Rotten Mango - #49: Tokyo Subway Killers (Case of Shoko Asahara)

Episode Date: March 22, 2021

5 men board 5 different Tokyo subway trains at the same time. Each of them are carrying plastic bags filled with poison. At exactly 8 AM - peak rush hour - they will release the poison to thousan...ds of passengers who are stuck in the trains breathing in the lethal gas.   Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Rambles. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are, whenever we need it. Download the free Peloton is for all of us. Wherever we are, whenever we need it, download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier or pay to description starting at 12.99 per month. Better Bing, better.
Starting point is 00:00:33 Boom. It's a mini-suit. It's really good. I'm honestly proud of you. Do you like this intro better or when you're the star of the show? I don't know. I don't want to take away your limelight, you know what I mean? I mean, I think I can handle it pretty well. You can handle supporting actor really well. Okay, so this week's mini-show is about something crazy. It's going to be out of the United States because, um, should do be going down in the United States right now. I'm angry, I'm frustrated. You can literally Google anti-Asian violence resources. There's also stop a api hate.org You can go to those are some amazing resources if you guys have no idea what's going on with everything that's happened in Atlanta and the rising hate crimes against Asian Americans plot twist ta-da I'm an Asian American. I know. I think people know you know one time I got an email that was like your English is so good and I was like
Starting point is 00:01:28 So Just in case just in case nobody knew just in case there's that one person in their car right now slamming on the brakes like holy Forking shit. I didn't know that Well there you go So today we're talking about the Tokyo Seren poisoning the Tokyo subway killers the Tokyo subway attack I mean this is insane that I didn't know about this am I just in the dark or you guys the same as me where you're like wait a minute what you know what I'm just gonna drop you on this
Starting point is 00:01:58 story so it starts at 7.45 in the morning Tokyo rush hour everyone's headed to work when when is this so this is in the 90s so rush hour. Everyone's headed to work. When is this? So this is in the 90s. So it's kind of an old case, but it's a juicy one. Just hold on to your titties, because it gets wild. I'm talking billions of dollars wild. A billion dollars in the elevator. This is really weird.
Starting point is 00:02:20 So 7.45 in the morning, Tokyo rush hour. Five men board five separate subway trains, and each of these 5 men are carrying a plastic bag filled with seren. At 8 in the morning, each man will pierce a hole into these plastic bags that releases that deadly gas, which is supposed to be colorless and odorless, and it's extremely toxic. It's typically used as a chemical weapon. The exposure is so lethal that even at low concentrations, like I'm talking like one drop, death can occur within one to 10 minutes,
Starting point is 00:02:51 one to 10 minutes after direct inhalation. It's a gas, right? We're completely... Yeah, it's a gas, so it's a liquid that once it touches oxygen, it will become a gas. So it's really scary, a non-lethal dose. Let's say you don't even know that you literally it just inhaled seren gas because, I I mean it's colorless and odorless right?
Starting point is 00:03:08 And then you have all these weird symptoms, you don't go to the hospital, you proceed with your day without immediate medical treatment, it could lead to permanent brain damage. It's 26 times more lethal than cyanide. 26 times more lethal. How did they get their hands on that? They manufactured it in a massive compound where they also were trying to manufacture anthrax and Ebola. I know. So what happens to the body when you inhale this gas? What is going to happen to all of these just regular commuters on the Tokyo subway?
Starting point is 00:03:40 Well, you're going to get a runny nose, maybe tightness in the chest and then it's going to lead to difficulty breathing, nausea, drooling, loss of control of your bodily functions. I'm talking you're gonna vomit, you're gonna defecate, you're gonna urinate, and then you're gonna start spasming and you're gonna have these convulsions and then you're gonna go comatose and you suffocate in a series of spasms. So obviously this deadly gas is So obviously this deadly gas is um it's considered a schedule one substance which means that it's a chemical weapon just by itself And it has little to no uses outside of being a chemical weapon Like you can't use it to like manufacture a car like power a house like do some good in the world You know it literally is just a chemical weapon
Starting point is 00:04:19 So people on the train immediately start reacting they start start coughing. They start looking down. Some people were already starting to spasm and have these convulsions. Now, a lot of people did manage to leave the train and the station, but this gas is something that lingers in the air. So once those train doors open, it went into the station with these people. When they went up, it started affecting the people
Starting point is 00:04:39 that were trying to help them. But what about the people who was in there? They immediately left. So they didn't ride before the train stopped at a station and they just got out. They poked it with their umbrella. So they sharpen the tips of their umbrella into like these little spikes.
Starting point is 00:04:56 And they poked the bags that they placed on the floor and then just ran out of there. But all of these five men, they were also carrying an antidote. Now what makes this even, I know it sounds like a movie Anytime I say the word antidote and I'm like, is this real life? It sounds like a marble movie. So a lot of people were throwing a blood a ton of them were losing their eyesight Now the reason that I'm kind of you know briefly going over this is because we're gonna get into like the real hunk of it
Starting point is 00:05:19 I'm just giving you a little teaser. Now, most surprising of this, though, are the five men. The most surprising are the five men who unleashed this deadly gas on the Tokyo subway trains. One of them had a degree in artificial intelligence. Two of them had a degree in advanced physics. Another one was a retired senior cardiologist with wife and kids who was really respected at his hospital. And then one last of them had a master's degree in physics
Starting point is 00:05:48 13 people died, thousands were injured what the fork why would these people come together? what do these five people have against the world? what's going on right? who did this? that was my question I was screaming now I think what makes it even worse and scarier and crazier is that Japan is actually listed as one of the safest countries. So imagine the absolute state of terror that these people were in in Japan. I mean, what kind of terror attack is this?
Starting point is 00:06:13 So we're going to get back to the Tokyo subway attack, but first, I'm going to introduce you to a religious organization that we now categorize as a cult and multiple countries across the world to this day, categorize as terrorist organizations and it is called um Shin Rikyo so I'm Shin Rikyo if you translate it to English it would be the supreme truth it's never good listen by here any organization called the supreme truth I'm gonna say oh yeah I gotta go home like no thank you I don't want to be a part of that no I'm good now the leader of this organization is very fascinating because we've got to talk home, like, no thank you. I don't want to be a part of that. No, I'm good. Now, the leader of this organization is very fascinating because we've got to talk about, you know, there's a cult.
Starting point is 00:06:49 There's the cult leader. His name was Shoko Asahara. That was not his birth name, but that was his legal name at the time that all of this took place. He was the leader. He was nearly blind. He was in his 40s. He was also a yoga teacher.
Starting point is 00:07:01 It's all so confusing. Now, at this point, they weren't categorized as this, but in 2021, they would be considered like a Doomsday cult. You know, they believed that the Third World War was gonna happen and it would be instigated by the United States. Now, in the 80s, when they were flourishing, this was kind of like a crazy idea. They were like, what?
Starting point is 00:07:21 We just got out of one with two, not too long ago. And, you know, this is where it gets a little off the beaten path. All humanity will end except the elite who join his cult. So he starts pulling all of these ideas from everywhere. I'm talking Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity. He loves science fiction and comic books. So he kind of just melted this all into one idea. So who the fork is this guy and why are people listening to him? I'm gonna give you the rundown on his childhood. Shoko was born into a poor family, so his dad had nine children. His mom was just taking care of the kids all the time.
