(Well that is quite a headline… and it is not clickbait! I have some local interest in this bizarre story, as two of the murders took place in a Philly suburb wherein I dwelt for a short time, many decades ago. Good luck keeping track of the perps, since The Telegraph insists on using preferred pronouns… all the he are shes and the hers are hims. -nvp)
‘Transgender vegan cult leader’ arrested in US over six deaths
The alleged leader of a radical “transgender vegan cult” linked to six deaths across the US has been arrested in Maryland.
Jack “Ziz” LaSota, 34, the founder of an anarchist group known as “Zizians”, was detained on Sunday with Michelle Zajko, 32, who is believed to be a member of the group.
The Zizians are said to be a group of intelligent individuals including computer scientists who have worked for Google and Nasa who developed radical views on veganism, gender identity and artificial intelligence.
The “cult” has been linked to a spate of deaths, including the shooting of David Maland, a US border patrol agent, in Vermont as well as coast-to-coast killings in Pennsylvania and California.
LaSota, who is transgender and uses female pronouns but is referred to as male in court filings, faces multiple charges including trespass, obstructing and hindering and possession of a handgun.
Ms Zajko, 32, was arrested on charges including resisting or interfering with arrest and having a handgun on his person.
US officials have offered few details of the country-wide investigation, which intensified after Mr Maland was shot dead on Jan 20.
The 44 year-old was killed in a shoot-out after he pulled over a car in Coventry, Vermont, a small town about 20 miles from the Canadian border.
Teresa Youngblut, 21, another alleged Zizian member, has been charged in connection with Mr Marland’s death. She has pleaded not guilty.
An alleged Zizian was also killed in the shooting, Felix Bauckholt, a 26-year-old German maths whizz. Baukhold was transgender and used the name Ophelia.
Jessica Taylor, who met Bauckholt at an event in New York, described the Zizians as a group of “highly intelligent, transgender, vegans” which amounted to a “death cult”.
She told NBC News that Bauckholt had not seemed concerned by some of the extreme views of the group such as the “importance of retribution under some circumstances”.
LaSota, the alleged cult leader, who is understood to wear dark robes and call herself a “sith” – a reference to the evil group in the Star Wars films devoted to the “dark side”, published an at times violent blog under the name Ziz.
One post described a theory that the hemispheres of the brain could hold separate values and genders and “often desire to kill each other”. She also said she felt she lived in a society of “flesh-eating monsters”.
The alleged leader has railed against perceived enemies, including so-called rationalist groups, which discuss theories about human cognition and artificial intelligence online.
Those who knew LaSota have described her as a terrifying figure who held extreme beliefs.
The computer programmer moved to Silicon Valley in 2016 after graduating from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and completing an internship in Nasa.
While in California, she and some of her associates attended events organised by Anna Salamon, a co-founder of the nonprofit Center for Applied Rationality.
Ms Salamon said in hindsight they had been “creating conditions for a cult”.
“I was viscerally afraid of LaSota in a way I’ve never been viscerally afraid of anybody,” Ms Salamon told NBC News.
In 2019 LaSota and three associates showed up at an event hosted by the Centre for Applied Rationality wearing robes and Guy Fawkes masks and blocked the entrances of the grounds.
They were arrested and charged with criminal conspiracy and five misdemeanours including false imprisonment.
The complex web of killings also includes a faked death. LaSota was reported to have gone missing during a boating accident in August 2022. An obituary was published in LaSota’s hometown’s local paper but no body was found.
Other deaths linked to the cult include Zaijko’s parents, who were shot dead in Philadelphia, and the group’s former landlord Curtis Lind, who was stabbed to death.
Zajko was previously questioned over the deaths of her parents Richard and Rita Zajko, who were shot dead in their home in Chester Heights, Pennsylvania on New Year’s Eve 2022.
A doorbell camera captured audio and video of a car pulling up at the house, with a voice shouting, “mom” according to a Pennsylvania state police affidavit.
Zajko was detained at a hotel room ad questioned by police but was never formally charged. LaSota, who had been listed as dead, was found at the same hotel and was arrested for refusing to cooperate with officers.
The Zizians were also linked to the murder of Curtis Lind, an 82-year-old landlord in Vallejo, California.
Mr Lind was impaled with a sword by an alleged Zizian member, Emma Borhanian, in a dispute over rent in 2022. Mr Lind fought back and shot Borhanian dead, with police ruling that he acted in self-defence.
He was due to testify about the attack last month but was found dead, having been stabbed in the neck. Zizian member Maximilian Snyder, a 22-year-old data scientist and Oxford graduate, who goes by Audere, was charged with Mr Lind’s murder.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/transgender-vegan-cult-leader-arrested-103858819.html
