Latest news with #Jack"Ziz"Lasota
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Zizian leader Jack LaSota: Who is transgender, vegan cult head linked to border agent killing?
The apparent leader of a bizarre vegan transgender cult, the Zizians, has been linked to six killings across the country, including the murder of a Border Patrol agent. Jack "Ziz" Lasota, 34, was arrested Sunday along with Michelle Zajko, 33, and Daniel Blank, 26, Maryland State Police said Monday. They face multiple charges, including trespassing, obstructing and hindering, and possession of a handgun in a vehicle. LaSota was ordered held without bail on Tuesday at Allegany District Court in Cumberland, with prosecutors citing concerns that he was a flight risk and a danger to public safety. Prosecutors said LaSota "appears to be the leader of an extremist group known as 'Zizians' that has been linked to multiple killings." Manhunt Tied To 'Anarchist' Vegan Cult In Border Patrol Agent Killing: Report The fringe group was brought into the limelight after followers were tied to the killing of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland near the Canadian border in January. Read On The Fox News App LaSota's run-ins with law enforcement go back to at least 2022. Originally from Alaska, LaSota appeared to pen extremist ideologies in a since-archived blog titled "Sinceriously." LaSota also identified as transgender and used female pronouns, the Associated Press reported. In a February 2019 post titled "Punching Evil," LaSota is believed to have written that there would be "no moral obligation not to perform self-defense" if "the state has been seized by vampires." In a Nov. 19 post titled "Good Group and Pasek's Doom," LaSota wrote that each hemisphere can have separate values and even genders and that they "often desire to kill each other." "Reaching peace between hemispheres with conflicting interests is a tricky process of repeatedly reconstructing frames of game theory and decision theory in light of realizations of them having been strategically damaged by your headmate," LaSota wrote. LaSota also described being allegedly targeted by police for wearing Sith-inspired garb. Throughout the blog, LaSota regularly mentions enchantment with the Star Wars franchise. "Sometimes cops harass me for wearing my religious attire as a Sith," LaSota wrote. "(As a Sith, I'm religiously required to do whatever I want, and for now that so happens to include wearing black robes)." In September 2022, a brief obituary was published in LaSota's hometown paper, the Daily News-Miner, in Fairbanks, Alaska. The obituary said LaSota was killed in a "boating accident" on Aug. 19, 2022. "Loving adventure, friends and family, music, blueberries, biking, computer games and animals, you are missed," the obituary reads. Vermont Border Patrol Agent Allegedly Killed By German National Worked In Pentagon During 9/11: Family However, LaSota's death was short-lived when the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office informed LaSota's attorney that LaSota had been found "alive and well" at a crime scene on Nov. 13, 2022, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. It was not immediately clear why LaSota faked his death, leading even his parents to believe he was dead. The mystery deepened after his name was connected to a criminal investigation in California in 2022. LaSota's death was contradicted after his name popped up in a squatting incident in Vallejo, California. The incident unraveled when LaSota and other associates moved to a property in Vallejo belonging to an older California man, then-80-year-old Curt Lind. "They were unhappy with living on the tug," Lind told a documentary filmmaker, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. "They decided that they wanted to move to my yard and buy moving vans, small moving vans, and change them into places where they could live in the moving van and nobody would know that they're in there." During the November 2022 incident, Lind was attacked with a samurai sword when the squatting dispute reached a boiling point. "He had a samurai sword stuck to his back with about a foot of it sticking out in front, his face cut up all over," Lind's friend, Patrick McMillan, told FOX 2 San Francisco at the time of the incident. "The truth is, they jumped him," his son, Carl Lind, told the outlet. Lind, despite the stabbing, still managed to shoot two of his alleged attackers, killing one of them, Emma Borhanian. Prosecutors concluded that the landlord acted in self-defense. According to police reports, LaSota was handcuffed at gunpoint at the