Monkey On A Stick - Murder, Madness, and the Hare Krishnas  Monkey On A Stick - Murder, Madness, and the Hare Krishnas

- MONKEY ON A STICK -
MURDER, MADNESS, AND THE HARE KRISHNAS

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MONKEY ON A STICKThe symbolic meaning of the title "MONKEY ON A STICK" becomes that of the impaled sinner, a symbolic warning used by Kirtanananda when a devotee was to be cast from the fold. It refers to the practice of Indian banana planters, who impale the carcass of a banana-thieving monkey on a stick and use it to warn other transgressors. In India, when a monkey is found on a banana plantation he is captured and impaled on a stick and the other end stuck in the ground on the outskirts of the plantation as a warning to all other monkeys not to enter, so in short it means to make an example out of someone. Jadurani was "Monkey on a Stick" number one. Sulocana (Steve Bryant) was "Monkey on a Stick" number two.

"They fell upon Jadurani and severely beat her, kicking her in the face and not stopping until she was literally drenched in blood. Then, they attempted to take her bloody sari to hang on a post as a warning to anyone else who would "dare to blaspheme Kirtanananda."-- When ex-Krishna devotee Sulocana (Steve Bryant) launched a one-man holy war against the West Virgina Krishna cult, his body was found murdered. It was Kirtanananda's response to make Bryant a "monkey on a stick", a gruesome warning to all other Krishna's that death was in store for those with dreams of defection.

The Story of Jadurani

Jadurani, Judy Koslofsky, an art student in New York City in the mid-sixties, was the first brahmacharini (unmarried female) to join the movement. She was living in the Los Angeles temple and working as an illustrator for the BBT when Prabhupada died and the gurus took over. Like most devotees she was convinced that, since Krishna had appointed the new gurus through Prabhupada, they were infallible.

One of Prabhupada’s disciples who had become disaffected since his death changed her mind about that. He read her transcripts of the tapes that were made when Prabhupada was on his deathbed and named his successors and explained the difference between a rtvik guru and an acharya.

Jadurani was enraged. The gurus were bogus; they had stolen Prabhupada’s movement. She began preaching revolution, telling Los Angeles devotees that ISKCON’s only hope was to excommunicate the gurus. Ramesvara quickly sent her into exile. She took a bus to Pittsburgh and joined up with Yuvati’s mother, who was also trying to ignite an insurrection against the gurus. Jadurani went on welfare and started banging out pamphlets calling for a revolution to overthrow the gurus.

When Kirtanananda heard Jadurani was in Pittsburgh, he called and asked her to come down to New Vrindaban to paint some pictures for the Palace of Gold. Jadurani arrived and immediately began preaching revolution. She told devotees that Kirtanananda was bogus and that anyone who accepted him as Prabhupada’s successor was a fool. Two female devotees, Parayani and Isani, ran to Kirtanananda and told him what Jadurani was saying.

“We think she should be beaten,” Parayani said. “We think she should be made an example of what happens to someone who blasphemes a pure devotee.”

“Sounds like a good idea, but I don’t want to hear about it,” Kirtanananda replied.
The two women went to Kanka, Susan Hebel, and asked her to help them beat up Jadurani.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Hebel said, “Jadurani’s a tweety bird, she’s no threat to anyone.”
“She must be taught a lesson,” Isani had said.

The next day the two women attacked Jadurani without warning behind the Temple of Understanding and knocked her down. They kicked her in the head, shattering her glasses. Then they jumped on her chest and beat her in the face with their fists.
Steven Hebel was walking past the temple when he heard screams. He ran around to the back and saw that two women were beating Jadurani, an old friend since their days together in the New York temple. He rushed over and pulled off the attackers. Blood was pouring down Jadurani’s face, blinding her. Hebel was wiping the blood away with his sleeve when the two women once again attacked.
Hebel fought them off.
“We want her sari!” Isani screamed. “Tear it off her and give it to us!”
“What the hell do you want with that?” Hebel asked. He looked at Jadurani and saw that her sari was streaked with blood and grime.
“We want to run it up the flagpole,” Parayani said.
“We want to show people what happens when you speak against Kirtanananda!”

