In 1920s Los Angeles, the mother-daughter duo of May Otis Blackburn and Ruth Wieland ran a female-dominated religious cult. The Blackburn Cult, as it was called in the newspapers of the time, came to the attention of the LAPD after a fraud investigation. But following the clues soon led to revelations of far worse offenses than simple fraud. Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodcastDarkness Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/agable_fd/ Part of the Straight Up Strange Network: https://www.straightupstrange.com/ Opening music from https://filmmusic.io. "Dark Child" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com). License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Closing music by Soma. SOURCES Oregon Daily Journal, August 5, 1917. “Body of Cult Priestess Discovered Under House.” Los Angeles Times, October 7, 1929. “Police Probing Weird Burial by Cult.” Los Angeles Evening Post-Record, October 7, 1929. “Priestess Snubs Ex-Swain.” Los Angeles Times, October 8, 1929. “Rhoads is ...