Wild Wild Country (2018) s01e05 Episode Script

1
[Timber Timbre's "Run from Me" playing]
Run from me, darling ♪
Run, my good wife ♪
Run from me, darling ♪
You better run for your life ♪
[indistinct chatter]
Run from me, baby ♪
Run, my good wife ♪
Run from me, baby ♪
You better run for your life ♪
[male reporter] Is there
anything unusual about this laundry?
Are strange things happening
here in your hotel?
Yes, very strange. [chuckles]
[male reporter]
What?
I see only red clotheses. [chuckles]
And I don't know why that's happening.
[male reporter]
What do you think?
I think that's Bhagwan.
That's people from Bhagwan
and clothes from Bhagwan.
[Jane]
Almost immediately life changed.
I had been very far off the planet.
I just knew I needed
to take time to think things through.
La la la la ♪
[Jane] Kylie, my daughter, and I
sat feeling very relieved and happy
to have a warm place
and such a warm welcome in Germany.
Everybody was sitting around
in a happy excited kind of mood.
And then the telephone rang
in another room,
and somebody went out
and said that it was the ranch.
People began to come back into the room,
and they were different.
They were completely different.
Run ♪
Run ♪
We had just left, and Bhagwan was
sending the dogs after us.
And it was clear
that he was out to destroy Sheela.
Run ♪
[Jane]
Whether you loved Sheela or hated her,
she did her job really well
and she did it for him.
I felt that he had betrayed her royally.
Run ♪
[hooves beating]
Are you Ma Anand? Or are you Sheela?
-Or are just playing Mrs. Silversmith?
-I am Ma Anand Sheela.
Will you be putting on a red robe again?
[chuckles]
Not right now.
It's a question of my safety,
my physical safety.
Bhagwan wanted me to be debilitated.
He was so angry, but I confronted Bhagwan.
No one in his history
has confronted him
but I confronted him.
[male reporter]
Here now Sheela and the Bhagwan,
as they called it
"The Empress Strikes Back."
Would you like to have a look
at what she has to say to you?
Bhagwan, it's time
that you let people know who you are,
the way I have come to know you,
which is that, on one hand,
you are a genius and a beautiful man,
and on the other hand,
you really exploit people
by using their human frailty and emotions.
She's drugged.
She's on hard drugs.
[male reporter]
You said also that the Bhagwan
was really not the slightest bit
interested in enlightenment.
So it was a con.
Absolutely.
You, as the queen, presided
over an empire built on a gigantic con.
Yes, I did preside over it.
I have never made love to her,
that much is certain.
Perhaps that is the jealousy.
She always wanted
but I have made it a point
never make love to a secretary.
[audience laughs]
I found Bhagwan broken.
Bhagwan pained,
just as I pained in leaving him.
Love affair never ends.
It can turn into a hate affair.
She did not prove to be a woman.
She proved to be a perfect bitch.
[audience laughs]
He says you tried to poison
his doctor, his dentist, his caretaker,
that one of your assistants
jabbed his doctor
[laughs]
Jabbed his doctor in the butt
with a poisoned needle.
[laughs]
That's very nice.
Did she do a good job?
[male reporter]
The doctor apparently is still alive.
Then obviously she didn't do a good job.
She is just going more and more insane
before she goes to imprisonment.
You just wait.
Either she will kill herself
out of the very burden
of all the crimes that she has done
or she will have to suffer
her whole life in imprisonment.
I knew too much.
My family
is fearful of it even today
what Bhagwan's Sannyasins can to do to me.
The things I know
the wealth of information I have
inside information I have
itself puts me in danger.
[male reporter]
But who?
Do you think Bhagwan could hire killers
to seek you out and have you murdered?
Again, I would say it's a possibility.
[Jane]
We were a group of 21 people,
and we were in danger.
So, that really brought us together.
Run ♪
[Jane]
I certainly was following Sheela's lead.
I became absolutely devoted to Sheela.
And she became my substitute master.
Run ♪
Today I understand these words were
making my back stronger.
Run ♪
Run ♪
[Sheela]
Now to protect my people,
I have to be even more fierceful,
even more strong.
No compromise.
[male reporter]
Are you frightened?
No. I'm a courageous woman.
[Sheela]
To know myself was my strength.
And we have to pull
our strength together and go forward.
Run ♪
Run ♪
Run ♪
Run ♪
Hey!
It was like a bomb
had dropped in that hall
when he started talking
about what he had just found out.
It was a bomb for everybody.
It was a bomb for the press.
It was a bomb for the Sannyasins.
It was a bomb for Bhagwan.
I mean, you know, he was
He was in shock himself.
He looked in shock.
But there was a sense of
"We don't know who's staying.
We don't know who's going.
We don't know what's going
to happen with the movement.
We don't even know
if he's staying or going."
It was a It was a very precarious time.
The shakeup at Rajneeshpuram this week
has touched nearly everyone.
Although this is called a city,
its leaders are
much more than politicians.
Besides a change in command,
something is different at the ranch.