scene but was not charged. Lind's surviving the initial attack was short-lived, when, on Jan. 17, 2025, he was stabbed to death. Maximilian Snyder, 22, another "Ziz" member, was arrested and charged with his murder, according to court records obtained by FOX 13 Seattle. The outlet also reported that Snyder had applied for a marriage license with Teresa Youngblut, who is tied to the 2025 border agent killing. Richard and Rita Zajko were found dead from homicide from gunshot wounds in their Chester Heights, Pennsylvania, home on New Year's Eve. Police launched an investigation into the murder and began looking at their daughter, Jamie Zajko, another follower of LaSota. German National Suspect Identified In Deadly Shooting Of Us Border Patrol Agent In Vermont LaSota was brought into the conflict during a police investigation into the Zajko murders. Daniel Blank, also a "Zizian," and LaSota were found at a Pennsylvania hotel on Jan. 13, 2023. They were both arrested for "obstructing administration of law" and "disorderly conduct." LaSota was freed on bail in June 2023 and reportedly soon stopped showing up for court dates. LaSota was considered at large with an arrest warrant in Pennsylvania, where the case is still pending. The Maryland State Police confirmed to Fox News Digital that LaSota, Zajko and another person were arrested Sunday afternoon on a number of charges unrelated to the murder of Maland in Vermont, near the border with Canada. Transgender Vegan 'Cult' Members Arrested Police said that shortly after 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 16, LaSota was arrested and charged with trespassing, obstructing and hindering, and having a firearm in a vehicle in Frostburg, Maryland. Zajko was arrested on the same charges as well as resisting arrest and having a handgun. Zajko allegedly bought .40-caliber and .380-caliber handguns in February 2024 in Mount Tabor, Vermont, that were used in Maland's shooting, the Albany Times Union previously reported, citing court documents. Maland, a Minnesota native and Air Force veteran, worked as a Border Patrol agent at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Newport Station. He spent nine years in the military and 15 working for the federal government. It is unclear what brought members of the group to Vermont. German national Felix "Ophelia" Bauckholt and Youngblut exchanged gunfire with Maland near the Canada-Vermont border on Jan. 20 during a traffic stop. Bauckholt and Maland were killed. Youngblut was injured and faces criminal charges. The "Zizians" were created by LaSota, who goes by the nickname "Ziz." The group exhibits cult behavior, according to Dar Dixon, an actor and the podcast host of "The Art of Being Dar," who shared his cult expertise with Fox News Digital. "The thing that I noticed about this 'Zizian' cult is that it hits all the major points that will set somebody up to be involved in it. You've got transgender human beings, all right? You're dealing with sexuality. You're dealing with sexual identity, and you're dealing with sex. Anytime you do all those things, you've already got someone, as they say, by the tight and curlies," he said. "The second thing is they were on a restrictive diet. In this case, they were vegan," he said. "So when you start to mix in the sexual aspect, then with a restrictive diet, now what you're doing is behavior control." WATCH: Cult expert says 'Zizian' fringe group tied to killing of US border agent uses behavior control Referencing cult expert Steven Hassan's BITE Model of Authoritarian Control, Dixon discussed how cults emotionally control their members. "I'm sure there was a lot of sleep deprivation going on also, which affects your thoughts, which affects your emotions, which also affects your behavior and your ability to take in and process information," he said. "This is part of the emotional control. You're never allowed to feel your feelings or to discuss your feelings. If you don't step in line with the party line, you're immediately reprimanded, sometimes severely, either verbally or physically, or you're shunned." "So the culmination of sexual identity, food restriction, sleep restriction and emotional restriction, well, now I've got you," he said. "I own you. And I can take you any direction I want to take you now." Fox News Digital's Stepheny Price contributed to this article source: Zizian leader Jack LaSota: Who is transgender, vegan cult head linked to border agent killing?
Fox News
20-02-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Zizian leader Jack LaSota: Who is transgender, vegan cult head linked to border agent killing?
