Gold, Guns and God: Swami Bhaktipada
and the West Virginia Hare Krishnas
© 2016 by Henry Doktorski (Hrishikesh Das)
Government Exhibit 433: photograph of the body of Sulocana dasa
Download PDF: the-murder-of-sulocana.pdf
One chapter from Henry Doktorski’s forthcoming book:
Chapter 63: The murder of Sulocana.
At approximately one a.m. Pacific time (four a.m. Eastern time) during the early-morning of Lord Nrsimhadeva’s appearance day, Thursday, May 22, 1986, a decisive event occurred which inevitably and irrevocably changed the destiny of New Vrindaban: while the 33-year-old Sulocana sat rolling a joint 1 in his rusted 1976 Dodge van, maroon in color, parked at the intersection of Flint Avenue and Cardiff Street, a half-mile from the Los Angeles ISKCON temple, 2 his brains were blown apart by two bullets from a hand gun fired through the driver’s-side window at close range.
The coroner reported: “Gunshot wound number one was to the left lower jaw region of the cheek, and it caused injury to the jaw bone, caused injury to a vessel of the carotid artery, and went through the cervical spine, that is, the spine in the neck region, and a bullet was recovered. There was injury to the spinal cord as a result of this gunshot wound. The second gunshot wound . . . also entered the face and the entrance was in a region just in front of the left ear. This gunshot wound went through the cheek region of the left side to a bone called the maxilla, went into the oral cavity and came out through the right maxilla, the cheek bone, and exited, that is came out, in the right cheek region. . . . The bullet was recovered from the musculature behind and lateral to the neck spine on the right side. . . . Surrounding the entrance of gunshot wound number one there were multiple abrasions or scrapes in which there was some glass pieces.” 3
News of the murder spreads quickly: New Vrindaban all a-buzz.
The news of Sulocana’s murder traveled fast: lightning fast. The murderer, Bhaktipada’s disciple Tirtha dasa (Thomas A. Drescher), made a speedy getaway from the Los Angeles temple vicinity to the airport, where he dumped his rental car and made a quick telephone call to New Vrindaban authorities while waiting for the next flight back east. He said, “I went to the airport, dropped off the vehicle, took the first flight out of Los Angeles . . . I guess about an hour and forty-five minutes later. It just happened to be going to Dallas.” 4
That same morning at approximately seven thirty a.m. Pacific time, the Ugly Duckling Rent-A-Car agency received a telephone call from Tirtha informing them that he “had left the vehicle parked at one of the parking lots at Los Angeles International Airport, and that he had to leave unexpectedly and fly out.” An employee from the agency picked up the car about nine o’clock. 5
During the japa period preceding the mangala-aroti morning program at New Vrindaban, hushed whispers of the news of Sulocana’s death brought great excitement to the devotees in attendance. The news couldn’t have taken longer than fifteen or twenty minutes to reach them after the murder was committed. The sankirtan leader, Dharmatma dasa (Dennis Gorrick), remembered:
It was the morning of Lord Nrsimhadeva’s appearance day. Nrsimha is a form of Krishna that protects the devotees. He is half-man, half-lion. When I came in [the temple room] in the morning everyone was very excited and jubilant and the whole temple was buzzing. Everyone was talking in little circles. It seemed to be a very upbeat mood in the morning. I asked someone, “What is going on?” because it was like a festive atmosphere. The devotee told me, “Haven’t you heard? Sulocana was killed in California last night!”
During the question and answer period after class [a couple days later], a devotee asked Bhaktipada, “How should we understand it when a demon is killed?” Bhaktipada responded that “A devotee isn’t disturbed when a snake is killed.” 6
Some Brijabasis were surprised and shocked to hear the news of Sulocana’s murder. Yamuna dasi (Jane Rangeley Seward), Sulocana’s divorced wife, said, “I was extremely shocked. I hadn’t in the slightest expected that that could have happened.” 7
Other devotees were pleased to hear the news. Ramacandra dasa, a New Vrindaban sankirtan picker, asked the most-senior New Vrindaban sannyasi, Radhanatha Swami (Richard Slavin): “Do you know who killed Sulocana?” Radhanatha replied: “I don’t know, but whoever it was, he was doing devotional service to Krishna.” 8
Tapahpunja Swami (Terry Sheldon), at the time the Cleveland temple president, recalled, “When the news came that Sulocana had been killed, it came as a shock—and a relief— to everyone back in New Vrindaban.” 9
Dharmatma continued his recollection of the day of the murder: “Later on after the morning functions, I had a discussion with [the New Vrindaban temple president] Kuladri [Arthur Villa]. He was quite disturbed. He mentioned . . . how it shouldn’t have been done like that. And that how Radhanatha, Hayagriva and Tapahpunja were pushing like crazy for this to happen, and how he had told them not to do it.”10
Janmastami dasa (John Sinkowski), a Bhaktipada disciple who had assisted Tirtha in January and February, searching for Sulocana in California, planned to return to California the next day, but since Sulocana was already “whacked,” his trip was cancelled. Jaya Sri Krishna, who had been contracted to do Janmastami’s service in Philadelphia, went back to Washington D.C. 11
Los Angeles police were notified of the murder about 9:45 a.m. Pacific time when a pedestrian walked past the van, noticed the broken glass, glanced inside and called police. 12
Tirtha in Ohio.