Rajneeshees are trying
to figure out what.
It's It's hard to explain.
In one way nothing is different and
in another way everything is different.
When you think that you know things,
you feel safe, yeah?
And I thought that I knew things.
And now in this moment,
I know that I don't know them.
My mind is in shock
and my heart is hurting.
And that's it. I'm just
More I cannot say.
[male reporter]
Do you plan to stay here?
Oh, as long as I can, yeah. Definitely.
I've been just going through
a lot of different feelings.
And on the one hand, sometimes
I just feel so much pain inside
because these people I really trusted
and they turned out to be totally
the opposite of what I thought they were.
Shocked, you know?
And even hurt.
It was like, "Oh no, you know? What?"
My honest response when I heard
was just the depth of sorrow.
I was so sad.
I was just
Just even to think of it now is like,
"What happened to these people
that they could go so wrong
and be around him?"
That was beyond wild for me.
Um And I also I really felt for them.
I thought they had gone crazy. Truly.
As the days passed
and Bhagwan started telling us
more and more of the actualities
of what was going on in this community
that we didn't know about,
it began to be a feeling of burden
and of depression and sadness and anger
and feelings of betrayal.
This community is under attack
from a lot of directions.
People who are here
and who we trusted have fucked us.
I feel like we have a basic, basic choice.
[voice breaking] And that is do we want
to be here together or do we not?
The reaction in the commune overall
was the same reaction I had: relief.
This
Come on.
This power-mad, megalomaniac
who had been literally hammering
on everybody for a long time was gone.
I don't know.
It's like the clouds have suddenly lifted.
In some ways, it was clouds
that we weren't even aware of.
And very shortly after Sheela left,
Hasya was appointed
Osho's new personal secretary.
Hasya has been chosen
by the board of trustees
to be the president
of the Rajneesh Foundation International.
She has also been chosen
by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
to be his personal secretary.
[cheering and applause]
[drums and music playing]
[male reporter] Sheela's replacement
is a wealthy movie producer named Hasya.
She put together the film Godfather,
is now in charge
of bringing peace to the ranch.
[Niren] And Hasya was really,
during those early days,
trying to deal with the press
in a way to defuse the situation
and what was going on.
[male reporter] What different direction
are things going to take
from the perspective
of Oregonians with Hasya?
Well, I think it depends
how they receive me
how they begin to see us.
I certainly have
no intentions of harming them.
And our arms are stretched out to them.
Palms up.
[Niren] So after Sheela left, I guess half
of the city council was gone you know?
The mayor was gone.
[male reporter]
Today who is the mayor of Rajneeshpuram?
Today that will be announced.
He'll be announced? He'll be appointed?
Mm-hmm.
And somebody came to me and said
that Osho has suggested
that you run for mayor.
[laughs]
And I thought, "Oh good.
That's all I need, is some more work."
[laughs]
But apparently he had.
And not too surprisingly
I became mayor.
I would like to introduce
the only candidate:
[audience laughs]
Swami Prem Niren.
[cheering and applause]
[Niren] Those were
the new people I was working with.
And we were all trying to pull it together
and save the community.
So, there was hope.
This commune is still here.
And everyone else is still here.
And we're much freer
than we were before.
[male reporter]
But you'll stay?
Of course I'm going to stay.
Yeah, there's no other place.
[chuckles]
[Weaver]
Rajneesh broke his silence.
This was the first
of two huge mistakes that he made.
He broke his silence and announced to
the world that shocked He was shocked.
"Oh my God, I'm shocked.
Shocked, I tell you.
Shocked. I just heard this.
I'm going to share this with you."
It was Bhagwan just turning on Sheela
in a very, very public way.
What's really going on here?
These folks
aren't out there growing carrots.
Some top officials of the commune
have fled the country
after their leader,
the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh,
accused them of a variety crimes.
Don Oliver reports tonight
that this supposedly perfect society
may have been far from it.
[male reporter]
Now he's talking again,
and what he's saying
has left his disciples speechless.
Tales of attempted murder,
of spying and sabotage,
and betrayal
by his closest aides at Rajneeshpuram.
[Bhagwan] Sheela wanted
one of our pilots to take the bombs
and crash the plane
against the Wasco County office.
She has stolen 43 million dollars
out of that money.
One of the offices of Wasco County
was burned.
They should put Interpol after them.
They should be brought back in chains.
That invited the FBI
onto the ranch for the first time
to investigate crimes that were
within the jurisdiction of the FBI.
[Enyart] When Bhagwan
made these allegations,
that gave us the key to the door.
As I drove into town,
the first thing I saw
was a couple engaged in sex on a bridge
at the far west end of the community
and that more or less set the stage
for a very bizarre two months
that I spent in this commune
conducting a federal investigation.
Uh [clears throat]
Sex, uh, between commune members
was open and frequent
and, uh, all types of things were condoned
that you wouldn't find
out in other parts of the state of Oregon.
[male reporter] For the first time
since the commune began four years ago,
outside law officers will be welcomed
to investigate the charges.
