Founded by two ordinary American women, the Blackburn cult has become one of the most secretive and sinister cults of the 20th century. Numerous scandals and mysterious deaths are associated with it. Until now, this sect raises many questions among researchers, which, it seems, will never be answered.
This strange story began in 1922 when two most ordinary women from the same Los Angeles family - May Otis Blackburn and her daughter Ruth Wieland Rizzio - said they had seen angels and were able to communicate with them. According to them, it was the archangels Gabriel and Michael who contacted the American women to write the "Book of Revelations" based on communication with them.
The angel book was supposed to contain answers to all the questions of the Universe, explain the structure of the Universe and talk about some "lost dimensions" where the greatest treasures of the world are stored. Completion of the book, according to the women, should open the Seventh Seal and give rise to the End Times. It wasn't clear why the higher-ups needed two California housewives as co-authors, but what was even weirder was the fact that like-minded people began to gather around May and Ruth. The women preached that when the end of the world came, only prepared people would be able to save themselves, and these "chosen ones" began to come to the home of the two newly minted prophetesses. Oddly enough, the cult had no specific name, and everyone called it what they wanted: "The Divine Order of the King's Arms of the Great Eleven," "The Cult of the Great Eleven," "The Great Club of Eleven." But outside of the cult, it was mostly just called "The Blackburn Cult," after its main founder.
To a modern educated man, the ideology of the cult will seem very strange, because it was a strange mix of postulates of various religions and philosophical currents. There were recipes from early Christianity, elements of Kabbalah, fragments of the ancient cult of the goddess Hecate, and much paganism drawn from various parts of the planet. May Blackburn quickly became accustomed to being the central figure of the new faith and began calling herself the Queen and High Priestess. In addition, she liked to call herself "God's Heel" and emphasize her uniqueness. May assured her followers that after the Book of Revelations was written and the Apocalypse came, there would be no other power on earth than 11 queens and kings. One of them, of course, was Blackburn herself. It all sounded incredibly stupid, but people started flocking around Blackburn anyway, often very wealthy, so the sect had more than enough money to carry out the most extravagant activities. The cult's followers often traveled to the Mojave Desert to a place popularly known as Devil's Hole.
The Devil's Hole is a geological formation in the form of a huge well, at the bottom of which there is a lake. What exactly attracted sectarians to this place is still unknown. However, by then everyone knew full well that the rituals of the Blackburn cult were not so harmless and innocent. Few eyewitnesses and disillusioned sectarians spoke of rampant sexual orgies and animal sacrifices. Open-air ceremonies ceased when the cult became too numerous and it became necessary to create its own spiritual center. For this purpose, a piece of land was purchased in the Santa Susana area of Ventura County, California. There, with the money of the sect, a luxurious temple with a throne room, decorated with gold, was built. The appearance of the sanctuary has contributed to the spread of even more ghastly rumors. It was said that some people never came back after entering the temple. Whether this is true or not is not known for sure, but history knows of several cases of disappearances related to the Blackburn cult. The first missing person was May's son-in-law, Samuel Rizzio. It is said that he once struck his wife, a powerful priestess, and then disappeared like a stone into water.
There have been many hypotheses as to where Samuel went, and even several attempts have been made to find his remains. But the search was unsuccessful, and without the body the police could do nothing. In addition to the disappearance of Ruth's husband, several other deaths have been recorded at various times, including: Frances Turner (a paralyzed woman who was placed in a makeshift oven for two days, resulting in her death), Harlene Sartoris, Katherine Boltz, and Addle McGuffin. But nothing was proven to anyone, and in some cases the cops couldn't even make a link between the disappearance or death and the cult visit. The worst was the story of a 16-year-old girl named Willa Rhoads. She was one of May Blackburn's closest assistants until 1925, when she disappeared. For four years, the police tried unsuccessfully to find the girl, until in 1929 they discovered her remains. The body was hidden in the house of the girl's adoptive parents under the floor, in an expertly made burial chamber.
Rhoads' corpse lay in a crude cedar coffin, completely airtight and filled with salt and spices. In addition to the wooden sarcophagus with the girl's body, the tomb contained seven mummified corpses of dogs. The horrific find sparked a major public outcry, and curses and threats began to appear at the cultists. During the investigation, the girl's adoptive parents unexpectedly confessed that Willa had died of an infection related to a tooth abscess and buried her without an examination as they did not want a fuss. May Blackburn was so sure of her invulnerability that she contradicted the couple's testimony and stated that the girl was not dead, but was in a deep sleep before the New World era that would follow the Apocalypse. According to the cult's high priestess, Willa must be resurrected to take her place on one of the 11 golden thrones as queen. As for the dogs, they symbolized the "Seven Notes of Gabriel's Heavenly Trumpet" and were meant to help the Rhoads get out of stagnation after the Last Judgment.
After this imaginary story, the police again thoroughly examined the girl's body, but found no evidence that she had been murdered. Members of the Blackburn cult escaped punishment again. Neither Willa nor May's parents were even arrested or charged. Almost immediately after the discovery of the girl's body, another scandal broke out, this time related to money. Oil tycoon Clifford R. Dabney, one of the main sponsors of the sect, claimed that May Blackburn deceived him. The businessman told police he gave May and her associates more than $50,000 in cash and several parcels of land in exchange for the honor of seeing a book written by angels with their own eyes. Of course, no book was shown to Mr. Dabney, which made him disillusioned with the new religion and soberly assess the considerable expenditure. It must be said that the land on which the sectarian temple was built also once belonged to the potentate and he demanded its return.
Immediately after Dabney's testimony, other scammed people started coming to the police, who gave May over $200,000. Today, that figure looks even more impressive, as it is approximately $3 million at the current exchange rate. All of this led to Blackburn being arrested in May 1931 and charged with large-scale fraud. But they still failed to put the founder of the cult behind bars. After several court hearings, the California Supreme Court dropped all charges against the woman because it found no evidence that she had extorted the money - she simply accepted it as a voluntary donation from believers. But the scandal surrounding the sect did not pass without a trace, and the adepts began to leave it one by one. No one believed in the angel book anymore, and soon May and her daughter Ruth were alone again.
In 1936, May Blackburn attempted to capitalize on her past fame by publishing The Origin of God, a book similar to the revelations of the mentally ill. The book sold very poorly and did not even return the money invested in it. The iconic high priestess and Queen of the World, May Blackburn, died in poverty in 1951. It is still unclear why this delusional cult has become so popular and where some of its followers have gone. There are many hypotheses, including several conspiracy theories related to this mysterious sect, and enthusiasts still do not lose hope of discovering the truth.
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