Who are the Zizians, the cult-like group under FBI investigation?

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The arrests of three people in Maryland has helped shed new light on a series of connected deaths across the country that experts say are tied to a group called the "Zizians."

Named after their purported leader, Jack "Ziz" LaSota, 34, the group is connected to at least six deaths nationwide, according to police, interviews with people who know group members, the FBI and court records. LaSota was assigned male at birth but uses female pronouns. Federal and state court records refer to LaSota as a man.

LaSota was one of three armed people arrested Monday after trespassing in a rural area and then asking a landowner if they could live there in two box trucks. LaSota and one of the other people arrested Monday have been on the run for months, according to police.

The unfolding details have drawn international attention and flashy headlines as authorities, court records and interviews have revealed a tangled web of relationships and shocking violence linked to a small group of highly educated vegan computer experts.

"They're not all necessarily all connected in one overarching plan. It's not necessarily like a Manson Family type of plan," said Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow and policy adviser at the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism. "When you look at (LaSota's) writings, it's all about the mind and consciousness. (LaSota) doesn't really seem interested in left-wing political issues the way most people would understand it."

Paste BN consulted several extremism experts, interviewed a person who knew several members of the group, and examined dozens of court filings from Vermont to Pennsylvania and California to understand the bigger picture.

Who are the 'Zizians?'

Experts and people who know them say the group is led by LaSota, who in online postings discussed the nature of consciousness and rational decision making. Many of the group members are vegan, and either have degrees in computer science or have studied related fields. Some members of the group are transgender, or have rejected binary sexuality.

The group at one time was based in the San Francisco area, living in box trucks on a landlord's property. Members also appear to have lived in North Carolina and Vermont. Citing LaSota's online postings, Pitcavage said the group has elements of a religious cult.

Britain's Daily Mail newspaper referred to Lasota as the "'Tech genius' leader of vegan trans cult." And the New York Post called the group a "radical leftist trans militant cult."

Why were some Zizians arrested?  

Group members are charged with violent offenses in multiple states, at both the state and federal level. Authorities have not yet indicated any cohesive motive for the offenses, and experts consulted by Paste BN said the online nature of the connections between the Zizians may make it hard to link the crimes definitively.

Among those charged:

∎ Michelle Zajko, 32, who was arrested with a handgun alongside Lasota and another man in Maryland on Monday. Zajko faces state charges of trespassing, resisting or interfering with an arrest, obstruction and carrying a handgun. ATF agents are also pursuing federal charges against Zajko over allegations that she lied on purchasing paperwork for several guns bought in 2024 and which were later used by two other people in Vermont during a double-fatal shootout with U.S. Border Patrol agents. Zajko is also a "person of interest" in the Pennsylvania homicides of her parents in late 2022, according to court filings.

∎ Daniel Blank, 26, who faces Maryland charges of trespassing, obstruction and hindering in connection with his Monday arrest. He is also a suspect in the deaths of Zajko's parents, who were killed near where he grew up, Maryland court records show. Blank was reported missing in 2022, according to Pennsylvania State Police.

∎ LaSota faces Maryland charges of trespassing, obstruction and possession of a handgun in a vehicle. Court records in Vermont have also referred to LaSota as a "person of interest" in the deaths of Zajko's parents. LaSota may have faked her own death in April 2022, according to an obituary in her hometown Alaska newspaper.

∎ Teresa Youngblut, 21, accused by federal prosecutors of shooting at U.S. Border Patrol agent David Maland on Jan. 20 near the Canadian border in northern Vermont. Maland was killed in the exchange, as was a German national Youngblut was traveling with, Ophelia Bauckholt. Federal court filings indicate Zajko bought the guns Youngblut and Bauckholt were carrying. Youngblut is in federal custody.

∎ Max Snyder, 22, who late last year got a marriage license to wed Youngblut in Seattle, Washington, where they grew up. Snyder is accused by Solano County, Calif. prosecutors of ambushing and fatally stabbing a landlord who in December 2022 tried to evict Lasota and other group members from his Vallejo, Calif., property. The landlord shot two of the group members, killing one, in an incident ruled self defense by prosecutors.

What motivates the Zizian group? Is it a cult?

Many of the group members come from middle-class families and have studied computer science or related fields, according to Jessica Taylor, a California-based AI safety researcher who knew group members socially. Taylor briefly dated Bauckholt, the German national, who she said had worked for a Wall Street trading firm around 2022, specializing in using AI to enhance trading strategies.

Pitcavage, the extremism expert, said online postings attributed to Lasota indicate an obsession with the mind, rational thinking and consciousness. Lasota and several other group members were arrested in 2019 while protesting a rationalist group meeting. Rationalists believe in using logic to make decisions and create rules, as opposed to historical precedent or emotion.

"There's significant evidence that Jack LaSota is the person who is the idea engine for these people," said Pitcavage.

The Maryland state public defender's office, which is representing LaSota, Blank and Zajko in the Maryland arrests, declined to comment Thursday, other than to clarify LaSota's pronouns.

Taylor said she worried that the group had become a "death cult" or a "murder gang" over their adherence to a moral code at odds with mainstream laws and behavior, including strict veganism and the belief that landlords are inherently corrupt.

"You're talking about being willing to kill people who they think are bad," said Taylor, adding that she lost touch with Bauckholt in 2023.

Poulomi Saha, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies the behavior of groups that mainstream Americans would consider cults, said groups like the Zizians are hard for many to understand. She said members "live" online, making it hard for the public or even law enforcement to track their shift from talk to action.

She said it's not clear the Zizians are a cult, but acknowledged many people might consider them one.

"The internet culture and the absolute immersion that's possible there means there are forms of connection that only appear only after the fact," said Saha, who has been following the cases. "We are kind of grasping for a story that makes sense of it … People on the outside can never fully know what's happening on the inside."

As with similar groups, Saha said, she suspects the Zizians fell under the sway of a charismatic leader who persuaded followers to do things they ordinarily wouldn't do. In participating in those extreme acts, Saha said, people fall victim to a group psychology that both permits and encourages more extreme behavior.

"The kind of violence of the accused crimes is really quite startling," she said.

Is there an overall federal case against the Zizians?

Although court records are replete with references to an ongoing FBI investigation, the FBI has so far declined to comment substantively on the Zizian group.

Experts consulted by Paste BN say this is the kind of case the FBI specializes in, because the incidents cross state lines, involve potentially illegally purchased firearms and included the death of a federal law enforcement officer.

(This story has been updated with additional information and to correct the pronouns used by LaSota.)