They have officially asked for our help.
[Gary]
The FBI, Alcohol Tobacco Firearms,
the state police, local law enforcement
and our office were all involved.
[male reporter] Federal, state, and county
investigators set up shop at Rajneeshpuram
looking for evidence
to corroborate the guru's charges.
[Niren]
We cooperated, you know?
They came in and we gave them
access to documents, access to people.
My almost sole focus has been to work
with the law enforcement agencies,
to work with the members of this community
in order to cooperate
in every way possible
with those law enforcement agencies.
We turned over 10,000 tapes
that were discovered in a secret room
underneath Sheela's house.
Now, as the investigation into charges
against Sheela
and other top Rajneeshees continues,
there's news of a bunker of sorts
in the house where Sheela used to live.
[male reporter]
At Sheela's luxurious former home,
there was a second day of show and tell.
Beneath a swimming pool
and dirt lot that adjoins the house
lies much more than meets the eye.
A hidden lever opens a secret door
just off the hallway
leading to Sheela's former bedroom.
Sheela had her own entrance to the tunnel
through a secret door in her bathroom.
Those who helped build it were apparently
told it was a safe place for Bhagwan.
A button on this air conditioner
triggers another secret door
leading down a steep stairway
to a cavernous room
complete with bathroom and closets.
A hallway then leads
to a room containing a large hot tub.
In one corner, still another secret door,
this one leading to a tunnel.
The sinister thing was
that something was happening undercover.
In a community such as ours,
that's totally inconceivable to us.
It is taking us by surprise.
Anyone who visited Rajneeshpuram
was probably recorded.
Every activity that they engaged in
was recorded.
It was a very sophisticated system
in every building in the town.
[male reporter] Rajneesh officials have
already uncovered dozens of spy devices.
They were apparently used to record,
to photograph, and sometimes to injure.
This was the largest wiretapping incident
in the history of any nation.
[male reporter] The FBI has
so many tapes of recorded conversations
that it would take one person
working eight hours a day
more than two years to listen to them all.
The tapes may contain information
about other alleged crimes at the ranch.
We were focused on assaults,
batteries, attempted murders
and everything else
was sort of paled in comparison.
Those with the most serious crimes
and they called
for very serious sanctions in our view.
[Jane] Before Sheela
had left Bhagwan and Rajneeshpuram
I was one day told
to come down to the restaurant
and Sheela said, "I have a job for you.
We need some guns that can't be traced
and you and Rita are to go and get them."
And we took a plane to Texas.
We drove around different gun shops
and bought guns.
And each time we came out
of a shop with another gun,
we drove off to the next one.
I ripped up the receipt for the gun,
threw the bits out the window,
and we laughed and sang
because we were so happy.
I took the guns with me in a bag,
and I took the Greyhound bus
back to Portland.
I was met at the bus station by a man
who had told us what kind of guns to buy.
He took
the rather heavy bag out of my hand,
and I never saw them again.
[male reporter]
If there is a cache of weapons dumped
at this lake at Rajneeshpuram,
U.S. Navy divers say they'll find it.
The weapons were allegedly bought
by a hit squad
planning to assassinate state officials
like State Attorney General
Dave Frohnmayer.
According to an informant
who claims to have direct links,
the weapons were dumped here
in Lake Patanjali
when the assassination plot fell through.
To aid in the search, divers are using
a highly sensitive metal detector
capable of finding an item
as small as a hair pin.
U.S. Assistant Attorney Robert Weaver
told CBS News that a weapon was found
that is believed to have been linked
to an assassination plot
against U.S. Attorney Charles Turner.
[Gary] They had been surveilling Dave
Frohnmayer and Charlie Turner's homes
and their families for months,
plotting assassinations.
Dave Frohnmayer's young daughter Katie
came home from school one day
to find bloody animal entrails
and And some, uh, newspaper articles
on their driveway.
The Rajneeshees came this close
to murdering a presidential appointee,
to executing Charles Turner.
They came this close to murdering him.
If you murdered the United States attorney
or the attorney general of Oregon,
that's an assassination.
That's a very high-profile crime.
According to testimony
recounted in this affidavit,
all the drugs and potential poisons came
through the Rajneesh Medical Corporation.
The corporation secretary treasurer,
Ma Anand Puja,
had total control of the organization.
According to witnesses,
she ordered all the drugs,
often dispensed them, and even
poured the beer for the street people
when they arrived at the ranch last fall.
To my mind, one of the creepiest
characters of the whole operation
was Ma Anand Puja,
who was trained as a nurse.
This came out admitted,
you know, that that Puta
Was that her name?
Puja, yeah.
Yeah, puta is something in Spanish
that we don't want to say, huh?
Puja used poisoning
as a internal tool to regulate.
You know, somebody giving you a bad time,
they get really sick.
[male reporter] Apparently, police were
looking for evidence at the medical clinic
that might corroborate
Bhagwan's allegation
that Sheela and friends
tried to poison Bhagwan's doctor.
