CT 'Chief apostle' of religious cult, Paul Sweetman, killed in 2004, ID'd; charges filed

[lemmon714]

'Chief Apostle' Of Infamous Religious Cult Was Killed In 2004, Body Parts Scattered Across New Britain, Court Records Reveal

The self-proclaimed “chief apostle” of an infamous religious cult that attracted hundreds of followers in central Connecticut during the 1980s and ’90s was killed in a power struggle in 2004 and his body parts scattered across New Britain, court records released Wednesday reveal.

Paul Sweetman once told state lawmakers considering legalizing same-sex civil unions that they risked the wrath of “Julius Christ,” a reference to the sect’s leader, Julius Schacknow, who was known as Brother Julius, described at the time as a Connecticut cult leader who parlayed his claims to divinity into a multimillion-dollar real estate empire that crumbled in the late 1980s.

Details of what authorities believe happened to Sweetman are in an arrest affidavit for Rudy Hannon, 72, who was charged by New Britain police Tuesday with murder in Sweetman’s death. On Wednesday, New Britain police also charged a Burlington man, Sorek Minery, with killing Sweetman. Minery, 42, is being held in lieu of $2 million bail after his arraignment Wednesday in Superior Court in Bristol. Both men face charges of murder and felony murder.
​

A Cult, A Killing And “Brother Julius”: What You Should Know About The Murder Of Paul Sweetman

articles above, Hartford Courant; summary below, Washington Post

A severed leg led police to a Connecticut cult’s ‘chief apostle’ who went missing 14 years ago

 

[Jennifer17]

This was a Christian organisation?

 

[lemmon714]

This was a Christian organisation?

Well...not quite quite, with a head honcho called (ahem) Julius Christ.

 

[bluesneakers]

This was a Christian organisation?

I don't think so. A warped view of Christianity - as FLDS is to LDS or the Branch Davidians were to Seventh Day Adventists.


From 1993:
Connecticut Cult Leader One Of Many 'Messiahs'

He said he was born in 1924 in Brooklyn, N.Y., into a poor Jewish family. He had no religious training, never went to college and "knew nothing of God" until 1946, when he was a sailor in the Navy.

In a "living vision," he said, he "was taken up into Heaven," where God told him: "You are a very special predestined chosen vessel to help me close the world and your generation of evil."

God said, "When you return to earth, read nothing but the Holy Bible for five full years . . . All things will be made known to you," he recalled.

In a later vision, he said God told him, "You are my son, the Lord . . . There's never been another."

He subsequently found his true identity in the scriptures, Schacknow said, citing chapter and verse showing that God would be made flesh, that Jesus only fulfilled part of Messiah's mission, and that he would come again at the end of the world.

"Think of how it feels to be me," he said. He had come to earth as Jesus and now he's back again, but despite all his teachings humankind is still doing the same old things -- "cheating, stealing, lying and sodomizing," he said.
...
"It's one of the most abusive cults I've seen," said Lorna Goldberg, a social worker running a support group for former members of several cults, who has counseled about a half dozen ex-followers of Brother Julius. She added that small cults like this one are also "the most dangerous, because there are fewer layers of people between the leader and his followers."

 

[MaryG12]

Do I remember the Shacknow case. Feels like only yesterday I read about it in The Hartford Courant.

http://maryhaberstroh.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/HartfordCourant_Nov_15_1987-a.pdf

http://maryhaberstroh.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/HartfordCourant_Nov_15_1987-b.pdf

Nothing Christian about his cult. No sir.

 

[MaryG12]

The Sweetman murder, reminds me of the murders associated with the Rhoda Wakeman/Wakemanites case from 1855, also in CT. That story also made national news, I think, due to the gruesomeness of the murders.

http://maryhaberstroh.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/HartfordCourant_Dec_27_1855.pdf

 

[lemmon714]

Well...not quite quite, with a head honcho called (ahem) Julius Christ.

For Holy Communion the Host might have inclued Orange Julius Christ. Then the wafer.