Photos: Apocalypse now and then
December 18, 2012
Contestants costumed as "Y2K Bugs" dance and prance during the Pier House Pretenders in Paradise Costume Competition on October 29, 1999 as part of Key West's Fantasy Fest. With a theme of "www.warptime.com," the 10-day wacky extravaganza culminates with an evening parade. More than 50,000 revelers are expected to attend. ANDY NEWMAN/AFP/Getty Images
An unfinished boat built by Lu Zhenhai, a man from Urumqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Lu said he was worried that the apocalypse would happen in 2012, so he decided to invest all his money, about 160,500 USD into building what he hopes will be his own indestructible ark. STR/AFP/Getty Images
Patrick Troy, who is a force security instructor with the Blevins's preparedness group, poses with firearms including a M1 carbine rifle and an AR-15 rifle December 5, 2012 in Berryville, Virginia. Jay Blevins and his wife Holly Blevins have been preparing with a group of others for a possible doomsday scenario where the group will have to be self sufficient due to catastrophe or civil unrest. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
Jay Blevins shows a "get home" bag, a bag with supplies to get home from his work on foot if necessary, he keeps in his car December 5, 2012 in Berryville, Virginia. Jay Blevins and his wife Holly Blevins have been preparing with a group of others for a possible doomsday scenario where the group will have to be self sufficient due to catastrophe or civil unrest. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
Holly Blevins holds apple sauce made from the family's apple trees while posing in a pantry of food at their home December 5, 2012 in Berryville, Virginia. Jay Blevins and his wife Holly Blevins have been preparing with a group of others for a possible doomsday scenario where the group will have to be self sufficient due to catastrophe or civil unrest. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is seen Monday, Feb. 25, 2008 in Longyearbyen, Norway. A "doomsday" vault built to withstand an earthquake or nuclear strike is ready to open deep in the permafrost of an Arctic mountain, where it will protect millions of agriculture seeds from man-made and natural disasters. The vault is to be officially inaugurated on Tuesday, less than year after crews started drilling in Norway's Svalbard archipelago, about 620 miles from the North Pole. The vault has the capacity to store 4.5 million seed samples from around the globe, shielding them from climate change, wars, natural disasters and other threats. (AP Photo/John McConnico)
Cary Fowler, the Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Fund, holds seeds inside the Svalbard Global Seed Vault Monday Feb. 25, 2008 in Longyearbyen, Norway. A "doomsday" vault built to withstand an earthquake or nuclear strike is ready to open deep in the permafrost of an Arctic mountain, where it will protect millions of agriculture seeds from man-made and natural disasters. About 620 miles from the North Pole, the vault has the capacity to store 4.5 million seed samples from around the globe, shielding them from climate change, wars, natural disasters and other threats. (AP Photo/John McConnico)
An armed guard walks through the Svalbard Global Seed Vault Monday Feb. 25, 2008 in Longyearbyen, Norway. A "doomsday" vault built to withstand an earthquake or nuclear strike is ready to open deep in the permafrost of an Arctic mountain, where it will protect millions of agriculture seeds from man-made and natural disasters. (AP Photo/John McConnico)
Julie Baker walks the streets proselytizing with other believers that the world will end May 21, Judgment Day in New York City on May 13, 2011. The Christian based movement, which claims thousands of supporters around the country and world, was founded by the Oakland, Calif.-based Harold Camping. Camping is president of Family Stations Inc., a religious broadcasting network that promotes the belief that May 21, 2011 is Judgment Day. Camping claims to have come to this date by a deep and complex study of religious texts. Camping was wrong on his prior end-of-the-world prediction in 1994. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Participants in a movement that is proselytizing that the world will end this May 21, Judgment Day, walk through the streets of New York City on May 13, 2011. The Christian based movement, which claims thousands of supporters around the country and world, was founded by the Oakland, Calif.-based Harold Camping. Camping is president of Family Stations Inc., a religious broadcasting network that promotes the belief that May 21, 2011 is Judgment Day. Camping claims to have come to this date by a deep and complex study of religious texts. Camping was wrong on his prior end-of-the-world prediction in 1994. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Suspected cult group members of "Pana Wave Laboratory" who wear white clothes to help neutralize the waves that are harming their leader's health, temporarily stay at a closed primary school May 11, 2003 in Fukui, Fukui-Prefecture, Japan. On May 14, 2003, police searched the Pana Wave cult's facilities in Fukui and 24 vehicles including the one carrying its leader, Yuko Chino, at a mountain village north of Tokyo on suspicion the group falsified vehicle registrations. Members say that they cover the things around them with white in order to protect their sick guru from an invisible enemy, and the world from Armageddon. (Photo by Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images)
A house built within a sandstone slab is seen in this March 18, 2006 photo, south of Moab, Utah. Thirty years after he figured the end was near and moved to what he thought was a safer place, Bob Foster and a fundamentalist Mormon community continue to live in an astonishing creation he calls Rockland Ranch. (AP Photo/The Salt Lake Tribune, Trent Nelson)
A police encampment stands above the underground hideout where more than two dozen members of a doomsday cult are holed up, as they wait for what they say is going to be the end of the world, near the village of Nikolskoye, in Penza region about 400 milessoutheast of Moscow on Sunday Nov. 18, 2007. Twenty-nine people, including four children, the youngest 18 months, retreated to the bunker near the village of Nikolskoye earlier this month and have threatened to blow themselves up if forced to leave. Priests tried unsuccessfully to coax members of a doomsday cult from the underground hideout where they remained barricaded Sunday. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)
Russian businessman German Sterligov, left foreground, and psychology specialists led by professor Zurab Kekelidze, right, have talks at a vent hole of the underground hideout where more than two dozen members of a doomsday cult are believed to be holed up, awaiting what they believe to be end of the world, near the village of Nikolskoye, in Penza region about 400 miles southeast of Moscow on Monday, Nov. 26, 2007. They say they believe the world will end in May. Twenty-nine people, including four children, the youngest of whom is 18 months old, retreated to the bunker near the village of Nikolskoye, earlier this month and have threatened to blow themselves up if forced to leave. (AP Photo/Dmitry Barkhatov)
A member of a Russian doomsday sect carries his belongings after leaving the muddy cave in Nikolskoye on April 2, 2008. Three of the last 14 members of a Russian doomsday sect left their muddy cave on Wednesday after five months barricaded underground waiting for the Apocalypse, an AFP reporter saw. "Now there are only 11 left," deputy Penza Region governor Oleg Melnichenko told journalists at the site. "All the children are now above ground." DMITRY KOSTYUKOV/AFP/Getty Images
Two policemen guard a house of a doomsday sect in the village of Nikolskoye on April 2, 2008. Three of the last 14 members of a Russian doomsday sect left their muddy cave on Wednesday after five months barricaded underground waiting for the Apocalypse. "Now there are only 11 left," Deputy Penza Region governor Oleg Melnichenko told journalists at the site. "All the children are now above ground." DMITRY KOSTYUKOV/AFP/Getty Images
Vissarion, 41, formerly a policeman named Sergei Torop, speaks to a visitor from his residence on March 1, 2002 in Sun City, eastern Siberia, the town he and his followers founded in 1994. Vissaron, a religious cult figure, claims that he is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and preaches abstinence from meat, tobacco, and alcohol and modern fuels to the mostly former Soviet intelligensia who live communally with him. Vissarionites believe that alien civilizations will notify them of a coming apocalypse in 2003. (Photo by Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images)
Inhabitants of Sun City in eastern Siberia pray on March 2, 2002 with Vissaron, a religious cult figure who claims that he is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and preaches abstinence from meat, tobacco, alcohol and modern fuels to the mostly former Soviet intelligensia who live communally with him. Daily tasks are handed out after the morning prayer. Vissarionites believe that alien civilizations will notify them of a coming apocalypse in 2003. (Photo by Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images)
The President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion Chairman, John Koshinen, answers reporters' questions during a press conference on December 13, 1999 at the Y2K Council Information Coordination Center in Washington, DC. Due to widespread concerns over computer failures and blackouts when the year changed to 2000, many people feared and prepared for doomsday scenarios. JOYCE NALTCHAYAN/AFP/Getty Images
People line up at a branch of Hong Kong Bank's ATM machines to get cash on December 30, 1999 before the millennium rollover. British banking giant HSBC allayed Asian millennium bug fears on December 30th saying no problems were expected. Due to widespread concerns over computer failures and blackouts when the year changed to 2000, many people feared and prepared for doomsday scenarios. ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images
Missile Commanders Lt. (L) and Lt. Col. Ken Reed confirm a launch warning over the phone during a practice drill at the North America Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado Springs, Colorado on November 9, 1999. With the coming of the year 2000, many are worried about whether or not the complex missile tracking system will be operational after computers switch to the new year. Authorities at Cheyenne Mountain working on the Y2K bug are confident that there will be no problems. MARK LEFFINGWELL/AFP/Getty Images
Real estate consultant Chris Coburn sits Wednesday, March 25, 1998, in the living room of the house in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., where 39 people in the Heaven's Gate cult committed suicide on March 26, 1997. After it was reported there was an object trailing the comet Halle-Bopp the group took it as a sign aliens had come for them and they had to abandon their "vehicles" or bodies to be reunited with the aliens and saved from armageddon. The multi-million-dollar house remains on the real estate market. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)
A police investigator with his face and hands covered, walks in Rancho Santa Fe, California on March 27, 1997 near the house where 39 people were found dead in what is being described as a mass suicide. The bodies were found inside a rented million-dollar-plus estate and a San Diego Sheriff's Department Lieutenant Jerry Lipscomb said the deaths were due to an overdose of drugs. HECTOR MATA/AFP/Getty Images
A photo released during a news conference Thursday, March 27, 1997 by the San Diego Sheriff's department showing the inside of the Rancho Sante Fe, Calif. estate where 39 bodies were found Wednesday. After reports of an object trailing the comet Halle-Bopp the group took it as a sign aliens had come for them and they had to abandon their "vehicles" or bodies to be reunited with the aliens and saved from armageddon. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
A Los Angeles County Coroner's truck stands by Thursday March 27, 1997 to transport some of the 21 women and 18 men found dead Wednesday at a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., after an apparent mass suicide. After it was reported there was an object trailing the comet Halle-Bopp, Heaven's Gate cult members took it as a sign aliens had come for them and that they had to abandon their "vehicles" or bodies to be reunited with the aliens and saved from armageddon. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Artists and designers from the Art and Commerce Gallery finish the settings for the show "Applesauce and Pudding" in downtown Los Angeles on April 19, 1997. The exhibit lead by artist Richard Duardo, depicts the mass suicide of 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult last month near San Diego, CA. The title refers to the phenobarbital-laced apple sauce and pudding that the members ate before washing it down with alcohol to kill themselves. HECTOR MATA/AFP/Getty Images
Personnel of the Self Defense Agency are seen clearing Sarin off platforms after the 1995 Sarin gas attack on Tokyo's subways. Shoko Asahara, real name Chizuo Matsumoto, along with 12 other members of the Aum Supreme Truth doomsday cult, face the gallows after Japan's top court rejected the final appeal on November 21, 2011 against a death sentence meted out for the deadly 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway. Asahara was charged with masterminding the 1995 Tokyo Sarin attack in which 12 people died and a further 5,000 were poisoned. (Photo by Japanese Defence Agency/Getty Images)
A commuter is treated by an emergency medical team at a make-shift shelter after being exposed to Sarin gas fumes in the Tokyo subway system during a Aum sect attack on March 20, 1995. Japan's top court rejected the final appeal on November 21, 2011 against a death sentence meted out for the deadly 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway, leaving 13 members of the Aum Supreme Truth doomsday cult facing the gallows. The group believed their leader was Christ reincarnated and that they had to defeat the enemies of Japan in order to survive World War III or armageddon. JUNJI KUROKAWA/AFP/Getty Images
Riot policemen surround the main commune of the doomsday cult Aum Supreme Truth at Kamikuishiki village, 100km west of Tokyo, on March 23, 1995. Huge amounts of chemicals have already been taken away from Kamikuishiki in four previous days of searching. The cult is implicated in the March 20 gas attack on the Tokyo subway. YOSHIKATSU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images
Tens of thousands of small containers are abandoned outside a building at the doomsday cult, Aum Shinri Kyo, commune in Kamikuishi Village, southwest of Tokyo, Thursday, Aug. 29, 1996. The containers are believed to have been used for specially mixed drinks for the followers. Under the supervision of a court-appointed bankruptcy administrator, volunteers collected bits and pieces to sell at a charity bazaar. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)
A policeman wearing a gas mask and an anti-chemical suit carries a sack of chemicals from the main commune of the doomsday cult Aum Supreme Truth at Kamikuishiki village, 100 km west of Tokyo, on March 23, 2000. A total of 1,100 policemen including an anti-riot unit, resumed their raid, seizing two tons of chloroform and ethanol, as well as more than 15 cans of ethyl ether, about 10 bottles of unidentified yellow-colored liquid and gas. YOSHIKATSU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images
Followers of the religious sect Aum Supreme Truth pray outside its property in Osaka on March 24, 1995 after police moved them out during a raid. Shoko Asahara, the head of the group, has denied any link with the nerve-gas assault on the Tokyo subway on March 20th that killed 12 people and left more than 5,500 injured. JIJI PRESS/AFP/Getty Images
A sect member of the Aum Shinri Kyo is seen wearing special headgear at the groups' headquarters at the Kamikuishiki compound, west of Tokyo on March 27, 1995. The headgear was said to help receive the brain wave patterns of the cult's leader Shoko Asahara. Asahara and his followers believed he was Christ reincarnated and that he had to defeat the enemies of Japan in order to survive World War III or armageddon. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)
Former cult leader Shoko Asahara, accused of masterminding the 1995 Sarin gas attack on Tokyo's subway in which 12 people died and a further 5,000 were poisoned, is seen in this undated photo. Asahara and his followers believed he was Christ reincarnated and that he had to defeat the enemies of Japan in order to survive World War III or armageddon. (Handout/Getty Images)
Tomoko Matsumoto, wife of AUM Supreme Truth sect leader Shoko Asahara on October 25, 1990. Matsumoto was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment on May 14 by the Tokyo District Court for conspiring with her husband and other cult members in the 1994 murder of a dissident member. AFP/Getty Images
This undated photo shows Japanese lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, his son Tatsuhiko and his wife Itsuko before they were murdered in November 1989 by members of the Aum Supreme Truth Cult. The shocking disappearance and murder of Sakamoto, who was an anti-Aum lawyer, and his family was the first in a series of crimes the Aum Supreme cult committed in the late 1980s and 1990s. The eight-year-long trial of Aum Supreme cult leader Shoko Asahara is scheduled to come to a conclusion on February 27, 2004, despite the lack of testimony by the man considered by most Japanese responsible for the 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway which killed 12, injured 5,000 and made the nightmare of unleashing a weapon of mass destruction on the public a reality. AFP/AFP/Getty Images