I felt this sort of slight, slight pain,
slight sort of funny sensation
and realized all in one terrible flash
what was happening.
You know, Shanti Bhadra,
the pain in my left buttock,
the whole poisoning,
the whole thing suddenly clarified,
"My God, these people."
[gasps]
This is unbelievable,
but it's definitely happening, you know?
The FBI asked me if I had any sense
that I might I have been poisoned.
One day, I was offered a cup of coffee.
I drank the coffee and then I immediately
ran to the bathroom and I was just woozy.
And there's a knock on the door,
and the doctor says,
"There's an ambulance coming!
Are you okay? Unlock the door!"
And then the next thing I know,
I'm on a stretcher
to Pythagoras Medical Center,
and I'm just out of it.
And I just open my eyes
and closed my eyes.
And then I woke up several days later.
And I start to remember,
"Oh, yeah, Rajneesh,
he stopped his Rolls Royce
in front of me at a celebration.
And there were so many roses
on the Rolls Royce."
And I said,
"You want me to take those roses?"
So I took a rose.
He rolled down the window.
I didn't even know he knew my name,
and he said, "No, Sunny,
you have to take all of those roses."
In retrospect, it's like,
"Oh, my God, she was jealous.
Oh, my God, this is just female,
downright, unconscious behavior."
Anybody that Osho gave juice to,
Sheela was going to fuck over.
And anybody that Osho gave juice to
was going to be attacked by Sheela.
I think a lot of us felt this, but we
were afraid to say anything about it,
for fear of repercussion
and what might happen.
[male reporter]
You felt what?
A lot of fear.
I mean, it was like it was never spoken,
but it was a lot of fear
that Sheela or whoever at the top
might do something,
might ask you to leave.
I think people were more willing to
Particularly after the Bhagwan
gave them permission to do it,
were more willing
to tell tales about Sheela
than Than we ever found
with respect to the Bhagwan.
[male reporter] Four days
of news conferences and lectures,
Rajneesh has alleged
that Sheela and friends
were behind the salmonella food poisoning
at The Dalles last fall.
[female reporter]
The state health division now says
salmonella found in food samples
taken from the restaurants
was genetically identical
to bacteria found at the ranch
during an investigation there.
[Gary] They had a laboratory
where they cultured salmonella.
Then they took the salmonella culture
and they brushed it on foods in salad bars
and restaurants in The Dalles.
[Durow]
They had long sleeve jackets on
and they had some sort of system
rigged up in their sleeve.
They could just move their hand
over the salad bar.
Walked along and sprinkled it
and people got sick.
They were setting the stage
for a big outbreak.
The Rajneeshees at that time
were trying to influence the election.
The matter is very serious
for the Rajneeshees.
The political makeup
of the Wasco County court
could well determine
the future of the city,
and that means millions of dollars' worth
of investments down there.
And so it would make political sense
for the Rajneeshees
to want to exert as much control
over Wasco County politics as possible.
The idea, it was a dry run
and an attempt to see if, on election day,
they could make enough people sick
that they would have sufficient votes
to control the county.
The salad bars, uh,
weren't their first attempt.
[Durow] There was a threat
to poison the city's water supply.
We had open reservoirs
that fed a good portion of the community.
Most of the water for The Dalles
comes off of Mount Hood drainage.
And we have a big dam and it's open.
Someone had read somewhere
that beavers were
a particularly bad source of bacteria,
so they decided
that they would introduce beavers
to the water system for The Dalles.
They went out with beavers,
only to discover
that there was just a small gap
between the solid lid and the wall
that was covered with wire mesh.
So they couldn't get the beavers
into the water supply.
So they went back,
and they killed the beavers.
And they put them in blenders,
and they blended the beavers
and then poured the blended beavers
into the water supply.
I have no idea
whether that's a true story,
but it's a story that was told to me
by someone who was there.
These people are crazy.
This made me a lot more suspicious
of what goes on
and what people are capable of doing.
Weaver stood before an empty House
to say he was right all along
about the Rajneeshees.
When it finally came out
that I was right and had won,
I was exhilarated.
I was a hero.
I'd go speak to the Rotary, and I'd get
standing ovations from Republicans.
[laughs]
Three, two, one.
Here's a point to remember:
all of the accusations of wrongdoing
have come from either Bhagwan
or others who have remained in the fold.
This raises the possibility
the enlightened master who claims
to have been duped by his subordinates
may have to show that his own hands
are clean in a court of law.
It's a very tumultuous time.
The leaving of Sheela
and the willingness of Bhagwan
to expose all
of the illegal activities very quickly,
in my mind's eye,
is just fueling the efforts
by the INS and various government agencies
to get Bhagwan out of the country
and to cause
the breakdown of the community.
The honeymoon didn't last for long.
Years of mistrust on both sides
couldn't be erased overnight,
and it became clear
that some people still at the ranch
might be vulnerable to prosecution.
So the Rajneeshees, never known
for tossing self-interest aside,
started looking out for number one.
