Latest news with #Zizian
Spectator
7 days ago
- Spectator
The radical vegan ‘Zizians' are the cult we deserve
Every week brings a new revelation about the Zizians: the craziest, saddest cult in recent American history. Eight deaths have been linked to them so far, including 80-year-old Curtis Lind, stabbed with a samurai sword, US border patrol agent David Maland, shot by the roadside in Vermont, and the elderly parents of another member, shot dead at home in Pennsylvania. What's gripping the American press is that the young Zizians seem to have been such nice kids once. The leader of the cult, Jack Amadeus LaSota, has a degree in computer science from Alaska University and a father who still teaches there. Another Zizian, Daniel Blank, was a straight-A student, fluent in three languages, whose bewildered father said he was a model son. The Zizian murder trial is set to begin in October. Long investigative pieces have begun to appear, and interviews with parents and former teachers. I'll eat my tinfoil hat if Netflix doesn't have a Zizian true crime movie in the offing, whatever the outcome of the trial. But actually, I don't think there's a great mystery to solve here. More than any other cult I can think of, the Zizians seem to be a natural product of the culture we created, or let emerge around us. And what should scare us most about them is not how freaky the Zizians are, but how horribly inevitable. Jack LaSota, awaiting trial in prison in Maryland on different charges, identifies as trans, meaning he thinks he's female, His lady-name is 'Ziz', hence 'Zizians'. Almost all known Zizians are transsexuals, young men dosed-up with oestrogen, role-playing as women: Felix 'Ophelia' Bauckholt; Alexander 'Somni' Leatham; Maximilian 'Audere' Snyder. It's like a camp mafia movie. Without exception, the Zizians are fanatical vegans too. Daniel Blank cut ties with his parents around Christmas two years ago, and by way of explanation sent them a video of a slaughterhouse with the message: 'Look what you've done!' As his belief system took shape, Jack/Ziz began to consider animals to be 'people' and meat-eaters evil murderers who deserved to die. 'Trans vegan death cult!' You don't get clickbait of that calibre every day. But what did we all expect? Many of the Zizians awaiting trial were once gawky, mathematically minded boys – probably on the autism spectrum, say their old classmates. A defining feature of autism is that you take people literally, and that's what those kids did. They were taught in class, and perhaps at home too, that capitalism is corrupt, humans evil and that the world will soon boil up as a result of manmade global warming. It's enough to make anyone apocalyptic. They believe not just that they have an internal 'gender' that can differ from their biological born sex, but that it is a significant and revolutionary thing to do to 'change sex'. Of course they're 'trans'. As it happens all the long and interesting pieces I've read on the Zizians exploring their origins and philosophy refer to trans women simply as 'women' and faithfully follow the female pronoun rule. Wired magazine managed an otherwise excellent in-depth investigation – 'The Delirious, Violent, Impossible True Story of the Zizians' – in which it was impossible to tell which Zizians were female and which male. If the western media kowtows to cultists, what hope do future generations have? The Zizians first came together in tech-boy mecca Silicon Valley as part of what's known as the 'rationalist community' in San Francisco's Bay Area. The 'rationalists' are a group of earnest young men and women committed to the idea of leading considered, logical lives free from superstition. The big anxiety that preoccupies rationalists is that the world is soon to be destroyed by super-intelligent AI and Eliezer Yudkowsky, LaSota's one-time mentor, has a book out in September: If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All. LaSota joined the rationalists sometime in 2010 but other Zizians had attended rationalist summer camps when they were younger in which they were encouraged to identify and eliminate their 'cognitive biases'. I can't think of much more guaranteed to drive a fragile youngster crackers than to ask them to obsess on the workings of their own minds and Jack Ziz LaSota seems to have cracked pretty comprehensively. He developed a theory that humans contain two warring selves, sealed off inside the two hemispheres of their brains and that these selves can be male or female, good or evil. He encouraged followers to sleep with only one half of their brain at a time. Reports vary, but there seem to be two known cases of suicide among the group that practised Zizian self-improvement. By then LaSota was professing to follow the 'Sith' religion, which actively seeks conflict. '2016 was the year I made a 'turn to the dark side',' he wrote on his blog. Other blog posts include titles such as 'Punching Evil' and 'Self-Blackmail'. Why did more parents not get involved? How did these young adults manage to break away so completely from their previous lives? Perhaps one answer is that for decades it's been progressive orthodoxy that even loving parents can be toxic and that a chosen family can be far better and far healthier. 'Why so many people are going 'no contact' with their parents' read a cheerful headline in the New Yorker last year. The way to tell that Zizians often come from decent homes is the concern they show in court for their own wellbeing. 'I need the jail to have a vegan diet. It's more important than this hearing is,' LaSota told judge Eric Bean at his bail hearing in Maryland earlier this year, though according to the San Francisco Chronicle his still-devoted mother has been making quite sure that her boy gets his fill of vegan food, even in prison.
