FBI Operational Log
2014 December 22
Investigation Notes: Rising police reports of cult activity in the Baltimore, MD area had garnered the interest of the Bureau. The cult in question called itself Voice of the Future and operated out of a converted warehouse in the industrial sector of the city. Close to three thousand known members were active within the compound according to police. The reports included details of drug running, illegal gun trading, and other stranger allegations. The Bureau became involved when allegations of kidnapping and indoctrination were made.
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Transcript of Interview with POI Jacob Weathers
Aspirant level member of Voices of the Future
Special Agent Martinez: Let’s start with what you know about the cult.
Weathers: From what I can tell, it started as a group of likeminded conspiracy theorists. Not political conspiracies, but the really weird shit. UFOs, Bigfoot, lost city of Atlantis, underground cities of fish hybrid people, psychic vampires from space, you name it. It got its start in the ‘90s, but then it was just a small group of people with a charismatic nerd at its head – Malcolm Ringmaier. We used to meet up in a church basement, like a grief counseling or substance abuse group, but they weren’t talking about their rock bottoms, they were talking about aliens or whatever. But all that changed with the establishment of the Iron Corridor, the group exploded online in chat groups which led to meetups, and then establishing a base of operations.
Special Agent Martinez: What did the IC have to do with the cult’s growth?
Weathers: Okay, well, ever since tensions began rising again after the fall of the Berlin Wall, there’ve been weirder and weirder stories getting out. A bunch of them having to do with the Soviets or secret experiments in the no-mans-land of the Corridor, who knows why? Maybe because everyone treats it like their nation’s playground or maybe because it's so hard to keep a lid on everything that goes on there, but we started seeing things out of B-horror movies. Nothing like the sort of cryptid conspiracy stories we used to see, but realistic horror stories about things in the dark.
Special Agent Martinez: And this gave Ringmaier a bigger platform?
Weathers: Right. Suddenly, there were dozens of people wanting to discuss this in a basement in Baltimore, there were hundreds and then thousands of people spending their free time online reading and writing about the anomalous. And then, in 2011, enough people were gathering together, Ringmaier rented the warehouse. A couple years later he had enough money to buy it outright and started converting it. And then, he began filing for religious organization classification. I was just getting involved then, I didn’t know what it was like before, but I saw how it changed.
Special Agent Martinez: How did you join?
Weathers: I was recruited at my college. I had been researching various strange things I’d seen online, and I wrote a paper about it in my modern sociology class. My professor wasn’t a fan. But the TA took notice, and she took me to Ringmaier. It didn’t take long before I was involved in every way I could be.
Special Agent Martinez: Why did you come to us?
Weathers: Because it’s all gotten too much. One thing when your beloved leader is organizing gun running to keep our “family” protected and funded. It’s another thing entirely, when taking people in to help them means brainwashing them and having them turn over every asset to the “family”.
Special Agent Martinez: Can you fill us in on the belief structure of the cult? The tenets? Practices?
Weathers: No.
Special Agent Martinez: Listen, your immunity relies on cooperation.
Weathers: No, I mean I can’t!
Special Agent Martinez: Are you worried about reprisals?
Weathers: No, that’s what I mean, I can’t talk about them. I’ve been trying since you started recording.
Special Agent Martinez: I’m going to need you to explain.
Weathers: I can’t explain it. I can’t talk about it. I start to form the words and they crumble before I open my mouth.
Special Agent Martinez: What the hell are you talking about?
Weathers: I… can’t t-t-talk abou–
[Weathers falls from the chair, foaming at the mouth and convulsing. Agent Martinez runs around the desk and grasps his arm. She is trying to get the guard’s attention outside the interview room.]
Weathers: too… late… [coughing] … fuckers… [coughing] can’t do… [coughing]
[Weathers convulses in even more violent fashion until his eyes start to bleed and the foam out of his mouth goes pink from blood. After thirty seconds, movement ceases. He is declared dead five minutes later.]
[No evidence of poison was found within Weathers’ system. He does not have a medical history of stroke or seizure disorder. Cause of death is unknown.]
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Investigation Notes [cont.]: After several weeks of observation and surveillance (and three days after the death of the informant), the Bureau mounted a large operation to seize the compound of Voice of the Future. This is an excerpt from that transcript:
@ 08:05 – FBI and police personnel surround the building.
@ 08:15 – FBI tactical teams breach the compound, meeting light resistance from some guards with small arms.
@ 09:05 – Special Agent Martinez is called into the structure by tactical leadership. The Agent complies and enters the building with several other armed agents.
@ 09:10 – Agent Martinez meets the commanding officer of the Bureau tactical team in a large room set out for meditations with floor pillows and incense and a working sound system. Playing on the sound system was static, but a compact disc with audio files had been spinning in place in the system when it was shut down. Captain Fenner informed Special Agent Martinez that every single member of the cult within the premises was dead. Surrounding the Bureau personnel were nearly 100 corpses, greatly resembling the condition of the informant at time of death.
@ 09:25 – Medical personnel declared time of death, but noted that they would need to do autopsies as many of the bodies looked have been in situation for several days.
[They eventually determined that all the members of the cult that died within the building, did so under similar circumstances as the informant and at approximately the same time None of these bodies exhibited signs of poisoning either.]
@ 09:37 – Investigating agents were able to identify the office and quarters of Malcolm Ringmaier, empty, with several bags laid open seemingly packed in a hurry. Malcolm had left a note that “You see what you do with your oppressive government meddling? Now the family is lessened! We will see you again and when the time comes of blood and fire, the Voice of the Future will have your measure.”
[Only 25% of the people assumed to be within the compound were found upon clearing of the property by Bureau personnel. Ringmaier and most of his hierarchy were nowhere to be found. They were all seen to have hastily packed but had not taken those bags with them wherever they fled to. An APB was issued to state and local authorities, but they were never found. The Voice of the Future disappeared, some say to flee to Eastern Europe or the IC.]
[But the question remained in Agent Martinez’s report: “What did these people want? What were their beliefs? And why kill so many of their own?”]
Sources:
Grigori Karpin
Michael Lee-Graham
