All language subtitles for Krishnas.Gurus.Karma.Murder.S01E01.720p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[ Indistinct chanting ]

♪♪

-I grew up on a Hare
Krishna commune.

It was called New Vrindaban.

♪♪

-It was an enchanting,
magical land.

A beautiful, poetic
picture of spirituality.

But I suffered a lot in life
because my family was destroyed.

♪♪

-It's supposed to be a
kind of heaven on Earth.

The goings-on have been
anything but angelic.

♪♪

-What most Americans think
when they hear "Hare Krishna"

is devotees dancing
in the street.

These are the
people in the robes.

They're kind of monks.
They're kind of Buddhists.

People think we're
some religious cult

in the sense that we all
dressed a certain way,

we had a certain mindset.

But it's all about spreading
the teachings of Krishna.

There's a soul
within everything.

Devotees are supposed
to be kind-hearted.

They're supposed to even invite
your enemy into your home.

♪♪

[ Gunshots ]

Nothing about making
someone disappear.

-One of the disciples took

that really sweet, early
Hare Krishna message,

and he dirtied it.

♪♪

-This world is a sick place.

This is the place of the fallen,
or the conditioned souls.

And it is the place
for reformation.

-Kirtanananda Swami, Keith Ham,

wanted to take
over the movement,

started issuing all these orders

to the point of engaging
in the worst kind of abuse.

-The sexual transgressions,
the violence...

the illogical application of
the traditional philosophies.

-Rape, torture, and brainwashing
they allege they endured...

[ Thunder rumbling ]

-And even now, even after
years, it's chilling.

They killed my father.

♪♪

-Surely, you weren't afraid that
Hare Krishnas would murder you?

-Surely, I was.

♪♪

-He was like the god.

If you did go
against Keith Ham...

we didn't hear from you again.

♪♪

♪♪

[ Thunder rumbling ]

-When you get to be
an old policeman,

you can't carry your
cases with you forever,

or you won't live very long.

But this is the case that's
probably gonna be with me

the rest of my life.

♪♪

I'm Detective
Sergeant Tom Westfall

of the Marshall County
Sheriff's Department,

Marshall County, West Virginia.

Through no fault of my own,

I became known as
the "Krishna Cop."

What was happening
at New Vrindaban

actually did follow what
the definition of a cult is.

Devotees were told that
people wanted to harm them,

people hated them.

The devotees had their trust in
a really aggressive personality,

Keith Ham.

He was the one that would
save them and protect them

and lead them in
their spiritual quest.

But none of them expected to
be in the middle of murders.

♪♪

The irony of the case was
that Krishna consciousness...

You know, it's non-material
and it's nonviolent.

It is a real religion,

and if we followed
all of the rules,

it would be such
a wonderful world.

[ Indistinct singing ]

-It's called the Hare
Krishna movement.

A colorful group often seen

dancing and chanting
in the street.

-Prabhupada was the
charismatic leader,

an elderly, saintly
person from India.

The closest thing that
anybody had seen seen,

say, to Jesus Christ.

Prabhupada didn't invent
Krishna consciousness,

which is thousands of years old.

But Prabhupada
invented novel ways

to attract people to the
Hare Krishna movement.

♪♪

-Krishna consciousness
was born in '60s America.

I call this "the
perfect window in time."

♪♪

Vietnam...

civil-rights violence...

President Kennedy
assassinated...

and millions of young Americans
looking for life's answer.

-There was great hopefulness

in the beginning of
the hippie development.

Our slogan was "Love
and peace, brother,

love and peace, sister."

-In the face of
all this ugliness,

the hippie movement
led to psychedelics

as a way to experience that
there is another reality,

there is another
way to see things.

-But there was a lot of
ugliness creeping in.

A lot of the drugs were
starting to feel and taste

and look just like all the stuff

we were trying to get
away from, actually.

And then Prabhupada stepped in.

-♪ Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna ♪

[ Indistinct singing ]

-What drew people
to him was music.

The whole philosophy is based

on the chanting of
transcendental sounds.

