Wife of Crime

In the 1980s, thousands of people followed a controversial Indian spiritual leader to a remote stretch of Oregon desert, hoping to build their version of utopia. What followed was a story involving sex, money, power, politics, thousands of devoted followers and eventually, the largest bioterrorism attack in U.S. history! But before any of that could happen, they had to build their new world. In Part 1 of the Rajneesh Movement, we’re going back to where it all began... the man at the center of it, the people who followed him, and how a dream in the Oregon desert became very, very real. ** SHOUT OUT to Myrtle for help with research on this episode it was a doozy!!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1931, the body of Vivian Gordon was discovered in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. She had been beaten, strangled, and left behind without her expensive fur, jewelry, or purse. But Vivian was not the kind of victim true crime usually knows what to do with. She was a former chorus girl, convicted prostitute, blackmailer, loan shark, and a woman with connections to some of New York’s most notorious gangsters. She had made plenty of enemies. But just days before her murder, Vivian was preparing to tell investigators that a corrupt New York City system had framed her years earlier and destroyed her life in the process. What started as the murder of one complicated woman would soon expose a much bigger world of crooked cops, powerful politicians, gangsters, Tammany Hall, and corruption reaching through New York City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices