[helicopter whirring]
[Durow] I was hired by Wasco County as the senior planner in July of 1981.
We had to make a number of trips down to the ranch,
evaluate what was built...
and then to start issuing citations.
None of those trips were very pleasant.
As we made the turn out of Antelope, you always get a knot in your stomach.
And we were required to only go with the sheriff's deputy.
We also wore bulletproof vests under our clothing
because there were a lot of guns.
There were a lot of street people.
So, we were out there on an inspection.
We got trapped behind a truck at an angle across the road.
We didn't think it was a setup.
[male reporter] You're getting in the way. We're trying to take pictures
- and you're standing in the way is all. - Sorry.
[male reporter] They're blocking the road effectively?
They did an excellent job of blocking the road.
Couldn't have it any done better.
[Durow] And the moment Sheela showed up,
I said, "You know, this is becoming a circus."
[male reporter] Sheela, was this an accident?
I don't know. I just come here. What do you want me to do?
I've just come. Let me see.
Do you want to move? Let me see what it is.
[male reporter] Is this is a joke? Are you joking?
No, I'm not joking, I'm serious.
This my few people's lives is concerned here. This is no joke.
[Durow] So, we drove off the main road, turned around
and immediately started coming out.
And there were three single-wide structures.
And I wanted to go in, so we got out of the car.
K.D. pulled in right ahead of us.
I said, "I'd like to go in this building."
And he said, "Oh, it's just janitorial supplies.
You know, there's no need to..."
He went up and said, "Oh, it's locked and I don't have the key."
I can still pretty much hear those words.
And so we didn't really know what we were going to do,
and it was getting darker.
So, we felt for our protection, we're going back to The Dalles.
So, we all got in the car and left.
I thought about that often since.
Had I pressed the issue,
what would have happened that day?
Turns out that was their lab.
[female reporter] Health officials are puzzled by this one.
They say they've never seen a case
where the symptoms have developed so quickly.
They'll be working over the weekend to try to pinpoint the cause.
In the meantime, they're asking people who develop symptoms
to contact their county health department immediately.
[female reporter] Phones were ringing off the hook
at Wasco County Health Department for two days.
The callers are sick. They're throwing up, have headaches and diarrhea.
Everyone is frightened.
And I don't blame them. I'm frightened.
I wouldn't want to go out and eat either
if I thought there was something going around out here
and not knowing what it is.
An investigator from the State Health Division
arrived in The Dalles this afternoon
and one from the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia
is due in today or tomorrow,
all in an effort to try and find out what is causing this mysterious food poisoning.
[male reporter] Meanwhile, Oregon congressman Jim Weaver
is organizing two days of hearings in Portland next week,
saying it's time government agencies address the issue.
Strange things are happening. Just saying "remain calm" doesn't do any good.
That's one of the reasons I'm gonna hold a hearing.
I'm going to ask the federal agencies, "What can you do?"
Mr. Speaker.
"Mr. Speaker, I have a strange
and terrifying tale to tell the House.
It is about a town that was poisoned."
Who would do such a terrifying thing?
Who would poison a whole town?
"Seven hundred were taken violently ill."
[Weaver] Is there a madman lurking in The Dalles?
There must be such a person or persons with a motive and innate ability
to assault this town... for it actually happened.
Ma Anand Sheela... [chuckles] ...was a piece of work, let me tell you.
[laughs]
[Marlon Williams' "Strange Things" playing]
♪ I hear strange things Creeping in the night ♪
♪ I have strange dreams ♪
♪ In the bed where Lucy died... ♪
Salmonella outbreak in The Dalles.
Salmonella can be very serious, causing extreme dehydration.
That salmonella outbreak--
[female reporter] A mysterious outbreak left 750 people ill.
[male reporter] Food poisonings of more than 750 people in The Dalles.
Well, certainly it was unprecedented,
uh... in terms of the number of people that were getting sick by the salmonella.
And the numbers just kept growing and coming in and, um, it was chaotic.
♪ When she expired ♪
♪ They all went back to the city... ♪
[Weaver] Someone is out there who poisoned an entire town.
If they're capable of such a heinous act, they're capable of anything.
Started getting sick to my stomach, you know?
And I got chills and you get to shaking,
and you get so cold that you just can't get warmed up.
My son-in-law was admitted to the hospital this morning.
And my daughter is pretty sick and she's also pregnant,
so we're quite concerned over that.
[Durow] Once people started getting sick by the dozens and then hundreds,
we set up sort of a command area in the health department
and we started tracking what was going on.
[Durow] Where people had eaten, what they had eaten.
And there didn't seem to be any particular source
that all this information was pointing to.
It was sort of just scattered all over and everyone,
including the Center for Disease Control,
couldn't make heads or tails of what was going on.
Well, we didn't know, and we engaged
in good old ordinary investigation
to try to piece together what the facts were.
[female reporter] So far, three restaurants have been linked
to the outbreak: Arlo's, The Portage Inn, and Shakey's.
But health officials say they don't know if the contamination is from a patron
or from the food handlers at the restaurant.