- Monkey On A Stick -
Murder, Madness, and the Hare Krishnas

by John Hubner and Lindsey Gruson, published in 1989, tells the tale of the time period in the mid-to-late eighties, after the death of Prabhupada, when eleven Western "gurus" ruled the International Society for Krishna Consciousness empire, giving them power over hundreds of thousands of individuals. The book recounts in its first chapter a chilling murder completed at the direction of Kirtanananda, the head of the West Virginia temple called New Vrindaban. (Killing Sparks Federal Probe of Krishna Sect)

Kirtanananda was a New York homosexual named Keith Ham who dropped out of the Columbia grad school religious department to become an early devotee of Prabhupada. His gay partner Howard Wheeler joined at the same time, and also rose high in the Krishna hierarchy, availing himself of the pedophile pleasures of operating a temple in Ensenada, Mexico near the flesh markets of Tijuana. Kirtanananda shielded a teacher who publicly sodomized many young Krishna children from prosecution, shipping him to India as the police were closing in with an arrest warrant. Kirtanananda collected millions from drug dealing and money laundering, and directed rings of scam-operators who solicited donations in the name of Vietnam veterans, hungry children, etc. -- virtually anyone but Krishna. The official name for the platoons of urban change-scavengers was "sankirtan groups," but they were colloquially referred to as "scam-kirtan." Armies of young women, bullied by cynical pimpish fellows, wrang innumerable dollars from the pocketbooks of tired Americans, meeting a usual quota of $300 a day, or getting a beating to cover the difference. These young women were also often sexual playthings for the heterosexual appetites of the more plebeian devotees who went for that sort of thing.

Kirtanananda, who thought himself very witty, was unquestionably a woman-hater. He counseled men to beat their wives like their prayer drums, to improve them, and despised audiences with women devotees, describing the occasion as "fish night," when extra incense had to be burned to counter the odor of women. According to the authors, the entire Krishna empire became a haven for homosexuals with a lust for power after Prabhupada, disenchanted with the 80% divorce-rate that afflicted the numerous marriages between devotees that he had arranged by edict, decided that only sannyasins, (male) "renunciates," could take leadership positions in the organization. While celibacy was enjoined upon sannyasins, staying in the closet was no problem for these skirt-wearing, chanting, dancing worshippers of Vishnu. Kirtanananda was reportedly inseparable from a young boy called Samba, who sat at his side at all times, and with whom he often slept.

The greed and prissy arrogance of a guy like Kirtanananda is understandable. He's like Leona Helmsley playing the Pope. The little people sometimes get hurt when God goes about His business. So there's a shallow grave here or there on the property. Big deal. The temple roof is leafed with gold and the floors are pure marble. It overawes with splendor, lifting the mind to God. Lots of people have felt very peaceful and divine there. It is a substantial achievement, and he gets a kick out of it.

What's hard to understand is his followers. The horrifying murder of Chuck St. Denis that's described in the first chapter was carried out under Kirtanananda's express direction, in order to make an example of him, like impaling "a monkey on a stick" to frighten other monkeys. This last was apparently a reference to one of Prabhupada's quaint little Indian sayings. The frightening thing is that it worked. Everyone in New Vrindaban knew that St. Denis had been killed, by whom, and that Kirtanananda approved it. No one dared to speak out because the murderer lived right there in New Vrindaban, and was under the express protection of Kirtanananda. The local West Virginia police had been undermined by Kirtanananda's financial influence and the murderer wasn't prosecuted until he murdered a second young man, Steve Bryant, in LA, again at Kirtanananda's direction. The ensuing flap resulted in a prosecution for the murder of St. Denis, and the killer, Tom Drescher, was convicted and is serving a life sentence in prison. Even in his cell, however, Drescher has been elevated by his service to Krishna as a destroyer of unbelievers. In a special ceremony conducted by Kirtanananda, he was given authority to initiate prisoners in the Hare Krishna path. He has followers already.

Kirtanananda got his reaction when a deranged devotee bashed in his skull with a three-foot steel rod. He lived, but barely and ever after walked with a cane, suffering headaches and double vision. Even in his debilitated state, however, he was still able to direct the murder of Steve Bryant, the New Vrindaban exile who considered it his mission from Krishna to expose Kirtanananda's abuses, and had been publishing the embarrassing truth.

Chuck St. Denis, as you can read in the chapter below, did not die easy. Two gunmen pumped twelve .22 caliber rounds into him. He was stabbed repeatedly in the chest with a kitchen knife and a screwdriver. As the life fled from him he howled like a dog. His cranium was fractured with a hammer. He opened his eyes and spoke to his killers after they were sure he was finally dead. His killers buried him under a stream, which is probably a good way to make a spirit unquiet, if such a thing can be done. His cries, which vanished into the West Virginia night, unheard by anyone who chose to care or help, were never silenced. They kept people up at night, caused rage to burn in the hearts of the injured, and destroyed the sleep of the idiot mice-like devotees who hid themselves in the warm darkness of oblivion, chanting and surrendering their souls to Krishna.