View from a helicopter, of the forest in which 16 charred members of the doomsday cult The Order of the Solar Temple were found in star formation around a campfire, seen at center in black, in Saint Pierre de Cherennes, French Alps, Saturday December 23, 1995. The deaths were the latest among members of the Swiss-based cult, a year after 53 other members were found dead in an apparent mass murder-suicide in Switzerland and Quebec. It is believed the group thought the end of the world would come in the mid-1990s and they had to achieve a higher spiritual plane by taking their lives before then. (AP PHOTO/Michel Lipchitz)
A picture taken on October 5, 1994 shows a burning house in Cheiry village, in Switzerland, where 23 bodies were found. On the 4th and the 5th of October, 25 and 23 people were found dead, respectively, in Salvan and Cheiry villages in a mass suicide connected to the Order of the Solar Temple. It is believed the group thought the end of the world would come in the mid-1990s and they had to achieve a higher spiritual plane by taking their lives before then. EDI ANGELER/AFP/Getty Images
The chapel of the Order of the Solar Temple on October 5,1994 in Cheiry village, Fribourg county, in Switzerland, where 23 dead bodies were found. On the 4th and the 5th of October, 25 and 23 people were found dead, respectively, in Salvan and Cheiry villages in a mass suicide connected to the Order of the Solar Temple. It is believed the group thought the end of the world would come in the mid-1990s and they had to achieve a higher spiritual plane by taking their lives before then. EDI ANGELER/AFP/Getty Images
About 10 members of the religious White Brotherhood sect, referred to as The Doomsday Cult, are dressed in white robes as they gather in central Kiev, Ukraine, Monday July 24, 1995 and hold posters with the portrait of their leader. Activity of this religious sect was prohibited in Nov, 1993 when their leader Maria Devi Christos and cult members were arrested for inciting mass disorder. The group's "living God on earth" urged believers to gather in Kiev for Judgement Day, due on Nov. 14, 1993. Members of the sect were quickly arrested by police. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A local resident dumps millet thinking it has been poisoned on March 19, 2000 after up to 250 Ugandans of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God committed mass suicide in their makeshift church in Kanungu in the Rukungiri district, western Uganda on March 17, 2000. It was not clear whether Joseph Kibwetere, the cult's leader, was among the dead or whether he had escaped before his followers were burnt to death, according to Uganda's Chief Inspector of Police. In the background is the church with its collapsed roof. ALEXANDER JOE/AFP/Getty Images
Gideon Tasani, still in a trance, raises his arms and professing himself as god, as he languishes in jail in Luna town, Isabela province 165 miles northeast of Manila on Thursday Jan.4, 1995, for strangling to death his own mother after allegedly being possessed by the devil. The incident happened when Tasani and his brothers and a sister became agitated when the world failed to end on New Year's day as the cult which they belong, predicted. (AP Photo/Val Handumon)
Agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and local Texan authorities bundle up against cold temperatures as the vigil outside the Branch Davidian compound continued for the thirteenth day on March 12, 1993. After a shootout in Waco in 1993 that killed four federal agents and six members of the Branch Davidian religious sect, authorities negotiated with cult leader David Koresh for 51 days. On the final day, April 19, 1993, a few hours after a government tank rammed the cult's wooden fortress, the siege ended in a fiery blaze, killing Koresh and 80 of his followers. Authorities later learned that leader David Koresh had renamed the compound Ranch Apocalypse and prophesied that the end of days from the Bible's Book of Revelations would begin there. BOB STRONG/AFP/Getty Images
A cult flag flies over the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas on March 8, 1993. After a shootout in Waco in 1993 that killed four federal agents and six members of the Branch Davidian religious sect, authorities negotiated with cult leader David Koresh for 51 days. On the final day, April 19, 1993, a few hours after a government tank rammed the cult's wooden fortress, the siege ended in a fiery blaze, killing Koresh and 80 of his followers. Authorities later learned that leader David Koresh had renamed the compound Ranch Apocalypse and prophesied that the end of days from the Bible's Book of Revelations would begin there. BOB STRONG/AFP/Getty Images
