Transcript of The Aum Shinrikyo Cult & the Tokyo Gas Attack New

Hey weirdos, I am Ash.

I almost said I was Ash. What?

I've never done that. I was just gonna say it's usually me that does that.

Damn. And I'm Melaina, by the way. This is morbid.

This is morbid. I was like, you gotta tell them who you are, girl.

I'm not real. Right now. No. I'm just overwhelmed with the responsibilities.

We have a very busy Morbid schedule this week.

Yeah.

Just like with, like the bonus episode is going to be coming out. This episode is coming out. Then there's like more episodes that come out in the future, like next week.

And then like there's just more episodes.

There's more episodes forever. And then Elena has other things going on. She's like signing things. Lots and lots of things. So many things, guys. I don't know how you— I got that much.

I'll have to, I'll have to post my— I'm sure other people who sign things probably have these, but the little things that you can slip on your finger. Yeah, they're like these little silicone things that will make it so you don't get that like that sore spot, because I get a sore spot on my finger if I'm signing for too long. I bet. And they work.

So I'm surprised you don't get like carpal tunnel.

I probably do have a little carpal tunnel. Every once in a while I get a very sharp pain in my wrist, so I think, hey, that's carpal tunnel.

We're probably getting it right now, but you know You should be careful because that can get a lot worse.

I know, I know.

You've seen Mean Girls, it often requires surgery. It often does. My carpal tunnel came back. I win.

Yes, you do.

The way I can literally close— hello?

You just threw a cold hamburger on the floor.

Should we even contextualize that? No, I love it.

It is exactly what I said. You just threw out a hamburger on the floor.

Guys, we're losing it.

You don't have to think any further into that.

It's exactly what I said.

It's what I did.

Anyway, I can close my eyes and watch Mean Girls. FYI, we— fuck, what did I throw now? What was that?

Why are you throwing so much?

I think it was Wendy's secret sauce.

Holy shit. Damn.

Just throwing fast food things.

It gets crazy.

What's next? Oh, or was that— no, it wasn't my phone. I don't know.

Whatever. I don't know.

Okay, we're gonna be on our little— on Alayna's little book tour. Yeah, that sounded so rude. Alayna's little book tour. Cute little book tour. Little tiny book tour. So cute. We're gonna be on Alayna's massive book tour next week. So we are planning to re-release episodes, and some of you are gonna be like, are you kidding me?

Yeah.

But here's the cool news. One, Aidan is working to remaster those episodes because we're going to re-release the Jack the Ripper episodes.

Yes.

But it's going to be all in one episode.

Yeah. We're making it one, well Aidan's making it one big mega episode so you can just listen to the whole thing all the way through.

So that will come out next Monday and then next Thursday we're going to do the same thing with the Molly Bish episode that we covered.

Yes.

That was just a one-parter, but then we had a follow-up chat with Molly sister Heather. So we're going to combine those two and Aidan is going to remaster them into one big episode.

So then you can listen to the case and the interview. And that was a great one. I really loved that interview with her sister.

Yeah, Heather was awesome. And it's still an unsolved case. So it's like, I think we covered that way back in 2022.

Yeah.

A while ago. I think it would be good to get some fresh eyes on it. Hopefully, you know, just, you never know what can move something along.

You never know.

So that will be what's going on next week. And then we'll be back to you on, how do dates work? Is it Monday the 14th?

On Monday?

That's the, that's a Friday. So we'll be back to you on the 17th with a fresh episode.

Yeah.

Um, and if you're listening to this on Thursday, tomorrow, you're going to get the Twilight bonus episode.

Yes.

And it's our final one. And I just—

of that series.

Of that series.

We're still doing bonus episodes. Just, we'll start a different one.

Yeah, we'll have to figure out what we want to do, but, um, I think that's gonna be really fun. It's the worst movie of all the franchises, or like in the whole franchise. It's really bad. I just watched it and I was like, oh, so like nothing happens in this movie.

Yeah, it's crazy.

We'll get— I'm gonna save everything. Yeah. Um, today, do you want to get into it or do you have anything?

I don't think I have anything. Um, oh, the, uh, we did announce that the audiobook for The Butcher Legacy is going to be out the same day, pub day.

And there's a new—

you can preorder it if you want—

voice actor.

There's a new voice actor, Cary Hite, and he plays Detective John LaRue.

The one, the only.

And let me tell you, he is John LaRue.

Elena got the options for everybody and they were all so, so good. Like all the people that tried out for that part. But immediately we were all drawn to Cary.

Yeah, he just immediately hit me. I was like, that's John.

Yeah. And everybody agreed. So just if you're an audiobook listener and even honestly, I'm not. Always listening to audiobooks. I do here and there, but this one, it's really good. Your voice actors are really good.

Sophie and Joe, who play Wren and Jeremy, and they've played Wren and Jeremy since book 1. We've kept the same ones since the dawn of time. They're phenomenal. I love working with them. We tagged them in the post I did about the audiobook, all 3 of the actors. So go check out their stuff because they do a ton of other stuff too, and they're so good.

Yeah, they're really, really good.

They deserve all the recognition.

And that comes out, the audiobook comes out on the 11th, just like the book.

Yeah. Cool. Yep. You can preorder it now if you want.

You better. You don't have that much time left to preorder. And remember, preordering does get the author. It counts toward the bestseller list.

It's true.

So if you love Elena, maybe you'll be part of that. Okay, so now we can start. Stop your stopwatch. So we're going to be talking about Aum Shinrikyo and the Tokyo gas attacks.

This is an interesting one.

I need you guys to know that there are a lot of Japanese pronunciations in this, and I looked up every single one of them time, it actually took me many hours. And I did actually— like, I was like, please, please attest.

That is not a hyperbolic statement at all. It was many hours.

It was a long time. And I really hope I get them all right, but please know that if I don't, I really am putting effort in.

She really did. So I can confirm.