I don't think there was ever
a time in the investigation
that I would describe
Rajneesh authorities as being cooperative.
It was
a contentious relationship at all times.
They weren't just investigating
his crimes.
They were trying to amass evidence where
they could prosecute people on the ranch,
not just for Sheela's crimes,
but support their lawsuits
and their cases.
So at that point, everybody that talked
to them starting having to have a lawyer.
The cooperation became more limited
when it was clear
that they were out to use it to get us.
[Gary] Being invited down to see
what they wanted us to see
did not cause us to just accept
at face value what they were telling us.
And so, we didn't just assume that what
they were giving us was the full story.
We just weren't ready
to give the Bhagwan a complete pass.
[Niren]
Now, to be clear
Osho knew nothing about the criminal stuff
that was going on.
When it was something about his teaching
or his work, then he was boom.
But when it was something
involving something outside of that
he always really supported
the people he put in charge.
His agenda, as I understood him,
was simply to raise
the consciousness of humanity.
That was his goal. That was his effort.
That was his only reason for speaking.
For Osho, all of this was a game.
All of this was a game of consciousness
to transform consciousness.
There was a guy named Gurdjieff
who was a famous mystic
who would create what he called devices.
And he put people in difficult
psychological or physical situations.
And by facing these situations,
people would be forced into themselves
and learn about themselves.
In some ways, the whole thing for Osho
was a big Gurdjieffian device.
It was a device
for the United States of America,
for them to see who they were.
It was a device
for Sheela to see who she was.
It was a device
for all of us in the community
to see what we would do under pressure.
America is certainly the very hope
for the whole world.
But not the way it is now.
We have to deprogram America
from dirty politics
from fanatic religions
from all kinds of hypocrisy.
It is not a coincidence
that suddenly we have landed here.
We have to do
something really great
for humanity's sake.
Gurdjieff was right.
Bravo, America.
[audience chuckles]
[male reporter] The guru said last night
the Rajneesh religion was started
without his permission
by his former secretary Ma Anand Sheela.
[Bhagwan]
I'm against all religions.
I am not your leader.
You are not my followers.
I'm destroying everything
so history never repeats again.
[male reporter] Bhagwan says his disciples
can now wear any color they want.
They can also shed their malas,
a long standing symbol of devotion.
He wants none
of the trappings of organized religion.
If I can get a turquoise sweater, I would
be the happiest woman in the world.
[laughing]
But the boutique's sold out so
I think it's really beautiful
'cause it means
that there's no separation between
Sannyasins and the rest of the world.
He wanted people to be free.
He wanted people
to get free of that conditioning,
to become free of the that conditioning,
open to their own energy,
open to their own understanding,
open to their own learnings.
For the first time
in the whole history of mankind
a religion has died.
[indistinct chatter]
[laughing]
[Hasya]
Okay, hello everybody!
[cheering and applause]
This was Sheela's desire
to be high priestess.
[audience chuckles]
And Sheela's desire for popedom.
[laughter and applause]
And today we're celebrating
the fact that Rajneeshism is dead.
[cheering and applause]
[male reporter] We got an idea
of just how angry Bhagwan may be.
He ordered the books with the rites
and prayers of Rajneeshism burned.
At the same time,
he had them burn Sheela's robes.
[chanting and rhythmic clapping]
[Sheela]
I think it is traditional
to burn someone
that has been excommunicated.
It's an old tradition
same as burning witches.
[male reporter]
Sheela says she never suggested
establishing a religion
in the first place.
[male reporter]
All this was his idea, not yours?
[Sheela] I wouldn't think of such things.
-[male reporter] Bhagwan thought of them?
-[Sheela] Uh-huh.
[male reporter] And then having thought
of them, now he blames them on you
and gets rid of them?
[Sheela] Right, that's why he needs
an exclusive secretary to blame it on.
Bhagwan said to burn my robes
and burn Book of Rajneeshism.
They are not burning me.
They are burning Bhagwan and themselves.
It doesn't reflect on me.
It reflects on these people.
It shows how deep
his sorrow and anger was.
He was ready to burn me.
[Jane] Sheela and the group of us were in
a holiday apartment in the Black Forest.
There was an absolute media frenzy.
I mean,
Sheela was known all over the world.
Ma Anand Sheela.
[Jane] And with Bhagwan
making new accusations every day,
the press always had
something to write about.
This was really hot copy
and they were writing about it
all over the world.
Money was very much needed by the group.
We had to eat
and we had to have accommodation.
We had to have clothing to wear.
These are half-trousers.
We don't need half trousers.
We need something
Person like me
who did management of people
in Rajneeshpuram I could do anything.
I can move mountains. I can build houses.
But in real world
I didn't know how to do it.
We were 25 people.
We had rented out this whole pension
and money was needed.
We had not informed any newspapers
or anybody where we were.
Sheela was contacted by Stern magazine,
which is
a very popular magazine in Germany.
And Stern magazine paid
a large sum of money for exclusive story.
We were not to speak
to the press for any reason.