[male reporter] The preliminary conclusion from state investigators in The Dalles
blames contamination of raw foods by infected food handlers.
The health authorities blamed it on food handlers.
It's clear that many restaurant employees live in the same household.
So, we believe it's very plausible
that there was sort of a chain of transmission.
[female reporter] They advised the food workers be better trained.
And I said that's the silliest thing I've ever heard.
Food handlers have nothing to do with this.
This is one of the most greatest terrorist acts in our country,
the poisoning of an entire town.
Different people in the office at the time
had different degrees of certainty about
the fact that there were...
That the Rajneeshees were involved.
The Rajneesh Medical Corporation
has a well-equipped medical laboratory at Rajneeshpuram.
I can only conclude and very positively conclude that sabotage did take place.
[female reporter] Today the Rajneeshees blasted Weaver.
[male reporter] A spokeswoman for the Rajneesh Medical Corporation
called Weaver's speech outrageous and purely malicious.
It's absolutely false. It's an ugly, cowardly lie.
Jim Weaver from halfway across the country attacked a religious minority
here in his own home state.
It's a despicable and outrageous thing,
and the Rajneesh Medical Corporation is outraged.
I was also coordinating the legal department,
and so I had certain responsibilities that I need to ensure were taken care of.
I was sent by Sheela to support them.
I was filled with rage,
and I did a Sheela.
And we are going to infect.
We are going to infect not only The Dalles,
not only Portland, not only Salem,
not only the whole state of Oregon,
and the whole country of the United States of America.
Rajneeshees are going to infect the whole world
with joy and with laughter on epidemic proportions.
[Weaver] All hell broke loose.
The whole state went bananas.
And they made me look like an idiot.
Main article written in The Oregonian newspaper began,
"Weaver in another rambling, incoherent speech."
My 18-year-old daughter thought I was crazy,
because I was taking a lot of shit.
I have no direct concrete evidence
to implicate anyone.
I want to make that very clear.
No direct concrete evidence to implicate anyone.
[female reporter] But you have some of your own ideas?
I have my own views, there is no question of that.
[Weaver] And Bill Bowerman came into my office and said,
"Jim, do you know that these people are murderers and cutthroats?"
And that was enough for me to say, "Hey, wait a minute.
Nobody else is doing anything about it, so I'm going to."
And I began investigating.
[Jane] Sheela was in a really difficult position.
Because the Share-A-Home project was failing,
we had Sheela on somewhat shaky ground.
So, when Bhagwan told Sheela she needed to be sure
that Rajneeshees were elected to the county commission,
it was for her so important
because this may mean the difference
between her remaining his secretary or not.
By this time, a small group of people,
rich people in their own right, had come to Rajneeshpuram.
They were known as the Hollywood crowd.
This was something very radical.
Her position as his secretary was...
in jeopardy.
[female reporter] When we learned that upscale, well-educated professionals
in Los Angeles were following an Indian guru
and giving their money to support meditation centers
here in Southern California, we wanted to know more.
[Niren] And there was a new group.
They called them the Hollywood crowd. Hasya was the center of this group.
I've always wanted nothing but the best.
I would call myself a connoisseur of... the best.
She had been married to Al Ruddy, the producer of The Godfather.
- [Clint Eastwood] And the winner... - [applause]
And the winner is... [clears throat]
...Albert S. Ruddy, The Godfather.
[Niren] Hasya was soft-spoken,
made a lot of money, and beautiful.
And they had this big house.
Big white Mediterranean kind of structure.
Big swimming pool.
I actually was in that house a number of times.
It was a lot of fun.
They start throwing parties back in Hollywood
to raise money for Bhagwan.
[female reporter] John bought this mansion in West Hollywood for the Bhagwan,
the perfect place for their Sannyasin friends
to meditate and collect money.
[John] We're looking for a way to express
his essence in Los Angeles in a way that people could come into it
and just go, "Wow."
[female reporter] It's used as a sort of recruiting center.
Wealthy people are invited to parties
and introduced to the joys of surrendering to the master.
The Hollywood people, they start feeding Bhagwan
with brochures of fantastic jewelry.
Things that Sheela would never have shown him
because she knew he would want them.
He was like this-- This kind of bird,
this blackbird that collects shiny things.
The Hollywood people bought him a diamond watch.
It cost a million dollars.
[John] He likes the fine things, like all of us do.
And more than that, his disciples want to give him the best of everything.
How much money, John, do you think you've given Bhagwan?
Few hundred thousand.
- Hasya? - Also a few hundred thousand.
[Jane] By this time, the Hollywood people had direct access to Bhagwan.
Access to Bhagwan was everything.
[cameras clicking]
[Jane] He would invite them to come and spend time with him
without Sheela to accompany them.
[Niren] When you start having Hasya,
a rich woman from California
who had fairly recently come to the ranch,
Sheela felt threatened.
She suspected that there were other people now who were having his ear.
[Jane] Bhagwan even went so far as to call Sheela into his house
and to explain to her another corporation was to be set up,
and Hasya and John would run this corporation.