Starting point is 00:07:55 The dad was making tatami mats, which are like the mats and flooring for traditional Japanese room. Now early on, he was diagnosed with glaucoma, and he lost all sight in his left eye, and he was partially blind in the right eye So they sent him to the school for the blind and he was known to be like super charismatic That's what everyone said like holy shit He could literally get up in the middle of the classroom and he would talk to all these students and everyone would listen to him
Starting point is 00:08:19 They have no reason to listen to him. He's not a he's not a teacher He's not the class president, but he was incredibly charismatic. Now, at the same time, he was an insane bully because he was partially blind, whereas a lot of his peers were completely blind. So he went beat up kids and blackmailed those same kids for money. He was like, you're gonna give me money or else. I don't know what the blackmail was.
Starting point is 00:08:40 That wasn't very creative blackmail, but you get it. So after he graduates, he decides, you know what? I'm gonna choose a career path that is very common for blind people in Japan, which was acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine. He gets certified and his home life becomes really insane. He gets married, he has 12 children. So I'm talking to a ton of kids. Now he's like, all right, how do I support these kids?
Starting point is 00:09:00 Acupuncture is not doing it. This Chinese herbal medicine isn't doing it. So he started selling drugs without a license, but it wasn't necessarily what we think of drugs like cocaine, but it was just like pharmaceuticals, just unregulated drugs. And he started really getting into religion at this time. I mean, all of his free time, he studied all religions, but primarily initially, he started focusing on Chinese astrology, such as like Chinese zodiac. So I find this so interesting.
Starting point is 00:09:26 Apparently it all starts with a race. Am I right? You're like looking at me. This is his arena. So he's like looking at me like, you don't know shit. I mean, that's just like a little story. Nobody really thinks that there was a race between 12 different animals.
Starting point is 00:09:40 So apparently it all started with an urban legend of these 12 animals that were gathered. Why were they gathered? So actually there was 13 animals at first. So obviously the original 12 plus cat. But the rat hates cat. So the rat took cat alive saying hey the race is actually happening the next day or something. So the cat was sleeping when the race was happening.
Starting point is 00:10:04 That's what cat didn't make it. Oh, what a little rat. Yeah. The only reason rat was number one. So on the chart is rat, ox, and so on, right? Yeah. It's because ox runs very fast. I don't know why ox runs very fast because there's other animals. There's tiger, there's bunnies, there's dragons, there's all sorts of animals, but apparently ox runs really fast and the rat is really smart. He just sit on Ox head. Oh, and then jumped off at the end. Yes. So rat became number one. What? Okay, so I looked into ours and you guys should look into yours on astrology.com, but just be warned that if you're really sensitive
Starting point is 00:10:45 on astrology.com, but just be warned that if you're really sensitive, they will give you the pros and cons for every zodiac, and I almost cried reading my cons. I was like, I don't need to be attacked right now by astrology.com of all people. What is this? They're really mean. So I'm a pig. Yeah, it's fun to say that, right? But apparently, I made 12th place because I needed to stop to eat and take a nap in the middle of the competition Huh, I know What the heck is this so he starts learning about these Chinese zodiac and Chinese astrology and he gets really into Taoism Which is from what I could Google. There's two different aspects So there's the religious aspect and then there's the traditional like the tradition aspect
Starting point is 00:11:21 But I'm overall just emphasizes living in harmony and then eventually he gets involved with esoteric Buddhism, esoteric Christianity, yoga, meditation, all of these things. So he starts teaching yoga in his one bedroom apartment in Tokyo, and he called it the Immortal Mountain Wizard Association. I'm not making this shit up, okay? And it grew a lot steadily over the years. And I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that at the time, this was like the largest economy in the world, Japan. I mean, they were really popping off.
Starting point is 00:11:49 So people were like, you know what? I've got extra money. I want to join a Mountain Wizard Association. And I want to pay someone so that I can stretch. I love yoga, sorry. I can stretch and exercise. That's when you know you're like financially made it. Like you're like paying to work out, right?
Starting point is 00:12:06 Now the problem with his yoga sessions is that he was kind of playing off yoga as if it was his creation. Like he was like, yeah, now I'm a stay, that's my shit. So he starts preaching on the streets at the same time, and he was officially given religious status by the government so that he could be tax exempt, he could tell people that he's a religious organization, and a lot of college graduates from elite colleges were fascinated. They were interested by what he had to teach. I mean, it was like this thing where he kept saying, you need to get rid of the materialistic world. That is bad karma. If you put so much emphasis on work and so much emphasis on money and consumer products, you were going to go to hell. And at this peak of the economy, I mean, people were working non-stop in Japan.
Starting point is 00:12:48 People were overwhelmed by work. People were overwhelmed by all of the things that the capitalistic market was trying to sell in their face. So they were like, you know what? I too believe that this is a shit show. So he starts appealing to the wealthy groups who also saw traditional religious sermons to be super boring.
Starting point is 00:13:03 And he did everything in a very fun, creative yoga, all of that fun jazz. So they were like, this is so fun. Now, what's even crazier is he loved comics and anime and manga and all of that. So he would actually incorporate and pay people to put his message in a manga format or an anime format. And he would just broadcast it on TV like an ad.
Starting point is 00:13:26 That's really revolutionary. Yeah! So one of his followers became so enamored by him that he gifted him an armored Mercedes Benz. An armored Mercedes Benz. Armored. Yeah, I guess that means it's like, is it like bulletproof? I don't know.
Starting point is 00:13:42 So it actually became one of the fastest growing religious groups in Japanese history. At one point, their entire entity was worth over a billion dollars. What? Yeah, over a billion dollars. He's a unicorn. He was a billionaire. And then he had this intense emphasis on recruitment and honestly propaganda. So he would go up on TV, he would see some sick people, and he would rub his thumb on their foreheads
Starting point is 00:14:07 Like they would lay down on national TV, and he'd be like, yeah, yeah, okay, you're sick Let me cure you, and he would rub his little thumb on their forehead, and they would start spasming out like the whole shebang Like the whole thing. He was doing it all. He published a book, and he declared himself Christ inside of that book We're escalating so quick. I know. Now, he also claimed that he's Japan's only fully enlightened master. He also identified himself as the Lamb of God. So he starts preaching about karma at this point. And he's saying the worst karma that you have, the worst that your rebirth is going to be, the slower that you get reborn. And because of that, you would spend a shit ton of time in hell.
Starting point is 00:14:43 Do you want to spend a ton of time in hell? Now here's the catch. Just by living in a materialistic world, you're getting bad karma. Bad karma is radiating off of the world and you are just collecting it. So that means you have to cut off connection with everyone. You have to come and be isolated with my cult. So a bunch of people cut off connections with their families, a lot of people abandoned their children, abandoned their wives and husbands so that they could do this training. Now here's the thing with cults and the reason that I don't think that I would make it. It's not because
Starting point is 00:15:16 I think I have a strong mentality, I do not. It's because they always have some sort of training process. Like if I wanted to join Planet Fitness I would have just done that. So that's my number one reason not because I'm mentally strong. So they would do this thing where they would put the trainees into a small box and bury the box. And there would just be enough oxygen to keep them alive for a certain number of hours and that's when they would be dug back up. They would bury them in a small box. If you didn't listen to or if you failed any of the cold trainings you would be held in solitary confinement for maybe even months at a time. I mean you wouldn't necessarily be buried but they had these little cells in their facilities like their headquarters,
Starting point is 00:15:53 their offices they had cells. They also did something called thermal training sessions. You would soak in water that was about 120 degrees Fahrenheit for hours to cleanse the soul to get rid of the soul's sins. You have these inner circle yoga sessions that were only available to the upper elite of the cult and they would hang you upside down. You would just be suspended in the air. You would be forced to drink Shoko's blood and his bathwater. So during one of these really intense yoga sessions was the cult's first alleged murder
Starting point is 00:16:24 because they were hanging up all of their upper elite in these upside down positions and it causes you to be come very quickly, panicked, disoriented. There's a lot that can happen to your body. Now, I did look it up and it seems like there is this long history of traditional yoga where, you know, some experts will hang you upside down, but that's after like years and decades of practice and you don't just immediately go into that Like you're not just a normal Joe off the street and they're like, let me hang you upside down for yoga purposes So the cult member dies and they decide instead of alerting the police instead of taking this member to the hospital That they're gonna incinerate his body because they don't want bad press
Starting point is 00:17:01 So a cult member dies and then another cult member who saw all of this go down, he's like part of the inner circle, decides I don't really wanna be a part of this anymore. Like I joined because I don't want bad karma from this materialistic world. And now I'm getting bad karma because I participated in hiding up someone's death. Like this feels really disgusting,
Starting point is 00:17:19 this feels really gross. So he asked the kind leader, Shoko, do you mind if I leave the cult? And they strangled him with a rope. And he too was incinerated. So they're straight up just killing people now. So they're straight up killing people. And I'm going to tell you about how increasingly
Starting point is 00:17:37 the cult becomes more sinister. So from the outside perspective, a lot of people have this idea that either, they're like harmless. They're like this harmless movement that it almost seems childish with their anime and manga, propaganda, and then you have another group of people that just kind of make fun of them because they seem really creepy and weird, and then you have a group of people who don't really care. But slowly behind closed doors, they become incredibly, incredibly evil and more and more sinister.
Starting point is 00:18:02 So they start controlling what information all of their cult members get, they control who they talk to. It just became such a shitty system where everyone was essentially deeply brainwashed. I'm spending so much time in this house and I want everything to be stylish. You know, I wanted to be aesthetically pleasing. I want to have like a Pinterest board set up a furniture. I want people to walk in and be like, wow, she's an adult who's got it together. But I also wanted to be affordable and comfortable. So I ordered this beautiful green. I'm talking dark forest green velvet couch. Ooh, how smooth does that sound from article? And I was like, you know what? This is going to be the best YouTube video backdrop. I'm gonna lounge on that couch,
Starting point is 00:18:45 and I'm gonna tell you guys some crazy stories. And when it came, I was a little bit shook because listen, it was affordable, and so I thought maybe it's gonna squeak a little when I sit down, maybe it's not gonna be as comfortable as I thought, but I can lay on that baby for five hours straight. I also ordered some outdoor pieces
Starting point is 00:19:01 because listen, summer getaways are all gonna be in my backyard this year. That's just the kind of climate that we're in. I just want to tell you guys about this furniture store. So, article is very interesting because they combine the curation of a boutique furniture store with the comfort and simplicity of shopping online. So they have a team of designers that focus on beautifully crafted pieces. I'm talking quality materials, durable constructions.
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Starting point is 00:20:05 of $100 or more. So go to article.com slash run and the discount will be automatically applied at checkout. That's article.com slash run to get $50 off your first purchase of $100 or more. So he starts telling his cult members while he's brainwashing them, Shoko said that everyone was a conspirator against them, the whole United States of America, the whole, you know, population of Jewish people, the Dutch, and the British royal family. I don't really know how they fell into that, but they did, okay? And so he starts escalating to violence, he starts believing, hey, wait a minute, remember
Starting point is 00:20:44 how I told you guys that we're all getting bad karma just by existing in this world? Don't you think it makes sense that we have to kill everybody that doesn't believe like us? That doesn't think like us because if they are killed, we can save ourselves. They're getting all of this karma debt and we don't need it. We don't want it. And we're not enough people to kind of make up for their karma debt. So we just kill them. We just kill them all. So one of the first people to take notice in the cults really strange practices.
Starting point is 00:21:10 So at this point, I mean, all obviously behind closed doors, their violence was escalating, but from the public's perspective, they were weird. They were kind of childish, but there was also these small rumors that sometimes they would hold these cult members against their will, sometimes they would force members to donate, kind of all that weird shit. And one of these people to notice was, suit sumi Sakamoto. We're gonna call him Mr. Sakamoto, so he was actually an anti-cult lawyer that was threatening at them with a lawsuit. Now he had already done this before with another cult and he won the lawsuit, which rendered that entire organization bankrupt, and they were a a very very wealthy organization prior to the lawsuit.
Starting point is 00:21:46 And he argued that none of this is making sense. Shoko is going around telling people, especially on television, that he's got these supernatural powers, that he can levitate, that he can cure people. That doesn't make sense. Does that make sense to you guys? So somehow he convinces Shoko to submit a blood test. So once they get the blood test, they find that there was nothing abnormal in the blood. They're like, you keep saying that every drop of your blood
Starting point is 00:22:10 that these cult members are drinking is just filled with these powers. And you're just like this, all knowing being like, why is your blood just like a fucking oh negative bitch, you know? He was just really confused like what's going on. So he started talking to a Japanese talk show, Mr. Sakamoto, and they interviewed him and they said,
Starting point is 00:22:26 okay, we'll tell us all the information about the cult. You can be our anonymous source. So he's like, are you sure? Like, I'm going to be anonymous, right? So he doesn't interview. Now for whatever reason, TBS, the entire network decide to show the OM group, the cult, the entire interview without disguising Mr. Sakamoto, without telling Mr. Sakamoto, and so they intentionally broke protection of sources and just showed them everything. And the cult pressured TBS to take down the broadcast and not air it anymore. And they listened? And they listened. I mean, because at this point they're rich and they're powerful, and it's a huge, scary organization. So, I mean, Shoko is increasingly getting unhinged
Starting point is 00:23:06 and pissed off, so he orders his members to go kidnap the lawyer, and they go with a bag filled with 14 needles filled with potassium chloride, which is lethal in large quantities. So they enter Sakamoto's house where he was with his wife in his 14 month infant child, and they start murdering the entire family. So they hold the parents down while they inject the 14-month-old son with potassium chloride
Starting point is 00:23:28 and then covered his mouth with a cloth until he died. Then they injected the wife with poison and then she succumbed to the poison. Then the lawyer, he was injected with poison, but for some reason he wouldn't die so they strangled him to death. And they proceeded to burn all of the bedsheets, any like thing that they could have left any damaging evidence on was burned. They smashed the family's teeth
Starting point is 00:23:50 so that their dental records couldn't ID them. And they placed the three bodies in three separate containers and placed all three of them in different prefectures of Japan, like in the rural areas. So they went missing, and it wouldn't be solved for another like five years. So Mr. Sakamoto doesn't come in for work, and the colleagues are immediately worried
Starting point is 00:24:09 because I mean, they're anti-cult lawyers. They're like, we fuck around with some dangerous people. Like, we need to make sure that he's okay. So they call Mr. Sakamoto's mom, and they're like, hey, Mrs. Sakamoto, we need your help. We need to get the apartment door open. He's not picking up our phone calls. Like, what's going on?
