Two cult members busted in grisly death of ‘chief apostle’
A self-described “chief apostle” of a religious cult was beaten to death and dismembered by two other members, who scattered his body parts across a Connecticut city – all at the behest of the leader’s wife.
Rudy Hannon and Sorek Minery were busted this week in the death of Paul Sweetman, 70, a high-ranking member of the cult known as “The Work,” which gained hundreds of followers in the 1980s and ‘90s, the Hartford Courant reported.
Sweetman once threatened Connecticut lawmakers who were considering legalizing same sex marriage with the wrath of “Julius Christ” — the cult’s leader Julius Schacknow.
An arrest warrant that was released Wednesday reveal disturbing details into Sweetman’s July 2004 murder, the grim result of a fight for control of the cult after Schacknow’s passing.
Sweetman’s wife Joanne ordered for him to be killed, according to the Courant, and Hannon spent months trying to convince Minery that Sweetman “needed to be killed because he was hurting his wife … and that God would have wanted them to kill Sweetman,” the warrant said.
Minery said he respected Joanne, who was known in the cult as “the holy spirit,” as a “high religious figure,” court papers said.
In statements to police, Hannon and Minery pointed the finger at each other, telling different accounts of what happened.
Minery told police he found Hannon standing over Sweetman’s body at a construction office in Southington and that he’d asked Minery for help in disposing the body. Hannon claimed, however, that it was Minery who beat Sweetman and believed he was still alive.
Both men agreed that they stuffed Sweetman’s body into a freezer — with Hannon saying heavy items were placed on top to prevent him from escaping — and then using an electric saw to hack off his body parts.
“Minery stated that he used an electric saw and dismembered the body while it was still in the freezer,” the warrant said. “Minery stated he remembers cutting off the head easily and cutting off both legs.”
Sweetman’s legs and head were buried in the woods near the New Britain reservoir, while his torso and arms were shoved into garbage bags and tossed into a hole under a shed, which was then covered in concrete, Minery told police.
The parts under shed were excavated in 2016 and testing showed the torso was Sweetman’s. Gold jewelry was also found – two rings, including one that was engraved with “Joanne.”
Part of one of the legs, likely dug up by a coyote, had turned up at the Shuttle Meadow Country Club golf course in August 2004, just weeks after Sweetman’s slaying.
His wife had filed a missing persons report for him then — which New Britain police was able to connect to the severed leg in 2016 by taking a DNA sample from his son in order to make the match.
It was then that police also learned that, in 2006, the FBI had interviewed Hannon who told them Minery killed Sweetman.
It’s unclear why that information didn’t make its way to local police.
Hannon, 72, was charged Tuesday in Sweetman’s death while Minery, 42, was nabbed Wednesday. Both are being held on $2 million bond.
Hannon had already been serving a prison sentence in Nevada for violating his probation in another case.
Joanne, who was previously married to Schacknow, died in 2011.
Schacknow gained a following in central Connecticut by styling himself as Jesus Christ reincarnated and then duped his followers into running a multi million-dollar real estate and construction business. The business — and cult — crumbled toward the end of the ’80s. |
2018/7/15 04:29
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2018/8/5 05:19
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