The apparent leader of a bizarre vegan transgender cult, the Zizians, has been linked to six killings across the country, including the murder of a Border Patrol agent. Jack "Ziz" Lasota, 34, was arrested Sunday along with Michelle Zajko, 33, and Daniel Blank, 26, Maryland State Police said Monday. They face multiple charges, including trespassing, obstructing and hindering, and possession of a handgun in a vehicle. LaSota was ordered held without bail on Tuesday at Allegany District Court in Cumberland, with prosecutors citing concerns that he was a flight risk and a danger to public safety. Prosecutors said LaSota "appears to be the leader of an extremist group known as 'Zizians' that has been linked to multiple killings." The fringe group was brought into the limelight after followers were tied to the killing of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland near the Canadian border in January. LaSota's run-ins with law enforcement go back to at least 2022. Originally from Alaska, LaSota appeared to pen extremist ideologies in a since-archived blog titled "Sinceriously." LaSota also identified as transgender and used female pronouns, the Associated Press reported. In a February 2019 post titled "Punching Evil," LaSota is believed to have written that there would be "no moral obligation not to perform self-defense" if "the state has been seized by vampires." In a Nov. 19 post titled "Good Group and Pasek's Doom," LaSota wrote that each hemisphere can have separate values and even genders and that they "often desire to kill each other." "Reaching peace between hemispheres with conflicting interests is a tricky process of repeatedly reconstructing frames of game theory and decision theory in light of realizations of them having been strategically damaged by your headmate," LaSota wrote. LaSota also described being allegedly targeted by police for wearing Sith-inspired garb. Throughout the blog, LaSota regularly mentions enchantment with the Star Wars franchise. "Sometimes cops harass me for wearing my religious attire as a Sith," LaSota wrote. "(As a Sith, I'm religiously required to do whatever I want, and for now that so happens to include wearing black robes)." In September 2022, a brief obituary was published in LaSota's hometown paper, the Daily News-Miner, in Fairbanks, Alaska. The obituary said LaSota was killed in a "boating accident" on Aug. 19, 2022. "Loving adventure, friends and family, music, blueberries, biking, computer games and animals, you are missed," the obituary reads. However, LaSota's death was short-lived when the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office informed LaSota's attorney that LaSota had been found "alive and well" at a crime scene on Nov. 13, 2022, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. It was not immediately clear why LaSota faked his death, leading even his parents to believe he was dead. The mystery deepened after his name was connected to a criminal investigation in California in 2022. LaSota's death was contradicted after his name popped up in a squatting incident in Vallejo, California. The incident unraveled when LaSota and other associates moved to a property in Vallejo belonging to an older California man, then-80-year-old Curt Lind. "They were unhappy with living on the tug," Lind told a documentary filmmaker, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. "They decided that they wanted to move to my yard and buy moving vans, small moving vans, and change them into places where they could live in the moving van and nobody would know that they're in there." During the November 2022 incident, Lind was attacked with a samurai sword when the squatting dispute reached a boiling point. "He had a samurai sword stuck to his back with about a foot of it sticking out in front, his face cut up all over," Lind's friend, Patrick McMillan, told FOX 2 San Francisco at the time of the incident. "The truth is, they jumped him," his son, Carl Lind, told the outlet. Lind, despite the stabbing, still managed to shoot two of his alleged attackers, killing one of them, Emma Borhanian. Prosecutors concluded that the landlord acted in self-defense. According to police reports, LaSota was handcuffed at gunpoint at the scene but was not charged. Lind's surviving the initial attack was short-lived, when, on Jan. 17, 2025, he was stabbed to death. Maximilian Snyder, 22, another "Ziz" member, was arrested and charged with his murder, according to court records obtained by FOX 13 Seattle. The outlet also reported that Snyder had applied for a marriage license with Teresa Youngblut, who is tied to the 2025 border agent killing. Richard and Rita Zajko were found dead from homicide from gunshot wounds in their Chester Heights, Pennsylvania, home on New Year's Eve. Police launched an investigation into the murder and began looking at their daughter, Jamie Zajko, another follower of LaSota. LaSota was brought into the conflict during a police investigation into the Zajko murders. Daniel Blank, also a "Zizian," and LaSota were found at a Pennsylvania hotel on Jan. 13, 2023. They were both arrested for "obstructing administration of law" and "disorderly conduct." LaSota was freed on bail in June 2023 and reportedly soon stopped showing up for court dates. LaSota was considered at large with an arrest warrant in Pennsylvania, where the case is still pending. The Maryland State Police confirmed to Fox News Digital that LaSota, Zajko and another person were arrested Sunday