That made Sheela really, really angry.
[Sheela] I remember my father...
he would always say,
"You and Bhagwan are meant to be together.
You are a team that is unbreakable."
When Bhagwan is behind me,
I always felt I could do anything.
I had this power of trust and love.
Protecting Bhagwan's vision,
protecting Bhagwan's people
was highest in my existence.
I took his people as my people.
I was with Bhagwan because I fell in love with him.
And we went through a big journey.
But, unfortunately...
Bhagwan got sidetracked.
Some of his talks were not so coherent.
You see this behavior changes.
Bhagwan started going down the hill.
Bhagwan had started speaking to Sheela about a doomsday scenario.
The world would be in chaos and fall apart.
His Sannyasins would be safe.
There would be underground dwellings built.
They would be able to emerge as the new man and live his vision.
So, I see this irrational behavior.
He has to go. Press must go.
[Sheela] One day our pharmacist comes totally upset to me.
Brought with him the prescription
that was written by Bhagwan's doctor
to get drugs for Bhagwan.
I was horrified.
This rich group of people have gotten Bhagwan hooked onto the drugs,
combination of laughing gas, valium.
[chuckling]
To wait till the evening, I go speak with Bhagwan.
It was a long day for me...
because I was so upset.
I gave every argument that I could think of.
The drugs would be attracting
every legal entity to shut us down.
That's exactly what they are waiting for.
He heard everything.
And then simply said...
"You stay out of it.
Let Deva Raj do his... work."
I came out of his room in tears,
heartbroken.
On one hand, he wants me to protect...
his vision, his teachings, his commune...
and him.
And now he says...
"Stay out of it."
I could not tolerate it.
There I lost my patience.
[Niren] In the United States...
if the government does decide to get you...
they're going to get you.
I mean, they have the resources
and the ability to basically go after anybody and succeed.
But to have it done to your community,
and to have the government not be just be unwelcoming...
but to twist and violate their own laws, their own procedures,
and to be self-righteous in doing that.
Immigration was clearly a tool to destroy the community.
I mean, immigration was the biggest tool to destroy the community
because there was a whole lot of pressure from Washington D.C.
to go after this guy and get rid of this guy.
The immigration investigation started
when a political donor to the president wrote to Edwin Meese
and told Meese about this cult in Oregon
and that they should get rid of Osho.
One of the INS commissioners wrote in a memo
that perhaps it's wishful thinking,
but our pressures may force them to pick up and leave.
You know, they were spending time with anti-cult experts.
They were saying that he cannot be a religious leader
because what he teaches is the antipathy of religion.
In November of '82,
he applied for a visa as a religious teacher and leader.
[male reporter] His goal was to convince officials he should remain in the U.S.
He now wants to change his status to that of religious worker
and remain at his central Oregon ranch permanently.
The INS issued a denial.
[female reporter] The Immigration and Naturalization Service has denied
the Bhagwan's request for an adjustment of status from visitor to religious worker.
Deportation efforts are pending.
[male reporter] Trouble between Rajneeshees and authorities has grown
since the government ordered the Bhagwan deported.
[male reporter] Today's protest concerned a meeting between the Rajneeshees
and the immigration officials.
I want that guru and his evil influence out of my city.
The immigration office knows he's in this country illegally
and I want them to uphold the law and get him out.
[male reporter] The deportation order against the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
is now under review.
No definite date has been set for his return to India.
The denials were a trip.
Our position was that as a result of his silence for about a year and a half,
he could not and had not
performed the duties that the organization described in their own document.
The only thing I'm hearing from you,
and I want to give you an opportunity to tell me something more
if there is something, is that the man doesn't talk publicly. Is that it?
He was not participating actively
in the religious ceremonies...
duties that the organization described him as--
Or described as necessary to the performance of his duties.
All right, Niren, do you want to respond?
[Niren] Clearly, he qualified.
I mean, if he's not a religious teacher and leader, nobody's a teacher and leader.
I was outraged by it.
The INS is now simply uncomfortable with the ludicrous nature of their position,
and that is that if you're in silence you can't be a religious leader.
It's a bit like saying if the pope has laryngitis, he stops being pope.
It doesn't make sense.
It's our position, and we have evidence that there is bias,
there is prejudgment, there is religious discrimination,
there is racial discrimination. They want him out of the country.
And to try and get rid of the rest of the disciples
who are in this country legally as well.
[Niren] I was actually a hero in that community...
because I was, in a sense, the tip of the spear,
fighting to survive.
People were so loving, so beautiful to me,
so happy and grateful that I was there to do what I could do.
[laughing]
I formed a nonprofit legal corporation.
We ended up with having like 20 lawyers, 25 paralegals at the ranch.
Every issue was rebutted with mountains of evidence.
[male reporter] On Thursday, the guru's attorneys appeared
at the immigration service office in downtown Portland
with over 1,000 pages of material
explaining why their guru should be allowed to stay.
The INS had found that they couldn't, they could not win.
