The 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack was the food poisoning of 751 individuals in The Dalles, Oregon, US. A group of prominent followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh had hoped to incapacitate the voting population of the city so that their own candidates would win the 1984 Wasco County elections. The chosen biological agent was Salmonella enterica Typhimurium, which was first delivered through glasses of water to two County Commissioners and then, on a larger scale, at salad bars and in salad dressing. As a result of the attack, 751 people contracted salmonellosis, 45 of whom were hospitalized, but none died. The incident was the first and is the single largest biot
About 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack in brief
The 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack was the food poisoning of 751 individuals in The Dalles, Oregon, US. A group of prominent followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh had hoped to incapacitate the voting population of the city so that their own candidates would win the 1984 Wasco County elections. The chosen biological agent was Salmonella enterica Typhimurium, which was first delivered through glasses of water to two County Commissioners and then, on a larger scale, at salad bars and in salad dressing. As a result of the attack, 751 people contracted salmonellosis, 45 of whom were hospitalized, but none died. The incident was the first and is the single largest biot error attack in United States history. Two leading Rajneese officials were convicted on charges of attempted murder and served 29 months of 20-year sentences in a minimum-security federal prison. Approximately twelve people were involved in the plots to employ biological agents, and at least eleven wereinvolved in planning them. At least eight individuals helped spread the attack. The main planners of the plot included Sheela Silverman, Rajneeesh’s chief lieutenant, and Yvonne Onne, a nurse practitioner and secretary of the Rajneeeshee Medical Corporation. They purchased the bacteria from a medical supply company in Seattle, Washington, and cultured it in labs within the commune. The group also tried to introduce pathogens into the water system. If successful, they planned to use the same techniques closer to Election Day.
They did not carry out the second part of the plan when it became clear that those brought through the \”Share-a-Home\” program would not be allowed to vote. Two people were convicted of trying to assassinate a U.S. Attorney in 1985, and they served 29 months of 20 years in prison. The commune leadership planned to sicken and incapacitate voters in the town of The DAlles, where most of the voters resided, to sway the election. Their goal was to win two of three seats on the Wasco county commission, as well as the sheriff’s office. They had taken political control of the small nearby town of Antelope, Oregon, the name of which they changed to \”Rajneeshpuram” The group had started on friendly terms with the local population, but relations soon degraded because of land use conflicts and the communes’ dramatic expansion. After being denied building permits, the leadership sought to gain political control over the rest of the county by influencing the November 1984 county election. They attempted to register thousands of homeless people to vote to inflate the constituency of voters for the group’s candidates. The county clerk enforced a regulation that required all new voters to submit their qualifications when registering to vote, and the group tried to register them to register to vote in the same way as the homeless people. Two of the leaders were convicted in 1985 of attempting to kill a United States Attorney.
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