From Dallas, Tirtha caught a flight to Cleveland, Ohio, where he undoubtedly met his wife (Suzanne Bludeau—Suksmarupini devi dasi) and son (Tapas), and slept at their trailer park home in Ravenna, Ohio (about five miles east of Radhanatha Swami’s preaching center in Kent), to catch up on his rest. The next day, Friday, May 23rd, Tirtha drove to Columbus, Ohio, and during the afternoon stopped in at the Festival of India sponsored by Ohio State University. The Columbus Hare Krishna temple had an exhibit at the festival. Tirtha chatted with the temple president Karusa dasa, Tapahpunja Swami and a visiting sannyasi from New Vrindaban, Varsana Maharaja, who were preaching at the festival. 13
The most pressing thought on Tirtha’s mind was getting the remainder of the $8,000 he was promised by New Vrindaban authorities for “destroying the demon” Sulocana, and purchasing air tickets for himself and his family to leave the country.
Tapahpunja related, “The day after Tirtha pulled the trigger, he flew back to Cleveland and then drove to Columbus the next afternoon. I was preaching at Ohio State University’s Festival of India. He told me the horrid details. I was actually the first to know. I shook my head in disbelief and asked him about his plans. Tirtha wanted to take his family and leave for India but not without the remainder of the money owed to him by Kirtanananda Swami. He was stuck and no one would talk to him.” 14
From Columbus, Tirtha telephoned his friend, Randall Gorby, a long-time friend of New Vrindaban who lived in Bethany, West Virginia, and informed him: “I am in the Big ‘C’ and took care of everything in California and would like to talk to you.” The two friends met at the Dutch Pantry outside of Youngstown, Ohio, not far from Kent State University. Gorby said:
We started to talking and Tirtha said that he had flown to California, rented a motel and a car, and that he had made contact with Sulocana within a matter of three hours after arriving; that he had a person with him from the temple in Los Angeles [a Ramesvara disciple named Krishna-Katha dasa—Jeffrey Breier] and that he had trailed Sulocana. He said that he and the other fellow were in the automobile sitting behind Sulocana’s van and that the other fellow had forgotten his weapon, or went away to get his weapon, and that Tirtha decided, “I might as well get this over with now.” And he climbed out of the car, walking up alongside of the van and shot Sulocana twice in the head.
He said, “Randy, do you remember a scene in the Deer Hunter [movie] where they were playing Russian roulette? The brains come out identically that way in slow motion.” 15
Bhaktipada is notified of the murder.
When Sulocana was murdered on Lord Nrsimhadeva’s appearance day, Bhaktipada was returning from a European tour on a LTU (German Charter Airlines) flight from Frankfurt to New York City with Devamrita Swami and two teenage boys, Jayananda and Caitanya-Mangala. Bhaktipada heard the news of Sulocana’s murder after passing through customs at Kennedy International Airport. 16
Madhava Ghosh picked up Bhaktipada and his entourage at the international terminal and transported them to the domestic terminal for their flight to Pittsburgh. Madhava Ghosh told Bhaktipada that “Bryant had been killed.” 17
That evening, Kuladri greeted Bhaktipada and his entourage at Pittsburgh International Airport. Devamrita Swami recalled that Kuladri showed Bhaktipada “a newspaper article about Bryant’s death” and that Kuladri “acted pleased.” 18
Tirtha told to go to India.
Tirtha was instructed to fly to India with his wife and young son where Bhaktipada’s wealthy disciple, Nathji dasa, would provide for their lodging. During a wiretapped telephone conversation with Randall Gorby, Tirtha explained, “This is extremely privileged information. They want me to go to India. That’s Number One’s plan. He has a disciple who’s a real wealthy man and he is going to instruct him first with a Telex that I’m arriving, so on and so forth. And then, when he [Bhaktipada] goes over there, supposedly next month, he will take him aside and explain the whole situation to him. . . . I’m going . . . with [my wife] Suzanne and [son] Tapas. . . . We’re supposed to go to New York today and get all that shit [passport and visa] together. You know, in New York you can do it all in a few days.” 19
Tirtha’s wife was not keen about moving to India permanently. She explained, “I don’t think I’m ready for it. [I could go to India] to visit, but I know I couldn’t live there. . . . It’s hard to live there, I’ve heard.” 20
Backlash.