Their whole investigation was replete with bias.
Their decisions were against the law.
Are we running?
"On February 16, 1984,"
which happened to be my birthday,
"the INS granted his visa
as a religious teacher and leader."
They acknowledged he was a religious teacher and leader.
[Niren] All right! All right!
We didn't win much in Oregon...
but we won that one.
[Niren] But then...
Charles Turner got involved in this case.
The INS, having failed to deport him,
they referred it to the U.S. Attorney to try and find a criminal prosecution.
[Weaver] Charlie Turner was the gold standard for law enforcement.
When Ronald Reagan was elected president,
Charlie Turner was appointed the United States attorney
and asked me to serve as his criminal division chief,
which I was honored to do.
So when the Immigration Service returned to us in sometime in 1983,
the case was there, the evidence wasn't.
And Charlie and I picked up the pace substantially.
The two of us did nothing
but work on this case for about two years.
These people were basically amoral people who could not or would not conform
to the laws of our society.
But anytime you find people
that are unwilling or unable to conform to the mores of society,
you find a person who is a potential criminal.
[Niren] Turner knew,
"Unless I prosecute it, he stays, so I'm going to dig as much as I can."
If you take three giant steps backwards and contemplate the fact
that one of the most discussed topics
of the philosophy of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
was his view that marriage is a worthless institution,
that it interferes with the freedom
that you need to achieve spiritual enlightenment.
And suddenly you see so many Sannyasins on the ranch getting married.
You know, conspiracy is a federal prosecutor's best friend.
The conspiracy was an agreement to defraud the United States.
So the typical case would be this:
Swami Prem Robert, an American citizen,
would be ordered to go to Houston, Texas.
Ma Hanna, a foreign Sannyasin,
would be ordered to go to Houston, Texas.
And the two of them would be instructed
to go back to their original non-Sannyasin names.
They would each get jobs. They would get an apartment together.
They would establish what ostensibly looked like a committed life together.
They would go to city hall. They would get a marriage license.
A few weeks later, go to the Immigration Service and say,
"We are in a committed relationship, and under the immigration laws
we would like a green card."
A green card would issue. Zoom!
Both parties make a hasty retreat back to the ranch...
and return to their original lives and original partners that they had.
And this was done in Dallas,
Southern California,
Seattle,
Trenton, New Jersey, and in Philadelphia,
all around the United States
so that the pattern was harder to detect.
This was the largest immigration fraud case in the history of the United States.
And Charlie and I, as we pursued the case...
the conclusion was unavoidable that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh himself
was involved in the planning and execution of this.
By that time, I think it was the safe assumption on everyone's part,
including the Rajneeshees, that if he was charged and deported,
Rajneeshpuram would disappear off the face of the earth.
[Jane] About this time when one was called into Sheela's room in Jesus Grove,
a list was being made of enemies of the commune.
People were talking about killing other people.
Sheela considered Mr. Turner a real enemy of the commune.
Mr. Turner had the last say
when it came to whether or not Bhagwan could stay in America.
When there was talk of shooting people,
Sheela had said, "Shanti B will do it. She's a good shot."
It was just put out there that, "Okay, I'm the good shot. I'll do that."
Sheela told me I was to go to Portland
and meet up with a woman there.
And when I met her, she was a Sannyasin,
but wearing regular street clothes.
And she took me with her to an apartment in Portland
which she told me was a safe house.
In the apartment, the cupboards were full of regular street clothes,
and she told me to choose from these clothes something to wear.
Somebody came to us and told us what kind of guns he thought we should get.
He said we should get smaller guns.
Pistols because they would be easier to transport.
The small group in the car I was in drove to where Mr. Turner worked.
And we sat in McDonald's, early in the morning.
Drank coffee. For the first time in my life I smoked a cigarette.
But we were watching the park house entrance
where Mr. Turner was expected to walk out.
And at that point my companion said to me,
"Come on. We'll go down and we'll show you where he comes out."
And pointed out where Mr. Turner parked his car.
I was saying to myself,
"What are we doing? This is absolutely crazy. This is like--
We're in the middle of town. And we're gonna kill somebody here?"
No, he didn't come out that day, so I didn't ever see him.
And as we drove away back towards the main road,
the three people in the car, including myself,
talked about the possibility of perhaps
shooting him there in the park house.
[Zaitz] I've been a journalist all of my life.
I did my first newspaper when I was in the third grade,
and I've done it ever since, for 50 years in the state of Oregon.
I feel I was born to be an investigative reporter.
I just have a knack for it. I have an inclination. I can find stories.
The best ones are those that I sort of have an instinct for it
that something isn't right here and I'm going to dig into it
and I'm going to find out why.
We came into it when the controversy between the Rajneeshee community
and Oregon was ramping up considerably.
There were political tensions, religious tensions, civil rights tensions.
The influx of people, the influx of money was continuing to grow.
So the question loomed pretty large for us, suddenly, is who were they?
Where did they come from? Why are they in Oregon?
And what's really going on here?
I got assigned to go to India
because they came from India and they left for a reason.