-He knew that he had the formula
to help them stay high forever.

-"Stay high forever."

-"No more coming down."

Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.

- Krishna, Krishna.
- Krishna, Krishna.

Hare, Hare, Hare
Rama, Hare Rama.

Rama, Rama, Hare, Hare.

-Translated, that means,
"God and God's energy,

please engage me
in service to you."

[ Indistinct chanting ]

When we were chanting

and at the same time
passing out food,

that was a recruiting tool.

And they'd come in, hundreds
and hundreds of people.

[ Indistinct chanting ]

-He always said the only way

peace will prevail
on this planet

is when the actions of humankind
revolve around the love of God.

And his goal was clear...

to change the world.

[ Indistinct chanting ]

We gave up drugs...

and we got hooked on the Swami.

-We never saw him as
somebody not to be trusted.

He was not a cheater...

in a world of cheating
and disappointment.

There was implicit
trust and faith in him.

♪♪

-We not only trust him,
we give up everything.

I gave up a school scholarship.
I gave up my home, my family.

And I joined the Hare Krishnas.

-But there were certain
rules and regulations.

No intoxication of any sorts.

No more weed. No
more LSD. Nothing.

-Not even coffee or tea.

- barbecue sauce...

- No meat eating.
- No gambling.

Mental speculation. Like,
even the stock market.

-And no more illicit sex.

-So no sex outside of marriage.

-Well, that was a big one.

So it presented challenges.

After I left medical school,
at the time of initiation,

they would shave our head,
shave our mustaches and beard,

and it would be more
of a monastic look.

Then Prabhupada changed
all of our names

from a Western name to a more
mystical, spiritual name.

So I went from Bill to Bhagavan.

[ Cheering ]

That helps you rebirth yourself.

Your first birth by
biological parents,

your second birth by
your spiritual mentor.

[ Indistinct chanting ]

-But when you get
young, immature people,

you're going to get a
certain percentage of people

who are just wired for trouble.

♪♪

-One of Prabhupada's very
first disciples was Keith Ham,

who became Kirtanananda.

Kirtanananda came from a
Baptist preacher family.

He had a pretty
vast intelligence.

But your intelligence can
tie you up in knots, too.

-He dropped out of a
doctoral program in history,

but he had a real work ethic.

I mean, he was just
work, work, work.

So he was the first
disciple of Prabhupada

to take Sannyasi,
which he did in 1967.

And so he was, like,
the only Sannyasi

besides Prabhupada in the
Hare Krishna movement,

which gave him
this great status.

But I knew from
the very beginning

his maybe two most
characteristic features

were ability and ambition.

-He was like a dominator.

He wasn't... a uniter.

Prabhupada worked with him
and held all of us together.

♪♪

So peak growth occurred
because he was here.

[ Indistinct chanting ]

-This was our first coup d'état.

Srila Prabhupada and
Krishna consciousness

come west.

-In those days, I
had close friends

in the emerging music world,

so I asked around,

and the Mantra-Rock
concert was born.

[ Rock music plays ]

-Prabhupada flew out
to San Francisco.

Allen Ginsberg was there.

-Big Brother and
the Holding Company,

a.k.a. Janis Joplin.

-My friend Jerry Garcia said

that the Grateful
Dead would play.

The Swami showed up

and led more than
a thousand hippies

in the "Hare Krishna" mantra.

-So that blew up the whole
West Coast/San Francisco scene.

And then the devotees
went to England.

-We were thinking

if the Beatles start
chanting "Hare Krishna,"

that will get the attention
of the whole world,

and the whole world will
chant "Hare Krishna."

You know, Prabhupada...

If there was a
spark, he'd fan it.

♪♪

-We went down to
the Apple office.

One of our tricks we pulled

was we made an apple
pie and sent it down

with "Hare Krishna"
inscribed in the surface.

And then we got invited to
the Apple Christmas party.

George sat down across the
table from me and he said,

"Where have you been? I've
been waiting to meet you."

And that started our
lifelong friendship.

By May and June, a few of
us were living with George.

