These US properties are linked to the most notorious cults

Pull up the streaming service of your choice, and you’re pretty much guaranteed to be offered a docuseries about one of America’s notorious cults.

It’s no secret that we have an insatiable appetite for these stories that provide so much fodder for next-day conversations with coworkers (“How could such smart people get in so deep?”). So it just makes sense that we’d also be eager to peek inside the real estate these fringe groups used as home bases. After all, cults typically need a place to be, well, cult-y.

And what does that look like, exactly?

Some of the creepiest cults have taken over properties in the most unexpected places—sometimes right next door. And although many of these factions are long gone, their ties to the real estate remain.

Following a report from the New York Post that land with ties to a past cult is available in Southern California, we looked around the country at some of the most fabled spots where cults once staked claim on real estate, land, or homes.

They’re not all on the market. But they all have fascinating stories worthy of a closer look.

SoCal ranch with cult ties

This rural property in Southern California hit the market in February and comes with some eerie history.

The 12-acre parcel sits right next door to Spahn Ranch, once used to film TV shows and Westerns such as “Bonanza” and “The Lone Ranger.” It later became home to cult leader Charles Manson and his followers.

Spahn Ranch was a 55-acre property in Los Angeles County purchased by George Spahn in the 1950s. By 1968, when he was in his 80s and going blind, he allowed Manson and his followers to live on the property in exchange for daily chores. The buildings on the historic ranch burned down in 1970, and the ranch is now part of the Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park.

The property adjacent to Spahn Ranch is the one on the market: It’s billed as a “Xanadu” that for 75 years has been “a well-kept secret, shrouded in mystery.”

Offered for $4.8 million, the land in West Hills, CA, includes some structures as well as some natural wonders, such as caves, where some of the Manson clan are said to have hid after the murders of multiple victims, including actress Sharon Tate.

Another bygone cult did reside on the land and called it the Fountain of the World. In the 1940s, a man called Krishna Venta started his own religion and declared himself to be Jesus Christ. In 1958, he was killed on the property in a suicide bombing by disgruntled followers. His cult eventually petered out in the 1970s.

San Francisco condo with Jim Jones connection

Before establishing Jonestown, iconic cult leader Jim Jones kept a more low-profile existence in a flat in San Francisco. According to SF Gate, a multiunit Victorian in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood once housed Jones.

The Indiana preacher had moved to City by the Bay and formed a new church called the People’s Temple, which attracted thousands of followers. But after disturbing abuse allegations surfaced, he moved his followers to Guyana.

In 1978, Jones tragically directed his followers in Guyana to drink cyanide-laced Kool-Aid, and over 900 men, women, and children died.

What’s next with NXIVM?

Many learned about the disturbing tales of the twisted sex cult NXIVM from the HBO documentary “The Vow.”

The supposed self-help program lured in actors and was overseen by leader Keith Raniere. Eventually, Raniere was convicted of multiple crimes and sentenced to 120 years in prison.

However, two of the properties used by the cult surfaced in upstate New York. One belonged to “Smallville” actress Allison Mack, who became involved in the cult. She later pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in association with sex trafficking tied to the cult. Mack served three years in prison and was released last July.

Her Halfmoon, NY, three-bedroom townhouse built in 1985 had been rented out for $1,800 a month, until the place was sold for $270,000 in 2022.

Another nearby townhouse, with ties to the cult, seems to have been in the process of a gut renovation when photographed. The home was last sold for $64,500 in 2018 and is now on the market for $148,000.

The listing notes that the two-bedroom, 1,200-square-foot residence presents a “great opportunity to transform this space into a home.”

And a transformation will be necessary: It’s apparently a place where Raniere reportedly had sex with a victim of sex trafficking.

Branch Davidian compound in Waco, TX

The site of this Waco, TX, landmark is calm these days. 30 years ago, it was anything but.

Known as the Mount Carmel Center, the property was a large group of buildings used by the Branch Davidian religious group led by proclaimed prophet David Koresh.

In February 28, 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms attempted to execute a search warrant of the compound, relating to allegations of sex abuse and illegal weapons—and arrest some of the Branch Davidians inside.

The agents were rebuffed, and a resulting firefight led to the deaths of four agents and six Branch Davidians. The compound remained under siege for 51 days. At the end of the siege on April 19, 1993, a fire started, killing 76 more Branch Davidians.

Three decades later, a chapel sits where the compound once stood. And 81 trees were planted to commemorate the dead (the one dedicated to Koresh was reportedly chopped down by its pastor, Charles Pace ). The land is still owned by the church, and Pace apparently continues to conduct sermons online.

Rajneesh ranch in rural Oregon

There are lots of practical uses for a ranch, and cults seem to agree!

Here’s yet another property that came under the sway of a cult leader in the 1980s. According to the Oregon Encyclopedia, a 64,000-acre ranch, known as Muddy Ranch, in Wasco County was sold to an Indian spiritual leader in 1981 when he decided to relocate to Oregon.

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh attracted followers from India, the U.S., and Europe—some 7,000 of them, to what quickly became a new village in the rural locale of north central Oregon.

As evidence mounted that the planned community was actually a cult, the nearby town of Antelope, OR, began to raise red flags about their new neighbors and argued that the Rajneeshees were violating the intended agricultural use of the ranch.

Eventually, the cult leaders, accused of various crimes, fled the country in 1985.

Since 1991, a Christian youth camp called Young Life has used the facilities for a ranch, summer camp, and church retreat space during the year.

For the curious, a piece of property adjacent to Muddy Ranch is on the market. Available for $2,375,000, the 4,354-acre parcel is pending sale, so you’ll have to act fast. It boasts rolling terrain with views of the John Day River Canyon and is frequented by wildlife such as Rocky Mountain elk, mule deer, and turkey.

Heaven’s Gate house near San Diego

The images are both sad and bizarre. In 1997, a group of 39 people were found dead in a home in Rancho Santa Fe, CA. They were part of a “suicide cult” known as Heaven’s Gate and wore matching Nike sneakers and were covered in shrouds.

The cult had a mix of beliefs that combined “evangelical Christianity, New Age practices and UFOs.” A leader named “Do” aka Marshall Applewhite helmed the group.

“They were in uniform, they were apparently into Star Trek, they were all wearing Nikes—it all seemed too bizarre to believe,” said Benjamin Zeller, author of “Heaven’s Gate: America’s UFO Religion.”

The followers had an apocalyptic vision and believed a spaceship would be hiding behind the tail of the Hale-Bopp comet, but were convinced they needed to shed their human forms (through death) in order to transform to an alien being.

The mansion where the deaths occurred has since been bulldozed. The property built in its place has a completely new address to lessen the stigma associated with its past.

Built in 2006, the Mediterranean-style estate spans nearly 10,000 square feet and includes a theater, gym, paneled library, wine cellar, five bedroom suites, and a detached guesthouse.

The 3-acre grounds include an outdoor living room and kitchen and a pool with a swim-up bar. It was last sold in 2010 for $4.6 million.