8. The Murder Of The Mills Family
Few stories about cults are more horrifying than the Jonestown Massacre. On November 18, 1978, Jim Jones convinced over 900 followers from his cult, the Peoples Temple, to participate in a mass suicide by ingesting cyanide at their Jonestown commune in Guyana.
In one of his final recordings, Jones mentioned a couple named Deanna and Elmer Mertle. For years, the Mertles had lived in the Peoples Temple with their five children, but they left after Jones had one of their daughters beaten. After changing their names to Jeanne and Al Mills, the couple became very outspoken about Jones’s unsavory practices. Jeannie published a memoir about her experiences and was very active in helping other people defect from the cult. Jones often threatened retribution against the Mills family, and 15 months after the Jonestown Massacre, they became the victims of another tragedy.
On February 27, 1980, Al, Jeannie, and their 15-year-old daughter, Daphene, were shot to death inside their Berkeley, California home. Rumors circulated that the Mills family had been murdered by a vengeful hit squad made up of surviving members of the Peoples Temple. However, the investigation soon turned to the couple’s 17-year-old son, Eddie, who’d been left unharmed.
Eddie claimed to have been watching TV in his bedroom while the shootings took place and was unaware they were happening. Authorities found Eddie’s story suspicious since there were no signs of forced entry and Eddie had microscopic traces of gunshot residue on his hands. However, the murder weapon could not be found. In 2005, Eddie Mills was arrested on suspicion of murdering his family.
In the end, there was no evidence to press charges against him, so he was released, and the murders remain unsolved.
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