And George was like
Prabhupada's favorite son.

[ Typewriter clacking ]

♪♪

One morning, George started
singing this wild gospel melody.

♪ Hallelujah ♪

So I start yelling...

♪ Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna ♪

And it just sort of blended in

and became part of
the ultimate song.

"My Sweet Lord"

was one of the greatest-selling
songs of all time.

-Everything happened from there.

-That was huge growth.

Everyone had the momentum

of propagating the
mission of the movement,

which was to spread,

proselytizing the
tradition that we were in.

-I mean, we were
so naive back then.

And then inevitably some
very bad things did happen

within the Hare
Krishna movement.

Unfortunately, when Prabhupada

met George Harrison
and the Beatles,

that triggered Keith Ham
because he became jealous

of what was going on in England.

And so he tried to
take over the movement.

♪♪

♪♪

-Those of us who
were early devotees,

we already knew this guy
Kirtanananda had this...

what I would call a
renegade propensity.

Declared that he was
the successor to God

who can cheat people and lie
and steal and even murder

because it's all for
the higher cause.

Kirtanananda was
ambitious, and he saw...

"Here's an opportunity.

Maybe I can take advantage
of this movement."

-The major reason really that
you can say why things expanded

was that Prabhupada
at his late age

never stopped traveling.

We were building the temples,
and Prabhupada had a directive

of how he wanted
the society to run.

The official organization
was the International Society

for Krishna
Consciousness... ISKCON.

Kirtanananda was
seen within ISKCON

as a free radical.

-As a Sannyasi, which
was, like, kind of like

God on Earth in those days.

Kirtanananda, son of
a Baptist minister.

He said that Prabhupada...

"Yeah, he's real
nice and everything,

but you know he doesn't
understand about our culture."

-He didn't like the way
Prabhupada wanted us

to dress in Indian robes.

Kirtanananda wanted us
to dress in suit-and-tie.

And then at one point,
Kirtanananda stole

Prabhupada's "Bhagavad
Gita" manuscript.

He went to some
publisher and he said,

"I'm the author of this book."

He was trying to take credit
for Prabhupada's work,

and they just
didn't believe him.

-Prabhupada heard about
it, then Prabhupada

started writing letters
saying that, you know,

"Unfortunately, our
Kirtanananda has gone crazy."

[ Typewriter clacking ]

-"Kirtanananda is a crazy man.

Maybe we should get
him into Bellevue."

-He sort of went to
war with Prabhupada.

And Prabhupada, of course, won

because his disciples
were loyal to him.

-The devotees were
spitting on Kirtanananda.

They were so upset with him.

-For the next year or
so, he was really...

He was outside the
Hare Krishna movement,

sort of persona non grata.

-But he had caught on to
one of Prabhupada's plans,

which was to have
farm communities.

♪♪

-Kirtanananda decided
to start a community

in the West Virginia Panhandle.

It not only was the
West Virginia Panhandle,

but it was, like, remote
even for the Panhandle.

And then he started to
develop New Vrindaban commune.

♪♪

-The creation myth, in terms
of how the Hare Krishnas

ended up with a foothold
in West Virginia,

begins with an ad in the
"San Francisco Oracle."

Richard Rose puts an ad
in the "Oracle" in 1968

saying that he is
looking to start

a "non-denominational"
spiritual ashram.

-Had an idea about setting
up a philosophic center,

a place where people
could come without charge,

without obligation,
without being brainwashed.

-It was about 130 acres,

and my father was
looking for someone

that he hoped was like-minded
in his philosophical pursuits

to come out and lease
that property from him

and take care of it.

-Keith Ham said, "We
were formerly members

of the Hare Krishna community,"
but they were disaffected,

and, "We want to start

a non-dogmatic spiritual
ashram, as well."

So it was a 99-year lease,

and basically it was...
you pay the taxes

and have a non-dogmatic
spiritual community,

and it's yours.

As soon as the lease was signed,

they put on bed sheets
and started chanting.