Thank you so much. So let's, let's get into it.

Let's get into it.

On the morning of March 20th, 1995, before I was even a star in the sky— wow. Unbeknownst to those millions of riders, though, 5 of those trains were carrying large quantities of a nerve agent called sarin.

Mm.

You might know it.

I heard of it.

A colorless, odorless liquid that when released into the air can cause extreme respiratory problems and eventually death.

That's terrifying.

Yeah. Just chilling on the trains.

Yeah.

As the trains traveled to their respective destinations through the underground system, the bags of sarin became punctured. And released the gas into those packed train cars. And within seconds, the first victims started dropping to the floor, some choking, some vomiting. It was wild.

That's horrific.

The Tokyo gas attacks did ultimately kill 13 people and injured nearly 6,000 others.

Holy shit.

And to this day, they remain the worst case of domestic terrorism in Japan's history.

Wow. Yeah.

So a little before 8 a.m. on that morning, March 20th, 1995, Kyoka Izumi, who was a public relations agent with one of the nation's airlines, was among the countless people riding one of the trains that morning. Kyoka got off at the Tozai Station and transferred to the Chiyoda Line, just as she did every single morning on her way to work. As the train approached the Shin-Ōkan-nozimu Station, Kyoka took a breath, and within seconds she realized that something was absolutely wrong. She later said, I inhaled and then suddenly my breath froze.

Oh.

She didn't remember feeling any pain, and in the moment she actually thought her inability to breathe was related to a cold that she'd had for the last few days, just like getting a little worse.

Because of course you're not going to be like, I bet I'm being poisoned.

No, of course not. That's not your first reaction to anything. But within seconds, that feeling got much worse. She said, it felt like if I inhaled anymore, all my guts would come spilling right out of my mouth. Everything became a vacuum. I mean, I had never felt so bad.

Oh, that makes me want to breathe in.

I know. I just had to.

This is stressing me out.

So thoughts were swirling around in her head. She thought about her grandfather who was 94 and had been ill. She thought about her own life, her own recent cold, questioning if this could be that, and just wondered what the hell was happening. And then just as suddenly as it had come on, the strange paralysis seemed to pass and she could suddenly breathe again.

Hmm.

Now that relief turned out to be short-lived. As the train passed the next station, she started coughing aggressively and uncontrollably. And at that moment, she realized she wasn't the only one experiencing this. It seemed like everyone in the train car that she was riding had a terrible cough that they had no control over. Now, as she was struggling to breathe on the Chiyoda Line, 24-year-old station, uh, station agent Masaru Yuasa was doing his rounds at the Kasumigaseki Station, one of Tokyo's larger train stations, and it's right where those lines intersect. Masaru had just finished a particularly long shift and was headed out of the station, actually, when he saw a coworker wheeling a mop and bucket down the hall past him. The coworker told him that they had received a call about needing to clean up one of the train cars, but Masaru was a nice guy. He said, I'm off the clock, but you know what? Let me help you.

Yeah, I'm going to help you.

Yeah. So they got down to the platform and they found 3 other station agents, station agents standing beside the train struggling with what seemed to be a large number of wet newspapers. Hmm. So it's like a big old mess. He said they're stuffing it all by hand into plastic bags, but there's liquid coming from them and spilling out onto the platform. The agent with the mop did most of the cleaning, but Massero got down on the ground in an attempt to help clean up the remainder of the liquid that the other guy had missed. And as he attempted to clean up the mess by hand, he looked up and saw as one of the station agents walked slowly over to the trash can with some of those newspapers. Then, without any warning, that man holding them paused briefly and fell to the ground. Oh, Miss Sarah recalled, his face looked awful. He couldn't talk. We laid him on his side, loosened his tie. He looked in really bad shape. So Masaru ran to the phone to call for an ambulance and then rushed up to the street to wait so he could lead the emergency technicians down to the platform when they got there.

And as he rushed up the stairs, one of his coworkers stopped him to tell them there had been, uh, to tell him there had been some sort of emergency at one of the other stations on the Hibiya Line. So it's like all these emergencies are starting to happen and everybody's getting alerted. Masaru waited on the street for what seemed like forever, but the ambulance still didn't get there. By then they were seriously worried about their coworker and they thought they should at least move him up to the street. But when Macero started back down the stairs, several people warned him that he shouldn't go down there because now multiple people had become even more sick. It wasn't just his coworker.

This is like so scary. This would be so dystopian and like end of the world feeling. I'd feel like it was the apocalypse. Yeah.

It feels very apocalyptic. They told him it was something inside of the plastic bags wrapped in the newspapers that seemed to be the culprit making everyone sick. Now, elsewhere across Tokyo, other emergency calls were starting to come in about people becoming extremely ill on the trains, which is likely why the emergency vehicles were taking so long to respond because they're overwhelmed. On the Marunouchi Line, Mitsuo Arima was on his way to work for the first time in a week. He had been out with a terrible flu for the past week.

And he comes out to this.

Yeah. As soon as he sat down, he smelled what he described as an acid smell. Mitsuho looked around the train and noticed people covering their noses and mouths with handkerchiefs. So he wasn't the only one smelling this.

Yeah.

But only in retrospect did he realize what was happening. He said later, "I was taking a hay fever remedy at the time, so I thought it might be a reaction to the drug. It was different from my usual though, so maybe this was a side effect?" Now, Mitsuho reached his office a little after 8:00 AM, and by then he felt horrible. He said, I felt so lethargic. I just sat in, uh, in a daze at my desk staring out the window. By lunch, things had gotten even worse. He had no appetite. He was sweating heavily and he had a tightening sensation in his hand.

Oh my God.

And there was a television on in his office kitchen and several employees were gathered around it because by that time, news of the poisoning started to break on some of the news. And some of his coworkers actually joked that maybe he had sarin poisoning.

