The Most Evil Secret Societies in History (24 page)

Despite sarin gas's potentially devastating effects, the initial tests were conducted. At one point, in poor safety conditions the sects's head of security was splashed with the toxin, and only just escaped death after a quick-thinking scientist injected him with an antidote. Nevertheless, the cult was not discouraged from using its latest weapon, and in yet another attempt to test its effectiveness, Shoku Asahara, chose as his first victims three district court judges, who were all engaged in a lawsuit against Aum Shinrikyo.

On June 27,1994, two trucks set out from the cult's compound loaded with sarin gas – but in an episode demonstrating an almost comic ineptitude, a combination of bad timekeeping and hideous traffic jams meant that by the time the vehicles arrived at the courthouse, the judges had gone home. Determined that all their efforts would not go to waste, Asahara ordered that the gas be released in a nearby residential area. His commands were swiftly executed and, although a change in wind direction caused the gas to be blown in the opposite direction to that intended, seven people lost their lives and more than 150 were admitted to hospital suffering from acute stomach pains and shortness of breath.

The incident was reported widely on TV and the police were called in to mount a thorough inquiry. Despite all the official efforts, however, Aum Shinrikyo miraculously escaped even a mention in connection with the attack.

Shoku Asahara must have thought himself invincible. After all, he had not only created his own fully-equipped army, but he had also produced his own chemical weapons and tested them successfully. It was, by the standards of any deranged criminal despot, a major achievement.

There was now, however, mounting pressure from several cult members' families to launch an inquiry into the goings-on within Aum Shinrikyo. For an ordinary cult member to leave the compound was well-nigh impossible, but one elderly woman (who had donated her life savings to Aum Shinrikyo, only to become increasingly suspicious of the group's agenda), did just this, escaping the compound and going into hiding. Asahara ordered her return and sent several squads to hunt her down, all of whom failed in their task. Instead, they kidnapped her sixty-eight-year-old brother, Kiyoshi Kariya, who for weeks after her disappearance had been plagued by phone calls demanding her return. Fearing for his life, Kiyoshi left a note saying that if anything happened to him then those responsible would be Aum Shinrikyo.

Kiyoshi was taken back to the cult's headquarters where he was bound and beaten. He was given drugs in the hope that, under their influence, his tongue would loosen and he would reveal his sister's location. Eventually, Kiyoshi fell into a coma and died. His body was quickly burned and his remains dumped outside the compound in a nearby lake. But Kiyhoshi was now about to avenge his own murder from beyond the grave. The note that he had left behind, identifying Aum Shinrikyo as his abductors, fell into the hands of the police. At last they had the evidence they needed to take action against the group and began to make preparations to mount a surprise raid on the cult's headquarters. Asahara knew nothing about the planned police attack. Instead of bolstering his defences, he was concentrating on his own plans to unleash sarin gas on the Tokyo subway system during the early morning rush, hoping to cause the death of hundreds, if not thousands of citizens.

On March 20, 1995 at 8.00 a.m., a group of carefully hand-picked Aum Shinrikyo members (Kenichi Hirose, Yasuo Hayashi, Masato Yokoyama, Dr. Ikuo Hayashi and Toru Toyoda) stepped on to a variety of trains, all of which were timetabled to converge at Kasumigaseki station. Each member was carrying a small, toxic-resistant plastic bag filled to the brim with deadly sarin, along with specially adapted umbrellas with spiked ends. As each train neared its final destination, all five cult members placed their packages on the floor of their respective carriages and cut them open with their umbrella tips. Immediately sarin fumes began spreading through the trains. Those nearest the packages were coughing and wheezing within seconds of the gas being released. By the time the different trains pulled into Kasumigaseki, those passengers who were still able to were running for the exits, while the less fortunate lay dead and dying all over the platforms. Subway staff and police did all they could to help, but it was an impossible task. Twelve people died almost immediately and over 5,500 others were also affected by the attack, some of whom suffered horrific injuries. In the meantime, the perpetrators escaped and returned to the Aum Shinrikyo compound, where Asahara congratulated them and told them to go into hiding. The attack had been a huge success, but now it was time to lay low.

Asahara also went into hiding. His Rolls Royce was seen leaving the compound shortly after the subway attack. In the early hours of March 22, 1995, the police finally mounted a 1,000-man raid on the cult's headquarters.

There were few, if any, surprises inside. Officers soon located bags of chemicals, all of which were taken away for forensic analysis, as well as countless pieces of equipment used for the chemicals' manufacture. Hundreds of weapons were discovered as well as torture chambers and cells – several of which still contained prisoners. Yet, despite all the evidence that police confiscated from the compound, including the numerous chemicals, they didn't make one single arrest in connection with the sarin-gas attack on the Tokyo subway. Asahara was in his element. He immediately released a video, stating that not only was Aum Shinrikyo not responsible for the carnage, but that the attack had been staged by the US military in an attempt to slur the cult. No one was convinced by his claims and within hours of the video's release, Asahara, together with his most trusted lieutenants, was put on Japan's ‘Most Wanted' list. There now ensued further violence, this time directed straight at the authorities. Takaji Kunimatsu, the chief of the national police federation, was attacked by four gunmen and shot four times. Miraculously, he survived, but only hours after the hit, a message arrived at a Japanese television station stating that if the police didn't back off from their investigation into the cult, then many more officers would die. The threat failed to impress anyone.

