Kirtanananda aka Keith Gordon Ham became one of the first American disciples of Indian guru A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the ISKCON organisation.
Beginnings
editKirtanananda Swami, also known as Swami Bhaktipada was born Keith Hamm in 1937, the son of a Southern Baptist minister.
Activities
editIn 1966, Kirtanananda became one of the first American disciples of Indian guru A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the ISKCON organisation, more popularly known in the west as the Hare Krishnas. Upon Prabhupada's death, Kirtanananda was among 11 gurus selected to lead the organisation and was chosen to head the New Vrindaban community in West Virginia. After he was excommunicated from ISKCON he established his own movement. Kirtanananda and his followers were excommunicated for failing to submit to new [ISKCON] changes in 1987 1 [1]
Murder, Sex & Racketeering
editIn 1990, the US federal government indicted Kirtanananda Swami on five counts of racketeering, six counts of mail fraud, and conspiracy to murder two of his opponents in the Hare Krishna movement. The government claimed that he illegally amassed a profit of more than $10.5 million over four years. It also charged that he ordered the killings because the victims threatened to reveal that he sexually abused minors.
The swami was convicted on nine of the eleven charges in 1991, but the Court of Appeals threw out the convictions, saying that child molestation evidence had unfairly prejudiced the jury against Kirtanananda Swami who was not charged with those crimes.
In 1996, before Kirtanananda Swami's retrial was completed, he pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison but was released in June 2004.
After Prision
editKirtanananda was released from Federal Prision on June 16, 2004. [2]
Further reading
edit- John Hubner, Lindsey Gruson, Monkey on a Stick: Murder, Madness, and the Hare Krishnas, 1988, Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, ISBN 0-151620-86-5. The "chilling" history of the movement documents drug-selling, wife-beating, child sexual abuse, rape and murder by its members. Photos.
References
edit- ^Note 1 :