AMERICAN MURDER & MAYHEM
AMERICAN CULTS
AMERICAN ODDITIES MUSEUM
7:00 PM | ALTON, ILLINOIS
$24 PER PERSON (NO DINNER IS SERVED)
NEXT AVAILABLE DATE: MAY 15, 2027
Join author Troy Taylor for an eerie evening of true and uncensored accounts of the strangest and most horrific cults and sects from American history. It’s a frightening collection of American weirdness that reveals the darkest side of humanity and the depths to which innocent people can be led in the name of religion. This is a night that is not for the faint of heart — attend at your own risk!
ABOUT THE NIGHT
- Doors open at 6:30 PM
- Events held at the American Oddities Museum Located at 301 Piasa Street in Alton, Illinois
- American Hauntings Bookstore located in the Museum so books will be available for purchase and can be autographed by Troy Taylor
JOIN TROY TAYLOR ON THE FRINGES OF RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS, CULTS, STRANGE BELIEFS & AMERICAN MADNESS!
One man’s cult is another man’s religion. That’s often been said – but is it true? Despite the fact that every mainstream religion in America was considered a cult at one point in history, when does faith go too far? America’s past is filled with stories of cults that strike most of us as strange, bizarre, incomprehensible, and even insane, gathered together by madmen and would-be messiahs whose weird beliefs descended into a horrific and maniacal mixture of death, depravity, sex, murder, mayhem, and suicide? They are stories of religious zealotry in America that are often forgotten by history.
Join us for this special evening as we delve into America’s strangest cults and reveal accounts of snake handling, speaking in tongues, human and animal sacrifices, attempted resurrection of the dead, strange rituals, orgies, and attempts to bring on the apocalypse, along with the history of the Blackburn Cult, Jim Jones and the People’s Temple, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians, Heaven’s Gate, and much more!
This night will be a wild mix of American cults, true crime, and the supernatural, delving into a search for the divine that has, far too often, sent seekers in regrettable directions – and to places from which they never returned. Discover the larger-than-life characters from history and find out how the elaborate mythologies of America’s homegrown religions have taken us all to a place where horror co-exists with the highest of human aspirations!