The reporters from Stern magazine
arranged for the whole group around Sheela
to be smuggled out
in covered horse and buggy
to be taken by bus
and then by boat
to an island in the North Sea.
We were housed in a very nice hotel
until the Stern story came out.
The story broke.
[Jane]
Sheela posed naked for them on the bed.
And I am also in that picture
as one of her "bodyguards."
Stern magazine sold so many copies.
You have no idea.
And when it was all but done
we looked out of the window one day
to see a swarm of reporters
outside the hotel.
Moments of panic.
They found out where Sheela was.
[male reporter] Her whereabouts in Europe
had been unknown until recently.
However, she has been located
and is staying on the island of Juist
off the coast of Germany.
She's quoted in Stern magazine
as saying Rajneesh's charges are nonsense.
She added
that the reason she left the ranch
was that she no longer wanted
to take bread out of people's mouths
to buy him Rolls Royces.
I wonder if any agency, federal or
locally, is trying to extradite Sheela?
I have talked
with the U.S. Justice Department.
They say nothing currently
has been filed in terms of an extradition
and they won't really comment
much beyond that.
[Durow] I recall sitting
in my office one day,
and the phone rang and I answered it
and it was the FBI.
They said, "You need to go
to the nearest phone booth
and call me back at this number."
And at first I thought
You know, I was paranoid.
[chuckles]
Is this some Is this, you know,
another trick of the Rajneesh?
What is this about?
It was like, you know,
a 007 movie or something.
So I got in the car,
drove to the nearest phone booth,
dialed the number, talked to the guy.
He told me about the investigation,
and they were preparing search warrants.
And they wanted me to bring down
whatever maps I had of the ranch,
whatever physical layout,
descriptions I could bring to help them
identify particular buildings.
Took all of that to Madras and met
with the FBI there and the state police.
Took some time to go over these drawings
and find out which buildings were which
and what we thought
they were being used for,
and it was very shortly after that
that, uh, the raid happened.
Dozens of federal and state police
swept through Rajneeshpuram
this afternoon with search warrants.
[male reporter] Shortly after 2:00 p.m.,
police made their move.
They orchestrated very carefully
a raid into the ranch.
They drove down that one road in there
in a caravan
of federal and state officials
and then they just fanned out.
[male reporter] Some fifty FBI agents,
state and local police
swarmed through the ranch.
The Rajneesh medical clinic
was among seven buildings
where search warrants were served.
Crimes of conspiracy, attempted murder,
assault in the first degree,
third and fourth degree
They were able to get a search warrant
and that
really opened the door to Bhagwan.
It was like a feeding frenzy.
It's like, "Now we've got him!" You know?
Get the light out of my face please.
You're impeding me, okay?
Please give me a little bit of room.
Thank you.
[Niren]
And the state officials
were climbing in through windows
and kicking down doors,
grabbing all of their documentation to get
what hadn't been given to them already.
We are being treated
as if we are the criminals.
We are the ones
who have called in the authorities
to come in and investigate.
The interest is not in finding
the true criminals,
but to harass this community
and possibly destroy it.
[Niren]
There has not been a single U.S. Attorney
or a single attorney
from the Attorney General's Office here
to assist them in the direction
of their investigation.
So what we have is 50 guys running around
playing cops and robbers,
being sent warrants
from some distant place,
not really knowing
what they're looking for.
I don't know if you can call fishing
with a grenade a fishing expedition.
The question is
what is this investigation about?
They knew that if they could get Osho,
that the community would disband.
So they were focusing on Osho always.
[male reporter] An investigation,
which Rajneeshpuram's mayor says
is a smokescreen for federal efforts
to deport Rajneesh and his followers.
They had no evidence at all
that he had participated
in Sheela's criminal activity.
They had no evidence.
[male reporter] Are they trying
to build a case to deport the Bhagwan?
Of course.
[Bhagwan]
If they want us to leave this place,
they will have to destroy it,
and with it, they will have
to destroy their mask of democracy
respect of individuality
constitution for freedom of expression.
All that will go down the drain
with Rajneeshpuram.
[male reporter] It sounds as though
a showdown, if you will, at this point,
is inevitable between you
and the criminal investigators here.
You are telling your followers
not to speak to anybody
unless they speak with you first.
Is that correct?
I'm simply saying that those people
are trying a conspiracy
to destroy the commune.
And I will not allow anybody
to destroy the commune.
And to my Sannyasins,
I would like to say,
"Now no cooperation.
Nobody goes to report anything.
Our cooperation is finished.
Now they can go to hell."
[cheering and applause]
[male reporter]
Despite the statement by the Rajneesh,
Sannyasins are continuing
to be interviewed
by the FBI, the Oregon State Police,
and Wasco County authorities
here at this farmhouse on the commune.
We wanted some disaffected Sannyasin
to be in a position
where they could and would testify
against the Bhagwan.
[Zaitz] Prosecutors are eager to make
a deal to get these witnesses in-house.
So, that greatly accelerates
an investigation
and also provides you
credible information.