I mean, it wouldn't be that crazy to think, but imagine hearing that as a joke, but seeing that on the news and also feeling the weird shit he was feeling.

Right.

You'd be like, am I poisoned right now? Like, that would be such a gnarly thing to have to come to grips with.

And you're also probably sitting there like, am I poisoned or am I feeling weird because I've had the flu and now I just kind of like—

And now I'm kind of like exposed to this information.

Yeah. So it's like, I think this is happening, but maybe it's not. Like, and we're all—

We also get ourselves across cultures and across the globe. Humans do that one thing where they say, I don't know, am I being annoying? Am I, am I being dramatic? Should I just not go to the hospital when I feel this?

I don't really want to bother anyone, you know.

I do the same thing, but I— we gotta stop. We gotta overreact.

Then it's so funny because like I get mad at you when you do it, but then I do the same thing and you're like, go to the doctor.

Like, like, that's the thing. It's like you gotta overreact. Yeah, we gotta start overreacting, everybody.

Well, so at first he just kind of laughed it off. He was like, yeah, totally have sarin poisoning for sure. But by 2 PM, he finally excused himself from work and was like, yeah, I should probably go to the doctor. Something's up. When the doctor heard that he'd been on the subway before the sudden onset of symptoms, he looked at Mitsuo's pupils and immediately sent him to be hospitalized.

Oh God.

At the hospital, he was confirmed to be suffering from exposure to sarin gas and admitted later for treatment. He said, oddly enough, like he recalled this later, Oddly enough, I didn't feel any sense of crisis. I'd been right at the epicenter, but instead of shuddering at the death toll, I felt like I was watching a program on TV, as if it were somebody else's program.

Whoa.

It seems like it's like an out-of-body experience.

Spooky.

Now, he wasn't alone in his feelings of just absolute surreal confusion. Once people started hearing about the gas attacks in the subway system, all of them across Tokyo and many across Japan were as confused and also terrified, standing outside one of the roped-off stations as men in hazmat suits just came and went. One bystander told a reporter, "I can't believe this. It's scary. I'm scared of Tokyo now." Yeah. Which is wild because for decades Tokyo, and even still, yeah, has been considered one of the safest cities around the world.

It still is. Yeah.

But it's partially because of that feeling of safety that the attacks on the subway were so destabilizing.

Oh yeah.

One subway rider said, we all talk about how America is a risky society, but in the New York subways, at least you can see who's firing the guns. In this case, nobody could see who did it. That's what's really terrifying. Oh, that's really scary.

Yeah.

Now, the lack of motive and at first anonymous identity of the attacker or attackers compounded the traumatic effect on the attack everywhere. A reporter from The New York Times said— I wrote— everyone was worried about finding small packages like the one that emitted the gas, especially after they heard what happened to Kazumasa Takahashi, who was the deputy stationmaster of Kasumigaseki, the one who went down.

Okay.

Takahashi was the man that Masaru Yuasa had helped clean the mess on the platform. Oh. And he then collapsed after gathering the packages and moving them into the trash, like I said. He hadn't been on the trains when the gas was released, so he had, I guess you could say, limited exposure. But he died that afternoon.

Oh no.

From his, from the effects. Yeah.

Shit.

Other riders had a similar experience of witnessing fellow passengers becoming sick in an instant and then just collapsing. It was enough to put everybody on high alert and nobody knew whether they were in the presence of the gas or if they might get sick at any minute.

Oh shit.

Because you can get sick right away or you, it can take a minute.

See that, that's no good. Those kind of things where it's like, yeah, it could hit you right away or like, Maybe it's time released. It's like, no.

And I think it depends on the, like, level of exposure.

Yeah, you know, that makes sense.

So throughout that day and into the next day, nearly all of Japan was gathered around their televisions and radios as news of the attack slowly unfolded. What they learned was on that morning, March 20th, those bags filled with liquid sarin had been placed on 5 subway cars, like I said, wrapped in newspapers to conceal the contents. Around 8 a.m., which was peak travel time for commuters, The bags were punctured by the individuals responsible for the attack, and they immediately got off the train.

Damn.

Once punctured, the invisible odorless gas just leaked from the bags and was released into all of those train cars where everyone was.

And they had no idea.

They're just on their way to work.

All of a sudden they're like, and it's like, no, you don't hear anything, fills the place or something. Like odorless, colorless, like, yeah, have no idea it's even happening. You all just start falling. Like, that is Nightmare.

Actually, I shouldn't say colorless. I don't know if Saren has a color. I know it's odorless.

Let me look.

No, it is colorless.

Colorless. I thought it was.

Yeah, I had a feeling, but we gotta be careful though. If it's degraded, it can appear brown. So there you go, just tell the whole truth, you know?

Yeah, nothing but the truth. Yeah, that's how I feel.

So sarin attacks the nervous system and interferes with the neuromuscular junctions, which causes anybody who's been exposed to lose control of those muscles and control of their respiratory system. So you die by asphyxiation.

Yeah, because your respiratory system's just like—

yeah, it just stops.

Yeah.

Other non-fatal symptoms include runny nose, tightly constricted pupils, which is why when that one passenger or man was admitted to the hospital because his doctor looked at his pupils. He was like, fuck, fuck. Also includes tightness in the chest, vomiting, convulsions, all of the above. It is a volatile chemical too, which means it can transform from liquid to vapor with relative ease. So to inhale it is just a given, pretty much.

Yeah.

In addition to that, it can also soak into fabrics and other materials, which will then continue to release fumes for up to 30 minutes after exposure.

Oh shit.

So you could have been hit by the immediate exposure, or if that's— if that got on like any seats or anything like that, or whatever the bottom of the train cars were made of, it could have soaked that in. And then it just continues to release.

My God.

The newspapers, even, it could have soaked in there.

Oh yeah, it soaked in there.

It's— this was crazy.

Damn.

So for residents of Tokyo, like I said, the lack of motive for the attack was almost as unsettling as the attack itself.