Attorney James Brannan plays a tape for the media on March 18, 1993 as his client Jean Holub, grandmother of besieged cult leader David Koresh, wipes her eyes. The tape contained a message from Holub to Koresh, asking Koresh to surrender himself and more than 100 cult members involved in the 19-day standoff at the Branch Davidian compound BOB PEARSON/AFP/Getty Images
A McLennan County SheriffĂs Deputy stands watch on a lonely stretch of road outside the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas on Monday, March 15, 1993, the 16th day of the standoff between members of the doomsday religious cult and the Federal authorities. (AP Photo/David Longstreath)
An undated photo of David Koresh, right, with his wife Rachel and son Cyrus. Koresh who claims to be Christ, is the leader of a cult known as the Branch Davidians near Waco, Texas. After Koresh's death in the 51-day siege at the Waco, Texas compound details came out that Koresh had renamed the compound Ranch Apocalypse and prophesied that the end of days from the Bible's Book of Revelations would begin there. (AP Photo)
A young child rides in the back of a Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms van out of the Mount Carmel compound of Branch Davidians cult in Waco, Texas on Monday, March 1, 1993. So far, 10 children have been let go after police negotiations with the cult began. Authorities said at least 75 persons remain in the compound. (AP Photo/Derek Lloyd Lovelock, right, and Renos Avraam)
Branch Davidian member Kathryn Schroeder is lead by Federal Marshals to her arraignment on March 16, 1993 at the Federal Courthouse in Florida. Schroeder was released from the besieged Branch Davidian compound on March 12, 1993 along with Australian Oliver Gyarfas. The armed standoff at the compound is in its 17th day. BOB PEARSON/AFP/Getty Images
A Texas National Guard armored personnel carrier heads towards the Mount Carmel compound of the Branch Davidians cult near Waco, Texas on Sunday, Feb. 28, 1993. Federal and local law enforcement officials are at a standoff with the cult after cult members opened fire on Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents, killing at least four and wounding 15, as they attempted to execute a search warrant on Sunday morning. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)
The Branch Davidian Compound observation tower is engulfed in flames after a fire started inside the compound on April 19, 1993. After a shootout in Waco in 1993 that killed four federal agents and six members of the Branch Davidian religious sect, authorities negotiated with cult leader David Koresh for 51 days. On the final day a few hours after a government tank rammed the cult's wooden fortress, the siege ended in a fiery blaze, killing Koresh and 80 of his followers. BOB DAEMMRICH/AFP/Getty Images
An aerial shot of the burnt remains of the Branch Davidian compound on April 21, 1993. After a shootout in Waco in 1993 that killed four federal agents and six members of the Branch Davidian religious sect, authorities negotiated with cult leader David Koresh for 51 days. On the final day, April 19, 1993, a few hours after a government tank rammed the cult's wooden fortress, the siege ended in a fiery blaze, killing Koresh and 80 of his followers. Authorities later learned that leader David Koresh had renamed the compound Ranch Apocalypse and prophesied that the end of days from the Bible's Book of Revelations would begin there. J. DAVID AKE/AFP/Getty Images
The Guyana home of the religious cult, The Peoples Temple, is surrounded by dense jungle, Nov. 26, 1978, Jonestown, Guyana. The founder and leader of the cult, Rev. Jim Jones, led the residents of Jonestown in a mass suicide that resulted in more than 900 deaths claiming they would be transported to another planet where they would live in peace in a new eden avoiding the nuclear fire that would engulf the earth. (AP Photo)
Members of the cult "Peoples Temple" in front of the agricultural department of the sect, in Georgetown, renamed Jonestown, Jim Jones guru's name. Bodies of more than 900 members of the sect were discovered after they committed mass suicide in compliance with the rules of the sect on November 20, 1978. (Photo by AFP/Getty Images)
Children of members of the "Temple of people" cult in 1978 in Georgetown, renamed Jonestown after the leader Jim Jones. Bodies of more than 900 members of the sect were discovered after they committed mass suicide in compliance with the rules of the sect on November 20, 1978. (Photo by AFP/Getty Images)