I collected, like, 35,000 pages of material
and established the history of the organization.
It became quite clear that the commune had fled India
ahead of getting indicted and arrested by Indian authorities.
They were facing immigration fraud...
tax issues at several government levels...
the smuggling in currency, in gold...
arsons, sophisticated criminal conduct.
I spent 18 months writing what became a 20-part series,
which to this day remains the longest series ever published by The Oregonian.
I went down to the ranch, to city hall,
and we asked to see every check that the city had issued.
It was a spider web of financial contacts.
The Oregon operation had an insatiable need for cash,
to create this illusion of great prosperity,
that we're building nirvana in the desert. Well, that took money.
I think it became very apparent that this was no longer a sustainable fantasy.
[man] You came from where?
The honeymoon is over at Rajneeshpuram between the followers of the Bhagwan
and many of the street people they invited there.
The street people claim that yesterday
Ma Anand Sheela called the entire street people population
into this large assembly hall and held a trial of sorts.
[Sheela] So, what I would like you to understand
that I'm not going to tolerate problem-makers,
any sort of hanky-panky from today on.
Tomorrow morning you will start receiving messages that you need to leave,
you need to leave.
She says, "You. You're on the bus."
And the man is immediately escorted out
and held under tight security while he packs his things and leaves.
I saw five or six guys just completely, you know,
like, physically being dragged out, you know, by the security guards.
[Gary] I got a call around midnight from the governor's office
telling me that Rajneeshees
were driving around The Dalles in vans
and dropping homeless people off in neighborhoods
and if anybody encountered them and asked what they were doing,
they were pointing automatic weapons at them and making them back away.
And she said, "What should we do?"
To this day, that's probably still the most unusual and difficult request
for legal advice that I've gotten from a client.
Up until now, most of the folks who've left the ranch
have left of their own accord.
But this latest batch seems to represent something new.
Rajneeshees are booting people out wholesale, and they're getting physical.
There were people on the streets that came to our place
that were not in their full capacity,
that really required major medication.
There were people who were violent.
There were people who were really living on the edge of psychosis.
[female reporter] Rajneesh officials today said
the four men who were dropped off in Portland are troublemakers.
They call us troublemakers, yes,
and we have openly admitted that we did act out of anger.
We were going to tip their, uh, ticket booth over
and start tipping all their A-frames over right down the line.
They couldn't control those independent street people...
[chuckles]
...even with tranquilizers.
[chuckles]
They couldn't do it.
Well, I wanted to check it out.
And the guy that we're worshipping, he looks like a damn devil.
[male reporter] What would you tell another young person?
Not to come... unless you want to be a queer.
'Cause there's all kind of queers, I seen it myself.
They were kissing and hugging, and the lesbians too.
Men are sleeping in this room here on the floor, on benches, on the chairs,
wherever they can find a space. They all came from Rajneeshpuram
and now they're all stranded in the city of Portland.
And then they ended up in towns in central Oregon.
Some of them then later in Portland,
where they begged or stole what they needed to survive.
So, it created enormous tension inside the community
and outside the community.
Some residents of Madras, Oregon say they fear for their safety tonight
as disillusioned street people continue to leave Rajneeshpuram.
The residents of that town are being advised by the mayor
to lock their doors to protect themselves against homeless people
who might leave nearby Rajneeshpuram.
Some people had reached the point of hysteria,
being afraid to go out of the house, you know?
The people in Madras are fearing for their lives.
They are afraid that they will show up,
and some might maybe even slaughter them in their beds.
[female reporter] People of Madras, Oregon have thrown up their hands.
They don't know what to do with the rejected recruits from Rajneeshpuram
who have converged on their town.
[man] The rejects that they don't want, dump them in here on us?
Just send them back where they come from.
We're not obligated to take care of their rejects.
[man] We don't want them here.
Now what's gonna happen if they dump them here in town
and they don't have any money?
You tell me.
I think it's time that somebody does something.
The release of the homeless people and how that was done,
it was pretty obvious that things were sort of boiling up
and coming to a head here with this election process.
I'm scared just like the rest of us around here, you know?
We're just, uh, worried,
and we won't know until the sixth, I guess, how this is gonna come out.
You know, you can only push so far.
Wasco County was looking for a fight.
Last night a large group of angry Oregonians gathered
to map out anti-Rajneesh strategy. Although they'd been warned against it,
many in the group vowed to follow through with a plan to register illegally
to vote against the Rajneeshees.
[female reporter] The plan, organized by Albany resident JoAnne Boies,
is to register the day before the election,
vote, and leave the next day.
Let me tell you, if you don't get off your duffs,
you're gonna be wearing a picture of the Bhagwan around your neck.
[cheering and applause]
We don't want them taking over the state of Oregon
or any other state in the United States. This is our country.
[female anchor] The controversy in Wasco County has made some national headlines
concerning whether or not the Rajneeshees would actually go to the poll.
A record voter turnout is expected there.
[male reporter] Voters were turning out at a record pace at Wasco County polls.
