In Aum the amount you offered corresponded to a scale of virtue. And the more you gave the faster you were promoted through the ranks, so even the lowest members gave as much as they could. Ori, former Aum member
It wasn’t the kind of terrorist group that wanted to hijack planes or do simple acts of what we think of as terrorism; what Aum kind of suggested was a wider goal, a more ambitious goal, of changing the world, remaking the world. Professor Robert Lifton, Harvard University
They were taught that by killing they would get to heaven. Professor Takeo Mori, Tokyo University
His greatest desire was to dominate people. To dominate Japan. To dominate the whole world. And that people think of him as a great man – yes, that was his dream. Shoko Egawa, journalist & Aum specialist
Asahara liked them as young and as beautiful as possible. Those were his instructions. When he was attracted to a woman Asahara raped her on the pretext that it was a religious ceremony. Shoko Egawa
Cult members came to my home in the middle of the night. They put poison gas through the slot in the door in an attempt to kill me. Shoko Egawa
My job was to get recruits into yoga classes without mentioning Aum’s involvement. First you had to increase their interest in yoga. Only then could you draw them into Aum. That’s how I went about it. Nori, teacher, former Aum member
In March 1995 there was panic in Tokyo when a deadly nerve-gas called Sarin was deliberately released into the city’s underground system. The hospitals filled with people overcome by the toxic fumes ... Twelve people died and five thousand became sick from the gas ... Suspicion soon turned to the Aum Shinrikyo cult. Its representatives held a press conference to deny any involvement. They claimed to be Buddhist-based and non-violent. The cult’s leader was a shadowy figure called Shoko Asahara. But he was nowhere to be found ... The case against Asahara and other cult leaders is so complicated his trial is expected to last up to thirty years. Infamous Murders: Cults
ASH-SMITH, COLIN: The Prosecutors TV -
For over 21 years no-one has been brought to justice for one of Britain’s most notorious murders. Now the CPS is preparing for a trial. On the evening of Monday the 18th January 1993 in an alleyway just off the London Road, New Greenhithe, north Kent, Claire Tiltman, a 16 year schoolgirl, was killed in an apparently motiveless attack. The Prosecutors s1e3: The Trial, Netflix 2016
Colin Ash Smith was not charged. He did however plead guilty to the attack on Charlotte Barnard and to an earlier attack on another woman, and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 15 years. Colin Ash Smith remained the prime suspect of Claire Tiltman. ibid.
[Claire] Tiltman: The police took over a thousand witness statements … Colin Ash Smith has now served nineteen years of his life sentence and has applied for parole … They find Colin Ash Smith guilty for the murder of Claire Tiltman … Life imprisonment with a minimum term of twenty-one years. ibid.
ATHERTON, PHILIP: Trial & Error TV -
Early evening in Spring 1985: A 10-year-old boy had been assaulted and strangled. His murderer was about to throw him inert but still alive into the river Leen. But the killer, Philip Atherton, ruined a second life, that of an innocent man, Mark Cleary. Trial & Error: The Murder of Wayne Keeting, Channel 4 1993
The following day Philip Atherton was taken in for questioning. Almost immediately Atherton broke down and admitted to the killing. ibid.
This time he put the responsibility for the worst aspects of Wayne’s killing on someone he’d never even mentioned to the police before – Mark Cleary. ibid.
ATHWAL, SURJIT murder: Killer in the Family TV - Mail online - The Killer in My Family TV - When Missing Turns to Murder TV -
These are the last pictures ever taken of twenty-seven-year-old mother of two Surjit Athwal. With her is her mother-in-law Bachan Athwal who persuaded her to go to India to attend this family wedding. Days later she went missing and was never seen again. Surjit was murdered on the orders of her own husband and mother-in-law but they cleverly covered their tracks. These killers were so cold and heartless they were prepared to murder and make their own grandchildren suffer the loss of their mother. Killer in the Family: The Honour Killers, Crime Channel 2012
Surjit was just sixteen years old when her parents organised for her to have an arranged marriage. The year was 1988 ... A union Surjit’s family would bitterly regret. ibid.
Surjit was drugged, strangled and thrown into the River Ravi in the Punjab. ibid.
Seriously abused and policed at home by her strict Sikh mother-in-law and husband. ibid.
Surjit consulted a solicitor about a divorce; she had begun a relationship with another man. ibid.
At least twelve women in the UK are known each year to have been killed by family members because of so-called honour. ibid.
This was a groundbreaking case. ibid.
A woman was murdered by her mother-in-law and husband after disgracing her Indian family by having an affair, a court has heard.
Surjit Kaur Athwal, a mother of two, was lured to India on the pretext of attending family weddings. Once there, she was allegedly strangled.
Surjit, a ‘Westernised’ 27-year-old Sikh, worked as a customs officer at Heathrow.
Her husband Sukhdave’s family were said to have been concerned that she cut her hair short, smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol.
Tensions between Surjit, her 43-year-old husband, and her mother-in-law, Bachan Athwal, reached breaking point when they discovered she was having an affair and she announced she wanted a divorce, the Old Bailey heard.
At a secret family meeting, the matriarch Bachan, 70, a mother of six, allegedly decreed that her daughter-in-law had besmirched the family’s honour, and said they needed to ‘get rid of her’.
Surjit was lured on the trip to the Punjab with Bachan then ‘disappeared from the face of the Earth’. Mail online article ‘Mother-in-Law lured a cheating wife to her death’
In December 1998 Surjit Athwal, a young mother of two from East London, had not spoken to her family for weeks. She was disappeared. Surjit was married to Sukhdave Athwal. The Killer in My Family s1e5: Surjit Athwal, Quest Red 2020
So Bachan made plans to dispose of her daughter-in-law Surjit for good. ibid.
The man chosen for Sarbjit was the Athwal’s youngest son. ibid.
The Athwals believed they had got away with the perfect murder.
A family is left without answers when their sister-in-law vanishes. Leading detectives to raid a family home. When Missing Turns to Murder s2e6: Surjit Athwal
The disappearance of Surjit Athwal back in 1998. ibid.
As the family intimidate Sarbjit, police are mounting up the case for a murder trial. ibid.
ATKINS, BOB: People Magazine Investigates TV -
1991: I could see black smoke coming out. I knew my mom [Joy Hibbs] was in the house because her car was in the driveway. People Magazine Investigates s6e7: American Nightmare, son, ID 2022
Who would want to murder Joy and why? Detectives first search the house for the knife used in Joy’s murder but they are unable to find one that matches the wounds on Joy’s body. ibid.
Bob [Atkins] had an explosive temper and I was scared of him … I heard him say [to mom], ‘I will kill you and blow up your house.’ ibid. son