-When I started being a deputy
sheriff in Marshall County,

I drove down just
to see what it was.

They were going to have a farm
and they were going to build it

into a Krishna center,

and he hoped to redeem himself
in the eyes of Prabhupada.

[ Indistinct chanting,
rhythmic drums playing ]

♪♪

Prabhupada came
to visit the farm,

and even though it
was very primitive,

he approved of it and
he accepted Kirtanananda

back into the fold.

-Prabhupada saw his
disciples as his children.

-Prabhupada encouraged
the New Vrindaban project,

but Prabhupada was
being very merciful

because he was trying
to get something going

with whatever tools
he had in the toolbox,

which weren't very good tools.

[ Laughs ]

[ Typewriter clacking ]

♪♪

-We soon found out that
it wasn't going to be

just a couple of folks,

that there were
more people coming

and that they embraced
a holistic lifestyle

that was attractive to
a lot of younger folks.

♪♪

They would publicize that,

and there would be promotions
to bring people out here.

-Devotees serve Krishna

according to their
special propensities.

We do not need liquor
shops, gambling clubs,

slaughterhouses, or brothels.

-I simply want that
you should live simply,

chant, "Hare Krishna," have
no worries, and be happy.

♪♪

-My experience with
Kirtanananda is that he...

he had a way of
dealing with people

that he would make you feel like

you wanted to do things
for him or to help him.

When I first met Kirtanananda,

he was talking about how
great New Vrindaban was.

My boyfriend at that time,
we had very little money,

so we were thinking
this would be

a really nice place to move to.

"Let's go there. It's a farm."

Um, was I 15? 16.

♪♪

My dad and mom were alcoholics.

I was actually an alcoholic
before I joined the Krishnas.

14 years old, I was
drinking like a fish.

A lot of people's experience
with their parents,

telling them that, "I'm
going to join the Krishnas,"

they were freaked out.

I said, "They don't
drink, smoke, take drugs,

or have sex or anything.

You know, they
live a clean life."

She said, "I think
that'd be a great idea."

[ Laughs ] She was so happy.

'Cause I was completely
wild back then.

♪♪

-Devotees were
recruited to come there.

They were told that it was
going to be a pastoral,

non-material lifestyle.

When they got there, they found
out that it was really a slum.

Some of the people
lived in lean-tos.

Some lived in old cars.

There was a farm building

and a couple of
ramshackle houses

that were off in the other
parts of the property.

So life was pretty
difficult there.

-When I would go
to New Vrindaban,

the unhealthy psychology
was sort of palpable

because Kirtanananda, you know,
was a big spiritual leader,

but he just wasn't
a normal person.

He wasn't, like, a nice guy.

His mood, his psychology
permeated everything.

And then it got worse.

[ Thunder rumbles ]

-What it was first
like when I went there

was pretty rough.

We slept in the
barn with the cows.

[ Chuckles ]

It was pretty rough. There
wasn't very much space

for anybody to sleep
or do anything.

You were real redneck devotees.

♪♪

-It was just a mud hole.

You know, they were doing a
lot of construction out there,

and it was amateur hour.

I mean, you're talking about

young people that
were in their 20s,

and I don't think they really
knew what they were doing

or how they were
supposed to do it,

and the sewage system was
completely inadequate.

Of course, they would
defecate along the road.

I mean, the stench
was overwhelming

when you would pass by.

-Now, I had a cabin close to it.

They were just bad neighbors.

The chanting just never stopped.

It was just on the loudspeaker.

And I learned to meditate

through "Hare
Krishna, Hare Krishna,

Hare Rama, Hare Rama."

♪♪

-We kept mostly
cloistered. You know?

It was like mostly
kept to ourselves.

But their view of
us, I know as a fact,

was like we were a cult.

You know, a baby-killing cult
or something. Bunch of crazies.

-They just don't act like

a normal group of
people ought to.

-We were a little
shocked and aggrieved

that some of our
neighbors felt this way.

We've tried many times to
invite all of our neighbors

to come and see us, talk to us,

see firsthand what we're doing,

and they don't seem
to want to come.

