Marcus Wesson ran his family like a cult. He had children with his daughters and preached a religion he created, one in which he was a Jesus Vampire. After a standoff, police found nine of the children dead.

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Self-proclaimed prophet and cult leader Jeffrey Don Lundgren was born on May 3, 1950. After a life of religious confusion, Lundgren became the leader of a fanatically loyal sect. One day, he decided that a family of his most ardent followers, the Averys, was to be killed for sacrifice.

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Fundamentalist Mormon cultmaster and religious psychopath Ervil LeBaron used his 13 wives, children and colleagues to murder and intimidate more than 25 people he saw as his opponents. Lebaron was even connected to the death of his daughter Rebecca, 17, who, pregnant with her second child, had hoped to leave the cult.

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Adolfo Constanzo was charming, charismatic and believed to have psychic abilities. He led a cult and a drug operation, and believed that his extrasensory powers would keep both from being detected by police. On April 11, 1989, his powers failed him as police began digging up body after body at his ranch.

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First came the reports out of Guyana were on November 18, 1978, that Congressman Leo Ryan and four members of his party were dead. Later, came the grisly discovery of the largest mass suicide of the 20th Century. The Reverend Jim Jones led his flock commit suicide in a way that forever changed our notion of what it means to “drink the Kool Aid.”

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Cults that ripped themselves apart with torture, murder and suicide.

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On January 25, 1971, Charles Manson was convicted on seven counts of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder, for his role in trying to start a race war with the bloody Tate and LaBianca murders.

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Family International, previously known as Children of God and Family of Love, has always branded itself as the “cool” cult in order to recruit young people attracted to counterculture. Seen here is a music video produced by Family International in which female adherents sing an ode to their ‘Dad,’ cult founder and leader David Berg. Berg died in 1994 but the cult continues to operate in his legacy.

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“Kathy Don’t Go” is a music video produced in the 1980s by the cult Family International. It’s a jaunty tune about a young woman named Kathy who narrowly avoids being implanted with a ’666′ microchip at the supermarket. We promise you’ll be humming it all day.

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Bethany Deaton’s future seemed bright. The 27-year-old had finished nursing school and planned to become a missionary with her charismatic husband Tyler, who led an extremely devout prayer group. The tightly knit group’s devotion to Tyler Deaton and his fellowship was so great that several members lived in the same house with the couple. But more was going on inside the house than prayer meetings. Beneath the veneer of religious fellowship lurked darker secrets Deaton and his followers harbored.

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