Starting point is 00:24:23 What's going on? So she comes to the apartment with the key, opens the door, and it was so confusing. I mean, the baby's toys are all over the place. The dinner plates are still left out. It literally looks like they were living normally and then just vanished into the air. So they start searching and searching,
Starting point is 00:24:38 but there's nothing to indicate that anyone that they were investigating had anything to do with it. They couldn't implicate Om or Shoko in any of this. So after this, Shoko gets really ballsy and he starts creating an intense assassination list and a lot of them were major higher up like Buddhist religious leaders. There was also like a major manga artist because he made satire work out of Shoko and he was really offended by that. They actually did attempt to kill the cartoonist, but they failed. So there was multiple attempted assassinations, and then the cult started running a bunch of businesses.
Starting point is 00:25:11 So they're like, you know what, we're gonna take over restaurants, we're gonna take over small hospitals, electronic stores. Now, a lot of it was done legally, but a lot of it was also done by like being a gang and being like, we're gonna fucking take over your place of business and give you a little salary and in return, I'm not gonna kill you and your entire family. So that's what they started doing. They started recruiting employees to work there. Now at this point, we're entering into like the dark period of the Japanese economics. So a lot of people were just losing their jobs like crazy. They just didn't have a place of work.
Starting point is 00:25:41 More people were moving in back with their parents to save money. I mean, it was just really intense. So a lot of them saw these posters. They were like, you know what? Yeah, I mean, I got like a really intense degree, but I'm going to go work anywhere I can get work. Now, once they start working at the restaurant or the hospital or the electronics store, there would be so much pressure to join the cult. Now, here's the catch. Why? None of this makes sense. Well, once you join the cult cult you have to sign over your entire estate Sounds like another cult in the US just kidding don't kill me. I'm so scared But they join still decided join. I mean a lot of them would be like forced to almost
Starting point is 00:26:16 Like when I say persuaded and pressured I'm talking probably forced more than anything and he was just a humble rich guy talking probably forced more than anything. And he was just a humble rich guy, worth close to a billion dollars, you know, it was insane. They started running these local hospitals and they would get patients to come in being like, oh my God, you've got a broken arm. Let me help you. We're just like these loving doctors
Starting point is 00:26:35 and they would give these patients, I'm talking insane medical bills. Probably not insane if you live in the US, but insane if you lived in Japan. They were like, what do you mean? I have to pay all of this. This is insane, right? So at this point, they start gathering close to 40,000 members in their cult. 40,000. That's crazy. Yeah, so they're like, you know what? We got 40,000 people. I mean, this is kind of internationally. I mean, yes, a lot of them were in Japan,
Starting point is 00:27:06 but internationally speaking globally, 40,000. So they're like, you know what? Let's apply for the minority house of representatives at the time, like the low leagues. We're gonna become politicians. We're gonna become the major ruling party of Japan. His entire thing, Shoko, wanted to be the king of Japan. He was like, that's my title.
Starting point is 00:27:24 That's who I'm going to be. So they start running for these local offices and local politicians were laughing at that. Most of the public thought it was an absolute joke. And the reason that if they had all 40,000 members vote for them, it would be a different story, but because the way that voting works, you have to live in a certain district, all of these other things, they only have like a thousand, four hundred people vote for them, collectively, which was just the laughing stock of the entire local political game. I am talking about people laughing
Starting point is 00:27:52 straight in their face. The public was like, ha ha ha, what is wrong with you? You guys are idiotes. This is embarrasing. Are you not embarrassed for yourself? And this reaffirmed their belief that the world is not ready for the truth. The world is not ready to be saved. And so they need to be killed. And they became even more isolated, even more paranoid, even more defensive. And they started buying up huge plots of land to create heaven on earth, but also to create manufacturing plants.
Starting point is 00:28:21 So the first thing that they do is they take a trip to Africa, right? Now, they decided that they were going to go to preach about religion, support local communities, you know, all of that, that savior jazz. They were like, we're going to go do this, right? And it seems like when they got there, they did kind of do that. But the main true mission of why they went is that the Republic of Congo at the time had suffered a huge Ebola outbreak before their visit. And Shoko was so intrigued on how Ebola could be used as a biological weapon. So he went there trying to bribe officials
Starting point is 00:28:49 to sell him like a strain of Ebola, which doesn't really happen. Like no one's gonna sell you that. He's trying to bring Ebola back? Yeah, like imagine going to the CDC and be like, can you sell me something? Like I'm just here looking for a strain of something, anything. Well, you don't have to I guess you don't buy it
Starting point is 00:29:07 You just don't wear a mask Karen okay So you know he goes and he tries to buy a bowl of blood and they're like what like that doesn't even make sense So he's like well, do you know anyone who has a bowl of blood? They're like what no like we don't just do you think we just like casually sit here and we're like well Ten of us over there got a bowl of blood like no, what are you what it's wrong with you? So he goes back to Japan completely upset and defeated he was like man I really wanted to in fact the entire Japanese population with Ebola. I couldn't do that. I'm so disappointed So Shoko decides you know what let's do something with anthrax
Starting point is 00:29:41 So he decides to go into their Tokyo headquarters. They had this like high rise in Tokyo. Okay, it's like eight floors, sorry. Um, so they had this mid rise in Tokyo and they decided to spray anthrax into the cooling tower of their Tokyo headquarters. Now, a bunch of local residents, they start smelling this. They're like, what is that nasty ass-stank smell? Like what's going on? So they start reporting it to the police
Starting point is 00:30:05 and as they're reporting, they look around and they're like, oh my god, like my neighbor is just like throwing up on the side of the road. They're like, man, are you okay? They run to the neighbor. And then the neighbor is like, I'm fine. And then they look around. And another person is throwing up on the side of the road.
Starting point is 00:30:19 I mean, it was chaos. So there's this black, thick smog radiating off the building. And the police ask the entire headquarters, they say, Hey, you know, whoever owns this building, can we just investigate inside because what is this smoke like a something on fire? We just don't want people to get hurt. And they say, no, you can't. So they turn the police away. The police would later get a hundred more complaints. Pets started falling ill. People had more symptoms. And eventually they were ordered to vacate the entire headquarters so that the police could investigate. So they agree and they take everything with them. Like, I'm talking all the furniture and shit too. And so once the police get inside, there's huge black
Starting point is 00:30:53 stains all over the wall. They collect these air samples and they have this like almost like black liquid on some of the wall parts. So they collect samples of that, turns out there was anthrax in the air. They were trying to infect everyone with anthrax. Now, for whatever reason, they couldn't arrest Shoko or Om, and I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that they were probably rich, very powerful, and maybe they couldn't prove it. I mean, this is like one of the craziest things to prove. Like, you're trying to terrorize this entire country with bio-weapons.