♪♪

-I think it's wrong
to denigrate people

who are attracted to things
like the Hare Krishna religion.

The devotees came
to New Vrindaban,

and they weren't stupid.

What they were is
they were hopeful.

♪♪

-I was born in
Southern California.

I was the black
sheep of the family,

and I was just longing to...

be different...

like the cool hippie kids.

I was hitchhiking
across the country,

and I got as far as
Boulder, Colorado,

and I went into the
university there.

And the first thing I saw

were these guys in orange
robes and shaved heads.

And I just went, "Wow!
Spiritual energy."

And I just got... sucked in.

♪♪

They were trying to convince
me to come and stay with them.

They kept saying, "You never
know what something's like

until you come live it."

And so I promised that I
would stay for six months.

And they promised that
if I didn't like it

after six months, I could leave.

So I went with them...

and, um...

didn't get out for 11 years.

♪♪

Well, New Vrindaban had this
aura of some kind of mystique.

Part of me was scared to death.
Part of me was kind of excited.

I brought what little I had
into my living quarters,

which happened to be above
the cows in the barn.

[ Cows mooing ]

And the first thing I had to do

was learn how to wash
the walls with cow urine.

Pretty stinky job.

But it was believed that the
cow urine was antiseptic,

and so that's how we're
going to clean things.

The food was a shock.

This brown, gooey substance

served on the floor on
a piece of wax paper.

It was very, very cold.

We took our showers outside.

We were allowed about a
gallon of hot water a day.

You could traipse
across the snow

into this little enclosure,

pour your hot water
over your head,

and your feet are being frozen
to the boards underneath.

There were families living in
very small rooms with no heat,

so children were going to
bed in snowsuits and mittens.

There were times when I
really, really wanted to leave,

but I had made this promise
to stay for six months.

And by the end of that six
months, I was brainwashed.

I was there. I was in.

I had quite a bit of
respect for Keith Ham.

He was our spiritual leader.

-We look a little different.
We dress a little different.

-He was always in
this really soothing

and calm way of talking
to you, you know?

But you could see the
wheels turning in his head.

Manipulative. Power-hungry.

He was the devil
incarnate, really.

-Krishna Consciousness.

It is one of many
groups that have grown

with the big religious revival
among many young Americans.

-The rapid expansion
of the movement came

as Prabhupada started
pushing book production.

Literally millions of
books were going out.

We opened up temples in
London, Paris, Amsterdam.

Chanting in all the major
cities in the world.

-There was a time earlier

where everyone knew Prabhupada,
Prabhupada knew everyone.

But the movement grew so fast

that it was just
humanly impossible.

Prabhupada could no longer
really keep track of everything.

And Kirtanananda was
extremely competitive.

He wanted to build
Prabhupada's palace.

♪♪

-Keith Ham was going
to build New Vrindaban

into the center of
Krishna Consciousness

in the United States.

The goal was to
build a huge palace

called the Palace of Gold.

Kirtanananda would always
say that it was going to be

where Prabhupada lived,
but he had to know

that Prabhupada likely
would not be alive

by the time that the
palace was finished

and that was going
to be his palace

and he would be the ruler.

-Kirtanananda just wanted
labor. He wanted workers.

So it was understood

that if you had
someone in the temple

who was a little crazy,

you would give them a bus
ticket to New Vrindaban.

-As the community grew,

I started building a
database of who was there.

And one of the people that
caught my attention early on

was a man named Thomas Drescher.

-There was just this
strange aura about him.

You'd just get this feeling
that something's just not right.

-He served in Vietnam.
He had two Purple Hearts.

He was no stranger to violence.

Drescher had a criminal record

before he ever came
to New Vrindaban.

A lot of situations
where violence was used.

And he clearly was a
very unusual person

to be at a Hare Krishna farm.

It wasn't too long
before we started having

some incidents out there.

-What were the circumstances
that led to the shooting?

-I was giving a
class in our temple,

and I heard these mutterings
that men had returned with guns

and they said they were
looking for their daughter

who supposedly came here.