Yeah.

By the time everything was under control, 13 people were dead and 6,000 suffered a range of symptoms.

6,000?

And those range of symptoms, it varied from obviously, like, serious, but, like, the lower severity to quite serious.

Yeah.

Now, in fact, because attacks with chemical weapons had become so uncommon since World War I, there wasn't that much research into the long-term effects of exposure to sarin gas.

Mm.

And unfortunately, it would turn out that Many of those affected by the gas in the subway would continue to suffer from exposure in the decades that followed. Wow. Including some symptoms that were debilitating. In 2020— holy shit, that recent— a 14th victim died after battling severe aftereffects for 30 years.

Just going on the subway, just going to work, going to school. That's fucked up.

Going to see your friends, whatever be it. Now, in the immediate aftermath of the attack, hospitals across Tokyo were obviously flooded with subway riders.

Yeah.

Everybody was terrified that they had been exposed. For staff and administrators, the situation was a logistical nightmare. Given the potential severity, they had to make quick decisions about who was and who wasn't at risk. And if they were wrong, that could have resulted in the loss of more lives.

Yeah, absolutely.

Now, beyond the challenge of triage, there was also the matter of simple logistics. If a person was assumed to have been exposed, and that included thousands of people, each individual had to remove all of their clothing for fear of further off-gassing, and then they had to remain in the hospital for observation. Wow. Just like, think of how many beds that would take up.

I was gonna say, that's like inconceivable.

It is. Those who were obviously affected and suffering already severe symptoms were isolated away from other passengers and visitors. And it created a serious problem for space with not only the patients affected by this, but the patients who were already either in the hospital or just coming to the hospital for other reasons.

Damn.

Now, even further complicating matters was the fact that while some doctors in the city had some limited experience with treating exposure to toxic chemicals, they were few and far between, and almost none of them had experience treating victims of sarin gas poisoning. Yeah. This is not something that happens all the time.

Yeah.

So after a thorough— so that was a nightmare. And then after a thorough search of the entire subway system, investigators located a total of 11 filled sarin, uh, uh, 11 sarin-filled plastic bags on those 5 different subway cars. 8 of those 11 were successfully punctured, which released approximately 160 ounces of the gas.

Wow.

For a lot of people, the situation was made all the more frightening by the fact that the intended effect could have even been that much larger if it wasn't for the failure to puncture those other bags.

Absolutely.

These details were horrifying.

Catastrophic.

Horrifying. Yeah. But just a couple of days after the attack, when the suspects were identified, the public would learn just how much worse things could have been.

Oof.

On the morning of March 22nd, just 2 days after the attacks, more than 2,500 Tokyo police officers spread across the city aided by members of Japan's Self-Defense Force, which is just like their military, in a massive raid on the offices of Aum Shinrikyo, a small religious sect that had been operating in the city since about 1990. The official story relayed to the press was that the offices were being raided in connection to a kidnapping case, but a lot of the officers were seen wearing gas masks, gas masks, protective bodysuits, and some even carried small birds in cages, which is a traditional means of testing an area for the presence of toxic gas.

Yep. Like the canaries in the mines.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Now, and they're like, oh yeah, it's kidnapping.

Yeah.

But it's like 2 days after these gas attacks and everybody's like, hmm, why you got birds? Why you dressed like that? And a small religious sect, like, what the fuck?

Why you got birds, man?

Now, Aum Shinrikyo was started in 1987 by their leader, Shoko Asahara, and it began as a religious movement that kind of blended Hindu and Buddhist beliefs to a degree. But within a few years, their belief system would become, or would come to include several apocalyptic Christian prophecies as well. Oh, so speaking of cults.

Okay.

Yeah, it's not just a religious sect.

Yeah.

Not long after founding the movement, Asahara declared himself to be not only a reincarnation of Jesus Christ himself, but also the first enlightened one since the Buddha.

Well, shit.

This guy's kind of a big deal.

Well, shit, he's the biggest deal. What might I say?

Yeah, the hugest.

Yeah.

By the end of the '80s, the group had gained official status as a religious organization in Japan and had managed to attract several thousand devotees around the world, not just Japan.

What the fuck?

And it was due in part to Asahara's publishing and public speaking activities. He had a way of bringing the people in.

Yeah.

Now, Japanese culture overall is a lot more rooted in history and tradition than it is religion. So most people across Japan didn't see Aum Shinrikyo as a formal religion so much as like a spiritual movement kind of thing. And it incorporated aspects of popular Japanese cultural products like manga and anime.

Oh yeah.

So it was like a little more palatable to the masses.

Yeah, for sure.

Especially to a younger generation.

It was more marketable too.

What did I say?

Uh, well, no, you were right, palatable, but I mean, it was more marketable too.

Exactly. So to a younger generation, joining Alm became a way of being a part of something bigger and totally different than any of the generations before them. So that led to a lot of young people from wealthy and elite families to join.

All right, that makes sense.

Which is scary though.

Yeah, because you can see how it, how it goes that way.

Yeah, it started off as like, oh cool, like, yeah, and then it's like this fun new thing. Now at first, the objectives and beliefs of Aum Shinrikyo were pretty chill. It was all about like positive thinking, self-improvement, self-realization, all those— basically how every cult starts. Yeah, and it was all presented in a framework of supposedly ancient traditions and beliefs, which made it, like we said, marketable, palatable. But within a few years, the beliefs and desires of Shoko Asahara himself started taking things further and further away from positivity and self-work.

Mm-hmm.

By the 1990s, or by 1990, the new religious movement was starting to look more like a cult with every passing day. Members were being encouraged to relinquish all their assets, all their holdings, and all their savings to Aum in general. Along with their autonomy and individuality. And Asahara told them this was the price for true self-determination and self-actualization.

It always is.

Just give me everything you have, even your name and your very essence.

Yeah.

