Cult of the Great Eleven

De: Samuel Fort

Narrado por: Ben Granger

Cult of the Great Eleven is a true account of one of the 20th century’s weirdest and most mysterious cults.

Human and animal sacrifices, vanishings, the preserved corpse of a teenage cult princess, angelic encounters, a woman cooked in an oven, a mother chained to her bed for two months, resurrection experiments, refrigeration warehouses for the dead, abductions, nocturnal rituals, orgies, a breathing universe, an esoteric tome known as "The Great Sixth Seal", hints of Hecate worship, and a post-apocalyptic world ruled by 11 queens from a hill in Hollywood....

The United States witnessed an explosion of cult activity in the 1920s that today is almost inconceivable. California, in particular, was a haven for an estimated 200,000 cultists, with over 400 active cults in southern California alone. These ranged from “love cults” that conducted ritual orgies to “devil worshipping” cults that branded their members with hot irons and beheaded their enemies. Among all these, the Simi Valley's “Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven” was considered by many to be the most extraordinary. A death cult, the Great Eleven was founded by May Otis Blackburn, Portland, Oregon’s unheralded filmmaking pioneer, and Ruth Wieland, her luscious femme fatale daughter.

The cult was so bizarre that accounts of its activities “elicited expressions of amazement” from justices on the California Supreme Court in 1931, who admitted, “they have never heard anything so weird.” Not until the nephew of oil magnate J.B. Dabney admitted he had been a member of the cult would the world at large learn of the existence the “divine order.” Not until detectives opened a trap door in the floor of a cult couple’s Venice cottage would the world be exposed to its darkest secrets.

©2019 Samuel Fort (P)2019 Samuel Fort

Fun little cult...

Don't know how I've managed to not hear of these folks, but I'm sure glad this book turned up. It's just really unfortunate when audiobook narrators don't..... you know...... know how to say words? Yeah, that's a problem. Huge problem. Easy words. Depressing.

Just when you thought you'd heard it all...

The book is thoroughly researched and well documented. More importantly, the author spins the facts into a cohesive narrative. His wry tone makes things entertaining. It's a fun, if sometimes grizzly, listen.

In some spots the reader mispronounced some really common words (syringe?) which made me a bit twitchy. But all in all it's a fine performance.