If you have someone
who has firsthand knowledge,
"I was in the room when the decision
was made to poison the salad bars,"
then that makes you
a very credible witness.
None. Almost none were
Were willing to talk to us.
They might have hated Sheela
and they might have hated
some of the people in that control group
that Sheela commanded,
but they were still very loyal
and dedicated to Bhagwan.
You know, sometimes
it's better to be lucky than good.
[male reporter] What was it like
being back in the hall today?
It's good to be here.
It's good to be here.
[male reporter] Where have you been?
I've been I've been around.
I haven't been in Zurich
like I read when I saw the newspapers
after I left, the day after.
Bhagwan had said earlier
that you'd been in Los Angeles hiding out,
making a deal with the prosecutors.
I have no I mean
No.
Do you have knowledge
of any of the crimes that Sheela
I understand
that it says in the affidavit
[male reporter] I know that he said
that you were negotiating with authorities
trying to get immunity.
You have not talked to authorities?
See, there's nothing I can say.
There's nothing I can say
about any of this.
[cheering and applause]
[Zaitz] K.D., who was
the mayor of Rajneeshpuram
Fairly crafty guy
who enjoyed the power that Sheela gave him
of being the front man for this entity.
K.D. was in on meeting
after meeting after meeting,
participated in some
of these things himself.
[Niren] Sheela brought him
into her inner circle
and she seduced him.
Not in a physical way,
but she seduced him with power.
She was
incredibly abusive to him at times.
Just hitting on him, you know?
Calling him a wimp.
Really hitting on him.
And he couldn't stand up to it.
So after she left,
he realized he could go to jail.
And I told him we would get him
his own lawyer, you know? We'd pay for it.
But he went
to the federal government to make a deal.
[female reporter] Attorney General
Dave Frohnmayer said today
the agreement represents a major break
in that criminal investigation.
Mr. Knapp has given insight
at the highest inner circles
into the pattern of lawbreaking, which is
the subject of an ongoing investigation.
He has also agreed
to turn state's evidence
and has given,
obviously, spectacular information
and insights into the highest levels
of a conspiracy of lawbreaking.
[Gary]
That was a key turning point.
There were many things
that I heard from K.D.
that were even more damning
to the Rajneeshees than I had expected.
[Niren] When people are under pressure,
who they are deep within comes out.
I mean, it happens in war,
happens in all sorts of situations.
Happens in politics.
When people are under pressure
most people respond out of fear
and then act to protect themselves.
[male reporter]
Okay, first of all, your general reaction
to the former mayor of this town
pleading guilty to the charges
that he pleaded guilty to
and to the deal
that he copped with the state?
Well, he must have done something.
Uh He, as I understand it,
that he pled guilty
to a number of criminal charges
in order to avoid prosecution
and more serious criminal charges.
And, um
I mean, that's the fact of it.
[male reporter] How does this affect
your own estimation of K.D.?
I mean, you've known him
for a long time too.
[sighs]
That's personal between me and K.D.
I think K.D. was a coward.
I don't have
so low opinion of any human being.
I find it disgusting.
But he would sell anybody.
Uh
He would sell himself. He did.
He sold himself.
[female reporter]
The Attorney General also revealed
that Krishna Deva will be given protection
under the Federal Witness Protection Act
because of fears for his safety.
Indictments have already been issued
on charges ranging from attempted murder
to immigration fraud.
[reporters clamoring]
[Weaver] We were going to hold accountable
anybody who was involved in creating
and directing this very large conspiracy
to violate U.S. laws.
So we got arrest warrants
for every single one of them.
[female reporter]
The secret indictment charging the Bhagwan
and seven of his followers
with 35 counts of conspiracy
to defraud the United States
and making false statements
regarding harboring aliens.
[Weaver] We were faced
with a simultaneous arrest of Bhagwan,
who was our number one target of the case,
other people on the ranch, Sheela,
and other targets who were now in Germany.
We needed to do this
bang-bang, back-to-back.
Sheela was residing within just 50 miles
or so of the Swiss border.
And once she crossed the border,
she would be un-extraditable.
It became incumbent upon us
to get Bhagwan and Sheela immediately.
After we got this indictment,
my case agent, Joe Greene, was told
by his headquarters in Washington D.C.
that he was forbidden
from executing that warrant.
In most cases,
that's what they've been waiting for,
you know, the money shot
where they put the guy in handcuffs.
For us to come in at the last minute
and ask the Marshal Service to go out
and to execute these arrests
on a compound that now is heavily armed
[gunshots]
Yeah, they're going
to take their time to decide that
and they're going to have a plan to do so
that would anticipate violence.
[Gary] The location of Rajneeshpuram
in a box canyon
made it particularly troubling
because any kind of legal process,
uh, would involve logistical nightmares
in terms of being able to provide
for the safety of the people
that were doing that.
And there was great concern
that people would become emboldened
and take matters into their own hands.
Things were getting kind of heated up.
