Bernie Hoffman's dream was to strike it rich as a Hollywood star when God called on him to preach the gospel; changing his name to Tony Alamo, he started a popular Hollywood ministry, TV and radio programs together with his wife Susan.

General Deborah Green and her husband Jim didn't hesitate to call themselves leaders of a cult - what started as a free love commune offering salvation and refuge for lost souls became a militaristic organization that believed in tough love

Anna Young and her husband's House of Prayer was meant to be a haven for anyone who made a mistake, committed a crime, and wanted to turn their life around.

Neighbors often wondered about the secretive group living in a school building in suburban Utica, N.Y., but the secrecy is shattered when a counselling session turns violent.

After a nine-month investigation, authorities find the bodies of a family of five buried in a barn in Kirtland, Ohio; the ritualistic killings, which made headlines in 1990, were carried out at the orders of cult leader Jeffrey Lundgren.

Dwight York, known as Dr. Love, had his own record label and musical career in the early 1990s; his early recordings feature love songs and ballads, but Dr. Love was also a charismatic speaker with radical ideas and gathered hundreds of followers.

Con man Daniel Perez was so charismatic that he convinced his followers he was an angel; when he was caught and charged with multiple counts of child rape, he fled to Mexico and faked his own death, ending the investigation.

Tucked away in a remote, rural compound in New Mexico in 1987, doomsday preacher Wayne Bent broke away from his Seventh-day Adventist Church upbringing to provide a haven for his followers, who were captivated by his charismatic preaching.