She was underage, and
they wanted her back.

-Everybody denied that
his daughter was there,

but the next morning
they came back

and one of them was
carrying a shotgun.

There was a scuffle, and
the shotgun went off.

The two men fled
without the girl.

Myself and two
deputies showed up,

and we were trying to make sense
of what had happened out there.

There were three or four
devotees who had minor injuries.

I think only one
went to the hospital.

When the media showed
up, Keith Ham...

he told a completely different
story than what had happened.

-How many people
came back today?

-I think there were
five, possibly six.

-What were they armed with?

-Shotguns. Pistols.
Semiautomatic rifle.

-He told a story about a place

being invaded by
a motorcycle gang

and how he risked his life

to fight for... to
protect the altar.

And the guns were flying.
There were machine guns.

It just went into a
crazy exaggeration.

-Do you think they were
shooting to kill anyone?

-They didn't care. They
looked absolutely crazy.

-Kirtanananda Swami
had his own script

that he was going to go by,

and the devotees were
just players in the game.

-It was very traumatizing. I
wasn't there, so I can't...

I'm just going from
what he said, but...

They, you know,
shot some devotees,

and they took Kirtanananda
up a hill and said,

"We're going to shoot you."

-It was just absurd
to claim that,

but he would claim that
for decades to come...

he was the man who stood
up to a motorcycle gang

and defended the
Krishna religion.

-The Hare Krishna members

are now making sandbag
bunkers to protect themselves,

and they say that
they will take steps

to prevent a further
occurrence of this type.

-That was a turning point.

Because that's when New
Vrindaban really started

to become militant.

Like, they armed themselves.
They had target practice.

And it was kind of
like, "Never again.

The next time they come,
we'll blow their heads off."

♪♪

-Keith Ham... he
had to convince them

that he was the savior,
not their parents,

not the police, not
the outside world.

Because you have to
convince your followers

that you are the safety

and the rest of the
world is the danger.

Thomas Drescher found a place
in the Hare Krishna scripture

that said he could exist

as a personal guard
to Kirtanananda.

-I think that was a
key historical moment.

Because you have a
narcissistic leader,

but now it's becoming
more militant.

♪♪

-In the '70s, we
were getting people

from all walks of life.

Up in the Bay Area,

Steve Jobs was working
out of his garage

as a starving technician,

and he would come to the temple.

So people are joining. People
are having a good time.

Prabhupada brought
the enthusiasm

to make the world a better
place for everybody.

But as much as he
would stress growth,

he would stress that, "I'm
only here temporarily."

He went through a period
of being physically ill.

His passing was imminent.

-We'd been taught
from the beginning

he wouldn't always be with us.

But it didn't take
away the pain.

-Everyone was always wondering

what happens after
Prabhupada passes away.

It was only when we
actually saw him gone

that the full weight
of what happened...

that we've lost the
charismatic leader.

And what do we do now?

On his deathbed, he said,

"I will name some
of you to be gurus."

♪♪

When we take that mantle of guru

and you have your own disciples,

there's this struggle
within yourself.

"Do I have enough
spiritual resources

to try to take on that mantle?"

That's a learning curve

that Prabhupada took his
whole life to get to.

-He was really
worried about ISKCON

just sort of disintegrating

because when his
guru left this world,

the movement that he
joined did disintegrate,

and it disintegrated
precisely because

they hadn't worked
out the management

and people wanted power.

So Prabhupada went
through this trauma

of seeing a spiritual movement
to which he dedicated his life

just self-destruct.

And he was determined that that
wouldn't happen with ISKCON.

I literally got a
letter in the mail,

and suddenly I was a guru.

I didn't feel I was ready.

I was 29 years old.

Now suddenly God on Earth.

-You couldn't help at
that time to wonder

why some were picked
and some weren't picked.

-You have these
young, immature people

suddenly acquiring

this absolute power
over other human beings.

♪♪

Always reminds me of this
"Three Stooges" episode

where Moe played Hitler
with a little mustache,

and they're, like,
dividing the globe up.