Chuck St. Denis screamed and screamed and screamed until finally the cops found his body, dug it up, and put the horror to rest. Or so they say ...

Not since Helter Skelter or In Cold Blood has there
been such a terrifying story about multiple horrors

"Shoot him!" Drescher screamed at Reid. "Shoot him!"
St. Denis was hit twelve times. He crumpled and went down. But then, almost immediately, as Reid and Drescher watched in amazement, he struggled back onto his feet and half staggered, half ran back down the path toward the Blazer.
Drescher dropped his gun, ran after St. Denis, and dove into him, hitting him behind the knees. The big man went down. Drescher rolled him over and climbed onto his heaving chest.
"Get a knife!" Drescher yelled at Reid.
Reid felt like he was going to vomit. For an instant he thought about running away, but he was afraid if he did, Drescher would come after him and kill him, too. He ran into the cabin and came out with a kitchen knife.
"Chant!" Drescher was screaming. "Start chanting!"
Drescher thought he was doing St. Denis one last favor. Krishna had preached, "Those who remember me at the time of death will come to me. Do not doubt this." By forcing St. Denis to chant, Drescher thought he was guaranteeing him a more spiritual life in his next incarnation.
Drescher grabbed the knife and stabbed St. Denis. Again and again. Hard and deep. Finally, the blade hit a rib and snapped.
St. Denis fought on, shrieking in agony, coughing blood, and gasping for breath. Reid found a hammer and Drescher hit him with that, punching a one-inch hole in his skull. St. Denis went limp.
Drescher and Reid dragged St. Denis down the logging road to the dammed-up stream. They dumped the body on the swampy ground. Reid picked up one end of a plastic sheet, about to wrap St. Denis's head in it, when the big man opened his eyes.
"Don't do that, you'll smother me," he said.
Reid screamed—a long, piercing scream of pure terror.....

THE ISKCON KILLERS WHO MURDERED SULOCANA

Upon my death, that’s when everything will unfold. When I die, then everyone will see.

“Upon my death, that’s when everything will unfold.
When I die, then everyone will see.“
Sulochan’s lifeless body at the LA Morgue (May 22, 1986).

***

THE ISKCON KILLERS WHO MURDERED SULOCANA
(From The Book: “Killing for Krishna“)

Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada

Kirtanananda: “If Tirtha [Thomas Drescher – the one who shot Sulochana] takes the whole thing, and no other boys get caught, then he’ll go back to Godhead at the end of this lifetime.”—“His Divine Grace” Kirtanananda Swami “Bhaktipada” (Keith Gordon Ham), the ISKCON zonal acharya at New Vrindaban, known as “Number One.”

Here on his vyasasana (throne) at the newly-dedicated RVC temple at New Vrindaban. Publicity photo (1983). In May 1990, a federal grand jury indicted Mr. Bhaktipada on six counts of mail fraud, including using the mail to send followers the counterfeit souvenirs they were to sell, and five counts of racketeering, as well as murder charges of two devotees.

Kirtanananda pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges that included conspiracy to commit the murders-for-hire of two devotees: Charles St. Denis, killed in 1983, and Steve Bryant, killed in 1986. He was sentenced to 20 years, later reduced to 12. Bhaktipada, who was released from prison in 2004 after serving eight years of a 12-year sentence, moved to India in 2008. He died on Monday in a hospital in Thane (near Mumbai), Maharashtra, India 24 October 2011. He was 74.

Hayagriva - Howard Wheeler

Hayagriva: “This guy [Sulochan] is getting out of control. It would be nice if someone would silence him once and for all.”— Hayagriva (Howard Wheeler), Keith Ham’s college roomate, lover, best friend, and co-founder of New Vrindaban. Here with his life-long buddy at a Labor Day Festival at New Vrindaban (September 1984).

Kuladri - Arthur Villa

Kuladri: “We have to finish this thing. As long as that guy [Sulochan] is walking around, he’s a threat to Bhaktipada. He won’t be thinking anyone’s after him out in California. At least no one from New Vrindaban. If something happens out there, there won’t be as much heat on us. In time the whole thing will blow over. If everything runs smoothly, they won’t be able to prove anything.”— Kuladri (Arthur Villa), New Vrindaban’s temple president, known as “Number Two.” Here officiating as a priest at a New Vrindaban fire sacrifice (1984).

Tapahpunja Swami - Terry Sheldon

When asked if he had been “involved with the killing of Sulochan,” Tapahpunja Swami boasted, “I engineered it. It was completely Vedic. He offended Bhaktipada.”— His Holiness Tapahpunja Swami (Terry Sheldon), the president of Cleveland ISKCON, at New Vrindaban (undated).

Tirtha - Thomas A. Drescher

Tirtha: “That son of a bitch [Sulochan] is . . . going to have to be killed, and I am the one that is going to do it.”— Tirtha (Thomas Arthur Drescher), New Vrindaban’s chief “enforcer” and hit man, in court (undated).

Tirtha was Radhanath’s paid assassin. For the murder of Sulocana he received 80’000 US Dollars. He said he placed the sticker, which said “Are we having fun yet?” on the van of Stephen Bryant (Sulocana das) before tracking him down in 1986 in Los Angeles, where he shot Sulocana twice in the head. Drescher testified he carried out the assassination at the wish of his spiritual leader, Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada (Keith Ham). – A judge sentenced convicted Hare Krishna hit man Thomas Arthur Drescher to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 1986 slaying of a critic of the sect. Drescher will serve the sentence consecutively with a life sentence he is already serving in West Virginia for another murder conviction. If Drescher is ever released from West Virginia prison, he will serve the remainder of his sentence in Los Angeles.

Janmastami - John Sinkowski

Janmastami: “Even if Kirtanananda Swami had . . . full sex with ten thousand children, he’s still the guru of the universe, and if you don’t accept that, you’re going to hell.”— Janmastami (John Sinkowski), Tirtha’s partner in crime, chanting japa on the sidewalk in the front of the RVC temple (September 1991).

Russell 'Randall' Clark Gorby

“Gorby was more fired up to destroy Sulochan than any of the devotees.” Russell “Randall” Clark Gorby, retired steel worker, longtime “friend” of New Vrindaban, vocal advocate for the murder of Sulochan, and government informant (undated). Gorby, who helped the Krishnas purchase their West Virginia property, supposedly??? committed suicide last summer on the same day he was to be questioned by federal authorities in West Virginia about the Bryant murder and shortly before he was due in Los Angeles for Drescher’s first trial. Gorby was found killed in his pickup truck in July of 1990 with a gunshot wound to his head. Looks like he wouldn’t make it to testify against Kirtanananda in the big trial. His death is very suspicious.

Radhanath Swami - Richard Slavin

Radhanath: “What was I supposed to do under those circumstances? We were convinced that Bhaktipada was a pure devotee and that Sulochan was determined to murder him, so we thought we were obligated to stop some demon from killing a pure devotee by any means possible.”— His Holiness Radhanath Swami (Richard Slavin), “gentle and humble” sannyasi dearly loved by the Brijabasis (undated). The Relationship Between Tirtha (Sulocana’s murderer) and Radhanatha Swami.

Dharmatma - Dennis Gorrick

Dharmatma: “Radhanath Swami won’t like all this coming out. Too bad. I had to be responsible for my transgressions [and go to prison]. He should do the same.”— Dharmatma (Dennis Gorrick), Director of New Vrindaban’s multi-million dollar “Scam-Kirtan” panhandling operation. Image from Brijabasi Spirit (January-February 1977).

Ramesvara - Robert Grant

Ramesvara: “He [Sulochan] should be transmigrated to his next body.”— “His Divine Grace” Ramesvara Maharaja (Robert Grant), the ISKCON zonal acharya for Southern California and head of the North American BBT, during a rare visit to New Vrindaban. Photo from Brijabasi Spirit (summer 1985).

Krishna-Katha - Jeffrey Breier

Krishna-Katha: “My guru, Ramesvara, said: ‘K. K., if you ever see Sulochan, call New Vrindaban.’ And because I heard that Sulochan may frequent the area, I kept an eye out for his vehicle.”— Krishna-Katha (Jeffrey Breier), head of security at Los Angeles ISKCON and Tirtha’s assistant. Breier helped hunt down Sulochan and was with Tirtha until moments before the murder. Some say he witnessed the murder. (Undated Linkedin photo, c. 2010)

Malati - Melanie Nagel

Malati [Melanie Nagel] – malati dasi – malati swami secretary and director of ISKCON WV trustee of ISKCON NMV charter member of the “swami mommies” club, columbus safe house for females fearful of NV living conditions, knows of Radhanath’s ordering the sulochan whacking, one of the first of Kirtanananda swamis’s female sanyassis, “all HIV pos, take sannyas first!”, “katie bar the door!”. she opposes “child abuse” and “paying for it”, fighting extinction tenaciously.