By April the police had begun arresting some of Aum Shinrikyo's major players including Dr. Ikuo Hayashi and one of its hitmen, Tomomitsu Niimi. Both were charged with imprisoning people against their will. But the police's main target, Shoku Asahara, was still at large, and still producing press releases. One of them threatened that, on April 15, 1995, a disaster would befall Japan on an even larger scale than the Kobe earthquake. The police, together with the army and the city's hospitals, were all put on high alert, but when the fateful day arrived, nothing happened. It seemed as if Asahara was now making idle threats – but four days later a report came through that Yokohama station was the site of another gas attack. Approximately 550 people were rushed to hospital suffering from a combination of sore eyes and throats. Naturally, Aum Shinrikyo was the main suspect but a short while after the attack, a confession was made by a small-time gangster with a grudge against the police.

Still Shoku Asahara was a free man, although the police had made several significant arrests, as yet they hadn't managed to charge anyone with the sarin-gas attack. Men such as Hideo Murai were still operating as if nothing had happened, but all this was about to change.

On April 23, Murai, together with the sect's lawyer, Yoshinobu Aoyama, were on the point of entering their office building when a man rushed up and repeatedly stabbed Murai in the stomach. The assailant, Hiroyuki Jo, later confessed that he had committed the crime because of increasing anger at what Aum Shinrikyo had done on March 20. He later changed his story and said that he had been employed by the Yakuza – Japan's mafia – to kill Murai in order to prevent him confessing to the police and implicating the Yakuza in Aum Shinrikyo's attack. Hideo Murai died shortly after the stabbing, subsequent to which the police mounted further raids on more Aum Shinrikyo buildings, this time finding a basement that had hitherto lain undiscovered. In this room, cowering in a corner, officers were surprised to find two of the sect's main players: Masami Tsuchiya and Seiichi Endo.

Despite their capture, on May 5, at Shinjuku station, staff discovered a burning package in one of the public toilets. Immediately they tried to put out the flames by pouring water over the parcel, but noxious fumes immediately began to rise from it. The police were called in and on later examination the package was found to contain condoms stuffed with sodium cyanide and sulphuric acid. When mixed, these chemicals combine to form hydrogen cyanide – the lethal gas used in the Nazi concentration camps to exterminate Jews. Once again, it seemed as if Shoku Asahara was baiting the police, showing them just how capable he was of wreaking havoc while still eluding arrest. Thankfully, however, his luck was about to run out.

Aum Shinrikyo followers sit on the ground to perform a ritual paying tribute to the sect's chief scientist, Hideo Murai, who had been stabbed to death on that very spot twenty-four hours earlier.

On May 16, 1995, just over two months after the sarin subway attack, police stormed one of Aum Shinrikyo's main buildings (a structure they had searched several times previously), where they eventually arrested Asahara. This was a major coup, but the attacks continued on the Tokyo subway where several cyanide bombs were planted, although none of them actually detonated.

The trials of the different Aum Shinrikyo detainees began in 1996. Asahara was charged with twenty-three counts of murder. Charges against the other Aum Shinrikyo members ranged from murder, attempted murder, detaining people against their will, the manufacture of lethal drugs and a whole catalogue of less serious misdemeanors. A few of those in the dock gave full confessions in the hope that their sentences would be reduced. Other members, including Shoku Asahara, steadfastly pleaded not guilty. On October 8, 1998, the court sentenced Kazuaki Okazaki to death for the murder of the lawyer, Tsutsumi Sakamoto, his wife and child, as well as the murder of another cult member who had wanted to leave the sect in 1989.

Incredibly, it took a further eight years before Shoku Asahara was also handed a death sentence, after being found guilty of the murder of twenty-seven cult members. The sentence was handed down on February 27, 2004, with the presiding judge, Shoji Ogawa, stating that:

The crimes were cruel and inhuman, and his [Asahara's] responsibility as the mastermind behind all the cases is extremely grave. He deserves the maximum punishment. He had dreams of being delivered from earth's bonds and attempted to rule Japan as a king under the pretext of salvaging people. He had a selfish dogma of killing those who he thought were obstructing his bid, and armed his cult. He threw people in Japan and overseas into terror. It was an unprecedentedly brutal and serious crime.
²

Asahara showed little emotion as the death sentence was passed, perhaps feeling safe in the knowledge that his legal team would launch an immediate appeal. Many have been reticent about expressing any opinion on the Aum Shinrikyo atrocities, even those directly affected by the organization's activities. There is still grave concern about the kind of repercussions that members of the group could inflict. On hearing of Asahara's sentence, Shizue Takahashi, the widow of a railway worker killed in the sarin subway attack, made the simple comment; ‘It was good to hear the death sentence that I had been hoping for.'
³

On going to press, Asahara's death sentence has still to be carried out.

In Nuremberg at that time something was taking place that I personally considered a disgrace and an unfortunate lesson for the future of humanity. I became certain that the Argentine people also considered the Nuremberg process a disgrace, unworthy of the victors, who behaved as if they hadn't been victorious. Now we realize that they [the Allies] deserved to lose the war. During my government I often delivered speeches against Nuremberg, which is an outrage history will not forgive.

From the private tapes of J
UAN
D
OMINGO
P
ERÓN
, President of Argentina, 1946–55

A
t the end of World War II and for decades afterwards, historians and researchers debated the existence of a secret society formed primarily for the rescue of Nazi war criminals. Stories abounded of crates packed with Nazi gold either being smuggled out of Germany and deposited in numbered Swiss bank accounts, or arriving on the shores of Patagonia where they were driven off to secret locations. Other stories revolved around Hitler living out his last days in southern Argentina surrounded by loyal followers. Films were made (notably
The Night Porter
in 1973, starring Dirk Bogarde), documentaries shown, articles written together with many books (including Frederick Forsyth's hugely popular novel,
The Odessa File
and Ira Levin's
The Boys from Brazil
), all pointing to the fact that such an organization did indeed exist. The name Odessa (which stands for
Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen
– Organization of Former Members of the SS) consequently passed into popular consciousness. But was such a society ever formed and if so by whom and with what aims?