-I am the winner! The
world belongs to me!

Give it to me!
- No, it's mine!

-So we, the ones that he named,

tried as we best knew how
to be a living teacher.

But there was
philosophical infighting,

you could call it.

-This world is a sick place.

This is the place of the fallen,
or the conditioned souls.

And it is the place
for reformation.

-We were left to
deal with an ego

having no restrictor
plates on it

because Prabhupada was gone.

Kirtanananda saw himself as
the center of everything,

and then Prabhupada
became something

that he could use

for his own self-aggrandizement.

♪♪

-Way back in the early days,

Kirtanananda was down-to-earth

and more like one of us.

And as time went on,

he became more and more
intense and authoritarian.

-Kirtanananda absolutely
had this vision.

You know, he was the
one. He was the messiah.

"You're not gonna
save the world.

I'm gonna save the world."

Kirtanananda, who was
triggered by all this power...

he not only has these
dark ideas in his head,

but he actually has the power
to carry out his fantasies.

[ Telephone rings ]

-A few years later,
devotees would call and say,

"We're treated badly,
and if you try to leave,

Kirtanananda won't give you
your possessions or wallets."

You might even get beat up if
you say, "I'm going to leave."

And there were some
bullies on the farm

that would push them around.

And the one in particular
that they talked about

was Thomas Drescher.

And one of the people
that didn't like him

was Charles St. Denis.

-My father was Chakradara.
Charles St. Denis by birth.

And he was a very tall man,

very jolly, very cheerful.

At the same time, very
straightforward, fearless.

Because he had a broken family,

he had left home at
a quite young age.

I think my father was 17, 18

when he became involved
with the Krishnas.

-He was very charismatic.
People liked him.

He was the light
in the community.

-A hard worker.

He was just so capable.

There was no way a
leader could really avoid

using him and relying on him.

Keith Ham would always drive
over in his Land Cruiser,

and my father would sit
in the car with him,

and they'd be doing
their, you know,

managerial talk or
whatever it was, you know?

And I was like, "Oh, my dad's
pretty important here, yeah."

Up until then, it's
just this beautiful,

wonderful place and experience.

And suddenly everything
changed for me.

-So, there was a point there

where my dad got
a big inheritance.

And instead of giving
this money to the temple,

they used that money
to buy a big...

I think it was 40-acres
property next to the community.

That was kind of the
beginning of the resentment

with Kirtanananda and my dad.

Our dad keeping all that money,

Kirtanananda didn't like that.

He didn't like
that individuality.

He wanted, you know, soldiers.

He wanted people that are
going to be working for him.

-Where they were located
was on the fringe

of the physical area
of the community.

My father and a lot
of the other devotees

who lived in that area
may have kept long hair.

Some of them drank. Some
of them smoked marijuana.

-I ran into him once
in a convenience store

when he was buying a
case of Molson Ale.

I said, "Chuck, what...
Is this for the Lord?"

And he said, "It is tonight."

Charles made an
enemy of the Swami.

So there was more
than one incident

where Swami would
see Charles St. Denis

and he would talk to
him about his conduct.

He called out St. Denis for
not following the tenets

and not wearing the clothes,
not shaving his head,

drinking beer, smoking
marijuana, et cetera.

And at one point, he did
that in front of people

where Charles St. Denis
called him a hypocrite.

-We had these things
called darshans,

and "darshan" literally
means "vision,"

but it was a term that was used

when we would have time,
personal time with the guru.

And during one of
these darshans,

my father publicly
accused Kirtanananda.

-Charles St. Denis
called him a hypocrite.

"You've collected
all this money.

You drive around in a
stretch Cadillac limousine.

But I know what
your behavior is.

Many know your behavior.

You're the pot calling
the kettle black."

♪♪

What St. Denis was referring to

was that there was
a constant rumor

that Kirtanananda Swami
was pretty sexually active

with some of the
men on the farm.

-There was a number of laborers
who were brought there to work.

My father had heard...

And maybe he observed
something. I don't know.

