October 18, 1947 - Luc Jouret
A trained physician turned charismatic occultist, Jouret used his credibility and considerable skill as a public speaker to draw followers into the Order of the Solar Temple — a group whose inner workings would culminate in a series of mass deaths across Switzerland, Quebec, and France in 1994 and 1995, killing over seventy people. The transition from medical practice to apocalyptic cult leadership, channeled through lectures on homeopathy and New Age spirituality, gave him access to educated, middle-class recruits who might not otherwise have been susceptible to such influence.
From Wikipedia
Luc Georges Marc Jean Jouret (18 October 1947 – 5 October 1994) was a Belgian doctor and homeopath. Jouret founded the Order of the Solar Temple (OTS) with Joseph Di Mambro in 1984. He committed suicide in the Swiss village of Salvan on 5 October 1994 as part of a mass murder–suicide. While Di Mambro was the true leader of the group, Jouret was its outward image and primary recruiter.
Born in the Belgian Congo, Jouret received his doctorate in medicine from the Université libre de Bruxelles in 1974. After suffering a serious illness, Jouret lost faith in modern medicine; he began practicing homeopathy and other kinds of alternative medicine. He also served for some time in the Belgian Army and participated in the Battle of Kolwezi. He was known as an excellent public speaker, and gave lectures on alternative medicine alongside New Age topics.
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