afternoon on a number of charges unrelated to the murder of Maland in Vermont, near the border with Canada. Police said that shortly after 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 16, LaSota was arrested and charged with trespassing, obstructing and hindering, and having a firearm in a vehicle in Frostburg, Maryland. Zajko was arrested on the same charges as well as resisting arrest and having a handgun. Zajko allegedly bought .40-caliber and .380-caliber handguns in February 2024 in Mount Tabor, Vermont, that were used in Maland's shooting, the Albany Times Union previously reported, citing court documents. Maland, a Minnesota native and Air Force veteran, worked as a Border Patrol agent at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Newport Station. He spent nine years in the military and 15 working for the federal government. It is unclear what brought members of the group to Vermont. German national Felix "Ophelia" Bauckholt and Youngblut exchanged gunfire with Maland near the Canada-Vermont border on Jan. 20 during a traffic stop. Bauckholt and Maland were killed. Youngblut was injured and faces criminal charges. The "Zizians" were created by LaSota, who goes by the nickname "Ziz." The group exhibits cult behavior, according to Dar Dixon, an actor and the podcast host of "The Art of Being Dar," who shared his cult expertise with Fox News Digital. "The thing that I noticed about this 'Zizian' cult is that it hits all the major points that will set somebody up to be involved in it. You've got transgender human beings, all right? You're dealing with sexuality. You're dealing with sexual identity, and you're dealing with sex. Anytime you do all those things, you've already got someone, as they say, by the tight and curlies," he said. "The second thing is they were on a restrictive diet. In this case, they were vegan," he said. "So when you start to mix in the sexual aspect, then with a restrictive diet, now what you're doing is behavior control." WATCH: Cult expert says 'Zizian' fringe group tied to killing of US border agent uses behavior control Referencing cult expert Steven Hassan's BITE Model of Authoritarian Control, Dixon discussed how cults emotionally control their members. "I'm sure there was a lot of sleep deprivation going on also, which affects your thoughts, which affects your emotions, which also affects your behavior and your ability to take in and process information," he said. "This is part of the emotional control. You're never allowed to feel your feelings or to discuss your feelings. If you don't step in line with the party line, you're immediately reprimanded, sometimes severely, either verbally or physically, or you're shunned." "So the culmination of sexual identity, food restriction, sleep restriction and emotional restriction, well, now I've got you," he said. "I own you. And I can take you any direction I want to take you now."
USA Today
19-02-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Who are the Zizians, the cult-like group under FBI investigation?
The arrests of three people in Maryland has helped shed new light on a series of connected deaths across the country that experts say are tied to a group called the "Zizians." Named after their purported leader, Jack "Ziz" Lasota, 34, the group is connected to at least six deaths nationwide, according to police, interviews with people who know group members, the FBI and court records. Lasota was one of three armed people arrested Monday after trespassing in a rural area and then asking a landowner if they could live there in two box trucks. Lasota and one of the other people arrested Monday have been on the run for months, according to police. The unfolding details have drawn international attention and flashy headlines as authorities, court records and interviews have revealed a tangled web of relationships and shocking violence linked to a small group of highly educated vegan computer experts. "They're not all necessarily all connected in one overarching plan. It's not necessarily like a Manson Family type of plan," said Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow and policy adviser at the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism. "When you look at his writings, it's all about the mind and consciousness. He doesn't really seem interested in left-wing political issues the way most people would understand it." USA TODAY consulted several extremism experts, interviewed a person who knew several members of the group, and examined dozens of court filings from Vermont to Pennsylvania and California to understand the bigger picture. Who are the 'Zizians?' Experts and people who know them say the group is led by Lasota, who in online postings discussed the nature of consciousness and rational decision making. Many of the group members are vegan, and either have degrees in computer science or have studied related fields. Some members of the group are transgender, or have rejected binary sexuality. The group at one time was based in the San Francisco area, living in box trucks on a landlord's property. Members also appear to have lived in North Carolina and Vermont. Citing Lasota's online postings, Pitcavage said the group has elements of a religious cult. Britain's Daily Mail newspaper referred to Lasota as the "'Tech genius' leader of vegan trans cult." And the New York Post called the group a "radical leftist trans militant cult." Why were some Zizians arrested? Group members are charged with violent offenses in