Killing for Krishna


Book Description

The 1986 murder of Hare Krishna devotee Steven Bryant (Sulochan dasa) was arguably the darkest moment in the fifty-two year history of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness-a new branch of the Chaitanya-Bengali-Vaishnava religion founded in New York City in 1966 by an Indian spiritual teacher and guru, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977). A mere nine years after the disappearance of this beloved spiritual father, one of their own was hunted down and assassinated. This brutal killing was achieved through a cooperative effort by "spiritual" leaders, senior managers and hit men enforcers from West Virginia, Ohio, and Southern California ISKCON temples. The murdered whistle-blower had discovered many secrets and threatened to reveal to the world the immoral acts and criminal dealings of a set of self-appointed, illegitimate successors to Swami Prabhupada: a corrupt oligarchy of new ISKCON "gurus." He had also, perhaps foolishly, advocated using violence against the gurus to evict them from their posts. ISKCON leaders took his threats seriously, and they hunted down and assassinated the passionate reformer. How did the peaceful, shaven-headed, saffron-clad Hare Krishna devotees regress from their blissful activities of chanting, dancing, and selling incense in the streets to this? The author, himself a former ISKCON devotee, probes deeply into the disturbing direction of a new religious movement. In this book, he exposes the danger of philosophical errors and deranged devotion that practically ensured that bloody tragedy would eventually occur. The author has engaged in years of painstaking research by poring over tens of thousands of pages of trial transcripts, newspaper and magazine articles, ISKCON publications, and confidential ISKCON documents, while also interviewing dozens of eyewitnesses. His effort culminates in a thoroughly-engaging and extremely well-documented thesis exposing the hidden inside story of the conspiracy to murder Steven Bryant, including its genesis, development, blunders involved in it, execution, cover up, as well as a stunning aftermath after the deed was done.




Deadly Devotion


Book Description

Even the most avid true crime fans will be shocked by the story of Marcus Wesson of Fresno, California, the worst mass-murderer in the city’s history. But the horrors he inflicted upon his family are nothing compared to the strength of the survivors, and one brave reporter who risked everything to help them. Originally published as Where Hope Begins. For decades, the family of Marcus Wesson—his wife, Elizabeth, and seventeen children—lived sequestered in a social and emotional prison, enduring his tyrannical reign of physical, sexual, and mental abuse. Then came the terrible day when a family confrontation erupted into a harrowing standoff: with police and SWAT teams descending on a small blue house in central Fresno, Marcus Wesson murdered nine of his children. Television reporter Alysia Sofios got the first tip about Wesson’s arrest and was witness to every twist and turn of the horrific case through to Wesson’s trial. Risking her job and her life to offer friendship and support to the traumatized family members—scarred by memories and guilt, reviled for having the Wesson name—Sofios chronicles the case that shocked the nation, and gives voice to their astounding stories of survival. This is a stunning account of healing from one man’s unimaginable acts, and how each, in time, learned to break free from a deadly devotion.




Deadly Devotion (Port Aster Secrets Book #1)


Book Description

Research scientist Kate Adams and her colleague Daisy are on the brink of a breakthrough for treating depression with herbal medicine when Daisy suddenly dies. Kate knows that if it hadn't been for Daisy's mentorship, she wouldn't have the job she loves or the faith she clings to. So when police rule Daisy's death a suicide, Kate is determined to unearth the truth. Former FBI agent Tom Parker finds it hard to adjust to life back in his hometown of Port Aster. Though an old buddy gives him a job as a detective on the local police force, not everyone approves. Tom's just trying to keep a low profile, so when Kate Adams demands he reopen the investigation of her friend's death, he knows his job is at stake. In fact, despite his attraction to her, Tom thinks Kate looks a bit suspicious herself. As evidence mounts, a web of intrigue is woven around the sleepy town of Port Aster. Can Kate uncover the truth? Or will Tom stand in her way?




