ABSTRACT
In the early hours of 5 October 1994, police were called to investigate a fire in a farmhouse on the outskirts of the small village of Cheiry, Switzerland, inside which fire fighters had discovered the body of a man lying on a bed. Searching outside, the police discovered a removable wall in a garage that led to a room which had been converted into a makeshift temple. The deaths, however, were not to end there. Over a year later, on the winter solstice, the bodies of a further 16 Solar Temple members, including three children, were found dead in a wooded area near Grenoble, France. Shortly after the first set of deaths, letters purporting to be from the Solar Temple were received by a number of journalists, scholars, and government officials. Aside from outlining aspects of the Solar Temple's beliefs, these "Testaments" or "transit letters" offered an insight into the motives behind the group's actions.