Starting point is 00:31:23 Around this time, two members of the arm cult were arrested in Australia for trying to board a plane with dangerous chemicals. So it's just going to get worse. Now, the cult decides the anthrax didn't work. We couldn't get our hands on Ebola. This is really unfortunate. This is really annoying.
Starting point is 00:31:38 So they start buying plots of land in Australia. I'm not sure why Australia, but they bought a lab in Perth, Australia. And this is where they start secretly manufacturing Seren, and later what is called VX gas. It's a toxic synthetic chemical compound. This was allegedly the same chemical compound that was used to kill Kim Jong-un's brother, a strange brother, I think, but I don't really know anything, okay? So if someone asks, I don't know. But I don't really know anything. Okay, so if someone asks I don't know It's developed for military use. There's really no use outside of it other than like killing people So that's great love that and their entire plan was to manufacture a thousand automatic weapons at this facility
Starting point is 00:32:14 With all of these deadly gases so they tried to make all these AK-74s 47 No, there is a 74 okay my bad. Wait is there? Probably there are. Yeah and AK-74, he said, Motherforken get it together. We're not gun people obviously. So they start trying to manufacture these AK-74s and they only were able to create one, which I think in and of itself is so alarming and so scary.
Starting point is 00:32:45 But they did however successfully create the gas seren. They tested it on a remote property in Western Australia and they managed to kill 29 sheep. Like 29 sheep who didn't do anything? They killed them. Now they also bought a ranch in Australia and they wanted, they knew that that ranch had uranium under it. So they wanted to mine Uranium. This is straight up like a DC comic movie. They wanted to build a bomb to attack New York City with their Uranium.
Starting point is 00:33:13 I mean, it's just kind of insane. So at one point in all of this, they start buying land in Japan as well. And there's this huge dispute over some of the real estate that they're trying to buy. So it's like one of those real estate legal battles, and a bunch of judges had to oversee the lawsuit. And for some reason, Shoko was like, fuck those judges.
Starting point is 00:33:31 I hate them. They're so annoying, they're gonna rule against me in order to get the ruling in my favor, I need to terrify. I need to terrorize judges so that they always rule in my favor, I need to set an example. So these judges lived in Matsumoto, which is a quiet residential area. So they decided to go into Matzumoto with two main goals. The first is to attack the three judges that are staying in the area that are overseeing their real estate battle. And then also secondly, is to test the efficiency of the seren that they tested or they
Starting point is 00:34:01 created. So the original plan when they went in was to release the gas of seren into the courthouse. But they literally got there after closing time so they were like fork or late. Everyone's late to the courthouse. It's a thing, okay. And so they're like, you know what, let's just target the three-story apartment building where all three judges live. It's kind of crazy how that works, right? And so they get this covert refrigerated truck. Now they have spent months prepping this like this is a insane refrigerator truck. The truck in the back had this heating contraption that was specifically designed to turn 12 liters of liquid seren into aerosol seren. So they also had these fans to diffuse it into the neighborhood and the driver would be in the front of the truck and they wouldn't actually be breathing in all of this.
Starting point is 00:34:42 So they release a cloud of seren and all hell breaks loose. Police arrived from frantic callers. I mean, you're talking eye pain, dark envision, headaches. People were literally going blind on the streets. Nausea, diarrhea, numbness in hands. I mean, the description that everyone kept saying was like, there's like this fog that's just like floating around. Like imagine it's not foggy,
Starting point is 00:35:02 but it's like a fog that's floating around. You walk through it and suddenly you can't see anything. She's. So five residents were found dead in their apartment after this. Over 274 people were treated in a hospital, two of which they died immediately. Another died after remaining in a coma for 14 years and they died in 2008. So a total of eight victims and they died in 2008. So a total of eight victims died. Oh my God.
Starting point is 00:35:29 So the three judges, they were of the injured, but they were not killed. Now, the next day when people were trying to investigate what the four of Kappin and Matzmodo, like this is kind of scary and creepy, right? There were dead fish in the nearby pond, bodies of just dogs, like stray dogs, pet dogs, birds, caterpillars, just dead everywhere.
Starting point is 00:35:49 I can't even imagine like the trauma that they're like reliving after a world war two, like what the four happened, you know? I mean, this doesn't make any sense. So the police get a tip and the tip says, this is just an experiment, an open space, you know, at that time only seven people had died because, you know, the woman who remained in a coma, right, seven dead, 200 injured,
Starting point is 00:36:12 imagine an enclosed space like a subway train. And they implicated the arm cult. Now the police, they look at this tip. And they say, now we already, we already got our suspect. So the suspect that they had in question was a Yoshi Yuku Kono and he was the husband of the wife who went into that coma for 14 years. And it's because he always stored a ton of pesticide in his house. So the police are like, you know what? You used all of this pesticide to create some sort of gas, some sort of deadly toxic gas, and you're killing all of your residents.
Starting point is 00:36:44 Is it because you wanted to kill your wife? And now you have to kill your neighbors to create some sort of gas, some sort of deadly toxic gas, and you're killing all of your residents. Is it because you wanted to kill your wife and now you have to kill your neighbors just so you could get away with killing your wife? Is that what it is? You know? And he was like, what? My wife is literally in a coma. Why would I do that?
Starting point is 00:36:56 You know? Now later research shows that you cannot produce seren from pesticides. But everyone named him a suspect. I'm talking news outlets. He started getting hate mail, death threats, legal pressure. I mean, people wanted to sue him. People wanted to see him fired. And eventually when the truth came out, years later,
Starting point is 00:37:13 I mean, every major newspaper apologize time. They were like, okay, my bad. Yeah. So there was a journalist at the same time that all of this was going down. So you've got this crazy serenetack. You've got just just so much shit happening and a journalist covered the disappearance of the Sakamoto's I mean they were just saying this is weird. Why why the Sakamoto's how does the entire family just vanish after eating dinner? She maybe she's like a she's like doing a true crime podcast, right?
Starting point is 00:37:40 And she starts smelling something from her mailbox And she's like, I don't know dude like. Like, some things in my letterbox, it smells very funky. So she calls the police to ask them to investigate. And she claims that if they had taken a sample, if they had done their job a little bit, you know, maybe, maybe something could have been prevented in the future. But the police were like, it's fine. Like, nothing's going on.
Starting point is 00:38:02 I can't be the only one that has this paranoia just instilled into my bones, which is, you know, I don't really want kids right now, but then everyone else, including my family, they make me paranoid that by the time that I do want kids, I won't be able to have them. They're like, your time is ticking. Your biological clock is on its way out. You got to do something, Stephanie. You're probably like me in, maybe you've thought about the next step in your career and your relationship,
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Starting point is 00:40:15 Two people were injured, one was killed. He died after 10 days in a deep coma. And the police had no idea who did any of this yet again. So there was also a 69 year old man and his little sister had actually escaped from the cult. He was kidnapped, taken into their compound killed, and his body was incinerated. But here's the thing with that old man. He was incredibly smart. So before his death, he got a ton of calls asking for the location of his sister who had literally escaped the cult. They were just like, hey, anonymous here, which resistor?
