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they entered the building and discovered a man’s body lying on a bed. He had been shot in the head and a plastic bag had been tied over his face. They also found a collection of explosives around the farmhouse.
    A police team was called, and they made a search of what they thought was Giacobino’s garage. It appeared to be more like a meeting hall, and inside were the belongings of several different people but no evidence of any further bodies.
    There were no internal doors in the garage, but the space inside the hall did not fit the perceived size of the building from the outside so inspectors began to test the walls. One wall appeared to be hollow, and so the team opened it up.
    A very strange sight met their eyes. Around a triangular altar, with their feet at the centre and their heads outward, lay 18 bodies. They were all dressed in identical robes, and bottles of champagne littered the floor around them. Similarly to Albert Giacobino, most had plastic bags tied around their heads, where they had been shot. Some had been suffocated, and some also beaten. Another three bodies were found in a second secret room. Bags of petrol were discovered in a chapel situated next to this building. From the explosives in the house, and these rigged devices, it seemed that an attempt to set fire to the whole place had failed.
     
    G RANGES-SUR- S ALVAN,  S WITZERLAND
     
    The same night, again in Switzerland, another fire was reported. Three ski chalets in the resort of Granges-sur-Salvan were alight. The fact that all three houses were burning suggested that it was no accident. Indeed, it wasn’t. Numerous petrol bombs had been suspended and exploded, and in total 25 bodies were recovered. Again, most had been shot in the head.
    A link began to emerge between the two Swiss fires. After the difficult process of identification, it transpired that all the victims had belonged to the Order of the Solar Temple. The buildings were in fact the property of the sect. Autopsies proved that overall, 15 of the deaths had been suicide. The rest were murder.
    Meanwhile in Canada, the two bodies found in the rented home of the Dutoit family were identified as Gerry and Collette Genoud, a Swiss couple who also belonged to Di Mambro’s Order of the Solar Temple. The incidents were clearly related.
     
    J O  D I  M AMBRO 
     
    Born in France in 1924, Jo Di Mambro originally trained as a horologist, but his real interest was in religion and spirituality. He was a member of the ‘Rosicrucian Order’ (Ancient and Mystic Order of the Rosy Cross) for 13 years, but during this time he developed his own religious ideas and beliefs and decided to move east, close to the Swiss border, to set up his own school, the ‘Centre for the Preparation of the New Age’. Charges of fraud and swindling may have precipitated this departure. Followers whom he had met and influenced while in the Rosicrucians went with him.
    Di Mambro had radical ideas. He claimed to be reincarnated, but the identity of his former self changed frequently – sometimes religious, sometimes political. He also named the members of his group as reincarnations of famous people. He organised marriages between his followers and dictated who amongst them was permitted to produce children. His own children, he claimed were exceptional. His son would shape the world, and his daughter was one of only nine ‘cosmic children’, a Messiah who would bring about his much-prophesised New Age. He took money and personal possessions from his followers in order to care for the needs of the community. With donations from some of the more wealthy families, Di Mambro purchased a mansion in Geneva. He was even attracting devotees from outside the community who had heard of his teachings and generously donated cash sums to his cause.
     
    L UC  J OURET
     
    ‘The Foundation of the Golden Way’, which Di Mambro founded in 1978, became the Order of the Solar Temple (officially known as the International