Conviction New religious movements The Dalles, OR, USA · 1984

Rajneeshee salmonella attack: 751 sickened; Alford pleas; largest US bioterror attack

Record class

Historical record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

See cited record

Organization

No organization assigned

Primary record

Sources

Wikipedia (2026) '1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack' [summarizing the federal and Oregon state prosecutions]. Available at: en.wikipedia.org (Accessed: 14 July 2026).: 'In 1984, 751 people suffered food poisoning in The Dalles, Oregon, United States, due to the deliberate contamination of salad bars at ten local restaurants with Salmonella' — carried out by followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh to suppress local voter turnout. 'The incident was the first and largest bioterrorist attack in U.S. history.' Ma Anand Sheela and Ma Anand Puja 'entered Alford pleas for the Salmonella attack and the other charges, and received sentences ranging from three to twenty years' (an Alford plea is a conviction in which the defendant does not admit factual guilt). Rajneesh himself 'pleaded guilty to two counts of making false statements to immigration officials' and was deported.
government analysis historical case review Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Biological Warfare at the 1984 Rajneeshpuram Commune” (Emerging Infectious Diseases, 1999).: The CDC review documents the deliberate Salmonella contamination, 751 illnesses, the commune leadership’s role, and the resulting criminal proceedings.

Contextual record

Background & context

Institutional and pattern-level sources on New religious movements, not specific to this one case.

ABC News (2005) ''Prince' of Former Cult Commits Murder-Suicide', ABC News, January. Available at: abcnews.go.com (Accessed: 15 July 2026).: The documented aftermath of the Children of God's abuse system: Ricky Rodriguez, raised as the movement's 'prince' and heir, 'stabbed his former nanny to death before committing suicide' in January 2005, after videotaping a statement about his childhood: 'How can you do that to kids and sleep at night?' Note: Rodriguez died the same day and was never prosecuted; this entry documents an outcome of the abuse system established in the Ward judgment above, not an adjudication — and his characterizations of individuals are his own claims, not court findings.
Wikipedia (2026) 'Richard Bandler' [summarizing the 1988 Santa Cruz murder trial and acquittal]. Available at: en.wikipedia.org (Accessed: 15 July 2026).: Richard Bandler, co-founder of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, was acquitted — that verdict leads this entry, which documents a trial, not a guilt. 'In 1986, Corine Ann Christensen... a former girlfriend of Bandler's friend and cocaine dealer, James Marino, was shot dead in her Santa Cruz townhouse with a .357 magnum owned by Bandler. Authorities charged Bandler with her murder. Bandler testified that he had been at Christensen's house, but that Marino had shot Christensen. After a short deliberation, a jury found Bandler not guilty.' The trial — and the contemporaneous reporting around it — remains the most extensively documented court event in the history of the human-potential movement's founder generation, and a window into the coercive-influence milieu from which NLP marketing later grew. Bandler was and remains legally innocent of the killing.

Related record

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