multiple states, at both the state and federal level. Authorities have not yet indicated any cohesive motive for the offenses, and experts consulted by USA TODAY said the online nature of the connections between the Zizians may make it hard to link the crimes definitively. Among those charged: ∎ Michelle Zajko, 32, who was arrested with a handgun alongside Lasota and another man in Maryland on Monday. Zajko faces state charges of trespassing, resisting or interfering with an arrest, obstruction and carrying a handgun. ATF agents are also pursuing federal charges against Zajko over allegations that she lied on purchasing paperwork for several guns bought in 2024 and which were later used by two other people in Vermont during a double-fatal shootout with U.S. Border Patrol agents. Zajko is also a "person of interest" in the Pennsylvania homicides of her parents in late 2022, according to court filings. ∎ Daniel Blank, 26, who faces Maryland charges of trespassing, obstruction and hindering in connection with his Monday arrest. He is also a suspect in the deaths of Zajko's parents, who were killed near where he grew up, Maryland court records show. Blank was reported missing in 2022, according to Pennsylvania State Police. ∎ Lasota faces Maryland charges of trespassing, obstruction and possession of a handgun in a vehicle. Court records in Vermont have also referred to him as a "person of interest" in the deaths of Zajko's parents. Lasota ‒ who may use female pronouns but is currently jailed as a man ‒ appeared to have faked his own death in April 2022, according to an obituary in his hometown Alaska newspaper. ∎ Teresa Youngblut, 21, accused by federal prosecutors of shooting at U.S. Border Patrol agent David Maland on Jan. 20 near the Canadian border in northern Vermont. Maland was killed in the exchange, as was a German national Youngblut was traveling with, Ophelia Bauckholt. Federal court filings indicate Zajko bought the guns Youngblut and Bauckholt were carrying. Youngblut is in federal custody. ∎ Max Snyder, 22, who late last year got a marriage license to wed Youngblut in Seattle, Washington, where they grew up. Snyder is accused by Solano County, Calif. prosecutors of ambushing and fatally stabbing a landlord who in December 2022 tried to evict Lasota and other group members from his Vallejo, Calif., property. The landlord shot two of the group members, killing one, in an incident ruled self defense by prosecutors. What motivates the Zizian group? Is it a cult? Many of the group members come from middle-class families and have studied computer science or related fields, according to Jessica Taylor, a California-based AI safety researcher who knew group members socially. Taylor briefly dated Bauckholt, the German national, who she said had worked for a Wall Street trading firm around 2022, specializing in using AI to enhance trading strategies. Pitcavage, the extremism expert, said online postings attributed to Lasota indicate an obsession with the mind, rational thinking and consciousness. Lasota and several other group members were arrested in 2019 while protesting a rationalist group meeting. Rationalists believe in using logic to make decisions and create rules, as opposed to historical precedent or emotion. "There's significant evidence that Jack Lasota is the person who is the idea engine for these people," said Pitcavage. The Maryland state public defender's office, which is representing Lasota, Blank and Zajko in the Maryland arrests, declined to comment Friday. Taylor said she worried that the group had become a "death cult" or a "murder gang" over their adherence to a moral code at odds with mainstream laws and behavior, including strict veganism and the belief that landlords are inherently corrupt. "You're talking about being willing to kill people who they think are bad," said Taylor, adding that she lost touch with Bauckholt in 2023. Poulomi Saha, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies the behavior of groups that mainstream Americans would consider cults, said groups like the Zizians are hard for many to understand. She said members "live" online, making it hard for the public or even law enforcement to track their shift from talk to action. She said it's not clear the Zizians are a cult, but acknowledged many people might consider them one. "The internet culture and the absolute immersion that's possible there means there are forms of connection that only appear only after the fact," said Saha, who has been following the cases. "We are kind of grasping for a story that makes sense of it … People on the outside can never fully know what's happening on the inside." As with similar groups, Saha said, she suspects the Zizians fell under the sway of a charismatic leader who persuaded followers to do things they ordinarily wouldn't do. In participating in those extreme acts, Saha said, people fall victim to a group psychology that both permits and encourages more extreme behavior. "The kind of violence of the accused crimes is really quite startling," she said. Is there an overall federal case against the Zizians? Although court records are replete with references to an ongoing FBI investigation, the FBI has so far declined to comment substantively on the Zizian group. Experts consulted by USA TODAY say this is the kind of case the FBI specializes in, because the incidents cross state lines, involve potentially illegally purchased firearms and included the death of a federal law enforcement officer.
