The Blackburn Cult, or How Housewives Founded a Cult with Human Sacrifice (9 photos)

The Blackburn cult, founded by two ordinary American women, became one of the most enigmatic and sinister cults of the 20th century. Numerous scandals and mysterious deaths were linked to it, but police were never able to bring charges. To this day, this cult raises numerous questions among researchers, which, it seems, will never be answered.





This strange story began in 1922, when two ordinary women from a Los Angeles family—May Otis Blackburn and her daughter, Ruth Wieland Rizzio—claimed to have seen angels and communicated with them. They claimed they were the archangels Gabriel and Michael, who contacted the American women to write the Book of Revelation based on their communications.



Mae Blackburn and Ruth Rizzio

The Angel Book was supposed to contain the answers to all questions of creation, explain the structure of the Universe, and reveal certain "lost dimensions" where the world's greatest treasures are kept. The completion of the book, according to the women, would open the Seventh Seal and usher in the End Times.

Why the higher beings needed two Californian housewives as co-authors was unclear, but even stranger was the fact that like-minded people began to gather around May and Ruth. The women prophesied that when the End of the World came, only the prepared would be saved, and these "chosen ones" began to visit the home of the two newly-minted prophetesses.

Oddly enough, the cult had no specific name, and everyone called it whatever they wanted: "The Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven," "The Cult of the Great Eleven," "The Grand Club of the Eleven." But outside the sect, it was most often referred to simply as the "Blackburn Cult," after the surname of its main founder.





Founders of the Blackburn Cult

To a modern educated person, the cult's ideology would seem very strange, as it was a strange hodgepodge of tenets from various religions and philosophical schools. It included tenets from early Christianity, elements of Kabbalah, fragments of the ancient cult of the goddess Hecate, and a great deal of paganism drawn from various corners of the planet.

Mae Blackburn quickly settled into her role as the central figure of the new faith and began calling herself the Queen and High Priestess. She also liked to call herself "The Heel of God," insisting on her exclusivity. May assured her followers that after the writing of the Book of Revelations and the completion of the Apocalypse, there would be no other power on earth except the 11 queens. Of course, Blackburn herself was one of them.

All this sounded incredibly stupid, but people began to gather around Blackburn anyway, often very wealthy ones. Therefore, the cultists had more than enough money to carry out the most extravagant events. Cultists often traveled to the Mojave Desert to a place popularly known as the Devil's Hole.



Devil's Hole in the Mojave Desert

Devil's Hole is a geological formation in the form of a huge well, at the bottom of which lies a lake of toxic water. What exactly attracted cultists to this place remains unknown. However, even then, everyone knew that the Blackborne cult's rituals were not so harmless. Rare eyewitnesses and disillusioned cultists told of unbridled sexual orgies and animal sacrifices.

The outdoor rituals ceased when the cult grew too numerous and began demanding the creation of its own spiritual center. A plot of land in the Santa Susana area of ​​Ventura County, California, was purchased for this purpose. A luxurious temple with a gold-plated throne room was built there with the cult's funds.

The appearance of the sanctuary gave rise to even more terrifying rumors. It was said that some people, having entered the temple, never returned. Whether this is true or not is unknown, but history knows of several disappearances associated with the Blackburn cult. The first to disappear was May's husband, Samuel Rizzio. He allegedly struck his powerful priestess wife one day and then vanished into thin air.



There were many theories about Samuel's whereabouts, and several attempts were even made to find his remains. But the searches failed, and without a body, the police had no evidence to offer the cultists. Besides May's husband, several other people also disappeared at various times: Francis Turner, Harleen Sartoris, Katherine Boltz, and Eddle McGuffin. But in these cases, the police were unable to even connect their disappearances to their visits to the cult.

But the most horrific story was that of a 16-year-old girl named Willa Rhodes. She was one of May Blackburn's closest aides until 1925, when she went missing. Police tried unsuccessfully to find Willa for four years, and in 1929, they discovered her remains. Her body was hidden under the floor of her adoptive parents' home, in an elaborate burial chamber.



Police near the coffin containing Willa Rhodes's body

Rhodes's body lay in a stern cedar coffin, completely sealed and filled with salt and spices. In addition to the wooden sarcophagus containing the girl's body, the tomb contained seven mummified dog corpses. This grisly discovery sparked a significant public outcry, and curses and threats were leveled at the cultists.

During the investigation, the girl's adoptive parents unexpectedly confessed and revealed that Willa had died of an infection related to a tooth abscess, and they had buried her without an autopsy because they wanted to avoid publicity. But May Blackburn was so confident in her invulnerability that she refuted the couple's testimony and claimed that the girl had not died, but was immersed in a deep sleep until the advent of the New World era following the apocalypse.

According to the cult's high priestess, Willa must be resurrected to take her place on one of the 11 golden thrones as queen. As for the dogs, they symbolized the "Seven Notes of Gabriel's Heavenly Trumpet" and were meant to help Rhodes emerge from stasis after the Last Judgment.



Willa Rhoades's Body

After this outrageous story, police officers once again thoroughly examined the girl's body, but again found no evidence of foul play. The Blackburn cult representatives once again escaped punishment. Neither Willa's parents nor May were even arrested, nor were any charges brought against them.

Almost immediately after the discovery of the girl's body, another scandal erupted, this time related to money. Oil magnate Clifford R. Babney, one of the cult's main funders, claimed that May Blackburn had deceived him. The businessman told police that he gave May and her associates over $50,000 in cash and several plots of land in exchange for the privilege of seeing a book written by angels.

Naturally, Mr. Babney wasn't shown any book, which made him disillusioned with the new religion and take a sober look at the substantial expenses. It should be noted that the land on which the sectarian temple was built also once belonged to the magnate, and he wanted it back.



Immediately after Babney's statement, other defrauded individuals began coming to the police, having given May over $200,000. Today, this sum seems even more impressive, as it would be worth $3 million at the current exchange rate. All this led to May Blackburn's arrest in 1931 and charges of grand fraud. However, the cult's founder was ultimately unable to be imprisoned.

After several court hearings, the California Supreme Court acquitted the woman of all charges, finding no evidence that she had maliciously defrauded the money rather than accepting it as voluntary donations from believers. But the scandal surrounding the cult left its mark, and followers began to abandon it one by one. No one believed in the angel book anymore, and soon May and her daughter, Ruth, were left alone again.



In 1936, May Blackburn attempted to cash in on her former fame and published a book, "The Origin of God," which read like the revelations of a mental patient. The book sold poorly and didn't even recoup its investment. The cult's high priestess and Queen of Peace, May Blackburn, died in 1951 in poverty.

It remains unclear why this blatantly delusional cult became so popular and where some of its followers disappeared to. Numerous hypotheses, including several conspiracy theories, surround this mysterious sect, and enthusiasts still cherish hope for the truth.