Joseph Di Mambro

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Joseph Di Mambro
Di Mambro at Brisbane Airport, 1993
Born
Joseph Léonce Di Mambro

(1924-08-19)19 August 1924
Pont-Saint-Esprit, Occitania, France
Died5 October 1994(1994-10-05) (aged 70)
Salvan, Switzerland
Cause of deathSuicide
OrganizationOrder of the Solar Temple
Children5

Joseph Léonce "Jo" Di Mambro (19 August 1924 – 5 October 1994) was a French cult leader and convicted conman who founded and lead the Order of the Solar Temple with Luc Jouret. Di Mambro had been associated with a variety of esoteric groups before founding OTS. After the cult began to face increasing public and legal pressures, he died in a mass suicide with other cult members in October 1994. While Jouret was considered by the public to be the figurehead of the group, Di Mambro was the true head of the organization.

Early life[edit]

Joseph Léonce Di Mambro was born 19 August 1924 in Pont-Saint-Esprit, a town in the Gard department of France, the oldest of three siblings. His father was an Italian immigrant, and Di Mambro was often bullied for his ethnic background.[1][2] He later stated his sister was decapitated after she stuck her head out of a train window, an incident which he described later in life with joy. His family was not particularly religious.[3]

Possibly in an effort to avoid forced labor and being moved to Germany during the occupation of France, Di Mambro married on 11 March 1944, having a single child in the relationship. His friends stated that the occupation made him secretive and distrustful of others.[3] After a friend's family's house was raided by German officials and burnt to the ground for collaborating with the French Resistance, Di Mambro's house was also searched, but his family was spared by the Germans due to the fact he played the violin, as the German officer was a musician. After the war he was part of an orchestra.[4]

Di Mambro was then known to be interested in spiritualism.[4] From the age of sixteen on, he gained an apprenticeship as a jeweler and watchmaker.[2] He opened a jewelry store, where he fixed watches and surrounded himself with luxury goods, noted to be obsessed with appearances. After the war, his business began to do badly, and Di Mambro instead decided to make a living as a medium.[4]

Esotericism and convictions[edit]

Starting in the 1950s, Di Mambro became involved in esoteric groups. He attended an AMORC meeting in 1955, which was then one of the most active groups, and became affiliated with them.[5] He became convinced that he was a "great spirit" from the ancient past.[6] Soon after, he learned of the Knights Templar, and became fascinated.[7]

In 1966, he was divorced from his first wife, and married again soon after.[8] The next year, he met Albert Boiron, a technician. In short order, Di Mambro convinced him to join him in the jewellery business, and they began to work together out of Di Mambro's apartment. Di Mambro introduced Boiron to spiritualism, which Boiron became very interested in. After working together for a few years, Di Mambro suggested they move their workshop to the basement, and Boiron agreed; however, soon after this move, Di Mambro disappeared, along with all of Boiron's gold, jewels, and jewellery. Boiron hired a lawyer in an effort to track him down, but was unsuccessful, and never saw Di Mambro again. Di Mambro was in Tel Aviv with his wife and their two children, with his wife expecting their third child, as he believed that his child being born in Israel would grant it an "exceptional" destiny.[a] Their child, Élie, was born in February 1969 in Tel Aviv.[8]

Believing that his past actions had been forgotten, Di Mambro moved back to Pont-Saint-Esprit in 1972, and acted as a psychologist. Soon after, he was sentenced to six months in prison for writing bad checks, breaching patient trust, and for impersonating a psychiatrist. Di Mambro approached members of the Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem (OSMTJ), a white supremacist Templar order that met in Geneva.[9][2]

The Solar Temple[edit]

Main article: Order of the Solar Temple

Di Mambro founded in 1973 the Centre for the Preparation of the New Age in Collonges-sous-Salève.[10][11] Two years later, a Geneva-based community known as the Brotherhood of the Pyramid, or alternatively La Pyramide,[12] began meeting regularly in a house in the Geneva countryside, for community, discussion and mutual support on topics such as diet and spirituality.[13] A fire occurred in 1979, which has been suggested to have possibly been an insurance scam by Di Mambro.[2] Orchestral conductor Michel Tabachnik attended, enjoyed the atmosphere, and became a member, where in 1977, he met Di Mambro, who suggested he take over the community and structure it. The following year, the two men created the Golden Way Foundation, of which Tabachnik became president.[14][15][16] Di Mambro also set up the Amenta society to disseminate the ideologies of the Golden Way Foundation and recruit new members.[10] Di Mambro was perceived by Foundation members as a medium, a "walk-in" being (a being who takes on the body of another).[14]

