Bioterror attack haunts town

Associated Press

THE DALLES, Ore. — In 1984, followers of the Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh spiked salad bars at 10 restaurants in town with salmonella and sickened about 750 people.

The cult members had hoped to incapacitate so many voters that their own candidates in the county elections would win. The scheme failed, but the episode spread fear in The Dalles and drained the town’s economy.

Seventeen years later, there are lots of things this quiet town would like to be known for — its lush cherry groves, its renovated downtown and its grand views of the sweeping Columbia River, among them. But not its role as the site of the first bioterrorism attack in modern U.S. history.

Some townspeople are bothered that the story is being retold as the news media cover the national anthrax scare.

"We didn’t ever expect it to raise its ugly head again, and it’s not good," said Karen LeBreton, a food-poisoning victim who was Wasco County deputy clerk at the time. "For us, in small-town America, it was overwhelming."

The Dalles, a town of 12,000 people about 80 miles east of Portland, is suffering badly in the weak national economy, said Susan Huntington, Chamber of Commerce director. The closing of two aluminum factories and a downturn in the cherry market have cost 700 jobs in the past year, she said.

The renewed publicity about the 1984 poisonings "doesn’t exactly make people want to pack up their families and move here," Huntington said.

There was little national attention given to the salmonella poisonings in the years immediately afterward, largely because it occurred in a remote town and was perpetrated by a fanatical fringe group, said Gary Perlstein, a Portland State University professor and terrorism expert.

"They assumed that it would never happen again," said Perlstein, who wrote about the poisonings in his 1991 book "Perspectives on Terrorism."

A brand-new book on bioterrorism, "Germs: Biological Weapons and America’s Secret War," devotes an entire chapter to the outbreak.

The current nationwide anthrax scare is bringing back memories of the twisted plot that led to the 1984 salmonella poisonings in The Dalles.

"We lived with that fear on a daily basis," said Sue Proffitt, who was Wasco County clerk in 1984 and was among those who fell ill. "We understand in The Dalles how bioterrorism can happen."

Daniel Durow, the city development director, will never forget the panic that swept through The Dalles nearly two decades ago.

"I could sit here and tell you stories for three days and you wouldn’t believe any of them — but they’re all true," he said. "We often wondered why it all had to happen to us, such an incredible thing."

The buffet poisonings were part of an elaborate conspiracy by followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh to monopolize local politics.

Beginning in 1981, Rajneesh assembled nearly 7,000 followers on a 100-square-mile ranch south of town. The cult members incorporated their commune as a city, created an intimidating police force, stockpiled weapons and took over the city council of nearby Antelope in an election.

The red-clad cult members — including 3,000 homeless people bused in from around the country — registered to vote in Wasco County.

By September 1984, the cult was plotting to win two of three Wasco County judgeships and the sheriff’s office in a November election by incapacitating non-Rajneeshee voters.

Later testimony from cult members revealed they had planned to contaminate The Dalles’ water supply so Rajneeshees could prevail at the polls. The salad bar contamination was a "test" of the salmonella germs’ capabilities.

During the months following the outbreak, many residents feared cult members would try to spread the AIDS virus or poison the town’s water supply.

"People were so horrified and so scared," said Laura Bentley, who coordinated a secret group to oppose the Rajneeshees. "People wouldn’t go out, they wouldn’t go out alone. People were becoming prisoners."

It would be more than a year after the outbreak before the cult fell apart and its members began to talk to federal investigators, but residents suspected a plot and turned out in record numbers to vote in the targeted election.

Under intense government scrutiny and increasing division among its members, the cult unraveled in 1985. Some cult leaders became prosecution witnesses in a federal plea agreement.

In 1986, two leading cult members pleaded no contest to the salmonella poisoning, among other things, and served four years in prison. They then fled to Europe before prosecutors could pursue further charges.

The cult’s leader, Rajneesh, was fined $400,000 for immigration fraud and died in India in 1990.

More than 20 other cult members were indicted on charges ranging from immigration violations to concocting a plot — never carried out — to murder a federal prosecutor.

The Rajneeshees are gone, but not forgotten.

A bronze statue of an antelope stands before the Wasco County Courthouse in The Dalles, a gift from the residents of Antelope and a reminder of their shared turmoil. A plaque reads: "In order for evil to prevail, good men should do nothing."

"That’s kind of our ongoing message — that you can’t just stand by," said Huntington, the chamber director. "We certainly survived it, and I think the nation also needs to hear that. I’m really proud of that. It’s a great American message."