USA Today
20-06-2025
- USA Today
Grand jury indicts accused leader of cultlike 'Zizian' group
A federal grand jury in Maryland has indicted an Alaska person linked to a series of nationwide deaths and violence in Vermont and California via the cultlike "Zizian" group they are accused of inspiring. Prosectors say the grand jury indicted Jack Amadeus LaSota, 34, on charges they possessed a .50-caliber rifle and several handguns while being a fugitive. Court records and interviews with people who know the group say LaSota was the intellectual leader of the largely online movement interested in artificial intelligence. Some of whose members lived full time in box trucks in several states. Lasota has also gone by the names Andrea Phelps, Ann Grimes, Anne Grimes, Canaris, Julia LaSota and "Ziz," prosecutors said. LaSota was assigned male at birth but uses female pronouns; federal and state court records refer to LaSota as a man. "LaSota was knowingly a fugitive from justice and therefore was not permitted by law to possess a firearm or ammunition," the U.S. Attorney's office in Maryland said in a statement. LaSota faces up to a 15-year prison sentence. According to court records and a USA TODAY investigation, the Zizian group is connected to at least six deaths, including the homicide of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Vermont in January. Court records also indicate LaSota may have faked their own death in 2022. Many of the group members are vegan, and either have degrees in computer science or have studied related fields, according to court records. Some members of the group are transgender, or have rejected binary sexuality, and are interested in the role artificial intelligence may play in creating a new society, according to interviews and court records. In February, Maryland police arrested LaSota along with two other people, Michelle Zajko, 32, and Daniel Blank, 26, in a rural area after the property owner called police to report the black-clad suspects on his land. Blank is a suspect in the late 2022 shooting deaths of Zajko's parents in Pennsylvania, and authorities say LaSota and Zajko are being investigated in connection with other multiple deaths. In January 2023, Zajko was questioned by Pennsylvania State Police about the deaths of her parents, but disappeared with LaSota, leaving behind her car and $40,000 in cash, according to court records. Authorities said Zajko may have also supplied the guns used in the January shootout that ended with the death of Border Patrol agent David Maland and a German national, Ophelia Bauckholt. Arrested in that shooting was Teresa Youngblut, who is jailed and faces charges of using a deadly weapon. Zajko is also facing federal firearms charges. And a man that Youngblut last year got a license to marry, Max Snyder, is jailed in California on charges that he ambushed and fatally stabbed a landlord who had at one time allowed LaSota and other group members to park their trucks on his property. That landlord killed another member of the group in self defense after they attacked him over a planned eviction, according to court records.
USA Today
08-05-2025
- USA Today
Feds signal new charges may be coming in 'Zizian' case that killed Border Patrol agent
Feds signal new charges may be coming in 'Zizian' case that killed Border Patrol agent Show Caption Hide Caption Two arrested connected to US Border Agent death Two people have been arrested in connection to the killing of U.S. Border Patrol agent David Maland, with authorities believing it might be tied to a larger group. Fox - Fox 9 Federal prosecutors have signaled they're planning to bring additional charges against a woman detained in Vermont following the shooting death of a Border Patrol agent. Theresa Youngblut has been jailed since the Jan. 20 death of agent David Maland, and already faces charges of using a firearm during the confrontation in which Maland and Youngblut's companion Ophelia Bauckholt were killed near the Canadian border. The current charges don't directly accuse Youngblut of firing the shots that killed Maland. Federal investigators have declined to discuss details of the case. A USA TODAY investigation earlier this year indicated that the violent confrontation is connected to multiple other homicides around the country that some legal experts have tied to the influence of a California-based cultlike group known as the Zizians. In a May 8 court filing, Youngblut's public defenders asked a judge to give them more preparation time before her next court appearance because they expect new charges and "voluminous" new evidence disclosures from prosecutors. "Additional time is also needed to conduct any necessary investigation and discuss with the government any potential non-trial resolutions in this case," federal public defender Steven Barth said. "Time is needed to determine whether additional charges will be filed and whether such charges, if filed, will materially alter the trajectory of the case." Named after their purported leader, Jack "Ziz" LaSota, 34, the group is connected to at least six deaths nationwide, according to police, interviews with people who know group members, the FBI and court records. LaSota was assigned male at birth but uses female pronouns. Federal and state court records refer to LaSota as a man. Experts and people who know them say the group is led by LaSota, who in online postings discussed the nature of consciousness and rational decision making. Many of the group members are vegan, and either have degrees in computer science or have studied related fields. Some members of the group are transgender, or have rejected binary sexuality. LaSota and two other people were arrested in February in Maryland, and remain in custody there on trespassing and firearms charges. One of the people arrested alongside LaSota was Michelle Zajko, who faces separate federal charges alleging that she bought the guns Youngblut and Bauckholt were carrying during the shootout with Maland, the Border Patrol agent. Zajko is also a "person of interest" in the Pennsylvania homicides of her parents in late 2022, according to court filings. Youngblut was due to marry a Washington state man who is currently jailed on charges that he ambushed and murdered a California landlord on Jan. 17, following a violent confrontation between the landlord, LaSota and several other people. Federal investigators say they confronted Youngblut and Bauckholt in Vermont after receiving reports the two were walking around a rural area with handguns and wearing tactical clothing. Investigators said they also mistakenly believed Bauckholt's visa to visit from Germany had expired.
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Yahoo
Transgender vegan murder cult member freaks out in court
A member of a radical transgender vegan cult suspected in several murders was dragged out of a California courtroom, claiming jail guards were trying to detransition them. And they wanted to kill them. Alexander Leatham, 29, who identifies as a transgender woman, is reportedly part of the Zizian cult. However, according to Courthouse News, they were attending a hearing in Solano County, Calif., when they freaked out and began ranting in court. Leatham exploded: 'I am not suicidal. I have never been suicidal. If I am killed in police custody, it was murder!' They are in the hot seat for allegedly attempting to murder her landlord in 2022. The landlord was later murdered, allegedly by Zizian members. Leatham claimed she was being forcibly detransitioned with hormone therapy. They added that it was all part of a 25-year conspiracy against transgender people. At a hearing in March, Leatham screamed again and again: 'This is a show trial to coordinate the genocide of transgender people!' Leatham was then locked in what cops call a 'quiet room' similar to what's found in many daycares for unruly toddlers. Courthouse News wrote: 'Her muffled shouting could be heard in the next room for the rest of the hearing.' Zizians were an unknown quantity before Jan. 20, when two suspected members were involved in a shootout with Border Patrol Agent David Maland near the Canadian border. Authorities said that Teresa 'Milo' Consuelo Youngblut and former Waterloo University student and German national Felix 'Ophelia' Bauckholt were pulled over by Maland. Youngblut allegedly started shooting, and the border agent returned fire, killing Bauckholt, but Maland was mortally wounded. Cops say the two cult members got their guns from fellow Zizian Michelle Zakjow, 32, who identifies as a trans man. Zakjow had been wanted for the double murder of his parents in Pennsylvania. One month later, detectives traced Zakjow to Delaware, where they were arrested, along with fellow cultie Daniel Blank and the bizarre sect's leader, Jack 'Ziz' LaSota. Ziz, 34, is a trans blogger and computer engineer from Berkeley, California. Police have painted the cult leader as a modern-day Charles Manson. The group has been linked to six murders in three states. Pennsylvania state police sources told the New York Post they have enough evidence to arrest Zakjow for the murders of his parents. As for Leatham, they and fellow cult members Suri Dao and Emma Borhanian are accused of attacking their landlord, Curtis Lind, 82, in 2022. Lind told cops he was inspecting a leak in Dao's trailer when he was clobbered in the back of the head. When he woke up, he had more than 50 stab wounds that detectives believe were inflicted by a samurai sword, which was stuck in his torso and the trio of Zizians standing over him. But the old man wasn't going down without a fight and managed to grab his gun, wounding Leatham and killing Borhanian. Prosecutors said it was self-defence. Another Zizian named Maximilian Snyder later finished off Lind to prevent him from testifying against the cult members. Snyder allegedly stabbed Lind to death in an ambush. bhunter@ @HunterTOSun
Fox News
18-04-2025
- Fox News
Fox News True Crime Newsletter: Menendez brothers' move, Alex Murdaugh's accomplice, Luigi Mangione's charges
LAST-MINUTE MOVE: Los Angeles DA asks for delay before high-stakes hearing in Menendez brothers resentencing CRASH COURSE: Karen Read judge sets last-minute deadline on crash reconstruction experts central to her defense 'BLINDSIDED': Menendez brothers' family accuses DA of violating victim protection law after showing graphic photo in court HIRED GUN: Tennessee mom tried to hire hit man to kill former TV anchor ex-husband, put him 'underground': docs INDICTED: Accused CEO assassin Luigi Mangione indicted on federal charges RESIDENT EVIL: New England serial killer: CT River Valley survivor stabbed 27 times warns locals to remain 'vigilant' MEET THE KOHBERGERS: Idaho judge issues order on Kohberger's bid to have his family guaranteed courtroom seating GUILTY PLEA: Alleged accomplice accused of helping disgraced lawyer Alex Murdaugh enters plea deal FIGHTING WORDS: Wildest moments in court so far for 'Doomsday mom' Lori Vallow's Arizona murder conspiracy trial SIGN UP TO GET TRUE CRIME NEWSLETTER 'RED FLAGS': 'Slender Man' stabber to be released as state warns of 'red flags' DISARMING THE DEFENSE: Karen Read prosecutor wants to block defense from blaming after-party guests, pet dog in opening statement 'BIGGER PICTURE': Luigi Mangione assassination case signals DOJ shift on death penalty in blue states, expert says SERIAL KILLER FEARS: New England serial killer fears merit 'review and investigation' after remains found across 3 states: expert SEEING THE LIGHT: Amanda Knox says Catholic priest 'saw my humanity' in prison, helped restore faith in herself SEEING EYE-TO-EYE: Idaho judge denies Bryan Kohberger's 'bushy eyebrows' motion SIGN UP TO GET TRUE CRIME NEWSLETTER NO MORE 'DRAMA': Unfazed Karen Read stares down lingering questions about 'dog bites,' texts with retrial ready for kickoff PRISON PEN PAL: Rosie O'Donnell says convicted killer Lyle Menendez is first 'straight man' she can 'love' and 'trust' CHAOS IN COURT: Trans 'Zizian' cult suspect dragged from court after shouting allegations of de-transition, murder: report LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? FIND MORE ON THE TRUE CRIME HUB
