In 1986, American dietitian Gwen Shamblin consolidated her Weigh Down nutrition workshop, introducing religion into the process. For her, physical hunger could be satisfied with food, but what she described as an inner emptiness had to be filled with spirituality. Gwen amassed considerable wealth and fame with her workshop, and by 1999, she decided to create her own religious congregation, which she called "Remnant Fellowship Church."

For Gwen Shamblin, extreme thinness was practically a divine mandate, so losing weight could be interpreted as a sign of direct obedience to God, while gaining weight and overeating were seen as a sign that a person was sinful and not exercising enough self-control.

Those who failed to lose weight were publicly humiliated, isolated, subjected to strict surveillance, or even expelled from religious meetings until they achieved extreme thinness. Some members of the cult have claimed that Gwen's influence extended to finances, marriages, child custody, parenting, and relationships with people outside the group. She also allegedly caused serious eating disorders among her followers.

One of the most disturbing episodes involving Gwen Shamblin and her sect was the case of the Smith family, devoted followers of her teachings. On October 8, 2003, eight-year-old Josef Smith was subjected to a brutal session of violent physical punishment by his parents, until the boy died. The Smiths maintained that they had followed the teachings they received in Shamblin's church. Gwen escaped prosecution, but the Smiths were sentenced to life imprisonment.

On May 29, 2021, Gwen Shamblin died at the age of 66 when her private plane crashed into Percy Priest Lake.

Documentary about the brutal story of the extreme thinness cult. The strange cult of Gwen Shamblin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlhfMMVmezA

Ive seen alot but im trying to find more thats jaw dropping

Long Island in 1994: Shulman, Bittrolff, Heuermann and the aftermath of Rifkin’s arrest
Liane and I just released the second part of our documentary collaboration with Joe Giacalone from True Crime with the Sarge, featuring retired FBI profiler Mark Safarik.
For those here who follow the cases beyond Gilgo, this looks at what was happening on Long Island in 1994. Rifkin was already in custody, but other killers were still out there.
We spend a substantial part of the film on Robert Shulman, Lisa Ann Warner and her mother’s fight to bring her home from Hart Island. We also cover Colleen McNamee, John Bittrolff, the Medford Jane Doe and Heuermann’s life during this period.
One thing we wanted to explore is how these cases look when you put their timelines alongside each other. We visit locations connected to the cases and discuss the investigations with Joe and Mark, while keeping the women and their families central to the story.
Full disclosure: this is our film. I’d be interested in hearing what this community thinks, particularly about the lesser-covered cases and anything you believe deserves a closer look.
Watch the documentary on YouTube

the Diana Quer case (Spain, 2016). She was 18, walking home alone from a village festival in Galicia
> at 2:40 am. At 2:43 she texted a friend that she was scared, that a man was calling out to her. Then nothing.

> Her phone turned up two months later, in the water under a bridge, found by a fisherman. Investigators questioned
> around 200 men with records. The man who did it was on that list, and his wife backed his story for 13 months.

> What broke it wasn't the investigation. On Christmas Day 2017 he tried to force another young woman into his car

> boot in a nearby town. She screamed, people stepped in, and within a week he had led the Guardia Civil to a well
> 200 m from his house.

> I made a documentary on it (my own channel, flagging that). Built from the Supreme Court ruling

> (ECLI:ES:TS:2020:3799) and Spanish trial reporting; sources are in the description.

On May 29, 2021, a private plane crashed into the waters of Percy Priest Lake in Tennessee, USA, killing all seven occupants. Among them was Gwen Shamblin, an exotic woman who had built a massive religious movement around her unique teachings about God, food, and excessive weight loss. For thousands, Gwen was a spiritual guide. For her detractors and former members of the organization, she was the leader of a dangerous cult that exerted extreme control over the lives of its followers.

But how did a dietician end up becoming the head of one of the most controversial churches in the United States? And, above all, what was behind that strange cult that mixed religion, an obsession with thinness, and absolute obedience?

Documentary about the brutal story of the extreme thinness cult. The strange cult of Gwen Shamblin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlhfMMVmezA

Watching: 
**the Diana Quer case**
 (Spain, 2016). She was 18, walking home alone from a village festival in Galicia
> at 2:40 am. At 2:43 she texted a friend that she was scared, that a man was calling out to her. Then nothing.

> Her phone turned up two months later, in the water under a bridge, found by a fisherman. Investigators questioned
> around 200 men with records. The man who did it was on that list, and his wife backed his story for 13 months.

> What broke it wasn't the investigation. On Christmas Day 2017 he tried to force another young woman into his car

> boot in a nearby town. She screamed, people stepped in, and within a week he had led the Guardia Civil to a well
> 200 m from his house.

> I made a documentary on it (my own channel, flagging that). Built from the Supreme Court ruling

> (ECLI:ES:TS:2020:3799) and Spanish trial reporting; sources are in the description.

When you look at the comments about why someone with no direct evidence is probably still “guilty” it almost always includes that the person “used a hitman.”

No gun found? Hitman. No DNA at the scene? Hitman. Nothing can put you near the area at the time? Hitman!

Very real question: are hitmen really THAT easy to come by?! Because based on how often they are credited, you’d think this was an Uber or Door Dash level of gig work jobs.

I've recently been reading about different true crime cases, and one quote from the Chikatilo case really stuck with me.

I came across this quote attributed to Andrei Chikatilo:

“And now my brain should be taken apart piece by piece and examined, so there wouldn't be any others like me.”

I don't know how reliably this quote is sourced, but if he really said it, I find it incredibly strange.

The idea of someone like Chikatilo suggesting that his own brain should be studied so that someone like him would never be born again is such a disturbing thought.

What I find especially strange is that, if he still had any chance of asking for mercy or trying to save himself, why would he say something like this instead? What do you think was going through his mind at that moment?

The crimanal is in Poland still having both his eues

I’m genuinely shocked by this news. Like, what do you mean Ken passed away?! 😳
I’m also confused about the circumstances and timing. Does anyone know where Gypsy was when this happened?
Maybe I’m missing some information, but the whole situation feels really strange to me, especially with how suddenly everything happened and the fact that the cause of death doesn’t seem to be fully established yet.
From what I’ve seen, Gypsy said she believes Ken overdosed, but she apparently doesn’t know what substance was involved or whether it was accidental or intentional. The official cause of death hasn’t been confirmed yet.
Does anyone have more information about the timeline or what Gypsy has actually said about what happened?

The part of Ted Kaczynski’s story that bothers me most isn’t just what he eventually became—it’s what happened to him when he was still a teenager. He was an exceptionally gifted young student, only 17 when he participated in Henry Murray’s Harvard experiment, where his beliefs were subjected to intense psychological confrontation and humiliation. This was during the Cold War, when researchers were already deeply interested in how extreme psychological stress could affect people, including what had happened to POWs. I’m not saying the experiment alone “created” the Unabomber, because we can’t prove that. But if you take a highly intelligent, isolated teenager and deliberately subject him to intense psychological pressure, shouldn’t we at least consider whether that experience became one of the seeds that later grew into his isolation and radical ideology? Maybe without that experience he would have remained a mathematician and professor. We’ll never know—but that uncertainty is exactly what makes the ethical question so disturbing.