ISKCON’s Malati Implicates Herself in the Murder Conspiracy — Tirtha Das had been sentenced to life with no possibility of parole. His only chance for being released is if

Malati (Melanie Nagel) can convince the State Governor to pardon him, and that is what she has been working on for many years. But let us ask ourselves the real relevant question: Why would Malati be intimately involved in canvassing for a murderer’s release from prison unless she was involved in the conspiracy to murder Sulochana. http://krishna1008.blogspot.com/2019/11/iskcons-malati-implicates-herself-in.html. Devotees chanting outside Tirtha’s prison to get him released.

Malati writes: “The person who was charged with and admitted to the murders of Steve Bryant and St. Denis is Thomas Drescher, aka Tirtha das, who is in prison for life. Therein lies an interesting story, should anyone care to know. But, to make a long story short, this person has undergone a deeply profound recitification and transformation. So much so that the chief prosecutor against him, Michael Stein from the District Attorney’s office, feels that he is worthy of a pardon. He contacted me recently and in that conversation stated that he has rarely, almost never, witnessed a change in the character of a convicted felon, but he has seen this in the case of Thomas Drescher, who he refers to by his initiated name, Tirtha das. On his end, Mr. Drescher has become a sober humble person, accepting the results of his awful deeds (double life sentence w/o possible parole) as a befitting indication of Krishna’s mercy on him.” — Malati Dasi, letter to Giri-nayaka Das, December 26 2006.

Sulocana: “They are constantly watching me. I know some morning I will go to sleep and not wake up.”— Sulochan (undated) – Sulocana (Steven Bryant), 33, was shot twice in the head (by Tirtha, Thomas Drescher) at close range as he sat in his parked van near the Krishna temple in the Palms area of Los Angeles.

Triyogi: “I felt I had to either kill myself, kill Bhaktipada, or leave.”—Triyogi (Michael Shockman), the mentally disturbed visiting devotee who tried to kill Bhaktipada on October 27, 1985, by smashing his skull with a three-foot-long steel rod reported to weigh twenty pounds. Here at the Marshall County Jail in Moundsville, West Virginia (undated). Triyogi dasa bashed in the head of Kirtanananda with a heavy pipe, enraged by the realization that the exclusive eleven paramahamsas were never appointed ‘to be gurus’ by Srila Prabhupada; his anger was compounded by the fact that Kirtanananda was currently an active homosexual pedophile presenting himself as a ‘guru’.

Kirtanananda: “Every doctor that I talked to said it [the blow on my head] was enough to kill a hundred men. When I was attacked, Krishna absolutely incarnated to protect me. The brain scan, the X-ray, taken just after the accident, showed an unmistakable image of [the half-man/half-lion avatar] Lord Nrsimhadeva [the Great Protector of the devotees]. Krishna incarnated to protect me from the blows of that man.” — Swami Bhaktipada, speaking of the MRI image of a cross section of his brain, which, when turned upside down, resembles a ghastly face.

Kirtanananda: “The assailant [Triyogi] was a crazy madman . . . who had been influenced by Sulochan.”—Bhaktipada, ambulating with great difficulty using a walker, in the temple room at his home (December 4, 1985). He had been ten days in a coma, three weeks on the critical list, and 26 days in the hospital.

Sulocana: “Upon my death, that’s when everything will unfold. When I die, then everyone will see.” Sulochan’s lifeless body at the Los Angeles morgue (May 22, 1986).

Srila Prabhupada: “These rogues [so-called acharyas] are the most dangerous elements in human society. . . . These pseudo-religionists are heading toward the most obnoxious place in the universe [hell] after completion of their spiritual master business, which they conduct simply for sense gratification.”— His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977), the Founder/Acharya of ISKCON. Photo taken during his fourth and final visit to New Vrindaban (June 1976).

“By a false display of religious sentiments, they present a show of devotional service while indulging in all sorts of immoral activities. In this way, they pass as spiritual masters and devotees of God. Such violators of religious principles have no respect for the authoritative acharyas, the holy teachers in the strict disciplic succession. . . To mislead the people in general, they themselves become so-called acharyas, but they do not even follow the principles of the acharyas.

Because there is no religious government, they escape punishment by the law of the state. They cannot, however, escape the law of the Supreme, who has clearly declared in the Bhagavad-gita that envious demons in the garb of religious propagandists shall be thrown into the darkest regions of hell (Bg. 16.19-20). Sri Isopanisad confirms that these pseudo religionists are heading toward the most obnoxious place in the universe after the completion of their spiritual master business, which they conduct simply for sense gratification.” (Sri Isopanisad, Mantra 12, purport (emphases added)

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