After Luc Jouret gave a number of lectures in which he defended the existence of a link between a spiritual approach and homeopathy, Di Mambro decided to meet him.[14] At the same time, Di Mambro became involved with the Renovated Order of the Temple (French: Ordre rénové du Temple, ORT), a revival of Ordo Templi Orientis that had been created by former Rosicrucians in 1968. In 1983, after the death of Julien Origas, leader of the ORT, Di Mambro urged Jouret to take over the order, and he became its new Grand Master the same year, before he was expelled by Origas's daughter.[17] Luc Jouret's appointment immediately triggered a split within the Renovated Order of the Temple, giving rise to the International Chivalric Order of the Solar Tradition, of which he became head.[18]

In 1982, Di Mambro announced that a "great mission" awaited the foundation. He also announced that a "child-king" was to be born into the community.[14] Di Mambro soon had the idea that Dominique Bellaton, a young drug-addicted woman who had been hunted by pimps who joined the order at her parents' request, was the surrogate mother of the "cosmic child". A ceremony in the order's crypt, organized with special effects, helped to confirm to the members the supernatural powers of "theogamic conception" without sexual intercourse, when in fact Dominique was Di Mambro's mistress and had been pregnant for several weeks.[19] Their child, Emmanuelle, was born on March 21, 1982.[20] Di Mambro variously claimed to be a reincarnation of Osiris, Akhenaten, Moses, and the Italian occultist Cagliostro. He required Emmanuelle to wear gloves and a helmet to protect her purity as the "cosmic child", who he considered the "messiah-avatar" of the planet's new age. He pretended to receive his orders as the leader of the group from mysterious "masters". Di Mambro ordered his followers in their personal lives, particularly the OTS practice of "cosmic coupling", which forced apart married couples and put them with other members, which he claimed as the will of the "Cosmic Masters".[21]

In 1984, the Golden Way Foundation and the International Chivalric Order of the Solar Tradition merged to form the Order of the Solar Temple. Luc Jouret was the lecturer and recruiter, and became the Grand Master, although the organization's true head and master of finance was Di Mambro.[22] The Solar Temple wedded the Templars tradition to the New Age, part of a Neo-Templar tradition that claimed to descend from a lineage of grand masters that claimed to go back to the medieval Order of the Temple that was suppressed at the beginning of the fourteenth century, an idea which French historian Régine Pernoud called "totally insane".[23][24] The temple offered a program of personal spiritual progress through the practice of occult disciplines and rituals that invoked the power of the Great White Brotherhood to bring forth the New Age.[25]

Mass suicide and death[edit]

As early as 1986, OTS member Antonio Dutoit spoke of the leaders' megalomania, deceit and embezzlement. He denounced the behavior of Joseph Di Mambro, who was leading a lifestyle contrary to his teachings. He also accused the leaders of staging magic tricks during ceremonies. Later, Di Mambro's son, Élie, revealed his father's shady financial dealings. In the light of this information, some members and several donors, demanded partial reimbursement of the funds they had committed, even though this money was diverted to invest in fictitious companies, owned by or for the founders, who often used the money for personal luxuries.[26][27] Joseph Di Mambro promised to return the sums requested, but several OTS members resigned in quick succession. The villa in Saconnex-d'Arve was sold and Di Mambro kept only the most devoted members, who were very close to him. The other members were no longer truly aware of OTS meetings and events.[citation needed]

In the 1990s, Jouret, having given up his profession as a homeopath to devote himself fully to the OTS, began lecturing on personal development at various companies, universities and banks in several countries. Di Mambro, who had a dim view of these lectures, began sabotaging Jouret, who eventually abandoned his activities and became totally dependent on Di Mambro.[28] Di Mambro, faced with increasing criticism from members, decided to modify his teachings and preach a transit to another planet. In the spring of 1994, he summoned all OTS members and followers, and explained that the Temple's mission was coming to an end and that OTS leaders would disappear on the star Sirius. The remaining members would have to continue their work.[citation needed] The leaders began to monitor members who said they wanted to leave the OTS. Some were spied on, others had their phones tapped. Many members, including Di Mambro's own son and many high-ranking members, left.[12]

On September 30, 1994, Dominique Bellaton lured the couple Antonio Dutoit and Suzanne Robinson, along with their 2-month-old baby Christopher-Emmanuel, to Di Mambro's chalet at 199 Chemin Belisle in Morin-Heights. Di Mambro regarded the baby as the Antichrist, because his own daughter was named Emmanuelle and he had not been consulted in the naming of the infant. He ordered the infant to be eliminated by two knights of the sect, Jerry Genoud and Joël Egger, to prevent his reappearance. Di Mambro believed that the Antichrist was born into the order to prevent him from succeeding in his spiritual aim.[29][30]