Under the Banner of Heaven


Book Description

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the author of Into the Wild and Into Thin Air, this extraordinary work of investigative journalism takes readers inside America’s isolated Mormon Fundamentalist communities. • Now an acclaimed FX limited series streaming on HULU. “Fantastic.... Right up there with In Cold Blood and The Executioner’s Song.” —San Francisco Chronicle Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the renegade leaders of these Taliban-like theocracies are zealots who answer only to God; some 40,000 people still practice polygamy in these communities. At the core of Krakauer’s book are brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a commandment from God to kill a blameless woman and her baby girl. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this appalling double murder, Krakauer constructs a multi-layered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, polygamy, savage violence, and unyielding faith. Along the way he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America’s fastest growing religion, and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.




Devoted in Death


Book Description

In this crime thriller in the #1 New York Times bestselling series, Lieutenant Eve Dallas tracks a pair of Bonnie and Clyde copycats whose heated passion for each other is fueled by cold brutality. When Eve Dallas examines a fresh body in a seedy alleyway in downtown Manhattan, the victim’s injuries are so extensive that she almost misses the clue. Carved into the skin is the shape of a heart—initials inside reading “E” and “D”... In Arkansas, Ella-Loo and her recently released ex-con boyfriend, Darryl, don’t ever intend to part again. So they hit the road, but then things get a little messy and they wind up killing someone—an experience that stokes a fierce, wild desire in Ella-Loo. A desire for Darryl. And a desire to kill again. As they cross state lines on their way to New York to find the life they think they deserve, they leave a trail of evil behind them. But now they’ve landed in the jurisdiction of Lt. Dallas and her team at the New York Police and Security Department. And, with her husband Roarke at her side, Eve has every intention of hunting them down and giving them what they truly deserve...




Real World


Book Description

In a crowded Tokyo suburb, four teenage girls indifferently wade their way through a hot, smoggy summer. When one of them, Toshi, discovers that her nextdoor neighbor has been brutally murdered, the girls suspect the killer is the neighbor's son. But when he flees, taking Toshi's bike and cell phone with him, the four girls get caught up in a tempest of dangers that rise from within them as well as from the world around them. Psychologically intricate and astute, Real World is a searing, eye-opening portrait of teenage life in Japan unlike any we have seen before.




The Silence


Book Description

A Wall Street Journal bestseller. A dead conspiracy theorist. A mass murderer. Two cases collide for Callahan and McLane in a pulse-pounding thriller by Wall Street Journal and Amazon Charts bestselling author Kendra Elliot. A man is savagely murdered outside Portland, and Detective Mason Callahan finds blood-spatter evidence that tells a troubling story. Files reveal the murder victim, Reuben Braswell, was a radical conspiracist. In his home, investigators find pages of diatribes against law enforcement as well as ties to Mason's fiancée, FBI special agent Ava McLane. The victim was her informant--and had strong reasons to be paranoid. To Ava, Braswell's rants were those of a wearying and harmless man...until they collide with her investigation into the murders of police officers and finding the connection becomes urgent. Meanwhile, Braswell's brother and Ava's twin sister both disappear, and disturbing acts of sabotage target Ava's personal life. For Mason and Ava, the brutal crimes and escalating mysteries create a perfect storm for a terrorist conspiracy that becomes dangerously personal--one that has yet to claim its last victim.