Starting point is 00:40:45 And he was like, what? That's really creepy. So he wrote down left to note, if I disappear, I was abducted by Om Shinrico, the cult. So the investigator finds this, and they're like, OK, well now, now we kind of have to investigate because how we're just going to act like this note doesn't exist. I mean, he did disappear.
Starting point is 00:41:02 He's been missing, and all of these weird shits are happening around the town where people are just getting poisoned. I mean, he did disappear. He's been missing and all of these weird shits are happening around the town where people are just getting poisoned. I mean, something seems a little bit fishy. Now, the press starts hinting that the cult's involvement is really, really intense, right? The press is like, the police are denying it, but you know what?
Starting point is 00:41:16 I really do think it's the cult. The cult is the cult that. Now, once the cult gets word of this, they start getting really panicked. They're like, you know what? It's inevitable that the police are going to raid our compounds, that the police are going to look into us. We need to do something, a diversion, to get all of the attention away from us.
Starting point is 00:41:34 What do we do? Well, we need to initiate the subway attack. Now, they were planning the subway attack for way later. Like this was their end game, but they were like, we need to do it right now so that all of the Tokyo police are just like, they've got their heads spinning around looking for, oh my god, who did what? I mean, maybe possibly hundreds will die. So at that point, I mean, they just got too much work to do and they'll never look at us again and we can really sit down and plan for more. So they decide this is the perfect day. Now Monday was
Starting point is 00:42:02 the day that they chose and everyone at that subway station they were headed to work but everyone was in a really good mood because tomorrow was a national holiday so most of them had the day off, most of them either had the school day off or the work day off and they were just kind of on their phones talking about what are they gonna do the next day, right? And the Tokyo subway I'm talking rush hours. So like I said the five men board five different subway trains, and they're all carrying those plastic bags filled with liquid that's going to turn into seren. They all get into five separate lines. So one of the lines was the chiota line, and the man
Starting point is 00:42:36 gets on, and he punctures the bag, and he leaves them on the ground of the subway train, and he leaves the train once it gets to the station. That train would go on for another four stops, and eventually the bags were removed by train stop attendance, who had no idea what it was. They thought it was trash that was left behind, and those two attendants would die. The next stop, they realized, hey, something's wrong with this train.
Starting point is 00:42:58 We should completely stop the train and evacuate it. How did they notice, just people are... People are like coughing and running out of the train. Like people said it looked like a zombie apocalypse because it's like what's happening? I don't see an explosion, I don't see a fire, I don't I don't see what's wrong, why is everyone just collapsing out of the train? And the train attendants are like hey maybe we should investigate because this is abnormal. And then you had the Mara Nouchi line I'm not saying any of these right by the way and this dude he was so excited about releasing the Sarah and the cult member that his umbrella
Starting point is 00:43:32 tip was bent at the way that he stabbed the Sarah and like he was like ready and Sarah naturally splashed on himself now the crazy thing is he had an antidote ready they all had an antidote ready. They all had an antidote ready. So he administered it in the car because each one of them had a getaway car. So one person goes and another person is waiting at a specific train stop with a car outside so they get into the car and they drive back to headquarters, right? So once he gets into the car,
Starting point is 00:43:57 he administers the antidote and he ends up living. Now this train would go for another 14 stops. 14 stops. 14 stops. So during the middle of this, before they even got to the initial, like the last 14 stop, two passengers were carried out, and one of those two ended up passing away. Like they had to be carried out by other passengers, by attendants, like they were collapsing and having convulsions. Nobody has an idea either at that point.
Starting point is 00:44:23 Because it's not something normal. I can't imagine being in that situation and being like, it's a deadly gas that we can't see or smell really. Yeah. I'd be like, oh my gosh, that person has probably a medical history and a medical condition. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:44:36 And I am feeling a little coffee. I'm not sure why. Let's wait it out. I got to get to work. So the attendant removed the plastic. Seren is still on the ground, right? Five stops later, new people boarded, and then eventually two stops later, they stopped the train and they evacuated.
Starting point is 00:44:52 This line led to one death, and 358 seriously injured. 358. Now, another line, the cult member was in a rush. So he punctured one Seren packet, but one was left completely unpunctured So we had two bags of it and it was a super slow release So that train ran for another one and a half hours and it resulted in 200 people being seriously injured And then there was another line with another cult member and they I mean this one was really quick So he punctured it really really well and within two stops
Starting point is 00:45:23 I mean people were feeling the effects, people were coughing, people were convulsing, so they evacuated and on this line there was one death and 523 seriously injured. Then we have another line. Now this Seren packet was the one with the most poked holes. So immediately people were feeling the effects. The train rider kicked it off onto the subway platform on the next station. Like he noticed this very suspicious package on the ground and everyone's like coughing. So he's like, what the fork is this? So the next time the train doors open, he just like kicked it off the train. And
Starting point is 00:45:55 eventually the emergency stop button was pressed. Now this is where it gets a little bit crazy. So the lines were strategically maneuvered in a way that if any of these trains pressed the emergency stop button or they stopped too long at a station, all of the other trains filled with seren would just be sitting helplessly with their doors closed in the tunnels. So it just like forced this whole thing where the passengers were just stuck in the seren filled train. And eventually once the doors officially opened, they were stumbling out, collapsing on the ground.
Starting point is 00:46:26 And when press got there, they immediately thought it was an explosion. Like something crazy must have happened. It's not normal. And you know, with Japan's history, explosion is probably at the front of their minds. They're not thinking like a seren gas attack. And so everyone's like on the news, like, oh my god, apparently there's like an explosion on the subway trains. What do we do?
Starting point is 00:46:43 What do we do? They said that the subway station entrances where people were running out of looked like battlefields. People would run out and drop on the floor and medical professional were running to help them because you know, they got all these calls and that they too were starting to feel the effects of seren. So they would start dropping and collapsing on the ground. So like imagine seeing that happen and being so confused at what's going on, right?
Starting point is 00:47:09 So the effects of this were enormous. Everyone who tried to clean up the liquid, they were either super sick and seriously injured. So there are a lot of victims of this seren attack that have either gone completely blind or partially blind or still have respiratory issues, have chronic asthma. Most of them have PTSD. There's just a lot, right? And the ones that cleaned up the liquid directly, a lot of them passed away.
Starting point is 00:47:35 13 commuters died and there were thousands injured. Now, the number is estimated to be close to about 6,000 people injured. Now, I'm sure maybe I think they said like close to a thousand or 2,000 were seriously injured, but I mean 6,000 people, right? Here's the crazy thing. This could have been a lot worse. So because the cult was in such a rush, the production of Seren they had was a shitty
Starting point is 00:47:59 production. It was only half as pure compared to the attack that they did in matzimodo So if they had it even more pure authorities think that you're talking about thousands of people dying Now there was a lot of controversy and drama about everyone else So obviously immediately you're like okay, well like catch the killers catch these people right but a lot of people were upset at Every other person too the press so these reporters they came out and started filming the people that were just collapsing on the ground. And a ton of them were seen by witnesses when these people who collapsed on the ground were like, hey, can you take me to a local hospital? They all hesitated because they're like, but we want to get the news, you know, which is insane. The subway stations were criticized heavily because, I mean, you know that passengers are collapsing out of your train. Like, what's going on? Like, why are you still running for, you know, 14 stops, some of them an hour and a half. That doesn't make any sense.