Sulocana’s murder prompted law enforcement agencies to treat his accusations against Bhaktipada seriously; perhaps, they suspected, Bhaktipada was responsible for Sulocana’s death. One police officer said: “Bryant was a martyr for his faith. He was one lone voice in the wilderness and he was killed because he talked about corruption. He went up against the heavyweights and he lost.” 21
Sulocana’s attorney explained, “Bryant’s murder was the beginning of a long downhill slide for Swami Kirtanananda, mainly because it happened in California, beyond the reach of his millions. The two investigators assigned to it, Paul ‘The Stump’ Tippin, and Leroy Orozco, were experienced Los Angeles detectives who had worked on several high-profile murders. There would be no cover-up.” 22
Sergeant Westfall remembered, “Steve Bryant’s murder was a catalyst because it gave us [the local Marshall County police force] the chance to get the Federal government involved.” 23
Ravindra-Svarupa confirmed:
So all of a sudden Sulocana is passing around papers about the ISKCON game and stuff and everybody’s dismissing him as a nut until he was murdered. His stature increased immensely and his credibility in the eyes of the police. And they began an investigation into his murder.
And Tirtha, for some reason, left a wide trail leading back to him and New Vrindaban. The car he was using he had rented at the airport, using his photo ID and stuff like that. And so they quickly concluded that this was a professional hit and that New Vrindaban or Kirtanananda was behind it.
Because it started in West Virginia and happened in California, it went across State lines and so the Federal Government came in. The FBI investigated, they started to find out how New Vrindaban was making its money and all of a sudden there’s a prosecutor from the federal government justice department investigating New Vrindaban. . . .
The newspapers were just going to town about this whole thing. This reporter from the San Jose Mercury News named John Hubner wrote a two part series called “Crime and the Krishnas.” Starting with Kirtanananda . . . Hamsadutta had unburdened his soul to this reporter . . . and he also talked about Kirtanananda and what happened out there. 24
Even ISKCON leaders who were aware of the plot to murder Sulocana (early in 1986, Radhanatha Swami flew to Los Angeles and met with Ramesvara Maharaja, reportedly to discuss cooperation between the two temples to “destroy the demon”) began to distance themselves from New Vrindaban once the federal government became involved in the investigation. Janmastami confirmed: “Only after the murder had been committed did any of ISKCON’s leaders challenge the philosophy that prevailed at New Vrindaban at that time.” 25
Los Angeles ISKCON guru Ramesvara Swami, who once told his Ksatriya security-guard disciple Krishna-Katha that “Sulocana needs a new body,” now claimed that he and Sulocana were practically buddies. Ramesvara Swami insisted, “As far as I know, Sulocana didn’t have any bad feelings toward myself and similarly, I had no bad feeling toward him. He wasn’t disturbing us. He came and went very secretly. A number of our core members attended his funeral in Los Angeles; they wanted to show their sympathy and outrage.” 26
Mukunda Goswami, director of public affairs for ISKCON, said it was “absolutely absurd to think that our society would have anything to do with the man’s murder.” 27
Bhaktipada denied that he had anything to do with Sulocana’s murder and said that the fact that New Vrindaban was in the news did not concern him. He said: “I don’t care what they say about me as long as they say it. All I know is that more people than ever are coming to visit the Palace. Business is wonderful.” Regarding the murdered Sulocana, Bhaktipada said: “He had a lot of enemies. Mostly, he had the Lord as his enemy.” 28
Bhaktipada attempted to discredit Sulocana: “Who is Bryant? Even his parents admitted he was unstable. For years he wandered around lost; he beat his wife, abused his children—he slowly became crazed, and his only objective in life was to tear down the authorities.” 29
Bhaktipada insisted: “An investigation will only show that we are what we say we are— religious people who have no other business than to serve God.” 30 – continued >>>
Complete article here: http://www.iskcon-truth.com/sulocana/the-murder-of-sulocana.html
Please also see:
http://www.harekrsna.org/pada/ks/sulocana-murder.htm
http://www.harekrsna.org/pada/ks/chakradara.htm
http://www.harekrsna.org/spirit/crimes1.htm
http://www.harekrsna.org/kirtanananda-hist.htm
http://www.harekrsna.org/pada/sulocan1.htm
http://www.harekrsna.org/pada/guru_biz.htm
Speak Your Mind