And you'll realize who you are.

That's it. I love that in every one of these cults, that seems to be the one rule. Yeah, give me all your shit. Yeah, give me everything in your life. Separate from a big reward, all your loved ones. And it's like, it's so crazy how it just It's always that.

It's so crazy how like nobody ends up rewarded.

Yeah. It's just always about giving all your earthly possessions, including and your name. Yeah. To just one guy.

Just a dude.

Just a guy. Yeah.

But he earns your trust. So you think that he's Jesus Christ himself.

They always do.

Which is like, they always do. It's so sad. Now, alms practices and rituals for a long time were heavily guarded secrets that were rarely described outside of the group. But since the attacks, a lot of former members have spoken out and told their stories of what happened behind the scenes, and it's fucked up. According to several former Aum members, they were, uh, they paid large sums for, quote, rituals involving Asahara's hair and bathwater, despite the group urging followers to reject materialism.

Huh.

They took it to a place of salt burn.

They sure did. They sure did.

They sure did. One former member told a BBC journalist that he paid more than $8,100 in 1988 for a blood initiation where he drank what was said to be the leader's blood. I also just need you to look at Aiden's face. Aiden's monitoring this recording like, he's like, what the fuck?

What did I sign up for?

Yeah, yeah, just a blood initiation.

Damn.

The rituals, which were always somewhat strange, came to include the use of psychedelic drugs and also violent abuse, like the incorporation of shock therapy.

Oh yeah, just, just a normal thing.

Just a little—

just a little, little zap.

Yeah, a little acid. Yeah, a little trip.

That's fine. Yeah.

So as the beliefs and the objectives and the entire vibe of the group was slowly shifting and orienting around Asahara himself, he was becoming increasingly paranoid because you have to know that at least one part of him realized this was wrong. Yeah, so he's like, how long am I gonna get away with this? Yeah, he was delusional, he was grandiose, and because of that, so were the stories that he was telling his followers. By the '90s, those stories had taken on a very dark tone, as they always do. And where does it always go? To the end of the world.

Always.

Within a pretty short amount of time, he became convinced that the world was going to collapse into World War III, and he said Japan would go to war against the United States and that would bring out the apocalypse.

Yeah, yeah, of course, that's always the ending.

Yeah, so because his thoughts and his overall vibe were getting so dark and violent, in time the orders that he gave his followers were just as dark and just as violent. Now, the secret to his success, and pretty much every cult leader's, was a strategy of division and domination. While some, uh, while some members were treated extremely well and given a certain amount of power within the group, others were singled out for abuse and just otherwise manipulated.

Awesome.

Yeah, so he had like his closest fellow soldiers kind of thing, and they would deal out his doings.

Yep.

Now, in the spring of 1990, Asahara finally mobilized those closest, most devoted followers when that April he instructed Shigeo Tsujimoto and several others to produce a large quantity of botulinum toxin.

What?

Yeah, just that.

Okay.

A powerful neurotoxin. Once they'd done so, the followers loaded the poison into industrial sprayers mounted onto 3 trucks and sprayed areas around 2 US naval bases, the Narita Airport, the offices of several religious or political rivals, and the Imperial Palace. Oh, just that.

Just that old thing.

Yeah. You know, you know the one.

Oh, yeah. I've heard of it, you know.

Yeah.

In passing.

According to Asahara, this was to bring about about the apocalyptic war between the US and Japan, but it's more likely that the real motivation for the attack was retaliation for defeat of 25 Aum members who ran for political positions and failed.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, seems like it.

Yeah, either way, the effects of the attacks would have been devastating, but fortunately, fortunately, since none of the followers had any experiences with, uh, chemicals or chemical compounding, they were unable to produce the neurotoxin, and what they sprayed had no effect. So nobody really even would have known that this happened.

I was gonna say, yeah.

So their first attempt to deploy a chemical weapon had been unsuccessful, but they remained committed to using highly toxic chemicals to bring about the end of the world. In the fall of 1992, Asahara and 40 of his closest followers, uh, traveled to Zaire on what they described as a mission to provide support and medical assistance to those affected by the Ebola outbreak. Oh, they just decided to be like super kind.

So nice.

But in all reality, it's believed that the true purpose for the trip was to obtain samples of Ebola, which they would then bring back to Tokyo and unleash onto the public.

Ebola is the scariest thing.

Yeah, it absolutely is.

And thinking about anyone harnessing Ebola to utilize as a weapon on other people is the scariest shit I've ever heard. It's beyond the pale. Like, I can't. You got it.

Period.

Ah, period. Because you just hemorrhage.

Yeah.

Uh, I hate it.

I hate it. In the end, luckily, I'm sure you probably didn't hear much about this because they were unable to obtain any samples and they did return empty-handed. But that was the goal, allegedly. Having now failed twice at obtaining, uh, dangerous chemicals and deadly viruses, Asahara's inner circle was undeterred though. And the desire to carry out their leader's plans. So in June 1992, several members of Aum attempted to spray what they thought was botulinum toxin onto the guests outside the wedding of Prince Naruhito. Oh, that's good, right? Yeah, just, just the prince.

Just a very low-key, just, just starting off slow.

Just your average wedding.

Yeah, just that. Yeah.

Once again though, they failed to properly extract the toxin during the processing phase, and what they sprayed was entirely active.

I mean, good.

So I like— I'm not quite sure if he knew that happened until— until much later.

Can you imagine looking back on your— that later and being like, oh, that was just creeping on the perimeter?

Yeah, what? Imagine.

Damn.

Now by late 1993, Aum had started to get a reputation with Japanese law enforcement, if you can even imagine. Yeah, and also in certain political circles because of Asahara's increasingly aggressive political rhetoric. And his bizarre conspiracy theories and accusations. There were also rumors of Aum members having been involved in the commission of various crimes across Japan, including kidnapping and murder.

Oh, damn.

