Inside the World's Most Notorious Groups and Understanding the People Who Joined Them
April 15, 2022
A collection of origin stories of real-life villains. "Everyone wants to believe in something or someone: a higher ideal, a god on earth, a voice from heaven, an intelligence beyond our own." So begins Cutler, founder of Parcast Studios, writing with the assistance of former New Yorker editor Conley. Though "this appetite for belief" often leads to "great things," it can also be used by charismatic leaders to exploit others for their own desires and delusions. In a book based on the popular eponymous podcast, Cutler offers an introduction into the fascinating world of cult leaders, ranging from notorious masterminds like Charles Manson, Jim Jones, David Koresh, and Marshall Applewhite to lesser-known figures such as Credonia Mwerinde, a high priestess in Uganda who was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people in the name of her cult, the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God. The author seeks to understand the psychology of these leaders, how they wielded their manipulation tactics, and how the landscape of their particular sociopolitical milieu played a role in their crimes. The book is well researched and well organized. Cutler begins by chronicling each cult leader's upbringing and how they obtained their followers, then goes into detail about their crimes. Though often informative, much of the text reads like a podcast script: "Being a cult leader is a dangerous game, but judging from historical accounts, once one discovers the knack for it, it's hard to stop the manipulations that give ultimate power over this life and the next until it's far too late." Cutler shows how this lust for power is what often leads to the demise of a cult leader's followers, but his exploration leads to few new resolutions or revelations about cults in general. This makes the book a tantalizing read for true-crime neophytes but a slog for well-established readers of the genre. True-crime fans should stick to the podcast.
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May 1, 2022
Cutler, founder of Parcast Studios, gives an overview of ten notorious cults, based on his podcast series of the same name. Cutler briefly describes the lives of the cult leaders, including Charles Manson, Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Jim Jones, Claude Vorilhon (a.k.a Rael), Roch Th�riault, David Koresh, Keith Raniere, Credonia Mwerinde, and Marshall Applewhite (a.k.a Do). He highlights the similarities and differences in their backgrounds and personalities. Additionally, he speculates on how each leader might fit in with current scholarship on the psychology of cult leaders, narcissists and sociopaths. Next, Cutler describes the formation of each leader's movement and the techniques that they used to refine their belief structures and recruit new members. He explores how vulnerable people might become susceptible to each leader's magnetic personality and teachings. Cutler broadly reports on the cults' activities, which may be disturbing for some readers. Finally, he documents each leader's eventual downfall and reports on the activities of surviving cult members. VERDICT A fascinating overview of famous cult leaders which serves as an introduction to the topic.--Rebekah Kati
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
May 16, 2022
In this chilling account, Parcast podcaster Cutler surveys 10 mainly high-profile cults and their leaders from recent decades. Familiar names include Charles Manson, who introduced the cult image to America thanks to the TV coverage of the Tate-LaBianca murders; David Koresh, whose followers joined him in a deadly standoff with the FBI at their compound in Waco, Tex., in 1993; and Marshall Applewhite, who in 1997 persuaded his Heaven’s Gate followers to swallow poison in the largest mass suicide in U.S. history. Among lesser known cult leaders is Canadian Roch Thériault, who used charisma and religion to keep his followers under his sway as he abused them, going so far as to amputate his wife’s arm. (He died in prison.) While most met violent ends, Uganda’s Credonia Mwerinde, one of the rare female cult leaders, vanished after burning alive 530 of her followers after locking them into a wooden “ark” she made them build. Cutler insightfully explores what attracts people to cults and the psychology of their leaders, but much of this won’t be news to true crime buffs. This works best as a companion volume to the author’s podcasts. Agent: Eve Attermann, WME.
May 15, 2022
"Being a cult leader is a dangerous game," writes Cutler, founder of a podcast studio and creator of the successful podcast Cults, in this debut book that compiles chilling accounts of the infamous, from Manson to Jones to Koresh and names that we may have forgotten, and goes beyond the headlines into the very souls and psyches of ten notorious cult leaders and their manipulated victims. Cutler depicts the personality traits these leaders employed to lure followers and cultivate devotion among them, and examines characteristics they shared, such as shame, pathological lying, sadism, megalomania, and denial of reality. He chronicles the early, often-abusive lives of these figures and chronicles their rises to power, taking readers through heights of mesmerizing, manufactured fear and twisted religious concepts, to the crumbling of their empires. Cutler thoroughly investigates cults both familiar and less so (such as the Ugandan group led by Credonia Mwerinde, the only female leader examined), with grisly but not egregious detail. Fans of Cutler's (and similar) podcasts and true-crime aficionados will appreciate this enthralling exhibition.
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