Starting point is 00:48:55 The hospitals were criticized because a lot of them turned away patients. They didn't have an antidote. So they were like, we don't really know what to do with you. By, there was one hospital who refused to even treat a victim for almost an hour. That victim begs for an hour. So it was just an absolute shit show. This kind of reminds me of what happened in Korea. There was a huge Korean subway fire.
Starting point is 00:49:18 And there is just so much controversy. Because these subways, I mean, really, how equipped are they for emergencies like this? So now the police, they have an inkling that it is the Omkult, right? So like, you know what? Now, now we think maybe with the tips, with all of the people saying it was the Omkult, all of these reports that were getting that the Omkult allegedly murdered Kult members that tried to escape, we should probably look into that, right? So they start
Starting point is 00:49:45 raiding the headquarters of the Alm facilities and they find some crazy stuff. They find explosives, chemical weapons, a Russian military helicopter. So this Russian military helicopter was actually equipped so that it could go over Tokyo and busy parts and just release deadly gases. Oh my god. There were stockpiles of chemicals that, if produced into seren, right, it could have killed 4 million people. They found the labs that they used to manufacture LSD with meth, a crude form of the truth serum, which allegedly can make people tell you the truth and like makes them kind of go crazy.
Starting point is 00:50:25 There was a safe containing millions of dollars of US currency dollars yeah and there was cash there was gold it was just insane. Also in their facilities they had prison cells and a ton of them still had prisoners in there. I'm talking like men, women and children just in these prison cells like oh hey we've been in here for months. This is crazy! Yeah so they start just mass arresting every mother forker.
Starting point is 00:50:51 I'm not sure about the exact number but it seems to be somewhere near the hundreds that they arrested of cult members that for various charges so not all of them were linked to the subway attack or two murders but it could be as easy as coercion or, you know, this or all of that. Now the police chief, the chief of the National Police Agency, during this investigation, he walked out of his house to go to work and he was shot four times outside of his house. He was badly wounded. Now he did end up surviving, but I mean, no one has been charged to this day.
Starting point is 00:51:23 The popular speculation is that it's part of the cult. They don't know who was a part of the cult, but it seems like it was the cult, right? And then almost soon after this, there was a call from the Tokyo subway station and they said, hey, listen, inside the bathroom, there's this burning paper bag and gonna need y'all to come check it out.
Starting point is 00:51:41 So the police come and inside of that burning paper bag is Hydrogen cyanide. It's like a device, like a bomb. And if they did not find it and extinguish it in time, this would have gone into the ventilation system and killed close to 10,000 commuters that day. 10,000 people would have lost their lives because of this. So they start searching more subway stations because they're like, you never know. Better to be safe than sorry. Did they arrest the main guy yet? No, they're looking for him.
Starting point is 00:52:09 They don't know where he is. Oh, he ran away. He's like, on the run. They're like, where is this forker? We can't find him. Now, there were several, when they do the, you know, searches through the subway stations, they found several undetnated cyanide devices in other Tokyo subway locations, like in the bathrooms hidden somewhere.
Starting point is 00:52:24 If they were detonated collectively, it would have killed over 100,000 commuters, 100,000 commuters. So then another cult member gets killed on like live television. Okay, well not necessarily live television, so there was a senior member of the cult that was outside of the Tokyo headquarters of the cult, and a Korean Yakuza member came up and stabbed into death while there were approximately
Starting point is 00:52:50 100 reporters in front of the Tokyo headquarters, like with their cameras. So this Korean Yakuza member was arrested and convicted, but they never really said why they did that. They never really mentioned why they killed that person. I don't know. Seems like a Yakuza personal thing. I don't know. I'm so scared of the Yakuza.
Starting point is 00:53:08 What am I not scared of at this point? So they started arresting everyone affiliated with the cult, not just like the 150 that actually did crimes, but just like anyone associated, because I mean, it's just so terrifying, like just arrest them all. Now, they find out that a lot of these members, they had no idea about this.
Starting point is 00:53:24 I mean, they knew about the rhetoric of like, oh yeah, bad karma, materialism equals bad karma, we're living in a crazy world, but they didn't know that they were gonna go kill these people. They didn't know that there was seren being produced. They thought that they were just buying up farms in Australia to create heaven on earth. What the fork? Like we thought we were gonna go live, live with the sheep's. That's what they were saying. I mean, what? So they were obviously released after, you know, they fact-checked them and all of that. And two months after the attack,
Starting point is 00:53:52 they're searching the headquarters again. And they realize, wait a minute, this wall looks a little bit weird. They break down the dry wall and it's a fake wall. So it's like a wall room. And that's where Shoko was living with his greasy hair and now just stuck all over his face with a bunch of stockpiled food. It looked like he had a plan to stay there for a hot minute. You legit just chilling in there.
Starting point is 00:54:18 They chill in in the wall. So they arrested him just chilling in the wall as they're doing more searches of the headquarters headquarters Now the same day the cult mailed out a bomb to the governor of Tokyo and the secretary Opened it and many of her fingers were blown off in the explosion Wow So at this point, I mean Japan is not looking at these people with any leniency So they were charged with 23 counts of murder and 16 other offenses. Now his first excuse, Shokoz, was that, wait a minute, I'm legally blind.
Starting point is 00:54:50 I can't be blamed for the attack. I didn't tell them to do that, and because I'm legally blind, there's no way that I physically could have carried out the attacks myself. He just really had no dignity. Like, he just threw those other people under the bus. He was like, you know my cult members that I brainwashed? Ah, what? That's insane! That's all their faults. What's wrong with him? Now the senior members of the Om Cult, I'm not trying to get sympathy for them, but they did accept what they did, and they said that they weren't brainwashed.
Starting point is 00:55:14 They did it on their own volition. They did it for their own reasons. That they were gonna save the human race. Which people thought that was so strange. So he gets arrested. Now you think, okay. Like Tokyo's gonna calm down But then one of the largest airlines in Japan gets hijacked So they had what's called the incident of flight
Starting point is 00:55:34 857 so this is a flight that was leaving from Tokyo to Hakka that day, which is another Japanese airport If you're Japanese, I know that you're cringing at like everything I'm saying. I'm so sorry I'm so sorry. I'm cringing to but so the plane leaves and at around 11.45 in the morning a single hijacker takes control of the entire aircraft Like he took 365 passengers and all of the entire crew hostage He claimed to all of them. I'm a member of the arm-called bits. Like I got this seren gas I got these plastic explosives. You don't want to mess with me So the crew was like we don't want to mess with you What do you want? You know, and he said all right? Here's my first demand. We land safely. Okay?
Starting point is 00:56:13 Second demand you release Shoko you call Tokyo get the police to release Shoko now The plane is gonna be refueled send it back to Tokyo, put Shoko on it, and let him live. So they land safely, and the police are like really bullshit in the guy. They're like, yeah, for sure. We're going to release this death terrorist, with totally down for that. And they somehow are able to get on to the plane and arrest him. So they arrested him. There was only one injury.
