True Crime-Paranormal-Conspiracy Theories Stories Part V #Wattys2023

Shoko Asahara

Shoko Asahara (麻原彰晃, Asahara Shōkō, March 2, 1955 – July 6, 2018), bornChizuo Matsumoto (松本 智津夫,Matsumoto Chizuo), was the founder and leader of the Japanesedoomsday cult known as Aum Shinrikyo. He was convicted ofmasterminding the deadly 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway,and was also involved in several other crimes. Asahara was sentencedto death in 2004, and his final appeal failed in 2011. In June 2012,his execution was postponed due to further arrests of Aum members. Hewas ultimately executed on July 6, 2018.

Early life

Shoko Asahara was born as ChizuoMatsumoto on March 2, 1955, into a large, poor family oftatami-mat-makers in Kumamoto Prefecture. He had infantile glaucomafrom birth, which made him lose all sight in his left eye and gopartially blind in his right eye at a young age, and was thusenrolled in a school for the blind. Asahara was known to be a bullyat the school, taking advantage of the other students by beating themand extorting money from them. He graduated in 1977 and turned to thestudy of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine, which werecommon careers for the blind in Japan. He married the following yearand eventually fathered 6 children, the eldest of whom was born in1978.

In 1981, Asahara was convicted ofpracticing pharmacy without a license and selling unregulated drugs,for which he was fined ¥200,000 (equivalent to about ¥260,000 in2019).

Asahara's interest in religionreportedly started at this time. Having been recently married, heworked to support his large and growing family. He dedicated his freetime to the study of various religious concepts, starting withChinese astrology and Taoism.

Later, Asahara practiced Westernesotericism, yoga, meditation, esoteric Buddhism, and esotericChristianity.

Aum Shinrikyo

In 1984, Asahara formed Aum Shinsen noKai (オウム神仙の会).He changed his name from Chizuo Matsumoto to Shoko Asahara andrenamed his group Aum Shinrikyo in 1987. Asahara applied forgovernment registration and, against the advice of cult experts andgovernment officials, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government granted itlegal recognition as a religious corporation in 1989.

After this, a monastic order wasestablished, and many lay followers joined. Asahara gainedcredibility by appearing on TV and on magazine covers. He graduallyattained a following of believers and began being invited tolecture-meeting at universities. Asahara also wrote several religiousbooks, including Beyond Life and Death and Supreme Initiation.

The doctrine of Aum Shinrikyo is basedon the Vajrayana scriptures, the Bible, and other texts. In 1992Asahara published Declaring Myself the Christ, within which hedeclared himself Christ, Japan's only fully enlightened master, andidentified with the Lamb of God.

His purported mission was to takeothers' sins upon himself, and he claimed he could transfer spiritualpower to his followers. He saw dark conspiracies everywhere,promulgated by the Jews, the Freemasons, the Dutch, the British RoyalFamily, and rival Japanese religions.

He outlined a doomsday prophecy, whichincluded a third World War, and described a final conflictculminating in a nuclear "Armageddon", borrowing theterm from the Book of Revelation 16:16.

Asahara often preached the necessity ofArmageddon for "human relief." He eventuallydeclared, "Put tantra Vajrayana into practice in accordancewith the doctrines of Mahamudra," and he led a series ofterrorist attacks using a secret organization hidden from ordinarybelievers.

Tokyo subway gas attack, and arrest

On March 20, 1995, members of AumShinrikyo attacked the Tokyo subway with the nerve agent sarin.Thirteen people died and thousands more suffered ill effects. Afterfinding sufficient evidence, authorities accused Aum Shinrikyo ofcomplicity in the attack, as well as in a number of smaller-scaleincidents. Dozens of disciples were arrested, Aum's facilities wereraided, and the court issued an order for Asahara's arrest. In thefollowing months, a general attitude to perceive new religions andcults as a potential danger for the whole society spread among theJapanese people.

On May 16, 1995, the policeinvestigated the headquarters of Aum Shinrikyo. Asahara wasdiscovered in a very small, isolated room in one of the facilities.

Wary of possible Aum military power,the First Airborne Brigade of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force wasstationed nearby to support the police if needed.

Accusations, trial and execution

Asahara's death warrant

Asahara faced 27 counts of murder in 13separate indictments. The prosecution argued that Asahara gave ordersto attack the Tokyo Subway to "overthrow the government andinstall himself in the position of Emperor of Japan".

Later, during the trial which took morethan seven years to conclude, the prosecution forwarded an additionaltheory that the attacks were ordered to divert police attention awayfrom Aum. The prosecution also accused Asahara of masterminding theMatsumoto incident (another sarin attack nine months earlier thatkilled eight people) and the Sakamoto family murder. According toAsahara's defense team, a group of senior followers initiated theatrocities and kept them a secret from Asahara.

During the trials, some of thedisciples testified against Asahara, and he was found guilty on 13 of17 charges, including the Sakamoto family murder; four charges weredropped. On February 27, 2004, he was sentenced to death. The trialwas called the "trial of the century" by theJapanese media.

The defence appealed Asahara'ssentencing on the grounds that he was mentally unfit and psychiatricexaminations were undertaken. During much of the trials, Asahararemained silent or only muttered to himself. However, he communicatedwith the staff at his detention facility, which convinced theexaminer that Asahara was maintaining his silence out of free will.Owing to his lawyers' failure to submit the statement of reason forappeal, the Tokyo High Court decided on March 27, 2006, not to grantthem leave to appeal. This decision was upheld by the Supreme Courtof Japan on September 15, 2006.

Two re-trial appeals were declined bythe appellate court. In June 2012, Asahara's execution was postponeddue to arrests of several fugitive Aum Shinrikyo members.

Asahara was executed by hanging at theTokyo Detention House on July 6, 2018, 23 years after the sarin gasattack, along with six other cult members. Relatives of victims saidthey approved the execution. Asahara's final words, as reported byofficials, assigned his remains to his fourth daughter, who wasunsympathetic to the cult and stated she planned to dispose of theashes at sea; this was contested by Asahara's wife, third daughter,and other family members, who were suspected of wanting to enshrinethe ashes where believers can honor them. As of March 2020, the asheswere still at the Tokyo Detention House.