Some of the letters found outside the home of Jim Jones, where a mass suicide claimed more than 900 lives, Nov. 26, 1978, Jonestown, Guyana. (AP Photo/Ray Stubblebine)
Syringes surround one of the vats used to mix the drink used in a mass suicide for more than 900 people at the religious cult town of Jonestown, Guyana on Nov. 26, 1978. Leader Jim Jones lead the group claiming they would be transported to another planet where they would live in peace in a new eden avoiding the nuclear fire that would engulf the earth. (AP Photo/Val Mazzenga)
Bodies lie about a building at the People's Temple Commune in Jonestown, Guyana, on November 17, 1978 in a mass suicide that resulted in more than 900 deaths after leader Jim Jones claimed they would be transported to another planet where they would live in peace in a new eden avoiding a nuclear fire that would engulf the earth. (AP Photo/Frank Johns)
Various drugs are scattered along a table at a cult site, on Nov. 26, 1978, in Jonestown, Guyana. Investigators uncovered the large quantity of drugs while searching the home of the religious cult for victims of the mass suicide that resulted in more than 900 deaths. (AP Photo/Val Mazzenga)
Bodies are strewn around the Jonestown Commune in Guyana where more than 900 members of the People's Temple cult committed suicide in 1978. The Rev. Jim Jones urged his disciples to drink cyanide-laced grape punch claiming they would be transported to another planet where they would live in peace in a new eden avoiding the nuclear fire that would engulf the earth. Jones, who was among those who died, led the Peoples Temple, which ran a free clinic and a drug rehabilitation program.(AP Photo/file)
Passports that belonged to members of the Peoples Temple cult, who participated in a mass suicide, 1978, Jonestown, Guyana. (AP Photo)
The bedroom of Cult leader Rev. Jim Jones, on Nov. 26, 1978, in Jonestown, Guyana. Jones led the cult in a mass suicide that resulted in more than 900 deaths claiming they would be transported to another planet where they would live in peace in a new eden avoiding the nuclear fire that would engulf the earth. (AP Photo/Val Maaenga)
The home of Rev. Jim Jones, on Nov. 26, 1978, in Jonestown, Guyana. Outside lay scattered letters and papers from his files. Jones led a mass suicide of his religious cult that resulted in more than 900 deaths claiming they would be transported to another planet where they would live in peace in a new eden avoiding the nuclear fire that would engulf the earth. (AP Photo/Val Mazzenga)
Murder and mass suicide in Guyana, final acts in a religious sect's weird fantasy of salvation, added the latest bizarre chapter to California's history of cult-inspired horror. Charles Manson, left, and Rev. Jim Jones both had avid followers who would carry out violent orders if instructed to. Manson justified his actions claiming he was the messiah and that he would spark a race war that he would ultimately be the main beneficiary of. He used this theory he called "Helter Skelter" to convince his followers to carry out brutal murders in Hollywood. Jones also beleived he was a savior and lead more than 900 people to their deaths in a mass suicide in Guyana in 1978 in order to escape armageddon. (AP Photo)
The Spahn movie ranch near Chatsworth, a Los Angeles suburb, on Dec. 11, 1969, where Charles Manson and his "family" of hippies lived at the time actress Sharon Tate and seven others were slain. (AP Photo)
Danny DeCarlo, who described himself as a former motorcycle gang leader, appears outside the Los Angeles courtroom where he testified in the murder trial of Charles Manson and members of his family, on Sept. 11, 1970, in Los Angeles, Calif. DeCarlo said he lived with the family for several months, and reported that girl members of the Manson group worshiped Manson and disrobed whenever he told them to. (AP Photo/George Brich)
Young women who identified themselves as members of the Charles Manson "family" leave a Los Angeles courtroom where the hippie-style cult leader pleaded innocent to charges of murdering actress Sharon Tate and six others, on Jan. 29, 1970. Some members of the group gave newsmen their names as Gypsy, Cappy and Squeaky. (AP Photo)
Charles Manson, 34, arrives in court, on Dec. 3, 1969 for a preliminary hearing on a charge of possessing stolen property. Manson was arrested with 22 others in a desert commune near Death Valley. (AP Photo/Harold Filan)
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