Starting point is 00:56:44 One of the passengers was injured and they described the injury as only needing an ice pack, which I'm not sure why, it's like such a specific. Like, okay, thanks. Ranger, but not really. Ranger, but just a little ice pack. That's all. A bandaid. Two bandages were used in his injury. The hijacker was actually a 53-year-old bank employee who was placed on leave for a mental disorder and the plastic explosive was made out of clay
Starting point is 00:57:11 and the siren that he showed around to the crew was just water in a bag. And he was not part of the cult from what people can tell. But it seemed like maybe he had seen them on TV, had an intense belief of what they had to say, but it doesn't seem like he was a like a card-cairing member He got 10 years in prison and the government received a lot of criticism because they were like Yeah, you should have totally disbanded these people like what's going on?
Starting point is 00:57:35 How are there still some people that are part of the cult right now? This is insane So then the trial happens now. This is what was deemed in Japan as the trial of the century Which I can imagine like this is insane right now It seems like during all of this show co-seems just mentally unhinged like he's just like whispering to himself during the entire You know trial and that became a huge controversy because it's like is he faking it? But what if it's real like if he's real then we can't really charge him like we can't convict him right now because he's Mentally incompetent to stand trial
Starting point is 00:58:06 So here's the catch. He never gets a full psychiatric assessment even though he was begging for one because it was wide known Well known in Tokyo that if he got one he probably would be deemed Mentally incompetent to stand trial and they were like not today. We don't care Another thing is if he is deemed mentally ill They would never be able to give him the death penalty. And it seemed like most of Japan all of the politicians, for their own reasons, I'm sure, and the rest of the public, they wanted all of these people to get the death penalty. I mean, if this doesn't get the death penalty, what the fork gets the death penalty, right? That's what a lot
Starting point is 00:58:37 of people are thinking. And so he starts falling apart in prison while he's waiting for all of this to be over. He starts refusing to talk to people. He starts being spoon-fed. He's like wearing adult diapers because he starts just defecating himself. And he was sentenced to death. And he tried to appeal it. It didn't work. And all in all, they had two rounds of executions in 2018. So like two rounds? Yeah. So total, I believe it was 13 members that were executed by hanging in 2018 Funded this group and this became a huge international human rights issue Just internationally, but also a huge Japanese human rights issue because you know
Starting point is 00:59:16 I think when you're in the heat of the moment you're like yeah death penalty, but then like decades later You're like wait Maybe we shouldn't do that. And a lot of the Japanese people, the public, they were saying, yeah, okay, take Choco out, fine, kill him, right? That was really a cross, sorry. Like, you know, execute Choco, we get it, we understand he has this power to manipulate people and brainwash people and what he did is disgusting.
Starting point is 00:59:42 But what about the other cult members? They were brainwashed, wouldn't it be more beneficial to general society if we kept them alive and we tried to learn from them? Now, here's the shocking part. The group is still running to this day. How? So they were funded by a successful computer company and they received a ton of donations.
Starting point is 01:00:00 They are under strict surveillance from the Japanese government and they got their religion organization, you know, taken away But they are just known as a group the group itself apologized and established a special compensation fund for the victims But it gets controversial so they changed their name to Alefa Alifa and in 2013 there was an investigation held at their headquarters because they found a photo that was taken inside of the facility and it showed a bundle of papers that had a nice pierced through it on what looked to be an altar.
Starting point is 01:00:33 So the authorities are looking at this and they're like, hey, does this look like some cult shit to you? And they're like, yeah, it does. Do they raid the compound? And they find that those papers, the bundle of papers that had the nice pierced through it were photographs of employees, directors, police officers, and lawyers who took down Shoko. So they were like, you can't do this anymore. Oh my God.
Starting point is 01:00:54 So that was in 2013. In 2016, the Russian government got involved. So apparently there was a bunch of them flying to Russia and trying to recruit people. So they opened a criminal case against the followers and conducted raids in Moscow and St. Petersburg and they declared it a terrorist organization in BAND, BAND-A-LIFA from ever entering their company. Oh shit, country, but also company. So in 2017, there was another raid, a woman comes to the police station saying, oh my god, I tried to, like, they told me that I was gonna get enlightened, they told me that I was gonna. And then in 2019, there was a massive car accident. So in 2019, on New Year's Day of 2019,
Starting point is 01:01:51 a cult member intentionally rammed into pedestrians on a crowded street in Tokyo. And I mean, this was a terrorist attack. Nine people were injured. And he said that he just wanted to hurt people. Because of what Shoko said, like he's got a, you know, cleanse for the salvation. So they are now deemed a terrorist organization by Russia, Canada, Kazakhstan, the United States, and the European Union.
Starting point is 01:02:17 But they're still around. Still around. Now, after Shoko gets executed, he actually got cremated by the police and the police gave custody and I don't know if they did this on purpose, I don't know how this works, but they gave custody to the fourth daughter who is the least sympathetic, like she hates the cult. So she was like, you know what, fork this.
Starting point is 01:02:36 I'm going to spread my dad's ashes, this disgusting cult leader's ashes in the sea. Now his wife, Shoko's wife and the other kids, they want to enshrine them so believers can worship his ashes. So as of now, there has been this huge custody battle and it's still at the Tokyo Detention Center. For the ashes? Yeah. Because they're like, she's like, no, fork this, called, I don't want people to worship this guy who killed people. That's disgusting. I want to spread it out in the sea and just be done with it. And the rest of the family is like, no, we need to give it to the believers. So a lot of people who study cults, they have this to say about this particular one, that in a free world it's hard to make decisions. So you sometimes
Starting point is 01:03:18 find peace in an absolute, absolute, as cult. So it just came at a time where people were you know, having a hard time making regular everyday decisions. It seems like every decision was... Was that? Yeah, and intense, and it's like everything's a decision from down to, you know, what kind of computer do I buy? Oh my gosh, what should I eat for lunch? It's so many decisions, and you're like, I'm done! Like, I work all day. I'm so sick of these decisions I'm so sick of having to think about this. I just want to live like a regular
Starting point is 01:03:49 Schmeggler off the grid disconnected life and so he really appealed to those audiences now the victims a lot of them have PTSD and I think that this is so So infuriating because a lot of them are scared to take the subway, but financially they can't do anything else. They have to take the subway. I mean, it's, they said it's like living through the trauma every single day. There's like this unavoidable panic that you have to face at least twice a day. And what can you do about it?
Starting point is 01:04:19 Now one of the wives, her husband, where, um, was a victim who passed away in the attack. He was an attendant at the train station who helped clean up the siren and he passed away and she fought tirelessly for the victims' families to get compensation. She says, you know, like this is what we need, this is not okay, right? And finally, the legislation passed and they were approved. The victim's fund was approved to get compensation after the attacks. And she said she was so excited. She was so happy. She wanted to run home and tell her how it's been that they did it. And immediately, once she wanted to do that, she just broke down.
Starting point is 01:05:00 Because I think, you know, and I think a lot of victims families do this. They spend so much of their time and energy, you know, trying to get justice, trying to get, you know, that they don't really, and then it just hit her. So that's the story of the Tokyo subway attack. I mean, I don't really have words. It's so insane It's crazy how people think that their beliefs are so great that they got to kill other people for it Like what that's not a good belief. Let me know what are your thoughts on this case? I hope you guys enjoyed and I'll see you guys Wednesday for the big episode
Starting point is 01:05:40 Bye Bye!

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