She pleaded guilty to setting fire to a county office and wire-tapping at the commune. Sheela pleaded guilty on 22 July 1986 to first-degree assault and conspiracy to commit assault against Hulse and later to second-degree assault and conspiracy to commit assault against Matthew. The Oregon Attorney General prosecuted for crimes related to the poisoning of Commissioner Matthew and Judge Hulse while the US Attorney prosecuted crimes related to the restaurant poisonings. She was extradited to the US in February on charges of immigration fraud and attempted murder. It lists no other author on its title page its editor is given as "Academy of Rajneeshism." Īfter US authorities searching her home found wire-tapping networks and a laboratory in which the bacteria used in the attack had been grown, Sheela was arrested in West Germany in October 1985. The book, published in 1983, included edited excerpts from Rajneesh's lectures. Subsequently, Sheela's robes and 5,000 copies of the Book of Rajneeshism were burned in a bonfire at the ashram. A few days later Rajneesh "accused her of arson, wiretapping, attempted murder, and mass poisonings." He also asserted that Sheela had written the book titled Rajneeshism and published it under his name. On September 13, 1985, Sheela fled to Europe. She had salmonella put into salad bars at ten restaurants in The Dalles, Oregon about 750 people became ill with salmonella poisoning. Later, when the local election board rejected the voter registrations, Sheela conspired to use "bacteria and other methods to make people ill" and prevent them from voting. She had hundreds of homeless people bused into the ashram, and she had them registered as voters in Wasco County. Sheela attempted to have both Rajneeshee candidates for the two open seats on the Wasco County Board of Commissioners win the November election. Main article: 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attackīy 1984, the ashram was coming into increasing conflict with local residents and the Wasco County Board of Commissioners. According to Sheela, Rajneesh was complicit in and directed her involvement in criminal acts she and a group of Rajneeshees committed later. She was appointed the president of Rajneesh Foundation International, managed the commune and met daily with Rajneesh to discuss business matters. In July 1981, Rajneesh Foundation International purchased the 64,000-acre (260 km 2) Big Muddy Ranch in Wasco County, Oregon, which became the site for the development of the Rajneeshpuram commune. In the same year, she convinced Rajneesh to leave India and establish an ashram in the United States. In 1981, Rajneesh appointed her as his personal assistant. After her husband died, Sheela married a fellow Rajneesh follower, John Shelfer. They became disciples of the Indian guru Rajneesh and Sheela took the name Ma Anand Sheela.
She returned to India in 1972 to pursue spiritual studies with her husband. Sheela married Marc Harris Silverman, an American from Highland Park, Illinois, and took the name Sheela P. At age 18, she moved to the United States and attended Montclair State College in New Jersey.
Sheela was born Sheela Ambalal Patel in 1949 at Baroda, in Gujarat State, India, the youngest of six children of the Gujarati couple Ambalal and Maniben Patel. In 1999, she was convicted by a Swiss court of "criminal acts preparatory to the commission of murder" in relation to a plot to kill US federal prosecutor Charles Turner in 1985.ĭavid Berry Knapp, aka Swami Krishna Deva, former mayor of Rajneeshpuram, told the FBI in his testimony that “Sheela told him during a trip to India which they took in 1985, that she had injected her first husband with an injection that caused his death.” After prison, Sheela married Urs Birnstiel, a Swiss citizen, who died of AIDS shortly after their marriage. Sheela later moved to Switzerland, where she married, and purchased two nursing homes. She was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison and paroled after 29 months. In 1986, she pleaded guilty to attempted murder and assault for her role in the 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack. In 1986, she pleaded guilty to attempted murder and assault for her role in the 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack.Īs the secretary of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh from 1981 through 1985, she managed the Rajneeshpuram ashram in Wasco County, Oregon, United States. Ma Anand Sheela (born 28 December 1949 as Sheela Ambalal Patel in India, also known as Sheela Birnstiel and Sheela Silverman) is an Indian-born Swiss woman who was the spokesperson of the Rajneesh movement (aka Osho movement). Personal Secretary to Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
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