We had a camp set up in a cave with food,
with bedding,
and with rifle and ammunition.
If we had to leave in a hurry,
we kept our vehicles
with the keys in them, pointed outward.
And the state police
were afraid to go down there
because they were out-powered.
And they knew it.
They had much more firepower than we did.
[male reporter] Federal officials warned
of more than 17,000 rounds of ammunition,
of the purchase
of 20 semi-automatic Uzi rifles,
and a report
of 96 Russian-made AK-47 rifles,
along with one million rounds
of AK-47 ammunition.
That's more automatic weapons than all
of the police forces in Oregon combined.
[male reporter] If the Rajneesh
intend to defend their commune,
Rajneesh Security spokespersons
will not say
how many semi-automatic weapons
they possess, only that there are enough.
If someone tried to arrest Bhagwan,
put him in handcuffs,
these believers, well-armed, would see it
as their duty to try and defend him.
[woman] I call them weapons
to be used only for self-defense,
only for situations of mortal danger,
only to protect the commune.
If they come in here shooting,
we're going to shoot back.
I mean, you have to understand
the community was freaked.
I mean, we did have newspapers
and we did have TVs,
and they were freaked
that there was going to be an invasion.
And people would have given their lives
to protect Osho.
We were anticipating
that we were going to end up having
to mount a major full-scale assault
on the community.
There were two officers
from the Oregon National Guard
out of Redmond came out here.
They felt that they might have to go in.
And they were looking
for the appropriate place to cross.
Well,
down at the lower end of my property,
you barely get your feet wet
walking across the river there.
And I said, "Well,
this is the ideal place to go across."
But I said, "Really, you're going
to get a lot of your kids killed.
You guys meet one weekend a month.
I hear them practicing
on their range every day."
[female reporter]
According to this memo to the governor,
about 300 National Guardsmen could be
placed on standby alert if they're needed.
The memo goes on to state
that training schedules have been adjusted
so that helicopters could be available
in the event the worst came about.
[Waite] The Oregon National Guard,
both the Army Guard and Air Guard,
has a full complement
of most every imaginable combat arm.
Well, let us say right now we're glad
you're there and we're glad you're ready,
but we hope to gosh we don't need you.
The National Guard was mobilized
to several locations around Rajneeshpuram,
waiting for the go-ahead
from Governor Atiyeh.
And there was talk
that they would not be coming down gently.
It would be in the middle of a night
and it would be extremely heavy-handed.
These guys thought
they were coming to a Jonestown cult,
who they had just established had,
you know, had attempted murders.
I'll never forget
the FBI SWAT team from San Francisco
had been brought in
to help with this raid.
And they happened to be
in a room right next to me.
And I remember listening
to the conversations
about how concerned they were
that these true believers
were just going to start opening fire
the minute the police showed up.
[Weaver] The Rajneeshees were sniffing out
the fact that we were coming to get them.
Niren, as I recall, came to us to see if,
in fact, we were going to indict Bhagwan.
We refused to tell him.
[Niren]
We had been trying to negotiate
a voluntary surrender
to avoid a confrontation.
And Turner said, "I won't confirm
that there's an indictment
and I won't discuss voluntary surrender."
We didn't know these guys.
We had no track record.
We didn't trust them.
And frankly I didn't believe
that they could deliver the Bhagwan
because I don't think
that they controlled him.
So, no, not for one minute did we
consider agreeing to that proposition.
The decision has been made.
The action is underway that the National
Guard is going to be mobilized,
that arrests are going to be made
without any attempt to allow or permit
cooperative efforts from within
this community to avoid confrontation.
They had the indictment.
They had warrants.
They had everything.
They were ready to arrest the next day.
And yes
Are you asking me whether we had created
a dangerous situation for that arrest?
I think so.
And I had gone to bed the night before
very fearful
about what was going to take place.
I would bet there's going to be some kind
of an armed confrontation out there.
There's no doubt in my mind
that it's going to be
a mass death situation.
[chatter over police radio]
An assault was forthcoming.
[Bowerman] Tom Casey worked
for the Immigration Service.
So he asked those of us
that lived around here
anytime we saw something unusual
to give him a call.
And I'm riding horseback
up the road with a little bunch of cows
and two Learjets
flew into the Rajneesh ranch.
I called Tom and told him
I said,
"Two Learjets went in about 45 minutes ago
and they just left."
[Niren]
I got a call from Isabel.
And she said,
"What's going on? What's going on?"
And I said, "What?"
She said, "Don't lie to me."
And I said, "Isabel, what's happening?
I don't know what you're talking about."
I got a call
from the special agent in charge
of the Customs Service, Larry LaDage.
He had a informant on the ranch.
Two Learjets had landed on their strip
and quickly loaded up and took off.
And while the informant was not certain,
he suspected that one of them
was the Rajneesh.
And she said,
"Osho just came down to the airfield
and got on a plane and left the ranch."
And I said, "Oh, shit.
That's not a good idea."
[chuckles]
Uh uh
Well, I was surprised,
but then I saw opportunity.