Lines began forming when the polls opened at 8 a.m., and they never let up.
[woman] Never had anything like this before.
May have this crowd maybe six, seven o'clock at night,
but not like this in the morning.
[Durow] It was a big number.
I think it showed they were paying attention to the news.
They understood what was at stake,
and they came out and voted to protect their own democracy.
Sheela's been saying all the time what they're going to do.
You know, and that's-- That's dirty pool.
The people don't want the red shirts to take us over, I guess. [chuckles]
[male reporter] How important is this election?
Very important.
Um...
We need the votes for our side.
The Rajneeshees were way under what they needed to do a block vote
and get their own people into the county commission.
The problem was that Wasco County was a little bigger
than the Rajneeshees could control just by sheer numbers.
And it fell apart before the election.
November sixth means different things for different people,
but today at Rajneeshpuram, its meaning is being translated into protest.
- ...the Constitution! - [crowd] Yeah!
- Telling us we can't vote! - [cheering]
[male reporter] Voters at Rajneeshpuram were greeted by demonstrators
protesting because they cannot enter the voting booth.
What people told me was they think this process stinks.
Anybody feel that way?
[cheering and applause]
And this is democracy.
Well, I've had enough of it.
[cheering and applause]
[male reporter] Sheela dropped by to view the proceedings.
She said even if she could vote, she would not.
It was misuse of power
and it was misuse of power
against their own citizens.
Against Americans.
Against American war veterans.
This ugly mentality,
I have no words for.
Anti-climactic best describes Wasco County's election.
Fears that Rajneeshees would cast enough ballots to take over the county
proved all for naught.
Well, although that Rajneeshee takeover threat never really got off the ground,
it did spur a record voter turnout.
Ninety-three percent turnout. That is really something.
[male reporter] Pretty amazing and the county clerk
was very happy about that.
Frankly, everyone in Wasco County is also happy that the Rajneeshees did not vote.
We did it, we did it correctly, we did it legally, we did it properly,
and the integrity of the ballot has been preserved.
[female reporter] Officials here share a sigh of relief
and a sense of pride in a community that stood together
facing one of the greatest challenges to the democratic process
any county in the country has had to endure.
Well, in Sheela's case, um...
she did not take losing lightly.
She did not leave her guns at the door.
She wasn't calm for very long.
She got militant pretty darn fast.
If they want to demolish us, they can throw a bomb on us.
We'll be happily ready to die.
But to become victim of fascist government,
that's not Rajneeshee way.
It's like Hitler's troops are waiting...
to massacre the Allies.
As things began to unravel,
there was a great risk that it could boil over into actual violence.
Oregonians.
It's a rare breed.
[laughs] That's the only thing I can say. It's a rare breed.
[male reporter] Next thing they want to know is what do you mean by that?
What do I mean by that?
They haven't learned their lesson... yet.
By 1984, this whole thing was on fire.
I mean, on fire.
I'm sound asleep and the phone rang in the middle of a deep sleep.
And it was my secretary who had been called and said that,
"You gotta come down to the planning office.
There's been a fire."
Sure enough, there was a fire. [chuckles]
What they did was two or three broke in
and almost every file was pulled out of its drawer and thrown around
and they cut the candles off and squirted everything with the lighter fluid.
Once it caught fire, everything on the wall, it was all blistered.
One day everybody got a box of chocolates.
A box of chocolates arrives.
[man] Dark Secrets.
Outside, they look just like ordinary chocolates, but inside...
And it says, "Thank you for your support
to preserve the Columbia River Gorge."
So we open the box and we start eating them.
A day or two later, Bob's riding in the elevator and he sees Bowen Blair,
director of Friends of the Columbia Gorge, and says,
"Bowen, thank you for the chocolates you sent us."
And Bowen says, "I'm not aware that we sent you any chocolate."
They found one candy in the center of the box
with a pinprick in the bottom of it, uh...
that was loaded with something fun.
Mike Sullivan, the district attorney in Jefferson County,
almost died, and nobody knew why.
My skin was starting to turn different shades of colors
and my lips turned blue because of a lack of oxygen.
[Durow] Bill Hulse traveled to the ranch,
and at some point they offered him some water.
Having drunk that water, I came down with a violent, uh...
stomach bowel upset.
[Durow] He became violently ill.
We almost lost Bill.
And it was-- It was touch and go.
People feared for their lives and there was a reason for that.
We in the U.S. Attorney's office were concerned about our safety.
Two state police detectives showed up
and they took me into one of our small interview rooms,
and they proceeded to explain to me
that they had developed credible information
that I had been targeted for murder.
These folks were so diabolical
that they would consider killing me for doing my job.
The Rajneeshee rumor hotline has been operating only since yesterday afternoon,
but already it has received up to 3,000 phone calls
from citizens worried about the Rajneeshees.
State police.
Oh, sure. I can answer that.
The challenge was to sift through what's real and what's not,
because some of the things that we were hearing were just... fantastical.
A very strange story continues to unfold at the Oregon commune of Rajneeshpuram.