A lot of members who joined the group seeking spiritual enlightenment had become deeply uncomfortable with Asahara's new fixation and just the paranoid delusions, and they decided to leave. Now, some of those former members went on to found the Canary Association, which is a group that provides legal services and support to former members and victims of ALM.

Whoa.

Now this became a real problem.

Yeah.

But because the rumors of ALM's nefarious activities hadn't escalated to provable fact, there was really nothing law enforcement agencies could do at the time to stop them. They could only keep them on their radar and hope that they made a mistake somewhere along the way. That's so scary. It really is. Because you, I mean, obviously you need tangible proof.

You can't just be like, well, that's the thing.

They're spraying chemicals. I don't know. They're just not doing anything.

And you don't want them to do something. But the only way you can do something is if they do something. So it's like, ugh.

It's a pickle.

Yeah.

Now, in the meantime, Shoko Asahara continued his attempts to bring about the end of the world, but also developed a new fixation with the Canary Association, who he viewed probably rightfully as a threat to his hold over the members of Aum. In May 1994, he decided it was finally time to deal with them and put an end to them once and for all. On May 9th, he directed one of his closest followers, Yoshinobu Aoyama, and several other young followers to kill a man named Taro Takimoto, who was one of the founders of the Canary Association.

Okay.

That morning, the group traveled to the Kofu District Courthouse where Takimoto was conducting business. After finding his car in the parking lot, they sprayed sarin gas into the ventilation system.

My God.

And not only that, but they coated the interior of the windshield with it. Then closed the car and left the scene.

Holy shit.

So when Takimoto got into his car and started the engine, the ventilation kicked on, obviously, and released a huge cloud of sarin gas to his face.

Holy shit.

After many, many failed attempts at releasing a chemical weapon onto the public, they finally succeeded when it came to sarin. Just a very short time after being exposed to the gas, Taro Takimoto died from his symptoms.

Oh man.

Now, in time, Aoyama and the others directly involved in Takemoto's death, they were charged and convicted for the murder.

Yeah.

They got 12 years in prison.

12 years?

Yeah.

You say? Uh-huh.

They also refused to cooperate with the authorities or implicate Asahara or Aum in any way in the murder, so investigators couldn't make any additional arrests.

Huh. Yeah, I see.

Yeah, right.

Wow.

Makes total sense.

Yeah.

Just kill a man.

Damn.

12 years in prison.

12 years.

Wild. Oof. So now that they found a chemical weapon, though, that ostensibly worked for their purposes, Asahara and his followers kept targeting and attacking their rivals with remarkable frequency. In June 1994, 7 members released sarin in Matsumoto, a neighborhood outside of Tokyo, using a heat pot to vaporize the liquid.

My God.

The suspected motive was to kill 3 judges who were about to hear a fraud case that had been brought against Aum.

Jesus.

But the damage was a lot more severe. 7 people were killed and 140 were injured.

My God, the damage these fuckers do.

Yeah, and they're just flying under the radar in a way.

Like, obviously they're on the police's radar, but not for this kind of thing, right?

Now, in September, Shoko Igawa, a journalist who had written several articles critical of Aum and Asahara, was attacked when members of the cult sprayed phosgene gas through her mail slot.

Mail slots now? Yeah. My goodness.

She was asleep at the time in her own fucking home and unable to detect gas, obviously. By the time she woke up, she developed a severe cough. She could not speak, could not breathe, and her throat was incredibly irritated. By then, it was too late to stop any of the effects, and she died later that day.

Holy shit.

Just a journalist who was critical of them, and just in her house. Yeah. That fall, the attacks continued on everybody from political rivals, spiritual groups, to Aum's critics, former members, Nobody was safe.

That's terrifying.

A group of 20 dissident members were killed after members of Aum sprayed them with VX, which is one of the most powerful nerve agents known to man.

What the fuck?

Yeah. A few weeks later, more members of the Canary Association were targeted, but this time the VX failed to produce the desired effect and there were actually no fatalities.

Wow.

But they intended to.

Yeah.

Between late 1994 and February of 1995, nearly a dozen attacks similar to those mentioned above were attributed to members of Aum Shinrikyo.

Damn.

While those attacks perpetrated by members of Aum on behalf of Shoko Asahara were obviously fucking terrifying and terrible, at least some of them seem to have been practice runs for this larger attack that they would eventually perpetrate in Tokyo on the subway.

Even all this is horrifying.

It's awful, but it was all like a lead-up. Exactly. And it's awful to call it practice, but it really was.

It really— it was them perfecting the, the technique.

Yeah. In early March of 1995, a member of Aum made a large and illegal purchase of gas masks and military equipment online from a U.S.-based military surplus company. And it's believed that this is the equipment that was used in the attack on the subway. Wow. So on that morning of March 20th, which we've now referenced many times, 1995, Ikuo Hayashi boarded the Chiyoda Line carrying 2 bags of liquid sarin wrapped in newspapers. Once he was aboard the train, he carefully slid the bags under his seat and waited to hear the announcement for his station. Once he heard that they were approaching his stop, he waited until the very last minute, and then using the sharpened tip of his umbrella, he punctured the 2 bags beneath his seat and just casually exited the train.

Jesus.

From the platform, he climbed up the stairs to the street where another Aum member, Tomomitsu Nimi, was waiting in a getaway car. Elsewhere in Tokyo, nearly identical scenarios were playing out.

Wow.

On the Hibiya Line, Masato Yokoyama and Yausho Hayashi punctured their respective bags of sarin before exiting the trains, making their way to the street where their drivers, Kiyotaka Tonozaki and Shigeo Sujimoto, were waiting. And on the Marunouchi Line, uh, Kenichi Hirose and Taru Toyoda did the same before making their way to the street and escaping with help from their drivers, Kouichi Kepmura and Katsuya Takahashi. Unlike the others though, Hirose was unsuccessful in puncturing his bags and ultimately resorted to kicking one of the bags onto the platform to try to get it to burst.

Damn.

As a result, he was exposed to the gas and required hospitalizations to treat his symptoms.

He was exposed to the gas himself.

Yeah, he was an idiot. And honestly, he got what he deserved.

Wow.

Now, given what they knew about Aum and Asahara, investigators of the train attack immediately suspected that the cult were the perpetrators. In the past, they might have failed repeatedly to connect the other gas attacks and just many, many acts of violence from the cult members directly back to Asahara.

Mm-hmm.

But this time things were going to change. When police raided the Aum offices around Tokyo, they discovered, among other things, $7.9 million in cash, £22 of gold, several weapons, and a ton of gas masks and military gear. Holy shit. As well as a, quote, huge cache of toxic chemicals similar to those used in the lethal assault on Tokyo subways.

Wow.

The number of toxic agents found during the raid, over 200 barrels.

Holy shit.

Suggested that they had even larger plans for the following weeks and months.

Clearly.

During this raid, or during the multiple raids, they also found 50 members of Aum who had been confined in one of their chapels in a temple at the foot of Mount Fuji. What? All of these people were dehydrated and close to starvation, and presumably it was some kind of punishment for some transgression against Asahara.

Holy shit.

Just locked in a temple at the foot of Mount Fuji.

That's the scariest shit I've ever heard.

Picturing that will fuck you up.

That's not— I'm picturing that and that's scaring the shit out of me.

Yeah, just, uh, like, think about Mount Fuji. It's like one of the most beautiful scenes in the world.

At the foot of Mount Fuji.

Like, what a—

I don't even know how to describe that. That's just like putting someone in the deepest, darkest, farthest out place you can think of. Like, that's so— the isolation technique there is next level. That's also the, um, Aokigahara.

Yeah, forest. Yep.

That, that's like the forest of The suicide forest. The ocean of trees, they call it, because it's so dense that no sound can escape it.

Yeah. How fucked is that?

I have no words.

Like, that's a horror movie.

That's honestly one of the scariest things I've ever heard.

It's a horror movie.

That's so diabolical.

Yeah.

Wow.

What did I say? 50 members? Yeah, around 50 members just locked in a temple.

And no one ever would have found them.

No, had this not happened.

No way. Oh man.

Like I said, they were all dehydrated, all close to starvation. 4 Aum members were arrested in connection with the confinement, and 6 of those in confinement, uh, in that confinement were removed to and moved to a local hospital for treatment.

Wow.

But imagine just living the rest of your life as one of those 50 people.

Yeah. Who was just locked in a temple at the base of Mount Fuji.

All because you joined this, what you thought was like a religious movement.

Yeah.

Or like, or like a spiritual movement.

But like you fucked up. Yeah, who knows what the transgressions were.

It was probably— I can't even imagine.

Yeah, I can't either.

Like not saying hello to him or something. Now, when the news about the raids on the Aum headquarters broke, the cult rushed to release a statement, of course, insisting that they had never made any chemical weapons and they had nothing to do with the attack on the subway.

They said PR, PR, PR.

Weird of you to have so many strange chemicals then.

Yeah, they said, don't— why are you asking us about it? What?

A spokesperson for ALM, Yoshinobu Aoyama, went as far as to suggest that it very well could have been the police who planned the attack and then just wanted to frame the group for it.

The way they just said, maybe it's the other guy.

Wasn't me.

Wasn't me. But maybe it's the People Who Protect and Serve.

It's also like, yeah, I'm sure the police on a random day in March just wanted to create work for themselves. Exactly.

Like, really?

Like, what sense does that make?

But okay.

Just wanted to expose themselves to sarin gas as well. For sure.

Of course.

But like, you guys are just also keeping a shit ton of chemicals for no reason. Yeah. Across many, many buildings that you own.

Not planning to use it.

No, just like harboring.

No, we just like to have it.

It's like fun to do experiments.

Okay. Yeah.

Science. Look it up.

Shut up.

The members of Aum might have denied any involvement with the gas attacks and just tried to promote themselves as the victim of bad press. But in the weeks that followed the subway attack, the full extent of their operation was uncovered and exposed daily in the press. By the end of that week, investigators had discovered additional caches of toxic chemicals and located a full-scale chemical laboratory in one of their shrines, also located near Mount Fuji.

Oh, wow.

A chemical fucking laboratory.

They had like— if you're watching True Blood with us, they had like a hotshot.

They had a hotshot. Aum members attempted to describe the lab as their quote unquote— I'm not kidding you— Science and Technology Agency. Like, this is just where we do science and technology.

No, you haven't.

Get out of my laboratory, Dee Dee.

You're not as good as us.

You suck.

Okay, you're not as science as us. I can't get science.

Just get, get into it.

Yeah, it's science. Deal with it.

Detectives explain though that it was clearly where the group had been manufacturing sarin in preparation for murder. Yeah, they're like, uh, They're like, we caught you red-handed, motherfuckers.

There's a bit— there's a beaker here that says sarin to kill everyone. Yeah, like, it's— come on, like, get out of here.

Now, in the weeks immediately following the attacks on the subway, more than 150 members of Aum were arrested for various offenses. Some went on the run, though, to avoid arrest, but a lot of those members would eventually be arrested and prosecuted. Despite the arrest, though, of several members of the cult, many of them public figures, by the way, The group continued operating like they just weren't under investigation.

Yeah, they said, don't worry about it.

We're like, we're still going to science the technology near Mount Fuji.

Of course.

It's what we do. For at least 6 weeks after the raids, there were ongoing attacks, including one on the Yokohama subway in mid-May that resulted in the injury of roughly 20 passengers. Finally, though, on May 16th, thousands of police officers and soldiers spread out across Tokyo again. In one of the city's largest raids, all in search of the founder, Shoko Asahara. It took some time, but eventually— this doesn't even feel real— eventually they found him holed up in a rural compound, which they were only able to access after forcing open a number of complex locks on the doors that led to this place and making their way through a maze of dark hallways.