On the night of October 4 to 5, 1994, two fires broke out in Switzerland: one at around 11:55 p.m. at the "La Rochette" farm in Cheiry, and another in three chalets at in Salvan. When the fire department arrived, they found 23 people dead in Cheiry and 25 in Salvan.[31] Many bodies were burned beyond recognition, and Jouret and Di Mambro's bodies had to be identified via dental records.[32] Di Mambro, in addition to his wife and child, were also among the dead.[33]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ He later claimed to members of the OTS that the reason he had been in Israel was that he had been asked by the Chief Rabbi to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem for pay, claiming that he refused, as he was "not [...] interested in money".[8]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Bédat, Bouleau & Nicolas 1997, p. 26
  2. ^ a b c d Lewis 2005, p. 301
  3. ^ a b Bédat, Bouleau & Nicolas 1997, pp. 27–28
  4. ^ a b c Bédat, Bouleau & Nicolas 1997, pp. 29–30
  5. ^ Bédat, Bouleau & Nicolas 1997, pp. 30–31
  6. ^ Bédat, Bouleau & Nicolas 1997, p. 33
  7. ^ Bédat, Bouleau & Nicolas 1997, p. 34
  8. ^ a b c Bédat, Bouleau & Nicolas 1997, pp. 35–36
  9. ^ Bédat, Bouleau & Nicolas 1997, p. 37
  10. ^ a b Michaud 1996, p. 32
  11. ^ Bogdan 2014, p. 288
  12. ^ a b Bogdan 2014, p. 289
  13. ^ Droux, Antoine; Tinguely, Marion (8 February 2023). "La série "La Fraternité" offre un "regard neuf" sur l'horreur de l'Ordre du Temple solaire" [The "Brotherhood" series offers a "fresh look" at the horror of the Order of the Solar Temple]. Radio Télévision Suisse (in Swiss French). Retrieved 10 February 2023.
  14. ^ a b c d Haught 1995, p. 31
  15. ^ "L'Ordre du Temple Solaire" [The Order of the Solar Temple]. La Croix (in French). 17 April 2001. ISSN 0242-6056. Archived from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 6 September 2011.
  16. ^ Pueyo, Serge (25 October 2006). "Ordre du Temple solaire : les larmes de Tabachnik" [Order of the Solar Temple: Tabachnik's tears]. Le Figaro (in French). Archived from the original on 9 November 2006. Retrieved 6 September 2011.
  17. ^ Palmer 1996, p. 305
  18. ^ Mayeur, Hilaire & Chantin 2001
  19. ^ Pivois, Marc (19 April 2001). "De l'épée volante à l'enfant cosmique" [From the flying sword to the cosmic child.]. Libération (in French). Archived from the original on 28 February 2014. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  20. ^ Introvigne 2006, p. 46
  21. ^ Lewis 2005, p. 302
  22. ^ Marhic 1996, p. 276
  23. ^ Introvigne 2006, p. 19-20
  24. ^ Champion 1997, pp. 91–92
  25. ^ Chryssides 2006, p. 119
  26. ^ Laske, Karl (29 December 1995). "Les comptes à découvert du Temple solaire. Supposée richissime, la secte frôlerait la déroute financière, selon la police suisse" [The Solar Temple's overdrawn accounts. Supposedly wealthy, the sect is on the verge of financial collapse, according to Swiss police]. Libération (in French). Archived from the original on 2 November 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
  27. ^ Gaetner, Gilles (27 March 1997). "Les secrets du Temple solaire" [The secrets of the Solar Temple]. L'Express (in French). Archived from the original on 10 November 2008. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
  28. ^ Morath, Pierre; Lemasson, Eric (8 February 2023). La Fraternité. Episode 2 (in Swiss French). Radio Télévision Suisse.
  29. ^ Farnsworth, Clyde H. (20 November 1994). "Quebec Police Say Baby Was Target of Cult". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  30. ^ Moran 1999
  31. ^ Tenoux, Jean-Pierre (15 August 2006). "Hécatombe à la secte" [Massacre at the sect]. Le Monde (in French). Retrieved 30 September 2023.
  32. ^ Serrill, Michael S. (24 October 1994). "Remains of the Day". TIME. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  33. ^ "Swiss Police Identify Cult Leader's Body; Cause of Death Unknown". Los Angeles Times. 14 October 1994. Retrieved 16 June 2009.

Reports[edit]

  • Michaud, Roger C. (20 June 1996). Rapport d'investigation du Coroner [Coroner's investigation report] (PDF) (Report) (in Canadian French). Gouvernement du Québec: Bureau du Coroner. Retrieved 6 February 2023 – via infosect.freeshell.org.

Bibliography[edit]

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