But he was definitely
speaking publicly.

He said Kirtanananda was
having sex with these workers

while still playing this role
of being a valid, celibate guru.

-Sannyasi is sort of like the
spiritual leader in the society.

It's sort of like a Catholic
monk where you're celibate.

-He made a confrontation,

pointing to hypocrisy
like a double personality.

My father complaining
directly and publicly

about Kirtanananda's
immoral activities

definitely created a large rift

between them from that time on.

-Swami Kirtanananda, with
all of his obedient devotees,

was not going to tolerate
that kind of disrespect,

and that might have been
something that helped Swami

make the decision that, "I
want St. Denis taken care of."

♪♪

-Keith Ham gets
credit for altering

a lot of people's lives,

but most of those
people were the devotees

who followed him around and
ended up committing crimes

and having crimes
committed against them.

And one of those people was
a devotee named Dan Reid.

Dan Reid was a bookkeeper.
He was a little guy.

He was kind of a mousy
guy, but he was very quiet.

I mean, he didn't have a
great physical presence.

-Dan Reid, Daruka, was
my father's friend,

and his eldest son
was my best friend.

Our families were very friendly,

knew each other very well,
spent time together often.

My father's relationship
with Daruka, Dan Reid,

was complicated.

His wife and my
father had an affair.

I had my firsthand
experience of that fact

when me and my father
were driving around.

My father parked his
Bronco up top of this hill

and put me to sleep there.

When I woke up, I woke up
because the car was shaking,

and it was, like, my dad and
her on the hood of the car.

You know, what did I know?

But I'm sure you
know. [ Chuckles ]

Daruka was claiming that my
father had raped his wife.

Everybody knew that
it wasn't rape.

-But Dan Reid clung to the idea

that he forced her
to have sex with him.

And that wasn't true.

Dan Reid, he couldn't
deal with it.

-So, it was late in the night.

My father got a
call from Dan Reid

to come out to his house
and have a good time.

♪♪

-Dan Reid called and said,

"Chakra, let's
bury the hatchet."

♪♪

Chakra had told his wife,

"I'm going to Dan Reid's place
and we're gonna drink some beer

and, you know, smoke some weed."

♪♪

Charles St. Denis was very
well-known as somebody

who always had a
little bit of marijuana

and didn't mind selling it.

Charles St. Denis didn't know

as he drove up to
Dan Reid's house

that Thomas Drescher
was also in there.

♪♪

Well, the next day,

his wife realized that
Chakra wasn't there.

She went down to Reid's
house and asked Dan Reid,

"Have you seen Chakra?"

He said, "I don't know.
Why would you ask me?

I don't know where he is."

She didn't know what happened,
and that's when eventually

she would come to the
sheriff's department

and report that her
husband was missing.

♪♪

St. Denis was
nowhere to be found,

and she knew that
something was wrong.

[ Telephone rings ]

One afternoon, about
3:30, I got a phone call.

It was Deborah Gere.
She was crying.

And she said,
"Sergeant Westfall,

Chakra is gone.

Something's happened to him.

I'm afraid that Thomas Drescher

may have done something
to my husband."

And I believed her, but I knew
as she walked out the door...

One of the other deputies
walked into my office

and he said, "What
was that about?"

I said, "I think that's
a widow right there."

-We're up in the mountains
of West Virginia.

Once Kirtanananda got you out
there, you weren't leaving.

He went from being
one of the gurus

that were practicing
what Prabhupada taught...

to turning it into
his own religion.

-They needed money
for New Vrindaban.

They needed money to keep
Kirtanananda's lifestyle up.

-To build a city on the hill,

they use sort of ruthless means.

♪♪

-A lot of us went through hell.

We sacrificed a lot.
Especially women.

-I finally just decided,

"My kids are going
to have Mommy dead,

Mommy in an insane
asylum somewhere,

or Mommy out trying to
make it in the world

to give them a safe home."

♪♪

-Just like the Mob. You
can't have a snitch.

[ Gunshots ]

♪♪

♪♪