PORTLAND, Ore. – Bringing a bizarre chapter in Oregon’s history to a close, a disciple of the Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh pleaded guilty to conspiring to kill the United States Attorney for Oregon, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday.
Catherine Jane Stubbs, known as Ma Shanti Bhadra, joins six other followers who earlier pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of Charles Turner.
Beginning in 1981, Rajneesh, a holy man from the Indian city of Pune, assembled a commune of some 7,000 adherents on a 100-square-mile ranch in Antelope, Ore.
The commune members plotted to take over the local county government in 1984, spiking local salad bars with salmonella in an effort to incapacitate non-Rajneeshee voters. The action sickened some 750 people.
A year later, the Bhagwan’s inner circle conspired to kill Turner, after the attorney was appointed to head a federal grand jury investigation of the commune.
Stubbs and six other disciples were indicted in 1990. But Stubbs refused to leave Germany, where she is a naturalized citizen. In 1991, Germany declined an extradition request from the United States.
Last week, Stubbs voluntarily returned to Portland. Besides the charge of conspiracy to kill, Stubbs also pleaded guilty to buying weapons in violation of federal firearms law.
The court will allow Stubbs to visit Australia, where her son is sick with incurable brain cancer. Stubbs will be sentenced Dec. 6.
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