
into the home she shared with three
of her children. Tomoko tried to appeal

490
00:41:37.599 --> 00:41:44.800
the court. Tried to appeal to
the court to get Shoko's ashes like after

491
00:41:44.840 --> 00:41:52.199
he was executed, but that request
was denied. Sorry in twenty seventeen,

492
00:41:52.199 --> 00:41:57.639
and this is just a footnote to
maybe the weird family dynamic of Tomoko and

493
00:41:57.800 --> 00:42:01.079
Shoko. In twenty seventeen, one
of their daughters came forward and stated that

494
00:42:01.280 --> 00:42:05.639
at the age of two, she
was forced to live in a room with

495
00:42:05.719 --> 00:42:08.639
no windows, and when her brother
was born, her life became a lot

496
00:42:08.719 --> 00:42:14.400
worse. She received little to no
attention, and when she tried to stay

497
00:42:14.400 --> 00:42:19.719
with her mother, Tomoko turned her
away. None of Choko's children were allowed

498
00:42:19.719 --> 00:42:22.679
to call him dad since he was
the leader of the cult. Shoko didn't

499
00:42:22.679 --> 00:42:28.559
think that the term dad gave him
enough respect that he thought he deserved.

500
00:42:29.320 --> 00:42:34.559
Whenever the children were punished, their
penalties were severe. I bet he forced

501
00:42:34.719 --> 00:42:38.840
the children to eat omelets that had
broken pieces of clay inside, and they

502
00:42:38.840 --> 00:42:45.800
were forced to stand outside in torrential
downpours when they disobeyed anything like they were

503
00:42:45.840 --> 00:42:51.079
told to do. Even though some
of this was contradicted by other members of

504
00:42:51.159 --> 00:42:57.199
Shokos offspring, as soon as their
parents were arrested, the children did everything

505
00:42:57.360 --> 00:43:01.000
like all of the children did everything
in their power to remove and distanced themselves

506
00:43:01.039 --> 00:43:06.960
from the cult. Two of Schoko's
children they'll remain in touch with him up

507
00:43:07.039 --> 00:43:10.119
until the day he died, and
they tried even to get his death sentence

508
00:43:10.639 --> 00:43:17.039
revoked after the boys, I'm not
sure. I bet you I would probably

509
00:43:17.079 --> 00:43:22.079
bet money on it, and unbelievably, the cult still remains active to this

510
00:43:22.280 --> 00:43:29.440
day. What it has since been
renamed to elf A L E P h

511
00:43:30.840 --> 00:43:37.880
okay, I'm thinking okay elf allop. I'm not pronouncing the pH, I'm

512
00:43:37.880 --> 00:43:42.360
pronouncing it like an F. But
it's But it's been renamed to and it's

513
00:43:42.400 --> 00:43:49.840
still I'm not sure, but yeah, that's my crazy story about the Japanese

514
00:43:49.880 --> 00:43:55.280
subway attack island. Yeah, carried
out by a religious quote unquote cult and

515
00:43:55.320 --> 00:44:01.920
they're crazy ass megalomaniacter. This kind
of story is fascinating me. How someone's

516
00:44:01.960 --> 00:44:05.960
ego gets so big, I know? And how do you get so many

517
00:44:06.000 --> 00:44:13.360
people to follow? We're trying to
get people to follow, like what like

518
00:44:13.760 --> 00:44:15.920
and how do you get convinced people
like, Okay, yeah, we're gonna

519
00:44:15.920 --> 00:44:21.000
make this Sarah gas and we're just
gonna kill a bunch. We're just gonna

520
00:44:21.039 --> 00:44:27.760
kill thousands of innocent people on the
subway because the end tis no, like

521
00:44:27.800 --> 00:44:31.519
it's crazy secret like that. I
don't know, right, I don't know

522
00:44:32.519 --> 00:44:37.719
anyway, Well, thank you all
for listening and watching and or watching,

523
00:44:37.440 --> 00:44:44.639
and before we go, please remember
to hit the subscribe follow like button on

524
00:44:44.679 --> 00:44:47.079
whatever app you're listening to. You
can like us here on YouTube on True

525
00:44:47.079 --> 00:44:53.840
Crime Daily. We have a website, Crimes and Consequences dot Com where you

526
00:44:53.880 --> 00:45:00.119
can go and you can get merchandise. Yea, if you're like, we're

527
00:45:00.119 --> 00:45:01.119
gonna wear a T shirts, I
know we're gonna have to start wearing our

528
00:45:01.159 --> 00:45:06.960
T shirts you can also if you
really enjoy this episode and you would like

529
00:45:07.000 --> 00:45:09.880
to hear more episodes, maybe you've
already listened to all of our free weekly

530
00:45:09.920 --> 00:45:15.199
episodes. We have a Patreon which
is p A t R E O N

531
00:45:15.760 --> 00:45:22.800
to go to patreon dot com slash
tnt crimes, and we release one episode

532
00:45:22.800 --> 00:45:28.079
to our Patrion members every week that
is unreleased to the public. You also

533
00:45:28.159 --> 00:45:31.199
get the weekly episode like this one, you get it early and add free.

534
00:45:31.639 --> 00:45:37.159
You can also subscribe on the Apple
podcast app if that's how you listen

535
00:45:37.199 --> 00:45:39.840
to us, you can subscribe there
too, and it's the same episodes that

536
00:45:39.880 --> 00:45:45.639
are on the Patreon YEP website.
YEP. And I think that's everything good.

537
00:45:45.800 --> 00:45:50.119
That's all of the business. So
until our next episode, don't kill

538
00:45:50.159 --> 00:46:00.840
each other. Bye bye,