[male reporter] There's a new accusation against Sheela and her gang,
and it was a plot to blow up the Wasco County courthouse.
[male reporter] An Air Rajneesh pilot says he refused a demand from Sheela
to bomb a nearby courthouse.
People prefer to believe the rumors.
People prefer not to be confused by the facts.
And as long as that's the case, we will have possible violence because of it.
[male reporter] One rumor claimed the Rajneeshees
caused the recent salmonella outbreak.
Other callers worried about weapons in Rajneeshpuram.
The hotline says it knows of nothing illegal.
The threat comes not from Rajneeshpuram and Rajneeshees.
The threat of violence comes from these people and people like them.
People who are bigoted.
And for this court to allow itself to be degraded in this way is disgusting.
The state of Oregon is dead.
[Gary] We had no doubt that Sheela and her crew
were... were very deeply involved.
It's hard to believe that anybody would do that.
And yet in retrospect, we now know
that much of what we were hearing was true.
[Niren] We were in the middle of the battle, but we weren't winning.
Sheela intended to beat the state and she didn't.
She was deteriorating in a way that you could see visibly.
I think the fear and the anxiety and the tension--
I think it wore her thin,
but we didn't know how thin she had been worn.
And not just parents who are retarded, teachers-- Uh, students--
I saw more paranoia, and not just paranoia from the people outside.
Now it was moving inside.
[Jane] There had always been some tension
between Sheela and the people in Bhagwan's house.
Sheela did not like Bhagwan's personal physician,
and Hasya married Deva Raj, Bhagwan's doctor.
I do know that a problem between her and myself began
shortly after I married Deva Raj.
Something changed, very shortly after my marriage.
[Jane] So, Hasya had even more access to Bhagwan than Sheela did.
For Sheela, this was the last straw.
She realized that she had lost the battle.
And in the middle of all this, unknown to Bhagwan,
she had his room wiretapped...
in order to protect him.
Sheela would be aware of any possible danger to Bhagwan.
I felt she wanted to hear and control what was being said to Bhagwan.
And we had a tower around his house.
This was where the recordings were made.
I would be up there and K.D. would climb up
and take out a cassette out of the recorder and put in another one.
And then this cassette would be taken down
and somebody would sit and listen to it
and report to Sheela what was being said.
[Jane] Sheela played a tape to me
that was more shocking than anything I could have imagined.
Bhagwan was asking his doctor how death could be induced
in a dignified, painless way.
Bhagwan's doctor explained to him,
first morphine would be injected into the blood vessel.
curare would be added that would paralyze the body...
and then a third substance would be added to stop the heart.
On the wiretap, Bhagwan's doctor said to him
that the medications had arrived
and Bhagwan told the doctor to bury them
in a safe place in the garden until they were needed.
Bhagwan ordered Sheela to arrange for the building of a crematorium.
He also told Sheela that he would die on a Master's Day, the sixth of July.
It was too awful to contemplate.
I didn't know what it meant. It frightened me terribly.
But it was just awful.
From that day on, I listened to Sheela
when she talked about the dangers to Bhagwan...
of his doctor and his dentist.
We complain about not to use rats and rabbits...
for medical experiment.
And they take this intellectual giant...
for this stupid experiment.
How stupid they can be.
They have no ethics. They have no ethics in medical field.
They have no human ethics.
And definitely, they don't know
the relationship of guru and disciple.
[Jane] On the eve of Master's Day,
July the sixth, 1985...
Sheela called a group of us to her house.
Sheela looked terrible that evening.
She was really pale.
And she told us,
"Tomorrow Bhagwan is going to orchestrate his death.
Tomorrow Deva Raj is going to kill him.
We've got to stop it. We have to do something.
If we can stop Deva Raj, if we can kill Deva Raj,
Bhagwan won't die.
Who will do it?"
Nobody spoke.
We were all in shocked silence.
It was impossible. It was just impossible that Bhagwan should die.
But when somebody spoke and said, "I will do it,"
that was me. That was my voice...
that rose up in that silence and said, "I will do it."
And then there was just general pandemonium.
People were all talking at once, but I had retreated into myself.
I wasn't really listening. I didn't really hear what they said.
And after, when everybody had gone, I went by myself, completely alone.
I went to Sheela's nurse.
She gave me what I would need.
A syringe, the substance.
I went to the clothing room and chose the clothes I would wear...
so that I had a pocket to put the syringe in.
It was all about...
keeping Bhagwan alive.
Bhagwan must live.
[Jane] When I dressed that morning to go, I was...
I was not afraid.
I felt very strong and very clear in what I was doing.
I went to the festival.
I felt like a medieval knight.
I felt like Joan of Arc who was going into battle.
I sat close behind the doctor.
The festivities took their known pattern.
There was enormous noise, music, dancing.
[cheering]
And as Bhagwan stood up to leave,
and everybody cheered and waved their hands
in absolute ecstasy and joy...
I approached Deva Raj and said something into his ear.
And as he leaned towards me, I pushed the syringe.