How is this real?

That's real life, brothers.

How is this real?

They had to cut through several locks and then do a fucking corn maze. I can't get through a corn maze on a good day.

No. Yes, that's all I thought about.

No, you're so right. Aidan just held up a note that said True Detective.

That's season 1. That is exactly what I pictured.

Yes, it's such a good call.

Yeah.

And again, like something you would picture in a crazy TV show or a movie, but it was for real. Wow. But they found him.

Yeah.

So he was arrested, obviously, and removed. Got him. He was removed to Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Headquarters where he was charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder in connection with the subway attack. I'm also like, do you guys charge for like domestic terrorism?

Yeah.

Now at the time of his arrest, Tokyo investigators and politicians found themselves having to walk a very fine line though between enforcing the law and adhering to the protections afforded to Aum as a religious organization.

Oh, come on.

At the same time, they worried that even if they were able to appease the group's more moderate members and supporters, there would be other more radical members who might retaliate with even more violence. Because you have to realize, this group, like I said, it wasn't just in Japan. It were like not even just in Tokyo, it was across Japan and across the world.

They had— that's the thing. And they don't— they're, they're unpredictable.

So now, in fact, on the day of Asahara's arrest, a package bomb exploded at Tokyo City Hall. And many suspected it had been planted there by a member of Aum in retaliation. The members who were found to be responsible for their roles in the gas attacks were luckily prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, though, ultimately, and given the harshest penalties. Of those who drove the getaway vehicles after the gas was released in the subway cars, all but Tomoo Mitsuomiya were given life sentences. As Aum's minister of internal affairs, though, Mimi was determined to play a much larger role in the attack, and he was sentenced to death.

Wow.

Similarly, those who were deemed responsible for releasing the gas were also sentenced to death, with the exception of Ikkyo Hayashi, who cooperated and was sentenced to life in prison. Wow. After his arrest, Shoko Asahara was identified as the person who obviously gave the order to release the gas on the subway, and he was found to have played a role in the earlier attacks on various targets throughout the city. At his trial, he was ultimately charged with 27 counts of murder, among various other charges.

That's a lot of counts. That's a lot.

That's a lot of murder.

That's a lot of murder. But I feel like there should be more.

Yeah, there probably is. But he was ultimately found guilty and sentenced to death after having exhausted all of his appeals. He was executed by hanging along with 6 other cult members on July 6, 2018. At the Tokyo House of Detention. And the remaining 4 members who were sentenced to death were executed 3 weeks later, July 26th, 2018. Now, in the years following the attack on the Tokyo subway, Aum Shinrikyo continued to operate in locations around the world, obviously with a much less devoted following than they once had. But for a time, the group even was presided by over Asahara's own sons.

Wow. Yeah.

Before they ultimately regrouped as a new organization called Aleph, and they claim they abandoned the stricter religious texts and beliefs. They're just kind of doing a new thing.

Okay.

Over the last 30 years though, there have been several incidents of violence and acts of terrorism that are believed to be associated with the group and the members, but Aum's official position is that they're a peaceful spiritual organization now and have no connection to terrorists and cannot be held responsible for what others do without their permission or sanction. Okay, so holy shit, that is—

that, that is— what?

I'm like, how did I not learn about that in school? That's the thing, you didn't learn about that in school, did you?

I don't remember learning about that ever.

We learned about like world history.

Yeah, like why don't you learn about that?

Isn't that wild? And also like, damn, do you remember hearing about that ever? I mean, it was the '90s. What was it, '95?

I would have been 10, so yes, I guess maybe you would. I don't remember hearing about it.

Maybe you would have been kept away from that.

I probably was kept away from that.

They were like, hey, turn off the news, Zelina's in the room.

But yeah, like, that's— it's weird to think that that was happening when I was just 10. Yeah, just being a 10-year-old.

It is, it is really weird to think that, actually.

And that's all happening. Yeah, I don't like that.

Just like the amount of weird, crazy, like Feels like, it feels like a spy movie.

It does. That's the thing.

You know what I mean?

And the way they kept like fucking up first and they kept trying and practicing until they got it. That's scary.

Yeah.

How dedicated they were to this.

They remained so dedicated.

Yeah.

And it's so sad the amount of people that were injured and lost their lives. I mean, the fact that somebody died as recently as, what did I say, 2020?

Yeah. That's, that's even so sad.

After years and years of battling like serious complications from the poisoning. It's awful. Yeah, sarin is fucking scary.

Yeah, it is.

You got a fun fact?

Let me find one. That's a fun fact.

We need one.

It's too shooketh.

It's a shookething story.

It really is. Um, lobsters pee out of their faces.

Awesome.

Yeah, yeah, they have little, uh, like nozzles. Ew. Like right under their eyes, and they just piss out of them.

How dare you say that to me? And they just, they just piss out of them. They do. That's like in Knocked Up where she's like, and then you have to cut off your head and you dig, and then there's the baby. Because like, you were like, they just piss out.

They just piss out of them. That's where they piss. Yeah.

We also— I just, I was like, no, for real. Males also squirt pee at rival males to show dominance. Yeah, they piss on each other for dominance.

Yeah, they talk to each other by peeing on each other's faces as well.

Females also spray urine into males' faces to calm them down and show that they're ready to fuck.

To piss at another lobster?

To be like, calm down. From your eyes, basically.

Like, eye piss at another lobster to be like, calm the fuck down.

And let's fuck.

Like, chill the beans for a minute.

Wow.

That's— yep. And that's your fucked fact for the day.

Lobster.

Lobsters are crazy. Enjoy your lobster next time.

We hope you keep listening. We hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that you start pissing out your ass to tell your man that you're ready to go.

Or just say, come.

E calma. Ew!

That's funny.