The Guru Business


Book Description

Sulocana Prabhu was murdered May 22nd, 1986, 1:00 a.m., Los Angeles, two days after compiling his book "THE GURU BUSINESS", which describes how the Leaders of the Hare Krishna movement deviated from the pure path as taught and exemplified by its founder, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Sulocana was one of the first devotees to realize the complete hoax of the GBC policy to rubber-stamp eleven unqualified personalities as the exclusive 'diksa-guru' successors to Srila Prabhupada in 1977. Let us be quite clear that this policy was an unqualified lie as to the intentions of Srila Prabhupada post-samadhi 1977. As the eleven self-declared gurus "paramhamsa-parivakacaryas" established their zonal power centers by initiating anyone in sight and throwing out of ISKCON even the most slightly dissenting godbrothers, Sulocana researched Srila Prabhupada's statements and fearlessly wrote a book exposing this fraud in the name of disciplic succession. From his research he also realized the trouble Kirtanananda had been causing Srila Prabhupada right from the time of his sannyasa. This was pertinent, as Sulocana had lost his wife when Kirtanananda had maniplulated her away, initiated her, and married her away to one of his money collectors at New Vrndavana. Sulocana also came to know of the sexual and otherwise corruption that was rife amongst practically all the "exclusive eleven". Moreover, Kirtanananda in New Vrndavana was living a hypocritical life as an active predatory homosexual pedophile, simultaneously taking worship as a paramahamsa. "The Guru Business" was the first realistic and comprehensive view of the topic false gurus, based on quotes given by Srila Prabhupada. PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK (by Sulocana dasa) 1) It must be revealed to the world exactly who Srila Prabhupada is and how he has nothing whatsoever to do with the corruption going on amongst ISKCON's leaders today. 2) There is a crying need to increase and even rekindle love for Prabhupada from his own disciples. To a large extent, they have left Prabhupada's mission out of frustration and discouragement. 3) An effort should be made to clean up ISKCON and remove the influence of personally motivated leaders. In other words, we should fully awaken the devotees to the politics and duplicity going on behind the facade. 4) There is now a new imperative to inspire married couples to be bold and go out to open temples. This was Srila Prabhupada's desire from the beginning. "Anyone who has read The Guru Business will have at once felt the powerful and illuminating clarity in the words of Sulocana prabhu. The way in which he has strung together Prabhupada's words, like pearls on the thread of his own amazing realizations, came from his total surrender to the instruction of Srila Prabhupada. Sulocana prabhu was prepared to die rather than not execute Prabhupada's mission properly. Because of this faith not only did the Lord manifest Prabhupada's previously hidden letters to Sulocana but he revealed their purport in his heart." Mukunda dasa from Killing For Keith, Chapter Seven. "Sulocana prabhu, you totally abandoned all personal considerations and sacrificed your life to expose the demoniac activities of these rogues and nondevotees and their apa-siddhantic philosophy. Such a perfect disciple as yourself, who fought so bravely to take serious charge of Prabhupada's mission and execute it correctly, has surely seen the Supreme Personality of Godhead and become liberated back to Godhead, or at least you have become an exalted soul on a heavenly planet. "Mukunda dasa - Foreword to The Guru Business - March 2020




Transgressive Devotion


Book Description

Academic theology is in need of a new genre. In "Transgressive Devotion" Natalie Wigg-Stevenson articulates a theological vision of that genre as performance art. She argues that theology done as performance art stops trying to describe who God is, and starts trying to make God appear. Recognising that the act of studying theology or practicing ministry is always a performance, where the boundaries between what we see, feel, experience and learn are not just blurred but potentially invisible, Wigg-Stevenson brings together ethnographic theological fieldwork, historical and contemporary Christian theological traditions, and performance artworks themselves. A daring vision of theology which will energise anybody feeling ‘boxed in’ by the discipline, Transgressive Devotion blurs borders between orthodoxy, heterodoxy and heresy to reveal how the very act of doing theology makes God and humanity vulnerable to each other. This is theology which is a liturgy of Divine incantation. In other words: this is theology which is also prayer.




The Bottom of the Fox


Book Description

Eddie Joubert's midlife crisis had arrived right on schedule. He fell hard for the Poconos, a resort area in Pennsylvania where he bought a rundown tavern that became a magnet for an eclectic clientele that ranged from world-class jazz musicians to bikers to returning Vietnam War veterans.But the Poconos held a dark secret. When Joubert was hacked to death in 1981, it was yet another in a series of gruesome unsolved murders and puzzling deaths involving hippies, gays and other people whom the authorities cared little about because they were considered to be lowlifes.The Bottom of the Fox lays bare that secret for the first time. It details the astonishing level of violence in an area known for resorts and verdant woodlands while revealing how evil doers could literally get away with murder.