He instantly grabbed behind him,
grabbed my hand with the syringe in it,
and there was a bit of a struggle,
but I got it out again and threw it away.
The woman who had arranged to pick it up, picked it up.
I behaved to Deva Raj as though nothing had happened.
I looked at him quizzically, "What's wrong with you?
What are you-- What's the problem?"
He stood up, staggered, walked backwards.
I followed him.
"What's wrong with you? What's the problem?
What is-- What's the problem?"
And as he staggered away from me...
I turned and walked away.
I walked through the crowd.
I walked out the other side.
And I walked back to Jesus Grove where I lived.
Completely alone.
Nobody spoke to me and I spoke to nobody.
And I wanted to be alone.
There was the part of me who felt...
I had saved Bhagwan's life.
I had done what I had to do.
But deep inside of me, I was shattered.
I had grown up clearly understanding
that thou shalt not kill.
And now I had tried to kill somebody.
What had happened?
I knew... I had gone beyond the pale.
I knew I had stepped over the line.
And on that day, I also knew I had to leave.
[Sheela] When you see some photos of me in last months,
I was worn out.
I was totally heartbroken.
Every night, my mother would come.
She sits on my bed...
and pours tears,
"If you will continue like this...
you will die soon."
I can still see my mother's pain.
This was...
the straw that broke camel's back.
Two days after, I left Rajneeshpuram.
Those last two days...
they were full of pain.
To leave Bhagwan...
a man I thought was unsep--
Unseparable from me.
I'm taking the decision to leave.
I'm taking decision to leave
from all these beautiful people who love me.
I knew I would be excommunicated.
But I'm leaving.
I had learned from Bhagwan, burn your bridges.
Go forward.
Sheela and her closest associates took off in broad daylight aboard this airplane,
leaving Rajneeshees to wonder what other secrets they left behind.
Sheela was looking very serious.
And I looked around-- I didn't know what was happening.
I said, "What's happening?"
And Sheela looked at me and she said, "I'm leaving."
And in that minute, it just came.
I said, "If you're leaving, I'm leaving too."
Thirteenth of September, 1985
was my personal independence day.
That was the day I left Bhagwan.
The main people who work with me day and night,
they left with me.
Their loyalty to Bhagwan, they had transferred it to me...
because they saw genuine loyalty in me.
[male reporter] The pilot who flew them out says
they left with 20 pieces of luggage.
About 100 Rajneeshees gathered here to see them off.
Once in the air, the former president of the commune was heard to say,
"At least we left like queens."
[Niren] When I came to work, somebody told me that Sheela had left the ranch
and a bunch of her people had gone with her.
And I...
I thought that-- I mean, I was just-- I was...
aghast-- Not--
I-- I was just in shock that Sheela would just up and leave overnight.
[female reporter] The commune is rocked by news
that Bhagwan's fiery personal secretary, Ma Anand Sheela,
has left Rajneeshpuram with group leaders.
[Jane] But once my daughter and I were on the plane
and the break had been really made, I was overwhelmed.
I had left the master.
This is impossible.
We were flying away.
We were flying to a new life and we didn't know what it was.
Time had come. I had to go on my own.
I had to figure out life for myself.
And after I left Bhagwan,
we never cross each other's path again.
The person who was Sheela's secretary
called Lao Tzu house and made an appointment to speak to Osho
and went up and spoke to Osho and told him what was going on.
And he was not happy. He was-- [chuckles] He was--
He had vengeance. He was going to prosecute.
He was interested in getting her. He wanted her caught.
And within 24 hours of a lot of that information coming to him,
he came out and spoke.
I fully expected the shit to hit the fan.
The leader of the sect is Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.
He has been something of a mystery to say the least.
He has not spoken publicly in four years,
but now, for reasons that are not entirely clear to us,
he has finally broken his silence.
And there's more going on at the ranch. The Bhagwan silence is over.
News 8 learned this afternoon that just two hours from now
the Bhagwan will begin speaking to Rajneeshee faithful.
[woman] We're gonna be having a press conference this evening.
And it's going to be with Bhagwan.
We're just announcing it to the press in case they want to come.
[Bhagwan] I have been silent for three and a half years.
The people who were in power
took advantage of my silence.
Sheela and her group,
they tried to kill three people.
They have attempted
to murder people in the commune.
They have attempted to murder people in The Dalles.
They have attempted bugging people's houses.
My own house.
These people are absolutely criminals.
Inhuman.
Brutal.
Fascist in their outlook.
On a different level, the news out of Rajneeshpuram
is getting more bizarre every day.
[male reporter] The number one source of new rumors is Bhagwan himself.
Just about every appearance, there's a new accusation.
A palace coup, alleged theft of millions of dollars.
The whereabouts of Ma Anand Sheela are still a mystery tonight.
According to Bhagwan, it was all the work of Sheela
and what he calls her gang of fascists.
She should have been here and faced me.
She did not even come to say goodbye to me.
People who don't commit crime don't escape like that.
How long you can hide?
And if the police is not going to take the action...
then my people will take the action.
[cheering and applause]